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CLUB37 MINISTRY CURRENTLY UNDERWAY:
JULY 4TH WATER
MINISTRY
FOLLOW ALONG WITH US AS WE UNDERTAKE THIS MINISTRY THAT GOD HAS LAID BEFORE
US.
KICK OFF:
APRIL 11, 2010
THE MESSAGE AS PRESENTED BY MR. JOHN TO THE CONGREGATION:
Last year Richard and I went fishing
one day and he asked if I ever thought about working with the young kids in our church. I laughed and simply
said no. Kids and I don’t always see eye to I all the time, besides I have 3 and that’s plenty enough for me.
He said his wife saw how the kids listened to me and how we interacted with each other at lookup lodge. My
response was the only reason some those kids liked me and listened to me was because no one told me I was supposed to be in
charge of them. They keep coming and asking me if they could do stuff, so when they ask if they could go run off and do whatever,
I would say, yea, yea, yea, GO, GO, GO! What Kid wouldn’t like you?
Now I have Club37 with about 18 - 20
kids so far.
1st vision
The Coat Drive Skit
The coat drive skit, for those of you
that were here for that, heard me say that God spoke to me and said to stand up and look out my office window, so I did. Then
said to me I was to share what I saw with you, so with the help of the Holy Spirit and the youth you saw.
But the Holy Spirit touch the heart of a lot of you through that skit and you gave, man did you give, you gave because
the Holy Spirit moved you to give.
2nd vision
Now God has spoken to me again and this
time it concerns club37 our pre-teens, He has placed on my heart, and in my mind a ministry for these kids to have, (a water
ministry). So God showed me that now I am to share that with you.
John 4:1-18
is the scripture we will look at if you'd like to follow along in your Bible.This as many of you know is about Jesus and a
Samaritan woman but it is also going to show you how Club37 is going to use water as a tool for ministry work.
1The Pharisees
heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized,
but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea
and went back once more to Galilee. 4Now
he had to go through Samaria.
**Take a look at the map and continue
below.
Noticed John calls our attention
to the route Jesus took on his way to Galilee. I couldn’t help but wonder why this was pointed out like it was.
So here is what I learned
from Gotquestion.org about Samaria.
The Samaritans embraced a religion that was
a mixture of Judaism and idolatry (2 Kings 17:26-28). Because the Israelite inhabitants of Samaria had intermarried with the foreigners and
adopted their idolatrous (i·dol·a·tris) religion, Samaritans were generally considered ‘half-breeds’ and were
universally despised by the Jews.
1. The Jews, after
their return from Babylon, began rebuilding their temple. While Nehemiah was engaged in building the walls of Jerusalem, the
Samaritans vigorously attempted to halt the undertaking (Nehemiah 6:1-14).
2. Samaria became a place of refuge for all the outlaws of Judea (Joshua 20:7, and 21:21). The Samaritans willingly received Jewish criminals and refugees from justice. The violators
of the Jewish laws, and those who had been excommunicated, found safety for themselves in Samaria, greatly increasing the
hatred which existed between the two nations.
3. The Samaritans received only the
five books of Moses, and rejected the writings of the prophets and all the Jewish traditions.
From these causes arose
another difference between them, so that the Jews regarded them as the worst of the human race (
John 8:48) and had no dealings with them as you are about to see in John 4:9
So Jesus chooses the most
direct route, traveling through Samaria.
Many of the Jews at that
time choose not to go through Samaria. They would rather travel the hot desert road from Jerusalem
to Jericho, and up the Jordan valley.
That’s
how much they despised the Samaritans.
So Jesus left Judea
and was heading back to Galilee by way of Samaria right through the middle of the enemy camp if you would.
Picking up with verse
5:
5So
he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's
well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. That’s
about noon time the hottest part of the day.
You see, Jesus knows
that this Samaritan woman is going to be at this particular well at this time of day. The custom was for the women to make
the trip to the well in the cool of the evening. But this particular woman most likely faced a lot of criticism
from other women that were at the well because of her life style we are about to learn about. So I imagine it was so bad she
would rather put up with the blistering heat in the middle of the day then to be shamed and verbally abused.
By choosing this route Christ is going to show us no matter what our ethical background is or what race
we claim, we all need Christ; and Christ welcomes all. Now look how Jesus uses the water as a (tool) to teach.
