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Seeing Clearly: Celebrating Missions (I Thess 1:2-10; Acts 1:8) ------------------------------------------- In recent weeks, we’ve been reminded about our corporate vision and our core values (transformation, community, character, interdependence, and surrender). This week, we learned about our mission, which is to make disciples. To engage in global missions, we should pray, support by sending money and people, and should GO. When preparing to be a missionary, we should walk with God, already be a missionary where we are today, and we should understand the people and culture where we are going. Application points: Lets’ send shockwaves of faith as far as we can. -- Seek the Kingdom first. Let our love for and desire to lead others to Christ show in every interaction. Invite people to take another step toward life. -- Be a missionary here, there, and everywhere. Learn about global kingdom work, and then find our way to participate.

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Join us for Wednesday Church tonight - fellowship and coffee at 6:30, worship and small group Bible study at 7! College and 20-something small group kicks off tonight as well; hope to see you there!

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Seeing Clearly: Celebrating Values (Acts 4:32-37) ------------------------------------------- The world tries daily to convince us to waste our time and our lives on things that don’t matter. But we should not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by God as He renews our minds (Ro 12: 1-2). The core values of COMMUNITY and SURRENDER overlap with each other. SURRENDER is about our life with God. God delights in us. Our day-to-day experience should be about being a living sacrifice. All that we are and all that we have belongs to Him. Every one of God’s family is a saint and set apart (holy) for Him. Our worship is not only about music. It is about loving our spouse, training our children, praying for leaders, sharing God with people who don’t know Him. We should do all for the glory of God. It’s about surrender. There is no problem that God cannot resolve. It is all about what His will is for our good. When we live surrendered to God, our lives will change and get a lot easier. We shouldn’t waste energy fighting for our rights. COMMUNITY is about our life together with each other and with God. We share tears, laughter, meals, -- we share LIFE. If God tells us to do something, we can’t afford NOT to do it. With boldness, we need to understand who we are in Jesus. We’re surrendering. Application points: -- Make Jesus’ resurrection a part of your default thinking. Build your biblical worldview! Every interaction, every decision should be made based on this. -- Be honest. Assess yourself and see if you are struggling with fully surrendering to God. Be surrendered right now. -- Enter into life together. Get in a group. Make the most of relationship-building opportunities. Let God use you to meet needs.

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Seeing Clearly: Celebrating Values (2 Corinthians 5: 11- 6:4a) ------------------------------------------- Our personal values (even if we are not sure what they are) direct what we do. We also have corporate values. We need to believe and trust God, and because relationships can be difficult when our values are not aligned, we need to grow into our corporate values. Our church is full of people who are in the process of changing and becoming more like Jesus. It is about the heart. Let’s let our love of Jesus propel us to do things outside of our comfort zone. Christ died for all. God did the greatest thing imaginable and more than half the world doesn’t know about it, and He chooses US to tell them about it. We each have roles and parts to play. A look at some of our core values: ------------------------------------------------ TRANSFORMATION is to awaken people by boldly sharing God’s love (Acts 1:8). We are ambassadors for Christ, and we do this by the power that He gives to us. CHARACTER is becoming the people that God designed us to be (Eph 4:13). Christ is our measure., INTERDEPENDENCE is strengthening one another through God’s empowerment (John 5:5). We are in this together and are servants of God. Application points: -- Pray and discipline yourself to see people with spiritual eyes, not just physical qualities -- Live compelled by Christ’s love. Live righteously, and speak the gospel when you can. -- Hang around to learn and engage in the ministries of Celebration.

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Ministry Fair today right after service! Your strategy: come, visit all the booths, then visit the ones with candy and goodies again...

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Wednesday church kicks off again tonight! Come at 6:30 for fellowship and coffee, and we'll start worship and our small group study at 7! Excited to see you all there!!

