Bethel Community Church Orlando

DAVID // WEEK 2 - ”Saul and David”

There is much to learn from the interactions of Saul and David throughout the book of 1 Samuel. The focus today is how Saul perceived David as an enemy, even though David’s actions proved otherwise. David had two opportunities to kill Saul, yet David did not. Although Saul’s actions seemed to present him as an enemy of David, it was actually Satan trying to hinder David’s obedience to God. Ultimately, for David, the end did not justify the means. David knew that His obedience proved his belief in God as the source of truth and the determiner of right living. 

DAVID // WEEK 1 - ”David’s Anointing”

Have you ever thought that God has forgotten about you? Sometimes we encounter "blank spaces" or times when it feels like God has forgotten about us. However, in those moments where it seems like God is not doing anything is often when He is doing His best work. After David was anointed as king of Israel, he went back to keeping the sheep. Just like God worked through David while David was still in the pastures, God is working in our lives during those blank spaces too.

3 Circles - God’s Design for Parenting

The purpose of biblical parenting is to train our children to know God, love Him, and honor Him with their lives. Christian parents should be about heart transformation, not just behavior modification. We want to teach our kids to think about God and pursue His design for their lives. Parents are God’s agents to train the hearts of their children.

3 CIRCLES - God’s Design for Marriage

The 3 Circles model can help us understand God's design for every aspect of our lives including marriage, sexuality, and family structure. Marriage was invented by God, and it can be summarized as one man with one woman for life. Since we are all broken people with imperfect pasts, we must look to the Bible to effectively address all of our uniques situations.

3 CIRCLES - God’s Design for Finances

In Luke 12, Jesus demonstrates that greed is not ultimately about our possessions; it’s about our brokenness when we abandon God’s design. When our hearts aren't content, we look for other things to fill the holes in our life. When we have money-brokenness, we begin to take comfort in money instead of relying on God. The only cure for our discontentment, greed, or stinginess is to repent and pursue the gospel. It is God’s design for our hearts to be content in Him.

3 CIRCLES - The Gospel

The gospel is the "Good News" of Jesus. However, we don't always know how to go about sharing it with others. As we go through this conversational, relational way to carry out Jesus' mission, we can learn to apply the 3 Circles in our daily lives. The gospel is simply: Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and God raised Him from the dead. This is the way out of our brokenness. The gospel allows us to recover and pursue God's design for our lives and help others do the same.

3 CIRCLES: Brokenness

Last week we learned that God has a design for the world and our lives. When we sin and depart from God's Design, it causes brokenness. Brokenness is easy for most of us to understand. It feels like broken relationships, addiction, depression, discouragement, guilt, and shame. When we feel broken on the inside and everything’s all messed up, we know something needs to change. The Bible’s word for change is repent. Brokenness is what gets us ready to try God’s solution, which is to repent and believe the gospel. 

3 CIRCLES: God’s Design

God has a design for every area of our lives, including: our families, marriages, money, sex life, and work life. God designed us to be in relationship with Him, but we have all sinned and departed from that design. When we repent, believe the gospel, and trust in Jesus, God gives us His Holy Spirit who helps us recover and pursue God’s design again.

Why Am I Here?

We've all wondered at one time or another why we were placed on this earth. In order to answer this question, we must begin with God. Your Creator has put you on this earth not for your own personal fulfillment but for the glory of God. Living for God and bringing Him glory should be the ultimate purpose of our lives. 

Faith Steps

Our students went to camp this past week. One of the nights of camp focused on taking "Faith Steps." The speaker used the story from Joshua chapter three where the Israelites crossed the Jordan River. Taking a faith step always leads us out of our comfort zone. But when God calls us to take a faith step into the unknown, we don't have to fear. We can trust that He is already there.