Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
5 1 2024

Audio Version

I want to welcome 31 new readers this morning to our Fearlessly Courageous morning devotion group. They are part of the 957 people who were Baptized at the beach a couple of weeks ago or heard about the “Following Jesus” class because of that monumental event.
It is an online group we do on Thursday nights at 7pm for the next 4 weeks.
I have had the honor of helping teach this class for the last couple of years.
I want us all to pray for these new believers
and those who are looking to be renewed in their walk with Jesus. 

Can I share a memory of a conversation I had with a person who took the class before?
One man said, “He has never come to a group like this before. He said it took a lot of courage for me to come here because I am one who rarely opens up to anyone. I felt God was tugging at me to do this…to draw closer to him…and I was hoping I could find some other people I could do life with. Honestly, I don’t even know what that looks like because I have been alone so long. Honestly, I am lonely. My wife and I don’t have any Christian friends. I hardly have any real friends. I follow the same grind every day, every year. work, family responsibilities, health issues, broken relationships, and I am worn out and discouraged.  I seem to sit on the fence about wanting more of God but being too busy to give that much of my time. I know there must be something better but have never figured out how to possess it and live it out in real time. Life problems are just so overwhelming.  I got baptized recently and this class is me trying to step out in faith with God and this new community he has led me to”.

I have often asked the question; Where does one go to discuss the things of God? What friends of yours sit around and talk about how we can become better husbands, fathers, and friends?
Too many of us don’t even do that with our spouses.
God didn’t call us to walk alone.

Satan wins by making you believe you’re all alone. And so, we gravitate to this busy life – but sadly it’s an alone life without the Godly influence of other people, and life gets very lonely and potentially dangerous. You’re all here because the Holy Spirit has drawn you.
You noticed an emptiness or aloneness for more of God.   Welcome – we are all in the same boat.

Small groups, in whatever form they take, encourage people to explore the Bible and their faith together. It also encourages people to build relationships with one another. Small groups that meet regularly tend to form deeper relationships. Members of these groups offer each other support and encouragement on their faith journey. I talk to so many people, including so many couples and they don’t have many friends period, let alone people of faith to encourage them in daily living.
            Jesus doesn’t want that for us and he showed us the example of a better way.

“The disciples were devoted to the teachings of the apostles” (Acts 2:42 GW). Early small groups of the first-century church studied what would become the Bible. It is said that it’s more important that congregations learn to study the Bible together than by themselves. I believe that we need each other to work through things we don’t understand and how to apply them practically in our lives.

This biblical community exhibited these four values:

  1. They had a passion for God expressed in prayer and praise.
  2. They had a commitment to one another expressed in caring fellowship.
  3. They had a desire to grow expressed in biblical teaching.
  4. They had a heart for the lost expressed in leading others to Christ.

This Following Jesus class is just one of the many we offer to welcome people into our community and help people grow their faith and dependency on God rather than always doing it their way.
We are committed to being a friend and sharing honestly what’s happening in our lives so that others can come alongside us to help us and so we might also be a friend to them.
We help each other through accountability and see things through the filter of God’s word,
and not succumb to the pressures and ways of the world.
We grow in our hearts to want to invite others into our circle of friends so that we might share with them what was graciously given to us.
God will use these efforts to restore what we all have lost along the way.

TRUE Prosperity is helping other people by giving your love – time and talent to help people …
that is true success.  
True prosperity is
“Being faithful and effective to what god has called you to do”.

In closing, pray for these new people who are stepping into our small group that they will stay committed to connecting these next 4 Thursday’s to grow in their faith
and become engaged in their new community.