Love Is … GOD
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²¹ Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”

“From childhood,” he answered. ²² “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

²³ “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” Mark 9:21-25 NIV

Experience

 Belief

 Faith

Distance between what you’ve EXPERIENCED and what you _____________

Unbelief

 Doubt

Distance between what you’ve already ________________ and what you BELIEVE

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:7-12 NIV

Love Is … GOD
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³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴ Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

 ⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 

⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 

⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.  ⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 

¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. John 20:3-10

Who’s your “Go To Person” to help you understand confusing things?

Truths we learn from the Empty Tomb of Jesus

• Everyone doesn’t get to the Empty Tomb at the same time
• Getting to the Empty Tomb and Entering it are not the same
• Seeing is not always the same as ______________
• Believing is not the same as __________________
• God Keeps his Promises

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.  1 John 4:7-12 NIV

Deadliest Catch – From Praise to Tailspin
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7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!
”Matthew 21:7-9 NIV

 

12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. Matthew 21: 12-14 NIV

 

How can I stop the TAILSPIN in my life so I can live a life of PRAISE to God?

 

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV

Deadliest Catch Misfits
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21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:21-24

Are you a ________________ or an ___________________ ____ _________________________?
Only through ____________________ can I be cleaned.

 

The question Jesus still asks of his followers today.

Are you willing to believe even when               you don’t understand?

Deadliest Catch – Habitudes

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When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.

2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. 3 He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. Nehemiah 8:1-3 NIV                   

 People are usually a part of the _____________ around them before the change in them

Things that make you go “Uhmm”

• Came together as __________
• Brought the ____________ out to the people
• They _______ had the propensity to understand
• Ezra read and they ___________ attentively

They took the Scriptures (God’s Word) seriously; with thanks, praise, humility, and worship.

Do I read & listen to Scriptures to hear & understand for _________________________ or just for information?

Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly.        Nehemiah 8:18     

Being Persistent in Doing Good
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I knew they were scheming to hurt me so I sent messengers back with this: “I’m doing a great work; I can’t come down. Why should the work come to a standstill just so I can come down to see you?”  Nehemiah 6:2-3 MSG                   

 

“THE WORK” of God is _______________ people from what holds them captive

 

Refining our Culture (People)

Doing the WORK OF GOD, requires us to be PERSISTENT

• We can’t get distracted
• There will always be tension, in doing self-less things for others (doing good.)
• Beware of LEAKS
• Strength to withstand the enemy’s intimidation comes from GOD
• The CHURCH is not a place to hide from the problems of the world
• We are working for the name on the front not the back

The wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul. It had taken fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard the news and all the surrounding nations saw it, our enemies totally lost their nerve. They knew that God was behind this work. Nehemiah 6:15-16  

John Wesley’s Daily Prayer

I am no longer my own, but yours.

Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,

Exalted for you or brought low for you.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things

to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God;

Father, Son & Holy Spirit,

You are mine, and I am yours.

So be it.

And the covenant, which I have made on earth,

Let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

Deadliest Catch

Walls Don’t Change People, Love Does
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6 When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. 7 I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them 8 and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say. Nehemiah 5:6-8                   

 

Stage 1:  Building Awareness

–   Reset, Prayer, Prepare, Perceptive/Perception

Stage 2:  Changing our Culture

–   Passion, Plan, Focus, Multitask

Stage 3:  Refining our Culture

Love changes PEOPLE:  the _________________  and the __________________

God’s Love is based on ______   ___________ , not anger.

People changed by God’s Love need _________________

Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people. Nehemiah 5:19

Nehemiah 5: 1-5

1 Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. 2 Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”

3 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.”

4 Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. 5 Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”

Nehemiah 5: 9-13

9 So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? 10 I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest! 11 Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.”

12 “We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”

Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. 13 I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of their house and possessions anyone who does not keep this promise. So may such a person be shaken out and emptied!”

At this the whole assembly said, “Amen,” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

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Join us and watch as CCF takes over LifeSpring’s Service to raise money for their mission trip next week.

Dirty Jobs Multitask: Keep Living- Start Searching

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 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? – Matthew 6: 25

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. – Matthew 6: 33

Nehemiah 4: 13-23

Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows.

14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”

15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work

16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.

19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!”

21 So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. 22 At that time I also said to the people, “Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and as workers by day.” 23 Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.

Dirty Jobs: Focus – 11 to transform 89

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“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in.”  – Napoléon Bonaparte

 

Nehemiah 4: 1-6

1 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?”

3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”

4 Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.

6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.