Center Point Assembly

Pastor Mike continues the discussion of what it means "To Know Jesus..." The message begins with a testimony of a college student in our church family that understands what it means to have Jesus build the foundation of her life... What's so amazing is to discover that once one starts to think and learn about Jesus one will never be able to fully exhaust the discussion. Jesus is so much more then what we can ever grasp. As the discussion unfolds a change will be required in life - no one can remain the same as Jesus becomes more known. Foundations will be rocked and many times rebuilt as we understand His greatness... The question is, will we allow God to re-work us...

Pastor Mike challenges us all this morning in what it means to know Jesus on a personal level more then maybe we have thought about before... We have a tendency to minimize God in ways that we can manage Him in our lives and in so doing we also minimize His power and His authority... Certainly God is a personal God, but we are intended to be His and not make Him ours so that we can "manage" Him in our lives... Listen in and see how God challenges us all to accept Him on His level and not ours...

Pastor Mike looks at the how God chooses to use people to build His church. Every person has a divine purpose and appointment to be used in the building of the Kingdom of God. We are to boldly proclaim the message of the Gospel and to state just as John the Baptist did, "He must increase and I must decrease". As we obediently serve and trust Jesus we can expect Him to continue to bring changes in our heart that conforms us more into a life of being Christ like everyday... All for the GLORY of God...

Pastor Mike prayerfully was given this word to speak of the life of Gideon and how it impacts the church of today. This message speaks directly to our local congregation and also has a very direct message to the church across America. Gideon had two tasks given to him by the Angel of the Lord, 1) to tear down his father's idols, and 2) to deliver Israel from the hand of the Midians with a vastly reduced army that God sifted so that Israel was sure to give God the Glory for what He accomplished... Listen in as these same two tasks are given to our churches today...

Rev. Ted takes us deeper into the meaning of being a personal minster in the house of the Lord... Every person has a gifting and a call in and on their lives as they are obedient to live a life sold out to Jesus. Ted speaks to us from the years of experience and from the anointing that the Lord places on his life to give our church for a specific word for us and all those that will listen in...

This week Pastor Mike continues to talk about the complacency that has invaded the Christian church all across our community and country. However, there is a solution to it that God has given to each one of us and that's through the power of Praise, Worship and Prayer... In fact, it may be the only thing that allows us to break thru the bondage that Satan places on us. Understand that Satan doesn't want us to Praise the Lord, in fact he hates it because he wants us to praise him instead... So it's not a wonder that we are in a battle when it comes to Praise, Worship and Prayer to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ... Join us as we learn more...

Every 5th Sunday the Charlevoix Ministerial Association hosts a community service at one of the associated churches. This Sunday, our church hosted the event and this is a recording of that service. Jackie Boog and Jill Way are the worship leaders. Pastor Mike spoke about his recent trip to Kona, Hawaii at the University of the Nations, Youth With a Mission (YWAM) campus. There he was challenged with the "curse of Christian complacency" that is upon the churches of America. In this message, Pastor Mike challenges himself, his church and the churches in the community to come together to combat "complacency" within... The first 20 minutes or so feature the praise & worship and then following is the message...

Pastor Mike digs deep into area of Christian Complacency and asks the hard questions to all of us regarding our level of true Christian life and passion. Can a Christian be complacent and still be pleasing to God? Can a complacent Christian expect to hear Jesus say, "Well done thou good and faithful"? Can a complacent Christian be powerful and effective? Does a complacent Christian put the devil on the run? In fact, can a person be a true Christian and be complacent? Worship is the "change agent" from the curse of complacency. Worship first and works flow out of worship... Listen in and allow your spirit to be challenged to worship God, He deserves it...

Pastor and Author Ted Brancheau Jr. teaches from his book titled, "Your Ministry Matters". Today Ted brings us on a journey of how every person in the church has a specific and important ministry function that he/she needs to fulfill in order that we have a functioning body of Christ. Listen in and he does a great job charging us all to do the ministry that our hands finds for us to do...

Pastor Mike takes us into the discussion of forgiveness and asks the question is forgiveness a requirement or is it a gift, or both? As we delve into this morning we see that forgiveness is very much both a requirement and a gift to the person that forgives. Christ forgave people their sin and thus gave "them" the gift of eternal life, when we forgive people and release them of the debt they owe us, we give "ourself" the gift of act of forgiveness... It is really for our own benefit that we choose to forgive proactively before we're ever asked to forgive... As we forgive we are pleasing to God and thus He blesses us with ultimate peace and perfect forgiveness of us. What more is there?

Pastor Mike continues to discuss our Identity in Christ and helps us understand that Christ's victory creates for us an Identity of being a "Winner" with Him. We must understand the enemy is out to destroy everything associated with living a Christ-like life, but Christ is our victor and as we learn about His identity we can clothe ourselves like Him and enjoy life as God originally intended us to. Christ Won - We Win...

Pastor Mike continues in the theme of Identity and how it relates to our new church name. The point that is made this morning is that our "Identity Determines Activity" and so often the world twists this concept around so that our 'Activity creates our Identity' and in so doing we become work centered and not Christ centered. Biblical identity comes from a forward perspective of who we are in Christ, and has nothing to do with our past... Many people are trapped in the enemies lie that our background limits our future and thus many people continually struggle with their identity in Christ. If we have Jesus as the Center Point of our life, we are children of God and thus our identity is determined for us as a people set apart for godly works and thus we are conquerors in Christ Jesus...

