Living out of Faith, Not Fear

If you didn't make it to worship on November 4, you missed a huge celebration!  There was cake, ice cream, punch, and lots of decorations.  What were we celebrating, you ask?  PAYING OFF OUR 2012 APPORTIONMENTS (Connectional giving) at the end of October!  That is HUGE.  I can't emphasize that enough..... that was a HUGE, BIG DEAL.  It took commitment, sacrifice, faith, and servant hearts.  And that's worth celebrating, big time!

We also celebrated that our church family has grown again.  We welcomed Virgil Glass into membership at Davis Memorial, where he has promised to be loyal to Christ through dmumc through his prayers, his presence, his gifts, his service, and his witness.  Virgil comes to us on profession of faith.  If you haven't had a chance to meet Virgil yet, you can catch him at worship, or at Monday night Bible Study.  Yea Virgil!

We also celebrated that we are OVER 1/3 of the way to our new electronic sign.  If you have not given to this disciple making project yet, I ask you to please prayerfully consider giving a generous gift, so that we may let our community know what they're invited to so that, together, we may nurture our growth in God's grace, learning the ways of God that Jesus taught.  It is a good and worthy project. 

But, if you did miss worship on Nov. 4, you also missed a lesson in living out fear vs. living out of faithfulness.  We talked about two kinds of "what if"..... the kind that is born out of fear, and the kind that is born out of faithfulness.  Living out of fear means staying in our comfort, not moving ahead, not growing,.... dying.  I call it "death by 'what if.'"  But, living out of faith helps us to serve God in ways we never before dreamed possible (like paying our apportionments by October!).  Here's a brief excerpt:

 

What if.....
we here at Davis
were to focus more on the future,
.....and less on the past.
 
What if....
we were to give up
the comfortable and familiar,
for the sake of those
seeking a relationship with God?

What if....

we were to focus as much...

.... or even more ....

on the community

OUTSIDE these walls,

....than the community

INSIDE these walls?

 
What if...
we were to sacrifice time
to nurture our own spiritual growth.....
growing in God’s grace,
nurturing one another’s growth in God’s grace
in order to learn.... AND LIVE....
the ways of God that Jesus taught....
so that we can BE a disciple,
so that we can MAKE disciples?
 
and.....
What if....
What if we were willing to increase our giving....
.... even just a little.....
in order to increase FRUITFUL ministry?

 (and yes, on this last one, I put my giving where my mouth is!)

If you did not hear this message, then I encourage you to go onto the website (dmumc.com), go to Media, then Audio Video, then 11/04/12 Living out of Faith, not Fear. 

 
Grace and peace,

Denise