Monday, February 23, 2009

This Week's Schedule 2/22/2009

Tuesday February 24thth-Women of Faith: Encouraging Each Other 7:00pm

Wednesday February 25th- NO Kid's Cub! Kid's Club will resume the first Wednesday of March.

Thursday February 26th--CHILI SUPPER!! 4:30-7:00pm Adult tickets $5, Kids $3. Hot Dogs for $1 and Soda for $.50 will be sold by the Youth.

Sunday March 1st- Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship in the Birchwood Room 10:30 am
Worship 10:45 am

Iglesia Evangelica Amigos 3:00 pm



Remember to pray this week for those who are ill and those who mourn.

This week's sermon: Standing Firm in Difficult Times

Acts 22:30-23:34.
There is a lot going on in this passage. There is a hearing, with arguing and accusations not just from the Sanhedrin against Paul, but among the members of the council as well. They are fighting so fiercely that the Roman commander takes Paul away so that they don’t tear him to pieces. Paul was in physical danger in these proceedings because what he was preaching was a hot-button issue. That is because there was already a disagreement over the resurrection of the dead among these two major sects of Judaism: the Sadducees and the Pharisees. So these men are angry not just about what is being discussed right at that moment with Paul, but these are feelings that are rooted in a long-standing theological argument. So Paul is returned to safe quarters in the Roman barracks. It seems as though little was accomplished other than to embroil the Sanhedrin in an internal battle, but Paul is safe for the moment.

Next in the story we read that there is a plot to take Paul’s life. More than forty men take an oath to kill him before their next meal! Once again, though, God delivers Paul’s from harm. Somehow Paul’s nephew hears about the plot and warns the guards. In order to keep him safe, they send him to the Governor Felix and hope that he can sort out the mess.

So what do we do with this story? There is so much in there, it is easy to get overwhelmed with the plot and forget to ask the question, “Why did Luke put this in here?” There has to be a point, a reason why it is important for us to know what happened. There has to be something to learn and take away from this passage. To find the point, I want to highlight what happens in verse 11: The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome." In all this hardship, with all of this conflict, this verse in there to tell us that God is still in control!

When things look bleak, it is tempting to think that we must be out of God’s will, or even out of God’s control. We need to hear the voice of our Lord standing by each of us and saying, “Take courage! Your life is a witness and testimony for me.” God was not worried about Paul being thrown into prison or being taken into Roman custody. It was part of God’s bigger plan to move Paul into a place of greater witness.

Paul had testified to many people about his encounter with the Living Christ, now God was going to give him opportunity to testify to a new set of people. Just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, you must also testify in Rome. Paul was now going to testify before the leaders of the known world. And God’s plan to get him there was through the prison system. What? How could God possibly want to send his chosen vessel through the prison system, that is just ridiculous!

According to some current theology, that would seem to be the case, but if you look at scripture you see that God doesn’t care much about conforming to human expectations. He is always doing the unexpected in unorthodox ways. And don’t forget that this is not the first time that God has used the prison system and captivity to work out his plan. Remember Joseph? He told his brothers that while they meant his slavery and captivity for harm, God meant it for good. God was in charge of Joseph’s life to bring good from the bad times. Remember the children of Israel in captivity in Egypt for about 400 years? Or the Babylonian and Assyrian captivities? What about John the Baptist in prison, bearing witness to the truth? God has been doing prison ministry almost from the beginning. God was taking Paul through the prison system so that every influential figure who heard his case would also hear about Christ.

God brings us through our difficult times with the same purpose. His desire is for our good, and for our lives to reveal God at work in us. That goes for good times and hard times. I was browsing through the newspaper this weekend and there in the USA Weekend insert, the featured front cover article asks “disasters or blessings?” It discusses volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, mudslides and other events we consider to be “natural disasters” and their role in bringing about good things for the earth. The caption says, "The answer may surprise you."

I think we can ask the same question about our circumstances sometimes, are they disasters or blessings? I believe the answer is up to us. If we will put our trust in the Lord and allow him to work in us and through us, our biggest disaster can become our greatest opportunity for blessing. If we will choose to fix our eyes on Jesus, and not grow weary of doing good; I believe we will find blessing not only for ourselves but for those around us as well. Standing firm in the midst of difficulty is the key to finding our disasters are really blessings in disguise. I will close with the Lord’s words to Paul, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, you must also testify in Rome.” Today he might say to us “Take courage! Just as you have testified about me in good times, I will also give you reason to testify about me in hard times.”

