• If you are here seeking God’s truth and will for your life today–WELCOME!
• If you are here and are confused–WELCOME!
  • If you are here today trying to discover what God thinks of your behaviors, beliefs and habits–WELCOME!
  • If you are here today trying to discover what all these other people think of your behaviors, beliefs and habits–WELCOME! 

• Now then, all the welcoming done–thank you for coming. Should you choose to come again the welcome remains. 

• Please know, there are those among us here today that hide prejudice in their heart. They want you to look and act like their preference. Secretly, they are not welcoming you, even though you may see them smile. They are in every church and Civic organization at some level.You must look and work beyond them. We all do. In time, God will change their behavior and beliefs to suit Himself, just as He will yours and mine. Many times, these people discover that they were not Christians at all–merely onlookers who joined the church as they would a civic or social club. They can cause a lot of disruption and embarrassment for the church. They do not represent Christ or His church, though they most often act as if they do. They feel it their job to do God’s job. They want to fix and change you and me to their specifications. This is sad but true–another symptom of how we are fallen and sinful people in need of God’s grace and forgiveness.
• “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
• Yes, there are lost people in the church. Yes, there are immature Christians in the church. The bible calls them babies-still in need of a spiritual bottle.
• “My friends, you are acting like the people of this world. That’s why I could not speak to you as spiritual people. You are like babies as far as your faith in Christ is concerned.” I Corinthians 3:1
• Should you desire to join this church we ask you to search your heart and discover if you have first joined with Christ as His disciple–one who seeks to follow, love and obey His teachings. We all must. Joining with Christ in repentance and salvation is prerequisite to joining a local church body like ours. Please speak with our Minister (s) to learn more about biblical salvation–how one is “born again” into God’s family. Read John chapter 3 on your own.
• Should you desire to teach or lead in this church, we ask you to search your heart to see if you have matured in your faith, understood the gift of teaching and experienced submission to Jesus Christ and His Word in all areas that are important and necessary to Him. This includes loving Him and others. This includes obedience, calling and discipline to the Word of God as truth for His people and His church–all for a period in which the Elders of the church, along with the congregation affirm your calling and role as teacher/leader.
• All of us are welcome to the White House, but not all prepare food for the president. Not all get to work on the engines of Air Force One or enter the oval office uninvited. God has built in the same safety measures for His church. The bible says it this way, “My friends, we should not all try to become teachers. In fact, teachers will be judged more strictly than others.” James 3:1
• All Elders/Pastors and Deacons all have very specific qualifications. It is never the tolerant, compassionate, inclusive thing to gloss over these requirements and prerequisites to leadership within a New Testament Church.
• Here they are” I Timothy 3:1-13  

“It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, (Bishop-Elder-Pastor-Overseer-Presbytery) it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.  And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued, or addicted to much wine or fond of sordid gain, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. These men must also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things. Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.”

• GOD IS INTOLERANT WHEN HE CONDEMNS SIN. God is loving and protective all the while He is intolerant of destructive sin in the Christians life.

• While God loves us just the way we are, He has no intention of leaving us there. This church, if we are to be the church, will expect you to grow, learn and conform to His image, not the world and its passing deception. Don’t be surprised when your love and obedience for Christ and your devotion to growing in your faith by obedience to His word changes how you think, act and believe. We all grow this way. This is called sanctification. It is the progressive, beautiful experience of becoming more like Jesus and it will be with us until our earthly life shall end.

For example, if the bible calls adultery a sin, and it does, we can be certain that those of us who want to play with unfaithfulness to our spouse as if God won’t mind will discover yet another truth. If I gossip without repentance or confession of this sin, AND pretend to lead other people, I missed the mark and will soon learn how God disciplines those whom He loves.

It is common for those who are not Christians to ignore, deny and rebel against the truth of scripture. This is just natural, for the natural man (lost-people of the world) has no desire for the things of God until he / she meets Christ in a redemptive moment. Being saved is coming in faith and repentance to God concerning the life and death of His Son for forgiveness of sin. We must each personally decide to yield our life to God or to hold it back. We decide to receive this beautiful grace-gift of His Son or we push the gift away. We come to the light or we hide from it and attempt to put it out.

