26 Sep Stranger Things | Part 2 “Love The Truth & Grow Up” – All Locations
Announcements:
Thank you for giving toward the parking lot, it is looking great! Please continue to give toward the patio.
SATURDAY NIGHTS BACK: November 13.
Phil Wickham & special guest, Josh Baldwin, will be performing the Hymn of Heaven Tour at Waters Church North Attleboro on Sat, May 14, 2022!
Pre-sale password: HEAVEN
Ticket link: https://www.ticketweb.com/…/phil-wickham…/11394965…
FREE Join Phil Joel & Jonas Woods for the “In This Together Tour” SATURDAY, OCT 2ND at 7PM. This will be a unique acoustic music and stories session at Waters Woonsocket Location: 1500 Diamond Hill Road, Woonsocket, RI 02895.
OPEN Seating, first come, first served basis @ 6PM
Trunk or Treat 2021: Saturday October 23 with a Rain date of Saturday, Oct 30. 3 locations: Woonsocket, Apollo Beach, and North Attleboro. The registrations are open under Events You need to scroll down. Don’t pick the one that says all locations, choose the one that says Host at ‘your location’
Waters Ping Pong Tournament 2021 – Sept 13 – Oct 25 – come out and hang with us, hone in your ping pong skills and then on Oct 18 & 25 compete for prizes! Please read the details on the Event description:
PingPongTournamentRegisterHere
NEW ENGLAND LEADER: THIS IS FOR YOU– ON OCTOBER 16 WE ARE HAVING A VISION FOR LIFE GROUP LEADERS EVENT- I WOULD LIKE TO CORDIALLY INVITE BY WRITTEN INVITATION ANY POTENTIAL NEW LEADERS (THEY DON’T HAVE TO BE IN A GROUP OR IN YOUR GROUP) THE POINT IS TO GET THEM INTO A GROUP OR IF ALREADY BEEN IN A GROUP, TO BECOME A LEADER. I JUST NEED NAMES OF THOSE YOU THINK MAY BE A POTENTIAL LEADER. I NEED THESE NAMES AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. ALSO, ALL LEADERS ARE INVITED TO THIS EVENT, REGISTRATION FOR LEADERS IS:
LIFE GROUP LEADER CASTING VISION EVENT
All announcements can be found at: waterschurch.guide
Our text alert number is 81411. Text ‘waterschurch’ to 81411 to join our text alert system.
The Deep End, the new Deep Dive Bible Study, and 10 questions with Tim are back! Please note that The Deep End will only be available on timhatchlive.com/live. Be sure to like and subscribe to the channel to be notified of each new podcast.
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Key Verse: Ephesians 4
Last week we talked about surrendering our rights and wants so we may have healthy relationships, putting these things aside for the sake of community.
This week we are talking about how we grow as Christians. Not one of us, in Christ, should not want to get stronger this year. There are things we may need to conquer, we may be entering a season where we need to flourish.
Psalm 92:12-15 ESV
Old age can be our greatest season. The older in Christ are stronger in Christ. God wants us to have the power of the Holy Spirit. For those in Christ, The Best is Yet to Come.
Q. What is something you need to conquer or an area you need to flourish in this year?
What Christians do: They GROW in TRUTH.
Jesus said in John 8:32 that we shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set us free.
As Christians, we have to love the truth and grow. We need to personally develop. In our country we have a maturity problem. Many people want to live as perpetual children – right, happy, satisfied, and feel good all of the time. One out of 3 Americans don’t have a job and are not looking for one. This is childish behavior. Many don’t seem interested in taking responsibility. We cannot have rights without responsibility. What we have in our generation is people who don’t want to grow up anymore, to become adults.
Isaiah 59:14-15 (ESV)
This is our problem today. We can’t have justice without truth. There is no such thing as ‘your’ truth and ‘my’ truth. There is only one Truth.
studyfinds.org there is an article that says dairy fat from milk, butter, and cheese prevents heart attacks. This is not true according to a doctor. Anyone can put together a website and make it look fabulous and fill it with false information. Sites like Facebook are ruining our kids, our families, and is dividing us. Facebook takes the most controversial issues and always puts them at the top of our feed.
Q. What websites have you been intrigued by and thought what you were reading was actually true but found out is was not?
Q. What can you share about some relationships that have been destroyed by Social media (i.e how has it ruined children, marriages etc.)?
HOW DO WE GROW?
1. Jesus GIVES gifts to His CHURCH.
Ephesians 4:11 (ESV)
Apostles – “ONE WHO IS SENT”. –
Prophets – Tell the TRUTH and WARN. – instruct us on what is going wrong in our lives and to avoid it.
Evangelists – “One who brings GOOD NEWS”. – love to tell others about Jesus.
Shepherds – Care for SHEEP.
Teachers – INSTRUCT people about the LORD.
These are the gifts Jesus thinks we need. We don’t benefit from a gift unless we receive it, understand it, and use it. Jesus gave these gifts to the Church because He thinks we need them and wants us to understand them and use them. There are tons of debates about these gifts in the Church. We should be grateful that God gave us something and not fight about whether we believe it is true. If we keep debating and arguing, eventually we will have no gifts. We need to grow up about this and thank Jesus for the gifts He gave us. Our atmosphere shapes our lives. The things in our house will give others the impression of who we are. God’s house needs a sense of identity to show the world what the Church is for.
