Sunday August 4, 2013 at DCC

This Sunday at Dakota Community Church the plan is to continue our Summer 2013 series, “Building Community” (based on a portion of “Gospel in Life” by Tim Keller) with the fourth of nine sermons, this one entitled - “Sharing One Another’s Goods, Space, and Time.” 

As Christians the bible teaches that we are to invite one another into our living spaces, our homes that is. 

We are to share life together - eating, studying, playing, praying, and so on - together. 

In the most practical ways, christians are to help each other, providing for needs, being available to one another, meeting together with regularity.

These are the ingredients of healthy community, these are the things we are seeking to be better at!

I hope you’ll join me on this journey.

Welcome to Dakota Community Church - July 28, 2013

Welcome to Dakota Community Church

Grace, Freedom, Laughter

This morning we continue our 2013 Summer Series on Building Community with a sermon entitled; “Affirming One Another Through Visible Signs of Affection.”

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

Scripture for today’s sermon:

Romans 16:1-16; 1 Corinthians 16:19-20; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; 1 Peter 5: 13-14; James 1:19-20; Ephesian 4:31-32    

 

Sunday Morning Preview - July 28, 2013

This Sunday at Dakota Community Church the plan is to continue our Summer 2013 series, “Building Community” (based on a portion of “Gospel in Life” by Tim Keller) with the third of nine sermons, this one entitled - “Affirming One Another Through Visible Affection.” 

In all honesty I am not a big fan of public displays of affection. 

Big surprise I know!

When it comes to hugs and hand shakes I tend to become uncomfortable, very aware of my personal space and sometimes even, thanks to Howie Mandel I think, a little germaphobic.

The question is - is it okay for me, and for christians like me; to shrug our shoulders and say, “That’s just how I am, if you have a problem with it - get over it?” 

I want to give myself an unqualified “yes - that is okay” answer to that, but the Bible must be considered... 

Hope you’ll join me Sunday morning,

Welcome - July 21, 2013

Welcome to Dakota Community Church

Grace, Freedom, Laughter

This morning we continue our 2013 Summer Series on Building Community with a sermon entitled; "Affirming One Another's Equal Importance In Christ".

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

Scripture for today's sermon:

Galatians 3; Romans 15:5-7; Acts 9:10-19; Galatians 2:11-14; James 2:1-6    

 

Sunday Morning Preview - July 21, 2013

This Sunday at Dakota Community Church we will be continuing our “Building Community”  summer series with Week Two’s sermon entitled - “Affirming One Another’s Equal Importance in Christ.”

In this world most of us face rejection in one form or another for a multitude of terrible reasons. Whether it be the colour of our skin, our national, religious, or economic heritage, our gender, or some other identifying mark that sets us apart from the majority - we know the painful sting and the infuriating sense of injustice that accompanies this kind of rejection. 

That sting rises to entirely new heights when we suffer it at the hands of a fellow Christian.

This should never be - it cannot be allowed to be!

I hope you will join me this Sunday as we build community together at DCC.

Welcome - July 14, 2013

Welcome to Dakota Community Church

Grace, Freedom, Laughter

This morning we launch our 2013 Summer Series on Building Community with a sermon entitled; “Affirming One Another’s Strengths and Gifts”.

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

Scripture for today’s sermon:

1 Peter 2:9-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-15; Matthew 5:13-16; Hebrews 10:19-25; Romans 12:9-10; James 5:9-11; Romans 12:3-8             

 

After the Suffering

After that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

1 Peter 5:10

You have seen the arch of heaven as it spans the plain: glorious are its colours, and rare its hues. It is beautiful, but, alas, it passes away, and lo, it is not. The fair colours give way to the fleecy clouds, and the sky is no longer brilliant with the tints of heaven. It is not established. How can it be? A glorious show made up of transitory sun-beams and passing rain-drops, how can it abide? The graces of the Christian character must not resemble the rainbow in its transitory beauty, but, on the contrary, must be stablished, settled, abiding. Seek, O believer, that every good thing you have may be an abiding thing. May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! May your faith be no baseless fabric of a vision, but may it be builded of material able to endure that awful fire which shall consume the wood, hay, and stubble of the hypocrite. May you be rooted and grounded in love. May your convictions be deep, your love real, your desires earnest. May your whole life be so settled and established, that all the blasts of hell, and all the storms of earth shall never be able to remove you. But notice how this blessing of being stablished in the faith is gained. The apostle's words point us to suffering as the means employed-After that ye have suffered awhile. It is of no use to hope that we shall be well rooted if no rough winds pass over us. Those old gnarlings on the root of the oak tree, and those strange twistings of the branches, all tell of the many storms that have swept over it, and they are also indicators of the depth into which the roots have forced their way. So the Christian is made strong, and firmly rooted by all the trials and storms of life. Shrink not then from the tempestuous winds of trial, but take comfort, believing that by their rough discipline God is fulfilling this benediction to you. 