Picking up with with
verse 7:
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His
disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am
a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) verse 10Jesus
answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would
have given you living water." 11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the
well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave
us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
If I were to translate
this to today’s wording it might sound something like this. Are saying your better then Jacob? You
know he gave us this well, he even drank from it himself and if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for
me.
Continuing with verse
13:
13Jesus
answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but
whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling
up to eternal life."
What
did Jesus mean by that?
Here
is what a Pastor named John Piper said about verse 13 and 14. (Quote)
Proverbs
13:14 (NIV) says, “The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life.” Perhaps then Jesus meant that the wisdom
he gives satisfies the soul and turns a person into a fountain of life. Perhaps
the water is his teaching. But the closest match to verse 14 is John 7:37-39, (NIV) “37Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let
him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the
Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in
him were later to receive. Just like John 4:14 this passage speaks of a drinking in and a flowing out. But here John
makes plain that Jesus is speaking about the Holy Spirit. It’s the presence of God’s Spirit in your life that takes away your frustrated soul-thirst for ever and turns
you into a person who overflows with life for others. The word of
promise and the power of
the Spirit are the living water offered to the Samaritan woman. (End Quote)
Continuing
with verse 15:
Verse 15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming
here to draw water."
Now, the Samaritan woman is on the same page as Jesus and she is now asking for this Holy Spirit
Jesus is offering her. Listen to what he told her next:
Continuing to verse 16
"16Jesus
saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 17The woman answered
and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18For
thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly."
I read
once “If people are spiritually asleep you have to shock them, startle them, if you want them to hear what you say."
Jesus was especially good at this. When He wants to teach us something about
worship and how to worship He used a sinner "Go call your husband!" "I don't have a husband." "OH, that’s right, but
you've had five, and the man you are with now is not your husband." She was shocked. But Jesus simply sits
there on the edge of the well with his hands folded, looking at the woman ready to teach us about worship”. God is offering something that will grow internally; He is offering something that will never leave you thirsty
again. He is offering something that is life changing; He is offering a type of water that doesn’t
require us to bring our own bucket to draw it with. He is offering something that only requires faith in Him, whoever believes
in me… streams of living water will flow from within him, life that is never ending. Something that no one else will ever be able to do except Jesus Christ! Jesus
is about to make known to this woman that the way she is living is sinful and if she wants what He is offering all she has
to do admit what her sin is and then repent from it and surrender herself completely to Christ. It’s that simple.
He will take care of the rest with His living water.
So what’s MY point
in telling the story about Jesus and the Samaritan woman?
THE WATER, Jesus used the
water at the well as a tool to lead a sinner right into the conversation about her salvation.
In Youth Remedy our
teens had the coat drive to help the needy and give them an opportunity to speak with someone who may need to hear about Christ.
God has shown me a ministry
for our pre-teens, (Club37) a ministry of their own that has God’s blessings.
Now I want to tell you
the last part of my vision God gave me.
So when God spoke to me about
this water ministry and showed me in my vision teaching you about the women at the well, he also said he was going to send
me a camel. A Camel! I saw a Camel walk right into this sanctuary. Why? He took me to Exodus 4:5 the next
day.
5 "This,"
said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has
appeared to you."
***NOTE
AT THIS TIME, A CAMEL HAS ENTERED THE SANCTURY!!
My God is the same God today
as He was then and he will be the same God tomorrow. God speaks today just as he spoke back then. Some say a bee can’t fly, but I see bees flying all the time, don’t you? Some say God doesn’t speak to anyone anymore like in the Old
Testament, but I see a Camel, don’t you?
In
closing,
YES I hear His voice when he speaks and I followed it. He called me to teach and so I am teaching, He told me to stand up and look, so I stood!
John 10:27 reads: 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
Now he
has shown me that these young kids have a water ministry. Just as Jesus did.
He used the water as tool
to lead a sinner to savation, in Club37 kids will use water as a tool to bring the lost
teenager, the single mom the married couple trying to make it work, The ones with addictions, The broken hearted; so all can come to our Church so we (the Church) can share God's word with
them and show how they can have Living water and never thirst again through the Lord
Jesus Christ. I praise God that
I can hear his voice when he speaks to me!
I praise God for his visions that He sometimes
gives me!
You see,
Acts
2:17
17"
'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your
young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
My wife and I try to teach
these kids to love, to give, to put others before themselves. We teach about the Holy Spirit and we teach about death and
where you can expect to spend eternity without Jesus as your personal savior and why it’s so important to know Him and
believe in Him and to tell all that will listen about how Jesus died for us and why!
