Celebrating Freedom!

Tomorrow, people across the nation will gather with family or friends to celebrate our country’s independence and freedom. While we do, let’s also take a moment to reflect on the true gift of freedom that Christ has given us from sin and death.
Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday weekend.
Serving Alongside,
Matt

The Real Jesus…continues.

What a great day at The Fellowship this past Sunday. It was Easter and we definitely celebrated! If you weren’t able to join us, we have the entire service right here for you (see below). We are talking about who Jesus really is, and why that even matters. Our current series is called The Real Jesus and we just finished up part 2. Come hear part 3 this weekend. Worship at 10:45 a.m. with LIFE Groups at 9:30 a.m.. See you there!

What are Your Expectations for 2012?

Here we are in 2012 and I hope you are entering this new year with high expectations of what God can do in you and through you. Here is a great list of ways to be engaged and growing in 2012:

1. Be in God’s Word.
Plain and simple, apart from this you cannot grow. Pick a great reading plan, many are available online for free (YouVersion.com and the YouVersion app are great tools for this) and stick to it!

2. Join a Life Group.
At The Fellowship, LIFEgroups are where relationships are formed and connection really takes place. To really feel a part of this body, you need to be in a small group!

3. Find a Ministry.
Use the Spiritual gifts that God has given you to help build His church and to fulfill His plan for your life. We want every Ministry Partner (member) at The Fellowship to serve. Get out of the stands and into the game!

4. Come to Church.
Lets be honest, if you’re not here, its easy to drift away from God. Attendance isn’t about being legalistic (e.g., if you don’t go to church you will go to hell!), it’s about growing and being a part of the body. We become better and stronger when we’re together. We are encouraged and re-energized when we worship together.

This list of course isn’t exhaustive, but it will go a long way toward helping us accomplish our goals of becoming more like Christ in 2012.

Serving Alongside,

Matt

Christmas at The Fellowship

What are you doing this Saturday night?
Why not join us for Christmas at The Fellowship?

We will be offering two Christmas Eve services: 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Come experience an intimate worship service with music, a short message, and candle lighting.

This is a great opportunity to invite neighbors, co-workers, and family who don’t normally attend church.

We’ll even provide the childcare for ages birth through preschool.

Don’t miss this incredible time of worship and reflection on our Savior’s birth.

JUST A REMINDER:

There will NOT be any Christmas Day Services.

We hope you spend this time with family and friends and celebrate the birth of a wonderful Savior.

We will have regularly scheduled LIFEgroups and Worship on Sunday, January, 1 at 9:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.

See you then.

Merry Christmas,

Matt

The Third Day.

Today is the day our Lord rose from the grave. Rejoice!

Mark 16:3

They asked each other,

“Who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb?”

A strong Roman guard was posted at the tomb, with the opening sealed and the soldiers–standing there with spears. No one could steal the body.

Early on Easter morning, the two women coming to the tomb were bearing spices for His body. A desperate desire to do something for the person who is no longer in his or her body, drives loved ones to bring flowers or do something near the remains of the person’s so recently alive body.  In those days the spices gave a staisfying fulfillment of this natural desire. With no thought of expectations, or feelings of hope, they dejecteldy walked toward the tomb, only to find–empty! The stone was rolled away, the body was not there! It was two men in “shining garments”–obviously angels, sent as angels who had been sent to announce His coming to Mary thirty-three years before, who now told the women that the One for whom they were looking among the dead, was not dead but alive, “He is not here, but is risen: rememer how he sapke unto you when ye was yet in Galilee, saying the Son of man must be delievered unto the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.”

Then, they remembered.

-Edith Schaeffer

The Path to the Cross

It’s Good Friday. It had been a long night for Jesus. After the Passover He went to the Garden to pray. Was arrested. Tried. Forsaken by those closest to Him. Then beaten and sent to the cross. But…Sunday was coming.

John 19:17

Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull

(which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).

The most notorious road in the world is the Via Dolorosa “The Way of Sorrows.” According to tradition, it is the route Jesus took from Pilate’s hall to Calvary…There are 14 stations in all, each one a reminder of the events of Christ’s final journey.

Is the route more accurate? Probably not. When Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70 and again in A.D. 135, the streets of the city were destroyed. As a result, no one knows the exact route Christ followed that Friday. But we do know where the path actually began.

The path began, not in the court of Pilate, but in the halls of Heaven. The Father began His journey when He left His home in search of us. Armed with nothing more than a passion to win your heart, He came looking. His desire was singular–to bring His children home. The Bible has a word for this quest: Reconciliation
Reconciliation touches the shoulder of the wayward and woos him homeward. The path to the cross tells exactly how far God will go to call us back.
– Max Lucado
The Story Here.

