January 30, 2011-Bulletin.html

January 30, 2011

TO OUR VISITORS

The family of God here at Dowagiac Church of Christ wishes to extend to you a warm welcome. If you have questions about our worship services and why we do what we do, we will be glad to give you a biblical answer. The uniqueness of the Church of Christ is that we are trying to restore to the best of our ability those things that we see the first century Church doing. We are also working hard at building the spirit, unity, and love that Jesus taught and prayed for. We have no clergy, but are working together as equal co-workers trying to serve one another and the area in which we live. Come study with us, grow with us, and serve with us as we strive to do God's will in all things.

LISTING OF THOSE IN NEED OF PRAYERS. Julie and Karl Marcussen have started preparing a sheet that we hope to make up each week that will have a list of people that we know who are in need of prayers. We hope that we will be able to keep it fairly current, and perhaps include addresses and situations that we want the congregation to be aware of. The blackboard in the front of the auditorium we will continue to use, but try to confine those listed to the immediate Dowagiac Church of Christ family. If you have a friend or associate you want to ask prayers for, give the information to Julie or Karl so it can be in the hands of all of us when we get home and we can send cards and notes to them and know what their situation is.

FAMILY NEWS

POTLUCK AND SUPER BOWL NEXT SUNDAY. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of the month, and we will have our normal congregational potluck. Bring a dish and be prepared to enjoy good food, good fellowship, and a time to talk about our dreams, goals, and hopes for the Lord's work in this coming year. The Brewers have invited us all over to watch the Super Bowl after our evening services. They live very close to the building, so we will have our normal Sunday evening worship and then quickly go to Brewers to enjoy pizza and watch the game, play dominos, or some other fellowship together. Tracey and Larry are providing the pizza, so bring your own beverage and enough munchies, salad, or dessert to share with others, and enjoy the evening. We did this last year and had a fun time together, so plan to come and be a part of it.

TODAY'S LESSON

MONEY
ISAIAH 55:1-2

INTRODUCTION--

Churches and Money have a bad track record.

1. Begging by TV Evangelists
2. Greed among religious leaders
3. Misuse of money by churches

The Bible has a lot of good advice about money.

1. Some is obvious.
2. We all need to realize we have a responsibility.

a. To use money well
b. To teach others about the use of money

LESSON 1--OBVIOUS--"MONEY CAN'T BUY ... "

A. Isaiah 55:1-2--Personal Satisfaction

1. "Why spend money on what is not bread?"

a. What do you value in life?

2. "Your labor on what does not satisfy."

a. What do you do for a living?

B. Acts 8:18-20

1. God's gifts are not for sale.

LESSON 2--MONEY IS A NECESSARY EVIL IN LIFE.

A. Luke 16:9--Use your money for God's purposes.

1. Prodigal son in Luke 15:11- 31
2. Improve your future--build up God's kingdom

C. Romans 13:1-10

1. Matthew 22:20-21--Taxes
2. Be careful about debt--Matthew 5:23-26

LESSON 3--MONEY IS A GOOD SERVANT, BUT A BAD MASTER.

A 1 Timothy 6:10--Not money itself--the LOVE of money

1. What you do or allow it to do that counts.
2. Use it mightily with God's direction.

a. Matthew 25:14-30--2 talents = 10 talents

B. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8--If you cannot give cheerfully, DON'T.

1. Giving is a reflection of your spiritual condition.
2. Dead Sea versus Sea of Galilee

B. Luke 16:13--What do you serve? What is your MASTER?

1. What is your true love?
2. Does money rule you?

MISSION STATEMENT--DREAMS

Last Sunday our lesson was on dreams, and we are talking about the dreams, or what we want to accomplish, or would like to see in the future--not only for ourselves individually, but especially for the church here. Why do we exist as a congregation? What is the purpose we believe God has for us in this location?

It is important to understand that this congregation does not exist just to keep house. We cannot justify the cost of this facility if all we are doing is just having a place for 40 people to gather once a week to worship together. We could do that in someone's house, or in a rented facility, or in a field when the weather is nice.

When this congregation started some 40 years ago, I was preaching for the group for quite a while. We had a rented facility in downtown Dowagiac and the congregation had some dreams--some objectives they hoped to accomplish. I can remember some of the discussions that went on at that time about having a permanent building so that people in the community would take us seriously. I remember talk about having a full-time evangelist that could reach out to the lost with the plan of salvation and change the lives of people in this area. When I left Dowagiac and a man named Ken Jarrett came to preach full time we all had big dreams about what would be accomplished as one objective after another was reached.

Satan always strikes when the Lord's church begins to make headway, and that was the case here. Many things happened and the work was set back badly with much of Satan's attack coming from within the congregation. In the past 15 years we have struggled forward, and God has blessed us mightily with some great things being accomplished. We have not arrived however, and there are some decisions that need to be made and some goals that need to be established concerning where this congregation needs to go in the next year, five years, ten years, etc.

Let me encourage every member of this congregation to take some time this week to write down at least three goals or dreams or missions that we would like to see all of us work together with the Lord's help to accomplish. You can put it anonymously in the question box in the lobby or give it to me (John Clayton). Let us build a mission statement so we can work together to glorify God and advance His work in this area of His vineyard,