Category Archives: North Village Church

Spiritual Journey: The Mission of God

As we prepare our hearts for Easter we are going through a spiritual journey at North Village Church. It is a time to press into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus by turning from our sin and trusting in Jesus’ work on the cross. If you would like a copy our spiritual journey you can click here.

Throughout the spiritual journey we will be reading through devotionals together as a church, fasting and encouraging one another to press into a deeper relationship with Jesus. Then on March 25th we will conclude the spiritual journey with a celebration of what we have been learning during these 30 days and begin to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins and His glory.

More Than Friends Part 1 (Example #2)

Example #2: You do something I think is wrong

What do we do when we disagree? You drink more alcohol than I think you should. You handle relationships with the opposite sex in an unhealthy way. You gossip about someone behind their back. You have a way of always hurting others with your words. What are we going to do? Are we going to avoid hanging out with those people? Are we going to act like it didn’t happen? Are we going to make excuses? Are we going to tell someone else to talk to them? When we do this we are telling ourselves God didn’t want this, and we are powerless to see anything change. But what if we were more than friends? What if the gospel shaped our relationships with one another and instead we:

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More Than Friends Part 1 (Example #1)

Example #1: Your child hurts my child

What are we going to do when our children hurt one another? This is a sensitive subject isn’t it? We love our children, we defend our children, we protect our children, so when my little angel gets hurt by your little terror then it can get really complicated.

What are you going to do? We might gossip to the other parents and say something like, “Be sure to watch your children around that “one” over there. We might attack and say something like, “You need to do a better job of watching your children!” We might suppress and become bitter so every time we see them we think to ourselves, “Yep, there they go doing a horrible job of parenting!” When we are doing this we are telling ourselves God didn’t want this to happen and I need to do something to fix it! But what if we were more than friends then the gospel will shape our relationships with one another and we can:

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More Than Friends Part 1

When we trust in Jesus’ work on the cross we become sons and daughters who are adopted into God’s family. Therefore, the relationships we have with one another is more than friendship. It is more than a way to meet new people or have someone to hang out with on the weekends. So much so that there is a supernatural quality to our relationships with one another, but sometimes those relationships can still be difficult. Consider a few of these possibilities:

How many times have you been hanging out with someone from North Village Church, and there is someone in the group that you really rubs you the wrong way. You can’t explain it, but you are actually thinking about what other group of friends you could hang out with so you can avoid that person.

How many times have you been in a conversation with someone and they talk to you about something that is really difficult? You empathize with them, but the best you can come up with is something like, “That sucks and I will be praying for you.” Inside you are wishing that you could have said something more meaningful.

What do you do when you have a friend that seems to always have the same problem. You know every time they go down this road it is going to end up in the same place. You are thinking to yourself, “How come they can’t change?” But you never say anything because you are afraid you are going to hurt their feelings.

How many times have we been trying to talk to someone, but they keep playing with their phone, checking email, checking updates, and texting, and it feels like what ever is going on in that phone is more important than having a conversation with you.

Or, how many times do you show up at church on Sunday and you see everyone talking to everyone, and inside you are wondering, “How come nobody is talking to me?” Why does it look like everyone else is so friendly, but nobody is friendly with me?”

Scripture teaches us because of our faith in Jesus there is a quality to our relationships with one another. Below are 4 characteristics that shapes our relationships with one another. Take a moment and consider how they might apply to your relationships.

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Vision of North Village Church

Vision: See every, man, woman, and child in Greater Austin experience the life transforming power of Jesus Christ.

How is that going to happen?

Partner with churches throughout greater Austin: We partnered with Acts 29 and Hill Country Bible Church to total 30+ churches in greater Austin.

Partner with churches in our geographical area: We partner with churches in North Central Austin like Hope Chapel, Glad Tidings, and Grace Covenant to see one another be successful for God’s Kingdom.

Personally live on mission with Jesus: We take personal ownership of the vision by:

Connecting with Jesus
Connecting with North Village Church Family
Connecting with the Community
Connecting Others with Jesus

Link

We are going through a series called Invite and Invest at North Village Church. Throughout the 4-week series we are answering “Why” we have these values as a church, and we are asking people to come up and share “How” how they are living out the vision of North Village Church.

Click HERE to listen

NVC: Year 2 Review

Below is a snapshot of all Jesus did through and in North Village Church. Take a moment to celebrate!

Connecting with Jesus: Jesus is paramount for all of humanity. Our focus as a church is to lead all people to a more meaningful relationship with Jesus so that they experience life transformation.

18 people experience life transformation.
140 people coming at least once a month (97 Adults / 45 Children). Last Year, 90 people coming at least once a month.
Studied through 1 Peter and 1 John.
Explored practical topics of our faith on spiritual conversations, holiness, and finances.
72% of our church participates in midweek gatherings.
21% of our church in spiritual coaching relationships.

Connecting with North Village Church Family: Our faith isn’t lived out in isolation, but in the community of other Christ-followers where we are getting to know others and being known.

78% of our church participates in serving opportunities.
100% of our budget is from within North Village Church.
Provided two church prayer meetings.
Providing monthly lunches.
Partnering with 3 other local churches to pray for North Central Austin.

