• Mary and Joseph gave up their reputations, — Can I risk mine for Christ?
• Mary and Joseph gave obedience — willingly despite feelings. — Am I obedient to God’s call?
• The shephards and wise men gave their worship. — Can my lifestyle be a reflection of worship? Do I willingly give credit to God?
• Mary and Joseph trusted God despite their fear? Do I trust God with my life?
• The wise men gave God time. Am I willing to spend time with God on a daily basis?
• The wise men gave God resources. Am I willing to tithe and to support those in need?
• God gave sacrificially — He gave his son on the cross for my sins. Am I willing to sacrifice for Him?

Going to Church

• go to be entertained
• passive participant
• go away feeling proud — I was in church today

Going to Worship

• Go to praise God – thru
• song
• prayer
• tithing
• Go to be in communion with God — thru
• prayer
• Holy Communion
• song
• Go to support God’s work — thru
• missions
• tithing
• Active participant
• Go away
• Humble
• know own faults
• know only God can change me
• Hungry
• to learn more by reading the Bible and listening for God to speak
• to be in community by participating in a small group and/or Bible study
• to be in worship again next week

Lord, I want to worship You today.

• Bully may be someone close in life
• Others may not see it as bullying
• Cyberbullying is for real — and can be private communication
• Bullied may not want to force others to choose between themselves and the bully
• Silence builds a wall separating bullied from others

Even though I have a new understanding of bullying, I still have no answers on how to deal with it.

from sermon by Jonathan Falwell, Thomas Road Baptist Church

Beatitude

• supreme blessedness
• Heightened happiness
• Be attitude – the attitude I should have

Blessed

• Divinely given contentment and peace

Poor in Spirit

• Realize that without Christ I am totally destitute

Mourn

• Broken hearted over sin in my life

Meek

• Submit to God

Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

• Deep desire to know God and His Word

Merciful

• Forgiving – Life is too short to hold grudges

Pure in Heart

• Selfless motives
• Doing right thing

See

• Optimal view of God
• Nothing blocks view of God — No sin, no selfishness

Peacemakers

• Desperately desire to see people make peace with God

Persecuted

• Living in kingdom of God is not easy

Where do I call home?

Are we willing as a church to do whatever it takes to reach people far from God?

OR – are we obsessed about own personal comfort level?

1. Cry of Salvation — Hosanna!

Hosanna

• means please save or save now
• desperate cry for salvation

Jesus always want to save us from more than we want (or need) to be saved from

We’re still looking for a political savior — at end of the day — politics doesn’t save

2. Desire for salvation

3. Detractions from salvation

• Get so focused on people in the house (church) that we forget the people outside the house
• What are those outside the house saying?   HOSANNA!
• Disciple — followed Jesus in a daily basis and all but John were martyred
• Religious crowd will always hold people back from coming to Jesus — too focused on information and not on applications
• Friends of paralytic (in Mark 2) were willing to dismantle the house of God to get friend to Jesus.
• We’ve forgotton our call as a follower of Jesus Christ –> we are supposed to be rescuers
• Are we willing as a church to do whatever it takes to reach people far from God — OR — are we obsessed about our own personal comfort level?
• Calling of church is rescue — we need to either pick up the shovel OR shut up.

4, Results of Salvation

• House (church) is dismantled
• personal preferences set aside
• People brought to Jesus
• People come to know Christ and are set free

Pray that God will save a multitude of people this Christmas!

Watch live — Dec. 4th at Eastern times — 11:15 am, 4 pm and 6 pm / will also be available online

Newspring Church — http://www.newspring.cc

 

If it is Christian, it ought to be better.

Based on sermon by Jonathan Falwell: The Passion for Excellence (Oct. 3, 2010)

When we’re working/serving to bring honor and glory to God, we should have a passion for excellence in what we do. Unfortunately, sometimes that passion for excellence is driven by the motive of attracting others to the church. Has the focus of the church centered too much on growing the church that it has forgotten that the purpose of  the church is to bring glory to God.

When I serve with passion, putting all of my God given talents into the service, but want personal glory for what I’ve done, I’m not satisfied.

Instead, my goal should be to do it for God and His Glory. As I move toward that goal

• my priorities will become aligned with God’s priorities
• I will mature spiritually
• God will use my service to make an eternal impact thus changing my world.

As I continue to serve the church, I need to continually remind myself that I’m not doing it for personal glory or to satisfy the pastor or to satisfy the critics in the pew but to bring glory to God.

Am I going the extra mile for Him?

Sunday, October 10 at 4:00 pm, the Seneca UMC in cooperation with the Corning Trinity UMC, the Centralia UMC and the Susanna Wesley UMC in Topeka, will be hosting the 10-10-10 Church Leaves the Building event in the Seneca City Park.  “The Reach” band from Susanna Wesley UMC will be bringing the praise and Pastor Michael will be bringing a message (‘we all have to aim at something’).  The public is invited to bring a lawn chair and gather for worship to be followed immediately by a cookout at 5:00 pm—dinner will be provided with hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, chips, cookies and bottled water being served. All are welcome and encouraged to attend!

The global United Methodist Church is “Rethinking Church.” The 10-10-10 Church Leaves the Building event bears witness that the Seneca UMC is beginning to Rethink Church, beginning to redefine the church experience beyond the church doors, and reaching out to engage the people in our community. Through this event the church desires to reach out, especially to those who have no faith community, and impact lives by helping people begin to know Christ, and engage them through Christian discipleship.

