Earlier this year, we spent time in a series entitled, “Red Letters:  The teachings of Jesus”.  In that we took a look at Jesus teachings through the first 6 chapters of the Gospel of Mark.  This summer, we will be looking into the second part of this series.  We are asking the church to journey and read along with us through out the summer.  Each week on facebook we will give you the focal text so you and your family can read it together before hand.  We’ll look forward to seeing you on Sundays this summer.

Identity series starts January 2nd

2010 is coming to a close and 2011 is right around the corner.  A new year tends to bring resolutions, changes, or maybe trying to make good on the changes you were supposed to make last year.  Losing the extra pounds, managing your money better, reading your Bible more, all different types of things seem to attract our attention, at least for a little bit.

At FBCER, while it may be a new year, we want to have the same focus;  exalting our savior, making disciples of Jesus, and reaching our lost world with the power of His gospel.  If I am being honest, we may have lost our focus at times this last year, and my desire is for us to to refocus our full effort on being the church God has called us to be in 2011.

I am challenging you to make God and his church your top priority in 2011.  Be faithful to worshipping Him, becoming a deeper disciple, growing in Biblical community with other believers, serving by using your gifts, and becoming missional in the world around us.  These will be our focus this year and our foucs every year, please join me.

We will start a new sermon series in January entitled Identity:  Who we are and what we’re about.  We will be reminded about our direction and mission as a church and will focus on these 5 core areas:  Truth, Worship, Community, Service, & Missional Living.  Let’s commit to making Christ the greatest desire in our lives.

For His glory and your joy,

Charlie

As we have journeyed through the first chapter of Philippians, we have learned that we can find joy in the midst of all circumstances.  Whether life is easy or difficult, we can rest assured that our joy is sustainable if it is rooted in Christ who never changes.  There are 2 truths we have studied thorughout this chapter that we can cling to which result in our joy.

#1 God is working all things out for the good of the believer.  As we follow Christ we can rest assured that he is using all things for our good.  This is whay Paul writes in Romans 8:28-29 when he tells us that God is working all things out for the good of those who love Hiim and that He is using it to conform us to the image of His son.  So we see that in every event in life, God is using it for our good as he molds us and shapes us to be more like Christ.  We call this progressive sanctification.  This is why we can have joy in the midst of all of life because God is working it out for our maturity and betterment.

#2 For His Glory.  Bigger than our good though is the truth that all things are for the glory of God.  As believers this should be the greatest source of our joy, because it is the purpose of our creation.  We can have joy, because our desire and life should be about God being glorified, even if it means difficulty for us.  That is why Paul wrote that he wanted God to be honored in his body whether by life or by death (Philippians 1:19-20). Life will not always be easy but we find joy by living for him and honoring him with our lives.

I am praying for us as a church that we would find our joy in Him and that we would be willing to experience and endure whatever is necessary to bring him glory.

On some level we are all looking for happiness in life.  We keep looking for that one thing that will make life complete and will bring true fullfillment to our lives.  The house, the car, the husband or the wife, fill in the blank, we are looking for it.  The problem is while these things can bring momentary happiness, they cannot sustain it.

Part of the problem is while happiness is based on circumstances and things, it cannot be maintained, but joy on the other hand is sustainable in the midst of circumstances.  How?  Through the book of Philippians we will study how we can have true joy in our life through Christ.  13 times in the 4 chapters of Philippians Paul uses the word joy.  51 times in 104 verses he references Christ. He does this becuase he understood that our joy is found ultimately in Christ.

Join us every Sunday this summer (and probably longer) as we study through the book of Philippians and discover how we can find sustaining joy in Christ.

Marriage, What the Point?

Love? Fullfillment? Romance? Children? Are these things the purpose and reason behind marriage, or is there a something greater that God is showing us?

In this weeks message, we will address the question of Marriage,What’s the point?  We will explore God’s purpose and reason behind your marriage and what you need to do in response to it.  If you missed last the couple of messages in the series you can find the sermon audio along with the study guides under the resources tabs.