To Love / To be Loved

Questions:
If God makes no mistakes, what does it speak to the world when we treat a person as if they are not good enough? Does that say that this person that God created is a mistake?

If I can’t love the person that I can see, how can I love God that I can not see? Even as Christians, we sometimes try to convince ourselves and others that we are in a right relationship with God (our daddy) all the while we can’t or won’t be LOVE to someone. How is it that we can have the life changing experience of salvation and not love others, even the others that take a little more effort to love? I think that the next question must be, do we understand what it means to experience the redeeming power and love of God’s forgiveness and receive the free gift of salvation?

1 John 4:17-21 The Message

17-18. God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

19. We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

20-21. If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.

Gather, Grow, & Go

Pastor Tim

Perfect Love

Today, Lynn and I are celebrating our 27th Valentines. Reflecting on that seems to humble me quite a bite. I think about Lynn many times a day and long to be near her all the time. Many times I feel completely lost, if I can’t see her face or hear her rumbling around the house, preparing for the Daycare. She is my perfect mate, she is my woman, and I would not want to be here on earth without her.

When we think of PERFECT LOVE, one must reflect on God’s word. Let’s take a look together:

1 John 4 (The Message)
7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!

13-16 This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

Gather, Grow, and Go

Pastor Tim

Acts 2 Church

The first church truly got it right in terms of what Jesus intended to church to be. Acts 2 describes a people that ate together, studied together, prayed together, and the number of Christ followers grew daily. Isn’t it funny how God can take a group of people from being self centered to being Christ centered? And when we together, finally focus on the savior and not each other, that is when God uses us to encourage and minister to each other. When a person receives salvation, fellowship is realized, growing together in God’s word is realized, and becoming a missionary in your area of influence is now a “Must Be” reality.

I am overwhelmed of the GroupLink response from this past Sunday. We had 84 adults to sign up for small groups!! This represents 8 small groups in different parts of town, various ages and walks of life. I can see God planting a huge landscape of some amazing relationships that are about to be discovered. Your willingness to be a part of such activity, takes away the ME factor and now puts into play the WE factor. My prayer is that we continue to, not just to know what the savior knows, but to become who He is.

Three Reasons why the first church made an impact on their world:

1. Gather, Which is Fellowship
Acts 2:46
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,

2. Grow, Which is Bible study and prayer.
Acts 2:42
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

3. Go, Which is be a Missionary were you live work and play.
Acts 2:47
praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Gather, Grow, & Go
Tim

Slaying the Giants in Your Life

Slaying the Giant of Resentment

What do you think of when you hear the word Resentment?
How do you detect resentment in others?
How do wounds shape us in the person that we are? Is it true that “Hurting people hurt people”?

What is your definition of "Wound"?
Webster says:
an injury, usually involving division of tissue or rupture of the integument or mucous membrane, due to external violence or some mechanical agency rather than disease.

Defending ourselves from the Giant of Resentment
See 1 Corinthians 13:4-6
To understand how to defend yourself against the giant of resentment, we must understand that LOVE is the only thing that keeps from being a captive of resentment. Love and Resentment can not co-exist in the life of the believer.

To forgive or not to forgive
See Ephesians 4:31-32
As a Christ follower, what right do we have to choose to NOT forgive someone?

I hope that you find the study notes helpful as we approach the Son with the issue of resentment. The notes can be found at http://www.lifesongchurchonline.com/ “Discipleship”.

Gather, Grow, and Go
Tim

Slaying the Giant of Anger

Slaying the Giant of Anger

Ever said “That makes me so angry”? Is it possible that we are angry people already, meaning that the anger was already is inside of us. I know of some people that just seem to lust after an opportunity to be angry. Sinful Anger is self generated and is very selfish in its nature. James chapter 1 explains that it is easy to be deceived in thinking that our anger is someone else’s fault, but according to James, sin comes from our own evil desires. In short, the desire to be angry comes from inside ourselves. Giving in to that desire leads to ruin. That ruin, leads to spiritual and emotional death. Can you count how many relationships in your life that has been destroyed by the Giant of Anger… by you or someone else that was convinced that you were justified in the anger?

The Bible Study notes for this lesson can be founds at http://www.lifesongchurchonline.com/ “Discipleship”

Gather, Grow, & Go
Tim

Slaying The Giants of Your Life

Slaying the Giant of Worry

Sgt. Sid Ayres was a tail gunner on a bomber during WWII. As a member of the 456th Bomber Group, he flew 50 missions over Europe in 1944. His ride? A B29 named Worry Bird.

