Ccf Sunday Messages

On this communion Sunday, Pastor Steve took a shorter section of Acts as we entered chapter 14, teaching through the first few verses as Paul and his companions have moved on in their journey to the city of Iconium. In verse 2, the passage talks about the local Jews "poisoning the minds" of the people and Pastor Steve took time to make application to what might be poisoning our minds away from the truth of God's word in the present day.

Continuing from our message last week in Acts 13, Paul and his traveling companions are still in Pisidian Antioch, and after the powerful message Paul gave at the synagogue, many have begged him to stay and speak again the following week. But, instead of being glad that people want to hear God's word, the Jews are filled with envy and begin to oppose Paul and the believers. As the Jews reject the message Paul boldly speaks about their focus now turning to the Gentiles who are ready and willing to hear the message. In the end this gets them kicked out of town, but the disciples are filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and continue traveling on.

As we are now following Paul's first missionary journey travels in Acts chapter 13 and beyond, he has left the island of Cyprus and arriving in the area of Pisidia, coming to the town of Pisidian Antioch. Paul goes to the Jewish synagogue and preaches a powerful message walking them through their nation's history, finishing with the story of Jesus as the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Testament. Listen in as Pastor Steve teaches through this section of Acts 13.

One of our elders, Todd Giszack, shares from God's word how we are to understand and perceive the current culture around us, and how God wants us to interact and challenge the social and cultural norms of our day that go against God's design and plan for life. Most importantly we have to understand that the enemy of our souls, the devil, is wanting to kill, steal, and destroy, but 1 Corinthians 15 gives us the beautiful picture of his demise through Christ's victory. Death will be swallowed up in victory!

This day is a time to look back at 2016 and reflect on what the year was like for you. How was 2016? Tough? Painful? Tiring? Great? Full? Disappointing? How would you sum it up? Its also a time to look ahead at 2017. What lies ahead? Are you hopeful? Fearful? Anxious? Maybe you are aware that the month of January was named for the Roman god Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions and doors and gates and time. He was pictured with two faces, one looking forward and the other backwards. In Phil 3, Paul gives some great practical advice on dealing with the past and future. How much time do you spend dwelling on the past? Focusing on past hurts causes deep roots of bitterness that choke out joy and hope and progress. Focusing on past success causes complacency and laziness and even self righteousness. So what do we do with our past? How do we handle the future? Listen in as Pastor Steve shares from Philippians chapter three as we head into 2017!

On this Christmas Eve, Pastor Steve wrapped up a three part series in Luke chapters 1 and 2, focusing on a few key details of the Christmas story. On this night, Pastor Steve talked about peace, and more importantly, why is our world missing a sense of peace when the angels clearly talked about "peace on earth" as part of the promise of Jesus's coming. Listen in as we explore why there is a missing "peace" and how Jesus can provide it personally for those who seek after Him.

For the last week leading up to Christmas Day, Pastor Steve took some time out of our study in Acts to walk through the Christmas story, beginning today with a look at the announcement from the angel Gabriel to Mary in the first chapter of Luke. The amazing part of this story is to consider the age of Mary (a young teen girl, most likely) and her response to the angel to this unlikely visit! Listen in as Pastor Steve talks about a "Christmas Wish"

Jumping into Acts chapter 13, we see the first intentional missionary activity of the early church. As the leadership fasted and prayed, God led them to send out Paul & Barnabas to go start spreading the gospel beyond Antioch. John Mark went along as an assistant. This first section details their time crossing the island of Cyprus from end to end. Pastor Steve talked about the work of God guiding us as we consistently seek Him through prayer and fasting, as the overseers in Antioch did.

For communion Sunday, Pastor Steve is teaching a series about relationships in the context of our faith. Matthew chapter 7 gives us a humorous picture of the "speck" and the "log" to compare and contrast our quickness to judge others versus the way we see ourselves and our sins and mistakes. Pastor Steve exhorts us to use the same measuring stick for others as we measure ourselves with.

