The author of Hebrews emphasizes the importance of Jesus’ beautiful sacrifice as once and for all. But what do we do now? How should we respond? Hebrews 10:19-25 highlights six responses, six first things we do together as a church, six foundations of Christian life. We invite you to join us as we explore them: faith, discipleship, worship, ministry, life in the Spirit, and community.
We Are Together | Jan. 7, 2024
This morning we were blessed to hear from Pastor Dale as he began a new series of teachings about the “First Things” of the Christian Life, things we do together as a church. Over the next several weeks we will look at Faith, Discipleship, Worship, Ministry, Life in the Spirit, and Community. This morning our focus was on faith.
Faith is not just that moment of "belief" when we accept Jesus into our lives. It's not simply what we know, a structure of thought, or emotions. Faith is something we carry through all the circumstances of our lives, the ups and downs, when things go the way we'd hoped, and when they don't go the way we hoped. Even when we have this kind of faith or trust in Jesus, over time something happens to us. Our initial joy, trust, and belief can get worn down.
Scripture shows us faith has a persevering quality. Pastor Dale took us through several verses on faith that can be found here and at the button below. What we learn from these verses is that faith is not what you believe, it is who you believe in. Faith is confident action in response to a living God, an activity rather than a possession. The activity of faith shows up in how we interact with the things we humanly value most, things like money, our family, our time. Faith involves ordinary people, in ordinary life, trusting God with the outcome. Faith says "Even though I can't control the outcome, I trust you."
There is a well-known prayer called the "Serenity Prayer." Many of us are familiar with the beginning of the prayer, but the whole prayer has a deep and enriching connection to the process of developing the kind of faith that perseveres.
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.” - Reinhold Niebuhr (1926)
As you go through this week, we invite you to pray through the serenity prayer, to meditate on the words, and seek God's guidance on what he's asking you to surrender control over to Him, to trust that God has you, loves you, and will provide all that you need and more.
We Are Together | Jan. 14, 2024
What a blessed morning! We had the honor and privilege of partaking in a child dedication, connect gatherings, and sitting underneath the teaching of Pastor Dale as he continued our series about the “First Things” of the Christian Life, things we do together as a church. Today our focus was on discipleship.
In Mark 8:34, Jesus makes a strong statement about what it means to follow him. "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Jesus is first asking us: do you desire what I have placed in front of you? Do you desire me?
Jesus then continues saying something brilliant, and also incredibly confusing. In Mark 8:35, he says "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it."
How is this possible? Aren't these in conflict? What Jesus is saying is that to follow Him, something in us must die. To follow Him, something in us must follow. When we are called to deny ourselves, we are called to deny the false self. Paul calls this false self "the flesh". A life of alignment, alignment with who Jesus created us to be, whose life looks like Jesus, is what Jesus is calling us to.
C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity writes it this way,
"Your real, new self will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber on your being, and you find eternal life."
What is God asking you to die to? Instead of pressing it down, confess with God, with a brother or sister. It's in these ways we embrace Discipleship Together. Following Jesus together looks like this:
Knowing Jesus: by learning to follow Him, taking in our life His life, His practices and His teachings
Mediating on them by building a personal, intimate relationship with Him
Obeying Jesus by bringing your life into conformity with all that He taught. This is keeping your moral lives in line with Jesus' teachings and by practicing justice, charity and faithfulness.
In its simplest form, being with Jesus, being like Jesus, and doing what Jesus did.
We Are Together | Jan. 21, 2024
Thank you for joining us this morning as Pastor Steve continued our series about the “First Things” of the Christian Life, things we do together as a church. Today our focus was on worship.
As followers of Jesus, the notion or idea of worship is often linked to singing in church. While singing is certainly one of the ways we express worship, it's also more than that. We can worship sports, our careers, family, hobbies, money, even politics. While none of those things are bad, the place it holds in our lives, matters. What we worship shapes us; it is what we wrap our lives around and is the place where our identity is derived.
In John 4, Jesus talks about worship and says "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
What did Jesus mean when He said we'd worship in Spirit and in truth and what does that look like? There are three observations Pastor Steve highlighted as we looked at John 4.
True worship is available for everyone in Jesus. Through life, death, and the resurrection of Jesus, Jesus dissolved all confines of who can access God.
True worship involves our entire being. True worship brings our heart, mind, body and soul into alignment with our Father, bringing what is true about God into our daily lives. It reminds us of what is true when we lose sight of who God actually is.
