Hello SNC friends and Family!

Welcome to this week’s 2^nd Look.

Below is a link for this week’s song we emphasized.

 

Here are a couple lines from the sermon on Sunday:

When Jesus comes to town:

• …. The world receives the King she has been waiting for.
• …. The earth receives a Savior.
• …. The curse that hangs upon this earth has been broken!
• …. The righteousness and grace of God has come with Him!

 

I invite you to listen to this song and consider these truths this week!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC3SwhJsLqU

 

May God’s peace be with you all in our Amazing King Jesus,

 

Pastor Ryan

Hello everyone. Welcome to this week’s 2^nd Look!

 

For this week I want you to listen to O Come O Come Emmanuel.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnKA982wOaQ

 

As you listen, please consider the themes we discussed:

 

Theme for verse 1: Jesus is THE one who brings hope, redemption and freedom with Him.

 

Theme for verse 2: Jesus Is THE one who dispels the darkness- bringing truth, justice, and honesty.

 

Theme for verse 3: Jesus is THE only one who can defeat Satan and Death!

 

 

Hello everyone,

I truly hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Here is the 2^nd Look for this week.

 

I invite you to read John 8:1-11, and ask yourself these questions:

 

1. What stated and unstated motivations to the Pharisees have for judging this woman?
2. Imagine yourself in the place of the woman caught in adultery. How might this experience change you?
3. What wisdom and encouragement can we gain from this Bible story when it comes to our relationships with people that we want to change?

 

Have a great week everyone and may God’s peace be upon you through Jesus Christ our Lord!

 

Pastor Ryan

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s 2^nd Look.

I have two questions for you to bring to prayer this week:

 

• Who am I often more tempted to lie to: others or myself?
• What motivates me to lie the most: fear (lying to avoid getting in trouble or losing something) or desire (lying to get something I want).

 

I’m not trying to accuse anyone here of lying but the reality is we are often tempted to lie. The more we can wrestle with these questions, with the Lord, the freer we are going to become from lying. In the sermon on Sunday, we talked about how in the Kingdom of God we have ultimate security in Christ and therefore we can let go of our fears. We also talked about how in the kingdom we have everything we truly need in Christ. Everything this world offers us is fleeting and temporary, but what God offers us is eternal, whole and life giving. The more we embrace these ideas the more we can let go of destructive fears and desires. My hope and prayer for you this week is that God will grant you his peace as you seek to understand the truth about our lies.

 

God bless you my friends,

Pastor Ryan

How would you define the difference between physical attraction, which is a God given desire, and lust, which turns that desire into sin?

What do you think about the 48 hr. fast from all media outlets in order to get our priorities straight?
Are you willing to give it a try?

Can you think of any other pro active steps we can take to minimize the exposure to all of the sexual temptations we are inundated with?

Discuss the concept of the difference between a temptation and sin.
Does this help with understanding and dealing with temptation?

What are the things that occupy your thought life.
What are some ways to help stay focused on Godly things and not worldly things?

Enjoy your 2nd Look,
DeRon

Hello everyone.

This past Sunday we looked at how God forgives us.

I read Romans 5:6-11 for us and then showed us God’s three step way of forgiving us.

 

God’s three step plan as found in Romans 5:6-11

• God is wronged- and He knows it.
• Instead of taking revenge God cancels the debt through Jesus Christ.
• God gives them the Holy Spirit. In essence He gives them up to God to be blessed.

 

My point was that God models for us how we can forgive others.

My invitation to you this week is to spend some time in Romans 5:6-11 thinking about how God forgave you.

 

As always my prayer for you is that you will be blessed by God, granted his incomparable peace!

 

Pastor Ryan

Howdy everyone!

For this week’s 2^nd Look I want to share with you some juicy quotes that will help you think about this line:

“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread…”

 

Read these quotes a few times this week and think about what they are teaching us about this prayer:

 

• When Jesus directs us to pray, “Thy kingdom come…” he does not mean we should pray for it to come into existence. —Dallas Willard

 

• “If we only had eyes to see and ears to hear and wits to understand, we would know that the Kingdom of God in the sense of holiness, goodness, beauty is as close as breathing and is crying out to born both within ourselves and within the world; we would know that the Kingdom of God is what we all of us hunger for above all other things even when we don’t know its name or realize that it’s what we’re starving to death for. The Kingdom of God is where our best dreams come from and our truest prayers. We glimpse it at those moments when we find ourselves being better than we are and wiser than we know. We catch sight of it when at some moment of crisis a strength seems to come to us that is greater than our own strength. The Kingdom of God is where we belong. It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are all of us homesick for it.”
  – Frederick Buechner