Jesus said it this way: (many people have never read before or after John 3:16)

“God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them! No one who has faith in God’s Son will be condemned. But everyone who doesn’t have faith in him has already been condemned for not having faith in God’s only Son.

The light has come into the world, and people who do evil things are judged guilty because they love the dark more than the light. People who do evil hate the light and won’t come to the light, because it clearly shows what they have done. But everyone who lives by the truth will come to the light, because they want others to know that God is really the one doing what they do.”

                                                                                                                                                   John 3 16-20

“We have to catch the fish before it can be cleaned by God”.

BUT WOE TO THE PROFESSING CHRISTIAN WHO CALLS THE TRUTH A LIE AND BLATANTLY PRETENDS TO LIVE IN OPEN SINFUL REBELLION AGAINST GOD.

He or she will learn about God’s loving discipline and intolerance of sin.

Learn about this here in Hebrews chapter 12″

⁴ None of you have yet been hurt in your battle against sin.

⁵ But you have forgotten that the Scriptures say to God’s children,

“When the Lord punishes you, don’t make light of it, and when he corrects you, don’t be discouraged.
⁶ The Lord corrects the people he loves and disciplines those he calls his own.”

⁷ Be patient when you are being corrected! This is how God treats his children. Don’t all parents correct their children? ⁸ God corrects all of his children, and if he doesn’t correct you, then you don’t really belong to him. ⁹ Our earthly fathers correct us, and we still respect them. Isn’t it even better to be given true life by letting our spiritual Father correct us?

¹⁰ Our human fathers correct us for a short time, and they do it as they think best. But God corrects us for our own good, because he wants us to be holy, as he is. ¹¹ It is never fun to be corrected. In fact, at the time it is always painful. But if we learn to obey by being corrected, we will do right and live at peace.

¹² Now stand up straight! Stop your knees from shaking ¹³ and walk a straight path. Then lame people will be healed, instead of getting worse.” Hebrews 12:4-12

There are two kinds of Christians / Children of God:

Those who Seek to Obey and Those who Rebel

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A

-Gossip Christian

-Adulterous Christian

-Lying Christian

-Hating Christian

-Cheater Christian

-Lusting Christian

-Gay Christian

-Thieving Christian

-Drunkard Christian

-Transgender- LGBTQ Christian

-Glutton Christian

(list is exemplary-not exhaustive)

“CHRISTIAN” IS A NOUN—

All these other words are adverbs, describing sinful human behaviors—not new identities.

Sin is always sin and God still disciplines those He loves, else they do not belong to Him. God will never be inclusive with sin concerning His church and children. Neither will we as believers and disciples. 

Concerning sin-WE WERE ALL BORN THAT WAY. God will not excuse our sin, He will remove and replace it.

^“Don’t you know that evil people won’t have a share in the blessings of God’s kingdom? Don’t fool yourselves! No one who is immoral or worships idols or is unfaithful in marriage or is a pervert or behaves like a homosexual ¹⁰ will share in God’s kingdom. Neither will any thief or greedy person or drunkard or anyone who curses and cheats others. ¹¹ Some of you used to be like that. But now the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of God’s Spirit have washed you and made you holy and acceptable to God. “I Corinthians 6:9-11

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IN THIS CHURCH WE HAVE THESE AMBITIONS

1-To Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength–To love one another (the Great Commandment)

2-To obey Christ and thus His teachings. This is the revealed, known and unchanging will of God as discovered in the bible. 

3- To do works of faith that demonstrate we know God. (the Great Commission)

Making disciples by our love and witness as we serve Christ and one another as we hold one another accountable to truth.

• WELCOME! JOIN US IF YOU WILL ON THIS JOURNEY OF FAITH, LOVE AND DISCIPLESHIP. COME AS YOU ARE. GROW IN OBEDIENCE. SERVE WHEN APPROVED. EXPECT GOD TO CONFORM YOU TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON–NOT THIS WORLD.

• EXPECT DISCIPLINE–that’s what a disciple does.

• We are all Welcome. Inclusion however is very much about God’s will and God’s way in His time and His own choosing.