SOMETHING ABOUT THEM HYMNS

This past Tuesday in our staff meeting we had an unusual experience. After looking at the prayer requests and talking about some of the physical, financial, and spiritual needs we have in our group and church body, we began to worship the Lord. Somehow we started singing one of the old hymns -- and the river opened up. We sang hymn after hymn, and the tears began to flow. It was an awesome time with the Lord...one of those soul-cleansing times.

I began to think, Why does it seem that when one of the hymns that I sang in my childhood is sung I am stirred so deeply inside? Could it be the familiarity of the song? Could it be the nostaglia of days gone by? Could it be a special touch of God's Spirit upon the song? Could it just be the moment of time in which we were singing?

As I reflected back on the morning I had a strong sense that it was all of the above. Many of the hymns were written out of emotional times of deep need in the writers' lives. They emit, as the Greeks would say, "pathos, ethos and logos." The passion and emotion in which we sing these familiar songs enables us to connect with God on a deeper level.

Now don't get me wrong. I love the praise and worship of our generation. But something about this experience on Tuesday really got me thinking about what "good worship" really means. Good worship is connecting with God... and I connected with God this week in a very cool and unexpected way, and I loved it....

Get alone with God sometime this week and allow him to touch your emotions. He is the healer of your heart and He loves to hear you sing....

SUNDAY WRAP UP

Today was a strong day in our worship service. From communion on I felt a special blessing of the Lord's presence with us. The worship teams did an excellent job of leading us into experiencing God. The theme of the service today was "His unconditional love." It is a subject that seems so hard to wrap our hearts and minds around. The performance trap of trying to earn God's love can easily hinder us from coming into a loving relationship with our heavenly Father and having a real relationship with Him. I believe it takes great faith and simple confidence to walk in assurance of knowing that He loves us unconditionally.

I would highly recommend you getting a CD/DVD of today's service.

Here is the outline of this morning's service.

God of the Second Chance

Pt. 2: Love Stinks

Last week I spoke on the God of the Second Chance…When we look at the life of Jonah we see one of the clearest examples of God’s unconditional love demonstrated to any group of people. In my reading this week I came across an outline that Chuck Swindoll wrote that I think accurately describes the life of Jonah..

Chapter 1 -- Jonah runs from God
Chapter 2 -- Jonah runs to God
Chapter 3 -- Jonah runs with God
Chapter 4 -- Jonah runs against God

This morning I want to talk about the foundation of all of our understanding of this relationship with the Creator and Redeemer of mankind -- the One who we talk to, depend on and struggle with for so much of our lives. I want to go beneath the surface of our lives and help us come to a greater understanding of God’s grace.

As we look at the life of Jonah, we find many of his struggles and frustrations are common to all of us. His anger, disobedience, prejudices, unforgiveness, questioning, discouragement, prayers, and pursuit of God are not uncommon to our own personal relationship with God.
Someone once said that a person's spiritual maturity is in direct proportion to their understanding and accepting of the unconditional love and grace of God.

One big Idea – The Love of God is unconditional and is demonstrated to us even though we don’t deserve it.

VERSE 1: GOD’S LOVE TOWARD ME NEVER CHANGES, EVEN WHEN I AM ANGRY WITH HIM.

VERSE 2: GOD’S LOVE TOWARD ME NEVER CHANGES, EVEN WHEN I ARGUE WITH HIM.
VERSE 3: GOD’S LOVE TOWARD ME NEVER CHANGES, EVEN WHEN I AM ACTING SELFISH.

VERSES 4-5: GOD’S LOVE TOWARD ME DOESN’T STOP, EVEN WHEN I STOP ACKNOWLEDGING HIM.

VERSE 6: GOD’S LOVE TOWARD ME NEVER CHANGES, EVEN WHEN I AM AN “UP-AND-DOWN” CHRISTIAN.

VERSES 7-9: GOD’S LOVES TOWARD ME NEVER CHANGES, EVEN WHEN I AM STUBBORN AND REFUSE TO CHANGE.

Here is Jonahs problem in a nut shell: This is story is all about Jonah, or so he thinks. The failure in Jonah's understanding of life is that he thought it was all about him. Jonah's frustrations and disapporintments are a result of it being "all about me" Jonahs happiness verses Gods plan. The fact is that if Jonah would have bought into God's plan, no matter how difficult it may have seemed he would have been one happy fellow..

VERSES 10-11: GOD LOVES ME EVEN, WHEN I SELFISHLY CHOOSE NOT TO LOVE OTHERS WITH THE SAME LOVE AS GOD LOVES ME.

DAY AFTER

Well, I hope you had a great day yesterday. Our family spent time at my sister's and had our fill of Thanksgiving day food and watched a little football. Cowboys are my team again now that have a winner. :) P.S. Take a look at the box scores from yesterday's game. I am blessed with a good guesser, at least yesterday. Not so sure if I hit it that right in real life decisions but I did for the games yesterday. As the one comment said, "I was dead on."

Something that I have noticed about life over the years is that people love winners. They almost love to hate them.... It has been this way for almost all of human history. Something in the human nature wants to be in top, and if we are not, then something in us wants to pull down the one who is.

The reality is that God created us to win. He has a vested interest in us finishing strong and spending eternity with Him. To win is not an option for God. He has and will always complete His work on top. Be encouraged today. What God has started in your life He will complete and in "Grand, Glorious Fashion."

Check back in tomorrow. I will talk more about what is happening at City Church this weekend and the holiday season.

P.S. By the way, did you sees yesterday's salute to Bret Favre? I believe you can watch it on Fox Sports...Wow, what a way to honor a champion. If I find the link, I will post it....

Thanksgiving - Game Day Picks

Game Day Picks:

Packers by 10 over the Lions - GO BRETT

Cowboys by 14 over the Jets - GO TONY & T.O.

Colts by 20 over the Falcons - Peyton the best QB in the NFL

Hope you have your fill of Turkey, Ham, Salmon, Steaks, and all the trimmings

God Bless and See you on Sunday......PT. 2 "Second Chance God"

MESSAGE by DAVID WILKERSON

Click on the following link and listen to the message by David Wilkerson of Times Square Church titled "Getting to Know the Holy Spirit." He has some very insightful things to say about the ministry and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Click Here

CITY CHURCH TV DEBUT - LATE BREAKING NEWS

City Church Orlando will be debuting its TV program, "Life in the City," on TV Channel 45 on Thursday, November 29nd, at 7:00 am & 7:00 pm. Tell your friends and give God the praise for another opportunity to "Bring His Love to the City."

Blessings,

P. Eugene

Giving Thanks

I wanted to take a few lines and thank all those who were involved in this last weekend's Thanksgiving Day "Operation Blessing." As a church family we were able to give out over 200 food baskets. A special thanks to Vicki Ilugbusi, her daughters, and all those involved in putting together the food boxes. (Sorry I can't mention everyone's name.) It was awesome to see the City Church family work together and demonstrate the love of God in a practical way to families in our community.

We had many, many people respond to the message "God of the Second Chance," which is why we do what we do.... Everyone on the team did a great job. Thanks.

GOD OF THE SECOND CHANCE

Just a few thoughts on this week's message....

Jonah is one of the great examples of a man who struggled with God's will for his life. I love the Bible because it shows us a man (or woman's) good, bad and ugly....

Here was the basic outline:

Failure doesn't change God's PLAN.
Failure doesn't change Gods' PURPOSE.
Failure doesn't change God's POWER.
Failure doesn't change God's PROMISES.

Have a great Thanksgiving holiday.....

Blessings,

Eugene