See the letter below from Pastor David Tegue, download the devotional workbook, and join us on Sunday mornings as we walk through the book of Ephesians.

As we launch our new series, “Blueprints For TOGETHER: A Walk Through Ephesians”, we wanted to do something we haven?t done before. This resource has been a long time in the making. Since last June, our CCCM elders have been prompted by the Lord to study and focus on the Book of Ephesians at different times throughout the year. We have all read through Ephesians several times, even as Elder families, commenting and sharing TOGETHER, what God has taught us individually.

Each of the Elders have contributed a devotion for this series. Each week, in addition to devotions from me, you will also get the chance to read what the Lord has been teaching all of CCCM’s Elder Team.

This booklet for this series serves as a devotional and a place to write sermon notes for the next five weeks. We wanted to create a hub to record what God is teaching you about Ephesians so it all stays TOGETHER. Some weeks have two devotions and others have five, so make sure that you are following along each week. This is a great chance for everyone at CCCM to be reading God’s Word TOGETHER, to hear what He has to say to us TOGETHER, and to live out what we read TOGETHER!

After each week’s final devotion, there is a page for you to journal anything God has spoken to you about that week. I would encourage you to write down one or two sentences daily about what the Holy Spirit has shown you. This is a great way to remember and keep track of what you are learning.

The final page has a section to write prayer requests as well as ways you have seen God move in your life through this series, called the Amen Corner! At the end of the series, you will have a chance to share and celebrate corporately the great things God has done!

Looking forward to all God is going to do as we read TOGETHER,
Pastor David Teague

Click here to download the devotional workbook.

Location: Camp Dogwood in Sherrills Ford NC ( about 25 minute drive from church)
Starts at 7pm on Friday May 18
Ends at 1pm on Sunday May 20

Cost: $95 and includes 2 nights lodging, all meals on Saturday, and brunch on Sunday.
Lodging is hotel room style with 2 per room. All linens provided.

Speaker is Kathie Williams, Bible teacher, soloist and author of the book Always Have Hope and our church secretary!

Our agenda includes plenty of worship, fun and fellowship. All women (ages high school and up) are welcome even of they do not attend CCCM. Our annual retreat is an opportunity for women to connect with God and each other in an casual, relaxing atmosphere and is designed to provide refreshment and encouragement centered in the hope that comes from knowing and following Jesus.
Registration can be completed at the welcome desk on Sundays or by contacting Karen Kale.

Youth Worship Service and Small Group time has been changed to Wednesday nights from 6:30-8:30 in the Worship Center.  Please note, no Sunday evening Youth services are currently being held, all have been changed to Wednesday evening. 

Children 6th grade to 12th grade are invited and encouraged to attend.  Come hang out and bring a friend!

- What are we studying now or what are we reading now? We are currently studying the books of First and Second Thessalonians.

- When / Where to meet: We typically meet at the Church in the back Modular. We also discussed meeting out in the community at least once a month, probably at Isy Bells Restaurant. I send out an email each week with the topic, meeting location, and any service project opportunities.

- Child care provided? No child care is provided.

- Why should I attend? Proverbs 27:17 says: “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” Men need accountability and fellowship with other men. We can learn from each other, and help each other. In addition, we can do what God has called us to do by serving our community. If you are looking for a mentoring or discipleship relationship, this is the meeting you should attend.

This is also a great “EQUIPPING” and “INVITING” time.

- Are there any upcoming events? As David mentioned, we have our MAN CHURCH coming upon May 20th. In addition, we usually have one service project within the community each month. These are taken care of as they come up. Currently Ray, Doug, and Kevin are finishing up Sara Phiffer’s house (a home in the community of an elderly lady that we are helping). Also – Ray Isales has been doing some work at the Mooresville Soup Kitchen.

God has used the men of our Church to do some amazing things over the past 12 months, including:

• Several construction projects for people in our Church and community
• Rent and mortgage payments have been paid!
• Groceries have been provided
• Several HVAC units have been repaired and or replaced – people have the received the gift and heat and air exactly when they needed it
• Several landscaping projects have been completed
• People have received help moving
• Wells have been repaired and water has been provided for homes
• Power and water bills have been paid
• A team was quickly organized and traveled to Eastern NC to provide much needed assistance due to Hurricane damage
• Vehicles have been repaired or replaced
• And there’s much more – God has done some incredible work over the past 12 months!

Our natural inclination when we are wronged or feel persecuted is to fight back, to retaliate or defend. But this passage shows us that doesn’t have to be, and shouldn’t be the norm in the life of a radical believer.