Now, God
wants to teach them how to minister.
God wants club 37 to be right
out there on July 4th weekend with His Camel and let them offer to anyone that will take it, free WATER! Bottled water with the church name and address on it along with our youth programs
on the label. An invitation if you would to come here to Cross Roads and here and see how God can change lives!
This Church has fed the hungry,
put coats on the homeless; helped build God’s house overseas and brought many out from the dark into the light.
If you feel God has moved
you then move, give to this water ministry?
"Abraham" the camel.
For more pictures visit the Photos pages.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
*Bake sale will be held Sunday morning before and after morning service. If
you would like to bake goods for the sale that would be greatly appreciated.
*Drop some change in the collection water jug. Participate in the church challenge
by saving all your loose change from now until June 1 to help us fill the jug.
*There will be a cook out on Sunday May 30. Plate lunches will be available
immediately after morning service and can be enjoyed at church or purchased for carry out. Tickets are on sale now at
a cost of $5.00 each. Please get your tickets so we can plan for the amount of food needed! If you would like
to donate food items to the cook out, please sign up at church. (The sheet will be on the youth table.)
*How many dimes do you have in your pocket/purse today?
Did you know that if you fill up a regular 16oz water bottle with dimes it comes to
approximately $100.00? Grab those dimes and test it for yourself. The first Club37 member to bring in a bottle
filled with dimes gets a special reward so please help them out!
*Pray for this ministry!
VISIT WITH US AGAIN TO SEE THE PROGRESS OF THIS MINISTRY:
MORE OF HOW GOD'S GREATNESS WORKS TO COME!
AFTER MANY BAKESALES, COLLECTIONS AND HARD WORK ON BEHALF OF THE STUDENTS AND ALL WITH A HEART
FOR THIS MINISTRY, GOD PROVIDED ENOUGH TO PURCHASE 4300 BOTTLES OF WATER TO BE PASSED OUT AT THE PEACH FESTIVAL ON JULY 3.
4260 WERE HANDED OUT THAT DAY!
JULY 11, 2010: JOHN'S FOLLOW UP MESSAGE:
Turn your bibles to Galatians 2:20 or look up above me.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but, Christ
lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
What powerful words from Paul, these are the words I say with all of my heart as Paul
did and I praise God I can say them now.
I was thinking to myself the other day, while putting this slideshow together
what would have been the outcome of my life and those around me If I never completely surrendered myself to Christ when my
world was turn upside down a little over a year ago? What if I didn’t take action when he placed club37 in my heart?
Don’t
get me wrong I considered myself a Christian then, just in the Luke warm category, I was saved, baptized and attended church regularly.
Thinking
out loud:
First there would not have been 4260 bottles of water handed out all over Gilbert on July 3rd
But let’s
go back to the night that God spoke to me
I would still be trying to fill a void each night instead of going with
my kids and wife in their activities.
He would have never showed me how my temper was hurting my family
God wouldn’t
have put the desire to teach kids and so club37 wouldn’t exist
Some of you may have left the church searching for
a place to take your pre-teens possibly.
There would be no visions for a water ministry, and 4260 people would had never
had the opportunity to read John 4:14 on a water bottle label from Cross Roads Baptist
Church on July 3rd
And without a doubt I surely wouldn’t be up here telling you about Christ and how
he can change your life, forever if you let him!
So you see, God had me go through all kinds of hard ships or problems
all my life and some of them were very painful, just so he could prepare me for this time in front of you.
Yes,
I was a Christian; but I wasn’t living the way God wanted and he knew just when to point that out to me. He knew
exactly when I was about to crash and burn. (if you would)
I now know, God allowed all of these things in my past to happen
so He could use me to minister to others in similar circumstances.
I picked up one of the books Richard left up here
for us called “ In a pit with a lion on a snowy day “ by Mark Batterson and on Pg 74 I learned that all of these
problems can also be called adversity’s. I would like to read a little if you don’t mind.
Pg 74
“I
know so many people whose adversity has become their ministry. They go through a painful divorce or the death of a child
or a destructive addiction, but God helps them climb out of the pit so they can help others in similar circumstances.
God
is in the business of recycling our pain and using it for someone else’s gain.