Pastor Mike continues with the theme of our new name change - Center Point Assembly. This week we examine how important names are to God and there were times that God intentionally changed the name of His child to line up and be a continual reminder of their destiny according to His plan. We see Abram being changed to Abraham, and Sarai being changed to Sarah for the very specific purpose of being a reminder to them when God tested them some time later with the sacrifice of Issac... Abraham trusted because he believed in the name that God gave him - "Father of a multitude" and Sarah - "Mother of Nations". God also sees our lives as significant and important and thus He has a new name for us as well... A name identifies from without and challenges from within... We need to be reminded who we are in Christ...

Pastor Mike presents and discusses the vital importance of a "Name" and the challenge that it presents in the community and within the church. He is presenting his belief that the Lord is asking Charlevoix Assembly of God have a new name, to become known as "Center Point Assembly". A properly identified organization name describes the organization to the community and at the same time presents the members of the organization a challenge to become what the name declares. Jesus is the 'Center Point" of a Christian's life therefore what better way to be identified as the church that declares that... The challenge is presented to all the members and regular attenders, will we live that way? Will our life line up with that declaration? What better way to go thru life then to constantly be reminded that Jesus must be my "Center Point"...

Pastor Mike continues in the discussion of discipleship. The last couple weeks he spoke about the "Cost of Discipleship" and the "Purpose of Discipleship", this week he speaks on the tactical aspect of "Being" a disciple. What do I have to do to be a disciple of Christ? We see in God's Word good instruction for us to love and obey God's commands and His teachings. To do this we must be action orientated or no matter what the intent is or how much faith we have, nothing is accomplished and thus we aren't following Christ in discipleship. The writer and brother of Christ said it best, "Faith without action is dead", therefore we must be actively working our discipleship so that we are building the kingdom of God...

Pastor Mike continues in the theme of discipleship this week by speaking on the "Purpose of Discipleship". Last week we spoke on the cost of being a disciple, and this week we discuss is it worth it to be disciple and what's the purpose? We will discuss the importance of following Jesus and not just be a fan of Jesus. This is shown thru our life as being an imitator of Christ, getting to know the true character of God, and then becoming a fruit bearer of the Kingdom of God. All of this said, we can only do this as we place and keep Christ at the Center Point of our lives... Listen in and let the Holy Spirit challenge you...

Pastor Mike discusses what it means and what the cost of being a true disciple of Jesus is... We all like to find a good deal, finding a 'treasure' and then to be able to negotiate a good price on it is something we all like to do... The problem is that this mentality has invaded the church world when it comes to following Jesus. We all want the "Crown" of life, but are willing to bear the "Cross" to gain it? We think we can negotiate with God what it takes to be a disciple... God is not a negotiator! He clearly lays out His instructions for us to follow to be a true follower or disciple of Jesus... He is not willing or able to give us "deal" to get into Heaven... We have to be sold out and all in, if we are going to hear Him say, well done thou good and faithful...

This is the final lesson that we have from Lass the sheep dog. In this lesson we pretty much wrap up why Lass is on the farm - to serve the master at all cost. By this time Lass has learned all the things that she needed to know to be an effective co-worker with the sheep farmer, the test for her now comes in her willingness to apply the knowledge she has. It isn't until she applies what she knows does she become an effective co-worker. It's the same for us as Christ's co-workers... Do we have the same level of commitment to work so willingly for God? This is a good reminder for all of us and an encouragement to not give up, stay diligent and do for Christ... As we do, He sees all and everything we do will be noticed and rewarded... So work with Joy knowing that God has our life in His hand...

Pastor Mike continues on to Lesson 6 - "Love & Discipline" in the book from Phillip Keller titled "Lessons From a Sheep Dog". This week we talk about the interdependence of Love and Discipline and how we really can't have one without the other. God's love for us is so complete that He disciplines us so that we don't fall back into the "Wrong Hands" of our previous master, Satan.... The boundaries that God set's for our lives is based on love and thus discipline is required to keep us within His boundaries for our benefit. God's love always wins as God's people are obedient... Listen in as this story is unfolded explaining how Love and Discipline are vital in our lives...

This week Pastor Mike is continuing on with a series on a book written by Phillip Keller, titled "Lessons From a Sheep Dog". We are in lesson 5 which is "The Test of Faithfulness". In this we learn that God may place us in areas of life with specific details that we would wonder if we're really effective and accomplishing much. In these times we have the distinct impression that God has set us aside and maybe forgotten about us. In times like this we become tempted to lay down our responsibilities and look for things to do of our own choosing. We want the spectacular in life, thinking that's where all the action is and if it's not spectacular it's not worth doing... This lesson reminds us that God isn't about that, he's about the heart that quietly goes about the task at hand. One that remains faithful in the midst of difficulty and isn't distracted by the things that come from the outside nor from the internal distractions that would ultimately take us away from the true heart of seeking after God. Go