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Dover Assembly of God

11.24.2019 | Biblical Life Lessons - Standing for Christ

11.24.2019 | Biblical Life Lessons - Standing for Christ

Locations & Times

Dover Assembly of God

4790 Carlisle Rd, Dover, PA 17315, USA

Sunday 10:30 AM

Welcome!

Welcome to Dover Assembly of God! We're glad that you've joined us this morning. If you're on Facebook, we encourage you to take a moment to check in at Dover Assembly.
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This Week's Bulletin

November 24, 2019

Welcome to Dover Assembly!
We are so glad you have chosen to attend Dover Assembly this morning. It is not by accident that you are here. We believe that God has allowed you to be here so that you might receive all that He has for you. We pray you are blessed as you allow the Lord to work in your life.

THIS WEEK

Sunday
9:00 am ~ Coffee & Donuts
9:30 am ~ Sunday School
10:30 am ~ R.O.C.K. Children’s Ministries
10:30 am ~ Worship Service
1:00 pm ~ Spanish Service

Monday
6:30 pm ~ Women’s Bible Study

Wednesday
6:30 pm ~ Thanksgiving Eve Service

Thursday
THANKSGIVING

Saturday
6:30 pm ~ Saturday Night Spanish Service

UPCOMING EVENTS

Kid's Christmas Play
The R.O.C.K. kids will be doing a short skit for Christmas on Sunday, Dec 15. All parents should have received a letter about this by now. If you have not received it, please see Anna. Also, please make sure your children are here every Sunday as they will be practicing during Children’s Church following their lesson. Kids Christmas Skit dress rehearsal: Sat., Dec. 14, 9:00 am to noon, pizza lunch provided.

New Life For Girls - Date Change
The New Life women had to reschedule their time to be with us. They will be ministering in our morning service on Sunday, Dec 22nd. This is an excellent opportunity to bring someone with you to hear about the power and grace of God. We are also providing a light luncheon following the service. We would encourage as many as possible to join us to fellowship with these ladies. If you can help us with the luncheon by helping to set up, provide food or drinks, please sign up in the lower foyer.

Christmas Dinners
As Christmas approaches, various ministries will be having their respective dinners. Please see the dates below and sign up for the dinners you plan to attend.
~ Dec 12 ~ Men’s Ministry will be going to Buffalo Wild Wings @ 6:30 pm
~ Dec 13 ~ Women’s Ministry will be going to Dee D’Agostino’s home @ 6:00 pm

BODY NEWS

Holiday Benevolence
If you would like to contribute to our benevolence fund in order to supply items to families over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, please use the envelopes provided in the pew racks and indicate “benevolence”. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Annual Business Meeting
As we prepare for our annual church business meeting on Sun., Jan. 19, one of the items we will be covering is voting for Deacon Board members. The process at Dover Assembly for the election of our Deacon members is to encourage our voting members to submit names of other voting members whom they prayerfully feel would best serve our church and our Lord, Jesus Christ. The church agreed to limit the number of board members to 5 instead of 6 this year as we seek to re-establish the policy of electing 2 new board members per year.

This year we have 1 member (Keith Miller) who has reached the limit of (2) 3 year terms and must sit out for one year. Therefore we will need to elect 2 new members to bring our total to 5 board members this year.

There are nominating forms at the Information Center. Please write the names of those who you would like to nominate, sign it and place them in the ballot box. We will only consider names of nominees from this ballot box. If you do not put the ballot in this secured box, the ballot will not be valid for consideration. Our nominating committee will review all nominees to determine if all constitutional requirements are met by that candidate.

The eligible nominees will be contacted and asked to pray over acceptance or rejection of the nomination. The names of those who accept the nomination are then presented to the church body three (3) weeks prior to the annual business meeting. Nomination ballots will be accepted until Sunday, Dec 8.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!
Nov 27 ~ Thanksgiving Eve Service-No Departments
Nov 28 ~ Thanksgiving
Dec 6 ~ Deacon Board Christmas Dinner
Dec 12 ~ Men’s Ministry Christmas Dinner
Dec 13 ~ Women’s Christmas Dinner
Dec 14 ~ R.O.C.K. Kids Dress Rehearsal-Lunch provided
Dec 15 ~ R.O.C.K. Kids Skit
Dec 18 ~ R.O.C.K. Kids Christmas Party
Dec 22 ~ New Life For Girls / Luncheon
Dec 24 ~ Christmas Eve Service
Dec 25 ~ Christmas-NO FAMILY NIGHT
Dec 29 ~ R.O.C.K. Kids in Main Service
Dec 31 ~ New Year’s Eve
Jan 1 ~ New Year’s Day-NO SERVICE

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https://doverassembly.com/app

Thank you for your faithfulness!

