String of Pearls

This week's sermon was about 1Thessalonians 3 - and Pastor Steve discussed temptation as:
1. lure, enticement to sin
2. our being put to the test
3. refining suffering in patience.

Pastor Steve also defined AFFLICTON as being - "Pressed upon, pressed together" - reminding us that we can trust God when He is the one applying the pressure.

The questions he asked that are great to consider in your quiet times this week:
How does God change us? (by trials, tests, and being proved) What is the test you are taking right now? How many times have you failed it? If Jesus and Paul learned through suffering, did you think that you would escape it as a follower?

These are tough things to consider, but we need to remember what this is about. I Thess 2:4 says, "We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts."

In 1 Thess 3, Paul reminds the Thessalonians that this persecution was part of following Christ...
"We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. You know quite well that we were destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted"

As Pastor Steve taught about this, he said "God had in store for Paul a long string of trials to shape him. He suffered many things for Christ"... which brought to mind the image of a string of pearls.... quite literally a clam endures suffering and goes through discomfort in the process of creating a pearl.
When you look at this string of pearls, what might some of the pearls be? Look at each one individually - name the pearls of suffering that you know the Lord has placed in your life...
(ex. loneliness, betrayal, insecurity, a tough relationship...)

Now read:

James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

and
Romans 5:3-5
we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

When we look at suffering with worldy eyes, it is hard to see purpose. But God's view is one of purpose. He knows why this suffering entered your little clam shell. He wants it to irritate you to the point of surrender to Him, so that He can create a thing of beauty.

Metro Open House

Metro's office has recently relocated to a new location in Santa Monica. The clean up and renovations are complete, and we would like to invite you to our Open House BBQ. This will be a great time for fellowship and to meet new people! We look forward to seeing you all there!

There is no parking in the lot, as we will be using the space for the gathering, but there are a couple spacious lots in the area. Follow this link to see the public lots just steps away from the office. http://parking.smgov.net/pdfs/Parking_Map_Apr07.pdf There is also parking on Arizona Ave. and on Santa Monica Blvd.

What? Open House BBQ

When? September 28 from 1pm-4pm

Where? 1320 Arizona Ave. SM (at the corner of 14th St)

What's for lunch? We will be serving delicious BBQ chicken and tri tip

How much does it cost? Only $5/plate

Please RSVP as soon as possible and pass it on!

info@metrochurch.org

A minute to refocus

Did you take 3 minutes to tell God how amazing He is this week? I mean, 3 focused minutes.
Read this aloud to the Lord and focus for the following 3 minutes on your own words of praise.

"Bless you, Lord Jesus.
you are amazing.
I love you and I am in awe of you.
You alone are worthy to be praised.
Nothing else compares to you.
My entire life is in your hands
and I bow at your feet, my king."
(now take 3 minutes.)

Now, take a deep breath.
on the inhale, attach the words
COME LORD JESUS
and on the exhale, attach the words
COME, HOLY SPIRIT.

(there, doesn't that feel better?)

10 minutes of prayer

It was Sunday morning.
Driving to church, I was praying and getting into a place of prayer and I realized that I didn't pray as much as I would have liked to this past week. People and situations came to mind... things that need real, dedicated prayer... Richard and Jeff both had major surgeries this week. There are marriages and families in great need... the Rodriguez' twin boys are having hearing tests, Vanessa's mom is having more chemo this week, my own father is in a continual battle with cancer.
And though I did pray for each of those situations and many more, looking back, I wish I'd prayed more for each of those... truly been able to talk and listen to God about each of those at length.

As you look back at your week, which one situation comes to mind that you wish you'd dedicated more time to praying about?
Take 2 minutes right now to lift up that situation to God.

which was the second situation that came to mind?
Take 3 minutes to pray and talk to God about that.

I'm sure many other situations come to mind.
Don't get overwhelmed by all of them.

Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

- write down a list of the things that are on your heart that need prayer.
Take 3 of them to focus some time on.

See if any verses come to mind as you focus in prayer about the situation.

And leave the rest to God. and He will give you REST.


P.S. If you don't know a lot of verses, I'd encourage you to buy a Bible Promise Book to use while you are praying. The $2-3 investment, is well worth the payoff of having the Word of Life ready at your hand.
A great way to work scripture into your prayer life is to journal. One one side of your page, write the things on your heart and mind. Across the page, find scriptures to write out - at length - that address your situation. You'll be amazed to find how applicable the Bible truly is.

New Communion Procedure

This week at church, we tried out a new way of handling communion.

