Service Times
Worship Service
Sun. 9:30am – 10:30am
Sunday School
Sun. 10:45am – 11:20am
Prayer Meeting & Bible Study
Wed. 6:30pm – 7:30pm
Crusaders Club (Seasonal)
Thurs. 3:00pm – 5:30pm
Crusaders Teens (Seasonal)
Thurs. 6:00pm – 8:00pm
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:12 — 41.4MB) Subscribe: Ephesians 6:11 and 1Sam. 17:38, 39
You are invited to join us Sunday mornings at 9:30 for worship. We are continuing our study in putting on the full armor of God. One would think that since Christ defeated Satan at Calvary, and our redemption forgives all our sins, our lives would be “happy ever after” as Christians. The problem is that even though Satan has been defeated, he is still allowed to spring his “terrorist” attacks on us. The reason is so we choose to love God rather than just be puppets with God pulling all the strings. It Biblical doctrine is that of freedom of choice! As we look at the armor, let’s consider first
- THE CHRISTIAN’S PROVISIONS! We are told to put on the full armor, or all the armor of God. We normally think of all as being totally inclusive, which is correct. So we are to put on all the pieces of armor God provides. Having done all that we ought to be able to stand against the devil, right? So how come so many Christians have such a hard time standing? Read 1 Samuel 17:38, 39. Have you ever considered that “all” may not be the same for everyone? Think about this, if a child cleans his/her plate by eating all the food on it, has that child ingested the same amount of food an adult did by cleaning their plate? No! Even though both ate “all” (everything) on their plate, what was all to the adult, was more than all to the child. The point here is that God always provides “all” for every one of His children. But all for you might be more than all for me, because you are more mature, stronger, or further along in your Christian walk than I. Why is it that we think every Christian, no matter how long they have been Christians must “all” be the same? It’s like we try to dress every Christian in the same size armor and send them to defeat their giants. We must all put on the belt of truth, but could it be that we “all” wear different size belts, depending on how long we’ve been saved? I wonder if we as cause many of our own problems within the Body by expecting everyone to be the same size! Sometimes we ask people to be teacher, deacons, elders, or hold positions that are just too big for them. It’s not they aren’t capable, they just aren’t qualified yet, because they haven’t had time to learn “all” they need to learn. Whenever God provides “all” for His children it is always in their size! A good lesson to remember! Why? Consider
- THE CHRISTIAN’S PURPOSE. Christians are to STAND and stand FIRM! In what? God’s Truth! We are to stand firm in God’s Word representing it to a lost and dying world, exactly as God has presented it, and exactly as He directs us. He isn’t going to put the armor on us, because we can choose to dress ourselves. God also won’t stand in your place. He did that at Calvary! Without all the armor (in our size) we are literally telling God, “let the Devil get me. I refuse your provision and your power.” Is that really what we want to do? I think not! The concept of being fully dressed in all the armor of God (in our size) is so that He is able to empower us to do that which we can’t do ourselves. That empowerment comes to us only when we are dressed in His armor, fully, and standing for His truth, the way He tells us to stand. We don’t get to pick and choose what we want to do, the way we think best. We must remember we are the servants, God is the Master. If you think you are in over your head, check the size of your armor and be sure you are not wearing someone else’s armor. You can only allow Christ to do all things through you, when you are dressed in your armor!
