Isaiah 40:3-5 A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Our lives and nation are like a wilderness- a place that has not yet been cultivated; no work has been done on it yet.
God will not come to our nation or our city with His glory if we don’t do some preparation.
Isaiah 35:3-9 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come... he will come to save you.” Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy…
And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it… only the redeemed will walk there.
2 Timothy 2:20-21 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
Mark 10:21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said.
Ephesians 4:11-12 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, so that the body of Christ may be built up
God gave pastors and teachers to equip his people to do the works of ministry so that the body of Christ may be built up.
Ministry is simply serving.
We become more like Jesus when we serve.
Matthew 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Most Christians don’t realize that the heart of Jesus is a servant’s heart.
Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Luke 9:43-48 And they were all amazed at the greatness of God. While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples, "Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men." But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest."
Isaiah 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;
The theme of America is that we worship ourselves-we deserve better.
Matthew 10:24-25 "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.
"It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master.
I believe that selfishness is one of the greatest sins we face in today’s church.
Romans 8:29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son
Giving ourselves to the Lord is part of our worship to God.
Romans 12:1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
The best possible version of you is when Christ lives in you.
Maslow found that our highest need is the need for what he called transcendence, where we look beyond our needs and help others.
There are four things we do every year to make a difference in people:
1. We have two big community outreaches where we get the community to come to our church and show them the love of Jesus.
2. Secondly, we have outreaches where we touch specific needs in our community, like our XO Conference to help married couples, our fall parenting conference, and lastly, our entrepreneur conference coming up in May.
3. We also have a serve day where we go out into the community and serve our most vulnerable segments.
4. We also have serve teams that serve right here in the church.
Crazy Three Step Plan:
Step One- become like Jesus and begin serving here at WCC.
94% of all people who come to Jesus, do so when they are children.
Each person who serves here is one link in a chain that together creates an atmosphere where God can speak to people and change their lives.
I Peter 4:10 says Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms
>church app pictures from pictures from 1-12
Step Two: In two months, on April 6th, we are going to move our service times from 9 and 10:30 to 9:30 and 11:00.
Step Three: Ask for about 75 volunteers from the second service to move to the first service.
As we open up our lives to serve the Lord, we are preparing a way for Him to come and move in our church.
