REASONS WE GATHER:
- to corporately experience and ponder the beauty of God - "Religious people find God useful. Christians find God beautiful."
- to remember that there is a KING and it's not me.
- to remember grace is free, but not cheap.
- to remember that the worship service doesn't begin at church on Sunday morning; it's everyday
+ everywhere. - to experience the counter-cultural truth – “it is better to give that to receive” (Acts 20:35).
- to “encourage one another daily…so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Heb. 3:13).
- to remember that our lives do not center around us.
- to remember that HE is superior to the many fruitless joys + fleeting thrills found in this broken world.
- because when two or three gather is HIS name, HE is there is a special way.
- to spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Heb 10:24).
- to worship the ONE who will one day set all things right (Acts 17:30-31).
- to be reminded of what our KING wants - valiant devotion + courageous love.
- to center our lives on the transformational Gospel of Jesus the Messiah.
- to equip the saints for works of service and to "live sent" (Eph. 4:11).
- to see and experience God’s truth the way it was intended to be – i.e., in community.
- to be reminded that nothing is ever truly ours unless it is given away (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).
- to remember that life is a journey and to honestly examine our current course of life. Are we headed in the right direction?
- to remember that we are God’s blood-bought and redeemed people, created for “good works” (Eph. 2:10).
- to be reminded that we weren't made for this world (the way it is); we were made for another world (how the world was and one day will be).
- to center our lives on what's most important.
- to remember and experience the fact that we are eternally accepted and loved.
- to be reminded that repentance, not perfectionism, is the sure sign of the Gospel taking root in one's life.
- to be encouraged to let go of our failures and fears and to grab hold of the forgiveness and healing found in GOSPEL.
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