Emporia Friends Church

Advent Reflections 1

2011-11-28T09:16:00.001-08:00

Sunday November 27th was the first day of Advent, a time of reflection and preparation to celebrate the coming of Christ.
The four Sundays in Advent we will look at different aspects of Incarnation. I hope these meditations enrich your heart and draw you closer to the One.

Advent 1- Incarnation: God in the flesh
When God delivered the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt, he entered into a covenant with them at Mount Sinai. As a part of this covenant, he promised "Iwill put my dwelling place among you, and I will not reject you, but will walk among you and be your God, and you willbe my people."(Leviticus 26:11-12)
God did this with his pillar of fire and cloud that led his people through the wilderness. He did this with the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle and later in the temple. These things were representations of his unseen presence among them. But God did not stop there.

He fulfilled the second part of his promise to walk among his people by coming in the flesh. John 1:14 says "The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us."

God coming in the flesh gives us confidence that he understands what it is like to stand in our place. We all hunger for a diving perspective, but God Most High chose to humble himself to see from a human perspective.
The writer of Hebrews says it this way, "For we do not have a high priest whois unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has beentempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God'sthrone of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace tohelp us in our time of need." (Hebrews 14:15-16)

We can approach God with confidence, knowing that he understands what we go through: our weakness, pain, struggle, the betrayal of friends, the pressure of work, every emotion and loss. We no longer have to despair that God is so high and holy that he could never understand. He became flesh to walk in our shoes and open a way for us to be in complete fellowship with him.

Weekly Schedule

2011-09-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

Our Regular Fall Schedule

Monday- 7pm Men's Group at the Church

Tuesday- 6:30pm Women's Group at the Church
Second Tuesday night of the Month is Elder's Meeting at 7:00
Third Tuesday morning of the Month is Coffee at Amanda's for fellowship at 9:30
Fourth Tuesday morning of the Month is Friends Women Fellowship, missionary society at 9:00

Sunday- 9:30am Sunday School for all ages
10:30am Fellowship Time with Refreshments
10:45am Morning Worship
3:00pm Iglesia Evangelica Amigos

Catching up with Romans 9-11

2011-09-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

In these chapters, we hear Paul's heart cry out for his people. Paul is a Jew and has spent his entire life in devotion to his faith and his people. Accepting that Jesus is Messiah did not change that. Paul's discussion in this section of Romans shows us his struggle to reconcile the firm belief that the Jews remain God's chosen people, with the reality that so many were rejecting the Messiah that Paul held dear.

Paul asks several questions that must have come from deep in his own soul: has the word of God failed; is God unfair; where did it all go wrong; can it ever be made right?

Paul gives his answers by quoting the Old Testament scriptures, pointing out the inconsistency of God's people in the past, God's sovereignty, and His faithfulness to always preserve a remnant. Paul doesn't seem to need a resolution to the free-will versus destiny argument. On one hand he says belief does not "depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy" (Ro 9:16). Then he turns and says, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Ro 10:13) followed by a discourse on how to call first they must hear; to hear someone must preach; to preach someone must be sent.

We have a difficulty with this kind of tension in the text. Most of us will grab on to the verses that support our theological perspective on predestination or free-will. Perhaps the better path is to let go of fear and understand that there are mysteries that we will never understand.

Throughout this discussion, Paul does an amazing job of pointing to hope. He has hope that God will reserve a remnant. He has hope that some of his fellow Jews have accepted Jesus as Messiah. He has hope that God is still holding out his hands to His people, even if they are disobedient. He points to a day when all the requisite Gentiles will come to faith so that in the end all of Israel will be saved. His hope is based on the triumphant Grace of God which has never failed to receive His people.

Paul ends this whole section with a prayer:
"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 'Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?' 'Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?' For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." (Ro 11:33-36).

Because of this prayer, I have hope. Even if we don't understand all that God is doing, all of his plans for us, we can base our hope on his Grace. We can stand confidently on the knowledge that nothing is beyond his reach and all belongs to him. Our praise can flow from that hope and confidence, fueling our lives for love and service.

Flesh and Spirit

2011-08-16T06:07:00.000-07:00

Romans 6-8.

Paul is showing us a different way of living in right relationship with God. That is his stated purpose for this whole letter. This is greatly illustrated in the second half of chapter 7 and the first half of chapter 8.

Paul gives us an illustration of how things work apart from the Spirit of God working in us. He says "The things I want to do, I do not do, instead I do the things I hate." This is our common plight as human beings. We set our minds on doing, or not doing, something only to fail again and again. We get so frustrated as we try and try and try, only to fail. Paul ends by saying "What a wretched man I am, who can save me from this body of death?" Eventually we come to the end of ourselves and our own strength and need someone to save us.

Paul answers his own question by saying that God, through Christ Jesus saves us and removes the burden of condemnation from us. Moving into chapter 8, Paul shows us the role of the Spirit in our lives. God put to death the sin that binds us, and that freedom from sin is offered to us in the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts as we have faith in Christ. The former way of struggling with sin on our own leads only to anxiety and death. The Spirit brings life and peace.

That peace not only applies to our freedom from sin, but also to our relationship with God. In the old way of trying to defeat sin on our own and trying desperately to win God's favor, we never knew if we were quite good enough. With the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we have a great gift. God gave us this Spirit, not so that we would live in fear of him, but so that we would learn to cry out to him as our loving father. The very Spirit cries out for us, "Abba, father!" Literally "Daddy!"

Our relationship to God suddenly goes from distant and wondering, to intimate and confident. No longer to we rely on a list of rules to tell us right and wrong. The Spirit directs our actions, changing our motivation from self-interest to love. God does not leave us wondering if we are on the right path. The Spirit nudges our hearts, saying this is the way. When failure comes and we get off track, the Spirit directs us back on course with repentance and acceptance of God's forgiveness.

Why walk in the former way, depending on your own strength to fight sin and be good enough? Surrender your life to Christ, receive the Holy Spirit and begin walking in life and peace; free from sins chains and the uncertainty that you are not enough.

This week's message: Celebrate!

2011-07-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Romans 5:10-21.
Our reconciliation through Christ restores us to a relationship with God and brings us from Death into Life!

Adam’s story:
Sin entered by him
Death came to all by him
Sin brought Judgment that resulted in Condemnation
One Sin ushered in the Reign of Death
One Transgression Condemns All
One’s disobedience=Many sinners

Jesus’ story:
Grace of God entered by Him
Life is restored by Him
Sin with Grace applied results in Justification
Receive Grace and each one can Reign in Life
One Righteous Act Justifies All
One’s obedience=Many righteous

When the Law came, more people became law-breakers, but Grace won! Sin ruled in death, grace rules through a new-found righteousness in Christ to produce in us Eternal life. So celebrate the life you have available in Jesus the Messiah. Let that joy well up in your life and overflow into the lives of those around you!

Romans 5:10-21 The Message
If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we're in - first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.

Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man's sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God's gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There's no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?

Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.

All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life - a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.

This Week's Message: Abba- Father’s Day 2011

2011-06-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

I. Our relationship to God
Romans 8:14-16 "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba ! Father !' The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God…"

A. Not slavery to fear. No anxiously wondering if he loves us.

John 1: 12-13 "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."

B. Sonship--belonging to God and his family. Able to inherit the promise!

II. Our relationship to each other
Galatians 3:26-28 "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

A. No favorites because of bloodline, social status or gender.
B. One in Christ. Equal footing and belonging to each other as family.

III. Our heart’s cry in the Holy Spirit—“Abba!” (Daddy)
Galatians 4:6 "Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba ! Father !'"

A. God is better than all the best in our earthly fathers
B. God can fill the void left by the failings of our earthly fathers
C. God’s father-love for all of us is perfect

1 Co. 13:4-8a "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

This week's message: Redemption

2011-06-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

Romans 3:20-31.

For many Christians this is a familiar passage, or at least parts of it are familiar. This is a section of scripture that usually finds it's way into references to salvation or particular techniques for evangelism. While this is not necessarily bad, taking scripture verses out of context can give us an incomplete picture of the topic at hand. In this case the topic is redemption.

Paul has been addressing Jewish believers and pointing out that while their heritage is important, it does not give them an instant "in" with God. Having the Torah (Law) is not the same as living the Torah. Living according to the Torah in its entirety, Paul says, is impossible. Everyone falls short regardless of their faith background and tradition.

If that were the end of the story--everyone falls short--it would be bad news, not good news. But Paul does not stop there. He says not only has everyone fallen short, but everyone is justified freely by God's grace presented to us in the person of Jesus the Messiah. Paul tells the Jewish believers that God has made Jesus to be the Kapparah for the whole world.

When we read verses like Romans 3:25, " God put Yeshua forward as the kapparah for sin through his faithfulness in respect to his bloody sacrificial death," it is easy to forget that we are not talking about brutish oppression of one member of the God-head by another. God the Father and Jesus the Son are one. Their will is one will. Their purpose is one purpose. All of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) willed together that they should become the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the whole world in the person of Jesus the Messiah.

The picture is not one of God the Father sending Jesus to the cross, but a beautiful image of God stepping out of heaven to bear the cost of forgiveness on our behalf. This is something we understand all too well. Forgiveness requires the forgiver to bear the cost. That is what forgiveness is: choosing not to force repayment by one who has wronged us. When a bank forgives a loan they bear the financial cost. When we forgive one another we bear an emotional cost, and it hurts. When God chose to forgive the sin of all humanity for all time, he bore the physical cost: death.

This act of bearing the cost of forgiveness lifts the burden of repaying an impossible debt. It sets us free from trying to pretend we are righteous. When we accept this gift, it sets God free to bring healing into our lives. It becomes a thing that is not about us or what we do, but about God and what he has done on our behalf.

This is why there is no more boasting. This is why there is no need to put on a holy church face. This is why we can embrace those still under the impression that they are slaves to sin. We have all fallen short of perfection, and have been forgiven and cleansed by God's sovereign choice to bear the cost of forgiveness himself so that we could be restored to a right relationship with him.

Psalm 147

2011-06-08T06:38:00.000-07:00

¹ Praise the Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to our God;
for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
² The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
³ He heals the brokenhearted,
and binds up their wounds.
⁴ He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
⁵ Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.
⁶ The Lord lifts up the downtrodden;
he casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷ Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
make melody to our God on the lyre.
⁸ He covers the heavens with clouds,
prepares rain for the earth,
makes grass grow on the hills.
⁹ He gives to the animals their food,
and to the young ravens when they cry.
¹⁰ His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;
¹¹ but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.

This week's message: Level Ground

2011-05-16T06:23:00.001-07:00

Romans 1:16-2:16.

Many times this last half of Romans chapter 1 is quoted to heap condemnation on those who struggle in a few particular areas of sin--mostly sexual sin. If we read the passage and stop before chapter 2, verse 1, we often feel pretty holy in comparison to all "those people" that Paul is describing who live their lives apart from God. Surely we don't fall into the category of "wickedness, evil, greed and depravity."

We feel really safe until we look deeper into these words and find that evil is really better translated "injustice," and greed better understood as "wanting more." Injustice is not giving God and people their due. Who among us has never shortchanged God or our fellow human beings in love, kindness, and compassion? Who among us is completely satisfied with what we have and do not desire more?

It is important for us to recognize our place in this fallen state so that we can accept what Paul tells us in the opening verses of chapter 2. " You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things." These things bring death and destruction into our lives and the lives of others around us. God will not look more kindly on our sin than the sins of others.

We like that God has kindness, patience and tolerance for our sin. His kindness brings us to repentance. We lose sight of this truth when we call God's wrath down on others. His kindness, tolerance, and patience applies to all because his desire is to draw all mankind to himself. When we justify ourselves while condemning others we show that our hearts are not in unity with his. "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath , when his righteous judgment will be revealed."

The next few verses are a further emphasis that God's judgment is based on our actions and our knowledge or awareness of what is good. He is leading and driving us toward the ultimate declaration in chapter 3, verse 23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The key challenge in today's scripture is to lay down our stubbornness and un-repentance, recognize our place in the fallen world and seek God's free forgiveness.

God has grace for all of our sins, whether great or small. He wants to bring forgiveness and healing into our lives. What we must do is surrender to his grace all the broken, wounded, and corrupted places in our hearts and lives.

This Week's Schedule

2011-05-03T06:16:00.000-07:00

Tuesday May 3rd- Ladies Group 6:30pm

Sunday May 8th-
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Meeting for Worship 10:45am
Iglesia Evangelica de Amigos 3:00pm

This week's message: Called to Belong to Jesus

2011-05-03T05:53:00.000-07:00

Romans 1;1-7.

In these first seven verses, Paul introduces himself and his mission. Paul says he is a slave of Christ Jesus, set apart for apostleship, given a mission to call others to obedience in faith, to be saints and to belong to Jesus.

We don't have a great modern understanding of the relationship Paul claims to have with Jesus. It is stronger than an employee and more voluntary than purchased slavery. The best way to express it is really that Paul has sold out to Christ. Jesus actually owns him and directs his life.

Paul says he has been set apart for a purpose. William Barclay suggests that this is a play on words, as Pharisee can be interpreted as Set-apart-one. Paul had been a Pharisee, set apart for his own personal holiness. Now Paul is set apart for a purpose, for the benefit of others.

Paul's purpose is to be sent out among the nations. The book of Acts gives us this picture of Paul constantly going out, moving on, and moving further into territory where people have never heard. He went out to call people to obedience that comes from faith.

Obedience from faith is much different than obedience from obligation or fear of punishment. We have all experienced obedience that does not come from faith. We all had parents who told us to obey "Because I said so!" We all had teachers and employers who required obedience on pain of detention, docking our wages or firing. Paul's mission is to call people to obedience that comes from faith that God is good.

Many of us grew up seeing God as someone to be afraid of a cosmic punisher of wrong. It is not that God does not represent judgment, but rather that he is not sitting somewhere waiting for us to mess up so that he can hurl lightning at us. When we come to know and understand who God is, his kindness, mercy and compassion, we obey from faith in who he is and from our love for him.

Paul also calls these people at Rome to belong to Jesus. Paul has introduced himself as one who is sold out to Christ, and he is calling those reading this letter to do the same. When we believe in Christ Jesus as Lord, we must in that recognition give him our very selves. If he is to be Lord, he must be our Lord. He must own our lives.

Finally, Paul calls these believers saints. Most of us would not raise our hands if a call were made for saints. We see sainthood as a state of perfection, and it does mean "Holy one." Holy is a tricky word that at its core means "set apart." Paul is calling people to be as he is, set apart for God's purpose.

In essence, Paul is saying in this introduction "This is who I am, and I am calling you to the same life, purpose and Lord." That was his challenge to the Romans, and it is my challenge to you. You have been called to obedience that comes from faith, to belong to Jesus at the core of your being, so that you will be set apart for his purpose.

This week's schedule

2011-04-20T10:01:00.001-07:00

Easter Service Times
Sunrise service at Cottonwood Friends 7:00am
No Sunday School
Worship Celebration 10:00am

This week's message: Anointing

2011-04-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

We used a method of scripture study this week in our worship that is a little different. We read the story of Jesus being anointed by the woman with the jar of perfume in all four gospels. We began by reading the account in Matthew 26:6-13. Then we allowed a period of silence for meditation and, if prompted by the Spirit, for people to share what impacted them from the story. We then read the accounts in Mark 14:1-11; Luke 7:36-50; and John 12:1-8. Between each reading we allowed for that same quiet space for individuals to chew on the similarities and differences in each reading.

There are arguments that these stories are not all referring to the same anointing. Some scholars would like to set aside the Luke account as a separate incident, and even a few who would argue that there are three separate anointings. We approached these passages with a "what if" attitude. We asked "What if they are the same? What would that teach us?" There are so many overlapping details from each account that it makes it highly possible that this is one story told from different perspectives.

The location for the anointing is given as Bethany in Matthew, Mark and John. The name of the host is given as Simon in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Yes, in two he is referred to as Simon the Leper and one as Simon the Pharisee. We must remember that Matthew and Mark were writing from the perspective of direct followers of Jesus, while Luke was writing as a historian who most likely conducted interviews to gain his information. Since we know that "the leper" and "the pharisee" were not formal last names, but reference points, and that they were not mutually exclusive, there can be no claim that these are two separate individuals.

Jesus was anointed with very expensive perfume in Matthew, very expensive perfume made of pure nard in Mark, perfume in Luke, and a pint of pure nard in John. The vessel holding the perfume was alabaster in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Jesus was anointed on his head in Matthew and Mark, but his feet in Luke and John with the woman wiping his feet with her hair in both accounts as well. The woman is rebuked in all four accounts. Jesus defends her in all four accounts.

I think the greatest obstacle to overcome in reconciling these accounts is that Luke calls the woman a person of ill-repute, and John says this woman was Mary the sister of Lazarus. We have a hard time conceiving of Mary as a prostitute or sinner. We like her. She chooses to sit at Jesus' feet and the little sister/brother in all of us wants to stick out our tongue at Martha as she complains and Jesus defends in Luke 10. But we fail to consider that perhaps her devotion comes from a place of deep gratitude for many sins forgiven. It certainly explains why she was not married. It may even explain why her sister resented her so much, a sister with a bad reputation easily spoils the reputation of the whole family. It would explain why she was seemingly uninvited to a banquet where her brother reclined and her sister served. An upstanding member of the community would assume that she was unfit company for an important rabbi.

Seeing Mary in a new light can actually give us hope for our own condition. We lift saints too high sometimes. It is easy to do, thinking that if God interacted with them, they must be morally perfect. But Jesus was not criticized for hanging out with saints, but tax collectors and sinners. This is exactly the kind of person he would have welcomed into his group of followers. And we are too.

Regardless of your past, God has a bright future for you. Bring him your gratitude and genuine praise. Don't be afraid to pour it all out at his feet. The opinions of others do not matter to him. Present him with yourself and allow him to fight the battle for your reputation!

This week's Message- Pray

2011-04-04T06:37:00.000-07:00

Luke 11:1-13.

In this section of scripture, we read three of Jesus' teachings on prayer: the Lord's prayer, Parable of the friend at midnight, and God gives good gifts. Each teaching flows into the next creating a united message that God is our Father who longs to give us not only answers to our prayers, but his very self when we seek him.

The passage begins with Jesus praying. His disciples come to him asking that he teach them to pray according to his method of prayer, just like John had taught his followers to pray according to his own practices. This may seem odd to us. We don't typically ask each new pastor or teacher how we should pray, but it was not an uncommon practice for students to ask their rabbi to teach them to pray.

Jesus gives them a model prayer which fits with the Matthew Lord's Prayer, but is not quite as fully composed. The disciples may have been shocked and amazed when Jesus told them to address God as "Father." If you look at the Old Testament, you will find prayers addressed to God Most High, or The One God, but you will not find a prayer addressed to "Father." Jesus as the Son of God invites his followers to address and experience God as more than a far off , all-powerful deity. He invited them, and invites us today to see God as our Father.

Moving into the second teaching, Jesus tells a parable. The situation is this: a friend knocks on your door at midnight asking for bread to give to a traveling friend, do you get up or not? Jesus says you might get up, but not because of your friendship. He says the mere act of boldly knocking at midnight will make you get up and get your friend whatever he needs.

Many times we do not ask God for things we feel are beneath him. We don't want to bother God with our problems. If the friend at midnight had said to himself, "I shouldn't bother them with my problem," he would have received no bread. In order to have answers to our prayers, we must pray! And Jesus concludes that teaching with the words "So ask, and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you."

Moving into the third teaching, Jesus poses a question to his hearers intended to shock them into realizing a truth about God. He says, "Who among you, if your child asked for food would give him a deadly predator to sting and bite him?" In this question, Jesus addresses another reason we often do not go to God in prayer: we don't trust him. We don't pray because we think he'll answer in a way that will hurt us.

Jesus corrects this fear by saying "If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him." Now this differs from the Matthew account of this teaching, Matthew says God will give good gifts to those who ask. Luke shows us a different intent. God does not merely want to answer our prayers. He wants to give us himself when we seek him.

God does not always give us what we ask for. Sometimes when we ask for a fish, he gives us an apple. Sometimes when we ask for an egg, he gives us bread. His answer may not fit our desires, but they do fill our need. God, like all good parents, knows when the desired outcome is good for us and when it is not. Sometimes God must answer "no" to our prayers.

Regardless of his answer, in spite of the outcome of our situation, God gives us himself. And at the end of the day no miracle we seek or ask for is greater than the God of the Universe giving us his Holy Spirit to dwell within us; to be our comforter, guide, companion, and friend.

God is our Father. He created us and delights in us. He longs for us to bring him our hearts desires, our needs and dreams. He longs to answer our prayers, giving us good gifts, and the greatest gift of all--his presence.

This Week's Message- The Christ

2011-03-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

Luke 9:18-27.

There are two conversations in this section of scripture, and we include both of them today because the second hinges on the outcome of the first. Jesus asks his disciples who the crowds say he is. They answer that some think he is John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the prophets. This same report had come to Herod earlier in the chapter, to which he replied that he had killed John and was curious about the rumors. Then Jesus asks his disciples who they say he is; almost asking what they say in response to those who claim he is John the Baptist, Elijah, or a prophet. Peter, impulsive as usual, blurts out "The Christ of God!"

This conversation is interesting because we know that Jesus is not asking for information. He is God incarnate and does not need his disciples to give him the latest gossip to know what people are saying. He also does not need their response to know what they are thinking about him. Often when God asks us questions it is for our benefit, to make us think. Jesus wants his disciples to think about their response to his question in light of what the world is saying about him.

We still must answer these questions today. Who does the world say Jesus is? A good teacher. A myth. A madman. And what do we say in response to those statements? Who is Jesus to you and to me? Who do we say he is?

We can take a clue from Peter if we will stop to ponder for a moment what Peter is actually saying. The word Christ is used so much in church that we often begin to think of it as Jesus' last name. Christ is the Greek equivalent of Messiah, which is the Hebrew word meaning "Anointed One." This word carries with it a promise that God would send someone to continue David's line, to be prophet, priest and king. This Messiah was thought to be the great deliverer from Roman oppression in Jesus' time. They were looking for a savior from Rome who would turn their hearts to God, and set up an earthly kingdom.

Jesus tells his disciples not to spread the word that he was the Messiah. This may have been to prevent the zealous from creating an uprising against Rome anticipating that earthly kingdom. Jesus says to his followers that their concept of Messiah would have to be reformed. "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Jesus said to them that he would be crucified.

Interestingly, Luke takes us into a conversation with a wider group of people in which Jesus says that in order to follow him people must be willing to deny themselves and take up their cross daily. The King of Glory was to be crucified, and his followers must choose to enact their own daily crucifixion of their self-will.

In church culture it is not unusual to hear "It's just my cross to bear." We hear it in relation to annoying people we must tolerate or work situations that are not ideal. When we overuse the phrase for such trivial things we cheapen the sacrifice that Jesus made and calls us to make as well. The cross was not an annoyance or inconvenience, it was torture.

