It’s our One Church Service. Everyone is invited to our 8:30 am worship service at the KB Pavilion. TBH, this is my favorite Sunday of the year because we are all worshiping together in one place and time.
We are expecting many first-time guests at church this week because you have invited your friends and family to join us. Let’s all be especially aware of our guests to make them feel welcome and valued.
Its Coats for the City Collection Day! Bring your new or gently used winter coats to service and we will get them to NYC in time for winter.
The new principal of Carolina Beach Elementary School, Mrs. Angel will be joining us Sunday and I have asked her to share a few words of greetings with our congregation. We value our local school and the partnership we share with them in our community.
The new Music Teacher at CBES is a gifted soloist and she will be sharing a special piece during the service.
We will end the service with the celebration of communion as a recognition of the One Body of Christ.
After service, stick around for a donut, something to drink and some fellowship.
My message this Sunday will be simply titled “Hope Happens Here!” This is the start to a month-long emphasis of the same title. Many people deal with despair in life because they feel lonely and isolated. The message of the Gospel is God loves them so much He sent Jesus to meet their deepest needs for time and eternity. That Is the greatest hope anyone can have. And that Hope Happens Here – God has placed His church in the culture to be a beacon of Hope for a lost and dying world. You can be a messenger of Hope by inviting someone with you to church this Sunday. Plan to join us this Sunday and invite your neighbors to come with you.
It’s Fall Y’All – 4:00 pm – 6:30 pm at our church campus. Come meet your neighbors and enjoy your community.
In the ancient world most cities had walls. Walls set the boundaries of the city as well as provided protection from any threat that would want to cause harm to the city. Together with the walls of the city would be gates in strategic locations around the wall. The gates allowed people to move in and out of the city, to interact with people outside of the city as well as the exchange of goods and services into and out of the city. The walls and gates of an ancient city provided the structure for a society to exist and even flourish.
By the time the book of Nehemiah takes place, two efforts have been made to reinstate a Jewish society in the city of Jerusalem; one to rebuild the walls and another to rebuild the temple so worship could take place. In the first chapter, Nehemiah receives the bad news that the walls and gates have not been fully repaired and as a result the people were under constant threats from enemies. Threats from outside the city and threats from within by their own people. Furthermore, worship was not happening at the temple because all their energy had to be spent on just survival. Nehemiah wept and grieved when he heard this news.
In the United States we don’t live in walled cities but there are definite boundaries to society that are necessary for our communities for people to thrive and flourish. It is undeniable that our society is facing serious threats to our flourishing. External threats from other nations and ideologies around our globe as well as internal threats from the abandonment of God’s Word as the foundation for our rule of law. The fact that our nation is facing a health crisis due to loneliness and isolation is a serious indicator that our society is in trouble. The walls and gates of our society are broken and in bad need of repair.
God called Nehemiah to rebuild the walls and rehang the gates of Jerusalem. Under God’s guidance and provision, Nehemiah led the people of Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls in just 52 days. God is calling His church to rebuild the walls of our communities with the relevant application of God’s Word. We live lives to glorify God and serve other people. My message is titled “Building Community” from the first few chapters of Nehemiah. The strength of a society is not found in the chambers of our elected officials, but instead, strength comes when we love God and love our neighbors we share a community with. Nehemiah is an inspiration of how God can change a society when His people obey Him. It will be interesting to see what God will do in our community as we express our love for God by loving our neighbors. Join us on this last Sunday before “Hope Happens Here” kicks off and be inspired to be used by God to love and bless your neighbors.
The Tims and I are back on US soil after an amazing 10 days of ministry with our partners abroad. This Sunday we will share a brief report about our time away and have a time later this month where we will share in greater detail.
This Sunday we continue to prepare for our October Campaign – Hope Happens Here! We live in a time and in a place where people are struggling with the effects of loneliness and isolation. I believe the Church has the best answer to the problem: the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Each Sunday during the month of October I intend to preach messages of HOPE that will point people to Jesus as the object of our hope. A hope they can embrace to find the cure for our sin problem which is what lies at the root of society’s loneliness problem. This is where you come in!
Two Sundays ago I preached a message on various ways you can share your faith with unsaved and unchurched people. I made a card available for you to start praying for people you have regular contact with so you can first be a neighbor to them, then invite them to something at our church during October. This Sunday I am preaching a message titled “Operation Andrew.” This is not the title of a covert operation I am leading. I am not the Andrew: it is the Apostle Andrew in the New Testament. The Apostle Andrew is known as the disciple that brought people to meet Jesus. Will you be like Andrew and bring people to meet Jesus? It might be someone who will fully surrender to Christ and allow God to do amazing things through them. Sunday we will provide you with cards you can use to invite the people you have been praying for to help make it easier for you to invite them to meet Jesus at our Church. I will also be sharing the story of how God changed my family forever in 1947 when my father was invited to a revival service. Join me this Sunday as we look at how a simple invitation can have world changing results for the kingdom of God.
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