As of today we are half way through our Whole Church Initiative for the summer. As you may recall, we started off in May by…
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Published November 14, 2010
Tag: church
Published November 12, 2010
Our Roles in the Family of God
For a long time, my brother lived the bachelor life. He drove truck – coming and going as he pleased. He ate those frozen “Hungry…
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Published November 10, 2010
Fanatical Christianity
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been on a quest to find out how to live as the family of God. Last week we…
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Published June 28, 2010
Instructions for Engagement
I want to begin this morning with a question: What responsibilities come with being in a family? If you’re in a family, what is expected of you? I’m going to give you just a minute or so to discuss this with the people sitting around you and then I want to hear some of your answers.
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It’s tough to come up with one conclusive answer because all of us have grown up in different families. And different families do different things. And sometimes they do the same things, but in different ways.
But despite these differences, there are some universal, core responsibilities of a family. For example: A family shares. They share a home together, they share food together, they share money, they share time and experiences. Sharing is a universal, core responsibility of a family. No mom or dad would refuse to share their home with their kids. No mom or dad would refuse to share their food with their kids. Sharing is just part of being a family. It’s one of those universal, core responsibilities that comes with being in a family.
So this morning, I want to look at some of the universal, core responsibilities that come with being part of the family of God. How are we to function as members of the family of God? What is expected of us? Even though different churches do different things in different ways, what are those things that are expected of every person in every church?
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Published June 28, 2010
Engaging with God’s People
We’ve been talking a lot about the word “engaging” recently. And before we go further, I want to refresh our memory on the definition of the word “engage” so we don’t get lost in the jargon.
Engage Defined:
- To become involved in or participate in
- To pledge or to promise
- To assume an obligation
- To become meshed or interlocked
- To draw into
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at how we engage with God and I realize that we’ve only just begun to just touch on what exactly that involves, but I trust that God has stirred your heart a little so that you will continue to explore what it means to engage with God in a deep, significant way in your own life.
But now, once we’ve begun to engage with God, the next area we want to look at is engaging with God’s people. So here are our goals for the next month.
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Published May 31, 2010
Engaging with God: Worship Through Thanksgiving
Last week we talked about engagement – about becoming interlocked like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. As we strive to become a whole church, we want to engage with God, engage with God’s people, engage with our community, and engage with our world.
So for the next few weeks we’re going to start by looking at how we can engage with God. Just think about that for a moment – Engaging with God. Being interlocked like a puzzle piece with God. Don’t forget who God is! He’s the God who created everything by just saying “Let there be…”.
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. Psalm 33:6
It’s amazing to think that the God who created the universe by just saying a few words – it’s amazing to think that THAT God, that all-powerful being wants to engage with you.
You might think, “Of all the billions of people on the earth, why does God care to engage with me?” Well, to God, you’re not just Human #6328974515. God knows your name. He made you. He determined exactly who you would be before your were born. He created you as an eternal being for the sole purpose of spending eternity engaged with Him.
Doesn’t that just blow your mind? God. All-powerful. All knowing. Perfect. Sinless. Absolutely Holy and Righteous! And He wants to spend eternity with YOU! With ME!
What is He thinking!? I guess He’s thinking that we are His creation. He are created in His image. And what He creates is always very good – despite what we may think about ourselves. So because God created us, He loves us like crazy and wants to spend eternity engaged with us.
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