I.  Created for Relationships

A. Gen 1:26 “Let Us create man in Our image…”

B.  Not good for man to be alone

C.  Both Vertical with God and Horizontal with others

II.  “a (friend) is born for adversity.”  Prov 17:17

A.  Jonathan & David  1Sam 13ff

B.  “… a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”  Prov 18:24

III.  A Friend is there to Give and Receive  Wise Counsel  Prov 27:9

A.  “Wounds from a friend can be trusted…”  Prov 27:5-6

B.  “Oh the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and shift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest sway.”

IV.  A Common Bond  Col 3:16

A.  A CB can bring together very different people in a life long friendship

B.  there is no bond stronger than that of faith in Christ  -  a same horizon

C.  both external interests (sports, family etc) and internal interests (faith)

Love, Life & Relationships IV

“The Marriage Covenant / Deciding to Love”

Eph 5:31

I.  Consumer Relationships

A.  Consumer: as long as I get my needs met

B.  If I can get a better deal somewhere else…

II.  Covenant Relationships

A.  Vertical: God and Man  Gen 17:7

a) “Do you now promise before God and these witnesses…

B.  Horizontal:  Person to Person  1Sam 18:3

a) “I ___ take you ____ to be my wedded wife…”

III. Love is a Decision, much more than an Emotion

A.  as a parent loves a child, who can give little in return

B.  true love can only be experienced over time and circumstances

IV.  Someone who not only knows you, but (still) loves you (like God)

A.  none of the façade of dating / living together

B. Covenantal Commitment both Vertical & Horizontal

V.  Someone who knows your every word, every thought & still loves you (God)

A. No one can or will know you and love you like God through Christ

As for the focus of the Literacy for Haiti this summer, Bobbi writes, “We are making our Haiti plans. Cliff leaves May 29-June 23. I and 3 others leave June 13-June 23. This year we are all concentrating on evangelism afternoons and a goat proof fence in the evenings. Pray for God’s spirit, protection and…love.”

How can you be a part of what Christ is doing in Haiti? Starting Sunday May 13th, you can bring medical items for us to send to Damye. Needed medical supplies: Plastic bottles of beta dine solution, 1 inch gauze wrap, medical tape, gauze pads, antibiotic ointment, rubber gloves, Tylenol, Aleve, Motrin, Excedrin, Tums, Infant Tylenol drops, infant cough medicine, cough medicine for adults, Cortizone cream, butterfly bandages, Visine, powdered Gatorade or other oral rehydration, thermometer, Lamisil, Immodium.

We will be completing the supply drive on June 3rd. Please bring items to church on Sundays so that we can make an impact for Christ in Haiti.

Love, Life, & Relationships  III

“The Enemy of Self-Centeredness:  The Gospel”

LLR I:  Marriage is God’s design of the Gospel with flesh on.  It requires of us a daily dying to ourselves. Marriage is a living illustration of the pain and glory of the Gospel.

LLR II: Why is Marriage so Tough?  Maybe God designed it that way?   Maybe our happiness wasn’t His primary concern?  Maybe God was more concerned with our Holiness than our Happiness, His glory, rather than ours?

I.  Problem:  Sin    Solution:  Gospel

II.  Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake.  2Peter 2:13

A.  Submit to your elders 1Peter 5:5

B.  Submit to your masters / bosses  1Peter 2:18

C.  Be the servant of one another  Gal 5:13

D.  Submit to your neighbor  Rom 15:1-3

E.  Submit to every authority God has placed over you  2Pet 2:13-14

F.  Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ  Eph 5:12

G.  Wives submit to your husbands  Eph 5:22

III.  The idea of submission wasn’t begun in the garden

A.  the idea of submission was begun in heaven with the Triune God

a)  “… glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You.”  John 17:1

IV.  Enemy of Submission:  Self-Centeredness        Enemy of Self-Centeredness:  the Gospel

A.  No place in the military, nor among God’s people 2Cor 5:15

B.  Jesus came in complete submission to the Father to grant us life to the full

C.  He has not come to call the (self) righteous, but sinners!  Matt 9:12

(Left to Right) Erica Nagy, Joe Nagy, Dail Hovey, Pastor Bob, Megan McDaniel, Mandie Mckenzie, Ella McKenzie, Marquis Lewis, Joe McKenzie, and Owen McKenzie (not pictured Josh and Bobbi Lynn Hooker)