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The Story

The whole of Scripture is really just a story about who God is, what He is doing, and how we can be a part of that story. We are going through a series called The Story. In the series we will cover:

The Creation: The story starts in the beginning with a creator who is perfect, loving, beautiful, and longs to be in relationship with humanity.

The Fall: This is the part of the story that explain why we have painful events in our world and in our hearts.

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Knowing God’s Will

Have you ever had those moments where you are wondering, “Am I in the right place?” It could be a relationship, job, or geographic location, but I have found it is easy to question every part of our life. Below is a quick reference to help you discern God’s will:

Scripture: Many will debate about the reliability of Scripture. Number of years, translations, written by people but there are a few things to keep in mind. It is the only ancient writing that describes humanity as broken and God sacrificing Himself to secure eternal life. Every other ancient writing describes humanity in a weakened condition and having to do something on their part to improve their condition. Also, it is written by 40 different authors over 1500 years and it all points to faith alone in the atonement for our sin. Therefore, many of the questions we have in life are clearly given in Scripture.

Counselors: When we have questions about life we need to have people we can trust. We don’t want to ask everyone, we do want to ask people who value Scripture, and sometimes God will give great wisdom and insight through other people. After all, Scripture calls us to be spouses, friends, parents, professionals, live for Him, and try not to end up in jail. We need some other people in our life to help us move in that direction.

Prayer: Prayer is something we tend to only turn to when things get really bad, but prayer can be a great way to ask God, “What do you want to do with my life? How can I live for your glory?” You might be surprised what He reveals to you in prayer. As a side note, we want to make sure we are looking at all three of these together. For example, we don’t need to pray about something that doesn’t line up with Scripture.

But, what about when those things don’t answer our questions. What happens when we look to Scripture, friends, and prayer and we still are not really sure how to respond? Here’s the next step:

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These things we know…1 John

We just finished studying through 1 John on Sunday morning at North Village Church. Looking back over our time together there is a theme throughout 1 John. See below:

We know we have eternal life

We know we He hears us

We know we can overcome

We know we have an enemy

We know the One to worship

Through faith in Jesus’ work on the cross we can know, intellectually and relationally, we can know. It isn’t from the confidence of our moral behavior and feeling like we are doing the right thing. It isn’t from our emotional experiences and feeling close to God. It isn’t from our religious excercises. It is from our trust being daily anchored in Christ’s work on the cross.

Clothing Drive

Throughout the month of August we are hosting a clothing drive at North Village Church for ARC. We passed out trash bags for everyone in our church to stuff with clothes. In addition, they will give the bags to their neighbors, co-workers, and family to give also to help people who are in need in Austin. Individually it is just dropping off some clothes, but together we can have a huge impact and be a blessing to others in our community.

If you would like to donate just drop off the clothes at Lucy Read Pre K at 10am on Sunday mornings throughout the month of August.

God’s Love

God’s love is a popular topic these days. Especially when we are seeing as many painful events in the news, however, God’s love is completely different than our love. We typically love out of guilt, obligation, or what we get in return, but Scripture teaches us God’s love is completely different.

It is sacrificial because He lays aside His deity to take on human flesh and when He dies on the cross it isn’t for His sin, but our sin. He is pierced, beaten, and mocked for our sin and in that moment He becomes sin. The Father turns from the Son, and Jesus cries out, “Why have you forsaken me?”

It is a love that is sufficient. It isn’t just an act of kindness but through it is a love that brings peace between us and God. It is because of His love that we experience forgiveness, clear conscience, hope for the future, power to love others, and it is sufficient.

It is also a love that is a delight. He wasn’t forced, but willingly laid down His life and endured the cross for the joy set before Him. He endured the cross to bring greater glory to the name of His heavenly Father. It is sacrificial, sufficient, and when we experience His love through faith in Jesus’ work on the cross it moves us to love other people with the same type of love.

Expressing God’s Love to Others:

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How to write a sermon?

I am by no means a great communicator. I am not saying that just to sound humble, but as an honest evaluation of my speaking ability. I am okay. There are times when everything clicks and it is great, but they probably happen once every 6 weeks and the other 5 weeks are okay messages in terms of delivery.

Nevertheless, I have tried to find some common threads in the messages that seem to go better than others and I have created an outline that you might find helpful, or even add to if there is something I am missing. I am not providing this as a formula that I follow every Sunday, but more so a skeleton that I refer to when I am preparing a message.

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Austin Soccer Camps

Starting Monday June 13th, we are going to host a FREE soccer camp at Brentwood Park (6710 Arroyo Seco) each day of the week from 9am-11am.

This FREE Soccer Camp is for aimed for kids around the elementary age and welcomes all skill levels. They will spend time learning drills, playing soccer and having fun!

You can register here.

Life @ North Village Church

Life change is at the heart of what we strive to see at North Village Church. We know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful enough to produce it in all of our lives. We’ve seen it time and time again. Each time we see and hear it, we want to celebrate it. Take a look at some of the lives God has moved in and through at North Village Church.

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