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Seeing Clearly: Celebrating Vision (Eph 1: 15 – 23) ------------------------------------------- We should dare to have big dreams for our life with God. We should live by faith and join in where God is already moving. Our focus should be on the Great Commission and Great Commandment. We should commit our activities to the Lord (Prov 16: 1-3; 16: 19), and pray that God gets the glory and that His kingdom is advanced. We have revised our Celebration Vision statement to be: Celebration is a growing family of Bible-based, God-empowered Christ-followers, making disciples who think and live Christianly; permeating and igniting our community with God’s love, to become a bold, unstoppable force! Let us ask God to give us wisdom and increase our knowledge of Him. We can learn to have a Godly mentality so that our minds are transformed and we see the world how God sees it. In this desperate, dark, and helpless word, our only hope is Jesus Christ. God, Who is always with us, gives us His power so that we can boldly proclaim Him (Matt 28: 18-20). We are the light of the world, and God is on His throne. What would happen if we dare to believe God for what we may become!! Application points: -- Pray to see as God sees. -- Remind yourself of God’s power in a personal way. -- Live your faith in power and hope. -- Don’t hide who you are. -- Pray for this church to become what God wants us to be. -- Discipline yourself to grow in the mind of Christ. We have been discipled in the ways of the world and need to let God remove what doesn’t belong.

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HABITS WORTH HAVING – Study (Ps 119:89-112) ----------------------------------------------- The Bible is all about God showing us how to live a life of joy and fulfillment. He made us. He loves us, and He knows us better than we know ourselves. Jesus is the only one who satisfies our need for love, peace, and purpose. The average American owns 3 Bibles, yet has very little knowledge of what the Bible actually says. Most people’s idea of God is way off. To correct that, people of God need to read His Word! The Bible teaches us what’s right and what’s not. It teaches us how to get right with God and how to live right. We need to engage in God’s Word to satisfy our soul. Join us in More to the Core – 2015: The year of the Bible. Learn to read, study, and meditate. And learn what motivates you to change when you engage in the Bible. LifeWay research says that the following leads to Bible engagement: 1. Confessing sins and wrongdoings to God and ask for forgiveness. 2. Following Jesus for years. 3. Being willing to obey God no matter how costly the decision. 4. Praying for spiritual status of unbelievers. 5. Reading a book about increasing your spiritual growth (excluding the Bible). 6. Being discipled or mentored one-on-one by a more spiritually mature Christian. 7. Memorizing Bible verses. 8. Attending small classes or groups for adults focused on Bible study.

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HABITS WORTH HAVING – Frugality ----------------------------------------------- Frugality does not mean that we need to take a vow of poverty. It is the spiritual discipline of abstaining from using our money/goods in ways that merely gratify our desires or our hunger for status, glamour, or luxury. It’s about God’s perspective. We try to fill a void that only God can fill, but anything else is NEVER enough. We so often think that we are self-sufficient. Yes, God blesses some with wealth, but He also gives them a heart of giving. With all of our resources (time, talents, abilities), we should ask ourselves. “What would God have me do with this?” If we don’t have a mind and heart for God because we are so full of other stuff, we are missing out. We should not horde, but be generous. Consider how much we really need. What is our attitude and focus? Do we have a grateful heart? Do we live by faith? Do we trust God? It is all about our attitude. To be rich toward God is to be obedient, and truly knowing God for Who He is.

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HABITS WORTH HAVING – Prayer (Phil 4:6; I Thess 5:17) ----------------------------------------------- Prayer is the environment that God uses to change us. Rather than worry about things, we should take all things to God (Phil 4:6). We live in an illusion of control, but are overwhelmed because we won’t do the basics of what God tells us to do. The One who can do all things is ready to help us, but He does not force Himself into it. We have to be ready to let go of things. Prayer should be a way of life. Prayer before God means to be honest, honestly change, and it should be continuous. Through prayer, we boldly approach God that we may receive mercy and grace. We need to remember that we are ALWAYS in His presence, even between individual prayers. We live in the presence of God Who loves us and wants to hear from us. Conversation should be constant and about everything in our life. We will transform and will become God’s force in the world. He draws our minds to Him and transforms our ways to His. We need to learn to desire Him above everything else. Prayer is not about getting God on our page, it is about getting us on His. We still should have concentrated prayer in addition to the ongoing conversation with Him. Application points: --Seek God’s face, not just His hand. Prayer is about knowing God; being bent to Him, not bending Him to you. -- Never hang up on God. Keep your eyes and ears open, and your heart surrendered. Confession and worship are constant. Keep your hands extended to receive whatever God gives. -- Come with confidence; cast your cares with confidence; find yourself changed. -- Pray about everyone and everything. Learn the art of intercession to experience the joy of genuine love and invite divine power to any problem. Prayer is powerful and effective, whether the results are obvious or not.