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Our Wednesday night college worship has a new face. The leaders are still the same, but we will be changing our format to better accommodate you students. We will still be meeting at 7:00pm on Wednesday nights at Southland Christian School.

Click on the thumbnail for directions!

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Come for the worship and stay for the contest!
For our last gathering of the semester we will be meeting at a Chick-Fil-A in Mount Dora. If you didn’t already know…Chick-Fil-A has a contest at their Grand Openings. The first 100 people in line will receive 52 free combo meal coupons good at any Chick-Fil-A. It is a fun time while you camp out in the parking lot and play games and talk to people. We will be conducting a small worship service and inviting people from other tents to join us.

Please sign up this Wednesday Night (4/12/06)

Directions by Mapquest click here!

If you have any questions please contact Jodie or leave a comment.

Just before one of our recent leadership meetings some of the ACT members played a joke on leader Jill Hantsbarger. It all started with one person laying inside the couch waiting for the unsuspecting leader to sit down.
This first shot is everyone sitting around until the meeting starts. Next Jill gets a little suspicious and thinks that I am taking pictures of her.
In between the middle of our keyword cue for the couch attack Eric came in.

After that a hand came out of the couch and scared Jill (she screamed, it was amazing)!



After the scare Jill was taking revenge by sitting on the culprits’ face.

Who was that mystery attacker in the couch?

Erin Tyree?

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On April 5th we will be fellowshiping by “breaking bread” (well not literally). Please bring a microwavable dish or two to eat and/or share. Yes you can also bring stuff that is not microwavable! If you have any further questions about this upcoming event please see Eric.

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A few nights in February there was a rousing game of spoons going on in apartment 439. Some of the competetive players included Courtney, Christie, Eric, Katalina, Jennifer, Michelle, Erin, and Jodie. Sadly, for the losers, we were playing Spoons Dare on one of these nights and yes I made sure to take some blackmail photos!

Here is Michelle taking the first dare - eating a tablespoon full of ketchup

In these photos Katalina had to shove her mouth full of oyster crackers (no they don’t taste like oysters)

Jennifer, who only joined the game long enough to lose, had to eat a container of cocktail sauce from Long John Silver that Eric so graciously poured down her throat!

Finally Eric started getting tired about 12:45 (curfew was 1:00 am) so we piled the spoons on him.

Every game is lots of fun, and if you ever want to join just talk to any of the eight of us!

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Philippians 3:1-16

Intro: Brethren, I do not regard myself has having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I. vs. 1
Paul begins this passage by reminding the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord. Barclay says that Paul “sets down what we might call the indestructibility of Christian Joy.” Further he says, “From one point of view it looked as if Christianity was a grim job. But in it and beyond it all there was joy.” So the underlying mood behind what Paul is speaking to the Philippians about, is that there should be rejoicing in the Lord, something that Paul isn’t afraid to mention on more than one occasion.

II. vs. 2-3
Albert Barnes in his commentary relates that the term dog is used to denote a person that is shameless, impudent, malignant, snarling, dissatisfied, and contentious, and is evidently so employed, which he believed was a doubtless reference to Judaizing teachers, and the idea is, that they were contentious, troublesome, dissatisfied and would produce disturbance. The evil workers would be the same people that Paul had characterized as dogs. And the false circumcision would be that which was practiced as if salvation depended on it, as opposed to it being a sign of the covenant with God. When Paul speaks about putting no confidence in the flesh, he is relating that we should not depend on circumcision for salvation, or any external rites and forms whatever - on any advantage of rank, or blood.

If anyone would have the right to have confidence in the flesh, living to a certain standard and upholding and conforming to the letter of the law, it would have been Paul.

