Sunday, September 30, 2018

Ekklesia the church

Email sermons@EasTview.org
Delbert Enns
Jesus was a revolutionary upside down Matthew 16.24
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.  If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.  And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?
Matthew 16:24‭-‬26 NLT
He touched lepers. Talked to women. Tax collectors. He challenged everyone. Christians gathered in homes and studied God's word. They changed the Roman empire without a single mega church. They were fearless. Trust God not the Roman empire. 
1. Common truth Jesus is God
2. Uncommon joy
3. Fearless not passive
4. Known as people of love
5. Gave sacrificially
They brought glory to the Father because Jesus 
Acts 2.42 fellowship and teaching
By 20 years later there were 5,000
300 A.D. there were 60,000,000 Christians.
Their love for Jesus caused the church to grow. 
They had strife between the ethnic groups. 
The church has made man made boundaries. 
The world hates you if you really want to follow Jesus. 
There were lots of issues in the church. Immorality. Lazy people. 
Gnosticism was all about human knowledge. Just know more. 

Jesus asked us to live by the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote to the Roman church telling them that all have sinned. Doing good won't save you. 
Without faith it's impossible to please God. 
2 Timothy 3.2 people have the appearance of godliness. 
Are we trying to be good? Jesus you are the son of the living God. Jesus died for the church and he is the head of the church. 
Ephesians 1.15 enlightened by the hope of Jesus. All things under him. Live it out! 

Friday, September 28, 2018

Dr. Tremper Longman III

The whole Bible is God's word to us. 
Proverbs talks about wisdom. We think it teaches us how to navigate life. Emotional intelligence is more important than high IQ. READ the book of Proverbs. Ethical people are righteous. 1.3 
To be wise you need the fear of the Lord at the beginning. 
Why fear? Love? 
This fear does not make you run. It is meant to make you humble in the sight of God the Creator. 
Phil worship the Lord with fear and trembling. 
Money and generosity. 
We tend to cherry pick the proverbs for what we like. 
7 themes
1. God blesses the righteous wise with wealth
2. Foolish behavior leads to poverty. Best route defined not guaranteed
3. Wealth of fools is temporal
4. Sometimes people are poor because of injustice
5. Wisdom is better than wealth
6. Wealth has limited value. 
7. Those who are wealthy must be generous. Ps 112.5 supports that. None of us here are poor. Many of us are fabulously wealthy. 
Too much money is no good. Daily bread is all we need. Let me not be too rich or too poor. 
Hoarding money is no good. 

Give to www.Prov.ca Harvest Festival

Sunday, September 23, 2018

One88 launch

Grant Barkman chair
http://www.one88.org

Listen without judgement. Stay relevant work with other agencies to provide a safe living room. Welcome the people with bondage and help them. 

Dave Fulawka who's coming alongside?  Independent and interdependence. Find a sweet spot for ministry and stay there to be successful. Continue to donate. 
Gerald Dyck MBCMB C2C this is a unique church. Available and obedient to help people on the margins. We should all be like that. 

Dave Ens
The church is a sending body. Moving sending going reconciling.
Matthew 28 assumes you are going and proclaiming. Moving. Leaving behind. 

The Lord said go for blessings. Even when not all the pieces are in place. God will help us even through the fear we have. 

Jonah 1.1,3 he fled from God. But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord . He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.
Jonah 1:3 NLT
The call makes you more complete if you follow it. There's a call to move. It's hard to untangle ourselves. 
Too often we tell people but we don't go with them. We sit in one place. We don't know what it means to follow Jesus. We see it modeled by the people who come from Eastview. 
Tuesday lunch and learn makes a real difference to these people. 
Commissioning. Read:

Lord's Supper we are one in Christ 

Sunday, September 09, 2018

Ekklesia // Church

In 1978 we decided to hitchhike to Thompson and made 50 phone calls to find someone that would take us in for the night. They ended up in the Loyal Church of Thompson where they served wine for lunch. 

What is church? Video Pastoral malpractice. Francis Chan
What if we all pull out a piece of paper and wrote down what the church should be. 

Ekklesia what does it mean? The gathering of those who serve the Lord. Tyndale lost his life over that translation. 

What is the function? We do what we do because of habit? 

The church is not about one person the pastor prefect not the only place to hear from God. 

