We are living in a day where many people attend church with the mentality: "What's in it for me?" Their chief concern is what they can get out of church, a thought process that would have been completely foreign to those in the early church. The church we read about in Acts 6 was much more concerned about what they could contribute to the church than what they could get out of it. When a problem arose in the church it became an opportunity for the followers of Jesus to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty meeting the needs within the body. I wonder what would happen in the year 2020 if a group of believers were willing to deny themselves and focus on serving the needs of others instead of worrying about their own needs?

So often I hear people making references to church attendance that go something like this: "I will only go if the music fits my taste, or the preacher preaches the way I like, or even things like as long as the services don't last too long. Somehow we have been led to believe that church is about what "we" can get out of it, instead of what we can give to it. God designed His church to be a place of sharing, not taking. In our pattern found in Acts 4:32-37 we find a group of people committed to caring for one another but also committed to caring for the community around them. It's little wonder that those outside of the church were so attracted to being a part of the body of Christ. Who wouldn't want to be a part of a group that did such a masterful job of sacrificing for one another.

Being a part of the New Testament church just after Jesus' resurrection and ascension back to heaven was definitely not for the faint of heart. The criticism and persecution came upon the church almost immediately and without warning. Their personal connection with Jesus prepared them for such a time of challenge. These believers had observed, first hand, the importance of prayer in the daily life of Jesus. They watched as He consistently found time to retreat to a lonely place to spend time praying to His Father. This discipline had thankfully rubbed off on them to the point that they emulated the pattern they had observed in the life of Christ. Their reliance on prayer serves as a reminder to us today that a church that prays together stays together.

Though our lives have all been altered by the Covid 19 pandemic, my prayers have been that God would use the disruption to cause His people to draw closer to Him. With the need to be cautious, our church like many others went through a season where we were meeting online only. It is during that time that I began praying that church members of all churches would realize the blessing that church attendance is in their daily lives. From the testimony of many I believe God has certainly answered that prayer. In our new series: "A Place To Call Home," we will seek to be reminded from God's Word exactly why God designed the local church. In this specific message we will come to understand why we all need a place to belong and a people to love and serve with. Remember, His plan to reach the world has always been through the ministry of local churches just like The Church at Grace Point.

In our study of entitled: "Are We There Yet?" we have established that though we cannot know the precise moment of Jesus' return, we can see the signs that point to His return. Not knowing the exact time, how are we as followers of Christ to conduct our daily lives? In our text today we will take a close look at what the Lord expects every believer to do with their lives while we wait for His return.

To this point in our study of Matthew 24-25 we have learned that though we cannot know the exact day and time of the Lord's physical return, we can know some of the signs of His coming. Secondly, we learned that in the later days of the seven year tribulation that the antichrist will rise to power making earth an unbelievably difficult place to live, especially as a believer. The next event in world history will be the bodily return of Jesus to this earth where He will set up His kingdom and judge harshly His enemies. Matthew 24:31 says it this way: "And He will send forth His angels with A Great Trumpet!" With all that is going on in our world today, truly the Bible coming to life before our very eyes, could it be that we will be the generation to see the return of Christ? Could this be the generation that hears the trumpet?

The setting of our series "Are We There Yet" is Matthew 24-25, what we commonly refer to as the "Olivet Discourse." It is here that Jesus attempted to answer the disciples question of when He would come again to this earth. He first gave them a list of signs that we should be paying very close attention to. Beginning in verse 15 of chapter 24 Jesus gives us a detailed description of the setting in which the antichrist will appear on the world's stage and take over the control of this world. The Bible refers to this event as the Abomination of Desolation. Could this event be just around the corner in world history? What will be the indicators to watch for? Let's dig into our text and find out.

Over the past few weeks we have been taking a close look at various words that come to mind when we think about Jesus' finished work on the cross. Words like sacrifice, love, victory and mercy. In today's message we will explore exactly what it means when we say that Jesus became our substitute on the cross. He alone was uniquely able to assume this role because only He was perfect in every measure of His being. Turn with me to II Corinthians 5:21 and let's rediscover "The Substitution Of Christ."