Our daily dying to ourselves, if we are serious about it, is painful. We must choose each day to allow God's will to reign supreme in our lives. We must choose to allow him to be Lord. This does not mean that we won't disagree with God. It does not make everything easy. When Jesus prayed in the garden to have the cup pass from him, he was expressing his will. We can do the same. We can tell God how we feel, what we think, how we want things to be. But at the end of the conversation we must still determine that his will, not ours, be done.

This crucifixion of self does not turn Christians in to automatons. We do not lay down our personality, who we are. Instead, we lay down that part of ourselves that wars with God, the part that rebels against his perfect will, the part that takes us down the path of destruction. The truth is that God made you to be who you are. He took part of his infinite nature and put it in you to represent a side of himself. He is infinite and every one of us is a different reflection of who he is. When we lay down our self-will, instead of killing our personality, we actually find ourselves transformed into the fullness of who he always planned us to be.

Jesus said that it was pointless to strive for a nice, safe, self-determined life here on earth. As John Ortberg said "When the game is over, all the pieces go back in the box." We can't take our nice life with us, it ends when we die. If we do not choose to start investing into eternity now, our earthly lives are wasted--they produce nothing that lasts.

But Jesus also says that we don't have to die to start experiencing the Kingdom of God. You and I, by declaring that Jesus is the Christ/Messiah/King of Glory and choosing to lay down our will, can begin to experience eternity now. Jesus has opened the door for us and we can enter in as we choose.

If Jesus is the Christ, and we wish to follow him and taste eternity now, we must be willing to sacrifice our self-will and declare him King of our lives. Let him reign in you today!

This week's message: Soul Gardening

2011-03-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

Luke 8:1-15.

The Parable of the Sower is a very familiar story in scripture. I have often walked away from studying it with a sense of futility or hopelessness. This time I want us all to walk away with hope. In the past it seemed as though the message was, "What kind of soil are you?" or "Don't bother with the rocky soil or the thorny ground or the path, seed won't grow there anyway!" Both impressions leave me feeling helpless to change my own situation or to effectively share the gospel message with people whose lives are full of imperfection and difficulty.

I know many gardeners and they all consistently tell me that soil cannot change itself. Rocky soil cannot decide to be un-rocky. Thorny soil cannot choose to get rid of thorns. Hard compacted soil cannot just loosen up! In order for soil to change, the gardener has to change it. It is the same in our lives. God is the master gardener, he is the sower and his desire is to amend the soil of our hearts to accommodate the growing Word in our lives.

This gives me hope! I can't change my own heart, but God can. I can ask him to work the soil of my heart knowing he did not plant seeds there for them to die, but with the desire to bear fruit.

The other discouragement I often face is in spreading the word. I have heard that farmer called irresponsible for wasting seed by broadcasting it onto the path and the rocky/thorny soil. What we must realize is that the Farmer is God. When Jesus came as God in the flesh, he came proclaiming the message to anyone who had ears to hear. He came healing those with grateful hearts as well as those who never said thank you. (Think of the ten lepers.)

This picture of the broadcast seed has become beautiful to me! There is God, casting seeds of truth to whoever will receive them. God does not withhold his truth from those whose hearts are hard! He does not keep his gospel from those with busy, hectic, distracted lives full of worry and anxiety. He does not refuse to plant his Word in the lives of those who are too shallow! Rather, he casts his seed abroad giving anyone and everyone who hears a chance to receive it and produce fruit.

This does something for us as those entrusted with the scattering of seeds of truth. It gives us permission to sow into the lives of those who may not receive it. It gives us freedom from anxiety as we contemplate those who may not keep the word even if they initially receive it with joy. Our job is to scatter seed. Our job may be to water it, or help people see their need for the master gardener to come and work in their hearts. But it is not our responsibility to make those seeds grow and bear fruit. He lets us off the hook for the productivity of others.

But Jesus does not let us completely off the hook for the outcome in our own lives! We may not be able to choose our soil composition, we may not be able to keep out the weeds or the rocks or keep our hearts from becoming compact when it is stepped on; but we do have a part to play in the productivity of the Word in our lives. Our job is to do what Jesus says in verse 15. We must cling to the Word. We must steadfastly endure with perseverance. That is our part. Cling to the Word of Truth that God plants in your heart. Hang on in tough times, trusting the Master Gardener to work the soil of your life, and watch as fruit grows and matures to bring a great harvest!

Last Week's Message: Setting the Tune

2011-03-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

Luke 7:18-35.

This passage of scripture holds a lot of information and complexity, but no part of it would be complete without the surrounding text. John the Baptist is in prison and he sends his disciples to Jesus to ask if he really is the Messiah. John knows that this is Jesus' claim, John himself baptized Jesus and declared to those who would listen that Jesus is Messiah. Sitting in prison, though, John needs to know with absolute certainty that Jesus is really the One.

Amazing, how God never chastises those who ask openly and honestly for reassurance. Recently we talked about Abram asking God to tell him once and for all just how he planned to fulfill his promise when God had not yet given him a son. Just like God dealt compassionately with Abram, he deals compassionately with John.

Jesus, without saying a word, turns and heals the sick and diseased, gives sight to some who were blind, and drives out evil spirits. He tells John's disciples, "Go tell John what you witnessed with your own eyes." Here he quotes from Isaiah 61 about the coming of the Messiah, but he leaves off that part about liberating those in prison. It is as though he tells John, "Yes, I am the Messiah, but you will not be set free." He says "Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me." He is saying in essence "Things aren't going to turn out the way you want, but hang in there. Don't fall away."

John's disciples leave and Jesus turns back to the crowd where he tells them that John the Baptist was a prophet preparing the way for the Messiah, and that he is the greatest man ever born of a woman. This crowd just heard him say that John would stay in prison.

Then Jesus paints a picture for us of a problem faced by people of that time, and I would argue of any age, they want to set the tune. They want to play a happy tune and have God dance along, they want to weep and wail, and have God join in the wailing. They, and we too, want to call the shots.

It is easy, it is the human nature thing to do. But Christ calls us to live above the human nature to the very nature of God present in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. God will not dance to our tune. He will not allow us to manipulate him. He desires to mold and shape us. He calls us to lay down our "want to's" and allow him to work.

John wanted to get out of prison. But even John did not get to call the shots. Jesus did not want to die on the cross, but even Jesus was willing to lay down his fleshly desires to do the will of God. This is hard to understand, it is tough to think that God could have a greater purpose in something as gruesome as the cross or a prison beheading. These are not the things we like to think about.

Jesus closes this section with the words, "Wisdom's children prove wisdom right." I read those words as an encouragement. We can choose to be children of this age, demanding our own way, or we can choose to be wisdom's children, finding out that wisdom (God's way) is right by following God's path.

As a result of John's suffering, we see a witness to steadfast faith in the face of persecution. In Christ's sacrifice we see that death is not the end as he is resurrected and ascends to glory. Walking through difficulty while choosing the path of wisdom instead of seeking our own way allows us to witness God in action.

This week's message: The Test

2011-03-07T07:23:00.000-08:00

Genesis 22:1-18.
It says in verse one that God was testing Abraham. We need to pay attention to that word: testing. God was not tempting Abraham to sin, or expressing some kind of power trip. God wanted Abraham to see that his faith was real. This is an event that Abraham never forgot. It is something his children never forgot. It is essential to the faith of every Jew and Christian that has come since that time!

Abraham was God’s chosen servant. He did not always make good decisions, we have seen that! But we have seen Abraham act in faith, stepping out in obedience when God called him to do something specific. This story is often cited as one of the greatest proofs of Abraham’s faith in God. But this morning I want us to look at this from a different angle. I want us to see how this is a story about love; Abraham’s love for God and God’s love for Abraham.

In verse two, God takes special care to emphasize Abraham’s love for his son. In essence he is saying, this is the most important thing to you. It seems as if Abraham was in danger of loving Isaac more than God. Remember when Abraham tried before to make God’s promise happen his own way, or when he begged God to choose Ishmael to be the child of promise? Here he has the child of promise, Isaac and it may be that Abraham is now giving more value to the gift than the giver. Isaac was the child of promise, but it was God’s promise, not Isaac’s, and not Abraham’s.

It is interesting to see Abraham’s response in this. He does not argue, but I wonder what he is thinking. I know what I would be thinking. Did I hear you right God? You really didn’t just say what I think you did. Seriously?!? This had to be a joke, right? The Bible does not record Abraham’s verbal response, but it does say that he was obedient; he packed up and went to the place where God told him to go. Abraham was showing his love through obedience. By doing this, Abraham was affirming his love for God. He was saying to God, and he was telling himself through these actions, “I love God more than I love this gift that he has given to me.

This is so important! With all of the times Abraham stumbled, or went astray, or made his own path, Abraham needed to know that his love for God was supreme. God didn’t need to know. God sees our hearts. This was not a proof to God of Abraham’s love and obedience, this was a proof to Abraham of the condition of his own heart! God loved Abraham enough to give him this opportunity to see into his own heart and witness the growth that God had brought about in himself.

In verses 11-14, we see God’s deliverance and his provision. Because Abraham had shown that his love for God took the greatest precedence in his heart, God gave him the gift all over again. I find it really interesting that when we look at God’s message through the angel compared to his statement at the beginning of this story, God says, “You have not withheld your son,” God leaves out whom you love. It is not that Abraham has stopped loving Isaac. He did not stop loving this son that God gave to him, but because he had shown that his love for God was greater, his love for his son was no longer an issue.

Verses 15-18 stand as a reminder and a reinstatement of God’s promise to Abraham. If you look at verse 16, it says that the reason that God is able to fulfill his promise is that Abraham has chosen to put his love for God above his love for his son, the gift that God had given. Abraham’s love for his son no longer stood in the way of Abraham’s faith and love and trust for God.

We all have things that God has promised us. We have blessings that God has given us and it is tempting to allow those things, those gifts to compete for our love. Love for other things, even good things—even things God wants us to appreciate and love like our children, our families—if we love them more than God, it can keep us from God’s best for us.

We know that love is a choice, we have the choice of whether to give God precedence in our hearts, or let love for other things rule. God may have a test for you of your love or your faith. Don’t take that as God asking you to prove something to him, take it as an opportunity to prove the condition of your heart to yourself. When we have a clear picture of where we stand, we know the areas that need growth. We see the areas that have grown and changed for the better. We see how far we have come and that gives us confidence to walk forward in faith.

God is our greatest example of love and our love is reciprocal to his. He does not ask us to do what he will not, or make a sacrifice greater than the one he has already made. He does not ask us to love him first. 1 John 4:19 says we love because he loved us first. He gives us his power to love him above all things. But the choice is up to us. Will we choose to love God with all our hearts, or will we allow competing objects of our love and affection take precedence? Examine your life. Ask if the decisions you make every day demonstrate love and obedience to God above all else. This is a choice we have to make daily. God gives us power to follow through, but we have to start with a simple act of will. Will you make a decision today to give God all of your heart? The choice is up to you.

This week's message: God fulfills his promises

2011-03-01T10:23:00.001-08:00

Genesis 21:1-21.

This chapter records the birth of Isaac and the rejection of Ishmael. At first I was reluctant to use both narratives, one so full of joy and the other so full of pain. I don't particularly like the hardness of Sarah's heart as she receives God's grace and mercy for herself, but will not impart it to Hagar and Ishmael. It was not until my eyes were opened to a greater theme in these two stories that I gained some excitement and a message to share.

Through this whole narrative of Abram becoming Abraham and the journey he takes walking with God through success and failure, ups and downs, disappointment and delay, one common theme emerges. In fact it beats so loudly in my ears that I don't know how I missed it! The theme is this: God is faithful.

God's faithfulness was at work in his patience as Abram strayed away, as he sold away the vessel through which his promise would come (twice), as he tried to make things happen in his own way and his own timing. God remained faithful and steadfast. God restored him to fellowship every time he fell. God repeated his promise over and over and over until Abram finally believed.

At the beginning of the chapter, we read about Sarah giving birth to Isaac, bringing joyful laughter to her heart and the hearts of those who knew her. Everything was as it should be, until the party when they celebrated Isaac being weaned. That was the moment when Sarah decided she didn't like Ishmael's face. She told Abraham to throw them out. And he did.

I don't know if Sarah was bothered by this reminder of her past attempts to get God's promise her way, or if she was really paranoid that Abraham would love him more than Isaac or at least enough to split the inheritance. Whatever her reasons, she was hardened in her heart against these people who were in all ways her family.

Hagar is the mother of what was to be Sarah's surrogate son. Now that she has her own biological child, Sarah despises Hagar and Ishmael. Her request to get rid of them has Abraham in a panic. This is his son, the son he asked God to bless. Abraham pleaded with God to make Ishmael the child of the promise! Now he was considering sending him away.

It is really sad and then God comes in and tells Abraham that God would care for Ishmael. He restates his promise that although he would not be the covenant child, Ishmael would be blessed. Hagar and Ishmael find themselves in the desert having run out of water, and Hagar meets again with the God who sees her. God brings them to water, cares for them at that moment, and then scripture shocks our socks right off! It says in verse 20, "God was with the boy as he grew up."

We miss that line in our Sunday school lessons with the flannel graph figures. God did not just give them water when they were thirsty, he stayed with Ishmael as he grew up. God fulfilled his promise to give him sons--12 of them. God fulfilled his promise that those sons would be princes, most fathered entire tribes of Bedouins, and caravan traders, and shipping entrepreneurs, and oasis guardians, and great warriors who opposed the Assyrians and Babylonians. God kept his promise to bless Ishmael beyond what we can imagine. Ishmael's descendants built Petra, the great carved city. They still seek to serve God, an entire tribe became Christians early on. There is even evidence that the Magi were Arab descendants of Ishmael, not Persians as typically portrayed.

The story has a happy ending because of God's faithfulness. When Abraham dies in chapter 25 of Genesis, the scripture writer tells us that he was buried by his sons Ishmael and Isaac. God's faithfulness overcame all the obstacles Ishmael faced to bring blessing beyond measure.

God can do the same for us. Are you rejected? God is faithful. Are you abandoned? God is faithful. Are your dreams and plans unfulfilled? God is faithful. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. He has written his name on our hearts. His faithfulness does not change with our circumstances. He remains faithful to his promises and loving toward all he has made regardless of what we experience. We can trust and depend on his faithfulness in the face of any trial, any persecution, any trouble, any failure on our part. God is faithful.

Catching up with Abraham!

2011-03-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

It is embarrassing how long it has been since I updated the sermon posts! Sorry to those who follow regularly. Here is a recap of the teachings for Genesis 13-17.

In Genesis 13 we see Abram coming back to the land God had promised to his descendants. It takes him a while, though, to come full circle. He is still meandering, not heading straight back, rather he takes his time coming back not only to a physical location but to the God who spoke to him there.

We often find ourselves in the same place. We fall and then avoid coming back into fellowship with God because we are afraid of retribution or a lack of acceptance. The beautiful thing about this story, as Abram parts ways with Lot and moves further into this land God had promised, is that God honors his return. God honors the fact that Abram chose to come back and does not even chide him for taking so long. God reaffirms his promise and adds that Abram will have children that are like the dust in number. What a beautiful picture of God's gracious acceptance of us when we do repent (turn away from what distracted us) and turn back to him.

In Genesis 14 a story unfolds of kings going to war with each other over tribute payments that were not paid. Abram's nephew Lot gets caught up in the fray and his whole family is taken captive by invaders. All of the local rulers in Lot's area gave up and went home defeated. Abram gathered some allies and went to recover the captives and plunder taken in the conflict.

The great thing about this seemingly mundane story is not so much in Abram's recovery of Lot and the captives. The shining moment comes instead when Abram interacts with Melchizedek. Basically at that time the system of governance was thug rule. Whoever had the most allies and could beat others in battle became their own ruler/king. When Abram presents Melchizedek with a tithe gift, Melchizedek offers him all of the plunder.

The gleaming glorious moment is Abram's refusal: "I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, 'I made Abram rich.' I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me--to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre. Let them have their share."

Abram takes nothing from the plunder. This man who came back from Egypt loaded from having sold his wife to Pharoah's harem looks past wealth for once to the promise of God's provision. He commits to look only to God for blessing and material gain so that God will be glorified!

Genesis 15 finds Abram finally being honest with God about his doubts and fears. He asks God about his inability to produce an heir and for a confirmation of God's promise. Again, we have an aversion to speaking frankly with God for fear that he will strike us with his holy lightening (actually that is Zeus, not YHWH). But we do not see that here!

God responds to Abram with loving compassion and confirms his promise with a covenant ceremony, something Abram was familiar with. God cuts a covenant with Abram, but we do not see the reciprocation of Abram at this time. God commits to the covenant, not based on Abram's great performance as a man of faith, but because when God makes a promise he keeps it.

In Genesis 16 Abram and Sarai conspire to make God's promise come true by hook or by crook. They decide that a surrogate heir would be just as good as an heir from both of their bodies. This all works very well, until Sarai suspects the surrogate mother of contempt. Mistreatment by Sarai and the turning of a blind eye by Abram drive Hagar to flee.

This could have been the terrible end of a sad story. But God intervenes. He promises Hagar that he will care for her and her son, encouraging her to return to Abram's household. Hagar is comforted because God is aware of her struggle and will bless her son. It makes such a big impression that she names him Ishmael--God will hear.

One might expect Genesis 17 to hold stern rebuke from God, but quite the opposite is true. God comes to Abram and restates his covenant, this time asking for Abram to accept it by the way of a physical change to his body--circumcision. God promises a son in one year's time that will be born of Sarai.

At this time, God completes the covenant by giving part of his name to Abram and Sarai. They will now be Abra-ha-m and Sara-h. God is YHWH and he is now identifying these two flawed human beings as part of himself. The redemptive picture here is beautiful and full. God will fulfill his promise, not because of their perfection, but because of his faithfulness.

This week's message: Distraction

2011-01-18T12:41:00.000-08:00

Genesis 12:10-20.

Not settled, Abram is still living like a nomad. In verse nine he was meandering his way south, then he encounters a food shortage and decides to go on into Egypt for a while. He is not going there with the intention to stay forever, but there is no indication that he sought God's counsel or that he had no other option. It is likely that the famine was limited to that desert region of the Negev and that returning to the land God had promised would have been as effective as crossing into Egypt.

Abram enters Egypt and even though he wants to partake of Egypt's wealth and provision, he fears Egypt's power. He tells his wife to lie about their relationship so that he will not suffer. This goes too far when Abram does not protest as men come from Pharaoh's house to take Sarai to become one of Pharaoh's wives. He does not protest as they bring him livestock and treasure in return.

Sometimes we encounter tough times while we are waiting for God to fulfill his promise. It is tempting to turn to the world for answers and resources. Admittedly, sometimes the world does have answers and resources. Egypt had food. It was not necessarily wrong for Abram to go in search of food.

The problem arises when we are willing to trade the promise of God for a quick fix. Abram did not have to trade his wife for wealth. That was his choice. He sold her to Pharaoh. All those goods he received were a bride price. I am not sure we understand everything he was trading away, or even that Abram understood all that he was giving up.

God had promised that he would provide Abram with descendants. Those descendants were to come through Sarai, his wife. By trading her away for earthly wealth Abram trades away the source of God’s fulfillment. And then Abram settles in, enjoying his wealth.

Because of earthly wealth, Abram is now prepared to forsake both the promise of children and the promised land. If the story ended there, we would not know who Abram was. Just like if he had not left Haran to go to Canaan. This could have been the end of the promise.

But God is more faithful than we are. His promise to Abram was bigger than Abram having a few children. So God intervened. He sent a signal to Pharaoh that Sarai was really Abram’s wife. Some have speculated as to whether the plague on Pharaoh’s house was a venereal disease or whether Pharaoh had actually taken Sarai to his bed. I am not sure that those details are important. Whatever the nature of the plague, and whether Sarai was Pharaoh’s conjugal wife, what is important is that God was at work. God revealed to Pharaoh that Abram had lied about his relationship with Sarai. And here is one of the most important things in the whole story. Pharaoh sent them away with an escort to make sure they made it to the border safely.

He had every right to have both Abram and Sarai killed for lying to him and getting him involved in this scheme, but God protected them. He provided a way for them to leave Egypt and go back to the land he had promised. Regardless of Abram’s actions, God was faithful. This is not the last time we will see God continuing in his faithfulness in spite of Abram’s choices.

We also fail. We make wrong choices, we give in to temptation, we act out of self-preservation and selfishness when we face difficulties. We may have a promise from God—I will never leave you or forsake you—but we forget in the moment and we fall into sin. You know sin is missing the mark, it is falling short of perfection or stepping over lines we know we should not cross. But here is the most important thing about sin—God has already conquered it. He has dealt with it.

We don’t have to be under condemnation. We don’t have to let shame keep us away from him. We don’t have to let our regrets stand in the way of receiving God’s promise. The solution is repentance, which is simply turning away. We turn away from those wrong choices and that sin and we turn back to God. We choose to put our trust in him again. We choose to allow him to heal the wounds that came out of that sin and to restore us to what he wants us to be.

The one redeeming action on Abram's part is this: when Abram was confronted with his sin, he accepted Pharaoh’s reproach and willingly left Egypt. He didn’t try to justify or argue. Abram knew that what he did was wrong and he accepted it.

Maybe you feel like you have taken the wrong path, traded God’s promises for wealth or safety. Maybe you know that you have fallen short or crossed lines that you don’t think you can ever come back from. God has that covered in Christ. Your penalty has been paid, his blood covers your sin, and all that is left for you to do is turn away from those past wrongs and turn back to him. I encourage you to do that today. Do it everyday or as often as you think of those errors. God’s forgiveness has no limit.

Weekly Schedule

2011-01-12T07:09:00.000-08:00

Due to snow and ice and wind and cold, no activities at the church this week.
Stay home and keep warm!

Sunday January 16th- Regular Schedule
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Meeting for Worship 10:45am
Iglesia Evangelica de Amigos 3:00pm

This week's message: God's Impossible Promise

2011-01-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

Genesis 12:1-9.
God came to Abram with a promise. Abram was 75 and childless. He had lived his life in Haran and God came to him and told Abram that he would do the impossible. He said first that Abram must leave the home he had known and his family behind and go somewhere else. God did not tell Abram where his destination is, he did not even give a general direction. God just said “Go, and I will tell you when you get there.”

We are familiar with this story, so it is easy to forget what a preposterous thing God was asking of Abram. If God came to you and said, “I want you to pack up and go someplace. Sell your house and get a moving van. Get on the highway and I will let you know where you are going when you get there.” I think you would have some questions before you just decided to say yes.

Then God told him that Abram and his descendents will be a great nation. If it were me, I think I would be looking around wondering where these descendents were going to come from. 75 is not an ideal age for fertility. Yes, there was still a chance that he could father a child, it happens, but tough to think that if it had not happened yet that it was going to happen at all.