1 Peter

In the same way that nursing infants cry for milk, you must intensely crave the pure spiritual milk of God's Word . For this "milk" will cause you to grow into maturity, fully nourished and strong for life— especially now that you have had a taste of the goodness of the Lord Jehovah and have experienced his kindness. So keep coming to him who is the Living Stone—though he was rejected and discarded by men but chosen by God and is priceless in God's sight. Come and be his "living stones" who are continually being assembled into a sanctuary for God. For now you serve as holy priests, offering up spiritual sacrifices that he readily accepts through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:2‭-‬5 TPT

https://bible.com/bible/1849/1pe.2.2-5.TPT

Matthew 16.18 the church should prevail. What do you say? Peter said you are the Christ the Son of the living God. 

Go to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit. Then you'll become witnesses. In Jerusalem https://youtu.be/bgQ2wiTefmQ

By the 3rd century you needed to punish yourself when you sinned. Middle age you paid for forgiveness. 

The last 800 years we have seen reforms reforms but still have problems.

What are we called to be. To bring greater glory.

If someone asked you who is Jesus? What would you say? 

Isolated stones do not make a building. 

But you are God's chosen treasure—priests who are kings, a spiritual "nation" set apart as God's devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience his marvelous light, and now he claims you as his very own. He did this so that you would broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world .

1 Peter 2:9 TPT https://bible.com/bible/1849/1pe.2.9.TPT

Jesus is Lord of all. 

We exist to spread the passion for the supremacy of God. John Piper

Sunday, September 02, 2018

Encouragement in tough times

Rock of Ages Cleft for Me was a favorite song of Queen Victoria and her prince. 

Michelle Redekopp Olympian and radio personality. Special music. 

You were the Word at the beginning. What a beautiful Name it is the name of Jesus Christ my King. 

  • There You Are
  • Carolyn Arends
  • Play the Carolyn Arends Quiz
    on Melody Facts

    I was hoping You would write to me a message in the stars
    As if the stars themselves were not enough
    And I awaited Your arrival here from some place very far
    As if I couldn't feel Your constant touch
    Why did I think that You'd send thunder
    To wake me from my slumber
    When anytime I open up my eyes

    There You are loving me like crazy
    There You are, I am unaware
    There You are when my heart is doubting
    Even there You are

    Well, I was wishing for a miracle and waiting for a sign
    As if each breath I take is not a gift
    And I was acting just as if the way You gave your life for mine
    Didn't have my foolish heart convinced
    What did I think could 'cause this hunger
    Did I ever stop to wonder
    Why anytime I open my eyes

    There You are loving me like crazy
    There You are, I am unaware
    There You are when my heart is doubting
    Even there

    There You are loving me like crazy
    There You are, I am unaware
    There You are when my heart is doubting
    Even there You are

    I was hoping You would write to me a message in the stars
    As if the stars themselves were not enough              
  • Written by Carolyn Arends 
 
Welcome to the long weekend service. This is the final weekend for many of you. 30 congregations represented here. 

Michelle
You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
You say I am held when I am falling short
When I don't belong, oh You say I am Yours
And I believe, oh I believe
What You say of me
I believe

Pastoral prayer

Acts 18
After this Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth.  There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to depart from Rome. Paul approached them, and because he worked at the same trade, he stayed with them and worked with them (for they were tentmakers by trade).  He addressed both Jews and Greeks in the synagogue every Sabbath, attempting to persuade them.
Acts 18:1‭-‬4 NET

Encouragement in tough times
2 boys wanted to shovel a driveway because the owner had started and they got most of their business from people that were worn out and ready to quit. 
Paul was ready to quit. This was the most corrupt city. There were 1000 temple prostitutes.  Having sex with them was part of worship. Lots of perversion. homosexuals

The Lord said to Paul by a vision in the night, "Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent, because I am with you, and no one will assault you to harm you, because I have many people in this city." So he stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Acts 18:9‭-‬11 NET

Now a days 11m$ is being spent on pornography every hour. Our society is so like the Corinthians. No morality. 

God said don't be discouraged. Even when he was by himself. He tried teaching the Jews but they rejected him. He slammed the door because he was tired. So he went to the gentiles.
He was often homeless. He worked to support himself when necessary. 

The city was discouraging
The church was discouraging. He wrote 29 chapters to help and rebuke them about immorality and greed. 
The amazing thing is that a church that gets messy still learns to serve the Lord. 
Since Constantine the church has been the foundation of society. In the last generation our society is falling apart. But the gospel can still change hearts. 
Do not be afraid. "Because I have many people in this city."

Duet 
You are Lord of All