III. vs. 4-6

In the first part of this chapter, Paul has just attached the Jewish teachers, insisting that Christians, not the Jews who are the truly circumcised and who are truly the covenant people, and who are truly in a special and unique relationship with God. He set out his credentials, so if the Jews were to argue that he did not know what it was to be a Jew, he could arguably stand on the facts that he had been circumcised on the eighth day, a commandment of God to Abraham in Genesis 17:12, a commandment that had been repeated as a permanent law of Israel. He was of the race of Israel, stressing the purity of his race and his descent. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, a tribe which had a special place in the aristocracy of Israel. A Hebrew of Hebrews he was called. Basically, Paul is stating that from birth, he was a God-fearing, Law-observing Jew; of a pure Jewish lineage and belonged to the most aristocratic tribe of Jews.

All of these things, his position, his lineage, his own moral standing in accord with Jewish law, he counted as loss.

IV. vs. 7-11

Paul renounces the dependence on his richness in all that pertained to moral character and to religion, esteeming them not as contributing to his salvation, but rather reliance on such things should be counted as loss. Even more than everything Paul had specified about his qualifications, he counted everything imaginable as loss, in light of the overwhelming value of knowing Jesus Christ. He counted them as rubbish, so that he could gain Christ and be found in Him. Paul goes on to say that he does not have a righteousness of his own which would have been derived from the law, but that righteousness was found in faith in Christ, a righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

In vs. 10 Paul wanted to know the power of his resurrection, or the proper influence which the fact of his resurrection should have on the mind. He wanted to know the fellowship of his sufferings. He did not desire to simply share in the hours and triumphs in heaven, but, regarding his whole work as glorious, he wished to be wholly conformed to that, and, as closely as possible, to be just like Christ. Paul was willing to suffer as Christ had suffered.

Paul describes all of these things: counting all as loss, a righteousness derived through faith in Christ which comes from God on the basis of faith, knowledge of Christ, the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, in order that he may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Barnes relates that this phrase “the resurrection of the dead,” might denote “the resurrection of the righteous as a most desirable object; and this might be secured by effort”. A salvific picture.

V. vs. 12-16

There is a word that Paul keys in on a couple of times in this passage, perfect, both in vs. 12 and vs. 15. I was able to understand this passage a lot better myself with the help of reading through Barclay’s commentary on the passage. The word is “teleios” and in Greek it has a variety of interrelated meanings. It signifies a kind of functional perfection, an adequacy for some given purpose. Some relevant meanings would be that this “perfection” means full-grown in contradistinction to undeveloped; for example, it is used of a full-grown man as opposed to an undeveloped youth. It is used to mean mature in mind, as opposed to one who is a beginner in a subject; it therefore means one who is qualified in a subject as opposed to a mere learner.

In vs. 12, Paul is saying that he is not by any means a complete Christian, but ever pressing on. In vs. 15, in the NASB, “perfect” can also mean “mature,” which can be seen as an attitude of those who are “perfect.”

In light of this being an ongoing thing, Paul says that he has not yet obtained it. The “it” he describes, being perfection or maturity in his faith. He says that the one thing he has laid a hold of, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, the prize being heaven and the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus being to live a life of faith and righteousness. We must always press on toward the goal, until the end, seeking to live by faith and a righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

(Sermon by Justin Pressly)

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The name of our group here on Wednesday nights is Advancing Christian Togetherness or A.C.T. as appropriately titled. The ultimate goal of being together is to fellowship with one another, building one another up in love and unity. The leadership for our group have named this group and set goals of advancing this “togetherness” with students from our own school and Valencia. Building relationships is a key goal to our group; we do not seek to create a group to fulfill our moral obligation for church on a Wednesday night. We here at ACT seek to build meaningful relationships with fellow students, to hold one another accountable and grow deeper in our relationships with Christ and in relation to one another. The way that we will be able to do these growths in fellowship and in our relationships with one another is by focusing our fellowship to specified goals that we can find in our text, Philippians chapter 2.