Not only that, but God told Abram that he would bless him so much that Abram would become a common example of blessing everywhere. In fact people would bless each other by his name. “May you be as blessed as Abram!” “The fortune of Abram to you!” “May you have descendents like Abram!” Can you imagine having your name as a byword for blessing? Instead of being richer than Midas, people might say “As blessed as Billy.” Or instead of as wise as Solomon, “As fortunate as Gary.”

God came to Abram claiming an impossible future for him. And the amazing thing in this story is that Abram went. He packed up and headed out. I wonder if he had a clue where he should go, North, South, East or West; but he ended up in Canaan. He set up camp and God appeared to him somehow and told him that this was it. Abram’s descendants would occupy this land. Abram made an altar there, but he didn’t stick around. He continued in a nomadic pattern, making his way through the land until he was in the Negev, a desert place.

Whenever God appears in scripture giving promises, he often requires a leap of faith. He told Abram to leave and then he would show him where he was to go and then he would make him a great nation and then he would bless him beyond measure. Each step was dependent on the last. God would not reverse the order of events giving Abram the blessings then the descendents then the land and then ask Abram to go. No, Abram had to step out of his comfort zone. He had to step out in faith trusting that however improbable the promise that this was God and he could be relied on to keep his word.

I believe God is calling each of us to follow him in the same way. We don’t initially know what to expect, but God has invited us on an adventure. He says he has a plan for your life and that if you follow him, he will make it clear. Maybe what you think God has shown you for a future looks impossible. Maybe you aren’t sure at all what he has planned. Maybe like Abram he simply whispers to you “I’ll show you when we get there.” Regardless of where he is calling, we must follow if we want to see how the story ends. Sure, we could stay where we are comfortable. The choice is always up to you.

We are going to be following Abram over the next few weeks studying his story and looking at how we pass through similar times of trust and obedience as well as times of panic and disobedience. Through it all I want to invite you to examine the journey you are on with God. Seek his face. Ask him to show you where he wants you to go next on this adventure. Repent of the times, like Abram you choose to go your own way. And commit to follow wherever the Lord takes you, no matter how impossible the destination seems. He is God, after-all, and if he tells you he has a plan you can trust that as you walk in obedience he will bring it all to pass at just the right time.

This week's meditation: The Challenge of the Magi

2011-01-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

Matthew 2:1-12
The Magi were seekers of Truth, Gentiles, foreigners. None of God's people were seeking as diligently. The Magi said they had seen “His” star and knew he was coming. The star was in the backyard of the greatest Hebrew scholars, and they did not even know it. The Magi were not Jewish, but they were open to finding truth in the God of the Hebrews. The scholars and Priests thought they had it all figured out, and were no longer seeking.

The Magi came a great distance to seek the new king. No scholar in Israel even traveled from Jerusalem. The Magi came in a caravan from somewhere near Iraq. They spent time getting everything together and making the journey. By the time they arrived, Jesus was no longer a baby, but a child. When the Magi came asking about this new king, the scholars all looked to see where the messiah was to be born. They found the answer and passed on the information, but did not take it to heart. Bethlehem is only about 6 miles from Jerusalem. The Magi went, the scholars stayed in Jerusalem.

The Magi went out of their way to protect Jesus. No one challenged Herod’s scheme to kill the newborn king. When warned in a dream, the Magi went home a different way, probably far out of their way, in order to avoid returning to Herod and giving information about Jesus. The scholars, priests, and any others who had searched to find out about the coming messiah, said and did nothing when Herod ordered the murder of children in Bethlehem.

Our Challenge: Are we seeking God’s Truth, or are we content in our own human understanding? Are we willing to follow in obedience when God calls us to step out in faith? Will we inconvenience ourselves, even to great extent in order to be obedient when God calls?

This Week's Schedule 12/19/2010

2010-12-20T07:01:00.000-08:00

No activities this week--Have a Merry Christmas!

Sunday December 26th-
No Sunday School
Christmas Celebration 10 am
Brunch Following
Come celebrate with us the Incarnation of our Lord!

Coming Up-
January 2nd 2011-
Return to Regular Schedule
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Meeting for Worship 10:45am
Iglesia Evangelica de Amigos 3:00pm

This week's meditation: God’s Love Coming

2010-12-20T06:47:00.000-08:00

Advent 4: Mary the mother of Jesus - The Candle of Joy

God coming to a simple girl and giving her a chance to participate in the divine advent.
Luke 1:26-28; 46-55
Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end."
Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin ?" The angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. "And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age ; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. "For nothing will be impossible with God." And Mary said, "Behold, the servant servantsof the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

And Mary said: "My soul exalts the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His servant; For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name. AND HIS MERCY IS UPON GENERATION AFTER GENERATION TOWARD THOSE WHO FEAR HIM. He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble. HE HAS FILLED THE HUNGRY WITH GOOD THINGS; And sent away the rich empty-handed. He has given help to Israel His servant, In remembrance of His mercy, As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and his descendants forever."

God providing for her needs and covering any potential shame by speaking also to Joseph telling him to take Mary home as his wife.
Matthew 1:18-25
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife ; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. "She will bear a Son ; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US." And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son ; and he called His name Jesus.

God bringing shepherds to honor the new king of the universe and cause wonder to abide in the heart of that simple girl as she raised the Messiah, the Lamb of God, the Great and conquering King, her son, God’s son, Jesus.
Luke 2:8-19
In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us."
So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

Our first response to God at work is fear. Always. God is so much bigger than we are, so much more powerful, like Aslan in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe we recognize in our core that God is not safe, but if we know him we know that he is good. But until we really know God all we see is his power and we can doubt his love and goodness. And we are not alone.

Looking through the ages at those who have encountered God we see time after time fainting, falling down, overwhelming fear. It is what Mary felt when the angel came to her to declare God’s plan for her life. Make no mistake, this was not God’s plan for her next year or for the raising of a child over 18 years, this was a plan that would affect the rest of her life. This one moment would dominate her thoughts and meditations as long as she lived.

God’s love was coming into her life, and it would change it forever. But God never comes to give us only a task, only a burden to carry or a load to bear. God comes into our lives bringing joy with the assignment, bringing strength for the journey, bringing himself to be our companion on the way.

When God's Love comes into our lives, we can say "yes" to what it brings, knowing that He has prepared the way before us and will provide the way ahead of us, and trusting that his intention is always for our good; to fill our lives with joy.

This Week's Schedule 12/12/2010

2010-12-13T07:01:00.000-08:00

Tuesday December 14th- Elder's Meeting 6:30pm

Sunday December 19th-
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Meeting for Worship 10:45am
Iglesia Evangelica de Amigos 3:00pm
Celebramos Navidad

Coming Up-
December 26th Christmas Celebration!
No Sunday School, 10am Worship & Brunch following

This week's meditation: God's Love Prepares the Way

2010-12-13T06:44:00.000-08:00

Advent 3: John the Baptist - The Candle of Love

God relieving barrenness of Elizabeth and providing the prophet to cry “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”
Luke 1 (selected passages)
5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years. 8 Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. 16 Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." 18 Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years." 19 The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time." 21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."

God encouraging Mary and testifying to his faithfulness through Elizabeth's pregnancy.
34 Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin ?" 35 The angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. 36 "And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age ; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 37 "For nothing will be impossible with God." 38 And Mary said, "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord ; may it be done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

God witnessing through John’s jumping in the womb, even before his birth, to Jesus as the Christ.
39 Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb ; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 And she cried out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb ! 43 "And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? 44 "For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. 45 "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord."

God speaking through John “prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” God preparing those straight paths by preaching through John repentance from sins.
Mark 1
1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way"-- 3 "a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' " 4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

In the unexpected, unforeseen circumstances of our lives, God is going ahead of us to prepare the way. As a girl, Mary never conceived that she would be the mother of the Messiah. The people of Israel never imagined that their Messiah would come in such a humble way. They needed someone to prepare the way for them. God in his love and faithfulness did just that in the person of John the Baptist. Giving fulfillment of years of prayers by his parents; offering hope and encouragement to Mary and testifying even from the womb to God's work; going ahead of Jesus in ministry to the people to prepare the way in their hearts for the Messiah, John acted out God's plan. Rest assured that God is still in the business of preparing the way for each of us. As we face unexpected challenges or receive unexpected blessing we know we can put our faith and trust in God to have gone before us making a way for us. And we may even be the agents through which God prepares the way for others.

Weekly Schedule 12/5/10

2010-12-06T12:22:00.000-08:00

Tuesday December 7th- Women's Group 6:30pm

Wednesday December 8th- Friends Women Fellowship Brunch 9:30am at Millie's

Sunday December 12th-
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Meeting for Worship 10:45am
Iglesia Evangelica de Amigos 3:00pm

Coming Up-
December 26th Christmas Celebration!
No Sunday School, 10am Worship & Brunch following

This week's meditation: God’s Love Speaking

2010-12-06T12:07:00.000-08:00

Advent 2: The old testament prophets - The Candle of Peace

God speaking to his people, giving warnings and promises that a Messiah was coming.
Hebrews 1: 1-3
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

God speaking through the scriptures to give his people encouragement and hope, and to prepare them to reach out to others.
Romans 15: 4-13
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name"; and again he says, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people"; and again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him"; and again Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope." May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God crying out for repentance and reconciliation, and promising peace; first through Christ, then through us.
2 Corinthians 5:14-
For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh ; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature ; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

God has spoken to his people through the prophets, through the scriptures, through the person of Jesus Christ and now every believer carries his message of reconciliation and peace. As believers filled with the Holy Spirit, we are to be God's mouthpieces, his ambassadors, calling out to those around us to be reconciled to God. Whether we carry a positive message about God's good news, or a false message of hypocrisy and personal judgment, as believers we tell the world about who God is everyday. The choice is ours to not only carry his message, but to share it in words and in our actions with those we meet everyday who are hungry and desperate for the message of the gospel of peace.

This Week's Schedule 11/28/10

2010-11-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

Tuesday November 30th-- Women's Group 6:30pm

Sunday December 5th-
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Meeting for Worship 10:45am
Iglesia Evangelica de Amigos 3:00pm

Northeast Area Friends Church
Christmas Dinner
5pm at Hesper Friends Church

Coming Up-
December 26th Christmas Celebration!
No Sunday School, 10am Worship & Brunch following

This week's meditation: God's Love Reaching

2010-11-30T09:37:00.000-08:00

Advent Sunday 1: God's people -The Candle of hope

God choosing to reach out to Noah and save him and his family as a remnant, making a covenant with all flesh.
Genesis 9:11-17
"I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth." God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."

God choosing to reach out to Abram and make a covenant with him, to bless him and all nations.
Genesis 12:1-4 "Now the LORD said to Abram, 'Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.' So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him."

God choosing to reach out to Moses and deliver his people from Pharaoh and Egyptian slavery.
Exodus 3:6-9 "He said also, 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. The LORD said, 'I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.'"

God reaching out to man in spite of the gulf created by man’s sin. Jesus came so that anyone who believes will become part of God’s people.
John 3:14-17 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him."

Seeing what God has done in the past, reaching out again and again to mankind, and seeing that he offered himself to us in the person of Christ, we have hope. We have hope for eternal life beginning now and stretching to eternity. We have hope for a restored relationship with God. We have hope for healing in our lives and relationships. Christ came to bring hope and healing in a covenant relationship not just for one family or one nation, but for all who believe.

Weekly Schedule 11/21/2010

2010-11-22T13:21:00.000-08:00

Tuesday November 23rd-- No Women's Group

Sunday November 28th-
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Meeting for Worship 10:45am
Soup and Sandwich lunch & Hanging of the Greens following worship

Coming Up-
December 26th Christmas Celebration!
No Sunday School, 10am Worship & Brunch following

Worship: Thanksgiving & Supplication

2010-11-22T13:17:00.000-08:00

Today we will discuss Thanksgiving and Supplication, and wrapping up our look at worship. Thanksgiving is pretty simple and self-explanatory. It is simply giving God thanks for what he has done for us. Supplication is asking God’s favor and provision for ourselves and others.

This week we celebrate a festival of Thanksgiving. Ideally this feast is meant to give glory and honor and thanks to God for all he has done for us. For many, though, Thanksgiving is a hectic day filled with cooking, eating, football, eating, family tension, eating, and if we are lucky a prayer to bless all that food involved in the eating. I want us to practice being thankful so that by Thursday we will be in a habit and it will come naturally.

Supplication is something we do all the time. We all ask God for what we need and what we want and what we think others need and want as well. We do it when we can’t find our keys. We do it when we are looking for a parking place. We do it when we face tragedy and illness and loss. We are good at asking God for his blessing and provision. But we can walk away from prayers limited to Supplication feeling just as harried and frantic as before!

We talked about Peace when we covered the Fruit of the Spirit earlier this Fall. How many of you would like more Peace? Looking ahead to the holiday season, I for one will take all the peace God has to give! In our scripture, we are looking at what Paul says is the key to peace.

Philippians 4:4-8 NAS “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

If we want peace, Thanksgiving and Supplication must walk hand in hand. Separate they are good, together they are great. Thanksgiving puts us in a place to remember what God has done, which reminds us of who he is and his Truth. This is good, but until we take that step to not only thank him for the past but to trust him with our present and future circumstances we will still fall victim to worry.

Supplication represents our faith that God will care for our needs. This is good, but unless we take time to remember how he has provided in the past with thanksgiving, we can be unsure of God’s character and worry can again creep in. By yoking together Thanksgiving and Supplication, we can have complete peace; in fact Paul says we will have peace that goes beyond human comprehension.

This peace comes as a result of our appropriate response to God’s revelation of himself to us; it comes from worship. Thanksgiving is responding to God’s provision. Supplication is taking a step of faith in light of God’s character, Truth and previous action on our behalf.

When we know who God is, when we learn and believe his Truth, when we Thank him for what he has done and Trust him with our needs, we are worshipping. Responding to God’s revelation of himself to us with adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication brings glory and honor to God and fills our lives with peace

Worship: Confession

2010-11-22T13:08:00.000-08:00

Today we are taking a look at Confession. Confession is rarely our favorite aspect of worship. When we think of confession, we think primarily about sin and often confuse confession with repentance. Our scriptures today highlight two separate aspects of confession, one that seems to confirm our preconceived ideas and one which is completely outside the box of our confession definition, even though it is a very familiar scripture. Let’s start with that one first.

Romans 10:8b-13 "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, in your mouth and in your heart "-that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved ; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek ; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."

Here we see that confession is a part of the process of salvation. But what is being confessed is Jesus is Lord. This is not dealing with sin. This is about proclaiming God’s truth in our lives. Confession from Old Testament and New is more about speaking out, proclaiming, declaring and standing on God’s truth than it is about sin.

In the NT the words for confession mean to speak out or the speak the same thing—to agree. When we confess the truth of Jesus' lordship we are saved. When we confess our sin we are in the truest sense of the word agreeing with God about our sin. He has set out what is sin—what is destructive and brings death in our lives. He knows all about our sin. When we confess our sin, we are not telling God anything that he did not already know. Rather we are agreeing with him openly and honestly declaring that we have allowed that destruction into our lives.

1 John 1:8-10 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

We see that God has already said we have sin. By denying that we have sin, we call him a liar. By confessing our sin, we are simply agreeing with God, speaking and declaring his truth over our lives. By being honest about our condition, by agreeing with God about our sin, we open the door for his redemptive work in us. If we deny our sin and disagree with God, we shut the door on forgiveness and healing and redemption, because we are saying we don’t need it. God is certainly not going to force us to receive what we believe we don’t need.

How do we live out our worship everyday including the concept of confession? Last week we talked about taking time to stop in awe and wonder when God reveals himself and sharing that experience with others. Similarly we can speak God’s truth, declaring it in our everyday lives. When we feel alone, we can confess to ourselves the truth that God is with us. When we face trouble we can confess to ourselves that God is caring for us. When we fall short, we can confess the truth that we have sinned and open the door for his healing.

By saying out loud what we believe we reaffirm that truth in our own lives and we testify to the truth in the lives of those around us. When we say to people, times are tough but my God will provide we testify to his faithfulness. When we say to people I feel so alone, but God is with me holding me up, we testify to his goodness. When we fall short and confess our sins before others, seeking their forgiveness as well, we testify to God’s available redemption and healing—both for us and for them. Go this week and live out your worship by Confessing his Truth in your life and the lives of those around you.

Worship: Adoration

2010-11-22T12:50:00.000-08:00

Psalm 96.
1 Sing to the LORD a new song ; Sing to the LORD, all the earth. 2 Sing to the LORD, bless His name ; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. 3 Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. 4 For great is the LORD and greatly to be praised ; He is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the LORD made the heavens. 6 Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. 7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory of His name ; Bring an offering and come into His courts. 9 Worship the LORD in holy attire ; Tremble before Him, all the earth. 10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns ; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved ; He will judge the peoples with equity." 11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice ; Let the sea roar, and all it contains ; 12 Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy 13 Before the LORD, for He is coming, For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness And the peoples in His faithfulness.

Worship is our appropriate response to God's revelation of himself to us. Worship begins with God. For the purpose of our study of worship over the next three messages, we are dividing worship into four traditional aspects of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.

Adoration is our response to seeing who God is. In Psalm 96 we see that often we learn about who God is by observing what he has done. Adoration is different from thanksgiving which is remembering what God has done and thanking him. Adoration is standing in awe of who God is.

The Psalmist tells us to ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. That word ascribe means to assign authorship, or to give credit for a work. When we ascribe to Lord the glory due his name, we are giving him credit for his mighty works. We are recognizing his authorship.

A good friend told me that she stood under a tree recently with its leaves a collage of beautiful colors. She stood under the tree and looked up seeing the leaves with pieces of brilliant blue sky peeking through. She stood there gazing at the beauty and giving God glory for his creativity. This was an act of worship; an act of adoration.

We are worshiping in adoration when we have those moments of recognizing who God is in his creation, in his acts on our behalf, in the things he has done in history, and we stand in awe of what an awesome, powerful, majestic God we serve. Our worship is not limited to a set time on a certain day of the week. We can do this while taking a walk, driving down the highway, talking with someone at work or sharing a meal with a friend.

Adore God. Stand in awe of who he is whenever you get the chance. Share what you have learned and seen with others. In this way we bring glory and honor to his name. In this way we give him credit for what he has done. In this way we worship.

Order of Service: Meeting in Worship for Business October 24th, 2010

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Sunday we will try something new in order to honor something old. Traditionally Friends have not separated their worship from conducting business. In order to honor this practice, we will incorporate our business into our morning worship. The order for worship will be as follows.

Welcome, Prayer

Worship in the Word

*Worship in Songs of Praise

Spontaneous Adoration- “God you are…”

Message Pastor Charity

Open Worship

Prayer for concerns in the body

Prayer of Confession- “We fall short and need you…”

Hymn

Minutes

Pastor’s Report

Treasurer’s Report

Prayer of Thanks- “Lord, we thank you…”

Worship with our Tithes and Offerings

Team Reports

Old Business

New Business

Prayer of Supplication- “God help us…”

Spontaneous Responses “I have seen God today…”

*Hymn

Announcements

*Benediction

Greetings & Noisy Offering for Shiloh House (as we depart)

Weekly Schedule 10/17/2010

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Tuesday October 19th-- Coffee at Amanda's 9:30 am
Women's Group 6:30 pm

Sunday October 24th-
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Meeting in Worship for Business 10:45am

Northeast Friends Area Rally at Emporia!
Executive Meeting 3:30 pm
Carry-in Dinner 5:00 pm
Evening Service 6:15 pm

Coming Up!!
Oct 31st Celebrate Our Kids! Worship at 10 am
Oct 31st Run for Missions 5k & 10k in Haviland, KS
Nov 1st Run for Missions 100 miles from Wichita to Haviland!

Living the Mission Part 4

2010-10-18T06:54:00.000-07:00

Matthew 28:18-20. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Literally translated, the highlighted section says, “Teach them to guard and treasure all that I commanded you to do.”

Many times we think that this is an overwhelming task. We see all that Jesus taught and the length of the gospels thinking that we will never be able to teach others all that Jesus commanded. Surprisingly, though, Jesus only ever talked about three commands. When asked about the greatest commandment in the Law, Jesus responded in Mark's gospel as follows.

Mark 12: 30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.'31 "The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

These two commands are said elsewhere to sum up the entirety of the Law and Prophets. Jesus places the love of God and the love of our fellow man above all else. There is only one time that Jesus himself gives a command to his followers. We find it in John's gospel recorded in two separate chapters.

John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 15: 12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 "You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing ; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 "This I command you, that you love one another.

All of these passages speak of Agape love: to be fond of, also a choice not necessarily a feeling-hospitality/welcome, to be contented with. In my view, Jesus commands us to find contentment and fulfillment in God, choosing to serve those around us with kindness/fondness, giving special attention to our fellow believers.

It may seem too simplistic, but remember that Jesus is talking to fishermen and tax collectors and regular guys. He intended them to be able to fulfill this mission, and he expects that we are able as well.

We can start with those basic commands to love, then move on to the specific teachings of Jesus which fall under those commands: love your enemy, don’t slander your brother, don’t lust after women, fulfill your marriage vows, just be honest without having to make pledges and oaths, forgive and stop trying to get revenge, don’t take advantage of needy people, do good but don’t flaunt it, find your delight in heavenly things not temporary things of the earth.

When we look closely at all of Christ's teachings, they exemplify the living out of those commands to love God, love others, and love our fellow believers.

We have to be careful not to pick and choose what we teach or what we guard and keep ourselves. We like to pick out things that make us look good and others look bad.

If we are forgiving and gracious with our enemies, but we struggle with temptations of the flesh, we are likely to focus on forgiveness and brush past the teaching that lust is on the same level as adultery. We can’t do that, though. Jesus said to teach everything he commanded. We don't get to pick and choose to which areas of our lives we apply his commands of love.

And the command is not simply to obey and teach others to obey, but to keep and treasure and guard closely what Jesus taught. We are to treasure Jesus’ commands. Because they bring life and fullness and peace and they strengthen relationships. Obedience is a drudge, treasure is exciting! His commands are precious; his teachings help us to see much of our lives from God’s perspective.

So, our task is to live out the Mission, “Go, and as you are on your way invite all kinds of people to follow and learn from Jesus, pickling them in the very essence of God, teaching them to treasure all my commands.” But we don't do it alone. All of this is followed by the promise “Surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.” Jesus is on our team. The Holy Spirit is at work in us transforming us as we follow Jesus, empowering us to serve others and we have the support of our fellow believers to encourage us to keep Living the Mission.

This Week's Schedule 10/10/10

2010-10-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

Tuesday October 12th-- Elder's Meeting 6:30 pm

Sunday October 17th-
Regular Sunday Schedule--
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am
Spanish-speaking service 3:00pm

Coming Up!!
Oct 24th Meeting in Worship for Business
Oct 24th Northeast Friends Area Rally at Emporia!
Oct 31st Celebrate Our Kids! Worship at 10 am
Oct 31st Run for Missions 5k & 10k!