Peter is trying to teach us how to respond in the face of wrongs or conflict. The need to be holy and loving, to act in our redeemed identity, should always outweigh the need to respond harshly to a wrong in order to show that we are right.

If we are living under the Spirit’s control, our standard operating procedure, as the normal response, should not be about defending ourselves. Because our old self was killed off, paid for, and redeemed by Christ on the cross, and since He lives in us, our automatic reaction should be what His was when He suffered wrong.

This is the picture we are to remember when we are wronged. Our thoughts shouldn’t immediately be how we have been treated, retaliation, correction, or even justice. Our first thought should be that the Lord sees. He sees the conflict. He sees us. He sees the wrong, and He will judge and handle the situation rightly.

This is what it means to be radical! God help me to live this out!

Whichever picture filled your mind, my guess is that your thoughts weren’t about worship. Read Mark 14:3-9 to see a picture of an extravagant worshiper.

Mary comes into the noisy dinner at Simon’s house and refuses to let anything stop her from accomplishing what the Lord has put on her heart. She takes this perfume that cost 300 days wages and consciously forgets it’s original intended purchase, and she pours it dry not on Jesus’ head, but His dirty feet. Now feet in that culture were not touched by anyone but the lowest servant who would wash them upon your arrival. They certainly weren’t lavished with costly perfume. Think about this, she pours the whole jar costing upwards of $30,000 out on Jesus’ disgusting feet!

I love Jesus’ response to the people’s shock. He blesses her extravagant worship. He tells the crowd that she is preparing Him for burial. The fact is, her worship proves that she understood the Lord’s agenda better than the disciples and she altered her agenda to match His as an act of worship.

Jesus will always receive extravagant worship whether it is financial, through song, or in the way you live your everyday life. Jesus’ quote about the woman is, “she did what she could.”. Today, are you doing all you can to worship extravagantly the One who saves you?

Mary comes into the noisy dinner at Simon’s house and refuses to let anything stop her from accomplishing what the Lord has put on her heart. She takes this perfume that cost 300 days wages and consciously forgets it’s original intended purchase, and she pours it dry not on Jesus’ head, but His dirty feet. Now feet in that culture were not touched by anyone but the lowest servant who would wash them upon your arrival. They certainly weren’t lavished with costly perfume. Think about this, she pours the whole jar costing upwards of $30,000 out on Jesus’ disgusting feet!

I love Jesus’ response to the people’s shock. He blesses her extravagant worship. He tells the crowd that she is preparing Him for burial. The fact is, her worship proves that she understood the Lord’s agenda better than the disciples and she altered her agenda to match His as an act of worship.

Jesus will always receive extravagant worship whether it is financial, through song, or in the way you live your everyday life. Jesus’ quote about the woman is, “she did what she could.”. Today, are you doing all you can to worship extravagantly the One who saves you?

Jesus can sympathize with your pain of betrayal. Read Mark 14:1-2, 10-11.

Judas decides after an unbelievable display of worship that he would betray his Rabbi. How in the world could this be? He had walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, eaten with Jesus, heard His powerful teachings, and seen the displays of impossible miracles. How in the world could he agree to betray the King of Kings and Lord of Lord? Betrayals will happen to us in this life, mark it down. Jesus said that just like people hated Him, there will be some that hate us. This life as a believer was never promised to be pain free. In fact, Jesus promised that if we were truly living with Him as Lord, there would be trouble and persecution. The great thing is, no matter what you face in terms of hardship, the book of Hebrews tells us that we know Jesus can sympathize with us. He was mistreated, undercut, taken advantage of, and betrayed.

Today, I would encourage you to use any act of betrayal as the very thing that spurs you to run to Jesus, the Savior who sympathizes with you and feels your pain. In doing this, you defeat the thing Satan is wielding as a tool to drive you further away from the Lord, and actually flipping it on its head to be the very thing that brings you closer to God. When you can master this, you can say like Joseph to his betrayers, “What you meant for evil, God meant it for good.”

Did you know the Father has a to-do list as well? He is accomplishing His story of building His kingdom filled with people He has redeemed that can never be taken away from Him again. He has an ending to that story, a happily ever after with his Bride, the church. And currently, He is checking things off the list that must occur before the happy ending. Read Mark 13:1-37 to see what I mean.

