Sunday AM Recap
March 22, 2026
Link: https://www.youtube.com/live/kfH_DgT12P4?si=oY82ael_dEG7KdXz
Apostle Susan Powers opened the service with a review of the month of Nisan. She emphasized in particular that this is the month of deliverance and the importance of deliverance.
Rachael Gilmore led worship.
NO EARLY CHILDHOOD WORSHIP.
Message: Pastor Jeff Spangler
“Preparation Day”
*Portions of the message were lost in the recording due to technical difficulties.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Read it again…differently.
We can get so caught up in the temporal that we miss the eternal. No matter what we’ve been through, we all have pressures in this life that God is saying “these are light and momentary troubles,” even when they don’t FEEL very light and momentary.
Let’s not forget…HE’S in control.
When God says it’s time to level up, we need to look again. “Therefore, do not lose heart”…we know to stop and ask “what’s it there for?”
It’s easy to read this and put our own spin on what is to come…it’s important to build good expectations, not our own expectations. To allow GOD’S expectations to come forth.
Title: “Preparation Day”
We know there were assigned days in the Scripture for preparation…there were days when you could and couldn’t do things, which meant you had to prepare ahead of time. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the preparations that we can lose Who the preparations are for.
We know we need to prepare the ground for the garden. And it’s not always easy or fun. (Tiller example.)
What’s it all there for?
Why do we till the ground and put in all the work? We have expectation of the end result. And no matter how we think the garden will work out, every year it’s a little bit different. The fruits and the veggies grow in different places than last year. We try to do them in the same way we always do it - and there comes a time when you have to do it a little differently.
Example of making a “big girl” bed for Pastor Jeff’s granddaughter. He has to have the bed all thought out and planned out before the bed is made. You have to know what the end looks like before you begin.
But then we have had this message about being on the Road to Emmaus…they didn't actually get to Emmaus. The road was the next city - they were told to go on the road to Emmaus. And they encountered Jesus out there.
We think we know how to prepare, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But as we prepare, some things we think are going to work won’t and vice versa. A master builder encounters those issues and makes plans so that when issues arise, problems can be solved.
Part of the preparation has to be to prepare your heart not to falter,
Before we come into Resurrection and Passover, we have preparation to do. We may have had some kind of idea how things in our lives would go - and sometimes it doesn’t work that way.
God is saying to you today: “Hey I know that - therefore, do not lose heart. I’m not faulting your preparation.” But sometimes we slant our preparation to what we know instead of what we don;t know.
Do we build our preparations with leaving room for God to do what He is going to do? We are so inundated with stuff that we forget - it’s about HIM. We forget there is an ETERNAL around us. (Reminder of string example - in all of eternity, we are but a tiny speck.)
God is reminding us this is all preparation. We don’t even know what the preparation is for - but HE does.
In these things that are going to happen, we have a privilege. DO NOT LOSE HEART - persist in your privilege!
“Unable to find” - in other words, retain in. Retain the heart of flesh you’ve been given, rather than giving into a heart of stone. Retain your privilege.
Don’t LOSE heart.
Those in your sphere of influence - there are those enslaved to some issues. Angry. Upset. Bitter. Confused. What brings you comfort was given to you - TO GIVE TO THEM. Not only so YOU comforted, but to comfort THEM. YOU have been set free - and free men set slaves free.
If you don’t feel free, do not lose heart!
Preparation word study:
In the Hebrew, you really need context to know the true translation.
Lehakhim - to prepare something
Lehitkonen - to prepare oneself
Both mean “preparation”
To prepare something.
To prepare oneself.
You can prepare something or you can prepare yourself, but know this - we are in a Preparation Day, and we are in a new season as a church.
Know that these light and momentary troubles do not stay forever. Nothing stays the same,
We’ve been given such a treasure, and what we do with that treasure is important.
Example: Pastor held up two containers that have some different purposes. One has holes in it. One is solid. Which do you choose? Well…what is it for?
2 Corinthians 4:6-9
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”[a] made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
We are these vessels of clay. God wants us to know that HE knows we are a weak vessel. HE will use the vessel how HE wants to use the vessel.
Some of us may feel like our vessel is cracked, is chipped, has a hole in it and we are leaking - we are POURED OUT.
There are times that a vessel may look like there are a lot of holes in it! And it’s not working!
Because God is saying THIS is the season for something different. There comes a time when all this brokenness that we think are problems with our vessel, God says it's for something different! (The sound cut out here.)
The vessel with the holes - it is not much for holding water but great for releasing light! Don’t judge broken vessels, God has a plan! Every crack lets God’s light shine.
This is a personal word to us. We have such a treasure of the light that has been given to us. Don’t lose it. Don’t cease to let it go.
God may be making a new vessel and He wants his light to shine out of it - even for you to see.
Prayer: “Help me make the shift that you want me to in preparation for the light to transform into something greater.”
How are you supposed to let the light out? Through your brokenness.
We aren’t here to fix each other - we’re here to help each other not lose heart. The Christ in my heart is wanting to shine through, but I’m not ready to show my cracks and brokenness
Don’t lose heart - He’s put it in there for such a time as this
This is a personal word…but there is also a corporate message for Christ’s Community Church, who is in preparation.
How are we going to be different?
Example of apple seeds - little black seeds, tiny compared to the apple it came out of. If you just eat the seeds, it can be dangerous. But what do you do with an apple seed? You use it to become something else. What will this seed become? One seed can produce many apples. This is referred to as the fruit. We all want the apples, but there’s a lot of work to get to the fruit that God wants to do in our life…it takes a while for a tree to grow. What has to happen to the one little seed? It becomes a sprout. Is that what you see when you look at a seed? Keep your eyes on what is UNSEEN. When the dirt does its work, it doesn’t remain the same.
Over the years of CCC, we would do something, become something different, and then say “oh that wasn’t the thing.” We all assume the tree has to produce a certain fruit to be successful…what if the tree itself WAS the fruit? What if God’s purposes are different?
SEE IT DIFFERENTLY. We all think we know a thing - but God wants us to prepare differently, because the seed turns into a sprout and then a tree and then fruit, and none of it looks the same.
What’s inside the apple? MULTIPLE seeds. That one seed transformed, and it carried on, even as it became something else. There may come a time in the Garden that we cut things open and say “hey, CCC is still there! It’s different and the purpose is different, but it’s still there!”
What’s the seed? It’s JESUS. He was prolific in showing us that if He is planted, the fruit will come -and we have this too!
So don’t lose heart because you feel like you’re becoming something different. We’ve become the Garden - and it’s time to get our butts where our face has been.
Let’s not judge a vessel because it seems broken. We’re going to have broken vessels come in, and maybe we just need to turn on the switch. Be careful little lambs what you speak, because maybe it won;t be the way you think it is. YOUR job is to stand in the gap. The seed has to become something else. The seed is still in there, but it;s going to look different.
Not all seed and fruit is pleasing to the eye. But when we are planted in our sphere of influence, things can change.
Broken vessel? Opportunity for light to shine.
Seed? Needs planted.
Fruit? Doesn’t just show up. Needs work.
THEREFORE DO NOT LOSE HEART.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
I am NOT my brother’s keeper…but I AM the keeper of the light, and that’s our job. I’m not here about the circumstance, I’m here about what Christ wants to do in the circumstance.
1 Corinthians 15:36-51
36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[a]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we[b] bear the image of the heavenly man.
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—
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