It’s surprisingly easy to feel alone, even somewhere like the church, where you’d expect to simply find a place to belong. There are three main things that we all need to do to find our place at church, or anywhere else!
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fellowship
Text to Read: Hebrews 10:19-25 NLT
Watch the whole message here:
The Main Points:
- Jesus provided the way for you to be in a close, loving relationship with God.
- You may be tempted to think, with all this access to God, you can go it alone.
- Stay with the group! Don't try to follow Jesus by yourself
- 1 Peter 5:8 - the devil is like a lion, seeking someone to devour.
- Rather than attending church on a come-and-go basis, you should strive to be connected to an authentic, godly community.
- Action Steps:
- Make church a top priority each week--Don't "squeeze it in"!
- Develop deeper relationships with Jesus and other believers by joining a Community Group.
Prefer to listen? Do so in your favourite podcast app or right here:
Men, this post is for you. Ladies, if you've got a man in your life (husband, son, brother) it's time to pass the computer/tablet/phone over to him so he can read this.
Guys, I want to talk to you about what a men's group like En|Couraged will do for you. I know we all live busy lives. We need to work to support our families, spend time with them, take care of our homes, and still have time with our hobbies. That's all great stuff to do. The problem lies in the fact that we often don't get a lot of time to gather together, just the guys, and do things together. We don't have a place to share our struggles and our victories, or where we can get prayer when we need it.
That's where a men's group is great! Let me share a little bit about En|Couraged with you. First of all, you'll notice the unnecessary punctuation separating the "en" from "couraged". This wasn't done to look cool. Rather, I wanted to highlight something important: encouraging one another is inherently manly. Literally, encouragement is instilling courage in someone else, and what is more manly than courage? And that is exactly what this group is to be: a place where we gain the courage to live life as Godly Men, fathers, husbands, and role-models. It's not just a place where we meet and eat together (though there'll be food). It's also not just a place where we will hang out--we'll do some pretty awesome stuff, but there's not much point getting together if we don't actually accomplish anything.
Literally, encouragement is instilling courage in someone else, and what is more manly than courage?
The other element to this is the subtitle: [a men's group]. This isn't going to be something where someone organizes it all and no one has any say in anything we do. That would be a MAN's group. This is a MEN's group. It belongs to all of us, so if you think something's not working or might be cool, let us know!
Finally, you may be asking if you'll actually get anything from this time investment. The short answer is "Absolutely". Something great happens when guys get together and share and learn and pray. We'll get to know one another and God a whole lot better, and I think that's something very worthwhile!
Our first meeting will be October 19 at the Pincher Creek A&W. Be there for breakfast at 8!
I'm excited for what God is going to do in the men of Abundant Springs, and for the men of our community. I'll see you on the 19th!
--Pastor Stephen Valcourt