Read Philipians 2:1,2 From this text we can pull what our first focus of our fellowship should be…

I. Unity focused fellowship

When we gather as a body of believers we should seek to be unified in the areas of our walk with Christ. A cord of three strands is not easily broken and a group unified in truth is not easily torn apart. Paul gives us four ways in which we are to be unified, the first is:

1. Being of the Same Mind

This does not mean that we are mindless zombies who cannot think for ourselves. This means that we need to have the same mentality or goal for our fellowship. Some people have negative intentions and different goals for when they fellowship. Paul is making sure to tell us that we need to be of the same goal or mind in order to achieve unity focused fellowship.

2. Maintaining the Same Love

Our maintenance crew at FCC might or might not know about maintaining something, depending on your experience with them, but in order to maintain something, like say maintaining a car, you have to take special attention to it and make an effort to show it some love. You wash it, scrub your tires, check the tire pressure, check your oil, whisper sweet nothings into the engine and pray it doesn’t break down! The fact of the matter is that you have to put work into something if you are going to maintain it. The same is true for love, that when we come together to fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ we supposed to be maintaining the same love that we have for that brother or sister in Christ as we do for Christ Himself. We need to check our attitudes and actions toward our fellow Christians in order to maintain our same love.

3. United in Spirit

When Paul writes this he is talking about being united in our passions. It’s kind of like Paul is telling the Christians to yell to one another “We got Spirit, yes we do, we got Spirit how bout you!” All day long!! Because they all gots Spirit!

4. Intent on One Purpose

We should all understand what our purpose is in life, after all we have all probably read “The purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren! Well anyway, our purpose should ultimately be as Christians to present the Gospel to as many people as we can and try and snatch as many away from the fire as possible.

Lets move on to the next verse in our text:

Phil 2:3 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;”

The focus we find in this verse is that we must have:

II. Humble focused fellowship

There are two aspects of being focused on humility in our fellowship

1 Abstain from selfishness and a conceited heart

When we come to fellowship we should understand that it is not about us. We may think we are the greatest thing to enter into the doors of the church and believe that the church is lucky to have your talents and your abilities and all we are really leading to is a conceited heart that is full of arrogance and pride and is selfishness. After all, we have no reason to boast. In 1 Corinthians 3:6 Paul mentions how he planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God is the one who makes things grow. I believe the same is true in us. That we many work hard for the Lord and plant many seeds, as well as water many. But God and God alone is responsible for the growth in us. We have no reason to have a conceited heart and seek selfishness.

2. Regard others as more important than yourselves

When we come together to fellowship we must understand that we have weaknesses that we bring to the table and the people around us, our brothers and sisters that we will fellowship with bring things to the table that we are not gifted in. This fact makes them invaluable to our ministry here in achieving our goals. For example, I am not an extrovert. To be honest, I don’t even really like people. Of course I’m not saying that I don’t like you all, with the exception of Eric….j/k. I do not bring a natural ability to communicate with other humans. Perhaps you do.

Phil 2:4 “do not {merely} look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”

III. People focused fellowship

Continuing with the theme from our last point this is similar. We have to understand that Paul is not telling us to be passive pushovers. I have met several Christians with the inability to say no to someone. We just have to realize when to compromise and when to hold our ground. This is more difficult than it seems but very much attainable when we are following the other focuses of fellowship. If we truly are of the same mind, maintaining love, unified in spirit, drawing toward the same purpose, and abstaining from selfishness and pride and seeking to put others before ourselves, we will not have a problem in sympathizing with the interests of others and compromising some of our own personal interests.

Our final focus in fellowship is:

IV. Christ focused fellowship

Philipians 2:5-11

Jesus emptied Himself before God and suffered the greatest price possible for us, death, and at that a gruesome horrible death on a cross! When we gather to fellowship we need to be mindful of the mentality that Christ had and we need to be servants. Christ is the perfect example for everything in Christianity, I mean really, they named it after Him! But the point is this, when we focus on Christ and becoming more like Him the rest of the areas of fellowship will fall into place and we will be able to participate in the greatest and most intimate fellowship with God that we can achieve through Christ!