If we can help you with this or any other spiritual matter, call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:01 — 43.0MB) Subscribe: Ephesians 6:10-12
We invite you to worship with us each Sunday morning at 9:30. We have studied Paul’s concluding command to Christians to “Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power.” Now we come to the second concluding command which is to “put on the full armor of God.” I like the way God always tells us to do things in order so we can do all He asks us. As we look at dressing for battle let’s consider first
- EVERY CHRISTIAN’S PREPARATION. These two commands have something in common. Both are command Christians must do! We must never get the idea God does everything for us just because we are Christians. No parent ever does everything for their children. Only the children can learn to walk, talk, reason, think and so on. The parents teach them patiently, but the children must DO to learn. So it is in the Christian life we must do what we can, then God does the rest. Jesus taught us in the model prayer in Matt. 6 “Thy will be done…” The principle of operation throughout Scripture is that God expects His adopted children to allow God to show Himself through us as we submit to God’s mighty power. After God tells us to be strong, He tells us to put on the full armor. Why? So we can stand against the vicious attack of the devil. The Christian armor is made to be worn and there is no command ever to take it off. The armor isn’t going to jump on you just because you are a Christian. You must make a conscious decision to put in on and leave it on every day. Now consider
- THE CHRISTIAN’S PERSPECTIVE. When you get dressed every day, your activities determine how you dress. No matter what you are doing, you always dress completely. Paul makes the statement to put on the whole armor, not just what we want. When God inspired him to write this, God knew that we face a formidable enemy every day and we need to be completely dressed for such a battle. Our first perspective must be to dress completely. Read Ps. 35:1-3, then read 2Cor. 10:1-4. Notice we aren’t to use human weapons, but heavenly weapons, that aren’t carnal. Our second perspective as Christians is to use the armor God provides. He has designed it for our particular battle. What exactly is our particular battle? I like what one writer said commenting on this passage, “spiritual warfare is not a struggle against power, it is a struggle to maintain truth.” Think about that. We are fighting to maintain God’s truth, through the way we live our everyday lives so people get a true picture of Who God is, what He is like, and that He desires that all come to Him for His salvation. Our power originates in God, not us. Our armor originates with God, not us. Therefore our lives are to be lived in His truth, not our desires. We are not struggling for power, because if that were true we would be struggling to exalt self. As Christians we are fighting hard to exalt God, His righteousness, His glory, His honor, and His Son Jesus Christ. No Christian in and of themselves can stand against the devil and his demons. Ea re called to defend truth as God’s truth and we are to do it God’s way. The reason it is becoming so hard for many Christians to hold a conservative and fundamental view of Scripture is because of Satan’s attack on God’s truth. We must not allow truthful witness to be destroyed by personal struggles for personal power; rather we are to stand strong against Satan defending God’s Truth and His Life.
If we can help you answer your spiritual questions call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:58 — 42.1MB) Subscribe: 2 Cor. 12:7-10
We invite you to join us on Sunday mornings at 9:30 for worship. This is the concluding message in this series on being strong in God’s mighty power. It is my prayer that you have learned that to be strong in God’s mighty power you must submit completely to God. James 4:7-10 and 1 Peter 5:6, 7 teach us that same principle. Only when we submit and put ourselves under God’s power does His power work in us. All God’s heroes of faith were so mighty because they let God work through them in HIS power, never theirs. Today we are considering
- GOD’S POWER IN HIS DISCIPLES. Someone has said, “the messenger of a man is as the man himself.” Read 2 Cor. 5:16-21. As Christ’s ambassadors we are in Christ’s place, as His representatives to a lost and dying world, here and now. As His disciples, His power is in us, but only activated when we are submitted to Him. Our personal faith and trust in the Person and nature of God is what gives us the ability to surrender totally to Him. In Luke 24:36-49 the “power from on high” is the Holy Spirit. In Rom. 15:17-19 Paul teaches that Christ is present in The Holy Spirit and demonstrates Himself as the power of God. It is amazing that when we submit to God He instantly activates all His power enabling us to do exactly what He desires. Now consider
- GOD’S POWER IN HIS CHURCH. Read 1 Cor. 2:1-5; then Eph. 4:11-16. We must understand that God’s focus is on His Kingdom and His Church. God saves us as individuals, but no Christian is an island to themselves. Hebrews 10:25 warns us that the closer the Rapture gets the more we need the fellowship and support of true believers. The power of Christ to His Church is the power to protect and preserve. Read 1 Peter 1:5 and see that Christians are shielded by the power of God to salvation. In Eph. 1:15-23 we read Paul’s prayer for the community power of God operating in our lives. Col. 1:9-14 teaches us that knowledge of God brings the power of God to live the Christian life. Finally,
- GOD’S POWER IN HUMAN WEAKNESS. Read Ro. 1:1-4 and 2Cor. 13:1-4. Did you ever wonder why some Christians seem to have more of God’s power than others? At first glance the death of Jesus might indicate that He was weak and powerless even though He was God in the flesh. Then the resurrection became historic reality and the power of God is realized in victory and triumph over evil and fleshly weakness. In Phil 4:13 we are taught the key to allowing God’s mighty power to operate through us. Connect to that 2Cor. 12:9-10 and the picture is there. It is God doing the work through us, not us doing what we think ought to be done. We must become totally “weak” or surrendered to God not wanting any part of “self” to win. If we ever say or think “I won that one” we are exalting self over God. Our thoughts and heart desires must be that GOD wins. The reality must be “God won that one through me, I did nothing.” One of Paul’s greatest assets to his success as a Christian was his constant struggle to overcome self (and he did), all the while letting God be his strength. The weaker Paul (self) became, the more of God’s mighty power he saw and felt in his life. God could do things through Paul, Paul could never do in his own strength. The wonderful thing is, all that same principle is true for you, Christian. The same power of God is available to you, if you get “you” out of the way and give God total freedom to work HIS way in your life.