All the things Jesus references are items on our Heavenly Father’s to-do list that must be accomplished before He finishes His story. I just want to focus on one of those today. Mark 13:10 says that before the Lord wraps up His story the gospel will be proclaimed in every nation. This explains the Lord’s vision in Revelation where people from every tribe and tongue, believers, are gathered around the throne of God. To date, there are still almost 7,000 people groups that are unreached, having never heard the gospel.

Did you know that you can help God cross this off His to-do list? He has taken care of the destruction of the Jewish temple. He determines the wars
and rumors of wars. You can’t make earthquakes happen. But you are the only way this item gets completed. We, as believers, are the only way to see the gospel proclaimed in every nation. You and I are the only avenue to hasten the fulfillment of the last pages in God’s story to redeem humanity.

Today I has lunch with a pastor friend named Dennis. He is a pastor in Kenya and he also trains other Kenyan pastors. Would you pray for him today? Pray for his wife Allison and their daughter Anjela. Pray for them as the raise support over the next few months in preparations to go back to Kenya.

Today, pray for the Lord to show you how you can be a part of checking this off His to-do list in your community, our city, and the world!

Read Mark 12:38-44 to see what Jesus thought about this.

Jesus has just questioned the scribes with an unanswerable question and now we see Him unafraid to call their hypocrisy to the forefront. I can just picture Jesus as He displays a portrait of these men who were supposed to be leaders of God’s people, but who really were more apt to pursue their own glory rather than the Father’s. Jesus paints a stark contrast between these showmen and their worship versus the worship of the widow. Her worship elevates God, not self. Her worship is quiet, their worship draws attention. Their offering is heralded by fanfare as they dump in their sums, hers is seen only by the hidden Savior. They have given out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty. They gave a huge amount, but left a huge amount in their coffers. She gave the only penny she had. Jesus said that her worship meant much more, because it was from a genuine heart of gratitude for the glory of God, but also because it was given from a place of sacrifice.

Today, I know we are a generous people. But I wonder if the Lord looks at our gifts out of our abundance and longs for gifts of sacrifice? I wonder what would happen if you and I lived lives of radical giving? I believe these startling statistics would not exist…23,000 people die every day from starvation or malnutrition related illnesses. There are enough deaths in African children every year as a result of malaria (a completely preventable disease with mosquito netting and a curable disease with proper medication) that it equals 1 death every 30 seconds. As many as 1 billion people don’t have access to clean water, and every time they get a drink they do so at their own risk. Ask the Lord today how He would have you be like the widow, even if you are at a place of sacrifice, to meet these world needs!

Read Mark 12:35-37 to see.

Jesus plays stump the religious leaders. The leaders of the day were looking for the Messiah, the Savior of the Jewish people to free them from the heel of Roman rule and restore Israel to the greatness she had lost. This Leader was called the Son of David because of the prophecies that He would be one of David’s descendants. The Lord made David a promise when he was king that there would be a ruler from his line to lead God’s people forever. As these religious leaders waited for this new leader to emerge, this descendant of David, Our Savior poses a question. He asks how the Messiah can be a descendant of David, but yet David himself refers to this Messiah as Lord. Jesus is saying that in their culture, no descendant is ever Lord over their ancestor. These rulers held up men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elijah, and David as leaders they looked up to, as ones that they followed. How could David as king submit himself to this Messiah as his Lord if the Messiah wasn’t even born yet? Jesus is proclaiming that He existed before David was ever born. He is the Creator and Lord of the universe. That’s why David could call Him Lord even before Jesus was laid in a manger. Jesus is God’s Son, the Second Person Of The Trinity! HE ALWAYS WAS, ALWAYS IS, AND ALWAYS WILL BE!

This question that Jesus posed to His Jewish brothers remains unanswered by Jews today. Jesus was never afraid to expose the flaws in peoples beliefs that were leading them away from God. What about you? Are you scared to ask someone an unanswerable question? Do you fear making someone uncomfortable? Sometimes the questions we ask reveal a person’s true reality, and the house of cards that comes tumbling down as a result, are what leads them from a pursuit of pleasure and a life of selfishness to a life of surrender. Do you need to ask someone today if their life is really making them happy? If their relationship with a person really is a good substitute for their needed relationship with God? If they say they really believe, then why don’t they worship at a church with other believers? Jesus was never afraid to ask people the question that shook them out of their existence into the life He planned for them. So let’s be good question-askers as the Lord leads!

Read Mark 12:13-34 to see some of the questions Jesus faced.