Sermon by Josh Wright

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Today a group of people from ACT will be using brownies as outreach at Valencia Community College. Some people baked brownies and some are passing them out to the students. For those of us in class or at work today, please take the time to pray that this outreach will be good for ACT, Valencia Campus Ministry, and the individuals involved!

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Thank you everyone for responding in such a possitive way to Bethany’s cause. Together we raised over $100 to help Josh Wright’s friend Bethany during this time of need! For updates on Bethany’s improving situation please speak to Josh.

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Philipians 1:12-14

Intro: I enjoy paintball. I like the idea of shooting someone and them not getting mad at you. I suggested to a few guys at my church to play and it certainly turned out for the greater progress of paintball.

By looking at Philipians 1:12-14we will see how Paul’s circumstances led to the greater progress of the Gospel and we will ask the question, “Have my circumstances…”

I. OUR REPUTATION NEEDS TO EXTEND BEYOND OUR FRIENDS

I can see Paul here talking with the guards constantly. I’m sure the guards would talk with each other about this guy Paul and how he wouldn’t leave them alone (talk as guard, maybe) Think about your reputation to those outside of your immediate circle of friends. At work or at high school, somewhere where you consistently were with the same group of people who were not all Christians.

Ever look at one and wonder if they were a Christian? I would hate to think that someone thought that of me, wasn’t sure. I loved it when people say, “you are a Christian aren’t you?” No mistake about Paul, we should be the same. His situation led others to Christ. Maybe some of those guards accepted Christ, jailer in Acts 16. Paul’s circumstances led…so should ours

II. OUR RELATIONSHIPS NEED TO ENCOURAGE EACH OTHER

Read vs. 14

I’m sure it was terrifying to preach, thrown in prison or killed.

Paul’s situation motivated them, gave new passion. They saw his faith despite his situation. (Fear not those who kill the body, (Matthew 10:28) Paul gave them courage when there was none. Now exponential amounts of people because he encouraged on account of his circumstance

I am a Youth Minister, I like talking with other YMs. Share frustration, not alone, boldness
We need each other to build up, Proverbs 27:17 (iron sharpens iron)

I am like those guys, I need encouragement to help advance to Gospel
Conclusion
Are we like Paul? Do our circumstances…
Mind you, the focus is not on us, but what Christ does through us
Imagine what it would be like if we were doing what we were supposed to, because we were there.
Shows how he did it himself, and how he helped others to.
Read vs 12, 20

(Sermon by Adam Sarwi)

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Philipians 1:9-11

Paul here tells us that a mature love increases in knowledge and discernment.

PROPOSITION: A mature love increases in knowledge and discernment

I. YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND JUDGMENT NEEDS TO WORK WITH YOUR LOVE

Knowledge is a key part of love that enhances the quality of love.

Now the knowledge and discernment that Paul speaks of here is relating to people. Knowledge and discernment is the ability to see not only what is good and bad, but also what is important and unimportant, proper and improper. Knowledge and discernment are a part of love.

It is kind of like building a house. Knowledge is the blueprints of the home, discernment is the plan to work out those blueprints, and love is the actual construction.

If we just had the plans we would have nothing. (READ 1 Corinthians 8:1)

Also if you just have love without knowledge, you would have an immature almost obnoxious love. It would like trying to build a house without blueprints. You have all the best intentions in the world, but you accomplish nothing because you don’t know what you are doing. Have you met someone like that, where they have all the best intentions, but they are just obnoxious? These people usually end up smothering others with their good intentions.

Or if someone is doing something foolish in their lives, you do not just tell them they are dumb and ruining their lives. You can show love though and approach them as a concerned brother or sister and help them as much as they will let you help them.

When we have this mature love

II. WE CAN BE PURE AND BLAMELESS UNTIL THE DAY OF CHRIST (READ Philipians 1:10)

This verse here implies that we are not perfect. We need to work to become blameless and pure.