If we can help you with this or any other spiritual matter, call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:13 — 46.0MB) Subscribe: Exodus 20:8-11
You are invited to worship with us on Sunday morning at 9:30. On this communion Sunday we are going to look at God’s design for worship. If we combined all the OT feasts, sacred days, sacrifices, offerings, and special events in Israel’s life, we would see that God planned those events every month for the specific purpose of causing the people to worship. God Himself set the standard for worship when He wrote the Ten Commandments. Remember, the simplest definition of worship is giving honor to God. When that honor is given to any created thing it then becomes idolatry. As we remember the great price paid for our salvation let’s examine three truths in God’s design for worship.
- WORSHIP IS TO REMEMBER. In verse eight God begins “Remember the Sabbath.” Then He immediately tells us how to remember it – by “keeping it holy.” Holy means “set apart specifically for God; separated from the commonplace.” The Sabbath (our Sunday) is different than the other six days. It is the Lord’s Day and it belongs to Him. Notice in verse 11 God made the Sabbath holy. If you read Ex. 31:12-17 you will see that God made people holy. We are to keep the Sabbath holy, not make it holy. God made the Sabbath holy when He set it apart for Himself. He made us holy when He redeemed us and set us apart for Himself. Whenever God makes something holy then shares it with us, it becomes our responsibility to kept it holy, sanctified, set apart, and dedicated to God. The first truth in God’s design for worship is that the Sabbath is to be a reminder that God has set us apart from the commonplace which makes us holy to Him and for Him.
- WORSHIP IS A RESPONSIBILITY! Read Ex. 31:12-18. It is important to notice the solemn charge from God that the Tabernacle is to be built exactly as He directs. One might get the idea God didn’t want the people to separate the Tabernacle and worship. Ever wonder if verse 13 is a command to worship? Notice also how personal God makes the Sabbath by calling it His Sabbath. Notice also that God’s Sabbath is a sign that we may know God is LORD. The operative word there is “KNOW!” God is not speaking about head knowledge, He is speaking about heart knowledge. The second truth in God’s design for worship is that the Sabbath is a responsibility to God because He has set it and us apart from the commonplace, which makes us holy for Him and to Him.
- WORSHIP IS A REUNION! Read Lev. 23:1-3. Then read Eph. 4:1-6. People often say, “If I miss Sunday worship service, my week just isn’t the same.” A large part of that is because part of worship is fellowship as a family or The Body of Christ. Did you notice all the “one’s” in that Eph. passage? That is the unity of the Body and a unity the unsaved can’t know. The focal point of Sunday morning worship is not fellowship, although that is good and necessary. The focal point is a personal reunion with God our Father. Our purpose is to praise, honor, adore, and thank Him for all He has done for us in the past week. It is also a time of letting God refortify us for the coming week of battle with the Devil. The third truth in God’s plan for worship is that the Sabbath is a reunion of God’s people to fellowship and worship apart from the commonplace which makes us holy to God and for God.
If we can help you with answers to your spiritual questions or concerns call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (45.6MB) Subscribe:
Matthew 22:23-33
You are invited to worship with us on Sunday mornings at 9:30. We think you will be blessed and we know you will hear the Truth being preached and taught. We are continuing our study in Eph. 6:10 concerning the Christian’s responsibility to “Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power.” If someone asked you if you desire with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength that God’s might power work in your daily life – you would probably answer “yes!” If that same question were asked of God, would HE see in your heart the answer “yes?” Far too often the real answer for Christians is “no” I don’t want God’s mighty power at work in me because I would have to change or give up too many things. There are no Biblical reasons a Christian should ever refuse God’s mighty power at work in their lives. Let’s look at some of the real reasons Christians say “no” to God:
- CHRISTIANS DON’T KNOW THE SCRIPTURES. Our focal passage deals with this truth. All the excuses people use for not knowing Scripture are the result of one heart problem – no desire! The only real reason a person would not want to know the Scriptures is because they are not redeemed, saved, an adopted child of God. If a person is truly redeemed, they are indwelt with the Holy Spirit and His desire is to lead us into all truth by helping us both desire and understand Scripture. Read John 16:13 and 17:17. A Christian who doesn’t desire to know Scripture is to resist/grieve the Holy Spirit who wants to teach you to be strong in the Lord. Such a person is also clearly disobeying God’s Law. There are hundreds of verses that tell us to know the Scriptures. Two of the most direct are Joshua 1:8 and 2 Timothy 2:15. When we begin to allow God to lead us into the truth of His Word, we begin to feel that mighty power at work in us.
