Weekly Encouragement
Good Wednesday Everyone,
Blessings from your pastor. I hope the last week found you well as we walk together. Can you believe we are approaching Easter already? There are several things upcoming for the children you will not want to miss. There will be upcoming announcements with dates and times soon.
What a blessing and joy Wednesday Night Fellowships are to our church family. If you have not come to our mid-week fellowship, make plans to do so. You are missing special times. This is a wonderful opportunity to get to know each other, meet others, and be in the Lord’s house in a different way than on our Sunday mornings. The focus of every Wednesday night is fellowship and food. We must meet together, and we must feed each other. Tonight, is pizza, so bring something to pass if you can. Everything goes with pizza especially dessert. Pizza is always a great meal for everyone. Bring a favorite pizza topping or whatever you enjoy with your pizza.
Then, we will enjoy our continuing study in Revelation. As a recap: We saw the glorified risen Christ; we heard Christ’s message of preparation to all Christians through His through His word to the seven churches, and now we begin to see why Christ addressed every Christian Church – The End Times. Christ Jesus has full authority over everything, He has prepared us for what is to come, and now Christ gives John the vision of what will happen next. Join us as we study together.
In our recent sermon series, we are learning how the Christian church is to respond to the world. Bethel Baptist’s epic history is testimony that we are absolutely the kind of Christian church God’s intends for us to be, and God isn’t finished with us. Today, we must be a people who learn from our history, but not lean on it. We are exactly where we are because of what God did for us, not for what we did for God. We lean on Jesus Christ as a congregation, and as individual Christian members daily to be the church He wants us to be. No doubt, our past helps us deal with current issues, and our past prepares us for future obstacles. All through our history together we must have one constant – We must be a church full of “genuine” people inside and outside of God’s house.
Don’t misunderstand, we don’t have to “spill our guts” with people whom we have causal relationships. And there are many things we need to be genuine about in our lives. One thing we must be genuine about is our JOY. We must have genuine joy in this world. You can fake lots of things, but you can’t fake joy. Joy is not an emotion, and it is much more than a condition. We can alter, change, or lose our emotions and our conditions in life can change. Both emotions and conditions originate from you. Not joy. Joy is more accurately described as a possession. You either have joy or you do not. You don’t have the energy, time, or the talent to fake joy. No one does. If you don’t have joy, you can get it.
Genuine joy is received in a shocking way. Joy is received when we learn about what God did for us, how He did it, and why He did it. We know the source of real and everlasting joy. We have it. It is freely given to anyone who wants it. Joy is the result of the truth. We know the truth at Bethel Baptist. Others need to hear the truth and others want the truth, “They just don’t know it yet!” The truth of God will change people’s lives, it changed yours, it changed mine. The result is we live with genuine joy in all circumstances and situations. This week, let others see your joy. Tell them why you are joyful. And then, “at the proper time” invite them to Bethel Baptist, tell them what is happening here, and listen and love them in Christ Jesus. As we near this Lord’s Day find joy in all you do.
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Michael
