Forward In Faith

This weeks message is from I Cor. 15 and is titled Resurrection Realities. In this passage Paul speaks of the historical realities of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He point to the hundreds of people that witness the resurrected Lord Jesus who were still alive to give testimony and witness to this fact. Because he has risen we have a blessed hope.

This week we come to chapters 9 and 10 in the first letter to the church at Corinth. Through these first chapters Paul, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God, has encouraged us to glorify God, in our Salvation, in our relationships with Brothers and Sister in His Church, in our bodies, and in our Marriage or Singleness. Now the message moves to glorifying God in and through relationships with those around us who have not come to Christ. For these, we are to build redemptive relationships by building bridges of love.

This week we continue to turn the pages of these wonderful love letters from God. As we read from chapter seven Paul begins to answer a question the the Corinthian believers have asked him. “To marry or not to marry, that is the question,” that might have been a good title for the sermon as well. In this passage we will discover what it means to keep the commitments that we have made.

This is our second Sunday and first full week of our adventure into 1 & 2 Corinthians. This morning message this week is titled Glorifying God. We were created for this purpose and in this message we will be reminded that what we do and say can distort our ability to bring God glory. The truth is that we are often distracted and deceived by the world into wrong thinking about the value of our lives. God’s word reminds us that He so highly valued us that He payed a high price for our redemption.

This week we launch our new series: Love Letters. This weeks message is titled "United in Christ.” Begin in chapter one verse 10 Paul gets to the heart of the issue to this and every church when he asks the question, Is Christ divided? The reader must realize that, if we are in Christ, then we cannot live or act like there are divisions between those of us who are called by His name. This is a challenging true and we are going to explore its meaning together.

This Sunday’s message, You’ve Got Mail," will be an introduction to our upcoming 13 week Bible Adventure in the books of 1&2 Corinthians. The series title is Love Letters. In this weeks we are going to bring together our Sunday morning evening and Wednesday night messages in addition to our Small group sessions and daily bible readings. I believe that this will be an exciting time as our family is working through these wonderful letters of truth and love.

This will be the last week in the series Vision & Victory. The message this week is from Joshua 24. In this passage we hear Joshua ongoing faithful commitment to the service of the Lord. But we are also looking at the end of Joshuas life. He has remained faithful and God has wonderfully blessed him. Their is wonderful blessing in a faithful life. But this morning we are going to consider what is required to live the faithful life.

This week we will read from Joshua chapters 5 and 6 which focus on the story of Jericho. For many it is a familiar story because it is so dramatic. In truth it is a story of humble faith. Both Joshua and the people of Israel were called upon to humbly and quietly walk around the city for seven days. God was teaching His people to trust Him and to not lean on their own ideas. It is a teaching that we need to consider for our walk with Christ.

This week we find Joshua and the people of God getting ready to cross over into the promise land. They had to face some major obstacles first. Then in obedience they had to take big steps of faith. The same is true for you and me. We have to step out in faith , get our feet wet to realize the power of God in our lives.

This Sunday we will hear the second message in the series, Vision & Victory. We will read from the second chapter of the book of Joshua which describes the two spies who are sent into Cannan and there they meet Rahab. It is a story of preparation faith and obedience. The faith of Rahab is saving faith. As the people of Israel prepare to enter into the promise land the testimony of God’s faithfulness brings salvation to those who believe.

This Sunday we begin the New Year with a series of messages from the book of Joshua, titled “Vision & Victory. There is much to learn from walked in faith and obedience. This week we have crossed over into a new year and like Joshua we must learn to be strong and courageous. We must regain a vision of the living God at work in our world and then be willing to cross over and join Him in victory.

This Sunday we will present the final message from our "Family Life” series. The title is “Preparing your home for Christmas.” The scripture text is Mark 1:1-8 where we read that John the Baptist was sent of God to prepare the way for the Gospel of Jesus. We to need to prepare the way for the Gospel of Jesus in our hearts and homes. From this passage we will follow John’s example on how to be a witness for the Gospel.

A very important virtue of a God centered family is the practice of forgiveness. Bitterness is destructive to all relationships and become a defiling cancer spread to those you love. It must be rooted out by grace.

This weeks message focus is on the instruction from scripture that we are to teach our children and grandchildren the things of God. We will also look at the example of the dysfunctional home of Ely. There are many examples of sin and rebellion in the homes of people of faith in the Bible. They are included to warn us as parents that we cannot be lazy when it comes to our responsibilities of intentional instruction and faithful examples that we are to provide. Our text for the morning begins with words that set the tone: diligently watch yourself so that you don’t forget…” Let us commit ourselves to the Lord in this great responsibility.

As we continue in our series of messages on “Family Life,” this week we will look at I Corinthians 13 to talk about the essential ingredient of Love. The passage begins by pointing out that faith, family and even life are meaningless with out love. Indeed many families are in danger because we do not fully understand what love is. In this passage the love we need in our home is defined. Lets look at this definition to evaluate the quality of the love we bring to our family

This Sunday the message will be Family life is Work part 2. We will be looking at Eph.4 and how the Godly life calls for good communication. Nothing is needed more in our marriages and families than healthy and honest communication. In this text, Paul points out that we are not never put off dealing with the daily issues of life.

This week we continue in our series: Family Life. The sermon will focus on Psalms 127 and Proverbs 24:3-4 both of these passages were written by Solomon. In his wisdom he speaks of the work that goes into family life. We are going to look at in investments that we need to make in our marriage and in our home to have a healthy growing family.

This week enter our second week of the sermon series "Family Life”. We will be in Gen. 35 where Jacob leads his family to Bethel (which means, “House of God”) The title of the message is "God made families for Worship.” Jacob gives the example of intentional leadership as he prepares for and then brings his family to a place of worship. The important lesson he provides, is the truth, you cannot lead others to a place where you haven’t been. Jacob was returning to the House of God.

We will begin this new series looking at Romans 12 and the teaching that we are the family of God. As such we are brothers and sisters. We have responsibilities toward one another that we cannot forsake. Most of all share the job of working for unity in the body.