I Love my Church Sunday!

John 8:3-5 & 10-11 (NKJV) Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?" When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." I Love My Church is all about the idea of community. Key: Jesus is the cornerstone of this community of broken, strange, weird bunch of misfits and to criticize the community is to insult the Christ Who built it. We want everyone to feel accepted at Life Church. Romans 15:7 (NIV) Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 

Today we will be talking about how important it is to be faithful to God’s House. With church attendance on the decline, have you ever given consideration why you should be faithful to this community of believers? National averages say people are attending church one or two times a month. Hebrews 10:25 (NCV)
^“You should not stay away from the church meetings, as some are doing, but you should meet together and encourage each other. Do this even more as you see the day coming.” Think about this…what if someone comes to church hurting? It happens every service. If you were here you could give them a hug, pray with them, or give them an encouraging word. It is not all about us…it is also about encouraging others. 

When all the stone throws dropped their rocks and walked away, Jesus asked the woman caught a very interesting question, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." Jesus says something more to this lady which cuts her to her core but also gives her hope. Go and sin no more told her that He knew all about her sin but it also told her that someone believed in her. Key – Failure to confront, to speak truth in love, can ultimately be as fatal to the growth of the community as being judgmental. Ortberg – “Go and sin no more.” Jesus’ acceptance is free, undeserved, unmerited—but it is also demanding. For the woman to fully examine her acceptance will require entering into a new way of life. The same grace that liberates her from past sins calls her to walk free of them in the future. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) ^“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Who we are can be defined by what we do!...

...Think about that in light of this month of February. Three Sundays have been dedicated to strong emphasis on Missions and our responsibility to send missionaries. Faith Promises. Your pastor started us out by giving glory to God for what we were able to accomplish thru Him in 2018. We again were able to increase the number of missionaries we support by another ten. PTL! Ann Marie and Steve McCarthy challenged us through their ministries in dangerous and difficult places. I personally believe if you sit through those services and not give to Missions, something in you has died.

Romans 10:15 (NKJV) ¹⁵  And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!" I get it that not all of us are called to go to the mission field overseas somewhere. What I don’t get is how some in the church can actually believe they have no responsibility to get involved. I want you to do me a huge favor if you decide you have no responsibility in helping fulfill the Great Commission through a Faith Promise. Email me or write me and explain why. Please sign your name. rick@lifechurchag.net  Maybe you think, Pastor, I am not comfortable trying to explain to you why I do not want to support Missions through Faith Promises. It may be hard to explain. I am sure it will be. Imagine how hard it will be to explain it to Jesus when we stand before Him on the great Day of Judgment. I wonder if that is why He will have to wipe tears from our eyes. 

The very next week after our Mission’s Emphasis we started our Holy Spirit Conference with Tim Enloe. If you missed this time in God’s presence and the great teaching from Tim, you missed it. Many were baptized in Holy Spirit power. Who we are can be defined by what we do! In my mind, we are a Holy Spirit filled Mission’s Church! Isn’t that what Jesus wanted back then and isn’t that what He wants for us now? You, also can be defined by what you do. I can’t make you embrace what God has sent me here to accomplish. I can challenge you, and that is what I will do, as long as I am pastor here…welcome Holy Spirit, walk in Holy Spirit, and touch our world through missions. Are you on board with us or have you abandoned the ship? Listen to Jesus…Holy Spirit and Missions: Acts 1:8 (NKJV) ⁸  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." 

In light of our Missions Faith Promises...

... I want us to look at these Scriptures and see what God is saying to us. 2 Corinthians 9:10 12 (NKJV) “Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God...” God is saying to us that it is He Who gives us what we have to share with others through missions or benevolence in the first place. But when we are faithful to give away His blessings to us something supernatural happens...what is it?

  God has the power and He is more than glad to use it by demonstrating one of His divine principles ...that when we give He gives back pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men give back to you. He multiplies our seed (our money) so that we have an opportunity to be generous every time an opportunity arises to bless our missionaries or help the poor. Being raised on the farm helped me to understand this pressed down, shaken together, and running over concept. Understanding my dad was not a Christian at the time...when we sold to Piggly Wiggly the baskets were not pressed down but fluffed up, not shaken together but barely moved, and not running over but scarcely at the top of the basket. If it was true friends or family, it was definitely running over with blessings.

As we are faithful with 10% of our income (the tithe) and give above that to Missions, God supernaturally multiplies our finances. This not only meets the needs that are presented but also causes thanksgiving through us to God...worship!  I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but hear your pastor...because of your obedience to provide money to reach the lost around the world...God is going to multiply your seed (bless you) and He is going to bless Life Church! Why? So we can bless even more! Get ready to get out of your comfort zone and to experience God’s multiplication!

