GCCWS

A large majority of Americans believe in the existence of angels! Christian or not, angels have captivated our imaginations. That said, what exactly do we believe about angels? What do you believe about angels? Join your GCC family this week as we continue THE JOURNEY to the birth of Jesus by taking a deeper look at what God says about angels. It has been a wonderful study in God’s Word and I’m excited to share it with you! #thejourney #advent #christmas

We begin this weekend with a man named John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a messenger of God who prepared the way for Jesus Christ who was the Messiah of God. Luke 1:5-25 records the foretelling of his birth and the story is fascinating. Read it. Pay attention to the details as you read it. Then, come to GCC this weekend and be prepared to begin getting your heart ready for Christmas!

As Thanksgiving approaches, it's common for us to reflect on what we're thankful for. But this year, let's delve deeper. Join us this weekend as will explore profound questions about faith, gratitude, and our relationship with God. Is He Worthy? We'll dive into Psalm 96 and ask ourselves if we truly believe in God's goodness and worthiness of praise. Do our lives reflect this belief? Are You Welcome? Scripture tells us that everyone is welcome at God's table. Let's understand how this love can transform the way we live and share our faith. Is Judgment Good? Often, we fear judgment, but if we trust in a good Judge, this fear transforms into hope. We'll explore how this perspective can change our understanding of justice and righteousness. This sermon isn't just about giving thanks; it's about understanding the core of our faith and how it shapes our lives. Don't miss this opportunity to deepen your spiritual journey and find answers that resonate beyond the holiday season.

It can be said that without the Holy Spirit, there would be no “missions”.  The great missionary movements of the early church were commanded and appointed by the Spirit of God.  The energy behind the missionary work of the church was and still is today, from the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus himself, promised this would happen when he said in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses”….. The disciples had Holy Spirit power then, and believers today have that same power to witness or proclaim the message of the risen Christ.  Let’s pray for another great missionary movement that is empowered and driven by the Holy Spirit.  

Which way should I go?  In Acts 16, Paul is stopped from going southwest by the Holy Spirit and blocked from going north by the Spirit of Jesus until finally permitted to go northwest.  A. T. Pierson, in his The Acts of the Holy Spirit, says sometimes, we are “forbidden in one direction, invited in another…”.  Pierson gave later examples from the history of missionaries: Adoniram Judson (1788-1850) went to India first but was driven on to Burma. William Carey (1761 – 1834) planned to go to Polynesia, but God guided him to India. David Livingstone (1813-1873) tried to go to China, but God sent him to Africa. So, we need to trust the Holy Spirit for direction and rejoice equally in his restrictions; only then will we know which way to go! 

This passage demonstrates an amazing way in which the Holy Spirit works in the lives of believers. Those who seek to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit often ask to be shown who in their life God is leading them to seek out. But here, we see the Holy Spirit bringing three men directly to Peter. 

When considering how God may be moving in your life, be careful to consider who He has recently brought into your life. It may be that the person God wants you to reach out to is already reaching out to you.

Phillip’s exit from a thriving revival to encounter one Ethiopian seeker in Acts 8 must have seemed bizarre. Yet Phillip obeyed God’s prompting. In that divine appointment, the eunuch discovered Jesus. God sees people exactly where they are. What might come from radical obedience to that odd divine nudge you can’t shake? The Spirit may seem to lead you away from fruitful work. But God may want to reach one waiting heart through your availability. Like Phillip, obey even when it makes no sense. Sacrifice a comfortable strategy for radical obedience. You could meet a divinely arranged Ethiopian seeking truth today. Be ready to leave the familiar path to follow God’s unexpected lead.

This verse gives us two practices that help determine the Lord’s will.  

First: worship. Worship is not for God’s benefit… He knows how good and powerful He is. Instead, it is for our benefit! We easily forget how good and powerful God is; thus, we often forget who God is. If we don’t know who our God is, how can we discern His will for our lives? 

Second: fast. When we think of fasting, we often think of fasting from food, but that is not the only item that we can fast from. Are you trying to discern the Lord’s will for your life? Have you tried fasting from the item that distracts you most from the Lord? 

Over the past several weeks, we have been studying the Holy Spirit over the past several weeks. We have looked at how the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead. He is the believer’s advocate, helper, counselor, guide, light in the darkness, and prayer warrior, and this weekend, we will discover how the Holy Spirit empowers Christians for ministry.

The final week of our Holy Spirit Devotional Series.

Let’s be honest! As much as we love the idea of prayer, prayer can be hard work. That’s true when we don’t know what to pray, or when God’s will is a mystery to us. And it is especially true when we are weak, wrung out by whatever decision or distress or difficulty is dominating our lives. I would guess that most of us, if not all of us, have been in that place sometime in life. We are tempted to shut down, give up, just walk away from prayer, but the message of Romans 8:26-27 calls us to PRESS ON IN PRAYER even when prayer is harder than we ever expected.Join your GCC family this weekend as we continue to discover the works of the Holy Spirit. As we study Romans 8:26-27, we will be greatly encouraged by the way the Spirit helps us pray!

Join us as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Apologies for the delay on these

Join us as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Inside of every one of us – our minds and our hearts – there is a battlefield – a place where battles have been fought in the past and continue to be fought. It is a battle between our sinful nature and the Holy Spirit; battles between who we are by our natural birth and who we are becoming by our new birth in Jesus Christ. We’ll unpack that truth as we study together Galatians 5:16-25 this weekend. And in the midst of our study, we will learn about another powerful work of the Holy Spirit in our lives – the fruit of the Spirit.