Monday, February 16, 2009

This Week's Schedule 2/15/09

Tuesday February 17th- Coffee at Amanda's 9:30am
Women of Faith: Encouraging Each Other 7:00pm

Wednesday February 18th- NO Kid's Cub! Kid's Club will resume the first Wednesday of March.

Sunday February 15th- Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship in the Birchwood Room 10:30 am
Worship 10:45 am

Iglesia Evangelica Amigos 3:00 pm


COMING UP:
CHILI SUPPER!! February 26th!

Remember to pray this week for those who are ill and those who mourn.
Faith Promise Cards are out--pray about how God wants to use you to share the gospel with people everywhere!

This week's sermon: Because he first loved me

1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”
Mark 12;30-31 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
2 Thessalonians 3:5 “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s Love and Christ’s perseverance.”

Valentines Day has become a day for love. We see hearts and flowers and cupids and think “love is in the air.” But the kind of love that is advertised at Valentines Day is fleeting. It is temporary and conditional. It requires that we buy our loved one something expensive, or that we plan the perfect date in order to win or keep their affection. God’s love for us is completely different.

I Corinthians 13:4-8 shows us a love that is greater than anything we have ever known. It is a picture of God’s perfect love:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

This is God’s love for you. In fact you can put his name in those verses: God is patient. God is kind. He is not envious, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered. How often are we afraid that if we mess up that God will abandon us, or that we will have to somehow make it up to him? But because of Christ and his sacrifice on the cross, we don’t have to worry about that. Romans 8:1 tells us that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. God keeps no record of wrongs.

If you are in a relationship with God through Christ, you are part of God’s family. You have been adopted in, and what better daddy is there than our God? God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails. God’s love for you never fails. God is completely trustworthy and his love for us will never ever fail. He will never stop loving us. In fact, before we even knew who he was, Paul tells us in Romans 5, while we were still living our lives in opposition to God as his enemies, Christ died for us. He laid down his life to pay the penalty for our sin, so that we could have new life in him.

God’s love for us is sacrificial. He loved us so much, John 3:16 tells us that he sent his only son, so that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life in him. God’s love for us does not require that we do things for him in order for him to love us. No, instead, God proves his love to us in this that while we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. He didn’t die for the righteous, he died for the ungodly. He died for you and me, knowing even then how we would mess up and hurt him. That is the love God has for us.

It is the love that gives, instead of asking to be given to. How many of you agonized over the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day? With God, we never have to worry about getting him the best gift. We simply need to accept the perfect gift from him—new life in Christ.

If we are in Christ, God calls us to live our lives according a different kind of love as well. He pours his love out on us, but it isn’t just to bottle it up and keep it for ourselves. He gives us his love and he wants us to pour it out on those around us, so that they can come to know his love for them as well. Jesus said that the most important thing we can do is love God with all that we are and love our neighbor as ourselves; and he told us to love even our enemies. But that is impossible. How could anyone love an enemy? I can’t, can you? I don’t have it in me to want to begin to love and do nice things for someone who is my enemy. It is not within my strength.

The key to the kind of love God calls us to is His love for us. 1John 4:19 says "We love because he first loved us." We have the power and ability to love others, even when they are unlovely because He loved us while we were rebelling against him. Paul tells us in Romans that while we were enemies of God he sent his son to die for us. He loved us while we were still actively opposing him with our lives, and he has promised to put his Spirit inside of us to make it possible for us to love others with His perfect love.

So why am I talking about loving our enemies? That is not a very romantic topic for Valentines Day. Ah, but it is. The key to long lasting love in any relationship, whether it is a friendship or a marriage relationship, is the kind of love that persists even when the other person acts like our enemy. Anyone here been in a friendship that has lasted more than a year? How about a dating relationship that has lasted more than six months? What about a marriage that has lasted more than a few weeks? Then you know what I am talking about! Sometimes our friends, our family members, and our spouses look like our enemies.

