When you read this we will have just celebrated or about to celebrate the 250th year of this great country of ours, America and Independence Day. We have so much to be thankful for as Americans. And we have been talking about the Legacy of HOPE that we are responsible for right here in our community. And I am so thankful for that Legacy that GFF has. We are a blessed church! But among these passions, there is another…Our Worship to God. There is nothing in the Bible that states HOW our order of service is to be or any church or denomination for that matter. Some are quiet, some are loud. Some are liturgical and some are unpredictable. We talk about being led by the Holy Spirit, yet so many are being “led” differently all over the world when it comes to HOW we will worship the ONE true God. Some of it is cultural and some of it is denominational and some of it is just preferential. But here is the real deal. Do you have a love for Jesus in your soul that moves you to honor Him with praise and to dedicate your life to Him in Worship?
Here is another big truth: Worship is not even about how much you love God. It is about how much God loves you! It is when you are so overwhelmed by His Love that you can’t help but worship Him. Of course you need to love God! But His love for you through Christ is so abundant and rich that it is a treasure to you and you live to worship Him. God is not pointing a finger at you. He is not looking over your shoulder waiting for you to mess up. He LOVES YOU! Loves you so much that He has given you His truth, His plan, His way, and His commands. Do we love Him enough to obey? To confess our sins and failures and trust Him with them? To Worship Him with our whole self? Oh I plead with you today to think of God’s Love and how powerful it is. So powerful that you yearn to love Him back in worship. Not just with the religious side of yourself, but your whole self. Psalm 136:1 – “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever.” We are FREE to worship our God of Love!
We know that our Hope is in Jesus. Grace Family Fellowship has a legacy of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ for 75 years in this community! I spoke to one of the daughters of the Founding Pastor Sam Witchered. She was 5 years old when the church was founded and she is in one of the pictures in the hallway. She said to me: “My dad would be proud if he could see this church today. People of mixed races worshiping in a progressive style service. He was a progressive minded pastor in his day and he envisioned this happening.” She went on to tell me that Pastor Sam had encountered conflict in areas where some churches would not even allow people with a different color of skin than their own to worship in their church. And that is certainly not God’s will nor does it represent who Jesus is.
This got me thinking even further about the 250 year anniversary of our Nation: America. The greatest Nation on earth where people can enjoy freedoms unlike anywhere else. But most importantly, the freedom to worship as we please. I’m so thankful we have a legacy of worshipping the One true God, Jesus the Christ! I’m so thankful that we have a legacy of Hope that has shined bright through the decades right here in Robersonville North Carolina. It has reached well past a small town into the hearts of many. No church is perfect and our church has had its share of mistakes and trials. But God has blessed so abundantly and it is evident today.
Let’s Continue our Legacy of Hope in 2026 and into 2027, If God tarries His coming!
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13
This past month I preached a series on the ONE who is the only way to Heaven and the Only Way to the ONE true God! We know His name is Jesus Christ. Yeshua, the Anointed One of God our Father. The Messiah. The King. Emmanuel, God with us. But this is not a blind faith. We do not only believe in God and His Son Jesus because of our upbringing or our growing up in the Bible belt or Christian culture. We believe in more than a religion. This is bigger than religion. This faith is about us knowing our Creator and being ready to meet Him after this temporary physical life is over. I wanted to summarize the proof that Jesus and Jehovah God is the only true faith, religion and belief system that is legitimate.
We looked at several religions and discovered that they are all disproved within their own beliefs but also how sad it is for those who believe in them. Take Hinduism and Buddhism for instance, their version of liberation and the afterlife is to stop existing. Hindu’s have to be good enough for the universe as they build up enough “karma” to award them the ability to stop living, dying and then being born as another life form in the next life. The Hindu’s don’t even know who decides when they are good enough to be absorbed into the Universe. The Hindu’s have many gods but none of them are eternal. They believe that the Universe is eternal, but even science has proven that the universe had a beginning. Then there are the Buddhist. They don’t even believe in a god or deity that cares for them. The Buddhist have to be enlightened until their suffering stops. No one knows how many lives they have to live for this to happen but there is no god or deity that even cares. It is no wonder that believers in the Hindu faith and Buddhist religion are so miserable. They are a dead end religion with no logical or scientific evidence to back up a single word or claim that they make.
The Muslims faith is even worse. The Islam god “Allah” is an impersonal god. Mahammad, who was a violent man and a pedophile who owned and sold slaves and mistreated them; was supposedly the only one who witnessed an angel who came to him and threatened him to write down a lot of “holy” scriptures that claimed to be from “Allah” called the Quran. This “holy” book speaks of an afterlife in a paradise that gives men 70 virgins that they can have their way with for eternity. The saddest thing of all is that they have no way of knowing when they have obeyed Allah enough to go to this paradise. The closest way for them to know salvation is to die as they are killing an infidel, which is a Christian. I must say, it becomes more and more obvious why Satan has convinced so many to believe in these false religions. The closer they get to their faiths the more miserable they become.
