REWRITING LOVE | How Marriage and Singleness Can Tell the Story of the Gospel
Love isn’t always a great story. Chances are, you’ve felt when your marriage was working and when it wasn’t, when your single life was awesome and when it wasn’t, when your relationship was in a great place and when it wasn’t. The incredible reality of the Good News of Jesus is that it rewrites the story of every human relationship. It turns marriages into lighthouses of hope, singleness into a living testimony of God’s power, and our most important relationships into something supernatural. Join us this Sunday as we look at what happens when we let God rewrite love.
WEEKLY GIVING STATISTICS
(Fiscal Year Began June 1, 2021)
Last Week Weekly Need YTD
$4,317 $3,558 ($884)
JOIN US FOR WORSHIP
IN PERSON OR ONLINE:
2149 84th Street SW Byron Center MI 49315
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7 AT 10:00AM
VISIT centergr.com/live OR centergr.online.church.
INFO, UPDATES & OPPORTUNITIES:
New to The Center Church?
We’d love for you to join us for NEWCOMERS LUNCH, Sunday November 21.
Interested? Please contact office@centergr.com to sign up.
Any questions? Please contact centergr.com/new for more details.
Looking forward to getting to know you!
‘WOMEN’S FITNESS CLASS AT THE CENTER’
Ladies, have you been thinking about trying a fitness class? Look no further-
Lori’s got you covered!
Join us Saturdays for
8:15am WERQ and/or 9:00am Weights, Cardio & Abs
at the church.
Questions? Contact office@centergr.com
Looking forward to see you!
‘CENTER GROUNDS- Coffee & Community’
Made you look? Join us for coffee and a chat at the church!
When: Thursday mornings 8:30am-10am
Not meeting on 11.04. *
Where: The Center Church foyer
Please check for updates on The Center Church’s Online Calendar.
MINISTRIES:
CENTER STUDENTS MINISTRY
Special Event!!!
Trip to Post Family Farm on Wednesday, 11.03.21
(in place of Youth Group at The Center Church on that day)
Interested? Want to sign up? Contact jon-michael@centergr.com!
Join us for YOUTH GROUP on Wednesday evenings, 7-8:30pm!
Contact jon-michael@centergr.com for more details.
Interested in serving in our Center Students ministry?
Jon-Michael would love to hear from you!
CENTER KIDS MINISTRY
CENTER MOMS is meeting on Tuesdays (bi-weekly) from 6:30-8:00pm at
the church focusing on BUILDING COMMUNITY WITH LOCAL MOMS.
-Kids Care Provided-
Next meet-up: November 9, 2021
Look for other important updates in your inbox, Dani loves to keep everyone up to date on what’s happening in our Center Kids Ministry :)
Questions for Dani? Ready to serve? She’d love to connect with you at dani@centergr.com .
SMALL GROUPS:
Looking to get connected?
Additional groups have been forming!
Please check out our online resources and visit centergr.com/discipleship for updates.
Looking for resources to ‘dig deeper’?
Interested in leading a Bible study but not sure where to start, what to study?
We can help! Just contact office@centergr.com and we can introduce and connect you to RightNow Media.
Check it out- it’s well worth your time.
CODY MAHAFFY II CONNECTIONS PASTOR AT FRONTLINE COMMUNITY CHURCH
‘Singleness’
Key Passages:
1 Corinthians 7:29-31 NIV
29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
Ephesians 5 NIV
5 1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Instructions for Christian Households
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.