New Beginnings Christian Center: May 2009

This came to me by email this week, by Steve Goodier
WEALTH OF WISDOM
One man said, “I had a brain scan and was told not worry --there was nothing there!” Which is all right because some of my best ideas over the years have come from others, anyway. And I have discovered that wisdom can be found in most any place and from most any person -- even the youngest of us.
It was a child who passed on this morsel: “If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.” It is wisdom borne of hard experience.
Yet another child teaches us that “the best place to be when you are sad is in Grandma's lap.”
Adults, too, have wisdom to share. One parent observed that “the best way to keep kids at home is to make the home a pleasant place to be...and let the air out of their car tires.”
Wisdom can also be found among the youngest of us. And the most elderly will share it too, if we listen. I am related by marriage to a woman who is 103 years old. During her 100th year, “Aunt Pearl” was asked to speak to a group of high school students. She offered a century of wisdom in a few short sentences: “Enrich your life by becoming a better person, a better student and an individual worthy of trust and faithful in your commitments. Aspire to help and not hinder in all your good and worthy undertakings. Use these words often: 'thank you,' 'please,' 'I'm sorry.' After living 100 years, I admonish you to think deeply, speak gently, work hard, give freely, pay promptly, pray earnestly and be kind.”Wisdom doesn't come much better than that.

Today I’m continuing a new VISION sermon series…Let's DREAM AGAIN Church!
Please visit the Vision Bulletin Board in the foyer…
The LORD stopped whispering and MEGAPHONED me some clear marching orders…

I truly believe God is giving us A NEW NAME!
No matter Where You’ve been
No Matter What You’ve done
You can begin again
NEW BEGINNINGS CHRISTIAN CENTER of the Assemblies of God is now our legal name on file with the sec. of state’s office…
I feel it is important to send a clear msg to our community and within these walls that the Assembly of God in Rogue River is a place of NEW BEGINNINGS in Jesus…
And we chose Christian Center because we wish People to understand that we are Christians before we are a denomination...
Methods change But the Message remains the same
Ministries Begin and End But The Church will Never die
Matthew 16:18…Jesus said… I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.
Philippians 3… 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Last week Missionary Ryan Thomas was used of the Lord to cast the vision of NBCC being a culture of Mission...
The very heartbeat of our God is Missions!
go into all the world baptizing in the name of the Father, son and Holy Spirit
Across the street and around the world
acts 1:8...but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth…

Today we get to talk about creating a culture of LOVE...
I have opened many of our services with reading 1 Cor. 13
without love we are nothing...
It’s all about Love, loving God, loving people
Let’s go to Matthew 22 again…
Your Bible can be summed up with one word: LOVE!

This week I felt a little nostalgic and went thru my computer sermon files…
I have obviously preached many times on the subject of LOVE…
I found some pieces of past sermons I'm dying to share again...

This excerpt is from a sermon I preached on love in a series on the fruit of the Spirit back in July 2004…
There is an old poem that tells the story of a woman who was walking through a meadow. As she strolled along meditating on nature, she came upon a field of golden pumpkins. In the corner of the field stood a majestic oak tree. The woman, weary, sat down under the oak and began to muse about the strange twists in nature. Tiny acorns hung in huge branches and huge pumpkins sat on tiny vines. She though, “God blundered with creation! He should have put the small acorns on the tiny vines and the large pumpkins on the huge branches.” Resting beneath the tree, she drifted off to sleep. She was awakened by a tiny acorn bouncing off her nose. Chuckling to herself, she amended her previous thought, “Just goes to show that God knew best all along!”
Rest in the wisdom of God my friends...
He knows exactly what to do, how to do it, and when it should be done!
We sometimes drive ourselves crazy thinking about the fruit around us…
I know I’ve been doing that ever since I came back to RR…
But, God knows what He’s doing among us!
I trust him to save souls, to baptize with His Precious Spirit, to deliver and heal!
(to work with all things, even failures: present and past, to create good)
So many times we look at a ministry or any activity and see things in black and white or tunnel vision! (scales on our eyes)
I’ve noticed this among us.
We cannot measure what God is doing!
We cannot just go back to what is familiar or rely upon what has always been done.
We need to be able to say I don’t Know, I don’t have it all figured out…
(for this is the very heartbeat of the gospel, letting go of pride)
Especially if we’re going to make a difference in today’s world; people don’t go for fake or surface things anymore…
I feel like the unsaved are just waiting for someone to give a rip and then not give up…
Until the world sees the fruit of the Spirit vibrating from the church they are going to continue to believe it’s all irrelevant stuff…
(These words were spoken several years ago, yet apply so much to today.)

