GATHER (Week 6 & 7): We Gather to Celebrate!

KEY VERSES: Acts 2:37-47 (NASB)
 
Why do we gather? God gathers His Church for His purposes and His glory! Today we will learn that God gathers us to celebrate His work in our lives. We have been homesteading in the book of Acts 2:37-47 and there is much to learn from the early church in its beginning days. I call those early days the honeymoon phase of the Church, but no relationship stays in the honeymoon. Struggles happen that require a normalization of life. The early church soon realized that Jesus’ return may not happen in the first or second generation of believers like they presumed. Now, 2,000 years later, Jesus has still not returned. That is why we gather—to remember Who brought us together, to celebrate Jesus, and to anticipate the promised Victory that is ever before us!
 
 
We gather to celebrate God and the work God is doing actively in us and through us! We do that by sharing His story by teaching the Bible and by sharing our testimonies. When we share testimonies as we gather, we join with the Apostles and the early church in doing so. The sharing of testimonies is an ancient practice that goes all the way back to the very beginning of the Church, but it is also a means of grace by which we will overcome evil. Listen to Revelation 12:11, “And they overcame him [Satan] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.”
 
 
We are to share our testimonies with one another. Watch Merissa’s Testimony:

 
There are different kinds of testimonies. Testimonies are an essential part of why we gather:
  • When we share our testimonies, we glorify God for the blood of the Lamb by which we are saved. Testimonies first and foremost proclaim the goodness and faithfulness of God!
  • Testimonies also teach about the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ through stories. Stories are powerful! We get a glimpse from one another of how the Christian life is filled with power in the everyday ways. We learn from one another how to put into practice our faith and why hanging on to our faith is so important. Sometimes, we are the only Bible people will read. What does your life teach?
  • Testimonies encourage each of us to persevere in love and good deeds. It’s hard out there and very often testimonies shine God’s light in dark places that each of us experience! We need to see that it is true that we can overcome; that faith does work, that we do have a living hope worth hanging onto. When we gather, we are building one another up in love so that we can be love to our world!
Listen to what we, our gathering at FBC, can be like by God’s grace. From Paul in Colossians 3:14-17, “Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”
 
 
Sharing stories help us live out this truth. We are not celebrating ourselves when we share our testimonies; we are celebrating the gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in each of us and in our church. When we gather faithfully, we have greater power within us to scatter faithfully.
 
 
Ed & Delora Hartsock to share their testimony.

 
We gather to scatter so while we gather let us do so in a way that help us be faithful in our everyday lives in the everyday ways. God loves you! God sees you in all of your situations! God is at work! God will use all of you… All of your story… Will you trust God will all of you and all of your story? Will we trust God with all of FBC and all of our story?
 
Gather Week 6:  Listen to it here
 
 
 
 
 
Week 7 of this series is a celebration in music and sharing.  We invited the group Heartsong to lead our time of worship and share with us.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gather Week 7:  Listen to it here
 
 
The video series can be found by clicking HERE.
 
 

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