If you have a prayer request and would like it added to the Prayer Chain, call the church at 913-299-4406 or email the Church Email Address: Hillviewchurchofgod@gmail.com
Sermons are live on Facebook or use the YouTube link:
www.youtube.com/@HillviewChurchofGod-u3m
Hillview Family and Friends!
Ushers and greeters. We can create an alternate schedule. If anyone is interested, please see LaTanya Dunn.
Children’s Ministry will be with the Ministry leader during worship time starting in the fall. Pray with us in our transition. Sis Debbie.
Youth ministry will meet in the fellowship hall at 9:30 am. Youth Ministry will be meeting every 1st Sunday of the month at 9:30 am.
Happy Birthday and Wedding Anniversary to all family and friends celebrating in the month of March.
The Second & Third Sunday we will celebrate the 2025 Kansas Reads to Preschoolers. We will add All ages because when you read you succeed. Join us for an exciting event.
Sis. Debbie will be having Children’s ministry 1st through 4th Sundays. On the 1st Sunday the children will do special projects. Please text Sis. Debbie if your child will not be in attendance. 5th Sunday no children’s ministry.
March 15th– Baptismal service. If anyone wants to be baptized, please see Pastor Dexter.
March 21st Board Meeting at 9am.
March 24th-Kansas City Community Church is hosting a Prayer Luncheon at 11am.
DCCCA is offering free sessions for parents and caregivers of youth ages 9-14. For more information, contact Sis. LaTanya Dunn..
March 29th– Palm Sunday.
April 3rd Good Friday.
April 5th Easter Sunday.
Offering Envelopes are located on the wall outside of the sound booth.
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One day a man came home from work to find total mayhem in his house.
- His three children were outside still in their pajamas, playing in the mud.
- There were empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the yard.
- The door to his wife’s car and the front door to the house were open.
- Inside the house there was a bigger mess.
- A lamp had been knocked over.
- The TV was blaring a cartoon channel.
- The family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing.
- The kitchen was a disaster with breakfast food spilled on the counter, dog food spilled on the floor, and dirty dishes in the sink.
- The bewildered husband maneuvered up the toy strewn stairway to the bedroom looking for his wife.
- He found her still in bed, in her pajamas, reading a novel.
- The husband asked, “What happened here today?
- His wife replied, “You ask me everyday when you come home from work “what I did today?” Well today I didn’t do it.
If this husband learned one thing, he learned his wife does a masterful job running their home, and her efforts should not be taken for granted. The wife also needs to be conscience of what her husband does in providing for the family and not take him for granted either. We’ll talk about this later in the sermon.
Imagine you had a really bad day. Nothing went right, and you couldn’t understand how normal everyday activities went so terribly wrong. You finally fall on your knees and cry out to God, why have you forsaken me. God’s reply to you is, “All those things I usually do for you, today I didn’t do them.”
We often take the things God provides us with for granted. We don’t say, “Thank You.” We only acknowledge him when we are in trouble.
William Paley was an influential English Anglican clergyman, philosopher, and theologian renowned for his contributions to Christian apologetics. An apologist is one that sets forth evidence for believing. In his book on evidences he said, “One of the reasons many people are not more thankful than they are, is NOT because of a lack of things to be thankful for; it is because of the super-abundance of God’s blessings upon us that are so innumerable that we often take them for granted.”
Whenever you take someone or something for granted, you do not value that person or thing properly. We assume our blessings will go on forever. We even become wasteful of the blessing we receive. If we are not careful, we can take any and everything for granted. Let’s look at how we have taken our families for granted.
Do children take their parents for granted?
- It is rare for children to be raised by 2 God fearing parents. So, the child’s best interest is of utmost importance.
- Having parents that are willing to provide for the physical and spiritual needs of their children is a blessing.
- Ephesians 6:1-3 says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”– which is the first commandment with a promise– “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
- Yet, our children still rebel against their parent’s authority.
- Parents today don’t have the same options the Jews had for dealing with rebellious children.
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 says, “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate (someone shamelessly immoral and dissolute.) and a drunkard.” Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
- Children, do not be the last ones to realize how special your parents are. It is amazing how many of your friends value your parents when you do not.
We saw from the opening illustration how husbands and wives can take each other for granted.
- From a Christian marriage perspective, do we assume that our mate will always be there providing the comforts we have come to enjoy? (Yes)
- Ephesians 5:33 says, “However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
- Love and respect are interconnected but are different. Love is primarily an emotional state characterized by deep affection, connection, and care. Men are told to love their wife as they love themselves. They are also told to love their wife like Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Respect is a principle-based action or recognition of another person’s worth, autonomy, and boundaries. When a husband loves his wife like his own body or as Christ loved the church, he will earn the respect of his wife. Sometimes women love their husband but do not respect him. Relationships like that are usually doomed for failure.
- It would be acceptable for a husband to tell his wife, “I love you,” and for the wife to respond, “I respect you or I love and respect you.”
- Husbands and wives, let us not be guilty of taking each other for granted.
Parents also take their children for granted.
- As a parent have you ever said, “Why did we have children anyway?”
- Another quote we sometimes say is, “If I did not have children I would have some money.”
- There is a reason God made it possible to have children.
- Psalm 127:3 says, “Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him.”
- Children are a parent’s greatest responsibility. Do not take them for granted.
The list of things we take for granted is limitless. I want to end today’s sermon by talking about one in particular, the relationship between Jesus Christ and us.
The victorious Christian has known two lives. The first was his life in Adam, which was motivated by the carnal mind which could never please God. That life had to die.
Romans 8:5-8
5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;
7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
The second life of the Christian is his new life in Christ.
Romans 6:1-4
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Invitation: Do not take for granted that God is going to give you another day to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Remember, when you take God for granted, you do not show Him the proper respect He is due.
Study Questions
- From the text what warning did God give the Israelites?
- Share one thing you are often guilty of taking for granted.
- There is no doubt that supporting a household with small children is a daunting task. Was the opening illustration a true picture of the task facing stay-at-home spouses?
- Do you agree with William Paley that Christians take the blessings of God for granted because of the abundance of blessings from God?
- Have you ever given much thought to why Paul told men to love their wives and women to respect their husbands?
- Do you think it is possible to love without having respect for a person?
- What other quote have you said about raising your children?
- Thinking about the two lives Christians have had to live, how easy is it for you to share your faith with others?
Topic: Are You Guilty of Taking Your Blessings for Granted?
Text: Deuteronomy 8:11-20
11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.
12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,
13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied,
14 then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of the hard rock.
16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.
17 You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.
18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
19 If you forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.
20 Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.
Support Hillview’s Greeting Card Ministry – We have anniversary, birthday, and get-well cards on the table by the front entrance for you to send to others to let them know you are thinking of them. A donation of $1.00 will help cover the cost of cards and postage.
Continue to pray for the sick and shut-ins and their caregivers. Prayer is needed for our entire congregation as we are all dealing with spoken and unspoken needs and requests.
Weekly Events
Sunday School: 9:30am
Worship Service 10:45 am Sermon live stream 11:15 am You tube http://www.youtube.com/@HillviewChurchofGod-u3m
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