VOUS Church

Losing Your Ship - Rich Wilkerson, Jr.

In a perfect world, we'd be able to control every aspect of our life. But in the end, would planning every detail and knowing the outcome of a situation really benefit us?

Oftentimes, the things we so desperately seach for to fulfull us, leave us empty and helpless. So we look for the next "thing" to complete our lives.
But when we decide to follow God, we have to stop seeking control and find the courage to allow God to do His will in our lives. In order to receive all that God has for us, we have to lose our thoughts on how our lives should play out and step out of our comfort zones.

The ship of life that we're on is sometimes the very thing that holds us back. In order to get to our destiny, we have to abandon the ship and trust in our Savior. It's in God we find the security, hope and love we seek and the sooner we let go of our "ships", the sooner we can walk in what God has called us to.

VOUS Values: Don't Pass on Passion

What does it mean to have passion and how do we know we're passionate about something?

Pastor Rich concludes our collection of talks "VOUS Values" with a sermon titled "Don't Pass on Passion."

 

Usually, when we're passionate about something, it pours out of us. It's something that we can't stop talking about. Something we have an undeniable enthusiasm for. But passion is more than mere enthusiasm, it's the driving force to making our dreams become a reality. 

 

In order to make those dreams come to fruition, we have to know where our passion is pointed. When life becomes difficult, it's often our passion that helps us to prevail - especially our passion for God. When we're able to confess our downfalls, it's our proclamation of who God is that makes all the difference.

VOUS Values: It's A Heart Thing

In our continued collection of talks on VOUS Values, Manouchka Charles explores our sixth value. To say that honor is our calling is great, but it’s another thing for us to act it out. Honor is not something we only do when we have a positive attitude and life is going great. It’s even more important to encourage others when we’re not feeling our best. When you’re a part of a team, you have the ability to create the culture and in order to do so, your habits have to match your intention.

So what are the habits that rule in your life? Do they reflect that of a person who honors others? Once you identify them, then you can decide whether they should be replaced or have a vision for them. Honoring others means not being stingy with your words. When we make honoring others a reality, we do it whether we think someone deserves it or not and we are not led by our emotions. Ultimately, when honor is our calling, we are truly honoring God in all that we do.

VOUS Values: Preparing The Way

 

At Vous Church, servant leadership is our identity and impacts every part of our lives.  On Mother’s Day, we honor our moms who exemplify servant leadership by giving their lives to serve. As we continue our collection of talks on Vous Values, Pastor DawnCheré delivers a powerful message entitled: Preparing the Way. She discusses the iconic servant leader John the Baptist and takes a closer look at his beloved mother Elizabeth who paved the way for her son. Elizabeth prepared John for his purpose by walking out her miraculous FAITH, being BRAVE, and showing HUMILITY.

Before he recognized Jesus, SHE recognized Jesus. Elizabeth even recognized Jesus in the womb of Mary! All along, Elizabeth was preparing the way for John to walk out his purpose. So how do you raise a world changer? You be a world changer yourself.  

VOUS Values: From Obligation to Opportunity

Have you ever had to do something that you really didn’t want to do? Maybe it was a chore or an assignment at work. Obligation rarely creates passionate, productive, exciting results. And the truth is, if we’re not careful, we can approach the majority of our lives from the posture of feeling obligated.

Continuing our collection of talks, "VOUS Values," Pastor Rich expands upon our 4th value, Generosity Is Our Privilege. He reveals that the act of giving can often be viewed as an obligation instead of the opportunity that it actually is.

Generosity becomes an opportunity when we discover the privilege it is to give. By activating generosity, we take the power away from greed in our lives and give God access to more of our hearts.

VOUS Values: Louder Than Words

What do you think of when you hear the term, "excellence"? Maybe you are reminded of attention to details and the work ethic of a person. Yet, excellence has much more to do with your spiritual development than you might think. 

This week Pastor DawnCheré Wilkerson continued our collection of talks, "VOUS Values," with a sermon titled "Louder Than Words."

Being excellent in whatever we do is something we should all strive towards, knowing that God doesn't want perfection but our complete devotion to pursuing his best for our lives. In the Bible, Daniel demonstrates what it means to strive towards excellence. In order to produce excellence, we must pay close attention to details, embrace all tasks whether big or small and stay true to our unique purpose.

VOUS Values: Let's Not Make It Difficult

Have you ever had the desire to do something, but because of your perception of a situation, you felt defeated before you began?

Oftentimes, people desire to connect with a church and have a relationship with God but believe they don’t belong or deserve to have that experience.

In the second week of the collection of talks “VOUS Values”, Pastor Rich Wilkerson, Jr. explores the message of people are our heart through a sermon titled “Let’s Not Make It Difficult.”

We as believers of Christ have to do a better job of spreading the true message of Jesus and show that we are FOR people. None of us are perfect, we all have problems and Jesus is the ultimate answer.

Jesus died for all of our sins so that we could have a relationship with Him. With that as the foundation, we can get planted into a church community, not just on Sunday but all throughout the week and truly walk out our faith walk.

VOUS Values: It's Not Complicated

The purpose of VOUS Church is to share the hope of Jesus. Jesus is our message. We are Jesus people, not religious people. Methods will come and go, yet our message will remain the same.

Our relationship with Jesus has to be the foundation of our lives and we must choose to accept his truth by first accepting the grace he freely gives and not basing our perception of the truth on our feelings, friends or fantasies.

Pastor Earl McClellan: What Did You Call Me?

How many of us get turned down and give up at the first try? We want to be first in line or we won’t go for it at all. We want the blessing, but we’re unwilling to wait our turn. In this message, Pastor Earl McClellan shared a story that challenged him, and should challenge all of us.  It’s the story of Mark 4 and of the woman from Syrian Phoenicia who begs Jesus to cast the demon out of her daughter. When Jesus rejects her, instead of walking away, she insists and it is her faith that eventually moves Jesus to act in her favor. Do you believe that even a crumb of his blessing, his glory, his mercy, his grace is enough to fill our every need?

Friend of Sinners: Welcome to the Neighborhood

Chances are, most of us have heard someone in church talk about “loving thy neighbor.” But what constitutes a neighbor? Is it the ones who offer up a spare cup of sugar, or are quick to invite us over for dinner? Does it include the neighbors we don’t like as much, that maybe compete with us for the most manicured lawn, or are the first ones to put an end to a good party? As we conclude our collection of talks, “Friend of Sinners,” Pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr. teaches us Jesus’ definition of a neighbor in a sermon titled, “Welcome to the Neighborhood.” By studying the parable of the good Samaritan, we can take a look at our own lives in comparison to the Priest, Levite, and the Samaritan, and determine whether we’re actually being the “good neighbors” that Jesus calls us to be.