[{"id":3470,"permalink":"https:\/\/www.agape-churches.org\/missioncontrol\/?p=3470","title":"Day Five: Overflowing Hope","content":"Romans 15:13 (NIV)<\/strong>\r\nMay the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.<\/em>\r\n\r\nRomans 5:5 (NIV)<\/strong>\r\nAnd hope does not put us to shame, because God\u2019s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.<\/em>\r\n\r\n\u201cBy their trust in Christ, God\u2019s people \u201calready\u201d know joy and peace and thus live in hope, absolute certainty regarding the \u201cnot yet.\u201d The key to all of this, of course, is the Holy Spirit, who empowers life in the present and guarantees its future consummation \u2013 so much so that Paul prays for them to \u201coverflow with hope(!)\u201d by the power of the Spirit.\u201d [G. Fee, God\u2019s Empowering Presence<\/em>, 623]\r\n\r\nOur response to Christ\u2019s sacrificial love is to trust him with all our lives. God\u2019s love has been poured out into our hearts and hope overflows by the power of the Holy Spirit. Like we heard with the image of Niagara Falls [Pastor Gus], we\u2019re not going to be able to contain this love and hope when we\u2019re with Christ. Let\u2019s offer our lives to be where Jesus is and to do what he asks. Our hearts won\u2019t be able to contain but will overflow with the love and hope of God.\r\n\r\nPrayer:<\/strong> Lord, you are the source of love and hope. I need you and ask that you would enlarge my heart for your purpose. In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s worship with \u201cWellspring\u201d by Leeland. (Click Here)<\/em><\/a>\r\n\r\n[embedyt] https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BYIplpBkQXc[\/embedyt]\r\n\r\n-JH\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n ","excerpt":"Romans 15:13 (NIV) May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not put us to shame, because God\u2019s love has been poured out into our hearts …

Continue reading \"Day Five: Overflowing Hope\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>","date":"June 11, 2021 04:30","categories":[{"id":205,"title":"Supernatural...Faith, Hope and Love","slug":"supernatural-faith-hope-and-love"},{"id":224,"title":"Life's Hope","slug":"lifes-hope"}],"tags":[]},{"id":3467,"permalink":"https:\/\/www.agape-churches.org\/missioncontrol\/?p=3467","title":"Day Four: Cruciform Servants","content":"John 12:25-26 (NIV)<\/strong>\r\n[Very truly I tell you\u2026] Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.<\/em>\r\n\r\n\u201c\u2026 abundant life comes, paradoxically, through death. John, not to mention Paul and others, understands Jesus\u2019 death as the ultimate act of love; the signs too are manifestations of love, for it is God\u2019s love that motivated the sending of Jesus and that was manifested in his various works. So also the church sent by this Jesus will be driven by God\u2019s love, manifesting it, and thus God\u2019s abundant life, in numerous analogous ways as disciples are baptized and empowered by the Spirit. And a central aspect of the church\u2019s (the disciples\u2019) being sent will be sharing in the death-like but life-giving ministry of Jesus\u2026 The servants of the Servant will share in his servanthood.\u201d [M. Gorman, Abide and Go<\/em>, 69]\r\n\r\nJesus gives an important kingdom truth \u2013 as we respond and fully give ourselves to him, as he already has for us, we\u2019re not going to lose our lives but find them\u2026 and Jesus takes it another step \u2013 that it\u2019s in serving and following him that we\u2019re going to find real life and real hope.\r\n\r\nPrayer:<\/strong> Lord, I believe in your truth. Help me not to try to preserve my life but to give it to you in service by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s worship with \u201cMy All in All\u201d by Phil Wickham. (Click Here)<\/a><\/em>\r\n\r\n[embedyt] https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fDDQsh_UycU[\/embedyt]\r\n\r\n-JH\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n ","excerpt":"John 12:25-26 (NIV) [Very truly I tell you\u2026] Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. …

Continue reading \"Day Four: Cruciform Servants\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>","date":"June 10, 2021 04:30","categories":[{"id":205,"title":"Supernatural...Faith, Hope and Love","slug":"supernatural-faith-hope-and-love"},{"id":224,"title":"Life's Hope","slug":"lifes-hope"}],"tags":[]},{"id":3465,"permalink":"https:\/\/www.agape-churches.org\/missioncontrol\/?p=3465","title":"Day Three: Surpassing Treasure","content":"Let\u2019s read aloud together the following confession, scripture, and prayer:<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\u201cWe affirm our belief in the one eternal God, Creator and Lord of the world, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who governs all things according to the purpose of his will. He has been calling out from the world a people for himself, and sending his people back into the world to be his servants and his witnesses, for the extension of his kingdom, the building up of Christ\u2019s body, and the glory of his name. We confess with shame that we have often denied our calling and failed in our mission, by becoming conformed to the world or by withdrawing from it. Yet we rejoice that, even when borne by earthen vessels, the gospel is still a precious treasure. To the task of making that treasure known in the power of the Holy Spirit we desire to dedicate ourselves anew.\u201d [The Lausanne Covenant<\/em>: 1. The Purpose of God]\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.\u201d [Philippians 3:8a, NIV]\r\n\r\n\u201cLord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. [In Jesus\u2019 name.] Amen.\u201d [The Book of Common Prayer<\/em>, 101]\r\n\r\n-JH\r\n\r\n ","excerpt":"Let\u2019s read aloud together the following confession, scripture, and prayer: \u201cWe affirm our belief in the one eternal God, Creator and Lord of the world, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who governs all things according to the purpose of his will. He has been calling out from the world a people for himself, and sending …

