What's Happening?

Our Mission...

... is to make fully devoted disciples of Jesus in the Carrollwood Community.

Our Values

Discipleship... Creativity... Excellence... Compassion... Mission

This Weekend

"Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: 'I'm after mercy, not religion.' I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders." (Matthew 9:12-13, The Message).

Knowing naturally follows meeting. Among the best ways to know a person is to dine with that person. We continue our series this weekend, “Knowing Jesus,” looking at a few of the instances when people dined with Jesus and knew Him better for the experience. This Saturday: "Dinner with Matthew."


Saturday, 10:00 AM -- Sabbath Morning Connection Groups

• Kids' Connections - Sabbath morning  activities and learning experiences for children, age birth-4 (1st classroom on the left, Classroom Wing), and 5-12 (Fellowship Hall).
• Evangelism & Witnessing – Adult Sabbath School Quarterly, Dan McNab, Sanctuary Classroom South.
• Youth Sabbath School – Saturday mornings at 10:00 am in the Fellowship Hall classroom (with Merrilyn Johnson).
• Your Story/Prayer Story, a time for testimony and prayer, meets Saturday mornings at 10:00 AM in the Sanctuary Classroom North next to the sound room.

Saturday, 11:00 AM -- Sabbath Worship

• Carrollwood Kids - Tons of fun, and all about Jesus! (Fellowship Hall).
• "Knowing Jesus: Dinner With Matthew" (Matthew 9:9-13) - Sanctuary

Announcements

• Nominating Committee – Members are asked to meet Sabbath after worship services. Members include Chuck Reeves, Chris Henry, Dan McNab, Laura Reeves, Edith Bowman, and James Johnson. Please contact any of these members with your desire to serve Jesus at Carrollwood.
• “Following Jesus” – Dan McNab is leading a Connection Group Sabbath at 2:00 PM focusing on being a disciple of Jesus.
• "Faith & Fit," an exercise boot camp with Patrick Thomas, will meet tomorrow at 4:00 PM.
• “Bike and Bible,” a new Connection Group, is meeting today at the Wilsky Blvd. trailhead of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail at 3:30 PM. Contact Chuck Reeves with any questions.
• Help is needed with our birth-5 year-old group. If you would like an incredibly rewarding experience in ministering to God’s kids, please contact Mollie Schmoling or James Johnson, or indicate your interest on your connection card.

Offering This Week

• Local Church Budget – Today’s offerings go to our local church budget. This fund supports ministries that help us make disciples, including youth ministries, VBS, and community wellness initiatives, as well as operating costs. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Every blessing to each of you this week in Christ!

No Answer?

Wait until after 5 p.m.--when the business day is done. Grab a phone book and flip through the yellow pages. Select some phone numbers of places you've been or business you've visited such as your dentist's office or the bank--places that are closed in the evening. Give one of these numbers a call (if you know no one will pick up).

What happened? Did the phone ring and ring? Did you reach a voice mail message or answering service?

"We're closed... nobody is in the office... please call back during normal business hours..." Do you ever feel like a machine is telling you, "Hey, dummy, did you really think anyone would answer?"

What if you really needed to talk to a friend and tried to call, but your friend didn't answer? What if there was an emergency and you dialed 911... and no one answered? What if you got a message saying, "We're closed"?

Have you ever felt that way about God? Like you're trying to connect but you just can't get through? Like you're talking to thin air? Does God ever seem far away, remote and silent? Closed?

Think of one specific time you tried to pray but it felt like a one-sided conversation.

No look through the phone book again--find a 24-hour grocery store, pharmacy, or hospital. Would they be open if you called? What if you called at 3 a.m. Or 7:30?

"For the eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer..." (1 Peter 3:12a)

Read this again, aloud. GOd is always attentive to your prayer. He is available any hour, any minute, any second. He is never closed. He is never too busy. No matter how you may feel sometimes, He's never unavailable.

Give Him a call. Talk to Him right now. Tell Him about your day. He's listening. Really listening.

Father, I know You hear, that Your eyes are toward me and Your ears hear me even when I don't speak aloud. Remind me today of Your closeness, love, and grace.