Now here is what you need to understand:
If you don’t turn your adversity into a ministry, then your pain remains your pain. But if you allow God to translate
our adversity into a ministry, then your pain becomes someone else’s gain.
I have a theory: The more problems you
have, the more potential you have to help people.
One of the most paralyzing mistakes we make is thinking that our problems
somehow disqualify us from being used by God. Let me just say it like it is: If you don’t have any problems,
you don’t have any potential. Here’s why. Your ability to help others heal is limited to where you’ve
been wounded.
God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will
be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”
Pg.76
For an example look at
2 Corinthians
11:23-28 (New International Version)
“24Five times I received
from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked,
I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger
from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country,
in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have
known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold
and naked. 28Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.
No one had more
problems than Paul. No one experienced more adversity. But God used adversity to increase his capacity. The more problems
you have, the more potential you have.
I’m not suggesting that you invite adversity into your life but recognize
that those adverse circumstances could serve God’s purposes.
Where have you been broken? What adverse circumstances
are you facing? Do you have any overwhelming problems?
Maybe God is remodeling you; Maybe God is increasing your capacity
via adversity. Maybe the problem you never thought you could overcome will turn into opportunity.”
Some of you may
be saying, I get it but I could never minister to someone else, that’s just not me. Trust me when I say I understand!
Look at this verse God showed me,
Philippians 4:13 (New International
Version)
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
This means that God has given us the strength to share
our faith, despite our lack of gifts, talents, and abilities.
You want some proof? You see me up here don’t
you? LOL
Maybe God has placed in your heart to help in nursery, our youth classes or seniors. Maybe you
feel that there should have a ministry for the home bound or to raise funds for the less fortunate kids that can’t go
to a camp because of lack of money.
I want you to listen to what I’m about to say, And I say this with
the most love I possibly can.
If God has placed a mission, a ministry or a desire to help somewhere in the church, he
has placed it in your heart, not mine, not the person sitting next to you, not Richards’, but in your heart; and it’s
your choice to accept it as your calling from God or say no to God and walk away.
Look at what Paul wrote in 2 Timothy
2:12 KJV,
If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
Remember
I had a choice, continue on the path I was heading or turn it over to God, Leave the Church or help in the church. Start Club
37 or tell someone else we need more for our youth, ignore a vision from God, or be his feet, hands and lips.
Too
many of us say, what can the church offer me? When we all should be saying what can I offer, the CHURCH!
Choice!
God is in the business of changing lives and but he needs all of his believers to be his feet to go where he has
a need, his hands, to carry and move what he needs moved, his ears to hear his instructions, his lips, to speak his words
to those that need to hear what he has to say. God doesn’t make us do it; he places it in our hearts and lets
us make a choice.
And yes, it is a choice that only you can make, God doesn’t want you to spend eternity in
hell, he gives you the choice, God doesn’t want you to be Luke warm, he gives you the choice, God doesn’t want
your marriage to dissolve he gives you the choice, God doesn’t want you to have a drinking problem, he gives you the
choice and if you choose God, he fills your new life with joy, hope, love and peace and then he turns all of your adversity’s
into something that helps others.
Maybe you made that choice a long time ago and you’re at that point right
now where God is calling you to go to the next step, but you don’t know just how to do that. Or you’re afraid
he may put you somewhere you don’t want to be. Listen, God knows you better than you think, and he knows your
weak points and your strong points, he had you in mind before you were even conceived.
As Christians, together we
become the body of Christ. We are to use our adversity’s to disciple to one another; we are to use our talents to perform
the works of Christ no matter what the gift may be, God gave it to you to use for his Glory.
By me following
Gods voice He touch the hearts of believers in this body, which lead to 4260 water bottles out on the streets of Gilbert
that interned ended up touching the ones he intended them for.
So, looking from my simple country boy perspective, God
is, a choice, and if you’re at a point in your life to choose God then don’t wait any longer If you were like
me in the lukewarm area and you want to make a choice now to let God turn up the heat, then take that first step and tell
God.
Has God placed a service for His house, in your heart?
Can you right now say the words Paul said Galatians 2:20?
Do you want to be able to say those words and mean it?
Are there
adversities in your life?
Walk Down
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but, Christ
lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me.
1st verse
Galatians 2:20
2nd
verse
2 Corinthians 11:23-28 (New International Version)
3rd verse
Philippians 4:13 (New International
Version)
4th verse
2 Timothy 2:12 (King James Version)
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