Hayti First Umc

There is a battle going on for your mind, the world pulls in one direction, the enemy in another, we act and think the way we were taught we are suppose too! But for the Christian it is different or at least it should be! It's time to start thinking about, what we are thinking about!

Christians and the church in general is suffering from what could be considered “Battle Fatigue” we look at what is going on in the world around us, and it doesn't matter what side of any particular issue we are on, the fatigue is real, the stress overwhelming! The truth is the church has become like the Israelites when they sent spies into the promised land, the spies came back and said “Yes this is truly a land flowing with milk and honey, but the problems are insurmountable” They stopped looking at what God had promised and instead started looking at the problem. Fatigue does this, the first symptom of battle fatigue is numbness, apathy, the inability to act, followed closely by irritability, lashing out, blaming others. And finally comes total breakdown. However by God's grace there is a way to overcome battle fatigue in the church!

Christians and the church in general are suffering from what could be considered “Battle Fatigue” we look at what is going on in the world around us, and it doesn't matter what side of any particular issue we are on, the fatigue is real, the stress overwhelming! The truth is the church has become like the Israelites when they sent spies into the promised land, the spies came back and said “Yes this is truly a land flowing with milk and honey, but the problems are insurmountable” They stopped looking at what God had promised and instead started looking at the problem. Fatigue does this, the first symptom of battle fatigue is numbness, apathy, the inability to act, followed closely by irritability, lashing out, blaming others. And finally comes total breakdown. However by God's grace there is a way to overcome battle fatigue in the church!

After the Lord ascended the disciples headed back to Jerusalem to wait and after arriving at the upper room the disciples had the first church business meeting! Here we look at this meeting to understand how God meant for us to handle the business side of the church!

We can never fully comprehend the concept of the Trinity, however The First Person of the Trinity, in His role as Father, loves the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son. And in His role as Son, the Second Person of the Trinity listens and follows what the Father says because of His own love for the Father and because He knows and has known the Father’s love throughout eternity, so following the Father is anything but a burden, it is a joy because of the love they have. And this love is experienced through the Third Person of the Trinity, the Spirit, also known as the Comforter. This lesson attempt to help us understand that we experience God, for the most part, through the Holy Spirit!

A guarantee of payment is a legally binding document that is issued by a bank or similar financial institution on behalf of a client. The letter is essentially a contract that confirms that, in the event that the bank client should default on a specific debt obligation, the bank will settle the outstanding balance owed. God Made Us a promise and on the Day of Pentecost He made a good faith guarantee that He will fulfill His promise!

Easter Sunday, every year we celebrate it! But do we really get it? When we think about Easter we think of the Resurrection but let's go a little deeper, it is the culmination of a plan God made to redeem His people, God didn't do it for Himself, He did it because of His everlasting Love for Us, in other words, Easter is truly All About You!

What is so Good about Good Friday, it was after all the day on which our Lord was crucified, but without it, where would we be? On the cross Jesus proclaimed “It is Finished!”, What did He mean by that? and What does it mean for Us? In this special Good Friday message we take a closer Look.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday the people cried out "Hosanna to the Son of David! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' Hosanna in the highest!" but did they really understand what was happening? Do We? In this message we continue our study on Grace and the significance of what was really going on on Palm Sunday

Philip Yancey said this “Grace is unfair. We deserve God’s wrath and get God’s love, deserve punishment and get forgiveness. We don’t get what we deserve. Paul put it ironically, “The wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life.” We work hard for wages, which vanish at death; we do nothing to deserve grace, and get life eternal. If you want fairness, try a religion like Hinduism, which says we may have to go through thousands, even millions of incarnations before paying for all our sins. It’s unfair that a human rights abuser like Saul gets forgiven, or a murderer/adulterer like King David, or a thief hanging on a cross who has a conversion just before death. Yes, it’s unfair—gloriously unfair I would say. The message of grace is that we fall down, and God picks us up and dusts us off. Again, and again…” In part 2 of our series we look into why grace was something we so desperately needed