Living the Mission Part 3

2010-10-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always , even to the end of the age."

Baptism is perhaps the most misunderstood concept in Christianity. We cannot depend on tradition and ritual to form our perspective on this essential element of our faith. Two extremes exist: you must be water baptized to be saved on one hand, and the extreme Quaker view of banning the practice of water baptism. Both come from a good intention to do things right, but both perspectives miss the point. Immersion in water is an ancient practice that comes before Christianity. It is a Jewish ritual known as Mikvah, or washing. It was essentially an invitation for the divine to fully surround and invade a person's life. But even in that practice, the true test of the practice was not the performing of a ritual, but the heart of the individual.

I say that baptism is misunderstood, because we are so accustomed to the ritual of water baptism, that when we see the word baptize we see only a picture of the ritual we are familiar with. In order to truly understand baptism, we must set aside our thoughts on the ritual and look instead at the actual words of Jesus in this verse.

He says, "Go and make disciples, baptizing them..." The word that Jesus uses here is baptizo defined by The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon as follows.

Baptizo: to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge (of vessels sunk at sea) to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one's self, bathe to overwhelm

Not to be confused with bapto. The clearest example that shows the meaning of baptizo is a text from the Greek poet and physician Nicander, who lived about 200 B.C. It is a recipe for making picklesand is helpful because it uses both words. Nicander says that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be 'dipped'(bapto) into boiling water and then 'baptised' (baptizo) in the vinegar solution. Both verbs concern the immersing of vegetables in a solution. But the first is temporary. The second, the act of baptising the vegetable, produces a permanent change. When used in the New Testament, this word more often refers to our union and identification with Christ than to our water baptism. e.g.Mark 16:16. 'He that believes and is baptised shall be saved'.Christ is saying that mere intellectual assent is not enough. There must be a union with him, a real change, like the vegetable to the pickle!
Bible Study Magazine, James Montgomery Boice, May 1989.

Jesus says to "baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." The word name is the Greek word onoma and is defined by The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon as follows.

Onoma: name: universal of proper names the name is used for everything which the name covers, everything the thought or feeling of which is aroused in the mind by mentioning, hearing, remembering, the name, i.e. for one's rank, authority, interests, pleasure, command, excellences, deeds etc.

Further investigation of this concept revealed that "in Jewish thought, a name is not merely an arbitrary designation, a random combination of sounds. The name conveys the nature and essence of the thing named. It represents the history and reputation of the being named." http://www.jewfaq.org/name.htm

In Matthew 28, I believe Jesus is saying something new and different. He is not merely prescribing a ritual immersion in water, but rather an immersion of oneself in the very essence of God. It is the inward washing of the soul, and literally pickling of the person in the substance of God. It implies transformation in the very identity of the person involved. Like the cucumber that goes into the solution and comes out a pickle. This transformation is not done with water, but by immersing oneself in the person of God.

This soaking in God, according to the early Friends, is something that can happen with or without the ritual of water baptism. In their view, if the Holy Spirit is at work in a person's life bringing about transformation then water is not necessary. If however the Spirit is not at work in a person's life to bring about transformation then no amount of water is sufficient.

We participate in this process in ourselves by remaining in Christ, abiding in him. As we remain in him, his power is at work within us changing us from the inside out. We can invite others to soak up Christ by living changed lives in front of them and by sharing with them what we have experienced of who God is, what he is like, what we have seen him do in our own lives.

“Go and make disciples of all nations, pickling them in the very essence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19

Living the Mission Part 2

2010-10-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

Mt 28:19 As you are going about your way, make disciples of all nations.

What does it mean to make disciples of all nations? The word nations really means people groups. It can refer to people in any group that we categorize them into. For the New Testament believers, there was a temptation to only share the gospel with those like themselves. This is dealt with by most writers in the New Testament, whether they are writing historical accounts in the Gospels or outlining theology and church practice in the epistles.

What are the dividing categories today? We suffer from the same tendencies as those in the New Testament Church. Many times we group people by nationality or race. We group people by gender. We group people by social class. We may even group people by those we like and those we don't. We tend to invite others to follow Jesus who are like us and avoid inviting those who are different.

Galatians 3:26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Who is it challenging to invite along to follow and learn from Jesus? Sometimes it is difficult to invite people to follow Jesus who disagree with us in matters of politics or those who have a different world view. Democrats may not invite Republicans, Conservatives may not invite Liberals, hybrid car drivers may not invite those with SUV's. We may not be able to invite those who have wronged us in the past. We may not be inviting those we consider a threat to ourselves and others, like ex-offenders and parolees.

Colossians 3:11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

We must be willing to invite others along the way, even if they are not the people we would normally hang out with. God created each individual and gives each of us great value as his children. We need to look at others and see children of God instead of the typical labels. If we disagree on some issue or another, that is fine. If we trust God to teach others what he has taught us, we can rest assured that he will correct any attitude or opinion that is wrong. And we need to allow him to correct our wrong attitudes and opinions as well while we continue to follow and learn from him.

Jesus gave us this command, "Go and as you are going on your way, make disciples of all kinds of people." Let's trust him enough to obey.

Living the Mission Part 1

2010-10-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always , even to the end of the age."

Jesus said “Go and make disciples.”In modern church practice, this command has become “Go and make church members,” or “Go and plant churches,” or “Go be a missionary in a foreign country.” But if this is the case, we would all have to become experts in church marketing, church planting or move to a foreign country.

But Jesus meant this to be the ongoing mission of those who followed him. He gave his commission to fishermen, former tax collectors, regular guys. It seems to me that he was giving a reasonable and attainable goal to people who were fit for the task. If Jesus gave this responsibility to these regular guys, and his assignment was doable, do you think maybe we have misinterpreted his command?

Let's set aside what we think we know about making disciples and look fresh at what the Bible says about discipleship. Well, first let's ask some questions. What is it we are supposed to be doing? Making disciples. What is a disciple? A disciple is a learner and a follower.

When we think of disciples, we often think of the twelve, and we see in Mark 3 that Jesus called them out of the many other disciples—many others who were following him—and chose them to be with him. He called them out to follow him more closely, so he could give them a special task of preaching and driving out demons. But they were not the twelve disciples, they were the twelve apostles. An apostle is a person who is sent out, a disciple is one who follows and learns. Not all of us are called to be apostles, but all of us are called to be disciples and to make disciples.

The mission given by Jesus to his followers was: go and make disciples. But to make a disciple first a person has to be a disciple. You have to be a follower and learner.
Jesus said this about being his follower:
Hidden Treasure
Matthew 13:44 "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."

A Costly Pearl
Matthew 13:45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46 and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it."

When we realize the value we have in Christ, we are willing to lay down everything we thought was treasure before so that we can embrace the real treasure in Christ. We can do that confidently because the Kingdom of Heaven is also seeking us. God is out there seeking to be in relationship with each of us, he sees in us a pearl of great price. He gave everything, even his own life to pave a way for us to walk with him.

Our primary job in fulfilling the Great Commission is being a disciple ourselves. Then we can invite others to follow Jesus and learn from him along with us. We can show them the treasure we have found in Christ and what great value they have in the eyes and heart of God the Father. Doesn't that seem a little more doable than becoming a church marketing expert? You don't have to sell church to your friends, or sell a particular brand of Christianity. Just follow Jesus and invite the people you meet along for the journey.

Wrapping up the Fruit of the Spirit

2010-10-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control

Faithfulness
James 2:14-26.

In the New Testament, the same Greek word is used for faith and faithfulness. The two concepts are inseparable. New Testament writers assume that where there is faith there is faithfulness!

In the Old Testament faithfulness meant steadfastness, reliable, straightforward, what you see is what you get kind of living. God represents the ultimate example of this. There is no shadow, no hidden agenda with God. He is who he is, in fact this is what God said to Abraham from the burning bush, “I am who I am.” God walks the walk. He does what he says, he acts from the integrity of his character.

For us today, Old Testament calls to faithfulness are calls to act in the same way, to be who we say we are. Jesus echoes this call when he says “let your yes be yes and your no, no.” In James 2, James is encountering people who incredibly think that they can believe, have faith, without that faith affecting their lives and choices. We encounter the same thinking today.

Faithfulness is not really an option, though. True faith leads to our acting out of faith. The example James uses is key. Abraham acted on his faith and it was credited to him as righteousness. Works do not create faith. You can have empty works. But when we say we believe something and follow through, it shows our faith to be complete in that area.

Gentleness
1 Peter 3:15 "But in your hearts set apart Christ as LORD. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.2 Timothy 2:24 And the LORD's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth."

Gentleness/Meekness means trusting God to do his work. When we understand who God is, we know that he does not need us to defend him. We do not have to fight on his behalf. We know and understand that God will do his work, he will carry out his plans. This enables us to be at peace within ourselves and to act gently towards those around us, even those who oppose us.

Gentleness is easy when it comes to those on our side, but God is instructing us through his servants Peter and Paul in their letters to the young Church that we are to be gentle with those who oppose us and mock our faith. They are people loved by God, and we must make sure that we do not turn them away from him and his plan to bring them to repentance.

There is an old story, which may or may not be factual about George Fox and William Penn regarding carrying a sword. Whether true or not, it makes a good example of this kind of gentle spirit. Penn feels out of sync with his fellow Quakers and asks Fox if it is permissible to continue wearing a sword. Fox responds that Penn ought to wear it as long as he is able. The implication is that if God wants to convict Penn about his wearing a sword, God will do so. Fox does not see a need to take on God's role, but trusts in who he knows God is.

We can do the same in our dealings with others, whether Christian or not, by sharing our beliefs gently and trusting God to lead and guide them into all Truth.

Self-Control
Colossians 2:1-23.

Self-control is not something we like to talk about. We associate it with following rules and in many cases with extreme legalism. In truth, controlling oneself is exactly what it seems. It is to control ourselves in situations where we face temptations. It is controlling the passions of the flesh. It is not, however, following a set of religious rules and regulations. It is not a matter of ritual and self-denial. In fact, Paul tells us in Colossians 2:23 that those practices seem wise, but do nothing to help us control our passions.

The key to self-control is found earlier in the chapter. Paul encourages the believers to continue to walk in Christ; to continue to allow Christ to make them new and complete from the inside out. Self-control is something that comes from our will. We must want to do right. In order for that to happen, we must be renewed in our minds and our desires.

This renewal is accomplished by Christ in us as we allow him to dwell in us and as we dwell in him. Paul says our hearts are literally circumcised and the sinful nature in us is cut off. We can still choose to sin, but sin does not have the same control over our lives as it once did. We receive power to resist temptation and to walk away from those things which invite destruction into our lives. This does not happen because of religion, but by living daily in the presence of Christ.

The Fruit of the Spirit must grow in us. It takes time. We must remain connected to the vine to receive the life and power to continue to grow and produce fruit. If we remain connected to Christ, the true vine, this fruit will grow in us as naturally as grapes grow on a grape vine. Trust in him to produce fruit in you, stop striving and rest knowing that he will accomplish his good plans for your life.

This week's schedule 8/22

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Tuesday August 24th-- Friends Women at Dorothy's 9:00 am

Pray for Jim's surgery!

Friday August 27th-- Meet with the gutter guys at the church 4:00 pm

Sunday August 29th-
Regular Sunday Schedule--
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am
Spanish-speaking service 3:00pm

Pray for our kids at school!!

Goodness

2010-08-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness [moral excellence]. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our LORD Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. 10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.

The temptation the world offers in regard to goodness is to see ourselves and all we do in comparison and competition with those around us. We fall victim to the pestilence of "Good Enough." We consider ourselves good people if we are as good as the next guy. As long as we meet or exceed the status quo we feel we are doing fine. The problem with this outlook from a biblical perspective is that the standard we measure against is not our neighbor but God himself.

Jesus told a questioner once that "No one is good except God alone"(Mk. 10:18). When we try in our own strength to be good, to behave according to what we know is right, we fall short at "Good Enough." We never attain the goodness of God, simply because we do not possess the power to do so on our own. That power comes from being connected to God through Christ.

Peter tells his ancient audience as well as the modern reader that the key to this connection to God's power and promises is through an intimate, rich knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ. We can know him, like we know our family and friends. We can know him even more intimately than that, because he is not hiding any part of himself from us! Our knowledge of him includes knowing what he did and taught while walking the earth, as well as personal conversation with him in prayer.

Peter says that through this knowledge, and because of his promises to us, God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. God's desire is to impart to us the divine nature. He wants us to reflect and show his image to the world, and he has given us everything we need to accomplish this! How is that possible?

God has done this amazing thing, providing us with all we need, by giving us himself. Ephesians 1:3 tells us God wrapped up every blessing in the heavenly realms and gave them to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Through our connection with him, there is nothing we cannot do as relates to living godly lives. The resurrection power of Christ is at work within us to transform our lives!

This can only take place as we are willing to surrender to him, to remain connected to him, and to stop settling for "Good Enough." We must pray asking God to take us deeper and show us more of himself. We must surrender to his transforming work and seek his passion to pursue the abundant godly life he has planned for us!

Kindness

2010-08-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

Titus 3:1 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men. 3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

In the New Testament God’s kindness is spoken of as the basis and the example set for us in our treatment of others. Kindness in these instances refers to philanthropy-things done for the love of mankind, or useful and helpful acts done for the benefit of the one who receives. In English the word kindness comes from the same word as kindred.

Kindness in English refers to things we do for other people that we would do for family. It is recognizing in others that they are like us, they have the same needs as we do and helping them out of that recognition. Who do we most have a hard time seeing in this way? The New Testament writers understood that we are tempted to self-righteous attitudes when it comes to “sinners” and those in authority.

Who do we like to talk down about? The people we know who aren’t living right and politicians, right? See, we have not changed much in the last 2000 years! Paul warns us in Romans 2:1-4 not to sit in judgment over others because in doing so we scorn God’s kindness toward us that brought us to repentance. In Ephesians 2:4-10, we see that God’s kindness toward us is a demonstration of his Glory that we are to emulate in the good works he has prepared in advance for us to do. In Titus 3, our main passage, Paul again points us to God’s kindness as a basis for our good works on behalf of others.

Like God’s kindness towards us began before we were righteous, our kindness toward others cannot depend on their being deserving of our help. The only prerequisite with God’s kindness was our need. We must rely on his strength to act in the same way toward others.

This Week's Schedule 8/8/2010

2010-08-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

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

Saturday August 14th-- Ladies Tea 3:00 pm
Bring a Friend!

Sunday August 15th-
Regular Sunday Schedule--
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am
Spanish-speaking service 3:00pm

Pray for our kids as they start school this Thursday!!

Patience

2010-08-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

James 5:7-11.

No one wants to hear a message on patience. The very thought of learning patience puts dread in our hearts and runs shivers down our spines! Well, apparently it was something Bible writers did not want to talk about either! Other than telling us to have patience, there is little instruction on the topic. Mostly in the New Testament writers were encouraging their listeners to be patient in the suffering they were enduring as they waited for the imminent return of Jesus Christ. That is the discussion we come upon in James 5.

James paints us 3 pictures of patience in a farmer waiting for rain to make his crops grow, the prophets of God and Job. Definitely, this patience goes beyond waiting in traffic or anticipating the weekend. The patience illustrated for us by James is truly what the King James would call long-suffering.

The farmer had done what was in his power to do by planting, and now the future of his field was out of his hands. Typically as we are in situations that require our patience, we are waiting on something beyond our control. The prophets of God were telling his people again and again that Messiah would come, yet died before seeing it fulfilled. Job, we know lost everything and suffered as his health failed, his friends accused him, and his wife told him to give up.

That farmer could not bring rain, but only trust that it would come. Those prophets could not bring Messiah, but only believe that God would not disappoint. Job could not restore his fortunes or his health, but only continue to stand firm on the faith that God was just.

We suffer sometimes; more than just waiting for that next paycheck or hoping our kids will obey. In those times it is imperative that we stand firm like the farmer trusting God to do what only he can do; like the prophets believing that God will do what he promised; and like Job knowing that God is God and does not change with our fortunes.

2 Peter 3:9 & 15 "The LORD is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
"Bear in mind that our LORD's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him."

If it seems that answers to prayer are coming slowly, we need to trust that God has a purpose in his timing. His desire is salvation and restoration and redemption. Only he can know all of the pieces that must fit together to bring about his purpose in our lives and the lives of those around us. Trust is the key to patience, and that trust grows as we abide in Christ's love, find our joy in his presence, and allow his peace to pervade our lives.

Sermon Series Catch Up!

2010-08-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

The sermon on love is already posted, but for the past few weeks, we have had some obstacles that kept us from posting the messages on joy and peace. Here is a summary of what we have studied.

Joy is something only the Spirit can offer. The world tries, but falls short. The world can provide happy moments, but happiness is fleeting. Happiness depends entirely on what is happening around you. It is like cotton candy, sweet but not lasting. As soon as circumstances change, happiness disappears. Joy, however is deep rooted and nourishes the soul. Like a juicy ripe peach, joy is sweet and satisfying. It brings nutrients that add to our spiritual health like that peace delivers vitamins, minerals and antioxidants to boost our physical health.

Joy comes from abiding in Christ's love. John 15 records a conversation Jesus had with his disciples. In that conversation he tells them again and again that god's greatest desire for them is to bear fruit. God is at work in you and me pruning and watering and fertilizing our lives so that we bear fruit. Our job is simply to abide and remain in Christ and his love. As we accept his love for us and walk in love with those around us, we find a joy welling up inside that remains even in difficult times. Don't settle for happiness, but press in toward Christ and experience joy that lasts.

Like Joy develops as we press in close to Christ, abiding in his love, peace comes as we find our hearts' desires in him. Peace grows naturally out of our relationship with God through Christ. Our part in fostering that growth is pulling the weeds of control and apathy. The world seeks peace through control. If we can only make everyone and everything around us do what we want, we think we will have peace. Unfortunately, that can never happen. There will always be something beyond our power. Another worldly way of seeking peace is apathy. If you can't control it, just don't care about it. But keeping ourselves from feeling is not peace, just emptiness. God wants us to have PEACE, not just a cease-fire.

Finding peace in Christ means laying down our worries and accepting his peace! When we know he is our rock and refuge, when we learn to give him our worries, we find peace growing in our hearts. Even in the middle of conflict we can have peace!

Philippians 4:4-7 Rejoice in the LORD always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The LORD is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The peace that Jesus brings to our lives is permanent. When things are beyond our control, we can trust that nothing is beyond his control. We can know that even if everything around us is lost, he is our source of strength and provision. His peace continues with us through all circumstances!

John 14:27 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.

This Week's Schedule 7-18

2010-07-20T15:22:00.000-07:00

Tuesday July 20th-- Coffee at Amanda's 9:30 am

Thursday - Saturday July 22-24--
Ministry Conference and Yearly Meeting Sessions in Wichita

Friday July 23rd-- Friends Women Lunch at the Ministry Conference

Sunday July 25th-
Regular Sunday Schedule--
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am
Spanish-speaking service 3:00pm

This week's message: Fruit

2010-07-20T15:11:00.000-07:00

God desires for us an abundant life; he wants the best possible health, growth and productivity for us. Just like a gardener wants the best health, growth and productivity for the plants in his garden. The fruit God desires to cultivate in us produces lives that are solid, unshakable in a crisis. They leave the individual satisfied with good things and at the best possible place in their relationships with others.

The world promises self-fulfillment through a series of counterfeit fruit. The goals and desires are self-focused and when followed lead to a mediocre existence at best and total destruction at worst for the individual and all who are connected to them. Worldly Fruit can be tricky, though. Sometimes it is in opposition to God's Fruit. Other times, however, Worldly Fruit is an incomplete version of God's Fruit.

The Fruit of the Spirit -vs- The Fruit of the World System:
Love -vs- Like
Joy -vs- Happiness
Peace -vs- Control or Apathy
Patience -vs- Passion
Kindness -vs- Ingratiation/Kissing Up
Goodness -vs- Status Quo
Faithfulness -vs- Tit for Tat/Contract Mentality
Gentleness -vs- Niceness
Self-Control -vs- Will Power

Love vs Like
God wants us to live lives full of love. He wants us to love him and love others. Not in a warm-fuzzy kind of way that comes from our emotions, but a solid love that puts the best interest of the other before our own. God wants an attitude of love to saturate every part of our lives.

The world, meanwhile, sells us on living lives of like. What does it mean to like something? I appreciate the direct Spanish interpretation of “I like.” “Me gusta” which literally means “it pleases me.” To like someone or something means that they do something nice for me. They please me. It is a self-focused approach to living.

"But, isn't it ok to like things?" Of course it is ok to like things. It is great to like people and like the things we have, but if we stop with "like" we live a shallow existence, not ever really satisfied with life in general. Only by going deeper into a true attitude of love can we begin to find true fulfillment.

In our everyday lives, like vs love is lived out in how we relate with everything around us from our possessions to our families and even the earth itself. When we love our families, we base our actions on what is best for them regardless of the effort and sacrifice on our part. We tend them like God tends us. When we live in an attitude of like with our families, when they stop pleasing us, we stop caring for them in the way God cares for us.

When we live in an attitude of love towards the things around us, we realize that to take on a possession is to take on a responsibility. We weigh the long term cost of the investment and decide if we are up for the challenge. When we live in an attitude of like towards the things around us, our possessions exist to please us, rather than to fulfill a specific purpose. When they no longer produce excitement in us, we buy a new one even if the one we have is still in good working order. Soon our houses are overflowing with junk, our credit cards are maxed out, and we wonder why everyone else seems to have such nice things.

When we live in an attitude of love towards our environment, we realize that it requires us to care for not just the earth around us, but the earth on the other side of the globe. None of us would ever vote in a toxic waste dump in our own backyard, but love is not voting one into someone else's. When we live in an attitude of like, we only care about what we can see or what affects us.

Living in like is a mediocre way of existing that produces want and lack and destruction as opposed to true fulfillment and health and growth. Living in an attitude of love causes us to view all of our relationships as gifts entrusted to us by God requiring us to act as good stewards of them all. Living in love produces good relationships, it helps us balance our finances and not get wrapped up in a race with the Joneses, it helps us to create healthy safe places for ourselves and others to grow and live abundant lives.

"So, how do I cultivate this love?" Good question. Love, being a fruit must grow. It is not instant and we have to deal patiently with ourselves in the growing process. Love comes from God alone, and the best way to cultivate that fruit is to press in closer to Him. We have to seek true food and water and Son-light to nurture this and other Spiritual Fruit. Spend time in God's letter to us, the Bible. Spend time just talking to God, wherever you are, silent or spoken; prayer is simply a conversation with God.

As we press in closer to God, we see how he loves us and become secure in His love. That security gives us courage to love others in the same way He loves us. Then that Spiritual Fruit of love can begin to grow and mature, and we see it's result in our lives.

