"Faith in Action, ACTS in Action!"

On Resurrection Sunday in April, we walked through the evidentiary support for the real, historical resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. We used Lee Strobel's "Five E's" that he lays out in support of why the resurrection is reliable in addition to "God's Not Dead" by Rice Broocks. We worshipped Jesus both through celebration and a rational talk through why we believe what we believe about His Resurrection!

After traveling the road of the Book of John and Job Part 1 & 2, as well as all the events leading up to and through Holy Week, what we came to was that the Resurrection demands a response! And what is that response? Well, first and foremost our response is faith in Jesus as the Son of God who truly loves us, gave Himself for us and rose on the third day proving all of His claims, but that's only the start! Our other response is that we live our daily lives in continual awareness of His Resurrection by living out that faith in action. The rallying cry in our hearts since Resurrection Sunday has been, "Faith in Action, ACTS in action!". Why all caps on the word acts? I'll tell you! Because we are endeavoring to put our faith in action by asking the Holy Spirit to help us live Christian lives patterned after those early followers in the Book of Acts.

Sometimes I sense that we have a tendency in the Church (at least in the less liturgical portions of the Church) to sort of come to this crescendo of Easter and then fade back down, but we have a different message we started following on Resurrection Sunday and it is this..."Today is Day One, today starts the count, the count up to what? To Jesus' Ascension and the Day of Pentecost, Day 1 of Day 50, here we go! We're not fading back, we're ramping up!". And we did that by marking out Jesus' Path with His early followers from the conversations he had on the way to the Cross in John 14-17 (you can refer to our Conversations on the Way to the Cross #1-#4 Sermon Series) to His Ascension all the way to Pentecost. We sought Him in retracing those steps both in our hearts and in our action of doing our first outreach to two apartment homes directly behind and adjacent to our church space location.

What we did when we reached out was simply introduce ourselves, invite people to check us out some time, but most importantly we listened and offered prayer! And let me tell you, people were blessed, impacted, and felt the love of God for them just by the simple act of putting our faith in action and taking a risk to reach out. That's what we mean by faith in action! And we are asking and believing for ACTS in action to occur as well. What do I mean? I mean that we are believing for Jesus to set people free through our hands and His powerful Name!

That we would walk like I mentioned earlier as the early church did, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and willing and available to the Lord and each other to be a place and people He can flow through! Everywhere we are and everywhere we go, inside the church space and outside the church space, just flowing in all that the Holy Spirit wants to do through us, may you give us the grace for this Lord Jesus, Amen!

So, listen, if this sounds good to you and you have not stopped by Evergreen in person yet or remotely tuned in if you're not in Tallahassee, then here is an official invitation to come join us! We would love to have you with us!

A couple of exciting announcements to keep in mind for June:

-Lauren Stewart is starting a new runners' club called TLH Run Crew starting this Tuesday, June 6th, 6:15 PM @ Cascades Park!

- We are having our first "Love, Power & Sound Mind" ministry night, Sunday evening, June 25th at 7:00 PM where we will have an intimate time of worship, healing prayers for mind, body and spirit, declaring our faith together, and Holy Communion. This will be a night for people who want freedom, healing and deliverance for any area of their lives.

-Summer Ladies' Brunch for Evergreen Ladies and friends, Time and Place TBD! Details coming soon for June or July!

-Other important notes: Men's Bible Study, taking a summer break, no meetings in June!

Love in Christ Jesus,

Pastor Danielle

Below you will find our June calendar:

June 2023 Calendar:

Sunday services begin every Sunday at 11:00 AM.

June 4th - June 10th

• Wednesday, 6/7, Prayer - 7 PM

June 11th - 17th:

• Wednesday, 6/14, Discovery Group - 6 PM End Times Study (Bring a snack to share!)

June 18th - 24th:

• Sunday, 6/18, Father's Day :)

• Wednesday, 6/21, Prayer - 7PM

June 25th - July 1st:

• Sunday, 6/25, "Love, Power, & Sound Mind" Special Evening Prayer Service - 7 PM

• Wednesday, 6/28, Discovery Group - 6 PM End Times Study (Bring a snack to share!