14 Jan Providence | Part 2 “Persevering in the Providence of God” – All Locations
Announcements:
The fast is scheduled for January 23rd to the 30th, ending in First Tuesday. First Tuesday: 5:30-6:00 doors open, 6:00 – 6:30 corporate prayer, 6:30 worship.
First Tuesday is on January 30. Reminder: no guide that week. You and your members should be attending First Tuesday.
THE TUESDAY CAFE WILL NOT BE OPEN ON 23 NOR THE 30TH.
BACKYARD BLESSING: One of our Action Groups is gearing up to bless a child with a backyard play house. Please consider helping by donating something to the Give Send Go account. They have only about $2000 needed that would get the ball rolling. BACKYARDBLESSINGGIVESENDGO
IF YOU OR A MEMBER OF YOUR GROUP WOULD LIKE TO VOLUNTEER TO MAKE MEALS FOR THE ALPHA CLASS IN WOONSOCKET – PLEASE VISIT OR SOUTHCOAST – VISIT OUR EVENTS PAGE AND CLICK ON MEAL PREP FOR YOUR PERSPECTIVE LOCATION WATERSCHURCH.ORG/EVENTS
FINANCIAL PEACE IS BACK, CLICK THIS LINK OR VISIT WATERSCHURCH.ORG/EVENTS TO REGISTER.
NEW OPPORTUNITY – PLEASE SHARE WITH YOUR GROUP MEMBERS:
Waters Kids Ministry Opportunity
We’re excited to present a wonderful opportunity for your members who are not yet part of a serve team or are interested in joining an additional team, specifically in our Waters Kids ministry!
On Christmas Eve, we witnessed a record attendance of children across all Waters Kids locations. This growth in our children’s ministry is only the beginning, and we anticipate even more in 2024!
To support this expansion, we’re actively building our Waters Kids Team. If you have a heart for children, a creative spirit, and a desire to share the word of God with our youth, we would be thrilled to have you join our team!
We have openings for roles with nursery-age children through elementary school. Our fast-growing Ignite ministry, catering to elementary-age children, is a great opportunity, particularly for married couples, as this age group is highly impressionable and can greatly benefit from their guidance.
If caring for or teaching children isn’t your primary interest, don’t worry! We also need help with kids’ check-in, technical support (like sound, lighting, and ProPresenter operation), and worship.
Interested individuals can join by clicking the link below and navigating to the Waters Kids section to select “Join The Team!”
If you are still unsure, on January 31 we are offering a training! All are invited to attend and check out this ministry!
For any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at info@waterschurch.org.
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REMINDER: DISCOVER CLASS: For New Leaders, Leaders who have not taken the class, or Leaders who have not taken the class in the last couple of years. It is held on the first Sunday of the month.
ALL LOCATIONS:
NEED MARRIAGE AND FAMILY CARE? OR HAVE A GROUP MEMBER IN NEED OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY CARE? CLICK HERE: HELP RESOURCES PAGE
Reminder: Please check your planning center profiles for requests to join and also remove members from the list that no longer attend as well as add members not listed. Thank you.
LEADERS: WE HAVE CHANGED UP THE DISCOVER CLASS WHICH USED TO BE GROWTH TRACK AND ARE ASKING ALL LEADERS TO RE-TAKE THIS A SOME POINT. BELOW IS THE CLASS SCHEDULE:
1st Sunday : Discover Waters – after 1st service
2nd Sunday: NO CLASSES
3rd Sunday: Connect Class – after 1st service
4th Sunday: Baptism Class – after 1st service
IMPORTANT***** Please add
Go to your email, add no-reply@churchcenter.com to your contacts (PLEASE ASK ME IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND) THANKS!
no-reply@churchcenter.com to your email contacts so that you do not miss an email from Planning Center and have your members add it as well. This will ensure you do not miss a member request or any emails that come from the Planning Center site.
