November 25, 2007 by PastorMark.

#294, The Greatest, Sunday, 11-25-2007, Pastor Mark Boucher

Text: 2 Peter 1:5-8; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Theme: Love is letting God’s heart beat in and through you.

INTRODUCTION:

1. I brought my message with me to Maine.
   1. What would Jesus do? Do everything in love.
2. As Americans, our values and lifestyle are far apart.
   1. “Love is the greatest, I just can’t stand some people.”
   2. “People should be sensitive to others, but I had my reasons to curse them.”
3. Peter ends his list of virtues with love (agape)

Text: 2 Peter 1:5-8

1. The highest form of love ever known.
   1. We are so confused about love. (The definition of love takes up 4½ pages in the Oxford dictionary.
   2. Demonstrated b God through Jesus Christ.
2. How important is love? How important is your heart to your body?

Theme: Love is letting God’s heart beat in and through you.
What can we do to strengthen our hearts in God?

Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

1. Watch for the warning signs for heart disease and failure.
   1. Heart attacks are usually preceded by “signals.”
   2. What are some signals of love growing cold?
   3. Dizziness and confusion about God’s priorities and ours.
   4. We tend to emphasize gifts above character.
   5. If I can just speak in tongues …
   6. We tend to emphasize sacrifice over character. (v3)
   7. Some martyrs were just showing off.
   8. Sacrifices won’t make up for lack of love.
   9. Another warning sign: irregular heartbeats, heart murmurs.
   10. Love does not envy (v4)
   11. Love does not boast (v4)
   12. “It is not proud …” (v4) ~ Do I try to impress others?
   13. “It is not easily angered.” (v5)
   14. Love keeps no record of wrongs. (v5)
   15. “Love does not delight in evil” (v6)
   16. A person filled with God’s love can’t laugh at evil and filth.
2. Exercise your heart in the love of God.
   1. How can we strengthen our hearts?
   2. Practice patience and kindness everyday (v4)
   3. Love is like the motor oil that keeps the parts from destroying each other.
   4. Love is a candle burning, not a firecracker.
   5. God is not looking for superstars, just lights.
   6. Find joy in what gives God joy.
   7. “Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.” (v6)
   8. Stay positive in a negative world.
   9. In the last days the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24).
   10. “Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (v7)
   11. “No matter how bleak your circumstances, you can always love and still feel good about life.”
   12. People fail, but love never fails. (v8)

“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

What can we do to have more of God’s love beating through us?

1. Receive the love of God.
2. Repent for lack of love in our words and actions.
3. Keep fighting the battle for love. “Jesus reduce me to love.”

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November 25, 2007 by PastorMark.

The giving of thanks is an act of humility. The person who is thankful says, “I need God and people in my life.” The Lord is pleased by our humble gratitude as a father on earth derives joy from a grateful son. Psalm 138:6 says, “Though the Lord is on high, He looks upon the lowly, but the proud He knows from afar.” A proud person doesn’t thank God or others but is trapped in an I deserve mentality. We have just passed the holiday of Thanksgiving, but may we, as God’s people, practice continuous “Thanksliving.”

Pastor Mark Boucher

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November 18, 2007 by PastorDave.

Beginning Sunday, December 2 2007, 10:10-10:50 AM

Welcome to the Family

• Taught by Pastor Mark
• This course will meet in Pastor Mark’s office.
• This class is an introduction to Leominster Assembly of God. You will be introduced to the purposes and vision of Leominster Assembly of God as well as the practices and policies of the church. This course is for anyone interested in becoming a member of our church and is a requirement for membership. Class size is limited to 15.

Drawing Closer to God

• Taught by Pastor Bob
• This course will meet in the Triangle room next to the sanctuary.
• This class is for all new Christians as well as any Christian who wants to draw closer to God. God says that if we draw close to Him, He will draw close to us. This is your chance to become the dynamic, joyful disciple of Christ that you have always wanted to be. This class is a requirement for membership.

The Sermon on the Mount

• Taught by Pastor Dave
• This class will meet at the elementary school across the street from the church.
• You are invited to come and sit at the feet of Jesus as He unfolds to us through the teachings of His Word the deep truths of what it means to live as a Christian from God’s perspective.

Christian Discipleship

• Taught by Harry Marshall
• This class will meet at the elementary school across the street from the church.
• In our walk with God we face struggles and trials similar to the great partriarchs. We will be looking at the lives of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph to see how they prevailed with God during good and bad times.

Financial Freedom

• Taught by Manny Onos
• This class will meet at the elementary school across the street from the church.
• Each attendee will receive the means to prepare his/her individual road to true financial success and will be thoroughly equipped to remove the obstacles on the road to receive his/her rewards of eternal pleasures, possessions and powers in this present life and in the life to come.

