Give to God Your First & Best

This week we have been looking at giving our VERY BEST to God in the use of our time, our talents and today we see how God wants us to give our best of our treasure.

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6:21 (KJV)

If you want to find out where a person's priorities lie, you can look at their credit card statement or look at their checkbook.  If your treasure is on earth, it will be revealed in your checkbook, if your treasure is in heaven, that will be revealed as well.

That’s why it’s so important.  Your heart is going to be where your treasure is.  Jesus says that our things, our finances, our possessions, how we handle them, how we manage them, how we invest them is like a magnet to our heart.  Our heart is inevitably going to be drawn in that direction.  What happens with our finances deeply impacts our hearts.  It inevitably does.  

Malachi 3:10 “Bring the full amount of your tithes to the temple… The word “tithe” literally means ten percent  I am to  take the first ten- percent of whatever God’s given to me and I give it back to Him as a way of saying I honor Him.  I put Him first in my life.

Why ten percent?  Why did God say ten percent?  I don’t know He could have said fifty percent.  He’s God and it is all His. I know this: ten percent is enough to challenge me spiritually.  I do know that ten percent is enough to say God, I’m putting You first in my finances and I’m putting You first in my life.  

Deuteronomy 14:23 says  “The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your lives.”  That’s really what the issue is here.  God doesn’t want your money.  He wants what it represents. Put Him first in our time, our talents and our treasures.

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

Saturday, November 15th 5:00pm

Great Food-Great Music-Great Fun-Great Bargains, all for the GREAT Commission.

Darell Goheen of The Hobby Shop donated a remote control Quad Copter

WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING ON DONATING?

Contact ericka@celebratejesus.org

 

Bring the kids tonight to PK & Debbie’s 2905 Indian Trail  

New small group begins this Sunday at 3pm Single & Parenting with Ken Brooks

Give of your BEST to the Master

This week we have been looking at giving our VERY BEST to God in the use of our time. Today we see how God wants us to give our best in service to Him through serving others.

“For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

We are God's masterpiece HIS very BEST work. If God considers us his masterpieces, we dare not treat ourselves or others with disrespect or as inferior work. And since we are masterpieces created in His image we too are to go about everything we do for Him with excellence. The Scriptures teach us that excellence is something that honors God.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 – “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”
Compare that with underachieving “mediocrity” of effort. That type of thinking can certainly be dangerous in a spiritual sense when someone believes,”Oh I don’t have to show up to serve today it’s just church.” Would that halfhearted commitment make it at your workplace?  Is this the kind of effort that Christ deserves?   

In Revelation 3:15-16 the risen and glorified Jesus says to the church at Laodicea,   “I know your deeds…because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
Mediocrity, half hearted effort, lukewarmness, makes Jesus want to vomit!   

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, Colossians 3:23

Since the Creation, God has given us work to do. We are to regard our work as an act of worship and service to God.

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle  

TONIGHT THURSDAY 6:30pm

Your choice of two Spiritual Growth Classes

*Bible Basics with Pastor Brant Rice

*Powerful Prayer with Pastor Kyle Ermoian

Saturday, November 15th 5:00pm

Great Food-Great Music-Great Fun-Great Bargains, all for the GREAT Commission.

Papa Murphy’s have donated Free Pizza!

WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING ON DONATING?

Contact ericka@celebratejesus.org

Bring the kids by PK & Debbie’s place 2905 Indian Trail for Halloween

New small group begins this Sunday at 3pm

Single & Parenting with Ken Brooks

Live In Light Of Eternity

Life is all about time and what you do with it. Life is a sacred trust, a gift from God that you’ve been given to be used to fulfill the purposes of God.  God has a lot to say on the topic. Yesterday we learned we should live with a sense of urgency. Today I want to focus on living for eternity.  

The Bible teaches that you had a beginning.  But really you don’t have an end.  You are immortal.  You may only live 70, 80, 90 years on this planet.    But that’s not the end of you.  Your soul is immortal.  God created you that way.  In fact, the time that you spend on the other side of death is far longer than what you’ll spend the few years here on planet earth.  

I love these words in Ecclesiastes 3:11 “God has made everything beautiful for its own time.  He has planted eternity in the human heart.  

In every man and in every woman God has planted the seed that is a reminder to us that this life is not all there is. There is an eternity with God that awaits us. And our rewards in heaven are based upon what we live for on earth. Are we living for ourselves and our personal pursuit of pleasure or are we living for the Lord and the glory of His name.

Almost five centuries ago Protestant Reformer Martin Luther said, “On my calendar there are only two days – today and that day.”  “That day” was a reference to The Judgment Seat of Christ when as a Christian Martin Luther would stand before God and give an accounting of how he had spent his life.

That day awaits us all. Live with a sense of urgency, making the most of your time and with an eye on eternity.

