Pre-Service 5-20-2018 - Fellowship

This morning Pastor Todd will continue the series of Doing Life Together. We will focus on the idea of fellowship with Christ and each other.

Read 1 John 1:6-7.

John speaks of fellowship with Christ and "living out the truth" as one thing and then "walking in darkness" as the other choice. As imperfect people we probably fluctuate between those two extremes throughout our daily lives.

Think back over the past week. What moments stand out? Were those moments closer to living out the truth or walking in darkness?

We will use this old hymn as part of our song service. Reflect on the words as we prepare for worship. Make it your honest prayer to God.

Once earthly joy I craved

Sought peace and rest

Now Thee alone I seek

Give what is best

This all my prayer shall be

More love, oh Christ to Thee

More love to Thee

More love to Thee

Pre-Service 5-13-2018 - Connecting Intentionally Through Relationships of Care

We are starting a new series this week on "One-Anothering Below the Surface". It focuses on how we need meaningful relationships with others.

The main passages for today's sermon are listed here. Click each link or look them up in your Bible to reflect on the thoughts as we prepare for worship.

• Galatians 6:1,2
• Galatians 5:22-23

It is popular to view the Bible as a book we go to for spiritual encouragement. We memorize verses to remind us of things that help us get through life's challenges. That's a good thing, but today's passage reminds us the goal is to be spiritually mature.

One reason to be spiritually mature (or to "live by the Spirit" as the Bible says) is so we can bear each other's burdens.

Paul writes it this way in 2 Corinthians 1:3,4:

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God."

Pre-Service 5-6-2018 - Workers In the Field

We will continue our Living On Mission series this morning by looking at Jesus' words in Matthew 9:35-38. You can click here to read the passage.

Here are some questions to reflect on as we prepare to worship this morning:
1)  How often do you pray specifically for God to send workers to reach people who are "harassed and helpless"? Take some time do to that now.
2)  Of course, each of us as Christians has the responsibility to be the answer to that prayer. In what ways have you recently been a worker in the plentiful harvest? In what ways can you do that in the days ahead?
3)  Jesus looked at the crowds and saw it ready for harvest. A lot of people today might say church attendance is down because people don't care about God. Think about how you see this in your small piece of the world. Do you see a plentiful harvest with people looking for God or a scarce harvest with few who are interested? Has the world changed or did Jesus see things in ways others didn't?

Solemn Assembly and Free Daily Journal Guide

Remember last week we held the second Solemn Assembly with several other churches from Lapeer. We put together a daily devotion guide to continue what God has started for reaching the lost in our community. Even if you weren't there, you can still start the daily devotions.

Click here to download the free guide as a PDF.

The guide comes with seven devotions, but there are directions to receive the others by email.