Special Focus:
- Encounter Weekends – these weekends are a massively important part of what we do here at TCC. They focus on encountering God, yourself and others. The Women’s Weekend is September 27th to 28th and the Men’s Weekend is October 4th to 5th. The cost is $80 and they will be held at TCC. Mandatory Pre-Encounter classes start on Sunday, August 25th for the ladies and Sunday, September 15th for the men. Please sign up online or on the TCC APP.
- Serving at TCC – we are in need of more volunteers coming into September. Opportunities include kids, youth, JOY Ministry (55+), TCC Creative, ushering, greeting and more. You can sign up online or go to the Welcome Desk for more info and to get a package.
Prophetic Roadmap for 2019
2019 is a year…
- That will rise and fall on our prayer lives.
- To step out into new things that God is doing in your life.
- For a new level of maturity.
- To grow in and develop our faith and to exercise our faith
- To stand with our church family members who are believing for spouses
- For us to focus our prayer/action on the upcoming National Elections
- For us to contend for revival
IT’S HOW YOU FINISH
One of the things the Lord has been stirring in my heart has been around the whole concept of ‘finishing well’ in regards to our faith. I have had a strong passion to see us ‘finish well’ in our service to God but the Lord has been speaking to me more regarding our ‘finishing well’ in our beliefs as well.
I have become more aware of people who are ‘leaving the faith’ and either rejecting Christianity altogether, or rejecting a “Bible-based” Christianity for “different version” of faith – that looks the same of the surface but once you dig a little deeper you realize this is not what the Bible teaches at all.
In this season my prayers have shifted much more to “Father: help me to finish strong, help my kids to finish strong, help my church family to finish strong…”
In this message, I want to encourage you in finishing strong.
Matthew 24:9-14 (TPT) – 9 “You can expect to be persecuted, even killed; for you will be hated by all the nations because of your love for me.[g] 10 Then many will stop following me and fall away,[h] and they will betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many lying prophets will arise, deceiving multitudes and leading them away from the path of truth. 12 There will be such an increase of sin and lawlessness that those whose hearts once burned with passion for God and others will grow cold. 13 But keep your hope[i] to the end and you will experience life and deliverance. 14 “Yet through it all, this joyful assurance of the realm of heaven’s kingdom will be proclaimed all over the world, providing every nation with a demonstration of the reality of God. And after this the end of this age will arrive.”
Hebrews 3:12-14 (ESV) – 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
1 Timothy 4:1 (ESV) – Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,
Revelation 3:11 (ESV) – I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.
1 Cor 10:12 (ESV) – Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
2 Timothy 4:3 (ESV) – For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
2 Corinthians 13:5 (ESV) – Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
1 Timothy 5:15 (ESV) – For some have already strayed after Satan.
John 6:66 (ESV) – After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
Will you and I be those who endure to the end or those turn back and no longer walk with Him? How do we know?
So How Do I Set Myself Up to Endure to the End or Finish Strong?
Matthew 7:24-27 (ESV) – 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Those who finish strong are those who:
1] Hear the Word of God
• Are you regularly in the Word of God? Do you know what you believe and why? If we are not ‘hearing the Word’ we have no foundation.
• Do we really know God or do we just know about Him!
• Is our faith shallow and based mostly on others faith, or is their depth to it? How real is it?
• Are we students of the Scriptures and are we building our lives around them?
2] Obey the Word of God
• We need to make sure that we don’t just hear the Word but we obey it.
• James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
• When we hear but we don’t obey we start to move into deception… the further we go the more deceived we become
3] Stick with Jesus even when “people/Church” let them down
• If you dig deeper in the story of someone who leaves the faith you will often find that people or church let them down and they became hurt and offended
• I’m in no way wanting to minimize the hurt that church/people can cause – I have heard some horrific stories – but why would you leave Jesus for something He didn’t do?
• Furthermore, we need to learn to give people and church another chance
4] Stand firm in the middle of storms
• Another ‘key ingredient’ for people falling away often is a storm they face in their life – a tragedy the face, a prayer that wasn’t answered, a difficult circumstance they go through.
• Again, I don’t mean to minimize the painful experiences anyone has gone through but can I ask a question: what Bible did you read that said that your life was going to be perfect? What Bible said that you would never face a trial or difficulty?
• The Bible never promises that we won’t face hard times – it actually promises us that we will! But it also promises that God will be with us and He will give us victory!
• For many, this really comes down to a poor understanding of what the scriptures teach us about who God is. (Ex: God is in control of everything. He will never give you more than you can bear. These are both not Biblically true but if we believe them when we face a storm we may well become offended with God)
• We need to learn to live in the tension of revelation and mystery.
• Both people in this parable ‘looked good’ – it was the storm that revealed the foundation.
• Set your heart that no matter what happens, I’m not going to turn my back on Jesus!
brendan witton.com 