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

THIS THURSDAY 6:30pm

Your choice of two Spiritual Growth Classes

*Bible Basics with Pastor Brant Rice

*Powerful Prayer with Pastor Kyle Ermoian

Saturday, November 15th 5:00pm

Great Food-Great Music-Great Fun-Great Bargains, all for the GREAT Commission.

WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING ON DONATING?

Contact ericka@celebratejesus.org

Bring the kids by PK & Debbie’s place 2905 Indian Trail for Halloween

Make Each Moment Count

This week as a part of our series We Can’t Stay Here we are looking at the character value Anything Worth Doing is Worth Doing Right. Yesterday we learned that God expects and deserves nothing less than our best.

Today I want to give you one of two brief statements about how you use your time that if embraced  could radically impact how you and I would choose to live our lives in the coming year. Life is all about time and what you do with it. Life is a sacred trust, a gift from God that you’ve been given to be used to fulfill the purposes of God.  God has a lot to say on the topic.

Lord, teach us to make the most of our time so that we may grow in wisdom.” Psalm 90:12. God’s word says we are to live with a sense of urgency because life is short and we are to use the little time we have more wisely and for eternal good.

“Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  “Ephesians 5:15-16

There is a day when you will exit this world.  What you do in between those two days is the one and only life that God has given you.

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

Tuesday evening at 6:30pm in the Celebration Cafe

New Mom's & Dads....Celebrate Health presents "Baby Basics"

THIS THURSDAY 6:30pm

Your choice of two Spiritual Growth Classes

*Bible Basics with Pastor Brant Rice

*Powerful Prayer with Pastor Kyle Ermoian

Saturday, November 15th 5:00pm

Great Food-Great Music-Great Fun-Great Bargains, all for the GREAT Commission.

WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING ON DONATING?

Contact ericka@celebratejesus.org

Bring the kids by PK & Debbie’s place 2905 Indian Trail for Halloween

Anything Worth Doing is Worth Doing Right

As Celebration Community Church continues in our Vision and Values series,

WE CAN’T STAY HERE we have highlighted the significance that:  

* Saved People Serve People

* Growing People Change

This week we look at the importance of the character value Anything Worth Doing is Worth Doing Right.

Let me make this point in one sentence:

God expects and deserves nothing less than our best.

The Bible teaches that excellence in whatever we do is something that honors God.“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31

Our actions must be motivated by God's love and our response to God’s love is that all we do will be for his glory. Keep this as a guiding principle by asking, "Is this action glorifying God?" or "How can I honor God through this action?"

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO OFFERED HAPPY BIRTHDAY WISHES.

Tuesday evening at 6:30pm in the Celebration Cafe
New Mom’s & Dads…..Celebrate Health presents “Baby Basics”

THIS THURSDAY 6:30pm

Your choice of two Spiritual Growth Classes

*Bible Basics with Pastor Brant Rice

*Powerful Prayer with Pastor Kyle Ermoian

Saturday, November 15th 6:30pm

Great Food-Great Music-Great Fun-Great Bargains, all for the GREAT Commission.

WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING ON DONATING?

Contact ericka@celebratejesus.org

Bring the kids by PK & Debbie’s place 2905 Indian Trail for Halloween

Christian Unity

Unity among believers is so important that the New Testament gives more attention to the unity of the church than to either heaven or hell.  God desires us to experience oneness and harmony with each other.  

Unity is the heart of fellowship. Destroy it, and you rip the heart out of Christ’s body. Without unity there is no fellowship - and without fellowship there is no church. 

The Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is unified and God wants us to be unified too. Our Heavenly Father, like every parent, enjoys watching his children being together and getting along with each other. Jesus, in his final moments before being arrested, prayed passionately for our unity.   And the Holy Spirit is the one who unites us in love. 

Nothing is more valuable to God than his church. He paid the highest price for it, and it is worth protecting. Part of your responsibility as a believer is to protect the unity where you fellowship. " Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit  through the bond of peace." Ephesians 4:3

As believers, the Bible says we share one Lord, one body, one purpose, one Father, one Spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism, and one love.   We share the same salvation, the same life, and the same future -- factors far more important than any differences we could enumerate. We should concentrate on these things.

 "Let us concentrate on the things which make for harmony and the growth of our fellowship together."

This weekend Celebration Community Church will be hosting the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Regional Assembly-a gathering of representatives from over forty churches spread throughout Kansas. This body was instrumental in the starting of C3 over 18 years ago.

One of the mottos of Barton Stone, a founding father of this movement that was started on the American frontier in 1809 was, “Let the unity of all Christians be our polar star” I have tried to embrace that ideal since entering the ministry over 25 years ago.

An unbelieving world will know we are Christians…by the way we love one another.

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle   

Saturday, November 15th 6:30pm

Great Food-Great Music-Great Fun-Great Bargains, all for the GREAT Commission.

Kansas State Wildcats have donated a Bill Snyder autographed football.

WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING ON DONATING?

Contact ericka@celebratejesus.org