Skip to main content

Gospel Stories – Notes and Videos

By August 20, 2017Sermon Notes

Today our time will be organized a little differently than it normally is on Sunday morning. We are taking a break from Romans this week but will pick up the end of chapter 11 next week.

We are going to watch several videos focusing on Gospel stories.

We will watch a video from Austin and Jenni living and working overseas.

We will watch a video from Ben Crow and the new church launched from River last year called Orchard Community Church.

We will watch a video from Breann Ochs as she shares about God’s answer to her prayers and how Orchard has impacted her dad and her family.

We will watch a video from Pat and Harvey. Harvey will share how he came to faith and how God used Pat and Oliver Bergeron’s small group impact his life.

We will go global, regional, and the hyper-local with Pat and Harvey.

Let me just highlight a few common threads as we watch these stories.

  1. Prayer
    Breann Ochs is going to talk about praying for her dad’s salvation for 12 years.
    Breann is also going to share about God responding to Ben’s prayer to bring some older adults to their new church. The answer to Ben’s prayer was to save Breann’s dad and bring Breann’s family to Orchard.Jenni is going to ask us to continue to pray for her friend Nancy.Prayer takes my attention off my limitations and puts the final results on God’s shoulders.
  2. Faithfulness
    Austin is going to talk about living in a completely foreign culture.
    In that foreign culture he is getting comfortable, but he does not want to be complacent.
    His charge living overseas is the same charge as ours living here – Be faithful.Faithful to Know and Love God and Make God’s Love Known.Pat and the small group he is in were faithful love Harvey.
    No agenda, no campaign to their neighbors, just looking for where God was at work and joining God.Ben Crow starting a church.
    Starting a church was NOT River’s ambition or Terry’s ambition. Starting Orchard Community Church is what faithfulness looks like in Ben’s life.

    Ben talks about people faithfully investing in his life.
    People investing had no agenda but to be faithful to love and care for Ben.
    They were not shaping Ben into a church planter, but were being faithful.
    God was shaping and preparing Ben and Rose through their faithfulness.

    THE FINAL THREAD

  3. God’s People – the church
    These stories are stories of the church.My goal in these videos that you would see God making himself known through the Church – His called out people.The church – NOT buildings, websites, or activities.
    Those are all tools to help us LIVE as the church – God’s called out people.So in these stories you will hear of God using his PEOPLE, the church to make himself known.

    The church called out not to live comfortable complacent lives as Austin will remind us this morning but called out to live together to make God’s love known.

    You will see the church – God’s people investing in Ben’s life and God calling him to plant a church.

    You will see the church – God’s people through a small group loving and including Harvey.

    There are a more people who we could make videos about.
    The story would be the same – God using his called out people the church to make himself known.

 

 

 

Leave a Reply