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” That’s how the apostle Paul celebrates the grace God gives us when Jesus saves us, forgiving our sin and giving us new and eternal lives. But God’s gift giving doesn’t stop there. Once we are saved, and the Holy Spirit lives in us, God continues to give us gifts of grace – gifts that we don’t deserve but that he desires for us to have. In the Bible, God calls these gifts SPIRITUAL GIFTS, and spiritual gifts are one of the works of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Join your GCC family this weekend as we focus on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 and unwrap the gifts of the Spirit.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

We give our conscience too much credit! Does our conscience really “bother us”? Is it our conscience that tells us what is right and what is wrong in life? Not at all. It is the Holy Spirit at work in us, convicting us with regard to the “rights and wrongs” of life. The Spirit is the One who bothers us when we need to be bothered. He is the One who keeps us up all night, or gives us peace and calmness within. He reminds us when an action is wrong, and He contends for the right way and right response. Such activity on the part of the Holy Spirit is what the Scriptures call the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and His convicting power is clearly and forcefully taught in John 16:8-11.

Join your GCC family this weekend as we learn more about how the Holy Spirit tells us the truth we need to be guided in our lives! I look forward to sharing this truth with you.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

This weekend, we continue our series on the Holy Spirit. Just consider how Jesus walked on water. How did he feed five thousand with five loaves and two fish? How did He cast out demons, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and even raise Lazarus from the dead? Unless we have been carefully taught, many would quickly say, “Because He is God!” And He truly is God. But is that how the New Testament answers these questions? We might say that Jesus’s miracles show He is God, but how Jesus performed these wonders is not as simple as we may assume.

Join us as we examine several Scriptures that answer the question: Why did Jesus need the Holy Spirit?

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

We are in part two of our sermon series on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead, best understood as He is described in the Bible. Throughout the Bible, one of His roles is to transform darkness into light and where there is death to give life. His work directly impacts your life because He can transform us. Join us this weekend as we explore the Holy Spirit’s work in the Old Testament to bring life and light and pave the way for Jesus.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

Join us each day this week as we explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Our pastors will guide us through Scripture to understand how the Spirit reveals God's truth, empowers us for godly living, and connects us to one another in Christian fellowship. As we dive deeper into the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, these devotions will encourage your faith.

This weekend, we begin a new sermon series which will focus on one person – the person of the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? What work does He do in our lives, in our church, and in the world? The Holy Spirit will occupy our time and thoughts for the next eight weekends, and well He should. He is the third person of the Trinity. He is God at work within every follower of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit plays a major role in the salvation of those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He lives in us! Make worship a priority this fall as we get to know the Holy Spirit. I look forward to launching this series from John 14:15-17.

As we bring our summer-long study in Ephesians to a close this weekend, we fast forward thirty years from when the apostle Paul wrote Ephesians to when the apostle John wrote Revelation. Revelation is a fascinating Biblical book for many reasons, not the least of which is Jesus’ pointed observations of seven prominent first century churches. Jesus’ observations are in the form of seven letters contained in Revelation 2 and 3. Each letter is a personal letter from Jesus in which he both commends and corrects the behavior of each church. He begins with the church at Ephesus because it was the most prominent of the seven churches.

At the time Paul wrote Ephesians, the church in Ephesus was newly planted and full of first generation Christians. By the time Jesus dictated to John what we call Revelation 2:1-7, the church was 30 years old and there was a second generation of Christians. With that in mind, join the GCC family this weekend as we learn what pleases Jesus, and doesn’t please him, when he looks at a church.

From this sermon on Ephesians 5, Pastor Paul leads us through some difficult concepts in the Scripture

Join the GCC family this weekend as we celebrate God’s blessing in our lives and return thanks to Him. We will celebrate together by sharing in the Lord’s Supper at all services. Bishop Randy Sizemore will challenge us from Joshua 3:1-17. Are you trusting God in your personal life in Christ? Are we trusting God as a church as we pursue the mission of helping people know and follow Jesus? We are excited for a powerful weekend of worship and the Word!

Are you converted? That’s a question seldom asked when talking about the Christian life, but it’s a good question. When you come to know and follow Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life, your identity changes. Conversion takes place. “You were once darkness…now you are light,” Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:8. Paul reminds the Ephesians who they were before Jesus changed them; he reminds us of the same truth. Our very identity is that we are LIGHT IN THE LORD in this dark world. As such, Jesus also said in Matthew 5, “Let your light shine.” How do we let our light shine? By how we live our lives. Paul goes on in verses 9-21 to teach us how our behavior should conform to our new identity. He describes what a life lived in the light of Christ looks like. I look forward to exploring these truths with you this weekend as we worship together at GCC!

As we continue our study in the New Testament letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul continues his pointed and practical instruction on what the daily life of a Christian should be. Read Ephesians 5:1-7 as you prepare to worship this weekend. Clearly, we are called to imitate God as His dearly loved children. IMITATE GOD! What does that mean? In our culture, imitations can have a negative connotation. An imitation or imitator can be a counterfeit or a second-rate copy of the original. Not so with the Biblical command to imitate God. To imitate God is to make every effort to be just like God – to take on His character. I look forward to digging deep into God’s Word and learning with you HOW TO IMITATE GOD!

Whenever you encounter a “therefore” in the Bible, you should ask, What is it there for? The “therefore” in Ephesians 4:25 is intended by God to be a bridge to a very practical description of what the daily life of a Christian should be. Putting off the old self and putting on the new self affects every area of life, and in Ephesians 4:25-32 Paul gets right to the point. He calls us to reject hypocrisy and live consistently faithful lives in Christ. He calls us to put off the behavior that destroys relationships and put on the behavior that builds up relationships. He calls us, as he so powerfully stated in Ephesians 4:24, “to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Join me and your GCC family this weekend as we continue our study in Ephesians!