Here’s another excerpt from a sermon I did on love in a series entitled Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness back in September of 2006…
Thomas Kempis said blessed is he who appreciates what it is to love Jesus and who despises himself for the sake of Jesus. Give up all other love for His, since He wishes to be loved alone above all things. Affection for creatures is deceitful and inconsistent, but the love of Jesus is true and enduring. He who clings to a creature will fall with its frailty, but he who gives himself to Jesus will ever be strengthened. Love Him, then; keep Him as a friend. He will not leave you as others do, or let you suffer lasting death. Sometime, whether you will or not, you will have to part with everything. Cling, therefore, to Jesus in life and death; trust yourself to the glory of Him who alone can help you when all others fail. Your Beloved is such that He will not accept what belongs to another – He wants your heart for Himself alone, to be enthroned therein as King in His own right. If you but knew how to free yourself entirely from all creatures, Jesus would gladly dwell within you. You will find, apart from Him, that nearly all the trust you place in men is a total loss. You will quickly be deceived if you look only to the outward appearance of men, and you will often be disappointed if you seek comfort and gain in them. If, however, you seek Jesus in all things, you will surely find Him. Likewise, if you seek yourself, you will find yourself – to your ruin. For the man who does not seek Jesus does himself much greater harm than the whole world and all his enemies could ever do.
Do you love Jesus above all things?

I hope you don’t mind my traveling thru memory lane a little…this excerpt is from the very first sermon series I preached as your pastor entitled: Our Mission, back in March 2004…
Indulge me one more time to share a little more life-altering truth: The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less. We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often! We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life; we’ve added years, but not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet our new neighbor. We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space; we’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice. We have higher incomes, but lower morals; we’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality. These are the times of tall men, and short character; steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition. These are the days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom; a time when you can choose to make a difference or just exist!
Can you believe that that was written by a teenager who survived the Columbine shooting?
It makes me wanna jump up and do something for God…
(Isn't it interesting, how many of these issues have been addressed with our poor economy...I read an article this week that pointed out all the good that comes from a bad economy...)

this excerpt is from a sermon I preached not long ago entitled LOVE GENEROUSLY it was last June the month we traveled to Ethiopia and got our angel…
I could preach on love every Sunday until Jesus comes back and never scratch the surface...
But today I want to focus on the ABC’s of loving generously…
Beginning with A...you are Adopted...
I know you may be surprised by this…But ADOPTION has been ringing in my ears lately…
God has such amazing generous love for all of mankind that he has made a way for us to no longer wander this earth as orphans
You belong in the family of God
John 14:18…Jesus Promised…I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you…
James 1:27…Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world…
Romans 8:15…For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “ABBA, FATHER.”
(I'm crying out to Daddy Jesus)
GLORY
Romans 8:23…Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body…
wow I don’t want to take to much license on the application of this scripture… But I also know the groaning of adoption here on earth
Ofcourse this is speaking of when God signs our final adoption papers and we enter eternity in heaven...
Blessed be the Redeemer!
No more orphans, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb…purchased for salvation!

Let me close with one last excerpt from my sermon series entitled Live Simply Love Generously Care Deeply Speak Kindly and Leave the rest to God…
TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING THROUGH THE DESERT DURING SOME POINT OF THE JOURNEY, THEY HAD AN ARGUMENT; AND ONE FRIEND SLAPPED THE OTHER ONE IN THE FACE. THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED WAS HURT, BUT WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING, WROTE IN THE SAND:
TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE. THEY KEPT ON WALKING, UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS, WHERE THEY DECIDED TO TAKE A BATH THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE MIRE AND STARTED DROWNING, BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM. AFTER HE RECOVERED FROM THE NEAR DROWNING, HE WROTE ON A STONE:
'TODAY MY BEST FRIENDSAVED MY LIFE.' THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND ASKED HIM, 'AFTER I HURT YOU, YOU WROTE IN THE SAND AND NOW,YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?' THE FRIEND REPLIED 'WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN IN SAND, WHERE WINDS OF FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY. BUT, WHEN SOMEONE DOES SOMETHING GOOD FOR US, WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN STONE WHERE NO WIND CAN EVER ERASE IT.'
LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

Hear it again and for the first time…
No Matter Where you’ve been
No Matter what you’ve done
You can begin again
in LOVE
Come to Jesus