Temple of the Holy Spirit

• Taught by Rev. Fumio Taku
• This class will meet at the elementary school across the street from the church.
• God calls us a “temple of the Holy Spirit”. Come and discover how to release the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. Using the Old Testament illustrations of the Tabernacle in the wilderness and the Temple, we can receive insight on how the Holy Spirit is to function in our lives.

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November 18, 2007 by PastorMark.

#293 Living in Philadelphia, Sunday, 11-18-2007, Pastor Mark Boucher

Text: 2 Peter 1:5-8
Theme: We can learn kindness and love for one another

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November 18, 2007 by PastorMark.

Many Americans are convinced that all they need is more money. The dream for “the best house, best car, and best career” drives people to a frantic, stress-filled life. In Proverbs 8 we read, “Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her” (vv. 10-11). Satisfaction in life is never found through the accumulation of money and stuff. The Bible teaches quality over quantity. If we ask God for wisdom, He will teach us how to handle this world’s stuff as well as how to find contentment in His presence.

Pastor Mark Boucher

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November 11, 2007 by PastorMark.

#292, The Real Deal, Pastor Mark Boucher, Sunday 11-11-2007

Text: 2 Peter 1:5-8
Theme: A real Christian is the one who is becoming godly.

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November 11, 2007 by PastorMark.

“Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven” (Psalm 85:11). As Americans, we are blessed by God with abundant food. Our nation’s food harvest is made possible by plentiful rains from above and the rich soil here below. The Psalmist describes the spiritual harvest of godliness as faithfulness and righteousness working together. Just as the rain comes from above, so our righteousness is only possible from God, Who is above all things. He showers righteousness on those who repent from sin and trust in Jesus Christ. From His righteousness, God expects our faithfulness. God provides the righteousness from above; we respond with faithfulness here below. God’s grace and our response…this sums up the true Christian life.

Pastor Mark Boucher

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November 4, 2007 by admin.

A Psalm of Prayer, Rev. Don Corbin, Sunday 11-04-2007

Text: Psalm 67

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November 4, 2007 by PastorHarv.

Rev. and Mrs. Albert Earle, Pastor Dana Craig, Bob Bartlett–these names may not mean anything to you, but they are the names of “missionaries” God sent into my life. I am forever grateful for their obedience and boldness in sharing Christ. Now that I know Jesus, I also want to be an instrument in bringing Christ to others. One way I can do this is through a “faith promise.” Each month Terry and I present an offering (not our tithe) to the Lord for the purpose of spreading the gospel around the world. True gratitude overflows into service and sacrifice. The Psalmist said, “Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High” (Psalm 50:14). May we, from a grateful heart, vow to give our lives and finances to help others know Him!

Pastor Mark Boucher

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November 1, 2007 by PastorHarv.

JESUS CHRIST, THE BAPTIZER IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, by Pastor Harv Meppelink

“There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John….The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’ Then John gave this testimony: ‘I saw The Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me, the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God’” (John 1:6, 29, 32-34).

Every one of the four Gospels spells out John’s declaration, “I indeed baptize you with water, he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John became known as John the Baptist. His ministry was to baptize with water. He became known for what he did, not by what he said or prophesied. Yet we know that he was both prophet and baptizer.

I find that very few Christians have ever heard that Christ is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. They know Him as the Lamb of God, as Savior; and as the Son of God, our Lord; but they are unfamiliar with the fact that He was announced to the world as the One to whom the Father gave the ministry of baptizing with the Holy Ghost.

“The one who sent me, the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” Jesus Christ is both Savior and Baptizer. We have no doubt that He is as much the Savior today as when He died on Calvary’s cross as the Lamb of God. Even so, He is still the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit as much as He was when He commenced this ministry on the Day of Pentecost, for He is the “same, yesterday, today and forever.”

I was a young pastor in Connecticut when I met the man who introduced this truth to me, taken from John chapter one and affirmed by all the Gospels. His name was David duPlessis, a man God used to introduce Jesus as the Baptizer to all church denominations. I listened to this man for five nights in a row, and he revealed the truth of the Scripture as the Holy Spirit revealed it to him, always staying in the Scripture.

The first intimation in history that a baptism with the Sprit was a possible event in the life of a human being came from John the Baptist. However, he did not announce the experience but rather announced that the Baptizer was coming. He clearly states that God had told him that Christ would be the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost. He also assures us that the image for this act of Christ was his own act of baptizing in the river. From the very beginning, therefore, all John’s converts fully expected an experience that would be as overwhelming as their baptism in the river. These converts had an encounter with the Baptizer and not with water or even the river. What they were to expect was an encounter with the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is an encounter with Christ, the Baptizer.

This is just the “opener” to this great subject. Jesus is standing by today ready to baptize in the Holy Spirit those believers who ask Him.

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