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The Wisemen long ago were guided to the house where Jesus was in order to worship the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the light of the world. Let’s think about that Light. Light cannot be anything other than what it is. It's bright; it dispels darkness; it enables people to see what they are doing. If we look at the moon it glows, but it doesn’t glow because it has a light, it glows because the sun’s light is reflected by it upon the earth. When we follow Jesus, the Light of the world, we are to reflect His light in the world.
As we step into this new year, we can either dwell on what things we’ve left undone, what things took us down, and what things just didn’t realize in our lives OR we can stand tall, persevere, and walk firmly in Christ into the new year. Moving forward in Christ means that we walk into our Divine purpose, which God determines for us both individually and corporately as a Church. As we move in Christ, guess what? God moves closer toward us, in us, and through us.
Do you know our lives are to reflect the thankful heart we have for what God has done? We ought to desire to walk into His presence with singing because of what Jesus has done— He saved us, He redeemed us, He called us His own! That is worth giving God all the praise and thanksgiving for working in each of our lives. As we celebrate Thanksgiving this week, let us remember the cost and give thanks to God for His hand of mercy and grace upon our lives.
As followers of Christ, there was a time in each of our lives when we surrendered to Christ. We gave Him our all, we were all in for His purpose and plan for our lives as individuals and as the Church. Jesus made it clear that commitment was a key part of being a follower of Christ. In the Gospels, we see many examples of people who followed Jesus because of what they hoped He could offer them, yet, He consistently challenged them to “count the cost” of following Him. We’re going to look at the call on the Christian life to be committed to Christ, His Word, the church, prayer, worship, and His mission. We’ll see that before God calls us to commit to Him in this way, He’s already committed to us.
We end our series on Understanding Spiritual Gifts this Sunday as we gather together to celebrate Holy Communion. Through this series, we’ve discovered that our spiritual gifts are given by God, used for His glory, and each one of us has a different one to build up the Body of Christ. Now that we know that, what are we going to do about it? Each one of us has a passion, something that burns inside of us to do, a heart to change our world. That fire is connected to the use of our gifts for the glory of God.
In order to continue using our gifts, being effective in this world for the glory of God we must be plugged into Christ. It bears repeating, no one can do anything without being plugged into the source of all things, especially when using and perfecting the spiritual gifts God has given you. Scripture reminds us, “I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me [plug into me], you will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5, emphasis mine). So, how do we remain plugged in for life? Well, glad you asked. Listen in on the Sermon today.
When you hear the word surrender what does that mean for you? Does it mean giving up on something or does it mean giving it all to God to orchestrate? When we live fully surrendered to God, we trust Him so much so that our finances, our family, our job situation, our home, our car, our everything is given to Him for the benefit and blessing in our lives for us and for others. We gather once again to remember that Jesus is central to all of our daily living.
We continue with our Understanding Spiritual Gifts Sermon and Study Series. Who gives us these gifts anyway? And, what are they to be used for? These are the two questions that we will explore together this weekend as we come together and worship and share in Holy Communion together. Our gifts are not meant to be unused, unopened, unappreciated. Our gifts are given by God to be used for the Body of Christ, His Church so that we might glorify Him.
We like the prodigal often search for other things in life to fill the void that seems to be missing from our lives. However, when we come to our senses and realize that life within the Father's house was much better than the world has to offer, the Father is waiting to restore and rekindle our relationship as one of His children. Our distant heart can be redeemed through turning to the Father and heading Home.
The first church knew that love meant sacrifice. They used their time, talents, and treasures to make sure that everyone’s needs were met in their congregation. They shared what they had, and because of their love, no one among them was needy. They relied on godliness to make them content. The generosity of the church in meeting all the needs among them allowed the apostles to preach with great power. The actions of the church, their willingness to give of themselves bore witness to the change that Jesus could bring to a life.
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