Unfortunately this weeks service was unable to be recorded. But please take the the time to read the attached transcript.
L-T Hopper
Church is a local expression of that universal eternal reality. The church gathered is a visible expression of the invisible eternal reality.
The Bible assumes people ‘in Jesus’ gather together. It’s what people did straight away after they became Christians as we see from Acts 2. They met together daily. Hebrews 10:25 says:- Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing. Also to keep the ‘one another’ commands that are given in the New Testament you must be together.
Bonhoeffer says:- “Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate”
Excerpt from bulletin…
When you don’t feel like, take heart
Did you wake up not feeling like reading your Bible and praying? How many times today have you had to battle not feeling like doing things you know would be good for you?
While it’s true that this is our indwelling sin that we must repent of and fight against, there’s more going on.
Think about this strange pattern that occurs over and over in just about every area of life:
- Good food requires discipline to prepare and eat while junk food tends to be the most
tasty, addictive, and convenient.
- Keeping the body healthy and strong requires frequent deliberate discomfort while it only
takes constant comfort to go to pot.
- You have to make yourself pick up that nourishing theological book while watching a
movie can feel so inviting.
- You frequently have to force yourself to get to devotions and prayer while sleeping,
reading the sports, and checking Facebook seems effortless.
- To play beautiful music requires thousands of hours of tedious practice.
- To excel in sports requires monotonous drills ad nauseum.
- It takes years and years of schooling just to make certain opportunities possible.
- This goes on and on.
The pattern is this: the greater joys are obtained through struggle and pain, while brief, unsatisfying, and often destructive joys are right at our fingertips. Why is this?
Because, in great mercy, God is showing us everywhere, in things that are just shadows of heavenly things, that there is a great reward for those who struggle through…
Excerpt from bulletin…
The Body Life series
Last Sunday we began a series on the life of church called the Body Life series. We looked at what is church. Here’s the definition I shared. We are going to spend some time in the rest of series looking a some aspects of this definition.
What is ‘church’ and what does it do?
The local church is a community of believers in Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord. They are devoted to Scripture are organised under appointed qualified leadership and gather regularly for preaching, worship, the Lord’s Supper and baptism, and go out into the world to live and speak about Jesus in the world.
Here’s a summary of what we looked at last Sunday.
- Church is a local expression of that universal eternal reality. The church gathered is a visible expression of the invisible eternal reality.
- The Bible assumes people ‘in Jesus’ gather together. It’s what people did straight away after they became Christians as we see from Acts 2. They met together daily. Hebrews 10:25 says:- Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing. Also to keep the ‘one another’ commands that are given in the New Testament you must be together.
- Bonhoeffer says:- “Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate”
When we repent and commit to live for Jesus we become members of the ‘body of Christ.’ The Lakeshore Church is the local expression of this global ‘body of Christ’. We are all members of this body, and we all play a part. In every healthy body there are certain things that need to happen, and as a church we look to the Bible to learn about them. In this teaching series we will address some of the key issues of body life.
- The church,what’s the body? - November 1, 2009 - l-t-hopper
The Bible assumes people ‘in Jesus’ gather together. It’s what people did straight away after they became Christians as we see from Acts 2. They met together daily. Hebrews 10:25 says:- Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing. Also to keep the ‘one another’ commands that are given in the New Testament you must be together.
- BODY LIFE SERIES - November 1, 2009 - l-t-hopper
When we repent and commit to live for Jesus we become members of the ‘body of Christ.’ The Lakeshore Church is the local expression of this global ‘body of Christ’. We are all members of this body, and we all play a part. In every healthy body there are certain things that need to happen, and as a church we look to the Bible to learn about them. In this teaching series we will address some of the key issues of body life.
- Loving one another - November 8, 2009 - l-t-hopper
- Loving The World - November 15, 2009 - l-t-hopper
Jesus has left ‘photos’ of himself in the world. You and me. By what we say and do we show to those around us Jesus wants to be friends with those who don’t yet know him. We are the way by God’s Spirit by which others experience God’s love. You can show them a love to meet their felt NEEDS that comes from the source of love. GOD. A love that is expressed to meet their greatest NEED. Jesus death for their forgiveness.
- Serving One Another - November 22, 2009 - l-t-hopper
Mosaic is the art of decoration with small pieces of colored glass, stone or other material. Small tiles or fragments of pottery or of colored glass or clear glass backed with metal foils are used to create a pattern or picture. The church is similar to a mosaic. It is made up of people who are ‘broken’ who when put together by God’s grace and begin to serve each other make a wonderfully beautiful picture of what Christ is like.
- The Real Lords Prayer - November 29, 2009 - guest
In Matt 6:9-13 & Luke 11:2-4 we see recorded what is commonly referred to as the Lords prayer. I may suggest a better description is the disciples prayer. Because in these passages jesus entrusts to his disciples a pattern of prayer. Pray in this manner he instructs them. Matt 6:7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Here in John 17 we have the real ‘Lords prayer’, what did Jesus pray.
- Eldership - December 6, 2009 - l-t-hopper
Elders – the under shepherds They do Shepherding of God’s flock. They have a responsibility to Jesus for the church. This can be summed up under 4 headings:- Teaching – In the list of qualifications in 1 Timothy 5 there is one skill required ie able to teach. As shepherds they are to feed the flock. This involves knowing the Bible, understanding it and clearly teaching it.
- Giving - December 20, 2009 - l-t-hopper
There are two subjects you try to avoid with your kids. Money and sex. You can’t avoid them because if you don’t talk about them with them someone else will. So here at church we don’t want to avoid talking about money. You might have a perception of churches that all they want it your money well. Sorry about that but this is the first time we have spoken about money in the 3 years I have been here.