Shannon preached at the Pioneer Hall in Dupree today as part of the Community Service for Pioneer Days. He spoke the importance of being in a community of Believers.

I. We all see God.

“But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
 “Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
 “Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the Lord has done this,
 In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind?" Job 12:7-10

When you watch a sunset you know God exists.  Every newborn has God's fingerprints. New Birth is a miracle in all its forms.

"The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Day to day pours forth speech,
And night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
Their voice is not heard.
 Their [a]line has gone out through all the earth,
And their utterances to the end of the world.
In them He has placed a tent for the sun," Psalm 19:1-4

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

II. We have faith He will keep working. This isn't an easy place to live. We have faith it will be green again in the spring even when it is a drought right now.

III. The Creator wants you.

He wants a personal relationship with you as an individual. 

"For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:40

There's not a single person God doesn't want.

 "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 5:8

We're not good enough. We can't fix it by ourselves. He loves us anyway. You were born ready to accept God. You were born with a need for Jesus Christ. Accept Him now. 

The only thing that keeps us from God is our own stubbornness. He did everything He needed to do so we could be with Him. We need more God and less religion. We let religion get in the way of relationship. The most necessary part is relationship with Christ. There is no way to the Father except through Christ. We have to go through Jesus. 


1. Recognize God as God.
2. Recognize you as you. 
3. Ask Him to enter life. 

The most important communities are based on relationships. 

There is a legacy of faith in each of us (or we wouldn't be here). There's a need for revival. 
​


Footnotes:

Notes found below Youtube link. Some notes are left out due to Jane taking Hawk to restroom!!

Mark 6:7-13: "7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them."

We're called to be soldiers. This was the first time he sent them out alone.

Just take the minimum. No extra baggage. 

What do we need materially before we work for the gospel? 

Do we need a big church?

Do we need a degree?

No and no. We need nothing to proclaim the gospel. 

Luke 22:35:

35 Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”
“Nothing,” they answered.

They were sent out with nothing and in the end they lacked nothing.

Do you remember when I sent you out with nothing?

#1 Be single-minded. Don't get distracted by stuff.

#2 Don't waste your time with people who want to argue, who don't want to believe.

#3 Be kind.

#4 Repentance is absolutely necessary.

If you don't need Jesus, Jesus doesn't need you. If you don't ask for help, He won't help.

Repent and be baptised. Repent -- admit you're a sinner and then turn to Jesus. Acknowledge who we are and who He is. Turn to Him.  

Without repentance there is no salvation. That is the message.

In the 1620s pilgrims came over and had the Mayflower compact. It talked about the grace and provision of God. Religious freedom.

Then the colonies went their own way.

1720s something happened -- the great awakening. Sinners in the hands of an angry God.

1770s -- the children of the Great Awakening wrote The Declaration of Independence.

Founding Fathers started us off on the right foot. Acknowledged the Creator, gift of Creator. Repentance and need for Consistent Faith.

It was a powerful time.

We are desperately in need of a great awakening right now in our country.  We had a temporary awakening Sept 11, 2001 but we didn't stay there. 

Oftentimes there was a great loss of life before repentance.  I hope we dont' get the wrath of God to bring us to repentance. 

If God takes His hand off our country we would feel the wrath of the world. 

We Christians need to preach and pray. If we the church aren't affecting our country, what good are we?  Are we soldiers refusing to go to battle?

Stolen Valor.

Let's not be stolen valor christians.  Am I wrapping myself up in Christian culture but never really doing anything?

Jesus gave us the battle plan. It's called the Great Commission.

Soldiers don't get asked if they want to go to battle. When they sign up,that's their time to be asked. after that they just do it. That was their one time, their "once" to be asked.  If you are a Christian, that was your once -- Now you're expected to do the job. Repentane is needed. 

We need to keep active. 

There's no apology for God's morality. It is the right thing. 

Ezekiel called bread the staff of life.

The U.S. population spent 23.6 billion dollars on bread in 2016. 

50% of Americans eat a sandwich daily.

Genesis 3:19a "By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread."

That is the first time bread is mentioned in the Bible.

Jesus and the 40 days in the desert.

Bread and Water -- prison food.

Daily bread.

Parable about "even the dogs eat the crumbs off the children's table."

Tradition tells us they'd save the crust of the bread to wipe their fingers on and give these scraps to the dogs.

Offerings.

Wave Offering -- bread they made from the first grain from the harvest.

Abigail -- gave a huge offering of bread (and other things) to David to cover her husband's guilt.

Luke 9:10-17. 

They had a little bit, but when it was broken and shared it fed everyone. And there were tons of leftovers.

The more you give away, the more comes back.

The more our gifts will expand.

Just do it. Don't worry -- just do it.

John 6:26-40. Jesus calls Himself the "bread of life."

You should be hungry for the Word of God.

Walk by faith means stepping out. Step off that ledge. The disciples delivered the bread and fish.

Matthew 26:26 Jesus is the bread.

breaking of bread means sharing.

Acts 2:46. Continued to break bread together.

1 Corinthians 10:17, "Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread."

To put it together, we all need to be actively involved.

(Notes from today's sermon taken by Jane)

Work the prayer muscle.

Prayer should always come first. 

He was preparing himself for a crisis. It has to become a habit.