This week's schedule 7-11

2010-07-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

Friday July 16th-- Vacation Bible School!
9:30am-3:30pm
Programs for Ages 3-14
Bilingual English and Spanish
Crafts, Bible Stories, Games and More
Breakfast and Lunch will be provided
Free for all Participants!

Sunday July 18th-
Regular Sunday Schedule--
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am
Spanish-speaking service 3:00pm

This week's message- Bearing Each Other's Burdens

2010-07-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

Galatians 6:2 "Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." NRSV

Our church body has experienced many struggles and each of us carries our own burdens. It would be the exception to find one among us who is not bearing a heavy load for ourselves or someone close to us. It is interesting to find this scripture, then about reaching out to carry the burdens of those around us, and amazing that Paul says that this act of all things fulfills the very law of Christ.

What could he mean? What is the Law of Christ? Did Christ not come to set us free? Yes, he did set us free from the law of sin and death, but gave us in it's place the law of love. In his teaching, Christ told his followers that all of the law and prophets, all the commands leading up to his coming were wrapped up in two great commands:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

In Luke 10, Jesus has a discussion with an expert in the law who wanted to know what must be done to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him to summarize the law and prophets and the teacher came up with the above statement, but wanted to know who his neighbor was. Jesus responded with the parable of the good Samaritan.

As we read through the story Jesus told, we see that the things he commends are Mercy and Compassion. It did not matter who the Samaritan was, he cared about the wounded man and made a personal sacrifice to make sure his needs were met. (The two days wages today would be in the neighborhood of $150-$500!) His care and compassion set the standard for us to follow if we are to love our neighbor in the way Christ commands.

Bear one another's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

The burdens of your neighbor may be too heavy for you to carry on your own, while others may require you to make a personal sacrifice to fulfill. Either way the source of our compassion and action must be our relationship with God through Christ. There are needs that only he can meet and we must carry those burdens first and foremost to him in Prayer. Then we will receive guidance in what we must do to care for those in our community.

(Following the message we spent some time sharing and praying for those around us to put into practice the habit of carrying one another's burdens to the Lord in prayer.)

This week's message-Bread

2010-06-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

John 6:1-14.
Jesus feeds five thousand men, plus women and children of an undetermined number with the lunch of a young boy. Close to 10,000 people were following Jesus just to see what he would do next. They had heard about his miraculous signs with the sick and had followed him around the Sea of Galilee. Jesus stops to rest with his disciples and as they watch these 10,000 people coming towards them, filling the horizon, Jesus turns to Phillip and asks what he thinks they should do about these hungry people.

There was a need. The people had followed Jesus for days, who knows when they had last bought bread, or even if they had money to do so. They were hungry. Jesus knew it, the disciples knew it; these people needed to eat.

Phillip answers Jesus that it is impossible, eight months wages--200 denarii--would be needed to buy bread for each one to have just a bite. When we look at that number it seems disconnected from our daily lives. What would eight months wages look like for the average worker today? $8,000; $10,000; $12,000--or more would be today's equivalent. For each person to have a bite, they would need a small fortune.

Andrew offers a little help, but in his mind not enough. He shows Jesus a lunch packed by a young person--five loaves, two fish--maybe enough for Jesus and the disciples to have a bite, but not much more. No wonder he asks, "How far would that go among so many?" But the gift is offered, no matter how small.

Now Jesus takes that tiny offering, and he uses it to fulfill the great need by filling in with a miraculous provision. He breaks the bread and tells the disciples to distribute it and the fish to this great crowd. As he breaks off chunks of bread, they just keep coming. He says, "Give them as much as they want."

Jesus does not ask for a resume, or a portfolio. He does not even turn within to his own knowledge of the people's sin and righteousness. There is a need, and he is filling it. The only prerequisite is hunger. And the people do not turn the provision away. No one is sitting around saying, "Sorry, I only eat rye bread and this is barley." The gift is freely given and freely received.

The world is full of seemingly impossible problems. Just looking at the year 2010 so far we have had an earthquake in Haiti, an earthquake in China, an earthquake in South America, tsunamis from the earthquake in South America, flooding in Nashville, wars in the Middle East, countless children and women being forced into the sex trade, an oil well disaster that threatens the lives and safety of countless people, animals, an entire ecosystem. Closer to home are personal tragedies, people with lost income, lost loved ones, lost hope. So often we have a hard time seeing how we can be a part of the solution.

What we have is so small compared to the enormity of the problem. Just like that young person with their lunch, five loaves and two fish to feed thousands, we have a limited amount of resources. But if we will offer what we have, we can see God do something great. If we will be obedient to give what we can, we will see God do what we cannot.

What do you have to offer? A small gift of your time, energy, and resources can be the beginning of something great. You can't bring someone's loved one back to life, but can you make a cup of tea? You can't mop up the oil spill, but can you walk instead of drive? You can't repair all the damage from natural disasters, but can you give $5 to an organization who is at work in those areas? Whenever there is a great need, when we are faithful with a little, God can take that small gift and miraculously provide the solution.

This week's schedule 6-27

2010-06-30T09:26:00.000-07:00

No Activities this week

Sunday July 4th-
Regular Sunday Schedule--
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am
Spanish-speaking service 3:00pm

This week's schedule 6/13

2010-06-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

No Activities this week

Sunday June 20-
Regular Sunday Schedule--
Sunday School 9:30am
Fellowship time 10:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am
Spanish-speaking service 3:00pm

This Week's Schedule 6/6/10

2010-06-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

Tuesday June 8th-- Ruth Gilman Funeral

at the church 1:30 pm

Wednesday June 9th-- "What's So Amazing About Grace?"

Ladies Study 6:30pm in the Adult Sunday School Classroom

Friday June 11th-- Ed Dillon Funeral 2:00 pm
at Robert's-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home

Regular Sunday Schedule-- Sunday School 9:30am

Fellowship time 10:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am
Spanish-speaking service 3:00pm

Pray for our kids at camp this week!

This week's message: Rebellion and Repentance

2010-06-06T11:42:00.001-07:00

Jonah chapters 1-2.
We see Jonah moving from a place of closeness with God to trying to hide himself from God's face. In the process, Jonah is moving from a high place to lower and lower places. He starts in Jerusalem and goes down to Joppa to board a ship. Once on the ship he goes down into the lower decks. When the storm rises, Jonah is even in a deep sleep. When they throw him overboard, he sinks down and comes to an all time low after being swallowed by a fish. So we see this progression from high to low, from near to far in his relationship with God.

All of this because God asked Jonah to do his job. Jonah was a prophet. His job was to hear from God and tell the people God's words. This time, though, Jonah does not want to speak forth the words of God. Jonah has been asked to go to Nineveh, the capital city of the nation seeking to overthrow and conquer his nation and his people. "Get up and go!" was God's command. Jonah did get up and go, but in the opposite direction.

When Jonah finds himself unable to hide himself from God, having been swallowed by a great fish, he cries out to God. In chapter 2, we see a prayer of Jonah's and interestingly enough he never says he is sorry. Jonah never asks for forgiveness. He does not grovel. He does not bargain. He simply sees his situation of being at the end of himself--literally at the end of his life--and calls out to God.

And God hears him. God lifts Jonah out of the pit he has dug for himself. This is not in reference to Jonah's position in the stomach of a fish, but rather a renewed sense that life is not over. God lifts him out of the pit, then Jonah makes a commitment to fulfill his responsibility as a prophet, and finally God causes the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land.

Too often, we find ourselves resisting what we know God wants us to do. So we run and try to hide ourselves, but we never move in a positive direction. We descend, further from God, further from the source of our life. We find ourselves in a fish-belly of a mess. The key is to realize that God is waiting for your cry. He is not standing by waiting to make sure you are "really sorry" before he jumps in. One cry, one call for help, one extended hand and God is there to breathe new life and restore you to right relationship with himself.

I don't know what God is calling you to do. Your Nineveh is probably much different from my Nineveh. It may be that your Nineveh is in your own home, shining a light to your family. It may be that your Nineveh is in your extended family. Maybe your Nineveh is taking the light of Christ with you into the workplace when you would much rather leave it at home. It could be even bigger like answering a call to minister or to go to other nations to bear witness to Christ at work within your life. Whatever the call, I encourage you to answer it with a "yes."

Please don't wait until you find yourself in the belly of a whale to make your choice. And who knows what God has planned to do with your witness. In Jonah's situation, his obedience paid off in ways he could never have imagined, making a difference in the lives of thousands.

This week's schedule 5/23/10

2010-05-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

Tuesday May 25th-- Friends Women Fellowship 9:00am at Presbyterian Manor

Wednesday May 26th-- "What's So Amazing About Grace?"

Ladies Study 6:30pm in the Adult Sunday School Classroom

May 30th Guest Pastor and Church Carry-in Dinner

Regular Sunday Schedule-- Sunday School 9:30am

Fellowship time 10:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am

Sunday Sermons

2010-05-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

April 25th and May 2nd we read through the book of Ruth with eyes toward God's presence, power and provision in the lives of Ruth and Naomi. We walked away with a reassurance of God at work in our own lives; in good times and hard times he is faithful to walk with us every step of the way.

May 16th and May 23rd we are looking at 2 John and 3 John. 2 John emphasizes walking in the Truth, walking in Love and walking in Obedience to God's commands. We see how all three are intertwined and inseparable from one another as we follow Christ. 3 John in a more personal context addresses the same themes of Truth, Love, and Faithful obedience.

Join us for our Sunday Worship as we celebrate God's work among us, study his word, and encourage one another in love!

This Week's Schedule 5/16/2010

2010-05-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

Tuesday May 18th-- Coffee at Amanda's 9:30am

Wednesday May 19th-- "What's So Amazing About Grace?"

Ladies Study 6:30pm in the Adult Sunday School Classroom

Regular Sunday Schedule-- Sunday School 9:30am

Fellowship time 10:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am

Coming Up!!

May 25th Friends Women Fellowship at Presbyterian Manor
May 30th Guest Pastor and Church Carry-in Dinner

This Week's Schedule 4/11/2010

2010-04-12T06:49:00.000-07:00

Wednesday April 14th-- "What's So Amazing About Grace?"

Ladies Study 6:30pm in the Adult Sunday School Classroom

Next Sunday April 18h-- Sunday School 9:30am

Fellowship time 10:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am
Guest Pastor Tom Miller

Coming Up!!
April 20th Coffee at Amanda's
April 25th Area Missions Rally at Tonganoxie
April 27th Friends Women Brunch

This week's message: Take Possession of the Land

2010-04-12T06:26:00.000-07:00

Joshua 18:3 "So Joshua said to the Israelites: 'How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?'"

We all have things in our lives that we wish would just go away. Sins and habits stubbornly hang on even after we surrender ourselves to God. For some it may be a quick temper or sharp tongue. Others may struggle with addictions to food, nicotine, alcohol, or sex. And no matter how many other sins we have experienced victory over, we find ourselves plagued by the ones that refuse to go away. This can be so discouraging! We feel like we have failed. We think we must not really be saved or surrendered. We start to doubt the promise God has given us of victory over sin. But guess what, you are not alone. You are in good company. This is not a problem just for you!

From the beginning, there has been temptation. We can trace it through the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; the prophets and heros—Moses, David; even in the New Testament Paul laments about his thorn in the flesh. This morning, let's look at the problem and the solution together. I think we'll be surprised to see what is behind the struggles we face and God's solution for us to live in victory.

(Genesis 13:17) God promised Abram that everything he could see, all the ground he walked on, would belong to him and his descendents. This was the beginning of the promise and covenant God made with Abraham. He told him to look around and everything he saw was going to be an inheritance for his descendents, even though at the time, Abram had no children. Abraham believed God. He walked with God, not perfectly, but consistently through his life. God walked with him, even in his imperfection and remained faithful to the covenant he had made with Abraham.

(Deuteronomy 11:24) God renewed that promise to Moses, as he was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. God told Moses that wherever the people set the sole of their feet, that land would belong to them. This was the first time they approached the Promised Land. If we remember, though, the promise was delayed because the people refused to go into the land. They were afraid of giants and did not trust God to fulfill his promise. Yet God did not abandon them or cancel the promise. He brought them back to the Promised Land again.

(Joshua 1:1-9) Then God renewed his promise to Joshua and the children of Israel as they were entering the Promised Land. God promised to drive out the people living in the land and he did so as the Israelites were obedient to go and take possession of the land. There were some people groups who were stubborn and remained in the land that the nation of Israel was promised. After fighting for several years, as Joshua was retiring from battle, he confronted the Israelites about not pressing on to take possession of all the land they were promised (Joshua 18:3).

(Judges 1:19-36) Instead of continuing to fight and take possession of the land, the people were content to live in the land they had already taken. They made some deals with the locals: You stay on your side, we'll stay on ours. They thought that they could live side by side with idolatry and not be phased. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

(Judges 2:1-5) After a generation of living in the land, God's people were intermarrying, they were taking on the idols of the people living around them, they were beginning to worship fertility gods that required evil practices like child sacrifice in order to stay in their favor. They did not change their neighbors, instead their neighbor's practices infected them like a plague.

In our lives, God has given us a promised land. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:3 that God has given us every blessing in the heavenly realms in the person of Jesus. He has given us the promised land for our every day lives. We don't have to live in a particular place, God gave us a portable promised land: freedom in Christ. In Christ, we have victory over sin and the world according to 1 John 5:4-5, which we just studied. Because of that victory we don't have to submit to the destructive power of sin in our lives.

We, like the Israelites, have the ability to take possession of these promises and apply them to our lives. We just have to keep going when things get hard. Those nations the Israelites faced were not invincible. They just looked real scary. They had iron chariots. They were determined to stay in the land. They were like that persistent weed in your garden that no matter how many times you pull it up, it just keeps coming back. But just like we can continue to fight that weed and not allow it to ruin our garden, we can continue to fight against the persistent sins and habits in our lives that work against us. In fact, we must continue that fight. The good news is that we do not fight alone.

I know it is easier when God removes all inclination to a particular sin. Some people come to the Lord and leave their alcoholism and addiction on the altar and are never bothered again. For others, it is a continual struggle. And trust me, that person who was delivered from their alcoholism may still have other persistent sins as well. We find the solution to staying power in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

Paul describes a continuing struggle in his own life. He calls it a messenger from Satan at work in his flesh. This may have been a physical problem, but many scholars believe it is a sin of the flesh. Some kind of temptation or desire that Paul was fighting against. In fact he uses the very same words that God uses to describe the people groups not driven out with their idols. Just as they were a thorn in the flesh of the Israelites, this issue plagued Paul. He prayed and prayed and prayed for God to miraculously take it away, but God did not. Instead, God gave Paul grace to continue to fight it without giving up.

The reason we must continue to fight is that just like the idolatry of the Canaanites seeped into the lives of the Israelites, sin that is not dealt with in one area of our lives leaks into other areas of our lives. We cannot cordon off sin and think that is enough. Sin like a cancer seeks to invade every area of our lives bringing death and destruction.

We often think of persistent sin as a curse, but here Paul says that God shows his strength best in our weak spots. By walking with God in spite of the temptation we face, and showing a consistent victory in spite of struggle, we show God's great grace in our everyday lives.

In our lives we may have sins like the Canaanites crouching at our door. Don't ignore them. Don't get hysterical about them. Instead choose to walk with the Lord through those temptations. Choose to keep fighting until you win the land God has promised you. Don't give up and settle with the land you have already conquered. Don't be complacent in thinking you have arrived and do not need to continue pushing out the area of God's possession in your life. Don't stop until it all belongs to Him.

We do not have to do this in our own strength, he has promised us strength and grace to make it through. The choice is up to you, though, how much victory you want in your life. Don't give up. Lean on God's Grace. Take possession of the Promised Land in your life!

Think about what it would be like if we all chose to let God conquer every corner and back closet in our lives. Think of what our families would look like, our workplace relationships, our church fellowship. Then we would no longer be divided by petty things, we wouldn't need excuses to keep other people at bay. We would see and recognize the areas in our lives that need to be changed and we would let others see them too, knowing that they aren't perfect either. In Christ we have freedom to try and fail, and try again. There is no shame, because we depend on his strength and not our own. If we could accept that truth, then we would be agents of God's grace to one another as we help each other to fight the persistent sins that we all face.

Apologies

2010-04-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by the lack of updates in the month of March.
Pastor Sandstrom

This Week's Schedule 4/4/2010

2010-04-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

Monday April 5th-- Church Leadership Institute for Ministry

6-9pm at University Friends Church in Wichita

Wednesday April 7th-- "What's So Amazing About Grace?" Ladies Study

6:30pm in the Adult Sunday School Classroom

Next Sunday April 11h-- Sunday School 9:30am

Fellowship time 10:30am
Morning Worship 10:45am
Elder's Meeting at Noon
Nursing Home Service at Holiday Resort 3:00pm

This Week's Message- Believe!

2010-04-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

Mark 16.
When the women went to the tomb on the first day of the week, they did not expect to find an empty tomb. they expected trouble with the guards, difficulty moving the stone, and the hard task of preparing the body of the one they loved for burial. What they found were guards on the ground, the stone rolled away, and an angel telling them that Christ had risen from the dead. They saw the empty place where he had been laid, but they did not yet believe that he had risen. mark tells us they fled in terror.
Then Jesus appeared to the women. Then they believed, and told the disciples. The disciples did not believe them. Jesus appeared to the two disciples traveling to Emmaus. They had been heartbroken, and even while he spoke to them of the scriptures, they did not believe. Then he revealed himself to them. They believed, and told the disciples. The disciples did not believe these witnesses either. Finally Jesus comes and speaks to the disciples directly. In other gospel accounts he has to eat something before they believe it is really him and not a ghost or hallucination.
The disciples did not believe the testimony of their fellow Christ-followers. Jesus had told them that he would die at the hands of sinful men and be resurrected on the third day. He warned them. He promised them, and when it happened they did not believe. In our church traditions, Thomas gets a bad rap. He did not believe until Jesus showed him his hands and feet and placed his hand on the wound in his side. For that lack of faith, we call him Doubting Thomas. But here the rest of the disciples stand not believing. We should call them the doubting disciples and give poor Thomas a break!
Maybe we should give them all a break. When the impossible happens, when we see things that just should not be, we all have a tendency to disbelieve. If you told me your dog sang the star spangled banner, I think I would disbelieve. This is even greater than that. Jesus hung on a Roman cross. They all saw him. His body was marred and disfigured. He lost pint after pint of blood.
I know that these people had seen him raise the dead before at least three times, but those were all people who died of sickness. Even that is more believable than coming back from the horrendous death Jesus died. On top of that, Jesus was the one who healed, he was the one who raised others to life. Who could have raised him up?
We know that God raised him to life again. We know that God’s power is not trapped in human flesh. Jesus’ divine power did not disappear when he died. But for those disciples, without the benefit we have of 2,000 years of scholars’ explanations, they believed it was impossible--until they saw Jesus for themselves.
Jesus rebukes them for their lack of faith, but then he commissions these same faithless ones to go and spread the good news of the Gospel. And what is the contingent for receiving salvation? Belief! The very thing Jesus rebuked them for not having just moments before.
I think this is a huge blessing for us! We have times of unbelief in our lives, when things look impossible. When we can’t see a way for it all to work out. Jesus is there to show up in our circumstances and give us the faith we need.
After they believed, they went and told others the good news of the atoning death and victorious resurrection of Jesus. But they did not have to preach in their own strength, God gave them power to do it. He gave signs to back it up. When we walk in faith and obedience, God will supply they power!
Believe! We don’t have to wait to see the impossible before we trust that God is at work. When you are doubting, take it to Jesus. Let him give you faith to go on. Walk in obedience, trusting that God will supply the power to do the work he calls you to! Believe!

The rest of 1 John--A Summary

2010-04-05T06:26:00.001-07:00

John 2:28-5:13.
John Continues to give assurance of our place in Christ, witnessed by the Holy Spirit and confirmed by a change in the way we live our lives. Love is the number one sign of our new life in Christ. Love for fellow believers, those around us in the world, and love for the Father. Our love for others shows in our actions towards them. We have a new concern and compassion for the needs of others and are willing to sacrifice our own comfort to give them the help that they need. Our love for God is shown primarily through obedience to his commands and love for his children.
John states repeatedly that our position in Christ is not earned, but comes by faith in Jesus as the son of God. In chapter 5 he takes on a heresy that would claim Christ only coming in spirit or in a non-corporeal form. John says the water of Christ's birth and the blood he shed at his death both testify to his coming in bodily form to live on this earth and die as the atonement for our sins. The Holy Spirit testifies to these truths in the lives of believers and we can trust his testimony, since it is God's testimony about his son.
Walking in confidence of God's love for us, trusting in his testimony about the life of his son, Jesus, allows us to live in obedient love for God and compassionate love for others.

This Week's Schedule

2010-02-21T19:06:00.000-08:00

Tuesday February 23rd- Work day for Chili Supper 9:00 am

Wednesday February 24th- Work day for Chili Supper 9:00 am

Women's Book Study:

"What's So Amazing About Grace?" 6:30 pm

Thursday February 25th- Chili Supper 4:30pm-7:00pm!

$5 gets a bowl of chili, coffee or tea, cornbread, carrots & celery, and PIE!

Sunday February 28th-

Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship 10:30 am
Worship 10:45 am

This week's message: True Annointing

2010-02-21T18:53:00.000-08:00

1 John 2:18-27.
Many Bibles have a section heading over these verses that says “Warnings about the Antichrist!” This is a part of the teaching in this section, but if that is all we gain from these verses, we are missing a bigger message. This passage is about anointing. In the Greek, just like the English, Antichrist is a compound word. It is made up of two Greek words anti- and christ. Anti in Greek carries a few different meanings. It typically means instead of or against. The word christ means Messiah, or anointed one. So anti-christ is someone who is against the anointed one or is setting themselves up to be anointed instead of Jesus.

John talks about "The Antichrist," as well as several antichrists who have already been at work within the community of believers. John describes these people as those who deny that Jesus is God’s anointed Messiah, or that Jesus is not the Son of God. He calls them liars and lets the believers know that anyone making these claims is not a true member of the body of Christ, nor can they make the claim to affirm belief in the Father without affirming belief in the Son.

John writes here to let the believers know about people who would lead them astray, but this is not a frantic warning. Rather there is an undercurrent of reassurance running through these verses. John affirms the anointing of the Holy Spirit at work in them. He tells them that they can stand secure in the Truth that they already know and have received from sound teaching as well as directly from the Holy Spirit.

John’s message here is empowering. Unlike many of today’s teachings about the Antichrist which inspire a lot of fear and panic, John starts his discussion by spreading out the threat. He tells them he knows about what they have heard about the coming of a powerful antichrist—strong enough to receive a title “The Antichrist.” But he shows them that this is nothing new, there have been several antichrists that have already come. John tells them that this is just a sign of the times. He casually says, “This is how we know we are in the final hour.”