  Sent from the Morning and Evening Devotional, by Charles Spurgeon. For devotionals like this one for your iPhone, visit us at 43rdElement.com

Sent from my iPhone

This Summer at Dakota Community Church

Please join us!

Welcome - July 7, 2013

Welcome to Dakota Community Church

Grace, Freedom, Laughter

This morning we launch our 2013 Summer Series on Building Community with a sermon entitled; “Affirming One Another’s Strengths and Gifts”.

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

Scripture for today’s sermon:

1 Peter 2:9-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-15; Matthew 5:13-16; Hebrews 10:19-25; Romans 12:9-10; James 5:9-11; Romans 12:3-8             

 

Sunday Morning Preview - July 7, 2013

This Sunday at Dakota Community Church we will kick off our exciting, and much needed summer 2013 series; “Building Community” with Week One’s sermon entitled - “Affirming One Another’s Strengths and Gifts.” 

As the DCC Book Club was going through the “Gospel in Life” DVD and Study Guide by Tim Keller last summer, everyone agreed that this material was something that desperately needed to be shared with the whole Dakota congregation and the plan was put in place then to do just that this year!

I hope you will be in prayer for our church body and plan to attend as many of the next nine Sundays as possible (or catch up on-line); as this series has the potential to be pivotal in the life of DCC.

Hope to see you Sunday when the saints gather

Welcome June 30, 2013

Welcome to Dakota Community Church

Grace, Freedom, Laughter

Thank-you for joining us on this Canada Day long weekend!

This morning We welcome, all the way from Halifax Nova Scotia; award winning singer/songwriter Elizabeth Deveau.

Enjoy the service.

 

Sunday Morning Preview - June 30, 2013

This Sunday at DCC we welcome Christian singer/songwriter and recording artist Elizabeth Deveau. Elizabeth is a multi-award winning Christian songwriter and recording artist from Halifax, NS and a very active member of City Church (The Church where I was Youth Pastor for 7 years before the move to Winnipeg) under the direction of Pastor Gerry Kendrick.

My sermon this week is an exposition of Ephesians 4:29-30. 

• What exactly is meant by the phrase “corrupting talk”? 
• Is Paul saying that Christians should never speak words of rebuke or correction? What if someone’s feelings get hurt or if they are offended?
• What is positive confession theology and what if anything is wrong with it?

I hope to see you at Church this Sunday at 10:30!

A Cake Not Turned

Ephraim is a cake not turned.

Hosea 7:8

A cake not turned is uncooked on one side; and so Ephraim was, in many respects, untouched by divine grace: though there was some partial obedience, there was very much rebellion left. My soul, I charge thee, see whether this be thy case. Art thou thorough in the things of God? Has grace gone through the very centre of thy being so as to be felt in its divine operations in all thy powers, thy actions, thy words, and thy thoughts? To be sanctified, spirit, soul, and body, should be thine aim and prayer; and although sanctification may not be perfect in thee anywhere in degree, yet it must be universal in its action; there must not be the appearance of holiness in one place and reigning sin in another, else thou, too, wilt be a cake not turned.

A cake not turned is soon burnt on the side nearest the fire, and although no man can have too much religion, there are some who seem burnt black with bigoted zeal for that part of truth which they have received, or are charred to a cinder with a vainglorious Pharisaic ostentation of those religious performances which suit their humour. The assumed appearance of superior sanctity frequently accompanies a total absence of all vital godliness. The saint in public is a devil in private. He deals in flour by day and in soot by night. The cake which is burned on one side, is dough on the other.

