Grace Bible Church Georgetown, Tx

The sacrifice of Jesus that calls us out of the world and into His kingdom is at conflict with things here, so there can be struggle and suffering as we live in Him. Paul addresses the problems we all face and how God can take those and work miracles. In 2 Corinthians, we will see this transforming work of Jesus Christ turning the trials of life into our spiritual triumphs.

When you think of the book of Job, what is your first thought? “Poor old Job.” “Glad I’m not Job.” Have there ever been people who you know of, that you are so glad your life is not like theirs? Job would probably be one of those. Let’s get a feel for the story in this first chapter.

Have you ever reached a point in your life where you simply have had enough and said “I have to change?” Now is the time.

Jesus wants to roll away the stone of deception and say to you – “Don’t be afraid. Come and see what is true about this thing in your life.” I can’t tell you how many times in my life, something I thought was the worst was revealed later to be some of the very things God used most to bring joy to my life. God is in the business of resurrecting that which is dead.

Isaiah 55:8–9 says: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. Have you ever had situations in your life that made these verses explicitly clear to you? It could be a diagnosis that seems catastrophic only to see years later how God used it for good. It could have been an expected layoff that you thought was the end of the world only to see God launch you into a new career that would have never happened otherwise. Each of us could tell our stories of how God took what we thought was an impossible situation and brought good from it. God’s ways are higher than our ways.

We are in a series of messages leading up to Resurrection Sunday called Resurrection, Past, Present and Future. We are looking at people in scripture that had a resurrection within their lives. A few weeks ago we looked at Bartimaeus, the blind beggar that Jesus transformed restoring his sight and forgiving his sin. Today we are looking at a story Jesus told to a group of people gathered to hear Him speak. The crowd included both the Pharisees and a bunch of sinners including the tax collectors. Jesus looked at both of these lost groups of people and told them three stories, one about a lost sheep, the one about a lost coin and the third about a lost son, the story of the Prodigal Son. It’s a story with three actors – a Father, who represents God. The older brother that represents the Pharisees in the crowd and the younger brother representing the lost sinners in His crowd. Today, our focus is squarely on the younger son, the prodigal. This is a familiar story to many and as a Christian, you may quickly decid

Eugene Sologubenco is visiting from the country of Moldova and was speaking this Sunday.

When we think about resurrection, the only thing that can be resurrected is something that has died. You can’t resurrect a living thing. As we go through this series, we want to look at different people before, during and after the resurrection of life took place in them. What was their condition before Christ, how they were changed by Christ and how this change was expressed? We all have a story of God’s grace. Our first person is Bartimaeus, the blind beggar that Jesus healed on the road near Jericho.

We are in a series of messages about the vision of our church here at Grace Bible Church. Three words we use here to express that vision is Worship, Connect, and Serve. Worship is our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It is expressed in a transformed life lived in a constant moment by moment dependence upon Jesus Christ because He is our life, our power, our living hope. Connect is the love we have for each other. The church is not a well-oiled ministry producing machine, but a group of people connected in loving relationships and committed to the spiritual growth of each member. So, we love God in Worship, love each other in Connect and now we look at how we love people in our community by being Servants. If we are going to turn the tide of the culture, the church will have to deepen it’s conviction to love; to love God unashamedly; to love each other unconditionally; and to love our world the way our Lord loves our world.

We are in a series of message about the vision of our church and today our focus is community. The word we use is connect. We believe that people are the most spiritually alive when they are connected to the body of Christ. We believe that every person has been created with a need for acceptance and belonging. And the church is not to be so much a well-oiled machine turning out excellent ministries, but a family of people who genuinely care about each other from youngest to oldest.

Worship is a word used a lot in the church world. So much so, that is has come to mean many different things. Some think of Sunday morning singing as worship. Some think of prayer when they think of worship. Some think of a worship service. Sometimes we even use the word worship romantically when we say things like “he worships the ground she walks on.” Dictionary.com defines worship as “reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.” Sometimes when a word becomes so widely used, it ceases to have real meaning. It becomes somewhat generic, casual, ordinary. However, biblically speaking worship is anything but generic, casual or ordinary.

We are going to spend four Sundays looking at vision; vision of the church. Vision of this church. We have not been able to choose the time in which we were born. We have been placed in this culture at this time and just like the saints of the ages, our generation will be remembered for something. What will be written of us when we’re gone? Will future generations look back at our lives and ask, did they have the vision to understand the times in which they lived, to carry the light of the gospel, to restore the culture or did they just mop up messes without going to the source of the problem.

As death by execution stands at Paul’s prison door waiting to drag him to the executioner wielding a freshly sharpened axe, Paul scratches out his final instructive words to Timothy. Preach the Word before it’s too late as men begin turning their ears away from the truth and turn to lies and the corruption of the Gospel Truth.

What is your spiritual bandwidth? Is it a spotty connection? Something that happens every now and then? Or is your connection to God intentional and growing? Peter reminds us that because of our intimacy with God, that we should be mindful of growing certain qualities in our character. Lacking these qualities is evidence of having a bad connection to God. A bad connection leads to a spiritual blindness. When you’re blind, you tend to stumble or bump into things that cause pain. A bad connection to the Lord also leads to a flippant attitude toward all the forgiveness we have from the Cross. When we fail to see how much we’ve been forgiven, it makes it that much harder to forgive others. But when our connection is strong and these qualities are evident. Then when can become useful and productive workers of God’s Kingdom.  This means we need the right tools for the job. We need those qualities. But we don’t receive them from self-effort. We intentionally pursue those qualities, BUT we allow God to grow them.

Annual Report to the Church.

How would you describe 2017? For some, it may be something like “I’m sure glad it’s over” or maybe “it was the best year of my life.” For many is was probably just taken in stride with some setbacks and some victories but nothing extreme. Let me ask this – looking back over 2017, no matter what it was like, can you be thankful? Can you be thankful for the blessings? Can you be thankful for the trials? Can you be thankful for the gains and the losses? Can you be thankful?

It’s so fascinating how God uses very real, human things to show how He does things. He chooses the peasant town of Nazareth to be the home of the new King. He chose the little town of Bethlehem, the stable, the manger, the shepherds. He wants us to know that His kingdom will not be built on human power and authority. In fact, He demonstrates a total lack of that to show the power of His kingdom. Those who want to be great in his kingdom will learn to be the servant of all. Those who want to know true life in his kingdom will be required to lose their life. Those who want to enter His kingdom will do so with the attitude of a child.

As we look at the Christmas story, one of the repeating themes is worship as God reveals Himself. Through the Christmas story we see over and over what’s important to God. He chooses young peasants from the little village of Nazareth to be the parents. He makes sure there is no place for them to stay in Bethlehem so they would end up in the humblest of places for the birth, the stable. The first announcement of the birth is by a chorus of angels to Shepherds, the poorest of the poor. The advent of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is God pulling back the curtain so we can see His heart; His love; and His universal invitation to come to Him; to see the world through His eyes. He is revealing His glory and the response is one of worship.

Today is our last look at the book of Nehemiah. It has been an incredible journey for me. The book is a must for all leaders. But it goes far beyond. Throughout the book the character of Nehemiah continues to dominate the story line. He was a man who had made a choice somewhere along His path that he would live for his God. He would not make compromises with people for the sake of convenience if it violated God’s ways. He didn’t much care if people liked him; he was going to follow God.