Conquering Self-Pity

Conquering Self-Pity
Guest Speaker - Victor Nuwamanya - 10/8/2023
Key Passage: 1 Kings 19:1-18

Missions Emphasis Week - Part 2

God’s call conquers our self-pity

1 Kings 19:1-8

- Elijah has just seen God deliver his people (1 Kings 17 & 18), and now he runs from a threat delivered by a messenger

- Even the best men are men at best…

- Elijah doesn’t consult God he just runs.

- He becomes a “non-prophet” organization.

- Another messenger arrives.

- 1 Kings 19:5

- Before God confronts Elijah he provides comfort and rest.

1 Kings 19:9-14

- “What are you doing in this place?”

- Elijah deflects.

1 Kings 19:15-17

- God gives him a task. A meaningful task. He renews Elijah’s prophetic calling.

- God meets Elijah in the cave.

- What is your cave?

- Who is your Jehu (v. 16)

Missions Emphasis Week - A Love for Jesus

Missions Emphasis Week - A Love for Jesus

10/9/2022 - Micah Williams

Key Passage: John 14:23-24

A love for Jesus looks like a love for the marginalized

• Matthew 25:31-40

  • Hungry, thirsty, naked, imprisoned, strangers

  • Do we see those who are on the margins?

  • What if it was Jesus in need?

A love for Jesus looks like a love for the lost

• Matthew 28:19-20

• Mark 16:15-16

  • The gospel is good news.

    • Not everybody knows the good news.

    • The vast majority of people we brush shoulders with do not know Jesus.

A love for Jesus looks like a commitment to living missionally  

• Romans 10:13-17

  • We have to tell others.

  • They won’t hear unless somebody says something.

  • How do you spend your time and your money?

Set your sights on eternity 

• Revelation 19:6-7

United So The World Will Know Jesus

Message starts around the 30:00 mark

United So The World Will Know Jesus

01/30/2021 - Dave Riddle 

Key Passage: John 17:21 - 23

Mission:  That The World May Know

• John 17:21 - 22

• Our works are NOT the gospel, but they can hinder or facilitate the gospel.

  • Our unity accelerates the impact of the gospel.

  • Our disunity is a hindrance to the gospel.

    • It tarnishes God’s reputation.

Message: The love of God

• A message that needs to be spoken.

• A message that manifests in our relationships with one another.

  • John 17:23

  • John 3:17

  • Where have you been sent? What is your context?

  • John 13:34-35 - love one another… by this all people will know you are my disciples.

    • 1 John 3:11 - We MUST love each other.

Why Family on Mission?

Why Family on Mission?

6/13/21 - Dave Riddle 

Key passages: 1 Timothy 3:15, Matthew 28:18-20

We use the word family because it’s biblical.

Family = oikos (Greek: οἶκος) - an inhabited house, a physical dwelling place. Also, the inhabitants of a house, all the persons forming one family - a household. 

• 1 Timothy 3:15 - we are the household of God.

• The church is called “brother and sisters” over 20 times in the book of Acts alone!

What is our mission?

• Matthew 28:18-20 - The great commission. Go make disciples…

• Disciple = mathetes (Greek: μαθητής) - pupil/learner/student - a disciple. In the New Testament, a disciple is one who not only learns, but accepts and adverse to the instruction given to them, making it their personal everyday way of living .

• Teaching them = didaskō (Greek: διδάσκω) - teaching with the purpose of transformation.

• Acts 1:8

• “The church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that [everything else is] simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose.” CS Lewis

• Luke 6:40

Helping People Follow Jesus Together

1. UP

   • Living in right relationship with the Father.

     • Jesus prioritized his relationship with his Father.

2. IN

   • Living in right relationship with our church family.

     • You can’t walk in obedience with the will of God if you aren’t walking in right relationship with your brothers and sisters.

3. OUT

   • Living on mission to reach the world.

     • We are ambassadors, as if God was making his appeal through us!

The Rich Young Ruler & Ludwig Zinzendorf

Message begins around 14:45

The Rich Young Ruler & Ludwig Zinzendorf
Global Missions Emphasis 2021
Dr Jon Hardin - Frontiers

Key passage: Matthew 19:16-22

Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf and the early Moravian Church.

