How To Become A Faithful Man Thursday Night Men’s Group

Ordinary men become faithful men when they understand and succeed in 7 vital areas of life. We invite all men hungry for God, freedom, and success in life. This group is led by Randy Bell.
NEW SUNDAY SERVE TEAM MEETING

Serve Team Training Meeting – Sunday, January 4th at 12:30 pm
Are you interested in making a difference and serving at our church? Join us for our New Serve Team Training Meeting on Sunday, January 4th at 12:30 PM! This is right after our Teaching & Fellowship gathering at 11:00 am. Whether you’re already a team member or looking to get plugged in, this is a great opportunity to learn more about our team, connect with others, and get equipped to serve. We’ll cover better communication, specific setup needs, completing tear down and putting things back to where they really belong. We hope to give you everything you need to know to get started and answer any questions you may have.
We can’t wait to see how God will use you to bless others! Mark your calendar and join us in the Worship Center. For more information, contact the church office or speak with a ministry leader.
“NO MORE EXCUSES” MEN’S GROUP BIBLE STUDY BEGINS MONDAY JAN 27 @ 7 PM

Ladies Group On Break And Begins Again In January. Watch For Update Soon!

DEC 02 Two Marys, Jesus mom and a good friend!
DEC 16 Christmas Potluck, gifts, and short Bible Study
JAN 2025 Restart – update coming soon!
STAND FIRM: December Kingdom Men’s Monday Night Group At 7 PM

DEC 02 BE ON GUARD
DEC 16 STAND FIRM IN THE FAITH
DEC 23 BE COURAGEOUS
DEC 30 BE STRONG
Kingdom Disciple Groups Begins July 29! Register Now!
There’s a missing key in Christianity today. It’s a critical one, and its absence has led to weak believers, ineffective churches, and a decaying culture. That missing key is discipleship. Kingdom Disciples calls believers and churches back to our primary responsibility: to be and make disciples. Only when we take this assignment seriously will the world see heaven at work on earth.
Will You Answer the Call of Discipleship?
Discipleship begins when someone’s commitment to God begins to spill into all areas of their lives.
Welcome to your journey to becoming a full-fledged disciple of our King. Kingdom disciples are in short supply these days. The result has been a bevy of powerless Christians who attend powerless churches that embody a powerless presence in the world.
Until we return to lives of discipleship, we’ll continue to fail in our calling to live as heaven’s representatives on earth. This is because the power, authority, abundance, victory, and impact promised in God’s Word to His people is ours only when we align ourselves under Him as His disciples. Until then we can anticipate that chaos and crisis will continue to reign supreme in spite of all the Christian activities we engage in, Christian books we read, Christian songs we sing, and small groups we join.
Discipleship is a very personal decision. It starts when a person commits himself or herself to God as His follower and allows the results of that commitment to overflow into everything else in life.
Surrender to Christ’s lordship and obedience to His rule of love unlock God’s power to bring heaven to bear on earth. A kingdom disciple lives out this divine power and influence. I define kingdom disciple this way: A believer in Christ who takes part in the spiritual-developmental process of progressively learning to live all of life under the lordship of Jesus.
The goal of kingdom disciples is to live transformed lives that transfer the values of the kingdom of God to earth so that they replicate themselves in the lives of others. The result of such replication is God’s exercising His rule and His authority from heaven to history through His kingdom disciples.
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 28:18-19.
The word translated as authority in the English version of this verse essentially means “power, right, liberty, jurisdiction, and strength.” Strong’s Concordance reveals that this term denotes “power of choice” or “doing as one pleases,” even “the power of judicial decisions.”1 When Jesus said all authority was His in heaven and on earth, He was saying that He possesses the legal right to use that power.
Power without authority matters little. Take, for example, NFL players. They’re far more powerful than the older referees officiating the game. Yet they exercise that power only under the authority of the referees. If they choose to misuse their power, a referee simply throws out a flag. If the player persists in wrongly using his power, the referee can then eject him from the game altogether.
When Jesus said all authority had been given to Him, that authority encompassed not only power but also the right to use that power as He chose.
“Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord,” Job 1:12.
Power is someone’s ability to influence another person through strength, personality, control, or deception. Authority, on the other hand, is someone’s legitimate, vested, and formal right to wield power. Enormous difference exists between the two realities, but when we fail to discern this difference, we can foolishly choose to fight power with power (rather than authority) or seek to live by our own power (rather than the authority given to us in Christ).
When Jesus was tested in the wilderness (see Matt. 4:1-11), Satan’s power was outmatched by Jesus’ authority. After being offered temptations of power and fulfillment in this world, Jesus appealed to the full, final authority He possessed as the Son of God.
In other words, Satan has been given power only on earth. Unfortunately, far too many believers seek to overcome his tactics or fight his attacks in their own power. But that will never work. That’s why we’ve been instructed never to rebuke Satan on our own and with our own skills (see Eph. 6:12-18) but rather to resist him (see Jas. 4:7) and to rebuke him only in the authority of Jesus’ name (see Zech. 3:2; Jude 9).
When you understand the importance of authority, you’ll grow as a kingdom disciple to the point that you can not only resist the devil but also call on heaven, as Jesus did, to bear in your earthly endeavors.
If you’ve never differentiated between power and authority, let that sink in. Jesus offers you complete authority in Him when you live as His disciple. Many powers are coming against you that are stronger than you could ever be on your own, but He has overcome the world (see John 16:33). Consider the comfort and peace that come from knowing you have access to the authority of the Creator of the universe. Let that reality motivate you to grow as a disciple of the King.
Excerpted from Kingdom Disciples: Heaven’s Representatives on Earth. Published by Lifeway Press®. © 2018 Tony Evans. Used by permission.
1. Strong’s G1849, Blue Letter Bible, accessed December 12, 2017, https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G1849&t=NASB.
