Finally...

I know it has been awhile but if you have read the last few posts you will know that we are working on our kitchen. I would like to be able to tell everyone that it is finished but it isn't. We are still working on it and I will not post any more pictures until it is finished. But I couldn't let another week go by without my sermon summary.
So this is actually from 2 weeks ago when Pastor Powell preached. I will summarize this weeks farther down in my blog so this may be a bit long.
So last weeks sermon was on the "Sixth Toe". SEE PICTURE.

His sermon started out with a story about dating someone until you find out that they have a sixth toe even though they are a great person you just can't live with them having a sixth toe. He said it is a lot like this with the church...we date the church and when we find the sixth toe we leave even though we love everything else about the church. He said there are three things that people who are dating the church see the church to be.

1. What they will get...socially what can this church offer me.
2. They are attending because that is what "Christians" are supposed to do but they are never committed.
3. They are very critical...finding the best product for the cheapest price...as long as they don't have to change anything they love this church.

Eph 5:25 says

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her"

We are to marry the church...not just date it. Not just the universal church but a local church. We need to find a local church and commit to it, marry it and not look for the sixth toe.
He used 1 John 1:5-10 as a reference for our commitment to be like Christ who loved the church. It reads

5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all^[a] sin.

8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

He also used this verse:

1 John 2:9-10

9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him^[a] to make him stumble.

We need to love our church with the following:

Passion, Priority, Philanthropy, and Promote.

We need to have a passion about our church and the direction that it is heading.
We need to make it a priority to come to church and not let other things in our life come in the way. He used Philanthropy (mainly to keep with the letter P, it is a pastor thing)...but as defined on dictionary.com "Philanthropy is the act of donating money, goods, time, or effort to support a charitable cause, usually over an extended period of time and in regard to a defined objective." and finally promote...tell other about your church. Do something...not just mortar and bricks but as the body of Christ...reach out. Read Romans 12...it has become for me my mission on where I want to be as a servant of Christ.

I know I said I would blog about this weeks sermon but it will have to wait, I am tired and I don't want to mess it up. Sorry Mark...you will get your sermon summarized tomorrow or Saturday or...