 

• “The third clause of the Lord’s Prayer is repeated daily by millions who have not the slightest intentions of letting any will be done except their own.”  –Aldous Huxley in The Perennial Philosophy, p.221

 

• Before we can pray, “Lord, Thy Kingdom come,” we must be willing to pray, “My Kingdom go.” —Alan Redpath

 

• Too often, we are conditioned to think of prayer as asking God for what we want—dear God, give me this, give me that.  But now, in praying that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are attempting to school ourselves to want what God wants.  We receive, not what our hearts desire, but rather we become so enthralled with a vision of what God is doing on earth and in heaven, that we forget the story that the world has told us—that we have nothing better to do than to satisfy our desires.         William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas in Lord, Teach Us. p. 66

 

• “Prayer is uniting our will with the will of God.  It is not an attempt to get God to do our will.  It is desiring to do what delights God.  It is discovering that what pleases God will ultimately bring us joy as well.  It is following in his footsteps even when he leads where we fear to go.”  James Mulholland, in Praying Like Jesus,  p. 63

 

Which quote speaks to you right now?

Why do you think it is jumping out at you?

In what ways is it encouraging or challenging you?

Bring this to the Lord in prayer.

 

May god grant you his glorious peace this week! Pastor Rya

Hey everyone!

I’m back from the men’s retreat along with ten other amazing brothers from our church. We had a great time- being together- eating great food- throwing axes and being men! We also took some great time to look at the temptations Jesus faced and how those are the temptations we face as well. It was a great weekend.

 

Many thanks to Gerard, for stepping in and preaching in my absence. It is such a blessing to have brothers here I can trust to preach.

 

On Sunday we began our community wide prayer emphasis. We are calling our series: “Earth-Shaking Prayer.” Gerard looked at the line:

Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

 

Below I’m listing several names, attributes and works of God.

My invitation for you this week, and for this month is: when you pray- take some time to simply praise God for some of these names or qualities listed below.

May God bless you and grant you His incomparable peace this week!

Shalom!

 

Pastor Ryan

 

Names of God

Yahweh Jireh- The Lord Provider                          Yahweh M’Kadesh- The Lord Who Sanctifies

Yahweh Rophe- The Lord Who Heals                          Yahweh Shalom-  The Lord Is My Peace

Yahweh Rohi- The Lord Is My Shepherd                    Yahweh Hissi-  The Lord Is My Banner

Yahweh Shammah- The Lord Is There

 

Nature and attributes of God

Holy                          Faithful  Righteous             Loving                     Omniscient

Just                           Benevolent                            Omnipresent       Gracious                 Sovereign

True                          Omnipotent                           Merciful                                     Infinite                     Compassionate

Patient                    Eternal

 

The Works of God

My Redeemer                       My Stronghold                                       My Deliverer

My Creator                              My Loving Father               

My Resting Place                My Light Upon The Path                 My Rock To Stand Upon

My Refuge                              My Shield                                                  My Strong Tower

My Hiding Place                   My Mighty Warrior                                 My Provider

My Healer                                My Shelter In A Time Of Storm

Hello everyone and welcome to the 2^nd Look.

 

The main idea of this chapter is that anger is caused by unmet expectations mixed with fear, which leads to a feeling of threat from which anger is a very natural response. Life in the kingdom of God provides us with a unique antidote: an ability and opportunity to counteract these unmet expectations and fears. What is this unique antidote? Walking in step with the Holy Spirit.

 

Think about a time you were angry? What were your unmet expectations? What were your fears or the ways you were feeling threatened? How might the truths listed below help you counteract these things?

 

• You are not condemned when you are in Christ. Romans 8:1
• Our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that awaits us. Romans 8:18
• The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We’re not alone. Romans 8:26
• God works all things for good. Romans 8:28
• God is for us and nothing can separate us from His love. Romans 8:31-39

 

Part of the reason we list one of our core values as knowing the Gospel- is because we realize just how powerful it is to know and have the truths of the gospel sink into our souls and change the way we see the world. I invite you to let these truths from Romans 8 sink into your soul this week and if/when you get angry about something, you can explore your unmet expectations and fears, and then counter them with the truth of what Jesus has taught us!

 

May God’s peace be with you all,

Pastor Ryan