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...
Folks, last week we began a new series that will attempt to parallel the new church on the island of Crete—with its new pastor Titus—alongside the Church of today. As a reminder, we spoke of building a Christian foundation for community in a world that was anything but… That was the task at hand for the young pastor, Titus, and that’s the task we’re still called to today, as well… Eugene Peterson describes the work of Titus (NT book) in this way: “I want to characterize Titus’s pastoral task as...
Without love … what would the world be like? The Apostle Paul reminds us in his famous chapter on love (1 Corinthians 13:1, NLT), “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Without love… Let me remind you that that is exactly what we’ve been talking about for the past two weeks. Yes, we’re in the midst of a series on worship, but without love … what kind of worship would...
We are THE CHURCH! And that means something, folks, especially to God… The Church (meaning us) is not something that God takes for granted… The Church is not something that God assumes will be who he wants it to be… The Church is something that God cares so much about that he wants to help prepare us to be the Church … in every way! Today, we’re going to look at what God’s up to in the life of the Church. And, we’re going to find out that God is...
At the very end of my 8th grade year in school, I learned an incredible lesson. I learned there are real-life consequences to our actions! As an 8th grader, my priorities were not those of either my parents or my teachers. My priorities were popularity, my social life, and how I could stay ahead in that game. So, other things in my life suffered. Youth group at church was a fine thing; but that was a part of my social life at the time, so it fit in nicely into...