Our communion was distributed in the front of the auditorium by our elders and as you came forward, the elder read your nametag and said, "Christ's body, broken for you, 'Caroline'" etc.

What did you think about the way we handled communion?

Sermon application - Thessalonians 1

This week, Pastor Steve's message was entitled, "Living what you believe", as he began his new series on Thessalonians ("Living in the Last Days")
text:

1 Thessalonians 1
1 Paul, Silas and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace and peace to you 2 We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.
3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

As I was listening to the sermon, I took feverish notes, very excited to think about how many ways this sermon and passage of scripture could be applied to questions about our own lives.
Steve highlighted the points at the beginning of FAITH HOPE and LOVE. ... Funny, Paul touches on that later in 1 Corinthians 13... These are so key... and I realized that as we look at the above passage and listen to the sermon from this week, we can use the following questions and insert our own situations to make the questions especially applicable.

For example, what is going on in your life?
Are you under stress? relaxed?
Are you a parent? Are you single? Are you a student?
Think of your current circumstance and apply it to the blanks below, and see just how personal this gets.

1 - Faith, Hope and Love... What do these look like in our circumstances?
What does faith look like in the context of "______________"
What does hope look like in the context of ______?
What does love look like in the context of___________?
(Pray about the answers, wait on God for the answers...)


2 - If I don't have a hope that endures (about _______), where am I putting my faith? ("The ability you have to labor in love, is going to be affected by your hope and faith")

3 - (verses 7-9) - Everyone was talking about the Thessalonians faith, hope and love.
Is anyone saying that about me in this situation, ___________? Why? Why not?

4 - Pastor Steve mentioned Paul's desire for this church to become a mature church. To labor in love is a mature thing to do. As Steve put it, "Those of you who are parents understand that there are things that you do for love that you would not do for money"
What is the Lord asking you to do (as you grow in maturity) - that you would not do for money, but you would do for the love of Christ? What might you do in love in ___________(said situation) that you would not do for money?


5 - When we place our hope in Christ, our faith in Him, and are filled with love, it is not hard to trust Him.
What are you holding onto in your own hand that you might be able to let go of if you really allowed yourself to trust Jesus? (If you hold things in your hands, they become areas in which God does not have control)

6 - verse 6 - They became imitators of Paul and of the Lord.
Who are you imitating in _____________?
(Make sure it is God!)

7 - verse 6 - "in spite of severe suffering... you welcomed the message with joy."
Have you received God's word in affliction? with joy? This becomes an example.
"Your identity is NOT: your past, your failure, even what you did last night. Your identity is HIM."
What are you assigning to your identity as _____________ that is not of God?

8 - verse 8 - "the Lord's message rang out..."
How do you share your faith in_______________?

And a few final quotes from the message,
*"If you are living for this life, you are probably hopeless. If you are not living for heaven, you are not really living. Heaven is real. We need to live for it. It should cause us to live differently"
9 - If you were living for heaven and not for this life, how would your current situation with _________ be different?

Nametag Sunday

We all know that it's hard to wear a nametag and not feel totally uncomfortable, but we also come to church eventually hoping to find people that not only know our names, but can share our lives and walk with us as we seek the Lord.
This Sunday is "Nametag Sunday" - we're all doing it, so can you. We feel weird wearing them, too, but we want to know your name and we want you to know ours.
So be prepared to smile, write your name and meet some of your Metro family.

New Bulletin Board

Check out the fellowship hall at the entry of our church auditorium for our new Metro Family Bulletin Board!
We will have a place to list jobs, roommate requests, haves/needs.

see you Sunday!

Our Pastor, Steve Snook

What do you do at Metro?

Senior Pastor, founded Metro in 1989.

Tell us about yourself.

I have been married to Tamara since 1987. We have three children:
Stefen (1989)
Canaan (1992)
Kylie (1994)

Favorite Things:
I love being with my family
Any activity with Tamara is amazing
Dates with my daughter and reading together
Riding dirt bikes, surfing, and golf with my sons

How did you come to know Christ?

Saved in 1968 as a young boy, but as 12...

Do you have a life verse?

Romans 8:28 (my dad and grandfather's also), Proverbs 3:5,6 and Matthew 6:33

Welcome, Metro Family...

and so we begin... with a simple desire to encourage, inform and become a better family...
This is our new metrochurch blog.

It's our desire to use this forum as a place to share what is on the heart of the church leaders and pastors... to introduce leaders and elders, share about ministries and missionaries, communicate what is inspiring our walk as a church.