Center Point Assembly

Pastor Mike is continuing with the discussion of Faith & Works as it applies to "working" in the Church or better said in the Body of Christ. He discusses the importance of being a healthy body, just like it's important to have a healthy and functioning physical body, it's important for the "body of Christ" to be healthy and functioning as well. It takes the ideas and action of all believers working together as a unified team under the leadership and power of the Holy Spirit to build up the body. As we all do our part we build each other and ultimately cooperatively with Jesus build His Church...

Pastor Mike takes the principles of Faith and Works and looks at how they are applied in the local church. First of all what is the church, who's idea was it, why was it created, and what is it supposed to be today are all good questions to be answered. As we understand God's purpose of "the church" from both a global and local perspective we can then begin to see how each individual person fits in and is very important. Your attitude and your participation in your local church is key to what the church is, because WE are the church...

Pastor Mike continues in the discussion of Faith and Works and how intricately connected they are in proper order to living a productive fruit bearing life for Christ. The Great Commission given to all mankind requires first that our hearts are properly tended as we called that working in the "micro-garden" and then we go to "Work" in the community we live in, called the "Macro-Garden". As we co-labor with Christ the Holy Spirit gives us the wisdom and the energy and then He finishes the work by leading the unsaved to Jesus. As we do our part in the work, we are privileged to share in the eternal reward of bearing much fruit and pleasing our Heavenly Father.

Pastor Mike tells the Easter Story as written in the Gospels. It's an amazing story of love and sacrifice by Jesus, the Son of God that paid the ultimate price for us. He paid a price that we could not pay so that we can live eternally with Him. He ransomed us because He loves us so... The message starts off with a poem written by Sumer Wells, Pastor Mike's oldest daughter entitled "What if Chris Came Down"... The poem is included as a download if you want a copy...

Pastor Mike continues in the discussion of Faith combined with Works. We talked in past weeks that God's original intention for Mankind was not to have to be redeemed, but rather it was to live in fellowship with Him and together work and the tend the Garden in which God intended man to live. This Godly intention was intended to be eternal... However, we all know that man made a bad choice and sin entered the world and everything in the garden changed forever. God put "Plan B" in effect, and that is the redeeming power of Jesus blood and His one-time sacrifice for our sin... Once received by man, then God's original intention to tend the garden takes a new dimension in our personal lives as the micro-garden is our heart. God's plan is for us to do the "work" necessary to tend our heart's garden to protect it and cultivate to bear Godly fruit... Listen in and see how God speaks to you about your garden...

Pastor Mike continues in the topic of "Faith" and now moves into the second aspect of having Faith and that is combining it with "Works". As Faith is combined with Works it brings Faith alive and active in the life of a person as Faith without Works is dead... Actually the larger truth that is revealed in this teaching is that God's original intention for mankind was never to have to have Faith for mankind to need to be redeemed as that was not his original intention for man to fall into sin requiring redemption. Rather, God's original intention for mankind was for man to have fellowship with God and to "WORK" in the Garden... Listen in to get the full story.

Pastor Mike continues to speak on Faith this morning taking off from where he left last week. God requires us to have faith if we are to be pleasing to Him. And with this requirement God gives us the path for increasing faith thru the hearing of His Word and thru a developing relationship with Him. The greatest compliment one man can give another is to say, "I have faith in you, I trust you and what you say". In a similar fashion that is the pleasure God receives as we wholeheartedly say and prove to Him that we have Faith and Trust in Him and His level of provision for us no matter the circumstances of this temporal life we live. Do you want God's blessings, then ask God to increase your faith and then believe that He has your best interest at heart... He will deliver on His promise. AMEN

Pastor Mike brings a word on Faith this morning and during the message God redirects the content. The Lord spoke to all of us through the requirement of having Faith in God that takes us through the seasons of our life. God allows and brings things into our life that He calls "good" while possibly we call "bad" yet in the end, if we allow Him control, He brings grace and victory to the humble in spirit and destruction to the proud heart that He detests. Faith is the key ingredient in living a life of humility when one trusts God in all circumstances. It's as we cry out to God to increase our faith as we humbly lay our life before Him as a sacrifice of obedient worship and honor... Will you travel that road with us?

Pastor Mike talks about the importance of God given unity in the body of Christ. Often unity is confused with man-made uniformity which is at best a temporary attempt of unity. God gives unity in the body through the power of the Holy Spirit which depends on people allowing the diversity of their spiritual gifts to be used to build up the body. Uniformity would have a contrary effect as it would tend to make everyone the same, which limits the ability for God to use people in the way that He created them. Unity requires agreement of fundamental Christian beliefs regarding salvation and other major Bible given directives, and allows personal opinions on minor points to differ as long as people maintain agreement on keeping Jesus at the Center Point...

