Sunday, September 20, 2009

 

Announcements
Keith Currie -- Luke 9:57-62   get focused, look forward
At the Halton next week.   Special Mission Contribution next week, 9/27, $120,000 goal. 

 

Lavonia Drabot - planning the Christmas program.  For children grades 3 - 8.   There will be auditions.

 

Mike Dames - Mt 25:34-35, 40
Involve yourself in serving and meeting the needs of the poor - committed to The Charlotte Rescue Mission one time a month through 2010.   Next one is 10/20/09. 
American Red Cross -- they went from a staff of 22 to a staff of 2.    There will be Red Cross training for disaster preparedness.   If your home caught on fire, a hurricane came, do you have a plan.    There will be training from 10 to 11 am on a Saturday in the future. 
HOPE Charlotte will have people trained as facilitators to go out into the community to train others about disaster preparedness.  

 

Communion -- Brent & Kelly Stevens
In the process of adopting a boy from Thailand - a long process.   They need to embrace God's will, not just endure it.
Mt 26:36-44
Started the process to adopt in 2006.   Matched with their son in July 2008.   They've been able to mail things back and forth to him.   They have waited since February on paperwork to be approved so they can go get him, it's been hard to plan their lives, not knowing when they will get the call that they can go pick him up in the next 2 to 6 weeks.   They are still waiting, hard to wait.   He turns 8 on Oct 22nd, he was 6 1/2 when they were first matched.   They don't like to miss all this.    They have to redo paperwork because it expires after a certain time, even though just sitting on someone's desk.   They need to have more background checks and more fingerprinting.   She learned how much she's not like Jesus.   She's self-reliant, all the emotions she has.   It helps to go back to the cross.   Jesus was alone, even with people.   Jesus was persistent in how he prayed and dealt with his emotions. 

 

Ron Drabot
Was this National Outburst Week (per Patrick Stallings)?    Horrible news, girl found at Yale.   15 year old girl, pregnant, shot at bus stop in N. Charlotte.   Makes all of us more convinced then ever that we need God to impact the people we are around.   God is not about changing your circumstances before he changes your heart.   He allows things to happen.  
The Sovereignty of God - His authority
The Providence of God -- working in the details of your life
He is working in everyone's life
He permits challenges and consequences
If God changes your circumstances before he changes your heart, that would be bad for you.   Your heart will get worst.   He wants to change you.   He is not interested in your status or your role, he's not interested in your being comfortable, but in your heart being conformable.   
Rom 8:29  become the image of his Son
think, work, act like Jesus

 

We are going to continue our study in the book of Ruth
We did Chapter 1 last week -- review
The Israelites didn't obey, there was a famine.   They didn't trust God, they left Bethlehem.   They didn't obey, they married Moabites (foreign Gods), they compromised things in their lives.   They stayed 10 years, all the men died.  They ran from dying in Bethlehem and died anyway in Moab.   Naomi is bitter, Ruth converts to the true God.

 

Chapter 2
Boaz - in Hebrew means "in him is strength"
Judges says there was no king, everyone did what they wanted.  Boaz was still Godly.  
vs.19  Naomi changed from bitter to blessed
The story of Ruth's incredible faith and service, things weren't better yet.  To go from bitterness to blessedness:
1)  Live your life by faith in God
2)  Live your life being strong in grace of God
3)  Live your life filled with hope in God

 

1)  Live your life by faith in God
verses 1-3
Do you see people in the kingdom lose their passion?
They've stopped serving others, focused on self
Obey God, regardless of the circumstances
In Deut. 10:19, God loves the poor, the alien, the widow & the foreigner
Ruth believed God's word, that he would take care of her
Church last Sunday was incredible because we focused on God and a couple that enjoyed 31 years of marriage
12 years Sally was healthy and strong
7 years of becoming ill
12 years of surgeries
Timothy loved Sally the same throughout.   When someone asked Timothy how he could keep loving her at the end, he said:  "I love her, she's my best friend, and I love being with her."
Ron appreciates Brent & Kelly, they're waiting.   He's coming.    Kelly thinks she knows the best timing, but it's not God's timing.   They continue to give to others.
Mike & Irene Horneber & son Josh.   Josh is a joy, hugs like nobody else.   Mike has been through many challenges in his life.   Irene is joy.   They really love their boy. 
Patty Viar -- funeral for her dad yesterday.   Always giving, such an inspiration.   Jennifer & Renee drove to St. Augustine, FL to be with Patty for the funeral.  
Jennifer's been through a lot.  She is such a joy.  She watches her nephew, who has a physical handicap.   He has to have some back and hip surgery, and he'll be in a body cast (Jerod).   Her brother-in-law caught his hands in the garage door, almost got his fingers cut off.  His wife had an adrenaline rush, pulled up the garage door to free his fingers and threw out her back.   Mark is moving his mother to another nursing home this weekend because of her physical condition.  Jennifer will tell you all that, then she will say "can I make you some cookies?" 

 

2)  Live your life being strong in grace of God
verses 4-16
2 Tim 2:1-2  1You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.    Grace is undeserved favor.  
Acts 2:38;   Rom 3   born again at baptism
free, forgiven, washed clean
1 John 1  confess sins to God and he forgives you
You're strong in the grace when you are forgiven; when you're strong in giving grace to others
If you can't forgive others, you can't see how much you need grace
At the conference in Denver, Co -- 550 churches were there
India just went past 5000 disciples.   There are 5015 total now in a Hindu country.  
A brother got baptized there, his uncle beat him for 24 hours because of turning from Hinduism to God
Titus 2
he shared with his sister, she was baptized, the family beat her for 24 hours, dragged her by her hair to the temple to worship false gods
she wouldn't compromise
They locked her in her room and starved her.  
What keeps us from sharing our faith?   A bad look?  
Her brother snuck her out of the house so she could go to church.   They walked to church barefoot. 
What keeps us from coming to church?
They loved their family, they gave them grace instead of the hatred they received.

 

The African impala can jump 10 feet high from a standing position.   It can jump 30 feet long.   You can put an impala in a zoo, with a three foot wall, and keep him trapped.   The wall will keep him there because the impala will not jump if he cannot see where his feet will fall. 
We limit our faith in God because we can't see (faith is not seeing, and trusting). 

 

3)  Live your life filled with hope in God
Ruth didn't know that God would bless her
Matthew 1 -- the lineage of Jesus Christ - five women are listed, four women were questionable -- Tamar, Rahab, Uriah's wife Bathsheba, Ruth and Mary
Put your hope in God, the Bible says, and good things will happen
The minister in India that spoke at the conference said that it is very poor in India, but not poverty.   The disciples in Bangladesh have poverty, but he leaves with hope when he visits them. He travels to one elderly lady's home, you have to come by boat through dirty water filled with sewage.   She has a five foot by eight foot shack, with sewage on the floor, she lives with her drunk son and her baby granddaughter.   There is 1 chair inside, she offers him tea.   She had so much joy.   He was ashamed when he thinks about what he complains about.

 

We live in a great time.   God has chosen us to demonstrate faith.   We need to live by hope.   Great things will happen.  
Rom 15:13