Community Christian Church

52 Challenge – Week 52

Michelle DiMarzio — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 11:00:44 +0000

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:33-34 (NIV)

Welcome to week 52 of the 52 Challenge! You did it! If you jumped in on week 1, we have reflected on, memorized, and sat with 52 verses over the last 52 weeks. If you missed any weeks or would like to start from week 1, check out the links below.

This week’s verses contain some powerful words from Jesus. They are a conditional promise that we’d be wise to ponder and make a part of our lifestyle. He is saying God will provide the things we truly need (that’s what “all these things” means) when we make God’s ways our top priority. He’s speaking to the daily temptation we face to live our lives like our well-being is dependent on our efforts. And while it is true that we have responsibilities and we are to play our part, the bigger truth is that “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28) solely because of God’s incredible providence.

When we accept this truth and live our lives reflecting it, we will be able to seek God first. Before our love life, success, security, or approval. We can seek God before family, before desire, and before comfort or pleasure. When we discover how to seek God first, everything changes in our lives because we receive what our hearts, souls, and minds need for us to thrive.

What are you tempted to seek before God and his way of life?

Missed a week? You can check out previous weeks of the 52 Challenge RIGHT HERE.

Want to start over? CLICK HERE

Looking for a specific sermon or missed out on services? Make sure to subscribe to CCC’s YouTube Channel and click the bell so you get updates when services and messages are available.

52 Challenge – Week 51

Michelle DiMarzio — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 11:00:43 +0000

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

Jesus’ words in these verses come amidst frustration. His cousin, John the Baptist, has questioned, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3). He expresses his disappointment and exasperation as people have witnessed his miracles and still not turned their hearts towards God. All this leads up to this week’s verses. Read the verses again and hear the longing in Jesus’ words for the people he loves to respond to him.

I imagine Jesus saying these words to me like this: “Come to me. You are exhausted and weighed down by life. I will give you rest. Learn from me. I’m God’s Son – when you see me, you see God himself. I am gentle, and my heart is humble – you will find rest for your soul in me because of my way of living. My righteousness is light.”

When you think about how you’ve seen Jesus work in your own life, how are you responding to him? Our part is to come to him. How can you do that each day this week?
Missed a week? You can check out previous weeks of the 52 Challenge RIGHT HERE.

Looking for a specific sermon or missed out on services? Make sure to subscribe to CCC’s YouTube Channel and click the bell so you get updates when services and messages are available.

52 Challenge – Week 50

Michelle DiMarzio — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 11:00:43 +0000

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 14:27 (NIV)

Do you think Jesus is stressed out, worried or afraid of anything? It’s no wonder he tells us not to let our hearts be troubled. He’s reminding us that we’re his, we’re with him, and he isn’t shaken by any of the things that weigh us down. Since he’s at peace, we can be at peace too.

The peace Jesus gives is whole, healed, rooted, firm, strong, and unshakeable because it’s rooted in the very core of existence, God himself. He is all-powerful. He has no brokenness or stain. God is perfectly holy. When you find yourself troubled this week, turn that into an opportunity to ask Jesus to help you experience his peace.

Missed a week? You can check out previous weeks of the 52 Challenge RIGHT HERE.

Looking for a specific sermon or missed out on services? Make sure to subscribe to CCC’s YouTube Channel and click the bell so you get updates when services and messages are available.

52 Challenge – Week 49

Michelle DiMarzio — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 11:00:04 +0000

You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Psalms 16:11 (NIV)

What comes to mind when you think about pursuing God? I often find myself associating walking with God with duty or sacrifice. Yet these verses say that God shows us the path of life that’s filled with joy and eternal pleasures because we’re in his presence. Just think about that for a moment. God’s presence is marked by joy and pleasure-eternal pleasure. Let’s use these verses this week to reshape how we see God. Each time you laugh this week, try to remember that journeying with God leads to a life of joy and pleasure that doesn’t end.

Missed a week? You can check out previous weeks of the 52 Challenge RIGHT HERE.

Looking for a specific sermon or missed out on services? Make sure to subscribe to CCC’s YouTube Channel and click the bell so you get updates when services and messages are available.

52 Challenge – Week 48

Michelle DiMarzio — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 11:00:42 +0000

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8 (NIV)

The single most powerful thing you can do is embrace God’s love for you by loving others. There’s just no getting around it. God is love and his desire is for us to bear his image as fully as we possibly can. In fact, he wants more for us than we could ever make happen, so he works on our behalf so we can express his love in ways we never could on our own. As followers of Jesus, we are called to love each other deeply. It is to mark our relationships, our thoughts, our behaviors, and our choices.

God has loved you sacrificially, how can you express that kind of love in your world this week?