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https://doverassembly.com/give
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Week 11 - November 24, 2019 - Pastor Jeff Bender

I’m going to take a small turn in this series. Today we're going to discuss the cost of standing for Christ.

It still falls under the category of what does God say about, but this was actually prompted by the recent news about Chick Fil A.

I prayed about this and felt we should talk about it.
Let's look at some background about Chick-Fil-A (CFA)

For years CFA has been the one of a few businesses that expounded a biblical belief.

I doubt that anyone who eats there has no knowledge of their biblical stance. Their CEO and founder clarified their position specifically on the belief in the biblical model for marriage and family before he died.

As you know they are closed on Sundays because they want their employees to attend church if they want. And they consider it their Sabbath day of rest.

They have been consistently voted #1 in customer satisfaction for the last 4 years, they have prospered financially.

According to THE TAKEOUT-a fast food magazine, the average Chick Fil A store makes twice as much profit as the average McDonalds location.

They are the 3rd largest behind McDonalds and Starbucks.

This is an example of a business that because they honor God to the best of their ability and they take a non-confrontational stand on their beliefs is the reason that God prospers them.

They don’t refuse service to anyone, they support their community. Their individual marquees don’t advertise their opposition to anything.

The owner simply stated what he believes personally, his dedication to operating his business in a Christ-like manner and supporting other charities.

For years they have been the brunt of boycotts, pickets, bad press, jokes and have been denied permission to open facilities in various places due to their biblical stance.

Because the owner happened to state that he believes in traditional marriage. And yet they are blessed by God in spite of these attacks.

I would say that they are blessed because of these attacks. God has allowed them to prosper despite all the efforts to shut them down and run them out of business.
So, how many heard what has transpired with that company? If you havent’ been in the know, let me tell you. It’s been a slippery slope of appeasement.

In 2014 they stopped donating to Paul Anderson youth home due to it’s “anti-gay” stance. They began supporting the Boy Scouts which have given in to the gay lobby.

CFA has been an active supporter of great charities like the Salvation Army and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Because of the constant barrage of negative press and opposition, CFA chose to no longer support these organizations because of the stance on LGBT issues.

But they have started to give to Covenant house which among other things is anti-Gay Activist group, has a float in the NYC gay parade and transports girls to abortion clinics.

In other words, they caved to the pressure.
This action did 2 things.
1) It tossed aside all those who supported them thru the opposition.
2) It gave into an organization that hates everything we and CFA stands for.

You’ll read a bunch of tortured explanations of why they did this, but in the end, they gave into the pressure and cost of being a Christian.

That’s why, today I want to remind you that there is now or soon will be a cost for each of us to stand for Christ.

And when things get really hot and the pressure is mounting, what will we do?

Jesus told us that very thing . . .
Taking up your cross indicates difficulty. The cross meant sacrifice!
The word hate is a comparison word. It means compared to your love for Christ, your affection for your family should look like hate.

We know Jesus has already said that we are to love each other, so. . .
And it’s at this point we are going to have to make a choice.

Will we stand and fight for what’s right or will we give in?

2 Things that we will deal with in any opposition or persecution.
a) Do we fight or confront those opposed to us?
b) Do we acquiesce to those who oppose us?

We are called to be in the world but not living according to it’s standards.

Jesus told his disciples:
I heard a preacher say Christians get an A+ in the sheep department, but and F- in the snake department. We need to be wise as serpents when it comes to responding why / when / how.

It didn’t say wise as owls-he used the serpent.

Why the serpent? What is a person’s natural reaction to them? Respect? Fear? Hated? Yet they live how they were designed. Regardless of how we feel about them.

So let’s look at the fights.

1) DO WE FIGHT OR CONFRONT THOSE OPPOSED TO US?

a) Do we roll over and let the world systems dictate our lives? Do we not preach against sin because it might offend someone? Do we not single out certain sins because it may harm our relationship with the government?

Beto O’Rourke said that any church that doesn’t accept same sex marriage should lose it’s tax-exempt status. A presidential candidate (former). Make you afraid?

Does that make us change who we are? Do we now have to tow the line? Do we no longer say it’s a sin? Do we now allow or accept that lifestyle as God approved?

Canada already has that law.

A BBC headline from June of 2018: Canada's Supreme Court rules LGBT rights trump religious freedom

It’s coming and we better be ready for it. We need to go on the offense. And not just let things happen without a fight.

When Paul was imprisoned and beaten in Rome, they let him go free.

But he didn’t just lick his wounds and say thank you for freeing me. Jesus loves you.