Christ In Me: Skin (Part 3)

Give your skin a pinch. Grab it in several places. It's stretchy, thick, gets soft. Look at some family pictures, and look in the mirror. How would you look without skin? I bet you're pretty grateful for skin about now!

What are some ways skin protects you? If you take time on this one, you come to realize that skin is really important. Skin is a living organ of your body, an amazing creation! Your skin is designed to be restorative--if cut it heals, if burned it recovers. It can grow back. It is designed to rebuild itself. Your skin stretches tightly over you, very "near" to you.

Read Psalm 73:25-28. I'll write it in below in The Message, but look it up in another version if possible.

You're all I want in heaven! 
      You're all I want on earth! 
   When my skin sags and my bones get brittle, 
      God is rock-firm and faithful.
Look! Those who left you are falling apart!
      Deserters, they'll never be heard from again.
   But I'm in the very presence of God—
      oh, how refreshing it is!
   I've made Lord God my home.
      God, I'm telling the world what you do!


This passage speaks of the benefit of being near to God... and the danger of being far away from Him. God wants you to feel as close to him as your skin is to your body. If you will invite Him, allow Him to be so, Christ is in you, closer than your skin, filling you, protecting you, restoring and rebuilding you all the time.


Read verse 28 again. How close do you typically feel to God? When do you feel closest to Him? When do you feel farthest away? Ho close do you want to feel to God? What can you do to draw closer to Him--to realize how close He is to you?


Let Christ be in you today. Every time you touch your skin, remember that He is there with you to protect you, to guide you, to lead you, to restore you, to love you--to be close to you.

What's Happening?

Our Mission...
... is to make fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ in the Carrollwood community.


Our Values

• Discipleship - This is about growing spiritually to be more like Jesus and helping others do the same. We see that as our number one priority in everything we do.
• Excellence - We believe in doing things with excellence; God is excellent and expects excellence from His people.
• Creativity - God is exceptionally creative; the world is His handiwork. We want to incorporate our God-given creativity into the church experience to help each worshiper’s relationship with God come alive in fresh and exciting ways.
• Compassion - In a world of trouble, pain and death, we want to be sensitive to the needs of others and demonstrate God’s love to everyone we meet.
• Mission - Jesus said that we are to love God with all our hearts, and to love others as ourselves. We simply try to live that out in everything we do.

This Weekend

• Meeting Jesus: Dinner with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). Knowing naturally follows meeting. Among the best ways to know a person is to dine with that person. We begin a new series today, “Knowing Jesus,” during which we will look at a few of the instances when people dined with Jesus and knew Him better for the experience. 11:00 AM, Sanctuary.
• Children's Church meets in the Fellowship Hall during the 11:00 service (ages 6-12).
• Sabbath Connections (10:00 AM):
• Youth Sabbath School, a Bible Study group targeted for high school aged youth, meets in the Fellowship Hall Classroom.
• Your Story/Prayer Story is about testimony and prayer. We meet in the Sanctuary Classroom North (next to sound room).
• Evangelism and Witnessing: Every Member Ministry is this week's focus for our Adult Sabbath School group which meets in the Sanctuary Classroom South (across from the church office).
• Children are invited to enjoy activities geared for them in the Fellowship Hall (6-12) and in the classroom hallway (toddler - 5).
• Nominating Committee will meet after our services today. This committee consists of the pastor, five members elected by the church, and three alternates. The members are James Johnson, Chuck Reeves, Chris Henry, Dan McNab, Laura Reeves, and Edith Bowman. If you desire to serve at Carrollwood, or have any suggestions for people who could serve, please contact one of these members.
• Wellness/Health Ministries Team is invited to meet after services today.
• “Following Jesus” – Dan McNab is leading a group Sabbath afternoon focusing on being a disciple of Jesus.

Other Announcements

• Faith & Fit, an exercise boot camp with Patrick Thomas, will meet tomorrow at 4:00 PM.
• Outpour/Connect is a monthly service seeking the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and to connect churches in the Tampa area to reach communities for Jesus.  The first meeting is April 20 at 7:30 PM at the church featuring testimony by Patrick Thomas.
• “Bike and Bible,” a new connection group, meets the 1^st and 3^rd Sabbath of each month at the Wilsky Blvd. trailhead of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail at 3:30 PM. Contact Chuck Reeves with any questions.