John points to perseverance as the true test of belonging to the body of Christ. Only those serious about following Jesus will stay, that is why those who did not believe in him left the fellowship. Some try to turn this into a passage on eternal security, saying it explains everyone who makes a profession of faith and falls away, that they obviously were never really a part of the body since they left the fellowship. I don’t believe that to be John’s point in these verses.

John uses a lot of the same words in these verses emphasizing the anointing of Jesus as Messiah, the anointing we have as believers being anointed by the Holy Spirit. John talks about allowing those things we have received as Truth remain—abide—in us and the anointing remain—abide—in us and that we need to remain—abide—in God the Father and the Son. He is talking about perseverance, sticking with it, abiding or living daily with the Truth we have received and in the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The contrast is with those who did not remain.

Those who departed were those who did not stick with the Truth, but instead believe and perpetuate lies about who Jesus is. John tells them, and us, that we already have the secret, the answer to not being drawn in. He tells these believers that they already have the Truth, in fact he says “I am not writing to you because you don’t know the truth, but precisely because you do know the truth.” Recognizing the truth, they can easily see that the lies do not fit.

Just like these believers, we have all received some basic elementary truth relating to who God is and what he did for us in the person of Jesus. We don’t have to have a theology degree to have enough knowledge of the truth to see and resist a lie. When someone makes a claim that Jesus was only a good teacher, only a prophet, only a messiah for some and they exclude any concept of Jesus being the Son of God, the Savior of the whole world, we can recognize the lie. We can see that you cannot have it both ways—either Jesus is the Son of God or he was a liar. If he falsely claimed to be the Son of God, and he did, he would be a liar. Being a liar makes him a bad teacher, a false prophet, and a poor messiah by anyone's standards.

John reaffirms the importance of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers by telling them that the Holy Spirit will guide them into truth, enough that they don’t even need external teachers. The same is true today. If you did not have a preacher standing before you, God could still speak to you and show you his truth. In fact, I am confident that he would! He would still bring you into an ever closer relationship with himself. That is not to say that teaching is not good or helpful, but it is not a make it or break it component of your relationship with God through Christ.

Getting caught up in a perceived need for a teacher has caused many to lift up their teachers and preachers on high and make them “Instead Anointed.” Counterfeit anointing. The danger is still there today. It is easy to idolize leaders in the faith, and it is easy as a leader to allow people to idolize. It feels great to have people think you are great. With that tendency can creep in all kinds of false teaching that is contrary to the truth we have received. John is giving these believers permission to go without a teacher before allowing some false teaching to creep into their fellowship.

The Holy Spirit at work within us will always draw us closer to God, always further into his truth, and it will not contradict something that God has declared to be true. The secret to avoiding the traps of the antichrist or antichrists? Keep the truth close, abide in the Father, the Son, and allow the Holy Spirit’s anointing to teach and guide.

This Week's Schedule 2/14/10

2010-02-16T09:37:00.000-08:00

Tuesday February 16th- Coffee at Amanda's 9:30 am

Wednesday February 17th- Women's Book Study:

"What's So Amazing About Grace?" 6:30 pm

Sunday February 21st-

Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship 10:30 am
Congregational Worship 10:45 am

Chili Supper Next Thursday February 25th 4:30pm-7:00pm!
$5 gets a bowl of chili, coffee or tea, cornbread, carrots & celery, and PIE!

This week's message: Love What Lasts

2010-02-16T09:13:00.000-08:00

1 John 2:15-17.

1 John 2:15 says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." What does that mean? It is important to ask the question "what does this type of love refer to?" because of the consequences stated in the verse. If the love of the father is not in anyone who loves the world we had better determine what it is that John means by love and the world. We know that John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life." So we can't possibly broadly declare that nothing in the world is to be loved by followers of God in Christ. God loves the world, enough to sacrifice his son on behalf of those in the world, so we know John is not telling us to cease loving the people in the world. God wants us to have compassion for lost people and love them in that way, even sacrificially.

We know as well that God entrusted mankind with the care and stewardship of the physical planet we live on. He created this earth and pronounced it good. When he completed his creation, he pronounced it very good. So john cannot mean that we are to cease caring for the earth. He wants us to be good stewards of the earth and take care of it well. God wants us to enjoy the things he has created. So we ask the question again, "What does John mean by 'loving the world'?"

I believe we find the answer in Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds." God does not want us to conform to the system or patterns of the world. He does not want us to be more in love with the earth than his kingdom. He does not want us to be more concerned with accumulating wealth and position and power than worshiping him.

This is the theme of the following verse 1 John 2:16 "For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world." This is what we are to cease loving. The kind of love talked about in this verse is a kind of setting one's mind to love someone or something. It is a matter of will and can be a beautiful thing. This agape love is the way in which God loves us. It is sacrificial, and requires a determination to act on that love.

The patterns described in verse 16 are patterns of destruction. The lust of the flesh is what the King James version calls "the cravings of the sinful man." Setting your mind to follow after the lusts of the flesh--gluttony, sexual lust and the like, leads to being consumed by those lusts. These things come from the worldly patterns, God would never introduce us to destructive behavior and desires.

The pattern of this world cries out for us to envy and covet the things others have and tells us that we must have those things as well. We must have a new car, or a new house, or the best clothes, or must meet some standard of outward beauty in order to be whole. This is what Jesus talks about in Mark 4:19 in the Parable of the Sower—the young plants were choked by cares of this world, "but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful."

These are the patterns we are to avoid being shaped into. Everywhere we look people are chasing physical pleasure, or running from physical pain. People spend their whole lives accumulating wealth so that others will envy them and so that they can have all that anyone else has. The world system tells us to chase power and position, but God calls us to lay those things aside so that we can follow him.

Romans 8:5-7 says "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God."

Remember we talked about sin being death and destruction. When we chase after sinful desires, we invite destruction into our lives, and God is adamantly against us destroying our lives! This death and destruction did not come from him, and it is opposite of what he wants for each of our lives.

1 John 2:17 says "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." This is backed up by Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth. 1 Corinthians 15:50 "I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable."

We know that if we confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead, we will have eternal life. God’s kingdom is forever, unlike the earth, which we are seeing more and more is finite. We are using up resources, we are finding out that regardless of what we do, there will be an end to the time that this planet can support life, and long before that time comes, our bodies will cease to support life.

We will all physically die, and as the saying goes, “He who dies with the most toys is still dead.” You can’t take what you own with you to the grave. Well, you can, but grave robbers will just dig it up again. It won’t pass with you from this life into eternity. We will come to a place in our lives where we won’t be able to enjoy the physical pleasures of life and won’t avoid its pain. We will find out before we die that no matter how much we have, someone else will have more—and they are just as miserable. All of it will fade.

Everything connected with this life on earth will pass away, but we have hope of eternity if we follow God. Jesus said you are my friends if you do what I command. If we follow God’s will we are showing ourselves to be his friends. We show our love for him. Why love the things of this world? They are not permanent. Why not love what lasts?

God is good—100% light. He never fails, and his kingdom is without end. Nothing on earth can compare. What would your life look like if you laid aside your love for worldly things and instead chose to love God with all that you are? I believe we would find that Romans 8:6 is true “the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” Stop loving the world that is fading before your eyes, and start loving what lasts.

This week's schedule 2/7/10

2010-02-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

Wednesday February 10th- Women's Book Study:

"What's So Amazing About Grace?" 6:30 pm

Sunday February 7th-

Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship 10:30 am
Congregational Worship 10:45 am
Elder's Meeting following Worship

This Week's Message: Walk in the Light

2010-02-08T11:49:00.000-08:00

1 John 1:5-2:14.

God is Light- NO Darkness in Him
He is completely consistent No faults, defects, sin, inconsistencies. He is all good, nothing bad in him. Why is important to understand this about God? It is the first thing John talks about, it precedes the understanding of anything else that he writes, so why is this knowledge so important? Sometimes we get the wrong idea about God. We think of him in human terms; we begin to see him created in our image, instead of the other way around.

We often think of God in ways that make him less than 100% perfect? Did you ever think God wanted you to be unhappy, or that he was playing tricks on you, or that you were receiving a blessing but down the road you would have to pay for it? Do you ever have a hard time trusting God because deep down you feel like maybe he can't be trusted to work things out for your good? Anytime we think those kinds of things, we dishonor God. It is blasphemous to think and speak things about God that are not true.

We have to understand who God is before we can understand what he does. We cannot understand Christ's sacrifice, or our position in him until we understand who God is. He is 100% light, there is no darkness in him at all, no ulterior motives, no sneaky plot to ruin your life. He is 100% good, there is nothing bad or impure in him. He is 100% consistent, he always is who he always was and he will always be that way!

Walk in the light= fellowship with God & others
We sometimes have a hard time understanding what sin is, and why it is bad. We know there is such a thing as sin, we accept that and we try to live within those parameters, but we don't always understand the reason behind the rule. Simply put, sin destroys. It is death in some form. When we sin against God, we chip away at our relationship with him. When we sin against others, we injure our relationships with them. When we sin in any capacity, we begin to isolate ourselves.

Remember in the garden, when Adam and Eve sinned, first they hid from God, then they turned on each other, and even broke their relationship with creation. Walking in the light, in the way of God encourages and builds relationships, walking in darkness kills them. But we know we cannot possibly be perfect all the time. So, what is the solution?

For many people the solution is to put on the “Christian Mask” and pretend that they are walking in the light to maintain some semblance of fellowship. But John is saying here that those people are liars. If we walk in the darkness while claiming we have no sin, we are liars, and the truth is not in us. The solution is to confess our sin. It is to be open about our failure to measure up. When we confess our sin, we have opened the door to forgiveness, both from God and our brothers and sisters. It is so important to recognize our sin that John restates that if we claim to have never sinned we call God a liar and we reject his word.

Purpose: Don't Sin!
John tells us his purpose in clearing up the issue of obedience, it is so that we don't sin. John is saying, “Look, the reason I am writing to you about light and darkness, and the nature of God and his followers is so that you will take it and apply this teaching to your life, so that you will not sin.” But even in saying, “Don't sin” and in giving this teaching on light and darkness, John gives us a remedy for dealing with our failure.

He says, “don't sin, but if you do, there is a solution.” We have an advocate. We have an atoning sacrifice for our sin in the person of Jesus Christ. He atoned for our sins and the sins of the whole world. We are not alone in our sin problem, and we are not alone in having a solution. Jesus died for every sin that was ever committed and every sin that ever will be committed. If we sin the solution is simple, confess your sins and he is faithful and follows his own declaration of forgiveness in wiping those sins away permanently.

Evidence for his work in us= Obedience
In making these declarations about sin and light and darkness and forgiveness, John sets up a nice platform to discuss obedience. If we know that God is light with no darkness, and that fellowship with him is walking in the light, and that sin and darkness lead to lack of fellowship, and that there is an ongoing extension of forgiveness to us through Christ; then we can begin to discuss obedience.

If we didn't know God was good, how could we obey him? If we didn't know that walking in his ways brings fellowship with God and others, why obey him? If there was no hope of forgiveness when we fail, where could we find hope to attempt to obey him? That is why John lays out his discussion in this way. We know God is good, that makes him trustworthy. We know that if we walk in his light, we will find encouragement and joy in fellowship with him and others, that gives us a reason to obey. We know that there is an offer of forgiveness and restoration when we fail, that gives us hope in being able to follow through with our commitment to obedience.

John brings out the hard truth when he says that the evidence of God at work in our lives is obedience. If we claim to walk with God, but we don't obey him, we are not telling the truth. Is John talking about following and falling here? Does he mean that if we fail in our obedience we are not walking with Christ? No, he is not talking about perfection. Otherwise, he would have skipped the earlier part about having an advocate and forgiveness in Christ. Rather he is talking about obedience and disobedience as lifestyles.

Are you walking the path of obedience, seeking to follow Christ, or the path of disobedience seeking your own way? Obedience is the evidence of him at work in our lives, so every time we obey, we add to the list of evidence that we are walking with him. The only time we are in danger is if there is no evidence that we are walking with him. If there is no mark of obedience in our lives. If there is no place that we can point to active obedience then we are in danger of not being followers of Christ.

We find the summary of this teaching in verse 6“Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” It only makes sense, if we claim to live in Christ, to follow him, to walk in his way, our lives will show the evidence.

John's Instruction Nothing new- Love each other
John gives one major, or the major evidence of Christ at work within us, that of loving our brother. We have discussed many times the two greatest commandments, that hold up and support all the other commands and laws—Love God, Love Others. Jesus said, “A new command I give you, love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you must love one another. This is how the world will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” It is not a new command that John issues, it was Jesus' command, and is shown forth in all the laws that God had issued through Moses. But this is a new statement of that command, as a measuring stick of our obedience and therefore our fellowship with God.

If we love our brothers, John says the result will be greater spiritual fruit in our lives. We will be walking in the light. We will be able to see obstacles in our path and avoid them. If we do not love our brothers, we are walking in the darkness. We will not be able to see and we will stumble all over the place. Our love or lack of love for our brothers and sisters can either help or hurt our relationship with God! If you do not love them, you are disobeying God's number two commandment. If you are brazen enough to disobey his number two commandment how can you say that you love him? How can you possibly claim to be following him? It would be absurd.

Song of encouragement
John finishes this discussion with a word of encouragement. It comes in the form of a poem, or perhaps even a song. He reminds them of the reasons they have to rejoice. All who are children of God have had their sins forgiven. Those who are elders in the faith have had time to know Christ. Those who are young are strong in the faith and overcome the evil one. Again as children of God, they get to know the Father. The spiritual fathers have known Christ, and the young are strong in the faith, the word of God is alive in them and they have overcome the evil one.

Just like John finishes this section with encouragement, I want to encourage you. I want you to know that God is 100% good and trustworthy, you can obey him without fear. I want you to know that he is calling you to a life of walking with him, and that he has made it possible for you to do that through Christ. I want you to know that even if you feel like you have failed or fallen short that there is hope—God extends to us grace and forgiveness and love when we fall.

I want this knowledge to encourage you as you walk with God through Christ, and to spur you on to obedience in every area of your life. God wants to shine his light on every part of you, to purify you completely so that you can walk in perfect fellowship with him and others. If you find yourself struggling with a particular area of obedience, I want to encourage you to pray and surrender that area of your life right now. If you are struggling with loving your neighbor, ask God to pour his love through you onto that person. Don't be surprised if he begins to show you ways in which to show love to that person in a tangible way. Ask God to shine his light on any dark places. Commit to obedience and ask for his Holy Spirit to empower you to follow through.

In this way we walk more in his light, we build up evidence for our fellowship with him, we show the world that we are his followers and God receives glory in our lives and in his church.

This Week's Schedule 1/31/10

2010-01-31T12:11:00.000-08:00

Wednesday February 3rd- Women's Book Study:

"What's So Amazing About Grace?" 6:30 pm

Saturday February 6th- Chili Supper Planning Meeting 9:30 am

Sunday February 7th-

Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship 10:30 am
Congregational Worship 10:45 am

This week's sermon: Testimony

2010-01-31T12:04:00.000-08:00

1 John 1:1-4; 5:13-21.

When we think of giving a testimony or witnessing, many of us think of certain methods for sharing the gospel that we learned in a class. There are the four spiritual laws, the wordless books, and other methods for giving people the facts about salvation. But those are not necessarily witnessing and testimony. When we look at those words, we find a definition of witness: an individual who, being present, personally sees or perceives a thing; a beholder, spectator, or eyewitness; and testimony: evidence, statement of a witness. These are primarily legal words. A witness is someone who has seen or experienced something, and testimony is what they give at a trial stating what they have seen or experienced. So those so-called witnessing tools and techniques only work when they are tied to what an individual has seen or experienced themselves.

This is John’s testimony to the believers about what he had seen and heard. He tells us the purpose for his testimony in two places, the beginning and the end. Every person who ever took speech class knows when you tell people something you should: tell them what you are going to say, say it, then tell them what you said. John in essence does that in this letter. He has a very clear beginning and ending section, that is what we are going to look at today: John’s testimony and the purpose for his testimony.

In the first verses of chapter 1, John gives us the very definition of witness and testimony. He is writing and testifying to what his own eyes have seen, what his ears have heard, and what he has touched with his hands. He is giving evidence and making a statement as to what he has witnessed. And he tells us in verses three and four the reason he gives this testimony: so that those who hear can be added to the fellowship. Some versions say “to make our joy complete,” and others ‘to make your joy complete.” I like the message version which says, “Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!” The purpose of giving testimony to what we have witnessed is to add people to the fellowship so that they can have joy and so that our joy will be multiplied.

For those who have not heard the gospel, we give testimony to what we have seen or heard so that they can become part of the fellowship of believers. For those who already believe, John says in chapter five, he gives his testimony so that they will be encouraged and strengthened. “So that you may know that you have eternal life.” And to give them confidence to pray, knowing that God hears and answers those prayers. John further encourages them to pray for each other, for believers who are tempted and sin. He distinguishes here between sin that leads to death and sin that does not. I am not sure anyone knows quite what the distinction is, other than as John indicates here “anyone born of God does not continue to sin,” or keep on sinning, living a lifestyle of sin, without repentance. John is summing up what he says throughout the rest of his letter that new life in Christ comes with transformation of our lifestyles. There is no flow chart given here as to when we cross over from sin that does not lead to death into sin that does, so safe rule of thumb is: if you know you are in sin, stop, repent, and seek the Lord’s will for your life. If you see a brother or sister in Christ struggling with sin, pray for them, even if you think what they are doing has gone past the line. We don’t know where the line is, so the best thing is to pray for God to get a hold of their hearts and bring them to repentance.

John finishes his summary by referring back to his discussion of the world and we will study that in a few weeks. The world, John says, is under the control of the evil one. As children of God, we need to recognize that our goals are in opposition to the world’s goals, our hearts should be set on God and not earthly pleasures, and we are not to be confused as to how we gain true, fulfilling, everlasting life. It comes from God, not from imitations.

So when we think about testimony, when we think about being witnesses—and Jesus himself gave us an imperative that we are to be his witnesses—we need to remember that our job is not to give people cold facts about salvation, but to share what we ourselves have seen, heard and experienced. This is something we do all the time when we experience or see something beneficial, we tell people about it. We tell our friends if we have found a gadget to make our lives easier or a cream that erases every wrinkle. This is how it should be with sharing what God has done for us. We do this so that others can join in the fellowship we have with God through his Son, Jesus Christ.

We also need to be about the business of sharing with each other where God is holding us up, how he is at work in our lives, and also where we have fallen short in seeking those imitations. If you purchased a computer that died within two days, you would be telling your friends to stay away from that computer or brand or software. We need to do the same with our brothers and sisters in Christ. As we find things in this world to be unfulfilling, or when we are taken in by false promises, we warn one another against falling into the same trap. We share with each other to strengthen and encourage one another to pray, to find ourselves and our satisfaction in God, and to be on alert for the world and its imitations.

Just think if we would put this into practice, how natural it would become to share our faith; how much stronger the body of Christ would be working together to love God, love people, and serve the world! What a witness and testimony that would be, an outward showing of evidence that God is at work in our lives, our families, and our churches.

This Week's Schedule 1/17/2010

2010-01-18T08:35:00.000-08:00

Monday January 18th Community Martin Luther King Jr. Service

Hosted by the Congregational Church
Community supper 6:00pm
Service 7:00pm

Tuesday January 19th Worship Planing Meeting 5:30pm

Wednesday January 20th Elder's Meeting 6:30 pm

Sunday January 24th Business Meeting Following Worship

Sunday January 24th-

Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship 10:30 am
Congregational Worship 10:45 am

Women's Book Study: What's So Amazing About Grace, Coming Wednesday January 27th!

This week's message: Transformation

2010-01-18T08:28:00.000-08:00

2 Corinthians 5:14-21
"14 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

The gospel—Good News—we preach is that God is at work transforming us to be like his son. In the beginning, God created man and woman in his image. When we sinned, that image was badly marred—sometimes to the point of being unrecognizable. But in Christ, God has made a way for us to be restored, reborn. He has made a way for us to once more bear his image in all that we say and do. He has recreated us, and we are being recreated at this very moment, if we will allow his Holy Spirit to work in us.

When I think of transformation, I think of the butterfly. This is a picture and image I want us to keep with us this week. No creature in nature undergoes the striking transformation that the caterpillar does. It begins as a worm-like creature, crawls on it’s belly on the ground. The closest it gets to the heavens is if it finds a particularly high plant and inches it’s way to the top. The caterpillar was not created to stay on the ground, it was made to fly. But no one would ever believe its destination seeing it in its beginning stages of life.

Then something happens, some cue of chemistry that the caterpillar makes a cocoon or chrysalis and disappears. We don’t know what is happening in that shell. We may not understand all of the processes involved, but this is the moment of transformation. Just like the scriptures today tell us we have been made a new creation. Sometimes we can’t see it. What we know of ourselves is what we were before we entered into salvation, before we were wrapped in that cocoon. But something begins to happen in us and slowly we see changes. Sometimes those changes are on the inside, hidden for the most part from the outside world like the newly forming butterfly is hidden away in the cocoon.

Then, all at once something changes again. The chrysalis rocks back and forth, we see a small opening. There are legs where once there were none. There are antennae where once there was a smooth head. Then out pops a creature totally unrecognizable to it’s former self. It is a butterfly. Now it can reach its potential, now it can touch the sky. This is the transformation God wants to produce in the life of everyone you know.

If you have accepted Christ as your savior and you are allowing his Holy Spirit to work in your life, this transformation—believe it or not—is already taking place in your life. God wants to do the same in the lives of every person in the whole world. This is why it is so important that we are God’s ambassadors to the world crying out, “Be reconciled to God.” No matter what condition their life is in, God sent his son to die for them so that they could be restored and reborn and refashioned into the thing he has always planned for them to be.

God did not create us to crawl the earth, miserable and never getting off the ground. He made us to fly and to touch the heavens even as we live out our lives on the earth. So let him transform you. Let him remake you through the renewing of your mind. Let him purify your heart and your motives. Let him do the work in you that he is longing to complete. If you have accepted Christ, the process has begun, let him finish it so that you can soar on beautiful wings and touch the lives of others.

This Week's Sermon: Consecration

2010-01-11T07:33:00.000-08:00

Matthew 3.

In this chapter we read about John the Baptist and his preparation for the coming Messiah and we read about Jesus coming to the river to be consecrated at the start of his ministry. From our Western, gentile perspective we see John holding his penitents and dunking them in the river to wash away their sins. It is what we have seen and our experience becomes our vision of events in the New Testament. Unfortunately, when this happens we miss out on a rich understanding of what is really occurring at this moment in the story.

If we lay aside our contemporary experience and return to the first century we find that "baptism" is not what we picture. John was a Jew, Jesus was a Jew. Their viewpoints and expression of their faith would have uniquely Jewish. Many are surprised to learn that baptism simply means immersion. It is a Greek word for something that doesn't translate well from the Hebrew--Mikvah.