When apostles asked how to pray Jesus gave them this:

Matthew 6:9-13.

Little bit of a change means we need to make some adjustments.

Go to God confidently.

Hebrews 4:16.

If you can't think of what to pray, sing. Hymns (and choruses) can open up our hearts to God.

"I need you, Oh I need you. Every hour I need you."

Come to Him.
 
You don't need to "fix" yuorself before you come to God. Prayer changes everything within us. Prayer doesn't change God. He is always the same. We're in a different place when (and after) we pray.

Ephesians 6:18

We have no idea how many things haven't happened becaues of prayer (for good and bad). 

Can we sense God? If we know Him we can learn how to sense Him continually.

James 4:14-15

1 John 5:14-15

Confidence comes from consistency.

Following are the notes I took from today's sermon. Wow -- it is worth listening to. It is very challenging personally and socially.

Text taken from Revelation 2:1-7.  Walking in this means "actively walking for a purpose" or patrolling. Jesus is patrolling His churches (Rev 2:1).

Ephesus was a successful church. It was about 40 years old at the time of this letter. Many had been involved in it: Paul, Timothy, Apollos, Aquila and Priscilla. It was one of the churches doing it right. Every letter starts with what the church is doing right.

1. Labor to the point of weariness.
2. Perserverance -- ability to carry on.

Apostles in this passage means missionaries. The church at Ephesus was good at discerning right from wrong. The church held to right from wrong.

"Yet, I hold this against you." Rev. 2:4

"You have left your first love."

Meaning you have divorced your first love. Without love, the rest of it means nothing.

You're consistent. The reason you do things went from a desire, a burning passion for Christ was replaced with obligation -- this is a red flag for us to do something.

Are we like Ephesus?

Have we lost our passion, our love?

"Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first"
Rev 3:5a

You gotta come back -- you can do it right. Love, love, love, love. If we've gotten too busy doing other stuff -- without love it's all worthless. God's a jealous God. He doesn't want anyone to slip away.

Christ never abandons us. Never. You know right from wrong. Great. So now, come back. That child-like faith. Repent -- turn back to God. Remember from where we came from.

1. Spend more time in worship, praising God. It is one of the first things to go when our faith goes stale.
We cannot add to the time we have here on earth. We can add to the quality of our time. If I don't make an effort I will only remember the negative. We need to see God at work.

2. We need to surround ourselves with others who are passionate about Jesus. We are here to support each other. We need this connection. We need each other. We're here to help each other get recharged. We need to guard that first love. He should feel us holding onto Him.

Imagine what Father wants from us -- Hold my hand. Jesus said we have to have the faith of a child. Let's reset ourselves. 

Jude 17-25

"Keep yourselves in the love of God" (21)

build "yourselves up on your most holy faith" (20)

When people look at me, do they know I love Jesus? We have to have that first love in our lives.

I'll get the notes up later. Until then here is the sermon from yesterday:

Somehow I forgot! I forgot the take the recorder this morning so I really tried to take good notes (except for the time I had to take Hawken out of the sanctuary and when I absolutely had to go get a cup of coffee). 

It was a great sermon, I mean really great. I wish you could have been there! But I hope you can find some inspiration in these notes. See below:

Businesses will do inventory after the first of the y ear so they can make necessary changes. Today is one day closer to our death, one day closer to Jesus' return; one day closer to standing before God's judgment seat.

Look back at what has happened this year and ask yourself these questions.

1. Have I gotten closer to God? We have to be seeking God. We have to read His word.

2. How was your prayer life in 2016?

3. What's your relationship with your brothers and sisters in Christ? Especially those in your local church body?

4. What's your relationship with with people who aren't part of the Church? Those who need Jesus Christ? Those who God brings into your life?

"You are the salt of the earth" Matthew 5:13a

We should be letting the light shine. 

When people need light, they should know where they can go to get some light.

How can we be better, brighter bolder? Be honest. This is the time to examine ourselves (not condemn ourselves -- find the places where we can improve).

Philippians 3:13-14

Evaluate.

But don't beat yourself up.

Be approachable.

How long will I give it a try? Am I going to persevere?

You're either growing or dying.

Work hard. Work at it. If there's something we can't do we learn how. We work at it. Today is now. What can we do? What can we learn to do better?

What we should do this year:

1. Grow in the Word. 
2 Timothy 3:14-17
We need to be well-equipped workers. Ask God to show you something in the Word today. We must read our Bible daily.

2. Pray. Ask yourself, how would you teach someone to pray? Show them. Do it. To get better at prayer just do it.

3. We must try to get closer to our brothers and sisters in Christ. This takes us to be honest and vulnerable and humble. We need to be engaged. We need to open up to each other. Pray for those you see who are having a bad day.

4. Sharing the gospel with people. How do you share anything with anyone? I gotta open up and expose my heart? What does it take for you to share your heart? You gotta trust a person. They won't bear their need for Christ to you unless they trust you and believe you care about them.

"I don't care what it looks like. I don't care what you think"  (Jesus to those who criticized him)

I know they need Jesus so I have to build relationships with people who don't know Jesus. It's not an accident who you live next to; who you see every day. It's God saying, "Here you go! Here's your opportunity."

Ask yourself:

Where do I need to grow?

Who can I talk to? Who can I open up to? 

​Let 2016 be a year of conquest!