All announcements and the Waters Event Calendar can be found at: waterschurch.org/events)
Location Text Alerts:
| North Attleboro | Text “subscribe” to 508 695-1300 | |
| Norwood | Text “subscribe” to 781 762-3357 | |
| Apollo Beach | Text “subscribe” to 813 642-6979 | |
| Woonsocket | Text “subscribe” to 833 241-4837 | |
| Southcoast | Text “subscribe” to 508 809-3490 | |
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Key Verse: Esther 3-4
Ice breaker:
Q. Other than a dog or cat, if you could bring home any pet in the world, what would it be and why?
Providence: God is at work no matter what the world is doing. Sometimes when God is at work, things can get worse. That is what we call the “life of faith”. It is a fight and a battle. We have to press through the hard times of life knowing that God is working.
We see that leading up to Esther Chapter 3, that Esther, a Jewish girl, wins a beauty pageant to become queen of the land. It is a type of rags to riches story— then life happens.
LIFE often SHIFTS from BEAUTIFUL to BATTLE-FUL.
Esther 3:1–2 (NLT)
Esther’s beauty got her to the kingdom’s throne and then it turned into a battle. The king promoted Haman, who was an evil, wicked hater of the Jews.
However, this story has ‘but thens.’ Esther had gotten her to the throne room of Persia and now we see ‘but thens’. Great stories have ‘but thens.’
If God is going to tell a story about your life, you are going to have a bunch of ‘but thens.’ For example, you got married, had children, or got the job, ‘but then…’
Exodus 17:16 (ESV)
1 Samuel 15:8-9
The Agagite were ancient enemies of the Jews. They were the people who Moses and Joshua won the battle against. God said that Israel was to totally destroy all the Amalekites” but they never fully followed through. King Saul also did not follow through and allowed some family members to escape. Now 600 years in the future we have Esther and Haman, the Agagite, who continues to hate the Jews.
Do you know why your life gets difficult and you have troubles and trials? Because someone failed to obey God long before you got here.
Q. Can you think of any ‘but then’ moments in your life? How did these moments change the course of the story, and how did you see God working through them?
Three points about my “battle-ful” life:
1. My BATTLES are the RESULT of a cosmic CONFLICT that STARTED long before me.
Every hurricane, every tornado, every tough situation, bad relationship, financial struggle, and disobedient child is because you are in a cosmic conflict that started way back in Biblical history. Adam failed to obey God and handed authority over to Satan.
Genesis 3:15 (ESV)
Life is a battle and it doesn’t stop. You’re not always responsible for the troubles you face. Some things may be your fault but you are also an inheritor of Adam’s failure. You are engaged with an enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy you. The solution to this battle is not found in the things of this world but in the blood of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)
Even if you don’t believe this, the enemy is playing for keeps.
Q. How does the fact that we are inheritors of Adam’s failure affect the way you view personal responsibility in your struggles? Do you find it comforting, challenging, or something else entirely?
2. My ENEMY wants to CONSUME me.
The enemy wants you consumed. Haman is a picture of the devil. Unfortunately, many Christians don’t realize the battle is all around us. It can lead people to blame and to attack other people. But, as Christians, we have to fight the fight that is worth fighting.
Esther 3:5–6 (NLT)
Haman is not satisfied with only one Jew getting killed.
Esther 3:9 (NLT)
This is an extraordinary amount of money. It demonstrates how the enemy is completely committed to the spiritual battle around you. If you don’t take the battle seriously, you have already ceded the advantage to him.
What you see in the world is a reflection of the heavenly battle but you have a a Savior who says, “No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD!” (Isa 54:17)
You have to fight! You can’t just come to church. You have to do something with what God has given you. Pray and seek God. Ask God to show you what to do in this situation. Ask God to put things into you that He wants and to take things out that He wants.
Q. How do you see this spiritual battle manifesting in your own life and what roles does prayer play in your decision-making process, especially when facing challenges that seem to have a spiritual dimension?
Esther 3:13 (ESV)
Notice the words Haman uses: “destroy, kill, annihilate, and plunder. “ Do they sound familiar?