Mikvah was a common ritual at the time of Christ, and for many Orthodox Jews remains so today. There is a daily mikvah practiced by some before morning prayers, a weekly mikvah before the sabbath, and a monthly mikvah for women following their time of separation. Apart from these calendar-based mikvahs were special times of consecration for individuals as well as objects. In the context of this chapter, John was calling people to repent of their sins and undergo a mikvah for consecration following repentance. According to common practice, John would never have touched those coming to the waters, but simply stood as a witness to their self-immersion as an act of renewed commitment to hear and obey God's word.

In the tradition of mikvah washing, an individual will remove everything, even dead skin and extra fingernail and toenail length so that the water will touch every part of their body. The individual is not coming for physical cleansing, in fact that is done prior to entering the mikvah. Instead it is an invitation to the divine to touch every part of a person's life. It is a surrender to the divine will and a laying down of self. It is a renewed commitment and consecration to be set apart for the purposes of God.

As Jesus comes, John naturally protests, knowing that Jesus is not in need of repentance and so says that in reality, Jesus should be the one witnessing John's mikvah, not the other way around. Jesus responds that it is necessary to fulfill all righteousness. There is another mikvah, that of priests before they serve in the temple. Jesus, by observing this tradition and consecrating himself, prepares for his earthly and eternal ministry as our High Priest. And something wonderful happens as Jesus observes this earthly ritual, God sends his Spirit as a dove and surrounds him with his presence and utters "This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased." As Jesus completes his earthly mikvah, God pours out his Spirit in a heavenly mikvah.

As Friends we do not have an earthly baptism tradition to uphold. Instead we focus on the internal, spiritual washing of a person's soul. I encourage you to seek this internal mikvah. Surrender yourself to the divine will and allow him to wash over you with his Spirit. But know that those who came for physical mikvah without having first repented were called out by John to be a "brood of vipers." God is not fooled by outward signs and rituals. He sees our hearts. Come to him as a penitent, having repented of your weakness and inability to attain perfection on your own. Then you may be washed and consecrated for his purpose.

**For more information on the tradition of Mikvah, follow the link.

Weekly Schedule 1/10/10

2010-01-11T07:29:00.000-08:00

Sunday January 17th-

Regular Schedule
Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship 10:30 am
Congregational Worship 10:45 am

Looking Ahead--
Wednesday January 20th Elder's Meeting

Sunday January 24th Business Meeting Following Worship

Women's Book Study: What's So Amazing About Grace, Coming Wednesday January 27th!

This Week's Schedule 12/13/09

2009-12-15T09:29:00.000-08:00

Sunday December 20th-

Christmas Celebration
No Sunday School
Congregational Worship 10:00 am
Brunch to Follow!

Looking Ahead! Sunday December 27th-

Regular Schedule
Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship 10:30 am
Congregational Worship 10:45 am

Women's Book Study: What's So Amazing About Grace, Coming in January!

This Week's Sermon: Love Your Neighbor

2009-12-15T09:23:00.000-08:00

The Parable of the Good Samaritan- Luke 10:25-28
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

Who is my neighbor? It is the question asked by the expert in the Law. It is the question each of us asks when God tells us that we need to do something. We always want to know how far we are required to take it. Like Peter with his question of how many times he needed to forgive his brother. Like the Pharisees who asked, “Can’t we divorce our wives for any and every reason?” When given a law, we want to know where the line is. So our friend, the expert in the Law asks, “Who is my neighbor?”

He wanted to see who exactly he was required to love, and this is an interesting response by Jesus. The man asks a simple question. Jesus could have responded with a simple answer, “Everyone is your neighbor.” But he does not answer that way, instead he tells a story. We have heard this story before, and many times the focus is on how we should love everyone and be willing to help those in need. I want to take a little twist on that focus this morning.

Many know of the racial tension between Samaritans and Jews, it is seen as a clash of cultures. Here is what we don’t get in our modern reading of this passage. Samaritans were not just of a different culture, they were considered unclean. They were considered idolaters and those who would pervert the true worship of the One God. Jews saw them as so unholy, they would not even speak to them. That is why the Samaritan woman at the well was so surprised that Jesus would talk to her. Not only was he a Jew and she a Samaritan, but He was a man and she was a woman. On top of all of that, Jesus a clean Jewish man was asking her, an unclean Samaritan woman for a drink. It was a double breaking of tradition and ceremonial cleanliness laws.

I don’t know if there is even a good comparison of the relationship of the Samaritans and the Jews today with Christians. I know a pastor friend of mine was debating how to express this giant rift between the Jews and Samaritans and he considered for a modern parable substituting the Samaritan with a member of Al Queda, or a homosexual couple. Those may be shocking comparisons for some of us, but I think that what Jesus sad in this story was supposed to be shocking. Jesus was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” He told this story.

A Jewish man is walking down the road, gets jumped by thieves and we see the Priest come by. He is not willing to be a neighbor. He passes by on the other side, too concerned with cleanliness to come near blood and possibly a dead body. So multiple choice answer A is off the table. This is shocking because Priests are those offering sacrifices, serving in the temple, handling sacred objects and privy to all the inner workings of the sacrificial system. They are clean, holy guys with important work to do. But this is not the person Jesus says to imitate.

So we see the Levite come by. Levites were set apart unto God. They served in the temple from age 30 to age 50, some were priests others managed day to day affairs. The Levite comes by and passes by on the other side as well. Some could argue that the Priest has to keep himself ceremonially clean so that he can do his job in the temple. You could feasibly make an excuse for him, but the Levite is not a Priest. He has a job to do, but it is not nearly as integral as the Priest’s, and yet, here he is forsaking his brother Jew and crossing to the other side of the road. Multiple choice answer B is out as well. Jesus is saying, “You may expect me to tell you the Priests and Levites are your examples for neighborliness, but in this case they are not.” These men left a person to die because he might make them unclean.

Then here comes the Samaritan. Samaritans were the villains in the story. If they had first century melodramas, this would be where everyone would go, “boo-hiss!” The Samaritan, hated and despised and shunned by the Jews, comes by and picks up this wounded man. He binds his wounds, he puts him on his own donkey, walks him out of the way to an inn, pays for his care and promises more if the bill exceeds the payment. Multiple choice answer C wins again. I don’t know if we can grasp this story. The Samaritan in the story, the unspiritual and idolatrous enemy, is the example we are to follow.

Jesus asks the religious expert, “Who was this man’s neighbor?” The expert of the Law can’t even bring himself to say the word “Samaritan.” Instead he says, “The one who had mercy on him.” He can’t wrap his mind around the answer. This is not the way that religious stories are supposed to go. The good guy is the Priest, the bad guy—the Samaritan. It’s Heroes and Villains. It should be an easy answer. Your neighbor is the person like you. We expect Jesus to say, your neighbor is any good person in your church or your family or your town or country who shares your faith and values. But that is not what Jesus says. Jesus asks the question, “Who acted as a neighbor to this man?” He does not ask, “Who should this man be a neighbor to in the future?” Jesus is not asking the religious expert to be a neighbor to Samaritans, worse, he asks him to place himself in the shoes of the Samaritan. Jesus does not ask him to love the one he hated before because he thought the man was unclean.

Jesus is asking him to consider this Samaritan and all he would have to overcome to be a neighbor to the Jewish man. The Samaritan knew that the Jewish man probably hated him. He knew that his act of kindness may be misinterpreted and misunderstood. He knew he would never get a thank you card for helping. The Samaritan, the outcast, the discarded person in this story becomes the hero that Jesus tells us to emulate. It is not enough to go to those we have disliked and help them. We must go to those who hate us. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when you are insulted, persecuted, and slandered because of me.” Jesus says, “Love your enemies, so that you can be perfect like your Father in heaven.” Jesus says, “Go and be like this Samaritan and show unbelievable kindness to those who insult, persecute, and slander you.”

To us today, Jesus might say we are to love the terrorists. He may say we are to show kindness to those who are antagonistically atheist. He would definitely tell us that we are to be like that Samaritan—loving, caring, going beyond the call of duty, going out of our way to help those who are hateful toward us, whoever that might be. Not those we consider enemies, but those who consider us to be their enemies. That is who we are to love. That is who is included in Jesus’ command to love our neighbor. It is the extreme case of crazy, sold-out devotion and love for God. Loving those we don’t like, or those we have a grudge against, or those who have wronged us is a given. That is just a starting place. But we know that Jesus calls us above the status quo, beyond the elementary stages of devotion to be completely consumed by the same kind of love he has for us. Romans 5:8-10 tells us that while we were enemies of God—while we despised him—he loved us enough to bridge the gap between us with the death of his only son. It is that love we are to have for others. It is that love Jesus shows here in this parable of the Good Samaritan: the love that gives sacrificially on behalf of the one who hates us.

This is not a feel good sermon. It was not a feel good parable. It is, instead a stark contrast to the way we think things ought to be. It turns our world upside down and asks the impossible of us. But Jesus tells the story anyway. He does so knowing that the only way we can love like this is with the love he himself pours into our lives. We can only love like Jesus if we have given him our hearts, our souls, our minds, and our strength. Surrendering to God produces in us love for our fellow man, even those who are our enemies, even those who consider us to be their enemies. To love those who hate and persecute is the love of Christ lived out in our lives. I challenge you to so surrender your lives to Christ that he can bring about this transformation in your hearts and lives today.

This Week's Schedule 12/6/09

2009-12-07T08:51:00.000-08:00

Monday & Tuesday December 7th-8th-

Emporia Public School's Seasonal Celebration

William Allen White Auditorium 7:30 pm

Wednesday December 9th-

Friends Women Christmas Brunch
9:00 am at Mildred's
Bring $2 gift, Goodie Plate items, and your Name The Store entry!

Sunday December 13th-

Family Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship with refreshments 10:30 am
Worship 10:45 am

Looking Ahead! Sunday December 20th-

Christmas Celebration
No Sunday School
Congregational Worship 10:00 am
Brunch to Follow!

This week's sermon: Love God with All Your Strength

2009-12-07T08:41:00.000-08:00

Luke 12:22-34.

There once was a father who wanted some quiet time so that he could read the paper. His daughter Vanessa, however wanted her father’s attention because she was bored. Finally, he tore a sheet out of his magazine on which was printed a map of the world. Tearing into small pieces he gave it and some clear tape to Vanessa and said, “Go into the other room and see if you can put this together.” He thought surely he would now have time to finish his article in peace.

After only a few minutes, Vanessa returned and handed him the map correctly fitted together. The father was surprised knowing his daughter did not have great knowledge about geography, and asked how she had finished so quickly. “Oh,” she said, “on the other side of the paper is a picture of Jesus. When I got Jesus in His place, then the world came out all right on the other side.”

We have been talking about the greatest commandments: Loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength; and loving our neighbors as ourselves. This week we are focusing on Loving God with all our strength. To love God fully, all of our labor and energy must belong to him. Let’s turn to Luke 12 :22-34 and see what Jesus has to say about the matter.

Luke 12:22-31 [pp -- Mt 6:25-33] 22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? 27 "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. 32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

You will see that as we study this command to love God with all that we are, that the areas of our lives that need to be surrendered to him overlap, they don’t stand alone. In this passage, Jesus talks about not worrying which is a product of the mind and heart working together. He talks about our value to God, our core identity—our souls—being placed in his hands. He talks about considering and pondering the world around us and how God is at work in caring for the simplest creatures—which requires our minds to be focused on Him. Jesus is giving instruction on surrendering all those parts to God right here in this one scripture passage.

He also shows us what it looks like for those areas of our lives to be out of alignment with God’s will—worry, and fear producing people who run around crazy trying to make sure they have enough food and shelter and clothing. All of these things, Jesus says, his Father will provide as we seek his kingdom.

Too often we see the world, which is pagan apart from God, running after food and drink. You can observe this in just a little tv-watching. Many commercials are geared toward this drive, whether they are for restaurants, junk food, soda, beer, or sports drinks. We see it in the epidemic of obesity our country is facing on one side, and equally disturbing eating disorders depriving the body of nourishment on the other. We can see it surfing tv channels or on the internet, whole channels devoted to displaying recipes we will never fix and internet sites with millions of tips on getting things just right. The world chases after food.

Now, Jesus is not saying that meal planning or grocery shopping is bad. He means, don’t let it consume your life. Don’t become a slave to gourmet food or junk food or healthy food or even dieting. Food is there to serve life, not the other way around. This is one of the reasons that God calls his people to fast, or abstain from food for a time. It is in the holy habit of fasting that we learn that God is our strength (Psalm 118:14). If we live our lives obsessed with food, we will miss out on all that God has planned for us.

Another area we see the world obsessing over is clothing and shelter. Just walk past the magazine rack and you will see countless articles on what is hot this season in fashion. Walking down the same isle, you will also see row upon row of decorating magazines. These magazines are not produced because the editors think it’s fun, they are produced to feed a desire in many people to wear the best or live in the best, most fashionable way.

Again, Jesus is not saying, don’t wear nice clothes or live in nice houses. He is telling us not be consumed by what we wear or where we live. If we have clothes and shelter, we need to be content. If we let fashion and trends control our lives and resources we will miss out on all that God has planned for us. Psalm 127 says this: 1 Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. 2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat-- for he grants sleep to those he loves.

When we are busy chasing the things of the world, we live frantic, worry-filled lives. Jesus says, "Come to me you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest." Many times we are weary and carrying heavy burdens because we are chasing things that do not satisfy or will not last. Jesus says in our main text, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom." God does not want us to live deprived, he wants us to live an abundant and fulfilled life. We find this fulfillment in Him.

I don’t just want to tell you things not to do, and neither did Jesus. He said, instead of letting all these things consume your life, producing worry and fear, seek first the kingdom of God and trust that God will provide adequate food and shelter, clothing and all the things you need for living your life to build his kingdom. We are promised that as we are faithful to use what God has given us to build his kingdom, God will provide for us. Philippians 4:19 “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

Loving God with all our strength is giving him all of our means of influence, whether that be our ability to work, our community influence, our money and resources—everything that we can use to make a change in the world around us. We can make a choice to do that today instead of letting our work, our influence, our money and resources be dominated by an obsession over food, drink, clothing and shelter. God wants to give us rest and peace in our lives, this comes from giving him our entire lives, all our resources offered up to him--not to be deprived, but to walk in peace. Just like that little girl putting together the picture of the world, if we can get Jesus in the right place, everything else will come together as well. Choose to give him your strength today and receive his rest in return.

Weekly Schedule 11/29/09

2009-11-30T08:22:00.000-08:00

Tuesday December 1st-No women's group

Sunday December 6th-

Family Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship with refreshments 10:30 am
Worship 10:45 am

Area Christmas Dinner & Auction to benefit Hispanic Ministries
5:00 at Hesper Friends Church
Carpoolers will leave the church between 2:30 and 3:00

This week's sermon: Love God with all your mind

2009-11-30T08:08:00.000-08:00

Colossians 3:1-17, Building on this new foundation of love

Last time we talked about having the right foundation for our lives- loving God with all of our souls. Today I want to move on to talk about what is standing on the top of that foundation. Today's section of the great commandment is: love the Lord your God with all of your mind. Our text this morning comes from Colossians chapter 3 verse 1 to verse17.
We must have a new mindset/way of thinking. We must put off the old. Paul says to set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. We died to these things, and have put on Christ. You can not put the old house on the new foundation without change in the structure to realign the house. It can be a messy process with cracked and broken plaster, but a sound structure must be more important than the old comfortable ways of living.

We must put on the new. This putting on of the new is due to the fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit. What are the fruits of the spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control; more than half of the fruits of the Spirit are here in verse 12. The Holy Spirit working in us produces the remodeling our lives need now that they stand on this new foundation of identity in Christ.

We must have a new understanding formed by Christ. Verse 10--Being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Our minds are skewed, but they did not start out that way. Paul says our minds need to be set right, back to the way they were before the fall. Romans 12:2--Being transformed by the renewing of your minds. The remodeling of our lives begins in the heart by giving it to Christ, continues in the soul as we identify ourselves with him, and goes further in the mind by transforming us from the inside out.

Part of that transformation on our part is to let God's word become a part of our daily lives. Verse 16--Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Paul does not say to let it come and go in your life, but to dwell, abide and make a home in you. Once that word is there, it begins to make changes in your thought patterns and the way you look at the world around you. It starts to renew your mind as the Holy Spirit remodels your life.

If you are not being renewed by these things, be assured that your mind is being revamped by other sources. Yeast is the Active ingredient in bread. Better said it is the Driving Force behind the action in the dough. Without a driving force there is no action. In our lives there can be more than one kind of driving force. We need to be careful, then what kind of Yeast we are allowing in our lives.

One of the drawbacks of yeast is that, although it is a very powerful catalyst, its results are not instant. We can not just put the yeast in and bake the bread expecting it to come out all fluffy. Many times it is impossible to tell if the yeast is working until the allotted time for rising has passed. So it may appear that the bad yeast, in this case bad thoughts, we added will not hinder us in our walk with Christ. Unfortunately, another characteristic of yeast is that it penetrates every part of the dough. So we can not just say, I am only going to add this yeast to this part of my life. It is either all or nothing.

This applies to both good and bad yeast. (Mt. 16:5-12) Jesus warns his disciples not to let the yeast of the Pharisees’ false teachings into their hearts because he knew that those teachings would slowly work their way through their entire lives. (I Co. 5:6-8) The bad attitudes and other sinful thoughts that we allow into our minds affect every part of our lives, not just certain areas. (Mt.13:33 & footnote in Study Bible) The good news is that Kingdom yeast will also fill and dominate our entire lives.

When our lives are being renewed, we find that we must have a new method of decision making. Verse 17--Whatever you do, do it in the name of Jesus. We start making decisions based on God's will, not ours. Romans 12:2--So that you may know God's will-good, pleasing and perfect--for your life. This decision making process is no longer being shaped by the warped foundation of the old self. Rather it is being restored to its proper alignment by the new foundation in Christ.

In Jesus Parable of Wise and Foolish Builders the only difference between the two houses was the foundation. What foundation are you building on, the warped, crumbling foundation of your human nature, or a fresh level foundation on the Solid Rock? Love God by giving him all of your mind today. Let his Holy Spirit come in and begin to remodel and rebuild the damaged insides warped by years of living off-level. Allow his word to become at home in your life and experience renewal in your thoughts, understanding, and decision making. Don't wait, this remodeling can begin at any time.

Weekly Schedule

2009-11-22T16:05:00.001-08:00

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Sunday November 29th-

Family Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship with refreshments 10:30 am
Worship 10:45 am
Hanging of the Greens
(Decorating the Church for the Advent/Christmas Season)
Following the service with Soup and Sandwich lunch afterwards

This week's sermon: Love God with all your soul

2009-11-22T15:56:00.000-08:00

I Samuel 17.
We have been looking closer at what Jesus said was the greatest command, summing up the Law and the Prophets. We talked two weeks ago about loving God with all of our hearts. Well, today we are looking at the next part of the greatest commandment, love the Lord your God with all of your soul.

What do we mean when we say soul? Well, the word used in the New Testament is psyche. It means literally the life, or the being. In essence, the soul is the deepest part of who we are. It is the foundation of our identity. This is what Jesus is telling us to love God with. He is saying love the Lord your God with all of who you are, with your very identity. Today I want to talk about identity, and how it affects our lives.

Identity is such an important contributor to our every day lives. Every decision we make will be influenced by who we are, or who we have come to believe we are. There is a difference between our identity and who we think we are. You could be the greatest king, but if you think you are a poor man you will never act the part of your true identity. The story we will read this morning is full of people confused about who they really are. Their identity, the very foundation of their lives is in question.

Our main text this morning is I Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath. You will find that as we look at the Greatest Commandment, we will use passages that are familiar, Sunday school stories. I find that the reason these kinds of texts are used in Sunday school lessons is that they are full of fundamental principles of faith. The situation we find ourselves in is this, the Philistines are drawn up for battle on one hill, opposite them are the Israelites with Saul as their king. The valley between them is standing by to become a battlefield drenched in the blood of both armies.

I want you to picture yourself in that Israelite camp. You see this nine-foot-tall monster of a man wearing great heavy armor come out and issue you a personal challenge to come fight him one on one. That would be enough to have all of us running in fear. But one thing I want to draw your attention to is this, Goliath says to them, “Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul?” Goliath challenges them as servants of Saul. This is the identity that the Israelites are functioning with. They had forgotten who they were—Not Saul’s servants, but the Children of God! They had forgotten that they were not fighting to defend "their land" rather God's Promised Land. They had identified themselves with an earthly king instead of an eternal God

The next verses tell us about David. He had brothers fighting and had been sent to check on them, and bring them supplies. He hears Goliath’s challenge and is outraged. Let’s read verse 26. “David asked the men standing near him, ‘What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?’" David knew that they were the children of God—who did Goliath think he was defying the armies of the Living God? David knew that as children of God, they were under his protection. David knew this because he had a relationship with God as his foundation—David had his identity stamped with God’s seal of ownership.

So, David goes out and asks around about how he can go fight this Goliath. Saul hears him and brings him into his tent for a little chat. Saul saw only an in inexperienced boy; David knew God had protected him before. Saul saw an insurmountable enemy; David knew God was bigger than any enemy. Saul saw only conventional ways of doing battle; David knew God could use him just as he was. David shrugged off the armor that did not fit who God had made him to be, and took what he was used to: rocks and a sling, and went to fight the nine-foot-tall Philistine.

God was there with David, his child. God had planned a victory for his people. God used David just as he was to gain that victory.

Our identity is so crucial to our decision making. It is like the foundation of a house. Do you remember the parable Jesus told of the wise and foolish builders? The difference between which house fell, and which stood was the foundation. Our reaction to everyday events is determined by this sense of who we are and where our foundation is. Every decision we make about life and risk taking is determined by this sense of who we are. If you need examples how about phrases like this, have you ever heard: “You can’t treat me this way, I’m an American Citizen!” “I can do what I want because my daddy is ____”

What about politicians who make all their decisions based on their identity in one party or another. Or people finding their identity in the roles they play: parents, children, employees, employers, blue-collar, white-collar, basketball star, cheerleader. It is not wrong to be any of these things, but at the end of the day all of what I have listed here is temporary. All of these identities can be lost. Ask a parent who has lost their children; a spouse who has lost their partner, people standing in the unemployment lines, or business owners forced to close up shop. Sports players age and get injured, all of it is so fragile. If we base our identities on these roles we play, we can find ourselves lost when the rug is pulled out from under our feet.

Where is your foundation today? Where does your sense of confidence and safety lie? Are you trusting in chariots, or are you trusting in the name of the Lord? When we find our identity in him first, then we can stand even if all the other hats we wear get swept away. If you don’t know where your foundation lies, ask yourself these questions. How do I react in stressful situations? Do I react with fear, or confidence? Am I devastated, or do I see hope? Where is your foundation? Ask the Lord to help you build your foundation, your identity on him.

