Paul
Praise To The Lord
Our God Is Greater (Water You turned into wine)
How Great Thou Art coda
Heather
Mercy’s Village sign-up sheet going around, sponsor a child
The pot luck November 18th
Online sign-ups
Men’s Olympics next Sunday
Danny Ray at youth ministry this Friday
Pizza at six, show at seven
Middle/high school, but elementary appropriate
Paul
Disappearing Mercy’s Village sign-up sheet
Great I Am (I wanna be close, close to Your side)
All I Need Is You (Left my fear by the side of the road)
Came To My Rescue (Falling on my knees in worship I called, You answered)
Jon
Philippians 1:9-11
Grace and Peace to you
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11 ESV)
I had the pleasure of working on these verses with a friend of mine over a couple of phone calls
This is my prayer
Agape – God love, selfless, pursues, sacrificial
Perissos – grow, increase, with no limit, no end, no bounds
I’m acknowledging what I’m already seeing in you and praying for God to make that increase, that beautiful, good, thing, to pray for more of that
Looking at our community, I see the agape love in relationships, and this week I’ve been praying for an increase of that love
What if we out that in to practice and started to pray for other people that perissos would occur and overflow us
Certain attributes of God are communicable
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22, 23 ESV)
If you were to look at an acorn, inside of it is everything for an oak tree
Inside this tiny seed is this majestic manifestation
These fruits have to be caught, they don’t just happen, God doesn’t sprinkle fairy dust on us and we’re patient
…
Epignosis – knowing through experience
May your agape love perissos grow without end in epignosis knowledge deep down inside my very being
Moral transformation – get really good, really nice
Gospel transformation of our hearts
I don’t just want it conceptually, I want it deep within my being
My friend has this great analogy with Guitar Hero
You can know about the guitar (Guitar Hero) or you can know the guitar (1987 Guild Starfire 3)
People look at me and say, “you’re great at guitar, you must be great at guitar hero”
This little plastic ukulele toy doesn’t do it for me, I want the real thing, the strings, the chords, the intricacies
Aisthesis – insight, becoming keenly aware of the consequences of your actions
It’s when things get really hot and you have to make a game time decision and the pressure is on, when it really matters
Does the love you know about become your reality
And your actions are affected by the knowledge of love that you have
You can tell me all about these things conceptually, if you haven’t epignosis, you don’t really know it
It’s just who I am
That’s a copout
Not if these things are true when we say yes to Jesus Christ
Let the majesty of God wash over us
This agape love cost something of God
Sacrifice
When you meditate on the gift of Jesus Christ
You begin to not just know, but KNOW the love of Jesus Christ
How could I ever judge another human being or judge myself superior when that cost was given to me free
May your agape kind of love perossis in epignosis and aisthesis
I don’t want to give to that person right in this moment
1 Corinthians
Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love
So that we can stand pure and blameless on the day of Christ
My friend says the day of Christ is when all the lights get turned on
May you experience the love and the grace of God so that you may know what to do when the heat is on, when the lights go on
We’re going to come to the table and partake of the blood and the body
Allow this free gift of God given at no cost to you
When you’re ready come forth and partake
Paul
How Deep The Father's Love For Us
Nothing But The Blood (What can wash away my sin?)