Q. What are some impressions that Waters Church gives to the world (ie non-believers, new attenders, our communities)?
Q. What impression does your life give to the world (ie. co-workers, neighbors, children, teachers)?
All together:
The Church is an ever-EXPANDING, TRUTH-telling, good NEWS-SPREADING REFUGE to INSTRUCT people in KNOWING God.
The church is not just a social group or a political faction of American politics. We are to go to the nations, we are to get out of our comfort zones. Missions trip are life changing and before paying for college we should pay for our children to go on a missions trip (we are going to Peru and again to Guatemala).
Q. How has a mission changed a life of you or someone you know?
The church is here to tell the truth regardless of if we want to hear the truth. Apart from Jesus we are bound for hell, no one needs to go there. God sent Jesus so we would know we would not have to go there. Those of us who are sincerely in faith, He washes away all of our sins and we can enter into heaven the day we die. We are a good news people in a bad news world!
2. Jesus GIVES these gifts to BUILD His CHURCH.
Ephesians 4:11–12 (ESV)
We are the Church. The building is not the church. Jesus gives us the gifts to build us up. These are to equip us, the saints (we are the Saints) and we are made Holy by God in Christ Jesus. We have profits, evangelists, and apostles to equip us to do the work of ministry. It is the pastors job to equip the Church to do the work of the ministry. It is not the pastors job to do the work of the ministry. The health of the church is measured by how much people do. It is much better when an unpaid Life Group comes to see you in the hospital. The pastor gets paid but the life group leader goes out of love. We cannot be tied to our pastor being in the building every weekend. If we are then we need to ask ourselves if we are serving Jesus and loving the World or just wanting to please ourselves. The pastor equips us to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Q. In what ways have these gifts mentioned in Ephesians 11 equipped you to do the work of the ministry (how are you being taught, has anyone had a prophetic word for you, how has someone cared for you etc.)?
Matthew 4:21 (ESV)
equip > mending = pastors are called to mend us and bring us together.
We have elders in our church who Pastor Tim runs things by. They pray for the church, meet with those whose marriages might be in trouble etc. This is so we become one big net to hall the Fish.
Ephesians 4:16 (ESV); Ephesians 4:13 (ESV)
Four GROWTH GOALS:
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UNITY. – God wants us to stay together. The best thing we can do is join ourselves to a Church and stay there, serve there, and grow there. We should not be the church of American consumerism which is constantly shopping . We should be contributors not consumers. It is not about us, our misery might be our ministry making sure others don’t go through the misery we did. It is time we put the shopping cart away and put on the apron and say ‘how can I help you?’
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KNOWLEDGE of JESUS. – Not our knowledge of the pastors or leaders.
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MATURITY. – when we can be responsible for other people. – praying for others rather than ourselves, praying for others to come to Christ.
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STATURE. Growing up. The ability to stand when everyone else is falling. Standing stronger and stronger as we grow older. A child is vulnerable. When we are young in the faith we are vulnerable to the lies and deceitfulness of the enemy. As we grow we get less vulnerable. Toddlers are vulnerable to their own stupid actions. As we grow we get vulnerable to things of the world and need the leaders, pastors elders to show us the truth. We get vulnerable to people’s opinions but at some point we know the truth, are solid in the truth and no one can tear us away form the truth.
Q. What made you go from pushing the cart to putting on the apron?
Q. Can you share an experience from any other of the growth goals mentioned above?
3. Jesus GIVES gifts to GROW His CHURCH in firm CONVICTION of the TRUTH.
Ephesians 4:14 (ESV)
The pastor’s job to bring us to the truth. We are spiritual children.
First effect of GROWTH:
A. UNSUSCEPTIBLE to false DOCTRINES and false TEACHERS.
You can discern what is not right about a church or teaching, by studying the truth. We can tell a counterfeit when we study the real thing. Such as $100 bills. We know the fake ones only when we know what the real one looks like. Single people need to know the real love as opposed to love that is on the surface. We have to sniff out the fakes. Never date a non-believer, you are worth way more!
Q. What has been your experience dating a non-believer?
Q. If you are currently dating a non-believer, why?
2 Timothy 4:3–4 (ESV)
‘This’ is the time where no one wants to endure sound teaching. We must watch out for non-sense.
TRUTH = Truth is what we NEED to HEAR but might not WANT to HEAR.
Q. What truth have you heard that you needed to hear that you did not want to hear?
2 Corinthians 10:5–6 (ESV)
Second effect of GROWTH:
B. ACCEPTING, APPRECIATING, and ADJUSTING to the TRUTH.
Ephesians 4:15-16 (ESV)
Jesus is our judge and we are accountable to Him. We are not accountable to the pastor. When we die we will face the Perfect Judge.
Sermon in a sentence:
A Godly church CONFRONTS ME with TRUTH so that I FIT into the BODY and BECOME a part of HIS MOVEMENT to bring OTHERS to Jesus.
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