If it be so with me, O Lord, turn me! Turn my unsanctified nature to the fire of thy love and let it feel the sacred glow, and let my burnt side cool a little while I learn my own weakness and want of heat when I am removed from thy heavenly flame. Let me not be found a double-minded man, but one entirely under the powerful influence of reigning grace; for well I know if I am left like a cake unturned, and am not on both sides the subject of thy grace, I must be consumed for ever amid everlasting burnings. 

  Sent from the Morning and Evening Devotional, by Charles Spurgeon. For devotionals like this one for your iPhone, visit us at 43rdElement.com

Grace, Freedom, Laughter! 

Welcome to DCC - June 23, 2013

Welcome to Dakota Community Church

Grace, Freedom, Laughter

This morning’s sermon is Part 3 of “No Longer Steal, Rather Work & Contribute”.

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

Scripture for today’s sermon:

Ephesians 4:25-5:4; 1 Corinthians 7:21; Matthew 7:17-20; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; 1 Timothy 6:1-21; John 18:36; 1Timothy 6:7-8

 

Sunday Morning Preview - June 23, 2013

Besides all the usual great reasons to attend Sunday morning at Dakota Community Church, this week we will also have a huge blow-out give away of accumulated Operation Sunshine supplies. 

Items up for grabs include: various types of lawn fertilizer, weed controller, and grass seed, indoor and outdoor christmas lights, a beautiful room heater, some craft supplies, and a wide assortment of the usual other goodies.

As far as teaching in the word goes, the plan is to wrap up our study of Ephesians 4:28 with a few concluding thoughts re: “The Doctrine of Vocation” and then to move on to an in depth look at the call upon all of us to prefer others above ourselves by having enough to share with any who have need.

I hope to see you all at Church this Sunday at 10:30!

Doctrine of Vocation

Here is the link to the "Doctrine of Vocation" Sermon preached Sunday June 9, 2013 at:
  Dakota Community Church

Welcome - June 9, 2013

Welcome to Dakota Community Church

Grace, Freedom, Laughter

This morning’s sermon is Part 2 of “No Longer Steal, Rather Work & Contribute”.

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

Scripture for today’s sermon:

Ephesians 4:25-5:4; 1 Corinthians 7:17-24; Isaiah 64:6; Hebrews 11:6; Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:20-22; Colossians 3:18-25; 1 Corinthians 7:21        

 

Sunday Morning Preview - June 9, 2013

This Sunday morning as we continue our study of Ephesians 4:28 we will be taking a deeper look at what has been known in times past as the “Doctrine of Vocation.” 

This important biblical teaching has been largely lost to much of the church in recent decades as we have been swept up in the belief that only church jobs are “callings” and that in order to really glorify God every believer must be a leader of some sort and demonstrate this by stepping out into some type of church related “ministry” in order to use their God given gifts.

A few of the ideas I am excited to discuss include: Loving and serving our neighbours through regular jobs, eliminating the need for hokey “Christian” versions of everything, work as worship that is glorifying to God, loving your job no matter what it is; and the sacred vocation of family responsibility.

Hope to see you Sunday at 10:30

Welcome - June 2, 2013

Welcome to Dakota Community Church

Grace, Freedom, Laughter

This morning’s sermon is entitled “No Longer Steal, Rather Work & Contribute”

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

Scripture for today’s sermon:

Ephesians 4:25-5:4; Genesis 3:17-19; Ecclesiastes 5:18-19; Exodus 20:15; 1 Corinthians 6:7-11; 1 Timothy 3:8-9; James 5:1-8; 1 Corinthians 7:17-24            

 

Sunday Morning Preview - June 2, 2013

How many times have you been reading a book or watching a film about a great bank heist or some other elaborate theft and found yourself hoping that the lovable bad guys will manage to get away with it? What is it that is so appealing to us when the crew reassembles “six months later” on some Caribbean beach to divvy up the ill-gotten gains and to embark on their happy lives of leisure and indulgence?

Could it be the same thing that drives many people to buy lottery tickets - even though they know the terrible odds? “Everybody's got a dream” after all. - Right? 

This Sunday morning in the Word we will face the reality that although WORK IS HARD, it is nonetheless a big part of God’s plan for us. I hope to see you all when the saints gather!