I’m so thankful for the freedom of knowing our personal, Loving, and amazing Almighty God! He has promised us a heaven in His presence where He has prepared for us an afterlife that is better than anything that mankind can imagine! He loved us so much that He does not ask us to earn it but to place our trust in His ability to save us. He sent His own Son Jesus to die for our sins and pay for our wrongs. There is documented proof of Jesus ministry, dying on the cross and resurrection! He is alive! And He has given us a love letter called the Bible that is made up of 66 books. Written by 40 authors that range from some 1500 years apart, came from different Continents, spoke different languages, and experiences vastly different lives; yet wrote a total of 66 books that when placed together cohesively tells one redemptive story. Jesus! Romans 10:9 & 10 “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
But not just any death. A tormenting death. A criminal’s death to Mankind. But a Sinners Death to God the FATHER. His very SOUL was pierced, not just His hands, feet or side. His body was stripped with whips of blood and tissue torn, yes, but His heart was broken into pieces! He bore every ugly thought, evil deed, hateful word, unthinkable act, lie, theft, abuse, murder, rape, divorce, drug habit, sexual immorality and orientation… It was all crucified on that OLD RUGGED CROSS we decorate with today or hang around our neck. It was ugly! Deadly! Demonic! Yet also Godly! Because God fooled everyone! He HIMSELF determined that LIFE was worth Dying for! Your life. (Romans 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 1:4; John 3:16). But that was not the end! How could Life be worth dying for without our eternal Savior there to enjoy it with us? So He rose from the dead! Victorious over Death, Hell and the Grave! He Lives so we might live! He Lives to prove that He is God and that He is LOVE incarnate! Hosanna! Glory to God in the Highest Way! Praise to His Wonderful & Precious Name! He lives! Now Live, because His sacrifice is worth Living for.
If there is true Godly growth inside our soul and spirit, it will produce a desire to be obedient to God. And of course, that will lead to more and more good work that leads to glorifying God…not earning a place in heaven. I’m so thankful that burden was lifted when Jesus paid the price for me to enter heaven! Jesus has made the way for us to enter Heaven. And if you remain IN CHRIST, there is nothing that can change that. Praise the LORD! This is part of the Victory that we enjoy living under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and I’m so thankful! Let this understanding free you to enjoy living for God! Rest in His Righteousness Provisions. And do what you do out of Love for Him! Afterall, this is true spirituality, true ministry and true “religion”. (James 1:27)
FEBRUARY
As we prepare to welcome several new members this month in our church, I feel compelled to focus on the overall vision of Grace Family Fellowship. We have not talked about it in a while, yet it is so important. Our overall main theme (not annual theme, that’s different), is: “Grace Family Fellowship exist to REACH the lost for Christ, TEACH the word of God, CONNECT people with other believers, and RELEASE them to do ministry.” In short: Reach – Teach – Connect – Release.
It is a mandate, command and commission by God for us to Reach out to the lost. Mark 16:15 says “And Jesus said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’”
Jesus also instructed us to make disciples by teaching them His word in Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Jesus also modeled the ministry of connection and fellowship for us when He called Zacchaeus out of that Sycamore tree and went to his house. Zacchaeus was a changed man. But we are also called to help connect new believers to mature believers. Those who have been following the Lord for many years are called to help mentor and encourage younger believers. (Titus 2:3-4)
Jesus also modeled the practice of allowing His students, followers, disciples to go and do as they had been taught and seen Him doing. (Matthew 10:1; Mark 6:7–13; Luke 9:1–2). 1 Peter 2:9 is appropriate to illustrate how much stock God places on us to go out and proclaim His kingdom. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
So as you see, God loves His church. He gave us His Holy Spirit. He has given us clear instructions to what our ministry should be. Everyone in the church can and should be doing some part in helping fulfill some or all of these goals. To REACH the lost, Teach God’s Word, Connect people with other believers, and Release them to do ministry. As each one of us are on our Journey to grow spiritually and learn to love God more, let us not neglect these important goals. God bless you and thank you for all you do for the Lord. I love you.
A “Lordship Believer”
A Christian believer can be motivated by many things. A religious “check list”, a desire to improve, a desire to get God to do something for them, the idea that if we do “good deeds” God will give us more righteous points…on and on it goes. But I submit to you that if you aim to love God and do good out of a desire to please Him, that is more inline with God’s delight. A “Lordship Believer”, I’m calling them, says “I will live today to please the One I love, my LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. Because I love Him, I will be driven by God’s purposes and see victory in my life because I operate under His loving Lordship. I don’t mind at all when God instructs me or tells me not to do something because I know when He gives me commandments, it is because He loves me enough to speak truth and protective direction into me. He will never lead me astray. And today I will obey because I love Him”.