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Finding Your Place in the Church

Last night we talked about finding our place in the church. Everyone is called to find their place and use it for the building up of the church. Check this out! To do so, we can take a look at 5 things we need to evaluate to find out where we can best fit. These are:

1) Spiritual Gifting – What is your spiritual gifting? Contact the church office for a gift analysis that will help you discover where God has gifted you.

2) Temperament/Personality Type – It’s really important to know yourself. Some excellent resources have been made to help you discover these things. Check out a Meyers-Briggs test here, and the Keirsey Temperament test here. (The Keirsey test is free, but you can buy more detailed results. When finished, you’ll have an option to view the free report. It will be at the bottom of the list).

3) Natural Talents/Learned Skills – Psalm 33:3 talks about musicians needing to ‘play skillfully’ before the Lord. That requires a sharpening of natural talents. God has given everyone talents in something, and we must sharpen them to make the useful!

4) Life Experiences – What’s your story? Don’t underestimate the power of your testimony and your life experiences. Chances are your journey can help lead others. Read about Paul’s testimony.

5) Your Calling – Where do you feel God is calling you? What desires do you have in your heart? God will help lead us to our calling through everything else on this list. We must listen and answer to the call.

A King and a Kingdom

This past Sunday we talked about the ‘Kingdom’ Jesus brought. This ‘kingdom’ was mentioned over 60 times in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It was also prophesied in Old Testament. This is the very kingdom and king that we should be sharing with people. Here are some challenges we talked about.

Read Mark 4:3-9

- 3/4 will not receive the Kingdom. Don’t be discouraged by this reality.

- Two things have to happen for success: strategic placement and fertile ground. The ‘sower’ of the seed has to put the seed in the right place, and the ground has to be fertile to receive it. As a sower you should invest your time and resources into fertile ground. Otherwise you’ll toss seeds that will not grow. Preparing the ground takes work, but the harvest is worth it.

Now read these passages about the value of the Kingdom: Matthew 13:44-46, Mark 4:26-29, Matthew 6:25-33. What do they tell us about the Kingdom? And what about the authority of the King? Read Mark 4:35-5:11.

We have to remember that our first allegiance is not to anything other than the Kingdom of Christ. I shared the lyrics of this song Sunday. Listen to it, and let it encourage you.


 

A Deeper Look at Daniel

We’ve been going through the stories of the Bible, and this Sunday we came to the book of Daniel. Rather than preach the stories of Daniel, I took 3 prophecies and expounded them. Afterwards, I talked to a lot of people who were just blown away that God (through Daniel) prophesied such major events in world history.

As I said Sunday, unless the Scriptures say ‘…this is what it means…’ we can only speculate through study what the prophecies mean. In Daniel, both of those things happen! The interpretations of the 3 mentioned prophecies come from the Scriptures, world history, and theological study. I want to encourage you (if this topic interest you) to go a bit deeper by studying some really great resources.

The first was the dream/statue. Read Daniel 2. Here is a quick explanation. The emphasis of this passage is on the stone that crushed the feet of clay; that stone grew into a great nation. The stone is Christ, and the great nation is the church. A kingdom was coming that was greater than any kingdom before it – an everlasting Kingdom. Jesus said that He is the Kingdom.

The next prophecy we talked about was a prophecy on a famous Greek general, namely – Alexander the Great. Read Daniel 8. The passage speaks about Greece overtaking the Persian empire, and even speaks of Alexanders fall and his dividing the Greek empire among his four generals. You can read all about Alexander the Great here. Did you know that according to the historian Josephus, Alexander spared Jerusalem after being shown the Daniel 8 passage?

Last, we talked about the seventy weeks prophecy. Basically, God showed Daniel how long it would be before the Messiah would come into Jerusalem. This corresponds to our calendar quite beautifully. Here is a really good article explaining the seventy weeks. It’s rather long, but if you’re looking for a detailed explanation, check it out.

Hope you enjoy digging deeper into Daniel.

Pastor Dave

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