Celebration Center

Setting goals and moving towards a preferred future can be exciting, hard, scary, and thrilling all at the same time! As we chart our course for a new season, we need to keep our eyes on the prize and know that God is charting our course. This week we will look at a group of men in! scripture who followed wholeheartedly what God had prepared them for, and we will learn from their example what it means to go after a dream God has given you!

We started talking about new beginnings, but what does it take to step into that new adventure? Jeremiah 29:11 says that we have hope and a future, and it takes big dreams, big faith, and big steps to dive in, all while having faith in the hard times when we feel like the world is against us! Sunday we will dive into stepping into that hope and future together!

Have you even made a new years resolution, but broke it before it really got started? That’s a common story, but maybe because the resolution was about us. What if we decided to take the best possible relationship we have, and made our resolution about Him instead? Taking this relationship to a new level can lead to an incredible new year!

Celebration Center is at the threshold of a landmark season as we prepare for our new pastor. Join us as Pastor Chris shares a brief history of Celebration Center and takes us on a journey to hope. Landmark seasons remind us to celebrate the past, contemplate the present and they compel us into a future with great hope!

Hello church family. We look forward to seeing you this Sunday. Our guest speaker Michael Nortune, "Friend of Open Bible" will be joining us this week and sharing about More and Less.

When traveling we use markers to orient ourselves. In times of chaos and even despair; in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents us with markers to remind us who and where we are. When we feel like we don’t have a place in the world, we’re reminded that we do have a place in God’s Kingdom.

Join us with guest speaker Pastor Aaron Sutherland as he shares with us the intricacies found in the parable of the Good Samaritan according to the passage in Luke 10:25-36.

The very first characteristic we learn about God in the Bible is that He is a creator. Out of nothing, darkness and chaos, God created beauty and order and meaning. Then He created humanity in His image – to be like Him. Is it possible that God’s intention for us, made in His image, is to use our Spirit-driven imagination to bring beauty out of chaos and to turn obstacles into opportunities?

Dr. Luke introduced the book of Acts by saying he intended to record what Jesus taught AND DID. The implication is clear: Jesus did more than teach; He validated His teaching with signs and wonders. When John the Baptist’s disciples came to Jesus to inquire if He was truly the Messiah, Jesus responded by referring to the miracles that marked His ministry. Again, not what Jesus said or taught, but what He DID. If 1 Cor. 4:20 is true, that the kingdom of God is not in talk (word), but in power, then it should be normative to expect the supernatural among us. This Sunday, after talking about how to hear from God, and how to give a word from the Lord to another person, we are actually going to do it! Get ready for a lab experience as we partner with the precious and powerful Holy Spirit.

Paul came to Corinth not with words but with power! To demonstrate the Spirit’s power; not impart human wisdom. Chapter one debunks human wisdom & will. In the church today we need demonstrations of the Spirit’s power. Not words; power!! Not scholars; philosophers; human wisdom – the foolish & weak will do, empowered by the Spirit and demonstrating the Spirit’s power.

How do you hear the voice of the Lord? Is it a familiar voice? Is it a voice with which you are intimately acquainted? Or do you – like most people – struggle hearing God speak to you? And here is a question that is even more complex? Are you comfortable being the voice of the Lord to other people? Are you comfortable speaking into another person’s life when Holy Spirit quickens a word to you for them? This Sunday we will be sharing about the “The Holy Spirit & Hearing the Voice of the Lord.”

After the birth of Jesus, the most significant spiritual tsunami in the history of our planet, paralleled only by the Protestant Reformation, was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost in 33 A.D. (Acts 2:1-4). In a moment of time the Promised Gift of the Spirit, foretold by the prophets, John the Baptist, and of Jesus, was poured out on the infant church. God opened the floodgates of His power and love (Baptism in the Holy Spirit) in a river that is still sweeping the nations. That river of life, coming upon followers of Jesus, is available today to all who ask Him. Are you thirsty? Do you want to bear fruit? Come to the River!

Life mostly consists of ordinary days. But, there are days and times that are epic and unforgettable! After 40 years in the desert, Israel experienced a huge change at the top, and had to decide to navigate how to march confidently forward towards God’s promise!

Have you ever done any serious digging by hand? It can be very difficult, strenuous work. It can also very rewarding. That was the task assigned to Isaac’s servants in Genesis 26: to dig wells and find water! Sunday we will join them in digging for “freshwater in the valley.” By God’s grace we will dare to dig wells in places that are new to us…to be sensitive to Holy Spirit and obey His nudges to venture into new spaces. Are you willing to seize enemy territory, dig wells there, and find freshwater? I long to hear you shout, “We’ve found water!”

In our services, over the last several weeks we have been discussing the importance of praise. Praise is the gateway into the Presence of God, and the Presence changes everything. From the very beginning, God’s plan has been to build a People of His Presence. Join us this Sunday as we discover what happens when we become a People of Praise and of the Presence.

Who is the Holy Spirit…really? We have heard of Him, but do we talk to Him, or pray to Him? Think about it! You pray to God the Father, and to Jesus the Son, but when was the last time you had a conversation with Holy Spirit? Some have called Holy Spirit the “forgotten member of the Trinity.” Pastor Jeff will introduce you to Holy Spirit this week, calling you to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18) that you might witness “demonstrations of the Spirit’s power” (1 Cor. 2:4) in your corner of the world.

In Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire (1997, Zondervan), Brooklyn Tabernacle’s pastor, Jim Cymbala, says “The work of God can only be carried on by the power of God. The church is a spiritual organism fighting spiritual battles. Only spiritual power can make it function as God ordained.” This Sunday our hearts will cry out for the Holy Spirit, who is the origin and source of true spiritual power. Come thirsty for the fresh living water of the Spirit.

Just before Jesus was betrayed, the disciples asked, “What will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?” Jesus memorably answered, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world…then the end will come.” Note Jesus did not say “…this gospel will be preached…” Rather He said, “…this gospel OF THE KINGDOM will be preached…” The apostle Paul declared, “The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” Are churches today simply preaching the gospel (good news), or are they boldly preaching and demonstrating the good news of the kingdom with power? Come Holy Spirit, come! We welcome you. Amen.

Matthew 11 is about the kingdom of God…the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear. Psalm 117 is about praising the Lord…audibly and extravagantly. Did you know Jesus said they intersect at the junction of childlikeness? As much as our logic or pride may want to dismiss it, Holy Spirit is wooing every follower of Jesus to jump into the river of childlike praise, to be clothed with His presence and power, and to begin to plunder the darkness around us.

The Psalms were the praise hymnal of the early church. They are filled with principles important for NT and kingdom living. Few are as profound as Psalm 117, the shortest chapter in the Bible, where we are admonished three times - in machine gun progression - to "Praise the Lord." Praise brings the presence of God! As Jack Hayford has often said, "The presence of God's kingdom power is directly related to the practice of God's praise." God awaits the praise of His people - and the people await the presence and power of God.