The event will run from 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM at Generations Community Church, 382 Fairgrounds Rd. in Farmville. The event is open to everyone! Everything is free! There is no charge for food and games. We do hope that you will bring your family and friends!

Cowboy Day will include a rodeo for the kids, horse/pony rides, barrel racing, roping, kid-safe bull riding, cow milking, carnival games, bounce house, great fellowship and live music. Each child will receive a bandana – so come wearing your western best! Please see the attached flyer, and help us by putting copies up in your neighborhood or business! We will be serving burgers, beans, iced tea, and slaw to your heart’s and tummy’s content!

Generations Community Church wants you to know that you are loved! We hope to see you Saturday June 9th at 10:30 AM for the best western showdown in Farmville VA!

Blessings,
Pastor Paul

P.S. If you would like to serve on the operations team for Cowboy Day and are available to volunteer, please contact Pastor Paul via email: pwillis@gcfarmville.com

Introduction

How can two people stand at an altar and swear they will love each other until “death do us part” and then just a few years later hate each other more than they have ever hated anyone? How can the person to whom she gave her deepest vow become the person she despises most? In this message, Pastor Paul provides insight on how to not only fall in love, but also to stay in love.

Discussion Questions

1. Pastor Paul says that we all bring emotional “baggage” into our romantic relationships. What are some reasons why romantic relationships reveal this baggage more than any other kind of relationship?
2. Our ‘baggage’ frequently results from family or romantic relationships. What are some specific experiences that have most contributed to your baggage?
3. Read Proverbs 4:23. In this verse, Solomon, famous for his wisdom, says to guard your heart above all else. Do you agree with Solomon? Even if you disagree, can you think of some reasons why Solomon would place such value on guarding your heart?
4. Pastor Paul says that your ability to feel certain things is determined by the condition of your heart. Why is this more important than your partner’s behavior? How does the second half of Proverbs 4:23 support this assertion?
5. Unspoken emotions have a great deal of power over us. Why does verbalizing a specific emotion take away that power?
6. Oftentimes, we feel defensive when our partners come to us and say, “When you do ________, I feel _________.” Pastor Paul says that there are no bad feelings and that when we share feelings, we are providing an observation, not a criticism. What did pastor say our response to this type of observation should be? Why is this so difficult to do?

Moving Forward

What’s inside of you is coming out. It’s not coming out because of who you are with, but because it was in you to begin with. If you want to stay in love, you have to pay attention to what is in there, so that you can own it. You have to have a plan to guard your heart–a plan that begins with thinking about and identifying specific emotions and then communicating them. Will you commit to this plan?

Changing Your Mind

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Proverbs 4:23

Homework Assignments:

1. Who is the most famous person you have ever met? How did you interact with that person?

2. What is your most valued material possession? Describe this possession and how you treat it.

3. Read Philippians 2:3-4. What are some specific things you can do this week to “value others above yourself?” Specifically, how can you apply this idea to someone you love?

4. Read Philippians 2:5-7. Describe a time when you saw someone with position or power choose to serve rather than to leverage that position or status for his own benefit? How did you feel when you saw that? Were you surprised by his actions?

5. Pastor Paul says we can’t have it both ways. We all must face the dilemma between choosing what we deserve or choosing submission. What does he mean by this? Why can’t we have it both ways? What are some ways that you can choose to submit to the person you love this week?

Moving Forward

To stay in love you have to choose to love each other the way that Christ loved us. In other words, you have to choose to treat the person you love as the most important person in the world to you. You have to be willing to put them first. What is keeping you from this? Is it worth missing out on the love relationship that God designed for you?

Changing Your Heart and Mind

In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Philippians 2:5-7

Go back to “Staying In Love” Part 1: Love is a Verb

Ever wonder if people can stay together for good. . . like people in love? Is it even possible for two people to stay happy together forever?

Homework Assignments:

Part I: List 5 ways that you can make love a verb with a person you love. How can you do them this week?

Part II: This week, spend some time discussing these questions.

Describe the first person you fell in love with. What made you fall in love? Have you fallen in love with anyone since then?

Why do you think there are over 1,500 matchmaking organizations in this country? Why is there such a demand? Has it become harder or easier to fall in love in spite of the fact that there are so many matchmaking opportunities?

What unwritten rules of love (both healthy and unhealthy) did you learn from your family of origin? How have those rules surfaced in your current relationships?

In John 13:34, Jesus identifies love as a verb, not a noun. What are some concrete differences between feeling and doing love?

In Ephesians 5:21, Paul refers to mutual submission. What does mutual submission look like in the context of a romantic relationship?

What steps can you take this week to proactively love someone rather than reacting to what someone else does or does not do for you?

Changing Your Heart & Mind:

The key to staying in love is not finding the right person. It’s finding someone who is committed to becoming the right person while you work to become the right person. It’s finding someone who is not afraid to put you first while you overcome your fear of putting him or her first. It’s about making love a verb.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

John 13:34

Generations Church meets 10:30 AM for worship in Farmville! We hope you will visit!

The creation accounts make clear that we have been fashioned for relationship. We are meant to be in relationship – to share community – with the created order. As God evidently desired companionship, so God created humanity for companionship: women and men together sharing life and love, caring for the world, its bounty and vitality. Our essential nature binds us in shared responsibility for one another and the entire created order. Thankfully, we are not meant to take on these awesome and wonderful tasks alone.

The church, the husband, the wife, the children, the friends, the church all live in relationship with God and each other.

Join Generations Church this Sunday 10:30 AM! www.gcfarmville.com/sunday

You are invited to Experience the Nativity Story.