Continue reading \"Day Three: Surpassing Treasure\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>","date":"June 9, 2021 04:30","categories":[{"id":205,"title":"Supernatural...Faith, Hope and Love","slug":"supernatural-faith-hope-and-love"},{"id":224,"title":"Life's Hope","slug":"lifes-hope"}],"tags":[]},{"id":3462,"permalink":"https:\/\/www.agape-churches.org\/missioncontrol\/?p=3462","title":"Day Two: Calling = Life\u2019s Hope","content":"Ephesians 1:18a (NIV)\r\nI pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you\u2026<\/em>\r\n\r\n\u201cThe history of the church has never been about the great men and women of God, it\u2019s always been about the great God of men and women\u2026 If God delights to use the weak then it means he delights to use you and he delights to use us.\u201d [Pilavachi and Croft, Everyday Supernatural<\/em>, 67, 71]\r\n\r\nHope and calling are practically synonymous in Paul\u2019s prayer for the early church. Our great God has and is calling his church into something greater, which is both his work and our life\u2019s hope. From the start, whether AMC, ALC, AHC, EccParis, EccNYC, God has taken ordinary people to bring about his plans and has involved us in his work. This is the supernatural hope that has been our history, but it\u2019s also evident with how we\u2019re living right now as churches for what\u2019s ahead.\r\n\r\nToday, as you worship to \u201cThere\u2019s Nothing That Our God Can\u2019t Do\u201d by Passion, take time to pray Ephesians 1:18 for each of the Agap\u00e9 churches and that God would use each as harvest workers for their respective locations. (Click Here)<\/em><\/a>\r\n\r\nPrayer:<\/strong> Lord, thank you for this life\u2019s hope of being a part of your kingdom work. Use us for your glory. In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.\r\n\r\n[embedyt] https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=37CZnA_OP3c[\/embedyt]\r\n\r\n-JH\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n ","excerpt":"Ephesians 1:18a (NIV) I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you\u2026 \u201cThe history of the church has never been about the great men and women of God, it\u2019s always been about the great God of men and women\u2026 …

Continue reading \"Day Two: Calling = Life\u2019s Hope\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>","date":"June 8, 2021 04:30","categories":[{"id":205,"title":"Supernatural...Faith, Hope and Love","slug":"supernatural-faith-hope-and-love"},{"id":224,"title":"Life's Hope","slug":"lifes-hope"}],"tags":[]},{"id":3459,"permalink":"https:\/\/www.agape-churches.org\/missioncontrol\/?p=3459","title":"Day One: Seed(s)","content":"John 12:24 (NIV)\r\nVery truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies,\u00a0it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.<\/em>\r\n\r\nPhilippians 2:5-8 (NIV)\r\nIn your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature\u00a0God, did not consider equality with God\u00a0something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature\u00a0of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself\u00a0by becoming obedient to death\u2014even death on a cross!<\/em>\r\n\r\nJesus\u2019 words \u201cvery truly\u201d can be translated as \u201camen, amen.\u201d Jesus used this saying to stress the absolute truth of what he was about to teach. In this case, he was giving a kingdom principle about the certain and ongoing hope we have in the midst of everyday life. Jesus was referring to himself as this kernel of wheat that has died by way of the cross, and which has produced the many seeds we see today in the church. We are the many seeds of the one true Seed \u2013 we have hope as we similarly live out Jesus\u2019 agap\u00e9 sacrifice.\r\n\r\nToday, may Jesus\u2019 loving sacrifice move you towards life\u2019s hope as you reflect on Philippians 2:5-8 and worship to \u201cUpon Him\u201d by Matt Redman. (Click Here)<\/em><\/a>\r\n\r\nPrayer:<\/strong> Lord Jesus, thank you for your cross and help me to have the same mindset as you. In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.\r\n\r\n[embedyt] https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pvhP4DNNTm4[\/embedyt]\r\n\r\n-JH\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n ","excerpt":"John 12:24 (NIV) Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies,\u00a0it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV) In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature\u00a0God, did not …

Continue reading \"Day One: Seed(s)\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>","date":"June 7, 2021 04:30","categories":[{"id":205,"title":"Supernatural...Faith, Hope and Love","slug":"supernatural-faith-hope-and-love"},{"id":224,"title":"Life's Hope","slug":"lifes-hope"}],"tags":[]},{"id":3452,"permalink":"https:\/\/www.agape-churches.org\/missioncontrol\/?p=3452","title":"Day Five: Empowered for Mission","content":"Let\u2019s read out loud today\u2019s transmission <\/strong>\r\n\r\nFor he [Luke] makes it clear that both the Savior himself and his followers are empowered for the life and ministry of the kingdom by the Holy Spirit. Especially in his Gospel, Luke singles out the Spirit as the power for Jesus\u2019 life and mission; and it is by that same Spirit that he ties together his Gospel and Acts in terms of the ongoing proclamation of good news to the poor \u2013 and thus to the ends of the earth.<\/em>\r\n\r\n\u00a0<\/em>As with them, so with ourselves. The kingdom has come; it is still to come. With Jesus the time of the future, the day of salvation, has been inaugurated. But the empowering was the work of the Holy Spirit. What Jesus began \u201cboth to do and to say\u201d is now the ministry he has left his church until he comes again. The mission is that of Jesus himself \u2013 God\u2019s kingdom as having come as good news for the poor. But the empowering for the kingdom, as then, is the continuing work of the Spirit. May God help us by his Spirit both to will and to do of his good pleasure \u2013 salvation for all through Christ.<\/em>\r\n