I love how Jesus answers their unanswerable questions. He slams the Pharisees who are trying to get Him to say there is no need to pay taxes to this swine of a government, which would endanger Jesus with Herod, or for Him to say they did need to be paid, which would deflate the people who believed He was the Messiah who came to free them from Rome’s oppression. Next the Sadducees try to trap him in a question about marriage after the resurrection when they don’t even believe in the resurrection. Finally, a man asks the greatest commandment. Jesus comes through each one with flying colors. There are no unanswerable questions for Him. Jesus is the root and Creator of all wisdom.

Today, do you have an unanswerable question for Jesus? Don’t be afraid to ask Him. He won’t be afraid to answer. What about you? Are you ready to answer any question posed to you about faith? The reason Jesus was always prepared is because He was a perfect example of living the greatest commandment. He loved the Father with all of His heart, His mind, and His strength. Then He loved His neighbor enough to answer their questions, even when their intent was to trap. If you want to be able to answer the unanswerable questions brought to you, first love God with every part of your life, then love the one who asks enough to find and give them their answer!

Read Psalm 17:13-15.

This Psalm has some beautiful imagery about the power and protection of God, how His kids can find rest in His arms knowing He will fight their battles. But these last few verses spoke to me today. Look at the life he describes. It is a life of security and riches. It is also a life of meaning beyond yourself, a home filled with children and a legacy left for them. It is a picture of the life many of us strive for. A life with a good job, a nice house, a beautiful spouse, great kids, and money in the bank. This life appears to bring satisfaction, but is always just out of reach.

But the writer says that his satisfaction won’t be in any of those things. The only thing that will bring him satisfaction isn’t health, wealth, and prosperity, but it is his unhindered relationship with the Father. The thing that brings him the most security isn’t his job, 401k, or even the development of great kids, but it is his relationship with God that is constantly transforming him to more resemble His Lord everyday.

Today, which pursuit are you seeking more heavily? The “American Dream” or the transforming reality of a Lordship relationship?

There is a difference between temptation and testing. The way to determine who is the author of what’s going on in your life is simple. Temptation actually tries to get you to sin. Testing tries to empower you to stand against sin regardless of what is coming against you. God is the Author of testing, but never of temptation. As believers we can trust the Lord that His testing is purposeful. Read Psalm 11 to see what I mean.

David is saying, why flee when I know Who is in control. I won’t run from the testing because I know Who the Author is. I love Psalm 11:4. David is saying, “Your testing may shock you, but it never shocks God off His throne. He is still there, in control as the Author of your testing. He sees what is happening. He hasn’t left you. He will use this to write His story on your life.

Today, if you find yourself in the midst of testing, remember God is still in control, He sees, and claim the promise from Psalm 11:7 that as a result of this testing, “…you will behold His face.”

I love this story about Jesus. These religious leaders have continually harassed Him and and caused Him grief. The Pharisees are immersing themselves in brainstorming sessions where they hope to come up with some question to expose Jesus as a fraud. They rally themselves and present what they believe is an unanswerable question to Jesus. If He says the authority is from God because He is God’s Son, then they will try to force the crowd to arrest Him for blasphemy. If He says His authority is from anything or anyone other than God, then they will try to expose Him as a scam-artist, or even worse, as the prince of demons. But Jesus, sees right through their trap and answers their question with a question of his own. Does the Lord ever do this to you? They are in the same quandary now. If they say the baptism of John was of men, the crowd would no longer view them as respected leaders because all of the common people believed John was God’s messenger. If they were to say that his baptism was from God, then they would condemn themselves because they didn’t participate. It is incredible to me how Jesus traps them with their own snare.

Jesus goes on to tell a parable that exposes the Pharisees for the frauds that they were. They looked good on the outside and they followed the rules, but their hearts were not connected to God. Jesus links them to the fathers of the Old Testament who refused to receive God’s prophets or messengers. He says they will try to kill Him, God’s Son, just like their forefathers killed every messenger that was sent. The crowd probably didn’t understand the parable, but the Pharisees did. They were infuriated even more and plotted even harder to see Him crucified.

Jesus wasn’t afraid of conflict. Peace at all costs, even when it sacrifices God’s principles or His truth is unacceptable in God’s eyes. There are things that we should be willing to fight for, to step in and place ourselves in the center of the battle, even when we know it will bring conflict our way. Ask the Lord today, is there any battle you have been avoiding that He wants you to join? Is there any cause that needs defending? Is there any conflict you have been putting off for the sake of keeping the peace, but He would have you to fight, in a spirit of love, to expose the fake religion?