What did he do?
Paul and Silas had been wronged by the government and now they were just going to let them go without any apology, or recompense for their misdeeds.

They could have left and kept on preaching, we’ll take the beating for Jesus and leave, but they wanted to vindicate themselves, so they demanded that those who were in charge accept responsibility.

And they wanted it to be public for everyone to see.
Paul had certain rights as a citizen of Rome and he fully exercised them. He didn’t roll over and forget it.

To the point of calling those in charge on the carpet. Exposing them for the town to witness their wrongs.

In America, for now, we have certain rights that have been afforded to us by the constitution and the bill of rights.

As believers, we should be ready to exercise them or we will eventually lose them.

Paul exercised those rights again . . .
Officials should be wary of denying the rights we were guaranteed.

Paul is at it again.
Paul didn’t just ignore him or walk away or turn the other cheek, he confronted him to his face.

Now he was full of the Holy Spirit, so we need to be sure that we are filled too.

Not only did he confront him, he basically cursed him.
Now you would think that is a horrible way to witness and be Christ-like to someone.

But Paul confronted evil because evil was actually preventing the gospel from being preached.

What happened when Paul was confrontational and cursed that guy?
Paul was not acting as a sheep, but as a serpent.

Sometimes we mistake being nice with being righteous.

Bill Hybels said that “Passive Christians repel non-Christians from the faith.”

If we always are the milk toast people who can’t stand up for righteousness, others don’t want that.

RC Sproul said: “When I became a Christian, I understood that Jesus took my sins away, what I never heard from him was that he intended to take my backbone away.”

What are some of the words Jesus used against the Pharisees?
~ Hypocrites
~ White washed tombs
What’s the saying?

b) Do we acquiesce to the demands of those who oppose us?

Do we give a little bit to maybe appease those that oppose us? Isn’t it easier to just give a little bit in order to make peace?

When has that ever worked? When has giving in to the enemy ever resulted in him letting things go?

Giving in empowers and emboldens the enemy.

Rather than challenge acts of aggression by Nazi Germany, Neville Chamberlain sought ways to pacify Adolf Hitler. Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact in 1938, which gave parts of Czechoslovakia to Germany.

How did that work out for him?

In March 1939, Hitler violated the Munich Pact by invading Czechoslovakia.
His purpose isn’t to get you to give a little. His purpose is to totally destroy you.

Giving in only motivates more opposition.

Right after CFA caved, GLAAD had this response:
One of the nation’s largest gay advocacy organizations is greeting Chick-Fil-A’s divestment from Christian charities like the Salvation Army with tepid praise and further demands, including an “unequivocal” denunciation of the brand’s history and values.

The full statement from Drew Anderson, GLAAD’s director of campaigns and rapid response, names more steps the fast-food chain must take to prove its genuine repentance:

REPENTANCE?

If Chick-Fil-A is serious about their pledge to stop holding hands with divisive anti-LGBTQ activists, then further transparency is needed regarding their deep ties to organizations like Focus on the Family, which exist purely to harm LGBTQ people and families.
Giving a little is never enough. The enemy wants it all. The devil will never be satisfied until every aspect of biblical Christianity is wiped out.

That’s his goal and we are the targets.

What does this mean to each of us? We’re not a major company. We’re just a small country church. I’m just a regular Joe or Jane

How does this affect me? We need to understand that we are in a battle. You will be tempted to deny your faith, or compromise your faith, or give in, or now become “OK” with certain things because of the pressure and persecution and hardships we will face.
A couple of weeks ago we talked about the disconnect there was in Christians who say pre-marital sex is wrong with those who have done it.

If we take a stand for God, we will eventually face the trouble that CFA did.

I don’t care what you do with CFA. I just used them as an example of a stalwart company, who has always stood tall.

God blessed them for their faithfulness. But the opposition got too great. And I realize that it was horrible.

They began to look at the bottom line rather than the promise of blessings that God had already delivered.

You will be tempted to look at your current situation. Maybe you are being harassed at work. Maybe your family has not talked to you. Maybe you think it will just be easier to live and let live. “you’re ok, I’m ok”.

It’s at the hardest point that you’ll need to make a choice. In that one public act, CFA negated all of their years of public testimony. All they stood for is now in question.

Their public face is now different. When we give in just a little, our public face and testimony is subject. I’m not saying we don’t sin, we do, the difference is we don’t accept it.

Before I close I want to make a distinction. We are to love people, but we are to hate the world systems that promote sin.

One of my close friends in Florida is a lesbian. I love her, but I hate the system that has made her that way . . .

Thank you for joining us!

If you haven't already, be sure to check out our website and follow us on social media @doverassembly! Have a great week!
http://doverassembly.com

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