Ponte Vedra, FL – On a wonderful spring day in sunny Ponte Vedra, Florida, over one thousand runners took to the cart paths at the TPC Sawgrass to run for a cure to Breast Cancer. The Players 5k is an annual event in a series of runs sponsored by the Donna Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to helping women with breast cancer

Proceeds from the breast cancer marathon and other races will go directly to The Donna Foundation. Since the inaugural year of 26.2 with Donna, The Donna Foundation has more than doubled the number of supported men and women to 3,000.

Dail and Donna Deegan

While a portion of the proceeds will be used by The Donna Foundation for the critical care of breast cancer survivors in need, the foundation has pledged to donate the majority of funds raised to Mayo Clinic for bench top research and its Multidisciplinary Breast Clinic, which specializes in the detection and treatment of breast cancer.

SonLife is excited to be an active part in the community of Jacksonville and support numerous causes as a body of believers that put feet on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Easter Service

John 20:1-31

The Resurrection of the Christ

I.  He has been “there” and back

A.  He was dead

B   Suffered the wrath of a Holy God (in our place)

C.  Now He is living, having defeated death once and for all

II.  The Titanic (in 3D)

A.  Two Lists were generated

a)  Lost (lost at sea / loss of life)

b)  Saved  (saved from death, not by their own efforts)

III.  Two Lists

A.  We were all (spiritually) dead unable to save ourselves:  Lost (unable)

B.  But God, b/c of His great love for us…

C) We were made alive, saved, through Jesus Christ:  Saved (how? by grace)

IV. No longer foreigners and aliens to God

A. fellow citizens

B.  Members of God’s household

C.  Nothing.  Not even death can separate us from the love of God.

How would church look if you didn’t have sound systems? What would church look like if we unplugged? What would it look like if we worshiped without pretension and “the show?” SonLife worship is called to be like that every week but on April 29th we are taking it to another level… SonLife Ancient and Modern.

Come and worship under candle light… with very few frills… even less distraction. The same SonLife worship and the same SonLife teaching and the same SonLife family… come and worship.

April 21, 20012, Amelia Island, FL – SonLife Church was represented today in a great event, the Katie Ride for Life. Joe Nagy and Team rode 100 miles to benefit organ donor awareness. On their chest, the SonLife logo. This annual event takes place on Amelia Island and has hundreds of participants each year.

The Katie Caples Foundation was started in 1998 by the family of Katie Caples, a young high school student from Jacksonville who became an organ and tissue donor after not surviving the trauma of an automobile accident.

The Katie Ride started in 2005 as a cycling event for riders of all levels to raise awareness about making an organ donation commitment. The Katie Walk, which was added in 2009, is another opportunity to tell the story, raise funds and support this mission.

The cycling event offers courses of varying distance from 7 to 100 miles with full support along the way. The Katie Walk offers a 5K and 10K course through beautiful Fort Clinch State Park.

Funds raised by both events help to promote organ and tissue donation and deliver important educational programs to high school freshman and sophomores. (http://www.katierideforlife.org/)

A new survey of Americans’ knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths. Sundays at SonLife we strive to teach our kids the basic tenets of own faith in a relevant and tangible way.

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For admissions has been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Jude 1-4

Our intention is to provide Biblical training so that the next generation will contend for the faith for years to come. KidsLife is every Sunday @ 10am.  We hope to see you and your family @ SonLife.

Thanks For Your Support

SonLife Church has been the vision and the focus of prayer for years. As we continue grow in His grace, we want to thank our partners and we hope to continue our partnership as SonLife serves beyond!