Featured Offering

• World Budget: Christian Record Services – Today’s offerings go toward the World Budget of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, including services that help those with physical challenges hear God’s Word. Your continued support of the Local Church Budget is also appreciated (mark your offering envelope).

Every blessing to each of you this week in Christ!

What's Happening?

"It's true! The Lord has risen!" (the two men on the road to Emmaus, after meeting Jesus)

Our mission is to make fully devoted disciples of Jesus in Carrollwood.
In this mission, we value discipleship, creativity, excellence, compassion, and mission.


Services this Weekend


10:00 - SABBATH CONNECTIONS

• "Carrollwood Kids" - Activities, games, and crafts available from 10:00 - 11:00. Ages birth - 5 meet in the 1st classroom on the left on the Sabbath School wing. Ages 6-12 meet in the Fellowship Hall.
• Youth Connections - Youth Sabbath School meets in the classroom on the northwest side of the Fellowship Hall with Merrilyn Johnson.
• "Evangelism & Witnessing" (Adult Sabbath School Lesson) - Sanctuary Classroom South (across from the church office) with Dan McNab.
• Your Story/Prayer Story - Testimony & prayer group meets in the Sanctuary Classroom North (next to the AV room).

11:00 - SABBATH WORSHIP

• Message: "Meeting Jesus: On Sunday" based on Luke 24.
• Featured Offering: Local Church Budget, used to advance the mission in the church to make disciples in the Carrollwood Community.

12:15 (after Sabbath Worship): Fellowship Dinner in the Fellowship Hall. Please bring enough food for your family and at least one other to share.

3:30 PM (approximately): Bicycle & Bible Connection Group - Meet for a Sabbath afternoon ride at the Wilsky Blvd. entrance to the North Tampa Bay Trail.

Announcements

• Next week, we begin a new series entitled "Knowing Jesus," following up on the series just completed ("Meeting Jesus").
• Wellness Ministry - Those involved with this initiative should plan to meet after services on April 14.
• Nominating Committee - Those involved with the Nominating Committee will begin meeting April 14 after services. Members include James Johnson (pastor), Chuck Reeves, Chris Henry, Dan McNab, Laura Reeves, and Edith Bowman.
• Please carefully consider how you might serve at Carrollwood. If you feel so impressed, please contact a member of the nominating committee to let them know of your interest.
• "Following Jesus," a connection study with Dan McNab, is meeting Sabbath afternoons. If you would like to be a part of this group, please let him know.
• "Faith and Fit," the exercise group led by Patrick Thomas, will not meet tomorrow but will resume Sunday, April 14 at 4:00 PM in front of the church (bring a towel).
• If you are interested in sharing prayers and prayer needs with others, you might want to check out the prayer group that meets on Sabbath (see above, "Your Story/Prayer Story"). Also, check out the Facebook prayer page: "Simply Prayer TIME."

May each of you be exceedingly blessed in Christ this week. It is true! Jesus is alive!

Citizenship

Jesus. In me.


Find your passport or Social Security card. If you don't have one, loo for your school ID, driver's license, or something that shows you are a citizen of your country.


A passport enables you o travel he world. Wherever you go, it proves where you belong.
A Social Security card or ID says who you are--it's an indicator of your status.


What rights do these documents give you? What freedoms do they symbolize? Are you proud to own them?


What responsibilities do they bring, now or later? Voting? Paying taxes? What else?


And what expectations do you have of yourself as a citizen of your country? Does it affect the way you act, the choices you make?


Read Luke 12:25-32, perhaps in a different version even than what I'm sharing with you here (from The Message).


"Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can't even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don't fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?


"What I'm trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don't be afraid of missing out. You're my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself."


Jesus said His followers were citizens of another kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven.
Without physical boundaries, people who choose to put themselves under the rule of Christ are already citizens of this kingdom.


It's a kingdom of different priorities--where the poor are blessed, where trust in God replaces worry, where forgiveness is freely given and received. It's an upside-down kingdom.
What rights do you have as a citizen of Christ's kingdom? What responsibilities? What expectations do you have of yourself?


And are you truly loyal to King Jesus? Or to something else?