• a wealthy young man embarking on a trip that was meant to launch his life and career.

• Has a life changing encounter with a painting of Jesus.

  • “This is what I did for you. What will you do for me?”

• He buys a large estate and opens it up to Moravian refugees.

• He meets with them in their homes and studies the Bible with them.

• August 13, 1727 - the Moravian church experiences a powerful revival.

  • The village began sending out missionaries all over Europe.

• He met a former slave named Anthony who inspired him to send missionaries to the Caribbean island of Saint Thomas.

  • Over the next few years the Moravians sent out more missionaries than all Protestant churches in the previous 200 years.

  • They sent out 1 out of every 12 congregants.

    • HOW!?

Worship

• The worship of Christ was like the fuel of life in these communities.

  • They loved to worship!

The Word

• Zinzendorf was a pioneer in the world of daily devotions.

• The Moravian daily text, first published in 1723 is still published today in more than 50 languages.

Prayer

• They arranged a 24 hour prayer vigil that went unbroken for more than 100 years.

  • At least one man and one woman for every hour of the day.

Where does this kind of zeal come from?

• In 1747 Zinzendorf commissioned a painting to depict their passion for global missions.

  • “The first fruits”

  • Inspired by Revelation 7:9-10, Revelation 14:4, and other texts.

  • Portraits of real people who were the first converts in their particular unreached people group.

Missions was an “all hands on deck” situation for the Moravian church.

• A fully mobilized church

• 1 of 12 going. The other 11 supporting.

• The Great Commission: The whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world.

Feeding of the 5,000

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Feeding of the 5,000
The Gospel of John - Part 15 - 1/3/21
Key passage: John 6:1-15

BIG Needs; REAL Needs.

• John 6:5

  • Nearly 20,000 people, in need of a meal.

  • Jesus asks, “where could we get food to feed these people?”

    • A question to test Phillip.

Seemingly limited resources 

• John 6:7 - it would cost half a year’s wages to give all of these people a small snack!

• John 6:8-9 - Here’s a little bit of food, but it’s nothing compared to the size of the crowd.

A little is a LOT in the hands of Jesus

• John 6:11 - they had as much as they wanted, they were full, satisfied

Jesus involved his followers

• John 6:12-13 - from doubting to active participants.

Always on Mission

• John 6:15

  • the crowd wanted a miracle worker, a king, a new Moses. That wasn’t what Jesus came for. He had a different mission.

Do we put limits on our faith, church, outreach, ministry? Or do we truly believe that Jesus can do a lot with the little we’ve been given?

God’s Household

A Family on Mission - God’s Household

Dave Riddle - 06/09/19

Key Passages: 1 Timothy 3:15, Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 6:40

Our mission: Helping People Follow Jesus Together!

• A family on mission!

1 Timothy 3:15 - ... I have written so that you will know how people ought to act in God’s household, which is the church of the living God,  the pillar and foundation of the truth.

• Household = oikos (Greek: οἶκος) - an inhabited house, a physical dwelling place. Also, the inhabitants of a house, all the persons forming one family - a household. 

  • In the New Testament: the family of God: Where God has made his home. Us!

Matthew 28:18-20 - Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  19 Go, therefore, and make disciples  of  all nations,  baptizing  them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember,  I am with you always,  to the end of the age.” 

• Disciples = mathēteuō (Greek: μαθητεύω) -  to be a disciple of another, or to make someone a disciple. 

• mathetes (Greek: μαθητής) - pupil/leaner/student - a disciple. In the New Testament, a disciple is one who not only learns, but accepts and adverse to the instruction given to them, making it their personal everyday way of living .

Luke 6:40 - A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

• we are called to become like Jesus and help others become like Him too!

Three-Dimensional Discipleship 

1. Up (Father)

   • Reconnect with our Father God through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. 

2. In (Family)

   • We are connected. We can’t do this apart from our brothers and sisters. United in Christ. 

3. Out (World)

   • Salt and light, ambassadors and witnesses to the world! We exist to reach out into the world to see them become like Jesus too!