Sunday September 30, 2012 at DCC

Welcome to Dakota Community Church

Grace, Freedom, Laughter

Good morning!

Today we are continuing or journey through the Book of Ephesians beginning with a look at the ministry gifts and jumping off from there to examine the rest of the gifts of the Spirit mentioned in other places in the New Testament.

Are these gifts still functioning or did they cease to be part of God’s plan for the church with the advent of the Bible?

Enjoy the service and please follow along in the scriptures using the links below.

Scripture for today’s sermon:

Ephesians 4:1-16; 1 Corinthians 13:8-11; 1 Corinthians 13:12; Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 1 Cor. 12:27-31  Romans 11:28-29; Colossians 3:23-24; Hebrews 3:1; Romans 1:5; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15; 1 Corinthians 9:1-2; Revelation 21:14; Acts 11:27-30; Acts 13:1-12; Acts 19:1-6; Acts 21:7-14; 1 Corinthians 14; 2 Timothy 4:1-6; Acts 21:8            

 

Sunday Morning Preview

This Sunday morning we will continue our examination of the book of Ephesians - diving further into Paul’s explanation of how this message of grace actually looks as it is lived out by believers in relationship with each other in the Church. 

The scriptures tell us that God has called us to unity in the Body and that he has also given us various and diverse gifts that we are to offer and receive in service to each other and in some cases to the community outside. (Unity not uniformity). As far as the gifts go; there are the “ministry gifts” mentioned in our text, the “motivational gifts” seen in Romans 12:4-8, and the “spiritual gifts” recorded in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. The plan is to spend the next few sermons examining each of the gifts, learning their character and function, and applying that learning to our ministry lives together.

I hope to see you Sunday morning for: “Grace at Work 6 - Understanding Gifts and Service” 

Sunday September 23, 2012

Welcome to Dakota Community Church

Grace, Freedom, Laughter

Good morning!

Today we welcome Danene Goulet and the women of Teen Challenge Brandon.

Enjoy the worship and the powerful testimonies of God’s ability to set people free from any and all types of bondage.

 

 

Sunday Morning Preview - September 23, 2012

Teen Challenge of Central Canada is a 12-month Christian discipleship program for men & woman struggling with a drug or alcohol addiction.

The first Teen Challenge centre was founded by the late David Wilkerson, author of The Cross and the Switchblade, more than 50 years ago in Brooklyn NY. Today Teen Challenge operates more than 1000 programs in 80 countries around the globe, making it the largest and most successful faith-based drug treatment program in the world.

Teen Challenge of Central Canada began in 1995 with a small 10-bed trailer in Hadashville, Manitoba. Today there are men's homes in Winnipeg, Denare Beach and Thunder Bay as well as a woman's home in Brandon.

Join us this Sunday Morning at DCC as Danene Goulet and the women of Teen Challenge Brandon share the good news of God’s powerful deliverance! 

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed...” - Jesus

Welcome To DCC - September 16, 2012

Welcome to Dakota Community Church

Grace, Freedom, Laughter

Good morning!

Today we begin with a review of “law and gospel” before looking at how we are to understand God’s gifts to the church and how we are to serve one another.

Enjoy the service and please follow along in the scriptures using the links below.

Scripture for today’s sermon:

Ephesians 4:1-16; Galatians 4:21-31; Luke 7:31-34; Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; Romans 11:28-29 

 

Sunday Morning Preview

This Sunday morning we will continue our examination of the book of Ephesians - diving further into Paul’s explanation of how this message of grace actually looks as it is lived out by believers in relationship with each other in the Church. 

We have seen that unity amoung believers requires humility and patience from all, but that this unity is not meant to result in uniformity. God desires us to be “One in Christ” but He does not want us to be all exactly the same; in fact, as we will see this week, it is God who is the author of the gifts and that the gifts themselves are varied in both character and function. Clearly this sets up a situation in the Church that will require constant reliance upon the Holy Spirit if schism and division is to be avoided. (Now doesn’t that explain a few things?)

