A simple Christmas Service from Arcadia Indiana. Includes a children's story, advent reading and music

Preaching For Change

Christmas Service

Re-Creation, Heaven & Hell

I Am En-Theos Enthusiastic

Because our God is an Encouraging God I'm Encouraging I will encourage others daily I will encourage others spiritually I will encourage myself I Am Generous God Invented Giving When God gave life to the universe, He spared nothing. Think of all the incredible gifts: beautiful sunsets, mountain peaks, and deep blue oceans. Think of the way plants give oxygen, and water gives life to every living thing. In fact, every living thing is—in some way—a giving thing. Why? Because the breath that spoke it into life is laced with generosity. Our God invented giving. When through sin, we brought on physical and spiritual death, God once again found a creative way to give life. This time, He gave His only Son’s innocent life in place of our deserved death—the most generous gift of all. Then, before Jesus ascended, He promised the coming of an encourager called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brought with Him powerful gifts for followers of Christ to build the Church and make the story of Jesus known. Giving is in God’s history, of His heart, by His hand, to build His household. When we give, we act like Him, and we lend to His work. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Luke 11:11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Proverbs 19:17 If you help the poor, you are lending to the LORD— and he will repay you! I’m generous with others because it shows faith in God. My temptation is to believe that what I have is what I live off of and its limited… Proverbs says the Lord will repay. My God gives great gifts. Its all his already. So, how can we respond to God’s extravagant generosity? We can start by taking care of His gift. What? How can we take care of Jesus? In Matthew 25:31-46 NIV, Jesus tells a story about sheep and goats. The sheep get into heaven and the goats don’t. How did the sheep manage? Jesus explains, For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in … Then, someone asked, when did we do this for you Jesus? He answered, … whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. Consider: Who is “the least” in your life? How can you generously give to them? I’m generous with the least because they are Jesus brothers and sisters. I’m generous with the least because its giving to Jesus. 1 John 4:7-9Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. We all want to be generous but there is one issue we must deal with. Who oversees my resources? Choose Your Master We get nothing done without giving. We give time and effort to our employers. We give words and affection to our relationships. We even give food to our pets and money to things we believe in. Giving is always a choice. If we chose not to give in the situations above, each situation would cease to exist to us. Every day we wake up is a day we get to choose what we’ll give to. The collection of these daily choices makes up our lives. When we gave our lives to serve Christ, we gave our choices to serve Him. Jesus explained this when He told us we can’t serve two masters. You can probably imagine having two direct supervisors at work. Just as bosses determine what we do at work, choices determine what we give our life to. Jesus was telling us it’s miserable when our choices try to serve two bosses. Two-master living leaves us split-minded in a battle against ourselves. Then, just in case we didn’t make the connection, Jesus told us straight up we can’t serve both God and money. Jesus isn’t saying we can’t have money. He’s saying our choices cannot serve both money and God. Does that mean our money can’t serve God? No. When we give our choices to God, He always puts our money to work for Him, too. In 2 Corinthians 9:6-12, the Apostle Paul urges the Church of Corinth to give cheerfully and generously because God is looking to bless them abundantly to meet both their needs and the needs of others. We can’t serve God and money, but we can choose to serve God with our money! Try this: Examine where your money is serving God and where you’re serving money. I’m generous because my $ is serving God. Let’s Say these positive statements together. I’m generous with others because it shows faith in God. I’m generous with the least because its giving to Jesus who gave me the most. I’m generous because my $ is serving God. Who’s the least or who’s in need? We want to help you be generous. So here’s the Missions team who is giving us an opportunity to help. Maybe you need to keep it. We have all been the least before. Keep it. But you may know right now who needs this more. Pray: God, thank You for giving me life, not once, but twice. First at Birth and then Eternal life with you. Will You now give me the courage to spend my life giving back to You? Please help me to grow a heart of generosity towards the least, my enemy, my neighbor, my church, my family, and ultimately, You. Lord we pray that this gift would be a blessing and would let them know that Jesus loves them. AMEN!

I Am Generous (God is generous and asks us to be generous too.)