Wednesday December 21st
Refreshments at 6:00 PM
Movie at 7:00 PM
Free Admission

From November 27th to Friday Dec. 23rd, Generations Church Farmville will be immersing ourselves in the Nativity narrative. Our hope is that you may experience the Hope of Christ in a fresh, new, and powerful way. This series will include a viewing of “The Nativity Story” on Wednesday December 21st at 7:00 PM, and end with a candlelight service Friday December 23rd 2011. There will be no formal worship service Christmas morning, although the people will be gathering from 11:00 to 12:00 for fellowship and the singing of Christmas Hymns! We want to invite you to experience the Coming of Christ our Lord!

Generations Church meets at 382 Fairgrounds Rd., Farmville VA 23901
Sunday School 9:30 Am
Worship 10:30 AM

The Generations Church 2011 Harvest Festival will be held on the RAIN DATE!

The festival will be held:

1:30 PM to 5:30 PM SUNDAY October 30th
We will meet right after church at the YMCA!

We hope you all can attend! If you are a helper, please be sure to take note of the date and time change and be prepared to help with your area right after we breakdown from Worship on Sunday!

If you want to enter your dessert in the cake-walk, be sure to bring one. Also, if you would like to enter a Chili into the Chili Cook-Off, be sure to bring your best, hottest, tastiest chili!!

• FREE Food
• Lion Bounce House
• Chili Cook-Off (bring your own chili if you want to enter)
• Pony Rides
• Cake-Walk
• Carnival Games with Prizes
• Music

Blessings,

Pastor Paul
________________________

Paul D. Willis
Lead Pastor, Generations Church
(434) 390-4066
pwillis@gcfarmville.com

www.gcfarmville.com
www.facebook.com/gcfarmvilleva
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www.youtube.com/gchurchva

Answer: The Mormon religion (Mormonism), whose followers are known as Mormons and Latter Day Saints (LDS), was founded less than two hundred years ago by a man named Joseph Smith. He claimed to have received a personal visit from God the Father and Jesus Christ who told him that all churches and their creeds were an abomination. Joseph Smith then set out to begin a brand-new religion that claims to be the “only true church on earth.” The problem with Mormonism is that it contradicts, modifies, and expands on the Bible. Christians have no reason to believe that the Bible is not true and adequate. To truly believe in and trust God means to believe in His Word, and all Scripture is inspired by God, which means it comes from Him (2 Timothy 3:16).

Mormons believe that there are in fact four sources of divinely inspired words, not just one: 1) The Bible “as far as it is translated correctly.” Which verses are considered incorrectly translated is not always made clear. 2) The Book of Mormon, which was “translated” by Smith and published in 1830. Smith claimed it is the “most correct book” on earth and that a person can get closer to God by following its precepts “than by any other book.” 3) The Doctrine and Covenants, containing a collection of modern revelations regarding the “Church of Jesus Christ as it has been restored.” 4) The Pearl of the Great Price, which is considered by Mormons to “clarify” doctrines and teachings that were lost from the Bible and adds its own information about the earth’s creation.

Mormons believe the following about God: He has not always been the Supreme Being of the universe, but attained that status through righteous living and persistent effort. They believe God the Father has a “body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s.” Though abandoned by modern Mormon leaders, Brigham Young taught that Adam actually was God and the father of Jesus Christ. In contrast, Christians know this about God: there is only one true God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10; 44:6-8), He always has existed and always will exist (Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalm 90:2; 1 Timothy 1:17), and He was not created but is the Creator (Genesis 1; Psalm 24:1; Isaiah 37:16). He is perfect, and no one else is equal to Him (Psalm 86:8; Isaiah 40:25). God the Father is not a man, nor was He ever (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Hosea 11:9). He is Spirit (John 4:24), and Spirit is not made of flesh and bone (Luke 24:39).

Mormons believe that there are different levels or kingdoms in the afterlife: the celestial kingdom, the terrestrial kingdom, the telestial kingdom, and outer darkness. Where mankind will end up depends on what they believe and do in this life. In contrast, the Bible tells us that after death, we go to heaven or hell based on whether or not we had faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. To be absent from our bodies means, as believers, we are with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). Unbelievers are sent to hell or the place of the dead (Luke 16:22-23). When Jesus comes the second time, we will receive new bodies (1 Corinthians 15:50-54). There will be a new heaven and new earth for believers (Revelation 21:1), and unbelievers will be thrown into an everlasting lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15). There is no second chance for redemption after death (Hebrews 9:27).

Mormon leaders have taught that Jesus’ incarnation was the result of a physical relationship between God the Father and Mary. Mormons believe Jesus is a god, but that any human can also become a god. Mormonism teaches that salvation can be earned by a combination of faith and good works. Contrary to this, Christians historically have taught that no one can achieve the status of God—only He is holy (1 Samuel 2:2). We can only be made holy in God’s sight through faith in Him (1 Corinthians 1:2). Jesus is the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16), is the only one ever to have lived a sinless, blameless life, and now has the highest place of honor in heaven (Hebrews 7:26). Jesus and God are one in essence, Jesus being the only One existing before physical birth (John 1:1-8; 8:56). Jesus gave Himself to us as a sacrifice, God raised Him from the dead, and one day everyone will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:6-11). Jesus tells us it is impossible to get to heaven by our own works and that only by faith in Him is it possible (Matthew 19:26). We all deserve eternal punishment for our sins, but God’s infinite love and grace have allowed us a way out. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Clearly, there is only one way to receive salvation and that is to know God and His Son, Jesus (John 17:3). It is not done by works, but by faith (Romans 1:17; 3:28). We can receive this gift no matter who we are or what we have done (Romans 3:22). “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Although Mormons are usually friendly, loving, and kind people, they are deceived by a false religion that distorts the nature of God, the Person of Jesus Christ, and the means of salvation.

Join Generations Church Sunday 10:30 AM at the YMCA in Farmville! We can’t wait to meet you!