Moving from the last few verses of Acts chapter 11 into chapter 12, we encounter what is the first experience of government-led persecution of the church, as Herod Agrippa starts to take action against the leadership of the church. After killing James, he has Peter put in prison awaiting execution after the Passover. The response of the church is "fervent prayer" on behalf of Peter, the beloved apostle and leader of the early church, and miraculously God answers their prayers and frees Peter from prison the night before his execution. Pastor Steve challenges each of us in our commitment to prayer and especially corporate prayer as we desire to be a church that is seeing God work and inviting Him to work through us as a church body!

As we start Acts chapter 11, Peter comes back to the Jewish-centric church in Jerusalem and has to explain (and overcome some criticism about) what has happened at Cornelius's house and why it is now clear that God has accepted the Gentiles into the church by pouring out his Spirit on them as they received the Word of God. Listen in as Pastor Steve shares the truths we find in this chapter and applies this story to our own potential judgements and biases in the church today.

Last week in the first part of Acts 10, we saw the Holy Spirit working in both Cornelius and the apostle Peter to prepare them for this coming together of Jew and Gentile to hear the truth about Jesus and be filled with the Holy Spirit and baptized as full believers! In this section of chapter 10, Peter comes to Cornelius's house, aware now that God has made it possible for him to do that, and as he preaches the word, he is interrupted as they are ready to believe and are filled with the Holy Spirit! Every pastor's dream! Now a new era of the church will begin as Peter and his companions realize that God's good news through Jesus is available to all, not just the Jews.

Pastor Steve continues our study through the book of Acts, where our attention turns to a Gentile, Cornelius, a "God-fearer" who is visited by an angel, starting the wheels in motion for the Gentiles to understand faith in Christ and receive the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile God has to provide a vision to the apostle Peter to help him understand that God is accepting the Gentiles as full participants in the church and receivers of the Spirit's power! Listen in as Pastor Steve unfolds this story in the first section of Acts 10.

Listen in to this powerful testimony from Sarah Liu, a Chinese evangelist saved at age 18, arrested multiple times, and spent 6 years in prison in China for her faith. Sarah was tortured and interrogated, and shares how she found that God gives strength to withstand these trials when we need it. Her joyful hope in Christ even through these trials challenges us here in our comfort and relative ease; listen in to this powerful story!

One of our elders, Dave Vollmer, teaches from Romans 8 on five ways that we are built up and strengthened in our faith through Jesus Christ. Listen in to this message of encouragement to be strengthened in Christ!

Todd Giszack, one of our elders here at CCF, teaches a topical message from Jesus's final words to His disciples in John chapters 13-17 about the promise of the Holy Spirit. Todd provided some great insights on the work of the Holy Spirit in the believers life as the comforter, helper, and teacher of all truth to our hearts.

Pastor Steve finishes up the short section of Acts chapter 9 that almost seems out of place between the story of Saul of Tarsus's conversion and Peter visiting the Gentile believers at Cornelius's house.

Communion Sunday, October 2th, 2016: We step out of our study in the book of Acts to look at the short parable of the wise and foolish builder from Matthew 7. Pastor Steve talks about the importance of taking action on the Word we are hearing, as our decisions will have a huge impact of the direction of our life when the storm comes.

Saul's dramatic conversion sends shock-waves through the early church. He is almost immediately a powerful force for debating with the Jews, proving that Jesus is the Messiah, arguing directly from the scriptures in the synagogues! So much so, that the Jews craft a plot to kill Saul.He has to escape via basket, and as Pastor Steve notes, this is a humbling experience for the Pharisee leader Saul as he becomes the humble Apostle Paul. It also takes awhile for the church to accept this man that just a short time ago was a terror to the church, but godly men like Barnabas bring Saul and explain his transformation to the Jerusalem church leaders.

In Acts chapter 9 the scene shifts back to the fervent Jewish Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus as he plans to travel to Damascus with approval to continue his terrorism of followers of Jesus. What he doesn't know is that God has a plan to meet him on that road to Damascus and totally transform his life! These first 19 verses detail his amazing conversion experience and how God humbles him and chooses him as an ambassador of His to reach the Gentiles.