If you have been in any relationship you know that your friend or boyfriend or husband has at some point in time said or done something that made you angry, that hurt your feelings, or that was downright mean. Like flushing the toilet while you are in the shower. That is just plain mean. When that happens we have a choice in how we respond. We can respond in a loving way, with gentleness and forgiveness—even if we have to confront them and tell them that they hurt us, we can do so in a loving way. Or we can react in an unloving way, saying or doing something to hurt them back. We can go in and flush the toilet while they are in the shower every day for a week, just to get back at them. But I guarantee you that if you consistently respond in an unloving way, your relationship will not last.

Every time we intentionally do something to hurt or get at our spouse, it is like taking an ax to the side of a redwood. Redwoods are big trees, and they can take some abuse. If one person hit a redwood with an ax now and then, it would probably heal up and be fine. If you are both swinging axes, it doesn’t take long to fell that tree, no matter how big it is. When you respond in anger and vengeance, you cut into your relationship. But by responding in a loving way, you pour life in to your relationships. You let people know that you are a safe person. You will be the kind of friend, lover and spouse that you want someone to be for you. We all want the people we love to forgive us if we mess up. We don’t want them to hold it over our heads, or try to get us back. We need to do the same for them, too. Choose forgiveness and add life to your friendships and other relationships.

God’s kind of unselfish love is very romantic. It builds romance because it builds safety, peace and stability. And don’t get me wrong, a nice gift or the perfect date don’t hurt your relationship, but they are even better when they accompany a love that seeks to give rather than receive, to listen rather than to be heard, to serve rather than to be served. That is the love Christ offers us, and that we in turn can offer to others because of his spirit living in our hearts.

As you seek to love others with the same kind of love God offers to us, let me encourage you with these words from 2 Thessalonians 3:5 “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s Love and Christ’s perseverance.”

Monday, February 9, 2009

This week's service: Liz Wine

Liz Wine shared with us yesterday about her calling to be a follower of Christ as well as a vocational call to go as a teacher for missionary children for the next two years. For more information about Liz and to read her thoughts, visit her blog at:
http://lizinthemist.blogspot.com

Have a blessed week, and continue to tell God, "Here am I, send me" whenever you hear him call!

This Week's Schedule 2/8/09


Tuesday February 10th
-
Elder's Meeting 6:30pm

Wednesday February 11h- NO Kid's Cub!

Saturday
February 14th- Men's Breakfast @ Regency Gardens 8:00am;
Ladies Tea 2:00 pm

Sunday February 15th- Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship in the Birchwood Room 10:30 am
Worship 10:45 am

Iglesia Evangelica Amigos 3:00 pm


COMING UP:
CHILI SUPPER!! February 26th!

Remember to pray this week for those who are ill and those who mourn.
Faith Promise Cards are out--pray about how God wants to use you to share the gospel with people everywhere!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

This week's schedule 2/1/09


Tuesday February 3rd
-
Women of Faith: Encouraging Each Other 7:00pm

Wednesday February 4th- Kid's Cub!- 5:30-6:30pm
6:30pm GAME NIGHT for all ages!

Sunday
February 8th- Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship in the Birchwood Room 10:30 am
Worship 10:45 am
Special Speaker Liz Wine

Iglesia Evangelica Amigos 3:00 pm


COMING UP:
February 14th- Men's Breakfast @ Regency Gardens 8:00am;
Ladies Tea 2:00 pm

Remember to pray this week for those who are ill and those who mourn.
Faith Promise Cards are out--pray about how God wants to use you to share the gospel with people everywhere!

This Week's Sermon: To All Creation

Acts 21:17-22:30.
Paul runs into some trouble in the temple with a crowd of his Jewish brothers. They beat him, tried to kill him and were only intercepted when the Roman soldiers stepped in to break it up. Even then, they continued to physically assault him so severely that at one point the soldiers had to pick him up and carry him back to the barracks. We have seen Paul assaulted before, but this time it was for a different reason. The issue the crowd had with him was not that he believed in Jesus, but that he preached the gospel to the gentiles.

