In This Episode: Something is emptying you … something is draining your tank. And whatever that may be, we try to redeem it on our own only to find ourselves grabbing at straws trying to fill ourselves back up. Christian maturation involves the purposeful and deliberate emptying of ourselves while giving God permission to fill us with His Holy Spirit.
Peter invites us to cast our cares onto God because He cares for us. But, when we cast our cares upon Him, do we leave them there? Can you believe that through all the trauma and struggle that God is still for you? Can you believe with confidence that He wants to create something new and fresh in you?
In This Episode: The purpose of the disciplines are centered around liberation and freedom from the stifling slavery to self and fear. The Christian maturation process is spiritual growth, and disciplines are a means to that end. We don’t do them to get God to love us. We engage in them because God already loves us. Our faith is more about who we are than what we do.
Disciplines give greater meaning to our lives. The more we engage in them, the more we are aware of the Kingdom of God.
“The Pilgrim’s Regress” (by C. S. Lewis) and “Free to Live: The Utter Relief of Holiness” (by John Eldredge)
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Prelude: āAleggro non troppoā (C P E Bach) Welcome / Announcements / Prayer with Lordās Prayer (Mary Lou Jarrell) Mission Moment: Scouting Ministry (Will Burgin) Hymn: āLove Divineā (Hymn #384) Apostlesā Creed (Ben, Sam, Christy, and Carson Hubbard) Sacrament of Baptism: Anne Ralston Evans Special Music: āHosannaā (Eric Buchanan, Jay Davis, Joy Sloan, Sarah Teel, Connor Davis, and Eric Jones) Reading of Scripture (John and Erin Flowers) Children Sermon (Sally Key Bowden) Anthem: āI Am With Youā (Wayne and Jeanne Martz | C. Courtney) Sermon: āCentering Down (Part 1)ā (Rev. Dr. P. Shane Green) Hymn: āLord, I Want to be a Christianā (Hymn #402) Benediction (Rev. Dr. P. Shane Green) Postlude: āA Mighty Fortressā (Kuntze)
In This Episode: When we have these amazing moments of faith like Elijah calling down fire from heaven or out running a chariot, it is almost always followed up by a crisis where you end up deflated, depleted, or defeated. Revisit the refreshing presence of God that’s new each morning.
G. K. Chesterton wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found lacking. It has been found difficult and left untried.”
Prelude: āAdagioā (Loeillet) Welcome / Announcements / Prayer with Lordās Prayer (Mary Lou Jarrell) Hymn: āO Church of God Unitedā (Hymn #547) Apostlesā Creed (Stefan and Katie Burkhalter) Reading of Scripture (Logan and Roy Ogletree) Children Sermon (Sally Key Bowden) Anthem: āThe Lord Is My Shepherdā (Wayne and Jeanne Martz) Sermon: āSpiritual Sign of Maturityā (Rev. Dr. P. Shane Green) Hymn: āGo Make of All Disciplesā (Hymn #571) Benediction (Rev. Dr. P. Shane Green) Postlude: āCantabileā (Telemann)
Celebration and joy comes when we let God redeem our ordinary life. Quote from C. S. Lewis: “Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire; if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just had out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality.”
Scriptures: Proverbs 3:5-6; 1 Kings 19; Luke 2:10; Nehemiah 8:10; 1 Peter 5:7; Revelation 3:20; Romans 12:1-2; John 10:10; Lamentations 3:22-23; Exodus 14:13-14
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