Pastor Mike continues in the vein of Worship again this week and brings a clear call to the life of every believer regarding who or what we worship and the power that God entrusted us with as He gave us free choice to Worship whatever we honor as worthy... The statement was made - "Whatever you Worship during your week determines how you Praise & Worship God on Sunday". If it's difficult to Praise and Worship God as you have opportunity, then it begs the question, what are you worshipping in your life? The Worship Driven Life is a call for all of us Worship God only as He so badly desires of us...

Pastor Mike discusses Worship this morning taking off from a message he preached a couple weeks ago on what a typical service is like at Center Point. In that message he talked about Worship and mentioned that Worship is too important of a topic to cover in one setting... So he digs a deeper into what Worship is really about and how IMPORTANT and POWERFUL it is in our lives... Basically, what a person WORSHIPS ultimately becomes his "god"... If we don't Worship God as we were created to do, we are placing 'idols' in our life and God is violently against idol worship of any kind... This message will encourage you to evaluate your life as it did Pastor Mike's, - Is my life lining up consistently with my Christian claims to Worship God alone? Or am I placing worldly temporal things in the place of worship in my life - which is by definition 'idol worship'?

Pastor Mike talks about the future as Paul has instructed us to in Philippians 3 where Paul lets go of the past, in fact he says he forgets the past and strains for the future. Meaning he works to let go and works harder to move forward. When we do that we have great rewards as promised in our eternal home...

Pastor Mike takes an exploratory look at what a typical service is like at Center Point. He breaks down each component of the service and tries to explain the biblical context of what we do and why we do it according to scripture. We stress at Center Point the unerring Word of God and strive to make everything we do in our service to bring Glory to Jesus. We prioritize Jesus as the focus and the 'Center Point' of our lives in and out of our Church service and body...

This week Aubrey Way shares her experience as she has recently returned from an outreach with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). She spent time in her Discipleship Training School (DTS) in Kona, and the 3 months in Nepal and Tibet. She shares of her exciting trip and how Jesus made himself known time and again in her life, in her team and to those they ministered to. After this Pastor Mike shares a short focus for our church as we move into 2013...

Pastor Mike takes the "Time" this morning to talk about "Time" and it's results... Jesus has given us the choice to accept His sacrifice for our sin - that's the gift of eternal life, it's now our choice to accept that and live in it - or not... That's the path that leads to eternal life - a path of "Reward". Its a path available to everyone if we so choose... There's also a path called "Regret", also available to everyone. The question for each of us, which will you and I choose? God's Word gives us clear instruction and God has given us the Power of the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us... Are you asking for His help? You can and you can begin today to choose the path of "Reward". Join us...

Pastor Mike talks this morning about the true meaning of Christmas as he continues in his series of what it means to know Jesus. This morning he describes Jesus as the "Gift of the Second Chance". Mankind, made in the perfect image of the Trinity, in a single act of disobedience and rebellion broke the heart of God and the eternal union thereof - hence death and destruction entered humanity. Jesus was thereafter was willingly sent into the world to become the Gift to all mankind as the "Second Chance". As we individually un-wrap and apply this "Gift" in our lives, Jesus gives us eternal life again... What a sacrificial gift this is... The question is - what are you doing with it? Have you opened it? Are you living in it?

Pastor Mike continues teaching how to know Jesus in the "Middle of our lives" and how to apply the principles to living our every day lives. We were given an edifying word during Praise & Worship by a young man that fits perfectly into the message encouraging us to remember how big God is and how perfectly He loves us. With that as a foundation we learn to pray and trust God in the doldrums of living realizing that God is always working on our behalf for our benefit, IF we are a Child of God and keeping Him at our "Center Point"... God's love is perfect and unconditional, God's blessings come to those that ask and trust...

Pastor Mike continues in the series "To Know Jesus..." The message begins with a testimony of a young man in our congregation that gives Jesus all the Glory for setting him free to a new life for Jesus... This week we discuss the significance of being "Devoted to Truth". One can be devoted to many things that don't lead to Jesus who is the only way to the Father. Therefore care must be taken to be sure that what one is "devoted to truth" leads them to Jesus and not down a path of hollow and deceptive philosophies... The way to guard one's heart is to stay grounded in the Word of God. The enemy is a deceiver and his strategy is to twist the Word of God leading us into a path of partial truths which leads to destruction... Listen on how we combat that slippery slope of un-truth...

Pastor Mike continues on the topic of *Knowing Jesus* and the attributes thereof. This message is about how we are to *Dwell in the Land* that promotes Jesus in our life. The enemy brings much confusion as to what the *Land* is that we are to dwell in. We are to dwell in the *land of the eternal* not the land of the temporary things of this world. Basically we dwell in the presence of the Lord... How do we do that? This message helps us learn how...

Pastor Mike continues down the path of what it means "To Know Jesus so that we can make Him known". This week we begin with the size of God, based on Isaiah 40:12 - God measures the heavens with the span of his hand - meaning God is indescribably huge and we are unable to comprehend Him in all of His glory... Yet the more amazing thing is "He" still knows us personally and is jealous for our quiet times with Him. It's in the quiet times that we get to know Jesus... Listen in for more details... Remember God loves you!