This Week's Sermons

When God Lends a Hand
by Brian Atwood
Acts 11:19-30

Notice Acts 11:21 from our scripture reading: “And THE HAND OF THE LORD WAS WITH THEM and a great number believed, and turned to the Lord.” The church at Antioch was a CONTAGIOUS CONGREGATION. The fact that “a great number believed, and turned to the Lord,” gets our attention. I want to emphasize today the first reason this was true: “the hand of the Lord was with them.” This phrase appears 38 times in scripture. It is used to refer to the display of God’s power. I want to talk today about power in the church.

A Church of Excellence: Mission
by James Capps
Acts 13:1-3

We have the last two weeks been looking at how we can become a church of excellence. How can we move from being a “nice” church...to a church that makes a difference? A couple of weeks I shared that I have heard from people—even those who don’t attend church—that we are a “nice” church. Can you imagine the church in Jerusalem being called a “nice church”?

The Church on the Launching Pad
by Jerry Shirley
Acts 13:1-3

...In Acts 13, the church is on the launching pad, the gospel is on the move, foreign missions gets its birth here w/the first missionaries sent out of the church. And what started in the hearts of a few people is about to be sent to the far reaches of the globe. And that’s what the Lord wanted, right?

Church Expansion in Antioch
by Otis McMillan
Acts 11:19-21

The early Christian Church grew rapidly as the Holy Spirit guided it through conflict, prejudice and crisis. It seems that none of the Jews including Peter really understood that God would bring salvation to the whole world. During this time, Saul was converted and his testimony added fuel to the revival fires. Now gentiles were eagerly responding to the good news of Jesus Christ. One of most exciting events happened in Acts 10, Cornelius, as a God fearing centurion, a Roman commander and his family were saved and received the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The Antioch Church
by Jeff Simms
Acts 11:19-26

Purpose Statement: To renew our focus on becoming a New Testament missions minded church. In many churches these days, the buzz word is “purpose statement.” Churches and church leaders are in many churches trying to put together a statement that reflects what their purpose is as a church. I recently researched this and looked at several churches in Houston and Dallas to see what they said about themselves. Here are just a few...

This Week's Videos

Offered by: BlueFish TV Bubble Creek Canyon Time: 2:55 Take a tour of Bubble Creek Canyon, a master-planned community where you can live in a Christian bubble and truly be set apart. This exaggerated illustration challenges us to make an impact in our world. Click to watch »

Offered by: SermonSpice Why Church? Time: 2:22 This film asks, “Can Christians flourish and grow spiritually apart from the church—alone?” This film states in biblical and practical terms why attending church is imperative to the Christian growth. Click to watch »

Offered by: WorshipHouse Media Pots Time: 2:12 A modern take on the parable of sower. A man visits several pots to see what has grown (or not grown) since he planted his seeds. A great video for any weekend on spiritual growth. Click to watch »

Offered by: SermonSpice Planning for Growth Time: 1:12 The Beverly Hillbillies star in this charming video the planning for growth! Great for messages about growing, spiritual growth, maturing in faith, parenting, children, prayer, reading the bible, evangelism, sharing your faith, telling others, witnessing, testimony, outreach, church growth, salvation and many more topics! Click to watch »

Offered by: WorshipHouse Media Every Neighborhood Time: 1:35 This video is a great “call to arms” to get your congregation inspired to share and evangelize in their neighborhood and community. Click to watch »

This Week's Sermon Illustrations

Result of Antioch
Contributor: Mark Opperman

... What was the result of Barnabas and Saul investing one year of their lives in the city of Antioch? V.26 says they taught great numbers of people. Now, obviously this was all about the Lord, not about Barnabas and Saul; however, the Lord used them to build His church in that city. Sometime in the 4th century (maybe 300 years after Barnabas and Saul were there) Chrysostom relates that the Christian population of Antioch was about 100,000 people. Not bad for a city with a population of 200,000. …

A Quarter at a Time
Source: Fred Craddock
Contributor: Rodney Buchanan

“To give my life for Christ appears glorious. To pour myself out for others ... to pay the ultimate price of martyrdom—I’ll do it. I’m ready, Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory. We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table: ‘Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all.’ But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kid’s troubles instead of saying, ‘Get lost.’ Go to a committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home. …

Ignatius at Antioch
Source: Foxe's Book of Martyrs
Contributor: Clark Tanner

A.D. 110. Ignatius, overseer of the church in Antioch, was arrested and sent to Rome for preaching Christ. Facing martyrdom, he wrote this to the church at Rome. “Now I begin to be a disciple. I care for nothing of visible or invisible things so that I may but win Christ.…

Continue reading this FREE illustration»

You Are My Sunshine
Contributor: Johnny Creasong

Karen was expecting another child and so she worked to prepare little three-year-old Michael for the birth of his baby sister. Every night Michael saying to his sister in his mother’s tummy. During the delivery of the baby serious complications developed. After many hours of struggle, Michael’s little sister was born. But she was in very serious condition. She was rushed to a neonatal intensive care unit in another hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee. Instead of getting better, the little girl continued to decline. The pediatric specialist told Karen and her husband, “There is very little hope. Be prepared for the worst.”…

Bring Back the Rotary Phone?
Contributor: Mark Brunner

There are three things you can do in life when confronted by change. You can examine the change, judge its merits and incorporate it into your life. You can, upon that same examination, deem it unworthy or foolhardy and courageously push it out of your way. And, finally, motivated by fear, you can pull over to the side of the road and let it rush past you. The first and second alternatives feed on courage. The latter feeds on your fears.…

Happy With Attendance
Source: The Church Growth of Philippine Missionary Fellowship
Contributor: Joel Santos

The result of nationwide statistical survey...for the evangelical churches in the Philippines, the average church membership during their regular worship services attendance is ranging only from 50 to 80 believers. The real reason according to her is not the limitation of the growth expansion of churches but the contentment of church workers in maintaining this average number of attendance...

You Cannot Serve Him Alone
Contributor: From Charles Wallis’ Sermon “Right Relationships, Right People”

John Wesley: Desired personal holiness, but felt like a failure. A serious man speaking to John Wesley, “Sir, you wish to serve God and to heaven? Remember that you cannot serve him alone. You must therefore find companions or make them; the Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.” Wesley’s “Holy Club” was mocked by calling them “Methodists.” …

Edgar’s Story
Contributor: Randy Aly

Steve Bouman tells the story: We began to find our power as a congregation in New Jersey as a matter of being a place where you can go when there’s no where else to go. When you invite the poor and the homeless, they do come such as Edgar. He is by anybody’s standards a strange character. He lives alone in the nearby welfare motel better known for drug addicts and prostitutes than for the righteous. For some reason, he adopted our church and there are times when he pushed our understanding of what we mean when we say that all God’s children are welcome. …

Prayer = Growth
Contributor: Ed Wood

Church growth expert, George Barna found that prayer was the foundational ministry of rapidly growing churches in America. He wrote: “The call to prayer [in these churches] was the battle cry of the congregation: it rallied the troops. These people understood the power of prayer. …”

What is the Purpose of the Church?
Contributor: Michael McCartney

James White states: Church growth consultant Win Arn has observed something even more disturbing. Arn conducted a survey in which he interviewed the members of nearly one thousand churches in regard to what they perceived to be the mission of the church. Eighty-nine percent said the church exists “To take care of my family’s and my needs.’…

This Week's PowerPoint Templates

Handshake 2

Salt 2

Growth

Make Disciples

Upcoming Topic

Forgiveness