Jesus says:
John 10:10 (ESV) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
The devil doesn’t just destroy. The first thing the devil does to you is to steal from you. If the devil wants to steal from you then there are some things you have that the devil wants:
- The image of God in you. (This is what we see today in the confusion of gender ideology where children are being told they have been born a mistake. You are not a mistake!)
2. The love of God from you. (Do you think God doesn’t love you? The Bible says nothing can separate us from the love of God.)
3. The fullness of God. (the Holy Spirit)
4. The power God has for you. (If you have the Holy Spirit, you have the power of God!)
5. The Guidance of God. (God’s Word and Leadership. Thanks be to God for His Word!)
6. Our victory in God. (If you are in Christ, you have been given authority over satan.)
7. Our position in God. (The Bible says we are hidden in Christ. We are a protected people. The devil can speak to me and attack me, but he can’t do anything God doesn’t allow. And whatever God allows, He will use to produce strong faith.)
You have to realize who you are in Christ! The Holy Spirit inside, Jesus leading, and the Father over me.
3. My ENEMY wants me PASSIVE in the BATTLE.
The only thing the enemy needs to win is your passivity.
Esther 3:10 (ESV)
King Xeres does not act like a king. At every step of the way, he asks others what to do.
The real problem is the passivity of Esther:
Esther 4:1– 5 (NLT)
Esther didn’t even realize what was going on.
Some of us Christians don’t realize the battle going on around us. The enemy just needs you passive and ignorant to win.
How does Esther not know what is happening? She is in the palace. She had received 12 months of beauty treatments. She had gotten so comfortable in the world that she did not realize what was going on in the outside world.
The PLEASURES of this WORLD can make me IGNORANT of the BATTLE in the UNSEEN World.
Esther 4:8-11 (NLT)
Esther believes it’s too much to risk but Mordecai said:
Esther 4:13-14 (ESV)
This famous line comes in the middle of a rebuke to Esther because she has become passive.
Q. Can you share an example from your own life or observation where the comforts and pleasures of this world led to a lack of action or ignorance of spiritual battles?
Persevere in the Providence of God:
1. God’s PLAN will be ACCOMPLISHED.
“Relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews”
What Esther first hears is that God will deliver us because He has done so in the past.
Church in America- the church has lived through harder times than this. The Church has survived through the centuries because Christ said I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Preachers like to say that you are unique and ONLY you can do something, but that’s not correct! The kingdom of God is not a person. It is a kingdom. It is God’s Church, His people, and His Holy Spirit.
You must take action.
2. I must TAKE ACTION.
Esther 4:8 (ESV)
Things we may put before the Kingdom like child activities, finances, and marriage troubles, don’t just get changed by prayer, they get changed by action.
‘What’s the step you need to take to get where God wants you to go’?
Pastor Tim used the example of Ed and Kathy Mathers. They originally came to church on the verge of divorce and homelessness. They received Christ, and their marriage was repaired and finances restored. They are now the most kind and generous people who give selflessly of themselves each week.
Q. What specific step do you think God is prompting you to take in your personal, professional, or spiritual life? How can you start making progress towards that step?
My actions are PART of God’s BIGGER PURPOSE.
Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
It’s not all about you. It’s about what God wants to do through you. How much of our lives is a ripple in a pond?
Hundreds of years ago King Saul dropped a pebble and it rippled to Haman. Adam dropped a ton of pebbles. But the opposite is true too, a drop of righteousness can be dropped by you and impact a thousand generations!
God says “I show my love to thousands of generations.” (Exodus 20:6)
Esther 4:15-16 (ESV)
Fast and pray and let’s do something! At the end of this month, let’s give God 2024. Then let’s serve and give.
You have no idea what you are missing out on if you ‘just’ come to church.
There are Serve Teams to join and Life Groups for people to join/lead to impact people’s lives for Christ.
Challenge: Take at least one concrete step towards the action you feel called to. It could be making a phone call, offering help to someone in need, initiating a difficult conversation, joining a ministry, tithing, or taking a step toward a personal goal that aligns with your faith. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and give you discernment in these things.
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