Not too many years ago I met a tail gunner of a B29. He told me that he was a nervous wreck for 4 years as a tail gunner. His job allowed him to be the first one on the crew to see the enemy coming. According to Pat, most tail gunners would be out of ammunition by the time the enemy would finally get into shooting range.

It would be a difficult thing to live in constant worry for 4 years, but the fact is that some of us spend our entire life in a state of worry. Take a few minutes and read Matthew Chapter 6

The outline for this bible study as well as others can be found in the Discipleship tab of http://www.lifesongchurchonline.com/


Gather, Grow, & Go
Tim

Slaying the Giants of Your Life

Slaying the Giant of Discouragement

What are some things that contribute to The Giant of Discouragement? In the book of Nehemiah chapter 4, we are shown an example of the Giant of discouragement and how God’s people being lead by Nehemiah, was able to defeat this Giant through prayer and obedience.

The outline for this bible study as well as others can be found in the Discipleship tab of http://www.lifesongchurchonline.com/

Gather, Grow, & Go

Tim

Slaying the Giants in Your Life

Slaying the Giant of Fear

The following is my outline for the series that we are studying on Sunday nights. This study was written by Pastor David Jeremiah. Fear is a Giant that Satan keeps on a leash and releases this Giant when we don’t expect it. FEAR can be a life saver or a life taker. If we wade in a small pond that most likely has snakes in it, we should have fear. It could save our lives. If we wade in the shallow end of the swimming pool, and have fear, then we would say that FEAR is a life taker. An event in the Old Testament gives us a snap shot how fear can paralyze a nation. Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 1:19-40

The outline for this bible study as well as others can be found in the Discipleship tab of http://www.lifesongchurchonline.com/

Gather, Grow, & Go

Tim

Church: Part 2

What are the most common excuses people give for not being part of a church family? Being in Church leadership, I have heard quite a few. Those excuses come from family, work, and the grocery store. The one I love to hear is “the church is full of hypocrites” and (in my mind) I say “yes” you are right, and we have room for one more, so when can you come?

When I think of church family, I think of unity. In the past I have experienced people that claim to be a disciple of Christ, that have done some very destructive things that disrupt unity, which a true Christ follower would not do.

God’s word has a lot to say on the subject:
Ephesians 4:3
3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
In short, as Christ followers we have unity, and Satan seeks to disrupt it or to remove it. The scripture didn’t say “create” it said “KEEP”.

Who is responsible for the unity of the church?
For the answer read Colossians 3:12-14

Tips worth keeping

Focus what we have in common, not our differences.
Matthew 28:18-20

Be realistic with your expectations
Ephesians 4:2

Choose to encourage rather than criticize.
Romans 14:4-10

Refuse to listen to gossip
If you are not part of the problem or part of the solution and you are talking about it then that is GOSSIP. And listening to gossip is like receiving stolen property.

Practice God’s method for conflict resolution.
Matt. 18:15-17

Support your pastor and leaders
Hebrews 13:17 / 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13

Side Note:
Other believers WILL disappoint you and let you down, but that is no excuse to stop fellowshipping with them. And Divorcing your church at the 1st sign of disappointment is a mark of immaturity.

Gather, Grow, & Go

Tim

Church: Part 1

How is being a member of a church like being a family member? Wow, if you are like me at all, you would have a lot to say about family and church. I think that there some similarities between the two. Key word here is “expectations”. We all have them, and when the church or the family, doesn’t meet our expectations, we are pretty quick to defend why our expectations are what they are, and even try to make them sound biblical. Sometimes we place expectations on people without ever verbalizing it to them. Example, most people believe that the church exists “to meet their needs”, when in fact the church does meet needs, but it is the result or the by-product of being a group of people who desperately want to see the lost to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The soul purpose of the church is not to meet needs, but to meet souls.

So in reality there are 2 types of misplaced expectations:
1. The unspoken expectation:
“Well, he is a Pastor, he should come and knock on my door.”

2. The unrealistic expectation:
“Why isn’t the church doing more for the marching band fund raiser?”

Using an analogy that a good friend shared with me, kind of sums it up concerning expectations, “at a football game, you have 10,000 people (in need of exercise) not in the game, but complaining what the 11 on the field, (that needs rest), should be doing in order for us to win”

Remember this, you can’t place an expectation on a family member that only the church can fill, because as a Christ follower you were created to have Christ community, and you can’t place an expectation on the church that only God can fill, because without a growing relationship with Him you will forever be dissatisfied, regardless what a family member or a church does or doesn’t do.

Paul said in Ephesians 4:1-2
1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Side Note:
As a family member the expectation is to Love and be Loved. That does not exclude you from washing the dishes.

As a Church member our focus is Him and not us, and we don’t earn the right not to serve.

Gather, Grow, & Go

Tim