At the end of this appointment year, I’ll be coming up on my 20th anniversary in ministry—20 years since my first appointment. And one important lesson I’ve learned over the past 20 years is this: There is absolutely nothing I can do to make you grow spiritually! Did you know that? I can’t make you grow! I can encourage you, I can try to inspire you, I can do my best to provide an environment in which you can grow … but, I can’t make you grow! You see, nobody...
I want to teach you a basic biblical principle today that’s one we’ll talk about throughout this time together. It’s called … THE GREATNESS PRINCIPLE. If you think about all of the great people you’ve known throughout your life, more than likely each one of them had a guiding principle that led their lives. Even Jesus did. But, let me give you some other examples first, so you’ll get a feel for this… Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – The Principle of Non-Violence… Mother Teresa – The Principle of Compassion...
Folks, I want to begin today with the DARE TO BE GREAT CHALLENGE that we started with last week. Are you ready? A GREAT COMMITMENT TO THE GREAT COMMANDMENT AND THE GREAT COMMISSION DONE WITH GREAT COMPASSION WILL GROW A GREAT CHURCH! Did you get that? Do you remember this from last week? A great commitment to the great commandments and the great commission done with great compassion will grow a great church! And you know what else? It’ll grow a great Christian, too! How many of you want to...
Do you guys know the television game show called ‘Jeopardy?’ Well, as we begin a new worship series today called “Dare to Be Great,” I want to do our own version. Are you ready to give it a try? Our theme for Jeopardy today is going to be ‘GREAT THINGS,’ so let’s see how you’re going to do today… We’ll start with ‘great things’ for $100. Frosted Flakes mascot Tony the Tiger is famous for this catch phrase. If you know the answer, just shout it out… (What is …...
We learned in a short video at the end of last week’s message that … ‘Spiritual Vision is our ability to see what God wants us to do’ … and, I might add, to be who God is calling us to be! And this week, we’re going to look deeper into God’s vision for us at Grace UMC/Dodgeville UMC… Michelangelo, the great painter and sculptor, was once asked how he was able to create such masterpieces. His answer went something like this: “I am not sure how it works exactly,...
Folks, you have a review sheet in your bulletin, as an insert today. I’d like to take a look at that, so we can review just what we need to be about to be a church whom God will bless in the future. Would you look at that with me right now? If we want God’s blessing on all that we’re doing here, we need to be a church that is about… Praying for God’s Power (even though we usually want to do things ourselves)… Using everyone’s language (words matter...
For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about ‘how to be blessed’ as a church … and asking questions like: What kind of a church will God bless? What do we need to be about, as a church, in order to be recipients of God’s blessing? Last week, one of the things we talked about needing to do was this: We need to be ‘devoted’ to God’s word. And God’s word is full of ways to receive God’s blessing. We can know how … and that’s what we’re...
Last week, we got started on a 4-week worship series called “God Blesses,” asking the question: Are we the kind of church that God blesses? We looked to the Early Church (first 5 centuries) to find out what they were doing that God blessed so much; we did that through looking at the first couple of chapters of the Book of Acts in the New Testament. And today, we continue on that path… Let me ask you a question, as we begin this time today: How in the world is...
If you’ve traveled overseas, especially to Europe, you know this to be true: Europe has some of the most beautiful, historic churches in the entire world. Yet they are also some of the emptiest! A pastor who went to London recently experienced this phenomenon. He tells that he was in a city there in England to do a Bible study, observed this occurrence, and said, “Churches are dying off so fast that they’re being sold off to bars and restaurants. London churches are desperate for the blessing of God.” And...
So, what does it really mean to be a disciple—a disciple of Jesus Christ? Let me ask that question in a different way: How often do we come to church thinking that what we hear from the word of God … is really optional? I can do with it what I want … or not. And, are you taking your responsibility as a disciple of Jesus Christ seriously today? What does it really mean to be a disciple of this guy called … Jesus? One thing’s for sure. He never...
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