DeanSweetman.com » Dean

Ps Mark Kelsey 2nd

Dean — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:55:43 +0000

Ps Mark Kelsey 1st

Dean — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:54:47 +0000

Faith & Vision – Travis Brown

Dean — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:10:40 +0000

Faith & Vision – Kay Weeks

Dean — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:05:00 +0000

Faith & Vision

Dean — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:57:37 +0000

Our church will begin fasting and praying on February 1st for 21 days. This is an opportunity to go to the next level for real this year, to overcome challenges and bring about lasting change. If you fast AND pray, change WILL happen! We look to the New Testament church for examples of how to work together, how to mature in Christ, how to be a “marketplace apostle”. One of the first men to rise up to a new level was Barnabas, a tradesman who, during a time of famine, sold a field he owned and gave all the proceeds to the apostles in Jerusalem to help other believers. Others followed his lead, and the whole church banded together, sharing and selling so that no one would go without. What they owned was not their own. The people made sacrifices for each other, and this was the first example of charity in any culture of that day. Let’s be sure our things aren’t getting in the way of where God wants to take us.

After the famine in Acts 4, a very zealous Jew named Saul was at the stoning of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, a man killed for speaking the truth about the Resurrected Christ. The Christians went into hiding because of the persecution now upon the Church, and in Acts 9 Saul goes to Damascus to kill Christians there who are sharing the Gospel. He actually thinks he is doing God’s will! On the way, the Lord blinds him and he comes to faith in Jesus himself, not eating or drinking for three days afterward. A Christian in the area named Ananias is asked by God to go to Saul, lay hands on him, and let God heal him – however, Ananias has heard Saul will arrest any Christians in the area! After arguing with God, he summons up his courage, lays hands on Saul, and goes so far as to call him “Brother” as he obeys the Big Ask that God had given him. Saul becomes Paul, the greatest apostle to ever live, the one who wrote most of the books of the New Testament, and from whose life we can learn so much about perservering and following the leading of the Holy Spirit! The thing is, he was not even accepted by the local church and the apostles who had been with Jesus until Barnabas, whose name means Son of Encouragement, befriended Paul and vouched for him to the church leaders in Jerusalem. You can’t fulfill your destiny until someone believes in you. It took the courage of Ananias & Barnabas to bring the killer of Christians into the family of the church. People then and now are looking for someone to care for them. We need lots of people to reach out to new folks at C3 this year, and our leadership classes are going to help us get confident as we step out and mature even more.

When God asks us to do something big, something scary, something well and truly out of our comfort zone like He asked of Ananias, we know that by prayer and fasting we can accomplish anything that God has laid before us! He is going to ask us this year to do what we have never done before, therefore it makes sense to prepare ourselves for this year of challenge. You don’t have to be a pastor to bring love and care to people in your world. We have to come out of our immaturity and the mindset that says, “Oh, that’s someone else’s job” and begin to really grow in our faith. This means that the people around us who need help will have someone there to encourage, to mentor, to pray for them – you! When the religious Jews threw Peter in jail for healing a crippled man on the Sabbath in Acts 12, the church was praying for him fervently, but when an angel opened up the jail and got Peter to safety, no one praying at the house believed it was really him knocking on the door! These people had seen the house shake with the power of prayer, but had forgotten that God really does work miracles! Don’t pass your miracle off as coincidence, believe that God meant for your prayers to be answered.

We are all currently afraid of something God is asking us to do, some challenge we’ve come up against. God will give us the means to conquer the fear and win the challenge, but we have to step out in 2012 and do what frightens us. This church will go to another place in Christ if we all step out, fast, pray and believe that God wants to do miracles in us, for us and through us. We’re not going to waste 2012, even when unseen tests come at us from left field, like the pain I have been having in my neck all last year. We do not give up, we find a way to make it through the maze of life because God believes in us!

Verses Used:
* Acts 4:31-37
* Acts 9
* Acts 12

Gordon Moore

Dean — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:26:48 +0000

Tim Weeks – The Walking Dead

Dean — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:30:01 +0000

Christmas Eve 2011

Dean — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:53:53 +0000

The Many names of Jesus

Dean — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:38:58 +0000

We want to connect people to Christ and then connect them to their destiny. We want to connect people to what is next; we believe there is always another next. There is so much potential. Potential is useless unless you use it. If you don’t listen to those placed in your life, if you are not coachable, then that potential will fail you and you will live life full of regret and misery. There is unlimited potential when you are obedient to Christ.

The prophesy of the Messiah found in Isaiah 9 was made hundreds of years before Jesus was born. God: Father , Son, and Holy Spirit and angels were deciding what to do to get man back, how to redeem humanity. God longed for that fellowship with us. Who would have that that God would change the world with the birth of a baby? When God is getting ready to do things in our life, we have to remember that it will not always be in the way we expect.

Isaiah says Jesus will be called four things. ‘Wonderful Counselor’ speaks to us of the wisdom of Christ. You can’t look to other sources for the answers we need in our human lives. All the answers come from Jesus. You will be baffled by things, and you may look everywhere else for answers instead of the words in red. There is only one source that will get you through 2012 better than 2011. You should not try to live your life by other any other direction, than by the wisdom of Christ. Get closer to Jesus in 2012. The closer you get to someone, the more you get from them, the better communication flows. The wisdom of Christ is going to come by the people He puts in your life sometimes, and is going to come by revelation through His Word. You will read the Bible, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit will take the words on that page and give you just what you need.

Jesus is called ‘Mighty God.’ He is God in the flesh. Why? So when you read about Jesus, you can relate to Him. He came to earth to show His character. He came to help people. He was all God and all man. Jesus was the perfect visual image of God. People put their faith into things that are here today and gone tomorrow. We lose every time, unless we listen to Jesus. Jesus has the answers we need.

Jesus is called ‘Eternal Father.’ He is the son, but he has father-like qualities. He comes into our life like a friend sometimes. But, He also brings security, provision, authority, vision and discipline like a father. Fathers are involved on the lives of their children. Fathers are concerned with how their children are going to turn out. A father can bring guidance and vision to their children. Jesus will bring vision into your lives this year.

Jesus is called Prince of peace. He wants to be lord of your emotional life. Jesus is the One who will settle your soul. 2012 is going to be about dreams and visions in your life that you have asked God to help you with for years. Some of these things are going to come to pass in your life this year.

Verses Used:
*Isaiah 9:6-7

The First Family – Tim Weeks

Dean — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:32:48 +0000