Faith Community Church Of Hopkinton

Week 5 of the series "Portraits of Christ" from Faith Community Church. Jesus possessed the power of life over death while He walked among us, preparing for the cross. He could raise the dead with the command of His voice. His words were life because He is life. Moved by compassion, Christ raised children from the dead. In a scene from John's Gospel, Christ waited for a friend to die in order to demonstrate His power. Lazarus' resurrection is a "production week rehersal' for Easter. It is marked by John as one of the great miracles. As we look at this scene, we will see the compassion, power, and wisdom of God contained in Christ's ministry. We'll also see that God sometimes calls His followers to suffer, even die, in order to demonstrate His power and glory.

Week 4 of the series "Portraits of Christ" from Faith Community Church. Jesus commanded authority over evil. Demonic forces trembled in His presence. Jesus released tortured souls from influence. We will look at a story Mark tells about a man so plagued by demonic forces that he dwelled in a cemetary, cutoff from people who were terrified of him. Christ delivered the man from their control and transformed him. The man found freedom, purpose, and a relationship with the living God from Christ's intervention. Its ironic that demons can see Christ's identity where so many people can not. We'll look at the power of Christ to conquor evil. Christ gives us a mission to carry on His work that others may discover the freedom, peace and security that Christ provides.

Week 3 of the series "Portraits of Christ" from Faith Community Church. Jesus possessed power over Creation. He could calm storms, multiply food stores, and walk on water. We'll focus on the storm at sea an example of Christ as Master of Creation. This one incident demonstrates Christ's trust in God for His safety, the ability He had to control nature, and challenge to us to trust in His power. John, who was in the boat, recognized that only the Creator could control creation like Jesus did. This means Christ had a power greater than any human being who had ever existed. All other people were intermediaries who petitioned God for miracles. Christ generated the miracles from the power within Him. This power can give us great reassurance for Christ still intercedes for us in times of trouble to answer our pleas in powerful amazing ways.

Week 2 of the series "Portraits of Christ" from Faith Community Church. This week, we'll look at Christ's own claims about himself. Jesus made some remarkable statements about His identity, mission and relationship with God. We'll examine the "liar, lunatic, Lord" matrix as a means of grappling with the serious insight Christ had into His life. In examining this, we'll look at a string of statements Christ makes about Himself. When seen as a whole, they are remarkable. If His words are true, then the only appropriate response is awe, submission and obedience. We will leave our 'nets' to worship this amazing God.

Week 1 of the series "Portraits of Christ" from Faith Community Church. As we move into this series where we will examine portraits demonstrating Christ's nature, we need to make sure that the documents we are using are trustworthy. This Sunday, we're looking at evidence for the reliability of Gospels. We'll look at material that supports the reliability of our present day Gospels, support for the integrity of the authors, support for the validity of the Gospel accounts as well as the impact of these materials on the people who have researched them. In the end, we want to come to the conclusion that they are reliable accounts of what Jesus did and said while He was here on earth.

Week 3 of the series "Listen & Learn". When it comes to hearing from God, the challenge is not getting God to speak as much as it is getting in a position to listen. We want answers, God is looking for submission. In the Gospels, Jesus would sometimes say, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear." This was Jesus way of saying we need to be receptive, willing to obey His teaching. Living in a state of rebellion means we won't hear God speaking because we are choosing to not listen. This explains why people often turn to God during times of crisis - feeling the pain of their choices, they are finally willing to listen. God wants us to surrender because surrendered hearts are listening hearts.

Week 2 of the series "Listen & Learn". There are principles to healthy living that are obvious if we are listening. We know that wearning a seatbelt increases our chances of surviving an accident. Spending time with your fiance's family helps you prepare for marriage. Reading a contract before signing it helps avoid a bad financial decision. Having said that, we still struggle to listen to the voice of reason and so made bad decisions. Wisdom is not difficult to find if we are listening for it. Some of the greatest obstacles to finding wisdom are passion (we get fixated or obsessed and ignore reason) and misguided compassion (we try to help people avoid the consequences of their actions). Wisdom means we need to stop, evaluate our motivation, consider the implications and make difficult decisions in light of long term benefits - not short term gain.