Missed a week? You can check out previous weeks of the 52 Challenge RIGHT HERE.

Looking for a specific sermon or missed out on services? Make sure to subscribe to CCC’s YouTube Channel and click the bell so you get updates when services and messages are available.

52 Challenge – Week 47

Michelle DiMarzio — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 11:00:47 +0000

But those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)

Have you had the chance to see an eagle in action? Eagles are incredible. They’re at the top of the food chain and can spot prey up to 2 miles away. They can fly at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour and hit 100 miles per hour in a dive! An eagle can catch updrafts and soar for nearly 6 hours without flapping its wings while traveling over 100 miles. Their power, their livelihood, and their majesty rest on the hope that when they spread their wings to soar, the wind will come through.

Those who hope in the Lord are the same way. He does what we cannot do for ourselves. He is the source of our strength. Sometimes we run out of gas because we’re trying to flap our wings when we should be learning to ride the wind.

Missed a week? You can check out previous weeks of the 52 Challenge RIGHT HERE.

Looking for a specific sermon or missed out on services? Make sure to subscribe to CCC’s YouTube Channel and click the bell so you get updates when services and messages are available.

52 Challenge – Week 46

Michelle DiMarzio — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 11:00:42 +0000

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

1 Chronicles 16:34 (NIV)

Think about God’s love for a moment. It’s generous-God lavishes his love upon you. It’s sacrificial-God has paid the ultimate price to be intimately connected with you. It’s abounding in grace-his love for you has covered over a multitude of sins. And, it’s welcoming-God’s love is continually inviting us forward into a richer experience. God’s very essence is love.

We give thanks to the Lord because he is so good to us, and his goodness and love towards us will never, ever end.

Missed a week?
You can check out previous weeks of the 52 Challenge RIGHT HERE.

Looking for a specific sermon or missed out on services?
Make sure to subscribe to CCC’s YouTube Channel and click the bell so you get updates when services and messages are available.

52 Challenge – Week 45

Michelle DiMarzio — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 11:00:23 +0000

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

1 John 3:18 (NIV)

People tend to love love. We love falling in love, we love the feelings, we love the idea of love. Love in action and in truth? Well, that’s more difficult, right? I’ve heard the example: if your mouth were duct-taped shut and you couldn’t speak, not a single word (no writing either, that’s cheating), if the only way you could love was with your actions-would your neighbors know you love Jesus? How about your parents or spouse or kids, would they know you love them? Coworkers, teammates, classmates?

We are to be people who are short on rhetoric and long on substance. Make sure your actions are speaking way louder than your words this week.

Missed a week?
You can check out previous weeks of the 52 Challenge RIGHT HERE.

Looking for a specific sermon or missed out on services?
Make sure to subscribe to CCC’s YouTube Channel and click the bell so you get updates when services and messages are available.

52 Challenge – Week 44

Michelle DiMarzio — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 11:00:14 +0000

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Mark 1:35 (NIV)

Have you ever noticed how often Jesus withdraws? Mark 1:35 is right on the heels of the “whole town” gathering at Jesus’ door. I’m sure that evening was rewarding, busy, emotional, and taxing. After a night full of meeting everyone else’s needs, how does Jesus begin the very next day? He didn’t hit snooze! He got up early, excuse me, VERY early in the morning so he could talk to his Heavenly Father.

Jesus did this all the time. He pulled away from all the busyness of saving the world to spend time talking with God. Jesus is our leader. He is our example. What does this pattern and practice in his life mean for how you approach your days?

How about this week you make a choice to value your conversation with God more than your sleep? Set your alarm 20 or 30 minutes early to pray and see what happens.

Missed a week?
You can check out previous weeks of the 52 Challenge RIGHT HERE.

Looking for a specific sermon or missed out on services?
Make sure to subscribe to CCC’s YouTube Channel and click the bell so you get updates when services and messages are available.

52 Challenge – Week 43

Michelle DiMarzio — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 10:00:25 +0000

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)

Congratulations to you for making it to week 43 of the 52 Challenge! Only 9 more weeks to go. You’ve been investing more of your time and energy contemplating God’s Word. Have you seen how useful it is for growing more and more into who God dreamed you would be when he made you?

Our relationship with the Bible is so important because as God’s servants he has work for us to do. Good work, redeeming work, work that brings the hope of heaven to the challenges of earth. The question is, are you rooted in the Bible to the point where you are thoroughly equipped for what God would do through your life?

This week, consider what step can you take to deepen your engagement with and understanding of God’s Word?

Missed a week?
You can check out previous weeks of the 52 Challenge RIGHT HERE.

Looking for a specific sermon or missed out on services?
Make sure to subscribe to CCC’s YouTube Channel and click the bell so you get updates when services and messages are available.