True worship connects us to community and reorients us to the eternal. True worship brings all the awe and wonder in our lives and directs it towards God, drawing us to the reality that this is what heaven is like and what we'll have for all eternity.
The question for each of us - How we can take a next step to ascribe ultimate worth to God?
For some of us, it may be reflecting and repenting where it’s needed – maybe there's something we've put our time and treasure into that's been given a greater value than our Heavenly Father. For others of us, it may be laying down our preference for what we're looking for in a worship service and determining in advance that we will arrive at church with a predisposition of grace; that whatever happens in service, our God is worthy of our praise.
Whatever it may be for you, we invite you to take that next step.
We Are Together | Jan. 28, 2024
Thank you for joining us this morning as Pastor Dale continued our series about the “First Things” of the Christian Life, things we do together as a church. Today Pastor Dale shared how we take our connection to God, our experience of God, incarnationally into our world, with people, and to people. This is our ministry.
The truth is, every one of us who follows Jesus is in ministry. We are to carry forth Christ’s mission in the world. Paul's illustration of how this works is seen in Romans 12, "For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."
We, the church, are the body of Christ. But what does this mean? Pastor Dale laid out three practical ways to minister and serve:
Ministry through Listening. It starts with listening, slowing down, and listening to Jesus, and continues with joining him. Beautiful questions to ask:
“Jesus, what ministry are you doing in my child … how can I join?”
“Jesus, what are you doing in the life of my spouse … how can I join?”
“Jesus, what are you doing in the life of a friend… how can I join?”
“Jesus, what are you doing in the lives of those around me… how can I join?
We seek our Savior for what He is doing and how we can join Him. It is from alignment and engagement with Him that we can partner with Him and take the love He places inside of us outwards to others.
Ministry through Serving. God has gifted each one of us with gifts that are meant to be used as a body of believers, to serve the body, and to serve the community. As a servant, we can show up differently looking at each day, and every interaction with a posture that seeks, "How can I serve in this moment?" and "What does this person need?". We can bring this to all areas of our lives, whether in our work, community, or relationships. We can minister by approaching the interaction as a servant.
Ministry through Character. Scripture says it best, "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality." - Romans 12:9-12
Ministry is not about us, but those around us. At the core of it, we are called and asked to help people get their awe of God back. Our awe of God should inform everything we do and why we do it. It is the most beautiful thing we can give our lives to.
We Are Together | Feb. 4, 2024
It was a blessing to come together with you this morning and to hear from Pastor Dale who continued our series about the “First Things” of the Christian Life, things we do together as a church. Last week we talked about Ministry and how each of us, as followers of Jesus, is in ministry. Today we talked about living inside the purpose and power of God.
The birth of the church, the purpose of the church, is to live inside the purpose and power of God. To do so requires a deep inner posture that is turned towards God. When our hearts and spirit are turned toward God, we become able to see His face and feel His embrace. We are not distracted by the things of the world, but our attention is focused on Him. The stronger our love or attachment to whatever things of this world may be holding our attention, the more our posture is turned away from God.
To maintain an inner posture turned towards God, Pastor Dale made three observations from scripture:
We must receive from the Spirit. His purposes cannot be accomplished by what we provide, it has to come from his Spirit.
We must rely on the Spirit. We will know the Holy Spirit is powerfully at work in the church when the mission of Jesus and His church becomes deeply personal. It is when each of us seeks Jesus for what He is doing, how He wants us to join Him, and then take action in those steps of partnership that His purpose and power can be at work within us.
We must relate to the Spirit. We are worshippers first, workers second. All of this flows from intimacy with the Father. If God is our first love, then we will love what He loves. His love fills us and is what is then poured out onto others.
We Are Together | Feb. 11, 2024
What a joy to come together this morning as Pastor Dale concluded our series about the “First Things” of the Christian Life, things we do together as a church. Today we talked about community.
As we look at scripture, we see there is something deep about Jesus and the meal. For Jesus, the shared meal was the beginning of community. His intention was for it to go beyond just family and friends; it was to include all, the least, the lost, and the lonely.
Jesus is our great host of the feast, or as we said before, he is the head and we are the body. What that means to us as a community sharing a meal, is that the meal should reflect his heart, mission, and purpose. Jesus modeled for us inviting all to the table, including those we don't know to our table to share a meal.
In the news today, it was reported there is a loneliness epidemic happening in our county. People are lonelier than they've ever been before. We have to figure out how to help them belong. We invite you to seek our Father and ask Him what you can do. Is there someone you know he'd like you to invite over for a meal?