People of Character

Today is known as Maundy Thursday in Holy Week. It is the day our Lord shared His last Passover meal with the disciples. That final feast has become known throughout the ages as The Last Supper. It was at this meal that Jesus washed His disciples feet. A true act of humility and a very teachable moment to be sure.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. John 13:3-5

Character comes gradually in the process of allowing God to make us servants. But oh, the pain that lies in the pathway! Hurt is the unwelcome forge on which God hammers out our Christlikeness. We beg God to cover the hammer with felt. But the iron blows fall and the anvil tears. Some have actually had to die to serve Christ. And sometimes it is the very people we are called to serve who hold in their ungrateful lives the pain that breaks our spirits and crushes us beneath alienation and aloneness.

Unfortunately, serving people is the only way by which we can serve God. And serving people means that we are going to get hurt in the process…
Jesus, according to Philippians 2, humbled himself and became a man. Now we must humble ourselves to become servants and people of character. The crucifixion can be a very nasty end to anyone who wants to be a servant. Why? Consider the methodology of servanthood: We must turn our cheek and walk two miles for everyone who forces us to walk one! Serving our antagonists and blessing our persecutors can be he terrible tedium that fashions us in his image.
– Calvin Miller
The Last Supper

Be Prepared.

Not a lot is known about Jesus and His whereabouts on Wednesday during his final week on the earth. We do know, however, that He spent much time in His final days teaching and preparing His disciples for the future. He spent quite a bit of time preaching on things to come. Today’s devotional is by Stuart Briscoe and focuses on this topic.

Matthew 25:13 NLT

“So stay awake and be prepared, because you do not know the day or hour of my return.”

Every generation of Christians has expected Christ to return in their lifetime. And they have had one thing in common: They have all been wrong…

Supposing Jesus had said, “I’ll give you three millennia to evangelize the world, and then, on January 1, A.D. 3001, I will return at precisely 9:00 GMT.” What would the promise of His return have meant to generations of believers who lived in the preceding centuries? In the midst of their sufferings, exiles, and martyrdom, what comfort would they have derived from His promise, knowing that He would not come soon? And what would have been the effect on the church if they had known that they still had a little time to do what they wanted to do before getting around to doing what He had told them to do? Where would have been the sense of urgency, the challenge to holiness, and the keen sense of tip-toe anticipation?

Jesus’ point was that all His disciples should be living in a sense of anticipation, actively on the job, working hard to bring about the consummation of his purposes and living consistent lives so they would not be ashamed at His coming.
– Stuart Briscoe
Additional reading click here.

Power Play.

Tuesday of Holy Week, is said to be the day Judas Iscariot went to the High Priests with an offer to betray Jesus. We continue today with a devotion from His Passion, this one by Tony Campolo.

Matthew 26:14-16

Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

Jesus really did abandon power when He lived among us. He wasn’t simply holding back and pretending to possess our physical limitations–He truly was one of us. We don’t like that fact and do our best to suppress it. We want to think of Him disguising Himself as a sophisticated Rotarian who could step into a phone booth, rip off His robes, and show us who He is–a first century Clark Kent/Superman.
Judas was one who refused to accept such a limited Messiah. On Palm Sunday, power had been within the Master’s grasp. It was the logical time to take over. It was the opportunity to rally the masses to the cause, the hour when He should claim power. And Jesus let it all slip away.

Some think that Judas betrayed Jesus in order to force Him to play the power game and establish His rule. Those who hold this theory suggest that Judas felt that if Jesus were left with no alternative, He would be forced away from His reluctance to seize the throne. If that was the plan of Judas, it all backfired. Perhaps it was when he realized that his attempt to manipulate Jesus into using power only resulted in the death of one who had loved him infinitely that Judas hanged himself.
– Anthony Campolo from His Passion: Christ’s Journey to the Resurrection.

Also on this day, Jesus gave the Olivet Discourse, spoke in Parables, had a confrontation with the Jewish Leaders, met with some inquiring Greeks and spoke about the end times.

A Good Cleansing.

In my library, I have a sharp little devotional book called His Passion: Christ’s Journey to the Resurrection. In it are some great thoughts from some great men of the faith. I thought you might enjoy a few of them as we walk through this Holy Week together. A time for us to reflect on Jesus’ final days here on the earth. Here’s one from Greg Laurie…

Luke 19:45

When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers’.

Jesus’ outburst in the temple shows us what righteous indignation looks like.  He grew furious because the priests and their associates were keeping people away from God–and that always makes God very angry…

We should also remember that Jesus twice cleansed the temple, once at the beginning of His minisry and once toward the end (See John 2:13-17). For a while after the first cleansing, things at the temple ran well. But soon one man set up his table, the prices soared, and another joined him.  In time, things got as bad as ever, so Jesus came back and did it again right before his death.

In a similar way, when we first come to Christ, Jesus “cleanses our temple.” The Lord banishes filthy habits and give us a new purpose.  In time, however, some of the old things find their way back in, and soon we find our lives cluttered with junk that shouldn’t be there.  That’s when Jesus needs to return for another “house cleaning” What does your “temple” look like today?  Could it use a little cleansing?
GREG LAURIE