The Seneca UMC understands that reaching out to people and inviting them into a friendship with Jesus is asking them to move beyond their ordinary comfort zone.  This event serves to put everyone on level ground because leaving the sanctuary of the church building for worship and being led by a praise band is beyond the ordinary comfort zone of the church members as well. This common ground provides an ideal opportunity for the Holy Spirit to move individuals into friendship with Jesus Christ and each other.

No matter how or where they serve Jesus Christ, United Methodists do God’s work in a unique structure—referred to as “the connection.” This concept has been central to Methodism from its beginning. Connectionalism comes to life through our clergy appointment system, our mission and outreach, and through our collective giving.  United Methodists live out our call to mission and ministry by engaging in ministry with the poor, combating diseases of poverty by improving health globally, creating new places for new people and renewing existing congregations, and developing principled Christian leaders. No one congregation can do all these ministries, but together—through the power of our connection—we can make a tremendous difference. Our 10-10-10 Church Leaves the Building event serves the mission of “creating new places for new people and renewing existing congregations.”

This event is our ‘connectional’ system at its best and is what really made this endeavor possible. “The Reach” band from the Susanna Wesley United Methodist Church in Topeka has taken its name seriously. Besides their Sunday morning responsibilities at Susanna Wesley, they are on a mission of helping other local churches to reach out to their communities. Their mission leads the band to reach far beyond the walls of their local church. Their willingness to come and help with our event in Seneca gave the local church here in Seneca confidence in embracing this outreach to the community.

Back Row, L-R
Charles Holmes, Jake Livgren, Shawn O’Trimble, Bruce Ottman,
Front row, L-R
Jonathan Brickman, Lori Brickman, Melissa Kimble, Michael Gisi
Not pictured: Teri O’Trimble, Britta Livgren, Meghan Bishop

So, on 10-10-10 everyone is encouraged to bring a lawn chair, friends and gather at 4:00 pm in the Seneca City Park to worship a loving God of grace.  Please don’t forget, worship will be followed immediately by a cookout at 5:00 pm—dinner is on us! The sponsoring churches hope to see everyone there.

The Corning Trinity, Centralia, and Seneca UMC’s: becoming friends with Jesus and helping others become friends with Jesus, too.

The story of the Old Testament repeats over and over the same story:

• People have been blessed by God and thus do well
• People become proud and fall away from God
• God removes his blessing
• People repent
• God takes people back
• Circle starts again

This cycle not only applies to individuals but to marriages and to the church. In the mid 20th century, many churches forgot that people need to be transformed and became too focused on social justice. In becoming centered on social justice, these churches forgot the spiritual needs of individuals. By focusing on the social justice agenda, the greatest asset of the church – its members – began to fall away from God. These churches and their members forgot the instruction from God in Deuteronomy 8:

Be careful you do not forget the Lord, your God.

God has done great things thru His church. But greater things are expected. Our churches are in need of revival. Each one of us needs to personally reflect on our faith and on our church.

• What more is wanted by God for His church?
• What can I personally do to help my church be what God has intended?

What can I do to bless, encourage and bring revival in the church?

Based on Ezekiel 37

What I wasn’t doing was practicing my faith outside the church.

Is my spiritual condition bones that are very dry?

Valley of dry bones represents the condition of the church in the US today. The church has become impotent – has the equipment but can’t perform.

The early church (book of Acts)

• prayed for boldness
• was generous
• changed the culture

17% of Americans attend church weekly. Little league sports, shopping and other activities have become more important than church.

Reasons why church is on decline:

1. Misunderstanding
   • Believe church is full of hypocrites
     • YES, it is, we all fall short — there’s room for more
   • Can be a Christian and not go to church –
     • To have a dynamic relationship with Christ I have to be in community with other believers
   • Search for ‘perfect church”
     • Every church has problems
     • Detrimental spiritually when I begin to criticize church
     • Matt 16:18 – Church belongs to Christ
     • Eph 1:22 – Christ is the head of the church
     • Eph 3:10 — thru the church
     • Eph 3:20-21 — glory in the church
     • Col 1:18 — Christ is the head of the church
     • If church is so unimportant then why does the Bible talk about it so much and why did Jesus die for it?
     • Church not given to us so we would have a Sunday option, but so I would have a Sunday opportunity to get together and worship the living God – so others want to have what I have
2. Laziness
   • Spiritually lazy by not belonging to local church
   • God did not call me to attend, he called me to make a difference with my involvement in a local church
   • I’m an owner of my church — members have rights but as an owner I have responsibility
3. Obsession with Image
   • We’ve raised a bunch of rule followers that love rules but not Jesus
   • Many are de-churched (including me) — walked away from church and came back
   • We’ve told people to follow rules instead of following Jesus
   • If we want our youth to drop out of church someday — force them to go to church when you wish you didn’t have to go
   • Isa 29:13 – It’s not about the eternal, it’s about the internal – our hearts

People

• Church is for all people – I should accept them no matter what
• Ezekial – preach to the dry bones (I represent the dry bones) -
• A Supernatural Act of God happens whenever someone preaches Word of God making people alive in Christ
• Church is supposed to be excited about Christ
• When a football game is loud it means something exciting is happening on the field. When a church is loud, it means something exciting is happening for God
• People matter to God — every # represents a person — church needs to grow
• Why get mad at large churches when people matter to God when you don’t get over a large bank account because money matters to you?
• I often have things of man in mind more than things of God

Potential

• of where church can go
• of where I can go when I have the Holy Spirit inside of me
• Potential is unlimited in Christ
• God did not call us to be spectators — he called us to be participants
• Army gets on field and is willing to give life — what am I willing to give for my church?
• Nothing church can’t accomplish if just step outside walls and be the church
• Nothing has power to see people cross over from death to life like the local church – IT MATTERS