Week 1 of the series "Listen & Learn". Who or what we listen to will influence what we do. All of us can think of actions we took based on the advice of or while under the influence of another person like our parents, a coach or someone else. The challenge is to be discerning about these voices, filtering out those that will lead us astray versus those that provide sound guidance. Ahab was a king who failed to discern good counsel from bad. As a result, he lost his life. We need to learn to listen to those voices that will help us. This message will provide some guidelines as to how to determine if we are listening to good advice.

Week 2 of the series "Body of Christ". God has equipped specific people to serve in a leadership role in the church. Their job is to train, direct, assist and resource people to fulfill their service in the church. When leaders do their job well and ministry partners work along side them, the church becomes vibrant, strong, and mature. Because of the teaching of this passage, Faith Community Church is an equipping church. This means everyone is considered a partner in ministry. We all contribute to the fulfillment of our mission to spread the Gospel, glorify God, and love one another. Leaders orchestrate the effort to direct everyone's effort in a concerted organzied loving fashion.

Week 1 of the series "Body of Christ". In this two week series, we are going to talk about the value of serving. In order for the church to function, everyone needs to serve in ministry in a manner consistent with the way God has shaped them. To illustrate this, we'll use Paul's comparison of the human body to the church (commonly referred by him as 'the body of Christ'). God has shaped each organ of the body to serve a specific purpose in the functioning of the body. Without one part, the body is not whole - it suffers. When the parts respect each other, function according to their design, coordinate their efforts, the body functions in a manner that is whole and complete. God has designed the church in a similar fashion. Each person has been "SHAPEd" to serve in the church. When we do, the church is empowered to achieve her mission.

Life is a race with a finish line.  When we die, we face God to determine how we finish.  The choices we make while running the race of life affect whether or not we receive the crown of life God offers.  Those who have surrendered their lives to Christ will receive the crown of life.  Those who do not, will not receive the crown of life.  Every Christian is called to bring that message to people.  Some are particularly gifted in sharing their faith.  They have an unusual effectiveness.  Most people do not have the same giftedness, they work hard to gather up the courage to share their faith in a manner that is compassionate and effective.  When we work together as a church, we can help one another in fulfilling this call.  We can give, pray and serve in such a way that we contribute to a vibrant life-giving church that God works through to change lives.

The mission God has given us - alleviating suffering, effectively preaching the Gospel and leading people to a transformative relationship with God - is impossible for us to achieve on our own.  Fortunately, God has promised to help us.  He partners with us by giving us the resources we need to succeed.  One of the most powerful resources He provides is prayer.  God has promised to hear our prayer and respond. Only God can reach into a soul to enliven it.  Only God can reach into the heart and mind of a person to influence them to act.  Only God can fight spiritual forces to protect and strengthen His people against their attack.  Christians need to come together and pray in particular for God's Spirit to lead them, empower them and guard them so that they can achieve the mission He has given them.  When we dedicate ourselves to prayer, God will move in us, through us and around us to change the world.

Last April, we were shocked when two young terrorists committed atrocious acts of violence that changed people's lives.  As Christians we should be compassionate but not surprised when evil strikes so visiciously.  Christ promised that we would have trouble in the world (even being betrayed by family and persecuted by opponents).  Instead of responding with fear, shock and anger, Christians should be motivated to engage the world with a passionate commitment to mission.  When we surrendered our lives to Christ, we became part of a team dedicated to continuing Christ's work in the world.  Christ came to alleviate suffering, preach the Gospel and provide a means of restoring our relationship with God, our Father.  He calls us to do the same.  In this message, we will talk about the importance of dedicating ourselves to expanding Christ's work in the world around us.