The Rock Weekly – November 1, 2023

  • Tonight – Prayer & Worship – 7pm in the Chapel.  Growing in the Word – 6pm in the Prayer Room.
  • Family Breakfast this Sunday from 9:00-9:30am. Join us for a free breakfast and time to connect with your church family.
  • Water Baptisms on Sunday 11/12.  Email Family@therock.org. 
  • We Need Turkeys…for our Community Thanksgiving Meal – Join us Thursday 11/23; carry-out, dine-in, or volunteer. More info here. You can bring turkey donations on Sunday.
  • Lighthouse Coffee: Now Hiring – Our Coffee counter is expanding to Mon-Fri mornings for our community and we need help serving and loving – weekday mornings from 7am-9am. Connect with Pastor Andrew (andrew@therock.org) for more info. 

 

Love Requires Action

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.”  Mark 12:30-31

Jesus states here that this commandment to love God and to love your neighbor is the greatest of all.  We see throughout Scripture the importance of love, that without love we have nothing, and that love never fails, but I believe the understanding of love needs to be better defined to the body of Christ.  When we think of loving someone, we often think of the affection of love…the way we feel about someone and even respond to them with our words.  But the Bible reveals that the love of the Bible that God commands of us is actually an action.  “For God so loved the world that He GAVE…” (Jn 3:16);  God SHOWS His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8);  “Love is PATIENT, Love is KIND…” (1 Cor 13:4);  “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ LAID DOWN His life for us.” (1 Jn 3:16); “This is how God SHOWED His love among us: He SENT His one and only Son into the world that we might LIVE through Him.” (1 Jn 4:9)   I think you get the theme here.  Love requires action!  The Apostle John highlights this for the Church in 1 John 3:18-19, “Dear children, let us not LOVE with words or tongue, but with ACTIONS and in truth.  This is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence.”

My desire is for us to not only become disciples of Jesus as learners and pupils of His word, but also Followers of Jesus as those who live our lives in the very footprints of Jesus’ ways and commands…in the action of love as Jesus loved, so that as our bodies are in action, our hearts are at rest in His presence!

In John 13, Jesus gives us a new command and it is to love with the same action of love that Jesus showed us.  (Jn 13:34)  Right after that, Jesus tells His disciples that they cannot follow Him right now, but that they will follow Him at a later time.  Jesus was referring to the fact that He was about to go to the cross.   I love the all-in response of Peter to this in the next verse (Jn 13:37) – “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Though Jesus loved Peter and was just a day from giving His life for Peter’s life (along with ours), He also knew that Peter wasn’t yet ready to lay down his life.  Jesus asked Peter, “Will you really lay down your life for me?” Although Peter went on to deny Jesus three times while Jesus was going to the cross, Jesus lovingly forgave him and reinstated him by asking Peter three times, “Do you love me Peter?”  And each time Peter told the Lord that he did love Him, Jesus connected Peter’s love to a required action… “THEN feed my lambs!”  I am so thankful for the careful instruction and patient love of our Lord and Savior.  About ten days after this, Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, and loved well with action  as he fed the lambs of Jesus by preaching the gospel and 3,000 came to know Christ.  Though like Peter I have missed the mark many times and continue to do so 🙂, my heart’s desire is to love Jesus well with obedient action to His commands and by the Holy Spirit’s leading and guiding me into the action of His love.  I want to encourage us all to pursue this action of love!  Having been marked with His divine power of the Holy Spirit, who is living within us, we will be successful if we continue to hear His voice and WALK in His way of Love – living obedient to His commands and words!  There is no better place to be than in His perfect plan and love…which is living from His love in us and walking this out in active obedience!

Lord, May we be an ecclesia, an active church body, that not only hears your words, but puts them into the action of love.  I thank you Lord that you promise to make all your grace abound in us, so that we have everything we need to abound in the action of your love – the good works you created us for! (2 Cor 9:8) Today, I ask boldly that each of us may intensely encounter your love, grace, and power through a baptism of your love, so that we may respond to others with a love that goes beyond our own strength and ability…and that this would happen by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us! Amen.

Revelation 22:7,12 “Behold I am coming quickly! Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book… and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to what he has done.”

 

I love you all!
Pastor Mike and your Rock Staff

 

 

 

IMPORTANT SERVICE & WEEKLY INFORMATION:

WEDNESDAY NIGHT WORSHIP & PRAYER SERVICE  7:00pm * In-Person & On-Line *
Facebook Live:  https://www.facebook.com/rockchurchco
The Rock Online Livestream:  https://www.therock.org/live/

 

YOUTH ~ BASE CAMP (6th – 12th Grade) – WEDNESDAY NIGHT – 7:00pm
Invite a friend and come have a great time. If you have any questions, email jaden@therock.org

 

EMBER – Young Adults (Ages 18-29) – Friday Nights at 6:30pm
https://www.therock.org/ember/
Meet in the Chapel for a time of worship, prayer, teaching, and connection.

 

FOOD BANK DISTRIBUTION – 1st & 3rd Saturday of the Month
https://www.therock.org/foodbank/
Email Lindy@therock.org if you would like to volunteer or have questions.

 

SUNDAY MORNING PRE-SERVICE PRAYER  8:15-9:15am – *In-Person & On-line*
ZOOM Direct Video Link:
           https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85340164797?pwd=V0lmWFRRL0R6Tm56QTdRUHNoMWI3QT09
ZOOM Meeting ID: 853 4016 4797
          ZOOM Phone Option +12532158782,,85340164797#

 

SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE 9:45am  *In-Person & On-line*
           Facebook Live:  https://www.facebook.com/rockchurchco
The Rock Online Livestream:  https://www.therock.org/live/

 

OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE  Here are some ways you can partner with The Rock as you practice generosity – our regular tithe/giving, compassion help, missions, and our food bank.  Click on the following link or graphic.  www.therock.org/give

 

Have a Question, Need Prayer, Help, Feel Alone, or Disconnected?

Please email us at family@therock.org and put QUESTION, PRAYER, NEED HELP, or CONNECT ME at the top of your email.