Ekklesia- the called out and set apart gathering of God’s children. The Way- Early followers of Jesus were called The Way. Before GPS there were theses things called Maps. I had on that I kept in my glove box. I mean I kept it there and never pulled it out. In northern Rural Indiana I would go to a concert or visit a friend in a different county. On the way home at night everything looked different and I could not navigate by landmarks. If I could not find my way home, I would look around and look for a large light glow in the distance. Then I would point my car towards that and drive. If I could find a town, I would find a bigger road and I would know where I was. If I found the light, then I could find my way home. Let us open the book of Mark. John Mark is the author. John Mark was a disgraced disciple in his younger years. He was a follower of Paul and Barnabas. Then he got homesick or needed a break and ran away. Little history about Mark. This will give you context of our narrator’s personal view. Mark is the author of this gospel account that recalls Peter’s direct experiences with Jesus. Acts 13:13 13Paul and his companions then left Paphos by ship for Pamphylia, landing at the port town of Perga. There John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. 14But Paul and Barnabas traveled inland to Antioch of Pisidia.c Mark MIA for a couple years. Ran away. Perhaps homesick and afraid. His mom had a big house he could go back to. So, he runs away and is out of the picture for a couple years. Paul and Barnabas come back to Jerusalem to update the Ekklesia there and to argue against the need for circumcision. Then Barnabass is like well its time to go back and check on the churches we started let’s take Mark with us and Paul says over my dead body. I don’t trust him. He’s your cousin but to me he’s a coward. And he’s not coming. Barnabass says yes, he is, and Paul says get lost. Acts 15: 36After some time Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit each city where we previously preached the word of the Lord, to see how the new believers are doing.” 37Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark. 38But Paul disagreed strongly since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their work. 39Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus. 40Paul chose Silas, and as he left, the believers entrusted him to the Lord’s gracious care. 41Then he traveled throughout Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches there. God uses this to multiply teams and what seems horrible probably leads to more of the Gospel being preached. So Mark goes with Baranabas but he reappears in Peters writings as His Spiritual Son with Peter and so he is listening to Peter teach and talk about his experiences and this is where he gets the info for his narrative. Mark reappears in Paul’s life in a few different letters. One when Paul is in prison in Rome, he says that he is sending Mark. And a final time in 2 Timothy 4:11 when Paul calls him useful and requests, he comes to help him. Mark writes down Peters teachings on Jesus around d 64A.D. about the time of Peter’s Death (Martyrdom in Rome) Mark writes this for gentile believers in Rome and he writes it almost in the style of an article. He is primarily concerned with ACTION. If the books of the Bible were different genres. Romans would be a deep-thinking movie. John would be a broad view of the teachings of Jesus in the style of a documentary and Mark would be an action movie. Less talk more explosions. Have you ever lost your way like MARK? We all want to have the apostle Paul story of full bore never stop. But I can relate to Mark and the desire to run away. To not always get it right. To be afraid of what God wants and to go back to comfort. Open to Mark 1:16-20 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simong and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 17Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 18And they left their nets at once and followed him. 19A little farther up the shore Jesus saw Zebedee’s sons, James, and John, in a boat repairing their nets. 20He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men. Simon and our buddy Drew. Andrew. Simon becomes who? Peter or Petros / Rock cool name. And Jesus says that upon this Rock I will build my Ecclesia. THE CHOSEN When Jesus found his disciples, he did not hand them a Bible or ask them to apply for the position. He said Follow ME!!! Mark 2:14-17 What are Disciples? Here is what they are according to Mark. Mark has a big focus on discipleship. Mark 8:34-38 Follow Jesus by denying yourself and taking up the cross. Jesus invitation to you is to come and follow Me. What will it cost? It is free but it will cost you everything. Simple-> but difficult. You cannot be half nailed to the cross. You must leave everything behind to follow THE WAY! That is how we become a part of the promise found in Mark 13:13 Mark 10:30 If you are lost in darkness lift your head find the light and drive towards it. You will find the kingdom and its King who is asking you to Walk with him. To Follow him. Follow The Way.

How To Find Your Way Home

What is the Church?

Challenge Accepted

Jesus is Alive... Now What?

Easter Service 2020

How Are Believers to Respond to COVID-19 and other Crisis

Is everything really awesome? Or is everything really pointless?

Everything Is Awesome

2020 Vision, What God Will Do!

The Spiritual Gift of Leadership (Leadership Training)

Did God Really Say That?

Psalm 119

Messages aimed at making a difference in your life, Encouraging, Uplifting, and Spiritual! Similar in teaching to Andy Stanley, Charles Stanley, Billy Graham, Andy Stanley, Charles Stanley, Carl Lentz, Brian Houston, Rick Warren, Jack Hayford, Ed Young, Tim Keller, Warren Wiersbe, Charles Swindoll, Stephen Furtick, Craig Groeschel, Wayne Cordeiro. Influenced by churches like North Point, Elevate, LifeChurch.tv, Biblical teaching, Jesus, Savior, Love,

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Preaching For Change

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