The Jews of the time hated the gentiles. In their minds they didn’t deserve God’s mercy, they weren’t worthy of God’s love. They were unclean, they were sinners, they were the scum of the earth. And Paul had the audacity to preach that God’s chosen Messiah was not only for the Jewish people, but for everyone. This teaching is a scriptural concept, though. The prophets say it over and over: from God’s original promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through his seed, to Isaiah’s declaration that there would come “A light to the gentiles.” But it didn’t matter what the prophets wrote, the people had it set in their mind that as God’s chosen people, they were the only people that mattered to God.

Good Jews did not associate with gentiles, they didn't eat with them and sometimes didn't even do business with them. Who are today’s gentiles? I don't mean literally, but figuratively, who are the people that we as Christians have come to regard as "outside of God's favor?" The homosexuals, the terrorists, the abortion doctors, Hollywood movie professionals, street walkers, liberals—these are the people that mainstream Christian culture has, at times, deemed un-savable. Sometimes these are the very people we don’t want to be saved, we have come to despise them so much.

Sometimes as Christians, we get it in our mind that as God’s chosen people, we are the only people that matter to God. We get that so ingrained deep in our hearts that we forget that Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” If there is a person sitting next to you, they are God’s creation. If there is a person that you pass on the street, they are God’s creation. If there is a person who lives in your neighborhood, they are God’s creation.

All of these people, no matter who they are, no matter how big of a sinner, no matter if they are fat or thin, gay or straight, liberal or conservative, clean or dirty, terrorist or stay-at-home mom, these people are the ones to whom Jesus has commanded us to preach the gospel. We don’t get a choice. We don’t get to pick and choose who we want in the Kingdom, Jesus said everybody is invited to his party. And we have to remember it is his party. He gets to set the guest list, and everyone gets a chance to RSVP. Jesus said, "it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick." And Jesus doesn’t believe in triage. He is calling us to reach out to even the sickest sinner with the good news.

In this scripture, Paul was harassed and thrown to the authorities by who? The “sinners?” No, but by the religious people. When he gave them his testimony, they listened until he told them that God was interested in saving even the Gentiles. Then, they not only harassed him, they said, “KILL HIM!” "Rid the earth of him!" Is that how we would treat someone who joined our fellowship who felt a burden to preach grace to the homosexual? Is that how we would respond to someone coming to our church who was witnessing about God’s love to the abortion doctor?

"Oh, no, of course not, we would never do that."

But how would we respond if God told us to go to the streetwalker and tell her that God loved her? What would we do if we had our eyes opened to the pain and self-hatred of those who work in the abortion trade? What if God called you to go and share the gospel with sex offenders in the prison? Would we be obedient to go? Or would we decide that these people aren’t worth saving?

I can hear the responses of some heart out there, “But they are living their lives in open rebellion to God’s commands.” That is true. But guess what, if we aren’t telling them about Jesus, so are we. If we aren’t preaching the gospel to all creation, we are living our lives in open rebellion to the commands of Christ, and we know better. At least many of "those people" are living in ignorance. Our sin of omission is in spite of the revelation we hold in our hands.

If we find ourselves at that place this morning, we need to repent. We need to fall on our faces before our King and leave our bitterness and hatred of all “those people” at his feet. We need to repent of our rebellion, our pride, and self-righteousness; because what we are saying when we refuse to invite someone to Jesus’ party is that their sin is worse than ours, that we are better than they are and deserve God’s grace.

"Jesus couldn’t possibly forgive that sin." But of course he has. When Jesus died on the cross, he didn’t just die for liars and petty sinners, he died for everyone. We say that we believe that, but do our actions show it? Jesus died on that cross for Hitler, for Jeffrey Dahmer, for BTK, for Mr. Phelps, for Dr. Tiller. And just in case you were wondering, he died for Bush, McCain, and Obama. And we need to let people know, so that their lives can be changed, so that they can become new creations in Christ.

Tell people about Jesus. Tell everyone about Jesus, even if they don’t fit your idea of who makes the cut. Witness about God's love to the biggest sinner you can find. Often they are the ones who will respond the best, because no one has ever told them that they can be redeemed. Preach the gospel whenever you get a chance, even if other Christians string you up by your toes. Your loyalty is to Christ first. Who cares what other people think.

Follow Christ, obey his commands, let your mission be his Great Commission. Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command.” Are you showing yourself to be his friend?