The idea is that when we have a mature love, others will recognize that we want to do good and we want to help and that we are not trying to just sell them something. A lot of people just think that we Christians just want to sell them something. We are just interested in them getting into the Church so we can get their money. But when we have this mature love, others will see our genuine care for them. They will see someone that cares about them as a person. They will see someone who is pure.

They will also see someone who is blameless. The idea here is of someone who is a smooth road, he does not cause other’s to stumble when they travel on him. They can bring nothing against him that is wrong. It is not someone who is perfect, but it is someone who other’s can deal with and never stumble on account of how the Christian acts or what he says.

This is not someone when they are frustrated calls the other person stupid or fat, because that would cause that other person to stumble. They are a smooth road and others can see the good in them when they travel on them.

(Sermon by Eric Herendeen)

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Josh and Eric entranced in a far off gaze

Josh helping Eric to climb a tree or Josh pushing Eric into the tree?

Josh staring down the barrel of his guitar

Justin is driving that playground equipment

Our leadership team casually hanging out after a meeting

Josh & Eric playing leap frog!

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Acts 16:12-40

For the next couple of weeks, I want us to study the Church at Philippi. And this week we will study the beginnings of the Church at Philippi and see how this Church grew. The account of this is in Acts 16. But before we jump into it we must understand the town of Philippi first.

Philippi was in all reality a rich mobile home park. There were very few Jews there. A large group of the population at Philippi was retired military men, who prided themselves in being Roman. These men were wealthy, politically minded, and proud of their nationality and the actual town of Philippi as well. When we go through this account in Acts 16, we will see two different responses to crisis and what occurred because of their responses.

1.) IF WE DO NOT CALL ON GOD IN CRISIS WE EXPERIENCE MORE CRISIS

When Paul and Silas were brought to the authorities a crisis had hit the city and that crisis was laid at the feet of the authorities. And so when this crisis came to the magistrates, they responded with pragmatic worldly wisdom. They did not seek justice in this case, they sought peace. They did not call on God to help them, they relied on themselves. Their decision was to humiliate Paul and Silas by stripping them of their clothes and beating them. And then after that they threw them in prison.

Now this does not seem all that terrible. There were a few troublemakers, so the authorities made an example of them. But because they relied on themselves their problems only increased. They thought they could get rid of their problems themselves, but they couldn’t. The next day they went to go get the prisoners out of the jail, and found out that they were both Roman citizens. And these troublemakers were now demanding that they be escorted out of prison by the authorities themselves or they would bring this case to a higher court, because in that time if you were a Roman citizen, you were to have a trial. It was completely unlawful for an authority to just throw into prison whoever he pleased.

APPLICATION: When a crisis falls at our feet, we try to fix it ourselves without God. But when that happens there only seems to be more trouble. Don’t just rely on yourselves, you have a God who cares for you and wants to help you.

2.) IF WE CALL ON GOD DURING OUR TIMES OF CRISIS, WE CAN FIND PEACE

When Paul and Silas were thrown into jail their jailer threw them into the darkest, dirtiest, deepest part of the prison, without any real feelings and locked up shop and went home for the night. This man’s crisis is not the town being thrown into confusion, in fact that is this man’s job. These are just two more troublemakers who are coming to justice. But there is something different about these two men. Even though they are thrown into prison, he notices as he is leaving that they are singing praises to their God.

In the middle of the night the jailer is woken up by an earthquake. Now I have never been through an earthquake, but I imagine waking up to one is quite scary. I mean the ground under your feet is literally moving. Well our jailer friend wakes up and runs to the prison. Now that might seem like an odd reaction to the event, but in that time if any prisoners escaped from the jail then the jailer was personally responsible.