- PEOPLE DON’T LIKE CHANGE! Read 2Cor. 5:17; Rom. 12:1-2; Eph. 4:20-24. These give you the idea! Change is so hard for us because to change as God requires we must admit that our way is wrong. We just don’t like to say that, do we? Relinquishing self control is probably the hardest thing we must do when we become God’s children. Satan works on us very hard to keep us from giving up self. Once again, resisting change is resisting the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit prompts us to change and we know it is the right thing to do, but we fight change really hard. James says that is sin.
- GOD’S PEOPLE NO LONGER FEAR HIM! This is the saddest truth of all. All these other reasons are by-products or outward expressions of what is really in our heart. The point here is not to show others we fear God, but to show GOD we fear Him. Read Ex.14:31 and Joshua 4:19-24 to see our fear is in the light of God’s power, not His Person! 2Chron. 19:48 teaches three sins we commit when we pretend to be outwardly strong, but are inwardly weak. Read John 4:48 then 2:11. This is “seeing faith” based on what has happened. God asks us to have heart faith, which is based on what God will do even if we don’t see it. Giving up self is not a snap-of-the-finger- event! It is a long, hard process that Satan hates as much as losing a soul to salvation. As long as he can keep a person wrapped in self he can keep that person from experiencing the liberating power of God that fills a heart with true joy and all the fruits of the Spirit. Every Christian must decide how much they want to experience the mighty power of God, then they must give God all of their “self” so He can replace it with Himself!
If we can help you in this or any other spiritual matter, please call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:41 — 43.7MB) Subscribe:
This week, we invited missionary Jon Sharp to our pulpit. He gave us this sermon on Psalm 27 as well as sharing his vision for the people of Chile.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:51 — 46.6MB) Subscribe: John 17:9-24
You are invited to join us for our worship service at 9:30 on Sunday morning. We are continuing our study of the command in Eph. 6:10 to “be strong in the Lord and His mighty power.” Have you ever thought how many times God tells Christians to be something? I think someone once said there are more than 20 “Be” verses in the NT alone. In some ways it is a reminder of how detail oriented God is concerning our lives. Do you ever think, if God is the Source of all power, how come He seems to share so little of it with me? Or, why is it I seem to have such a hard time “being” what God wants me to be? Or do you think, I try, I work really hard on being, but it seems the harder I work the less I do, or learn, or accomplish? Even though I want to be strong – I want to be what God wants me to be – but somehow I’m not seeing it work for me like it seems to for others. Any of that sound like you? Jesus prays for the success of all “those who the Father gives Him.” The key is for us to put our emphasis on the right thing. Notice first
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- JESUS’ REQUEST TO THE FATHER. Read John 17:9-12. Here is the biblical record of the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer mistakenly called the Lord’s prayer in Matt. 6 is really a model for prayer Jesus provided for all His disciples. The first key to a life that “works” is a life characterized by prayer. I don’t mean a quick, memorized prayer at mealtime or a plea for help in a crisis. A life characterized by prayer is a life that begins, thrives all day, and ends in sincere prayer from your heart to God’s. It’s the kind of life Jesus demonstrated while He was on earth. In my study and prep for this message I discovered one writer’s outline that revealed five truths about the mighty power of God in a Christian’s life.
ONE, it is exclusive. (17:9). God’s power isn’t arbitrarily given to everyone who says they believe in God, or even says they are a Christian. God’s power is an exclusive reward to those who are genuine children of God. Those whose salvation had caused dramatic, radical change in their daily life from the heart outward.
TWO, it is protective (11, 15). Notice that the protection is provided by the power of the Name! The power of the name provides the protection from evil. Jesus isn’t praying that Christians memory of sin be erased making us puppets. Jesus is asking God The Father to keep us from the dominion of sin so we don’t perish.
THREE, Jesus prays that our joy will be full and complete (13). Jesus didn’t pray for happiness, He prayed for joy. Joy is in a person’s heart because they know they are right with God.
FOUR, Jesus prays for our purity and sanctification (17). All anyone has to do is read this verse to see that sanctification comes from the Word of God. All we have to do is follow it and sanctification follows! In general your attitude toward your attitude toward sanctification.
FIVE, watch carefully reading verses 20-23. Some might say this is the focus of the prayer. Jesus prays that believers be united or made one with The Father. Read Romans 6 and see that Christians are placed in Christ, in God, and They are in us because of our salvation.
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- THE FATHER’S RESPONSE TO HIS SON! Read Eph. 1:11-13 to see that God answered Christ’s requests in this prayer. God and God alone is the source of His mighty power and we must acquiesce to Him if we are to receive the benefits and experience the effect of His power in us.
If we can further help you understand this or answer any other spiritual question call us at (574) 643-9419.
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