Hope to see you Sunday morning for: “Grace at Work 5 - Understanding Gifts and Service” 

Prayer Changes Us

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. - Matthew 6:8

You might wonder, "Why does God insist that we pray to him and tell him our problems? Why doesn't he take care of us with- out our having to ask? He already knows what we need better than we do." God continually showers his gifts on the whole world every day. He gives us sunshine, rain, good harvests, money, healthy bodies, and so on. But we often neither ask God for these gifts nor thank him for them. If God already knows that we can't live without light or food for any length of time, then why does he want us to ask for these necessities?

Obviously, he doesn't command us to pray in order to inform him of our needs. God gives us his gifts freely and abundantly. He wants us to recognize that he is willing and able to give us even more. When we pray, we're not telling God anything he doesn't already know. Rather, we are the ones gaining knowledge and insight. Asking God to supply our needs keeps us from becoming like the unbelieving skeptics, who don't acknowledge God and don't thank him for his many gifts.

All of this teaches us to acknowledge God's generosity even more. Because we continue to search for him and keep on knocking at his door, he showers us with more and more blessings. Everything we have is a gift from God. When we pray, we should express our gratitude by saying, "Lord, I know that I can't create a single slice of my daily bread. You are the only one who can supply all of my needs. I have no way to protect myself from disasters. You know what I need ahead of time, so I'm convinced that you will take care of me."

From Faith Alone: A Daily Devotional by Martin Luther, James C. Galvin. ©2005 by Zondervan. All rights reserved. No part may be reproduced without written permission from Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49530. Sent from the Martin Luther's Faith Alone Devotional. For devotionals like this one for your iPhone, visit us at 43rdElement.com

Grace, Freedom, Laughter! 

Welcome To Dakota

Welcome to Dakota Community Church

Grace, Freedom, Laughter

Good morning!

Today we are looking at how we live out the gospel where the rubber meets the road.

Enjoy the service and please follow along in the scriptures using the links below.

Scripture for today’s sermon:

Ephesians 4:1-16; Colossians 3:12-13; Matthew 5:22; 1 Peter 2:13-25

 

Sunday September 9 at DCC

This Sunday morning we will share communion and then continue to look at the necessary ingredients for establishing and maintaining unity in the church as laid out by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:2 

Having already looked at the need for humility, gentleness, and patience when dealing with fellow believers; this week our attention turns to an ingredient for unity that I think most of us would rather not offer up.  To forbear is to refrain, to hold back, or to tolerate in the face of provocation. Nothing better than having to tolerate someone in the face of provocation, I always say!

If there is time we will begin to look at the second requirement for unity in the church - (Number 1 was How we treat each other) - “Understanding Gifts and Service.” 

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service (Ephesians 4:11-12)

I hope to see you this Sunday morning for: “Grace at Work 4” 

Doing It My Way

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.John 15:16

A fierce battle has been raging in this world since the very beginning. Cain wanted to choose God on his own terms. He wanted God to value his work and his offering instead of his brother's. The world has followed Cain's example from that day until now. The world always wants to turn this verse in John around and say, "I don't want to be chosen by God; I want to choose him first." But God cannot and will not tolerate this. He turns their words back around and says, "You cannot and should not choose me. I must choose you. It won't happen the way you imagine, but the way I want it to. I want to be your Lord and Master. I don't want to be mastered by you." That's why throughout Scripture God condemns and throws away this type of choosing that goes against what he commands.

Even Paul condemns this vice. He says, "Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you" (Colossians 2:18). Likewise, he says, "Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value" (v. 23). With these words, he describes those who practice useless, self-chosen worship and justify it by saying, "I mean well and am doing it for God and to honor him. It will please him, and so he will be merciful to me." These people are twice as bad as God's enemies. God called the Israelites out of Egypt and gave them the Ten Commandments, telling them what they should and shouldn't do so that they wouldn't invent ways to serve him. In the same way, God wants to tell us what it means to serve him.

From Faith Alone: A Daily Devotional by Martin Luther, James C. Galvin. ©2005 by Zondervan. 

 For devotionals like this one for your iPhone, visit us at 43rdElement.com

Grace, Freedom, Laughter!