February 17th

WEEKLY

COMMUNITY
FREE CHURCH
!

Amy Krutsingers 83 year old mother,

Nancy, fell in the bathroom. The situation
is difficult because they live on a ranch in
Montana 60 miles from the nearest town,
and the roads are nearly impassable right
now.

This past weekend Harold Greene came to share his

love of Jesus and his ministry of music with us at the
10:45am service. Thanks, Harold!

Sara DeYoung is at Mayo Clinic having

her final surgery.
Ronda Ekbergs mother will be having
surgery today. She has been dealing with
bone cancer and other issues.
Rachael Roberts funeral will be tonight
with Pastor Jason officiating.

Sermon Series:

Join us in welcoming Lilah Evangeline Woods into

the world! She was born this past week to Benjamin
and! Crystal Woods at 7lbs 6.5 ozs and 19.5 inches.

Dont forget to grab

your Study Guide Chapter study guides
will be available the week
before and the week of the
chapter we will be studying!

Whats Happening This

Week at Your Church?
Tuesday

Saturday

Continuing the Act Like Men Discussion!

2/17

Ladies Bible Study 9:30am at CEFCM

Womens Bible Study Fellowship 9:10am
at First Christian Church
Community Groups 7:00pm Wright Home
Community Groups 6:00pm Schifo Home
*Note that the Schifo group changed times
from 7 to 6pm.

Wednesday 2/18
Youth Group 6:00pm Pastor Jake Barrett

2/21

Act Like Men at the Church.

Basketball 8:30am

Sunday

2/22

Christian Education 9:30am

Childrens Sunday School 9:30am
Childrens Church 10:45am
Worship Gathering 10:45am
Book of Isaiah: Chapter 2
Study Guides in the foyer.
AWANA 6:00pm.

Community Groups: Piasecki Home 6:15pm

Thursday

2/19

Congregational Prayer 6-7:00pm

Save the Date! March 1st, CEFCM Missionary

Brent Ressler, will be sharing his heart at the
10:45am service as Pastor Jason and Tasha
will be out of town attending a conference.

Worship Practice 7:30pm

Ladies Bible Study: Find hope in Jesus

Christ through the Book of Revelation!
This will be an 8-10 week study:
Tuesday 9:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
(There will be no babysitting provided.)

Some of the topics will be:

Hope when you are depressed,
Hope when you are deluded,
Hope when you are discouraged,
Hope when you are distressed,
Hope when you are defeated, and
Hope that ignites your heart.
The first class will be an orientation class and the last class
will be an overview of the book of Revelation using a time
line. We will plan a fellowship get-together for in May.
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact Deb Henrikson at (217) 586-2918.
Please let Deb know if you are interested so that she can order you a book.

God. The message is that a life that is not in tune

and pointed towards God, will usually produce
prayers of the same kind.
God doesnt want our prayers, sacrifices, singing,
or our worship services unless the heart of those
things is our hearts set on Him.

The problem hat we saw in this last weekends

message was that Judah and Jerusalem were
clinging to a thin veil of religion to hide their
iniquity. They were sacrificing, singing, and
showing up, but they were not seeking God in
such a way that brought Him glory.
In the temple then, and the church now, what can
so easily happen is that worship becomes
preoccupied with our worship, and the
emphasis of His worship fades. A place where
we begin to talk a lot about God, but our desire
to talk to God and worship Him as God seems
to fade into the background.
Romans 1:21
21For although they knew God, they neither
glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but
their thinking became futile and their foolish
hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed
to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged
the glory of the immortal God for images made
to look like a mortal human being
To see this in action just read Isaiah 1:14. God
says these are Your New moons (which was a
worship service) instead of My New moons;
These are Your feasts, not mine. It is as if God is
saying, This worship is obviously all for you,
because it certainly is not about me.
1 Samuel 15:22
And Samuel said, Has the Lord as a great delight
in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the
voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
Now read Isaiah 1:15. God says that impure hearts
produce impure prayers. To stand with Hands
spread wide was the position of prayer of the
Israelites. These people were praying in such a
way, but with only a thin sense of real worship to

1 Samuel 16:7
But the Lord said to Samuel, For the Lord sees
not as man sees: man looks on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
What happened was that those in Judah and
Jerusalem were worshiping on the day of worship
and living like the world on every other day of the
week. True worship comes when we offer our
whole selves as a living sacrifice; a worship of
God both in and out of the church.
Therefore, we need to set our minds and hearts on
God, not only on Sunday morning, but each and
every hour and moment that stretches from
Sunday to Sunday. Let us let Christ, reign and rule
in our daily lives and ask God to make us more
like His beloved Son.
I believe that if we are both confident of who God
is and honest regarding who we are. If we are
willing to speak the truth in love to each other.
If we are vigilant in the places were we might
wander into worship for the sake of worship and
not for the praise of His glorious Name. If we are
wary of idols and gimmicks and instead rest in the
power of the gospel, I believe we have a real shot
at making an impact in our own lives, in our
church, and then out into the world.
I said it this past weekend and I believe it:
The state of the church directly
impacts the state of the world.
So, lets admit the church is a mess and in many
ways it needs to confess that. Lets confess the
places that we have done religion, and people
have been wounded and hurt. Places where we
could have loved well, and released people from
the chains of bondage and sin, but we didnt.
Its not too late to heed Isaiahs call to:
Come walk in the light of the Lord together.

Many asked for the slides from Sundays sermon, so here they are!

Slide 4

Isaiah Chapter 1:
Slide 1

Slide 5

Slide 2

Slide 6

Slide 3

Slide 7

ACT LIKE MEN Study Group Now Meeting at the Church each week!
1st and 3rd Saturday - Coffee
2nd and Last Saturday - Full Breakfast
Have you missed gathering with us? No worries just come out and jump right in. We will
have books and copies of the weekly questions available for anyone who didnt get them
yet. Lets have an ongoing honest conversation about leading and loving as men.

The Act Like Men Conference Date Changed - Added Speaker!

The Act Like Men Conference in Chicago, June 12-13th will be held at the historic Moody
Church in Downtown Chicago, with the addition of Erwin Lutzer as a speaker! Tickets are
$115 which includes a shared hotel room.
The exciting addition of being at Moody with Erwin Lutzer is a huge blessing. We would
love for you to join Pastor Jason as we learn, listen, and wrestle together what it means to be
men.
This year we will spend time together reflecting and discussing what we learn each day.
There will be a group meal at Carsons Ribs in Chicago (Bring a bib!) to close out the
conference before we head home.

What does it mean to Act Like Men?

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
Let all that you do be done in love. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Prayer Training Reminder:

Praying Like the Jew Jesus study meets
March 7th at 9:00am.
The next meeting to discuss the book will be Saturday,
March 7th at 9:00am at the church.
We will be looking at chapters 7-10.
There will be coffee, treats, and lots of great conversation
to drive us towards God in confident prayer!
If you havent been able to attend come out and be
blessed. We still have a few books left to get into your
hands.