In Matthew 14:28 29 (NKJV) it says...

... And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.”  Peter asked Jesus to command him to do something an average human has never done...walk on water. Jesus said, “Come!” and the miracle happened.

This story is so interesting to me because Jesus first tells the disciples to get in the boat and to go to the other side. When they are in the middle of the storm He commands Peter to come to Him on the water. When they get to the other side and get out of the boat revival breaks out. Maybe it is just so much of who I am, but I see this story as a mission’s story. The whole purpose of getting in the boat was to go to the other side where people needed to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and have their lives put back together. They had to get out of the boat and to minister.

Life Church, it is time for all of us to get out of the boat and do our part for missions so that revivals can break out in multiply nations. Pastor Rick, I am in the middle of a financial storm, how could I possibly do anything without going under myself?  Peter starting looking at the wind and waves and he started going under...Guess who was there to catch him...Jesus!  We all raise our hands when we ask, “How many of you believe Jesus is coming back soon?  How many agree we are a mission’s church?”  We all raise our hands and shout but God is giving us a command like the one He gave Peter.  Matthew 28:19 20 (NKJV)  “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.” Our response to this is to get out of the boat and obey what Jesus has said. You can say ‘Amen!’ but you can also give! God will not let you sink when you make that Faith Promise!

Pastor Rick, can you give us three reasons...

        ... why it is so important for us to be extraordinarily faithful to God in the day we are living? I am so glad you asked!

The first reason and, to me, the most obvious reason to be faithful to God in an extreme way is that Jesus Christ is getting ready to split that eastern sky and gather together those whose hearts are on Him.  Matthew 24:37‑42 (NKJV) says “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.” The key is He is coming and we must be ready!

The second reason is connected to the first, and should be a wakeup call for all of us. When Jesus comes back we do not want to be lukewarm but we want to be fervently serving the Lord with all our hearts. Revelation 3:14‑16 (NKJV) says  "And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, 'These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” Jesus is coming back and He is coming back for an on fire Church! Is that you?

The third reason is tied to the other two: Since Jesus is coming back so soon and knowing that He will vomit us out of His mouth if we are not on fire for Him, we should make it our aim to share Christ with everyone. Mark 16:15 (NKJV) says “And He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”  If we truly believe He is coming, if we are filled with His power, then, we should be leading others to Christ with great passion. Come on, Life Church, let’s reach as many as we can through missions and evangelism! Pray with us and ask what God will do through you for missions. Make a Faith Promise and watch how God comes through for you!  

Twenty-one days of fasting started...

            ... January 1, 2019 and who can even believe that we are already starting a new year?  How can we make our fasting more effective this year and what is it that God expects of us as we fast?  Isaiah 58:6‑9 (NIV) "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter‑‑ when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?  Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.  Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I...”

Please be aware that fasting is not intended to be a “quick-fix diet” for over eating during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year Holidays. It is a time of seeking God with all your hearts and it is a time of searching our hearts and repenting for ourselves and our nation.  According to Isaiah, it is a time of seeing people set free by the power of God, a time of being compassionate to those in need, and about taking care of our own families. It is a time for giving our all to God and holding nothing back.

I am praying this year will be an awesome year for us corporately and for many individually. Maybe your break-through will be with your family, your marriage, your finances, your job, your prodigal, or maybe with your walk with God. Maybe this will be your year to finally surrender everything to God and stop living way too close to the edge. I am praying that men, women, and our children will seek God passionately and for those who are prodigals to return to the Lord with all their hearts. Come on, Life Church Assembly of God, let us fast and pray as one in the Lord, let us see our light break forth in our community, and our healing to come quickly! 

As we approach the new year...

... I want you to prayerfully prepare yourself for our annual 21 days of fasting and prayer.  We believe God going to do wonderful things here at Life Church and we want to make sure that we are in the absolute center of God’s will.  God is pretty clear about how He wants us to fast...about what our intentions are as we fast. Isaiah 58:6 7 (NIV) "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter    when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

Our desire should be that through our fasting and praying that we see chains broken, addictions abolished, the cords that are tightly around the necks of the oppressed loosed, and to see them set free.  When Jesus sets someone free...they are free. This is the goal of our prayer and fasting. It is having compassion for the poor and hungry and helping those who cannot help themselves. Understanding that our families have to be of utmost importance to us. Our fasting should renew our love for God and for each other!

What can we expect when we fast in sincerity and according to God’s will?  Isaiah 58:8 11 (NIV)   “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.  Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.  The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” Come on, Life Church, let us fast together and see God grow Life Church to one thousand plus and start a new campus!