“Do you believe in grace?” We talk as though we understand the term. The bank gives us a grace period. The seedy politician falls from grace. Musicians speak of a grace note. We describe an actress as gracious, a dancer as graceful. We use the word for hospitals, baby girls, kings, and pre-meal prayers. We talk as though we know what grace means. But do we really understand it? Have our churches settled for a wimpy grace? It politely occupies a phrase in a hymn, fits nicely on a church sign. Never causes trouble or demands a response. When asked, “Do you believe in grace?” who could say no? But Have you been changed by grace? Shaped by grace? Strengthened by grace? Emboldened by grace? Softened by grace? Here we begin a series based on Max Lucado's book "Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine"

The voice we listen to will determine the direction we will walk. If we listen to our emotions we will remain in the spiritual desert. If we listen to the whispers of the enemy we will by intimidated. If we listen to voices of our critics, we will be distracted. Only if we regularly hear the voice of God will we have the courage to do God’s will.

The Lord speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. He is the third person of the Trinity, co-equal with God the Father and God the Son. God’s Spirit dwells within each Christian and as much as we would like to hear God speak loudly He most often is identified as a still small voice that we must learn to tune in to!

What is the will of God for your life? Is this something you would like to know? To know for sure that you are walking in his will for you, personally. And to know when you are facing a problem exactly how God wants you to handle it. Listening to the voice of the Lord is probably the single most important element in having a victorious Christian life after being born-again. The Lord knows all things and will show us things to come. There is no problem that His wisdom can't solve. In part 2 of our series "The Voice" We look at ways we can tune ourselves in to His Voice!

Good listening is not a skill that we are born with, it is not a natural gift. Without practice and training we are unlikely to be particularly effective listeners. Believing that you are a better listener that others is unlikely to be true unless you have taken the time to learn and practice your listening skills over a period of time. And that is with each other, the matter of listening becomes more complex when listening for the voice of God! We live in a world that is full of busyness and clatter. People are distracted and unable to hear the still, small voice of God as he speaks to them. This is part 1 of a series to help us learn to listen to the voice of God!

It has been said that Baptism is to the Christian faith what the wedding ring is to a marriage. It is a symbol. Baptism is symbolic of the washing away of our sins. It is also symbolic of a new way of life. "Like the wedding ring, baptism draws a mark on the ground between the past and the future. Like the wedding ring, it says, "From this day forward, I stand with God." And Just like a marriage when we are baptized into Christ we take vows, vows that signify from this moment on, I will stand with Christ, from here on out I will follow, I will endeavor to do all that is within my power to be all that Jesus wants me to be, vows that state from this moment on I belong to God!

Epiphany, most know it as the day the Wise Men came. And that is right–partially. The word Epiphany means “manifestation” or “revelation.” So the Wise Men are celebrated on Epiphany because they represent the revelation of Jesus to the Gentiles When the wise men arrived they came bearing gifts, gifts appropriate for a King! In this message we ask the question, What gift do you bring that is appropriate for the Son of God!

Have you ever waited for something? Something big, something important and had to wait a very long time? Do remember what it felt like when your anticipation and expectation was met, when you finally received what you had been waiting for? In this message we take a close look at Anna the prophetess who had been waiting in the temple for the coming of the promised Messiah and learn how she sets an example for all of us who are Christians to follow!

In the Christmas classic movie “the little drummer boy” there comes a part in the movie where Aaron's little lamb gets injured in an accident and desperate to heal his friend. the little drummer boy ask the king to heal is little lamb, the king replies that he is only a mortal king, but he introduces Aaron to a King Among Kings, that has the ability to help the little lamb, Aaron looks at the child in the manger and exclaims in astonishment "the babe? I don't understand".... That statement makes me think about all the things about the Christmas story that I don't understand. and maybe there are a lot of things about the Christmas story you don't understand either. In this special Christmas eve message we talk about the things we just don't understand.

To be faithful is to be reliable, steadfast and unwavering, and the Bible speaks of this type of faithfulness in four ways: as an attribute of God; as a positive characteristic of some men; as a characteristic that many men lack; and as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Scripture speaks often of God’s faithfulness. Over and over we learn that when God says He will do something, He does it (even when it seems impossible). When He says something will happen, it happens. This is true for the past, the present and the future. In this message we explore how God has shown his faithfulness to all mankind!