He runs down to the prison, and looks around in a mad dash. The earthquake was so violent that the iron door had swung open. His life flashes before his eyes, because everything in his whole life that he had worked for had slipped out of his hand like grains of sand. So he did the only honorable thing he could have done. He drew his sword and prepared to plunge it in and end his life. But from the darkness of a cell and the darkness in his mind, he heard a voice cry out, “Stop, don’t harm yourself, we are all here” (Acts 16:28). Our friend the jailer looked around and realized that the voice was true and he rushed into the cell and fell at the feet of the man whole praised God and said, “Sirs what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). Relief that the prison was full came over him, but he knew that other crises would come. The jailer was asking how he could have the faith and confidence that these men had to call out to God in their crisis. He wanted to call out to God in this near crisis of his life.

Paul responded to him that he needed to believe in Jesus and he would be saved. Later that very night the jailer was baptized into Christ Jesus and the Bible says that he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God.

APPLICATION: Our friend the jailer learned that he could have peace and joy in the crisis of his life. But he had to call out to God. We need to learn this too. God is the God of peace and comfort. He is our refuge and our strength. When crisis arrives, God will be stronger than it. We need to turn to him for true inner peace and joy, especially in the crisis times of our lives. READ Psalm 23

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Josh is jammin’ on the guitar

One of our small groups

Mike on the congas

Justin’s boomin’ on the bass

Eric giving the message

Michelle, Ciara, and Erin listening intently to the message

Matt and Chris bond in one of our small groups

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1 TIMOTHY 2:1-8

I. PRAY FOR EVERYONE, IT IS GOOD

God says that it is good that you pray for everyone. There are many things in the Bible that are called good. God is the God of good. God calls the sunset, sunrise, green grass, watermelon, etc. good. The world was created by God and He called it good. And it is good and you enjoy its goodness. You can agree that nature can be quite beautiful and good as God says it is.

But God is just not a naturalist. God says that things like love and kindness and unity are good things as well. In Psalms 133:1 it says, how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. I have been on both sides of it. I have had the roommates that all got along, and the roommates that you just didn’t work out living together. But the point is that you live together in unity and it is good.

APPLICATION: You need to pray in behalf of everyone, all kinds of men, whether you like them or not, whether you think they need it or not, because God says it is good; he says it is beautiful.

II. PRAY FOR EVERYONE, IT IS ACCEPTABLE

God continues and says that you need to pray for everyone because it is acceptable.

Well God tells us here that the action of praying on behalf of all men, whether they love us or hate us, is acceptable to God. That means that you are doing something which God agrees. It pleases God when you in fact pray for others, whatever their circumstances are.

Well God here tells us that He is proud of us as His children when you pray for all men.

God’s son Jesus even taught this in Matthew 5:43-44. Remember his words in Matthew? God finds it acceptable when you pray in behalf of all men. He is proud of us for this. He was proud of Jesus when Jesus prayed for those who put him on the cross. He is also proud of you, when you pray for the man you dislike, or pray for your authorities, or for your friend, for everyone.

APPLICATION: You need to pray for everyone because it is acceptable to God.

III. PRAY FOR EVERYONE, IT REFLECTS GOD’S DESIRE

And finally you need to pray for everyone because it reflects God’s desire.

One of the more evident truths of the Bible is that God loves the world, God loves sinners. And because he loves sinners, he wants us to have a relationship. And you can achieve that relationship because his of His Son Jesus. The verses say (vs. 4-6). God says that he wants and desires all men to come to him through Christ. That means that God loves all men.

There was a man of science who was conducting an experiment on prayer. He wanted to test the power of prayer so he took a hospital ward or patients with similar illnesses and split the ward in two. He then got a group of religious people to pray for the one and not for the other. Now this experiment is repulsive to us because a may is arbitrarily choosing one group of people for which to pray and purposefully ignoring another group of people in the name of science. This is so despicable to us because this is not how God operates and this is not how God teaches us to operate with prayer. He does not tell us to choose one group of people for which to pray and purposefully ignore another group in prayer. No God loves the world and tells us that you must also show love towards the world. And one of the ways you can show love is to pray on behalf of all men, not purposefully neglecting any.

APPLICATION: You have heard it was written that you are to love as Christ loved us. Well in this passage you are told to intercede in prayer for all men as Christ died for all men.

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