We start by giving him our whole heart, and follow that by trusting him with our very soul, our entire self. We follow it up with reading and knowing what his word says about who we are. We are his creation. We are his children, co-heirs with Christ if we have accepted his salvation. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are the body of Christ to minister to each other and those around us as long as we remain on this earth. We have to let our soul be shaped by who he says we are, or we will fall for the lies that surround us.

Those voices that tell us we are not enough, but the truth is that God is our sufficiency. The voices say we are too fat/thin/short/tall/quiet/outgoing to be loved and used by God, but the truth is that God says, “I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, child, you are mine.” The scriptures are full of God telling us over and over again the truth about who we are, and who he is. We need to step out in faith and trust that what he says is true. That is how we love him with all our soul. It is his desire for you and me, and he will give us the strength to carry it through.

Weekly Schedule 11/15/09

2009-11-16T07:46:00.001-08:00

Tuesday November 17th-

9:30 am Friends Women Missionary Fellowship

6:30 pm Women's Group

Sunday November 22nd-

NEW! Family Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship Time 10:30 am
Worship 10:45 am

You are welcome to join us for any and all aspects of our worship and fellowship this Sunday!

This Week's Schedule 11/08/09

2009-11-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

Tuesday November 10th- 9:00 am Ladies Cleaning Kitchen part II

6:30 pm Elder's Meeting

Wednesday November 11th- Worship planning meeting 5:15 pm

Sunday November 15th- Thanksgiving Meal Following Morning Worship!

NEW! Family Sunday School 9:30 am
Fellowship Time 10:30 am
Worship with Missions Speakers Michael and KK Linville 10:45 am
Thanksgiving Meal!

Join us for any and all aspects of our worship and fellowship this Sunday!

This Week's Sermon: Love God with ALL Your Heart

2009-11-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

Genesis 22:1-18
We are exploring this commandment that Jesus said was the greatest, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength," and the second greatest, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus said in Mark 12 that these commands are the sum of the Law and the Prophets, in another gospel it says all the Law and Prophets hang on these two commands. That means the whole Bible, all of God's written word, is there to show us how to do these two things, or in some cases how to not go about loving God and neighbor, or even why we should bother. Today we are exploring the first part of Jesus command on how to love God: Love the lord your God with all your heart.

What does it mean to love? We talked last week about how it is not a fuzzy feeling. This love we are called to is a choice. Jesus says in John 14:15 that this love shows itself in obedience. 1 Corinthians 13 gives us a whole list of the characteristics of godly love. And we know that Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 that giving of ourselves is our acceptable act of worship. Loving God with all our hearts means giving him our whole heart, not holding anything back.

Our text this morning is Genesis 22:1-18. This is a familiar Bible story about God calling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering. This story is given a bad reputation sometimes, but it is really not about Divinely sanctioned child abuse or God on a power trip. This is an account of God testing Abraham's love for God above all else. Note in the first verses of this chapter that it says that God was testing Abraham. This was just a test. Like most tests of our faith, this one was designed to speak more to Abraham than to God. God knew Abraham's heart, Abraham needed to know the content of his heart as well.

God says to Abraham, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you LOVE" and sacrifice him to me. Isaac was the fulfillment of God's promise. The promise belonged to God, not to Isaac or to Abraham. And Abraham somewhere had fallen into the danger of holding this gift closer than the giver. God calls Abraham on his dangerous condition when he emphasizes Abraham's love for his son. In essence God is asking, "Abraham, do you love me or do you love what I do for you?" It was a test of Abraham's priorities, and what held first place in his heart.

We see Abraham's obedience, and God's provision, just as Abraham had stated to Isaac, "God will provide the lamb for sacrifice." Abraham returned to God his gift, and God gave it back. Isaac had been a gift from God, now he was a double gift. And God tells Abraham that because he showed his love by not holding back the most precious thing in his life, God could bless all nations through his offspring.

So what does this have to do with us? Anyone have God tell them to sacrifice their children as a burnt offering? If so, please see me, or a psychiatrist, or walk in at your local police station. God does not ask this routinely. The story of Abraham and Isaac was a one time deal. But just because God is not asking us to sacrifice our children does not mean we don't have things in our lives that pose potential road-blocks to our total surrender to God.

There is a big temptation in our lives to dish out pieces of our heart to the people and things we love. Like a pie, if we start giving some away, thinking we'll give God the rest we won't have much to lay on the altar. We give a piece to our spouse; one to our children; one to other family. Pieces go to our friends; our job; our house or car or that boat we've been wanting. And of course it wouldn't be right to give it all away without keeping a piece for ourselves. Pretty soon we find ourselves with just a sliver of heart left to give to God. But this is not what Jesus meant when he said love the Lord your God with all of your heart. It wasn't give God what is left of your heart, but all of it.

An amazing thing happens when we decide to give God our hearts, though. It might be a scary thing, but if we will step out in faith, we find that God does not take our hearts and leave us without love for anyone else. Quite the contrary, we give God our whole heart and all our love, and he gives it back filled with his overflowing, never-running-out, eternal and infinite love. We find we have more love for our families, because we love them with God's love. We have more love for our friends, because we love them with God's love. We even find love for our enemies because we love them not with the puny love of our own natural hearts, but with the all-encompassing love of God.

So I challenge you today to give God your whole heart. It starts with a decision to surrender your heart to him, without holding anything back. It is followed through and proven in your life by obedience; doing what he calls you to do. It shows itself in your character as you live a life full of patience, kindness, humility and love in your relationships with others. Give God your whole heart and see his love pour out into your life, and through you to others.

This Week's Sermon: ThanksGIVING!

2009-11-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

We have talked a lot in the last three years about the Christian life; about the basic things that God requires of us; about Jesus' declaration of the two principles that are the foundation of the Old Testament Law and Prophets. One place that this is recorded is Mark chapter 12.

Mark 12:28-34
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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 this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

Jesus said that two things are necessary to fulfill the law: Love God, and Love Others. We like that. It is nice, it makes us feel good, and it is true. But I wonder if we have a good understanding of what it means to Love God and Love Others. We are going to begin a study of these previous verses. We are going to look closer at what it means to Love God with all we are and Love Others as ourselves.

Sometimes we think that Love is a fuzzy feeling. We should have a positive attitude towards God. This is good, but incomplete. I can have a positive attitude toward you and feel all fuzzy inside, but still not do what is best for you. We can feel good about God, but not be willing to obey him. Love in it's simplest form is one person saying to another, I will give of myself to you.

Romans 12:1 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship." Our appropriate response to who God is, our worship of him is defined by Paul as giving our lives to him to use fully and completely. As fully and completely as one would give an offering to be burnt on the altar of sacrifice. Once that offering is there on the altar, it is on fire, it is consumed and there is no take backs. Paul says our spiritual act of worship that is acceptable before God is giving him our lives so completely we see them as lost to our own agendas and plans and purposes; and completely given over to God's agenda, his purpose and plan.

So fundamentally to Love God with all we are means to give our entire self to him as a sacrificial offering. To love our neighbor also requires us to give. James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." The religion that God accepts, the practice of our faith that pleases God, is to look after those in need. To see that children are taken care of, and that those who are unable to care for themselves are cared for, and that those who are unable to provide for their own support are supported. To care for orphans and widows—those who in Jame's time were completely and utterly alone.

As individuals this thought of giving of ourselves to others and to God may be a familiar theme. But what does it mean for our church body to surrender not only our individual lives, but our whole church—our property, our income, our services, our programs, our fellowship time, everything—to God and to give of ourselves to others? What does that mean for us as a church?

2Corinthians 8:1-15
And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will. So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.
But just as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us--see that you also excel in this grace of giving. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter: Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little." [Exodus 16:18]

Do you remember the extraordinary ways God has provided for us this year? I do. I remember the Lord providing for a new parsonage roof. I remember the Lord providing every penny of expense for my trip to Burundi. I look at our budget sheets from this year and see not a dip in giving, but an increase in spite of the economy being in a crisis. Some people get nervous when we talk about giving, but I get excited because I know that the provision is from God.

The ability to give is supplied through his riches, not mine, not yours. He supplies our needs and he gives to us abundantly so that we can share with those in need. We do that in some ways in our church. Our Friends Women Missionary Fellowship gives to the rescue mission. We give our Shiloh noisy offering. And some give to the Lyon County Restricted Emergency Fund. These are all great. I want to encourage you, but I know that even in this giving, we have not given to the point of sacrifice, which probably means we could all give more. I include myself in this. So I want to issue you a challenge. I want you to begin praying with me. Let's seek God together and ask what it is he has for us as a church to give to him or to those around us. If God leads you to do something specific on your own, do it! I want you to pray, and if God leads you to something specific for our church to do, share it with our church family so we can pray about how to put it into action.

We need to be about the business of pouring ourselves out in love to God and to those around us. In doing so we fulfill the great commandments. We fulfill the law of love.

This week's sermon: Are You Willing?

2009-10-12T07:57:00.001-07:00

Isaiah 6; Mark 10:17-31.
Second Week of Missions Month: Whom shall we send? And who will go for us?

The question is really, “Who is willing?” It is the same question posed by the story of the Rich man. The question was whether he was willing to go the next step and leave his source of comfort—his wealth—and put his trust in God to provide as he followed Christ. Was he willing to go? He walked away sad and we don’t know if he ever came back to follow Christ or if he lived out his life in empty pursuit of wealth.

Jesus explains to his disciples that it is hard for those with wealth to enter the kingdom--easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. We all have wealth and possessions. Even the poorest among us in the United States of America has the opportunity of a roof over their head and at least one meal a day. By the world's standards that is security. And security is hard to give up. Jesus reassures the questioners "Who then can be saved?!" by reminding them that nothing is impossible with God.

Peter pipes up on behalf of the disciples saying. “We have already left everything to follow you.” Peter was looking for the gold star. He in effect is saying that the disciples are willing. They have left everything. They are following Jesus. And Jesus gives him an answer in his seeking for a reward. Jesus says that no one who has given up all of this list of things will receive them back a hundred times—along with persecution. The earthly reward for following Jesus, it seems, is to suffer. We don’t like to think about that. We want to stop where it says we will receive everything back, we don’t want to think about the persecutions that come with it. But on the other side of all the sacrifice, all the restoration, all the persecution is eternal life in the age to come. So the reward is bitter sweet, but the final destination is worth it.

Jesus closes his conversation here with the statement that “Many who are first will be last and the last first.” In making that declaration, Jesus refocuses our attention on the fact that those who think they are ahead—like the rich man—may end up last if we do not stop to consider our attachment to worldly things. Are we willing to leave it all and follow him? Are we willing to go? Are we willing to give up whatever God asks, holding loosely to what we have to be available for his purpose?

Could we give up some comfort for the sake of the kingdom? It is nice to have a roof over our heads, it is nice to have running water, it is nice to have electricity. It is really nice to have a little box on the wall to set the exact temperature we want our homes to remain. Are we willing to set our thermostats a little lower, be a little uncomfortable, and give the difference to missions? Are we willing to walk instead of drive and give the difference to those who are really in need? Are we willing to lay down our desire for absolute comfort to be obedient to build the kingdom of God?

God is asking, “Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?” Are we ready to lay down our plans, our goals, our possessions to follow him and be his message-bearers to a world that is in darkness? Who will go? Examine your heart and ask the Lord to reveal to you the things you are holding onto that may keep you from responding “Here am I, send me.” Start to surrender those things to him today. The goal is eternity, and nothing is worth keeping if it keeps us from serving our King and building his kingdom.

Updated Calendar

2009-10-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

Important Dates to Remember!
October-

Tuesday the 6th Elder’s Meeting 6:30 pm

Sunday the 11th Business Meeting following Worship
Fall Harvest Party at Rainsbarger’s 5:30

Thursday the 15th Burundi Presentation at 6:30 pm

16th-18th Women’s Retreat Weekend
No kids or downstairs Sunday School,
Coffee and donuts for those who want to come for an extended fellowship time!

Sunday the 25th Area Rally at Gardner Friends

November-
Sunday the 15th Beginning of Family Sunday School
Shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child
Thanksgiving Meal

This week's sermon: With every breath

2009-10-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 6:18-24.

In this closing section of Paul's letter to the Ephesians he finally speaks a personal request. He asks that they pray for him. Paul has spent this letter reminding the Ephesian Christians of their place in Christ as adopted children of God; of those who had been far, but brought near; of Paul's own concern for them and his prayers for them; encouraging them to live according to their new life in Christ; urging them to line up for battle with one another equipped with the armor God provides. He has used the words of this letter for the benefit of the Ephesians, which is why this request for them to pray for him catches my attention.

Paul asks them to pray that every time he opens his mouth, he will boldly and fearlessly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now we know after studying Acts and Ephesians, that Paul did not need help knowing the right words to say to preach the gospel. We know that he does not need more courage to proclaim the gospel in spite of hardships, he has been actively doing so for the entirety of his ministry. The words that catch my eye are "every time I open my mouth." Paul was asking for them to pray that his proclamation of the gospel would be continuous, an outpouring of the Grace of God with every breath.

In the service this week we heard a story about some missionaries in Aguascalientes, Mexico. They had the privilege of connecting with a woman and her family by simply caring for them, and celebrating a birthday. This family had heard words proclaiming the facts of the gospel, but had never seen someone live out the Grace and Love that come with the message. Because these missionaries chose to not only use words to share the gospel, but their very lives, this family left a destructive lifestyle and came into the Love of Christ themselves.

It is this kind of continuous living proclamation of the gospel that I believe Paul was asking the Ephesians to pray over his ministry. It is the kind of fearless proclamation we need to pray for each other; that we would be so filled with Christ, that the gospel would flow out in every breath, every action. Every time we encounter people in our family, at work, in the marketplace, we would proclaim Christ with our actions and our words. Every time we interact with those in the body of Christ--encouraging each other, ministering to others' needs, caring for the joys and sorrows of life--every time we minister to one another we pour out the message of the gospel with our actions and our words. This is the "with every breath" method of sharing the gospel. It is what Paul was asking the Ephesians to pray for him, it is what we need to pray for each other. This is how we fearlessly proclaim the gospel, this is how the kingdom of God is built one life at a time.

This Week's Sermon: Lining Up for Battle Together

2009-09-29T07:18:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 5:21-6:18.
Authority can be such a divisive topic not only in churches, but in the family, and in the workplace as well. We all know who’s in charge, sometimes they won’t let us forget it! And those who are not in charge, those who feel they don’t have power, what do they do? They find ways to undercut and manipulate and get what they want by going around the powers that be. This kind of worldly authority patterns don’t get us very far. They make those in charge bullies, and those subordinate bitter. This passage has been used in the past to justify the worldly system, to defend abuse and slavery. I want to tell you this morning that if that is the way we read these words, we have been getting it wrong. This passage, just like the rest of this letter to the Ephesians, is calling not for an authoritative power structure, but for unity in spite of its existence in the world.

Many times we forget that this book in our bibles is not a theological treatise, but a letter. It was not written to be dissected, but as an encouraging letter to be read from start to finish. When we forget and begin chopping the letter into sections, we tend to leave behind the previous sections and content and see each section as a separate entity. So, to review and connect our passages together, Paul started by telling the Ephesians to praise God because of his gift to them of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ; reminded them of their adoption into God’s family; showed them where they were—far away—and how they had been brought near; told them of how he prayed for them—for God to open their eyes and enlighten their hearts to his love for them and his power at work within them; and then lines out how their lives should be different from their old way of living since Christ has made them new. And through all of this, there is a continued emphasis on unity; of our level footing at the cross--salvation by grace not works; of God’s destruction of the hostility that divides us; of his bringing together and making us one; and how this new life lived in gentleness, patience, humility, and love leading to unity through the bond of peace. The last section that we read ended with some ways the Holy Spirit shows up in our lives: speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing to God, and giving thanks.

Now, without pausing to take a breath, Paul says "submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." This statement is so much a part of these two sections, it is a manifestation of the Spirit at work within us, and it is also the beginning of the section we will study today. “Submit yourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Everyone usually "amens" that verse, and cringes at the next. Today we are going to stop being afraid of the word submission. We are going to stop being held captive to the view that submission is somehow a reinforcement of the world’s system of oppression and abuse. Instead we are going to see this word as a blessing. It is going to become something encouraging and a blessing to us in all of our relationships. Submission. Who would have thought?

Let’s look at this word, submission. In the Greek, the root is hupotasso. It has a military definition, which is going to be key to our boldness with this word from today forward. The military definition is to line up troops, to arrange them under a commander for battle. In this case, an ending is placed on the word that makes it not an absolute command, but a matter of our own decision--hupotassomai. Not just “submit!” but instead submit yourself voluntarily. Paul says to these Ephesians “Submit yourselves (voluntarily) to one another out of reverence for Christ.” In that verse, who is our commander? Christ! He is the leader of our army. We are to voluntarily submit to one another—line up for battle with one another, out of reverence, respect and fear for our commander. That puts a whole new spin on our way of thinking, doesn’t it? Suddenly we are not fearing each other. We are not fearing the person in authority over us. We are acting out of reverence for Christ. It does not take away the earthly authority, but suddenly we have a greater purpose and a greater authority that we know we can trust with every part of our lives.

Now Paul takes this into our daily lives--marriage, family, and work--where we are most likely to experience conflict and anxiety over authority and power. He starts with the one closest to home. Paul says “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ; wives to your husbands as to the Lord.” Then he finishes by stating the authority structure already in place—for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Our response to this verse should be to look around and realize we are standing on a battle field. No one argues over power when enemy fire is coming. So, just as the believers are to line up together for battle under Christ, wives are to line up for battle with their husbands. Wives, we have to be watching their backs. When troops line up for battle, everyone looks out for everyone else. Submission is a matter of seeing the bigger picture: we have to remember our trust, and our hope is not in our husbands. Our hope and our trust is in the Lord. On the field of battle, sergeants and captains don’t lay out the battle plan. The plan comes from the general or the commander. Christ is our commander, and we put our trust in him, because he already proved he would die for us. This gives us the boldness to be respectful of our husbands, not manipulative, not steamrolling them, and not heckling them to pieces.

Husbands, Paul says something radical to you, love your wife as Christ loved the church. Think about that for a moment. What did Christ ever do for himself? What did he ever do that had a purpose other than to raise up the church and glorify the Father? Nothing. Are you ready for that kind of sacrifice? That takes some serious trust in God. Laying down your life for your wife, being willing to sacrifice your wants for her needs, that is tough stuff. But that is exactly what Real Men of God are called to do. Husbands, your wives are lining up for battle with you, you need to line up with them as well. You are under fire from a common enemy, this is not the time for power plays and bullying. This is not the time to bellow, “I am the king of my own castle.” What good is a castle if all your troops are lying dead around it? Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, sacrificed himself in the battle so he could win the war.

This lining up for battle does not take away the authority roles that are already in place, it just makes them less of a focus. Children obey your parents, for this is right, and so that you will have a long life. If privates don’t obey the more experienced captains and sergeants on the field of battle, they are toast. Children, even you need to know that we are at war. We have an enemy who would like nothing more than to ruin your lives by leading you astray. Line up for battle with your parents and trust their lead. Parents, since we are at war, don’t exasperate your children, they may just decide to join the other side. You need to raise them in the instruction of the Lord Jesus. That means not only teaching them facts, but living out the new life that Christ has placed in us through the Holy Spirit.

The next groups addressed are servants and masters. Today we could read this employees and employers, or working people and managers. You all know how it goes in a work environment. The boss uses his power to make himself feel important and the working people all stand at the water cooler and conspire to play minesweeper for an hour everyday to get back at him. We start to see each other as enemies, when in reality we are all under fire from the same source. Even co-workers and managers who are not Christians are under fire from the enemy. They sometimes pass that fire along to others, but a lot of it is internalized. If we could see the bigger picture, and decide to stop undermining each other, we could line up for battle together. What if employees chose to voluntarily do their work as though they were serving Christ? What if Bosses saw that they were going to be held accountable for their actions by the same judge as those who worked for them? If we could do this in the workforce, we would stop losing ground and the witness of Christ would advance.

I know the whole military analogy is sometimes hard to swallow, but let’s not forget that Paul does not transition to another topic in chapter 6 verse10. No, he says “finally,” to sum it all up. After we get our attitudes toward each other in the right perspective, one more reminder that we must put on the armor God provides for us so that we can stand against the enemy who is not flesh and blood. Your enemy is not your spouse, your children, your parents, your boss, or your workforce! There is an enemy, and unlike an earthly enemy, this is one that we cannot defeat. Only God can defeat him, but God has given us the armor necessary to stand our ground. So, stop fighting each other for control. Stop the power struggle at home, in your marriage, and at work. Open your eyes to the battle raging around you and choose to line up and stand in formation under our one commander Jesus Christ, looking out for the wellbeing of those around us, and standing our ground together.

Fall Mini-Calendar

2009-09-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

Important Dates to Remember!
October-
2nd-3rd Emporia Clean Sweep in our area

Tuesday the 6th Elder’s Meeting 6:30 pm

Sunday the 11th Business Meeting following Worship
Fall Harvest Party at Rainsbarger’s 5:00

Thursday the 15th Burundi Presentation at 6:30 pm

16th-18th Women’s Retreat Weekend

Sunday the 25th Area Rally at Gardner Friends

November-
Sunday the 15th Beginning of Family Sunday School
Shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child
Thanksgiving Meal

This week's sermon: Out with the Old, In with the New

2009-09-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 4:17-5:20.

These declarations and prohibitions are all expansions on verse 2 of chapter 4, where Paul says to “be completely humble, gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love.” This is that life of humility and love lived out practically. Paul takes us through four statements of what we ought to look like as children of the king. Paul tells the Ephesians to 1. Stop living like the gentiles; 2. Put off the old self, and put on the new; 3. Be imitators of God as dearly loved children; and 4. Be careful how you live, live wisely. These four statements are expanded on in the surrounding verses, detailing the old life and what to put off, and the new life, what to put on.

Paul begins this section by describing the life of the gentiles as a dark, separated, ignorant, numb, indulgent lifestyle that does not satisfy. Sounds great, right? I put it right up there with sleeping on the street without a blanket. Do you remember last week’s picture of the beggar turned son of the king? This is the life he was giving up. This is not much of a sacrifice, and yet sometimes we treat leaving this life of darkness, loneliness, and hunger as a great martyrdom. But if we are in Christ, Paul says we should know better. This is not the Truth that we were taught in Christ. Remember the woman at the well, Jesus said to her, “If you asked me I would give you water so that you would never thirst again.” God does not call us to a life of emptiness, but a life so full of himself, we realize our former starvation without him.

The Truth we learn in Christ is to put off the old way of life that does not satisfy. It no longer suits us to be wearing the clothes of a beggar spiritually, but the very robes of Christ’s righteousness and holiness. That is why put off the cloak of lies we hide behind. Not because it is wrong—which it absolutely is—but because wearing the robes of righteousness we don’t have anything we need to lie about. Lying is a survival skill in some people’s lives. It is how they make up for the fact that they feel inferior, weak, ashamed of who they are. But in Christ, we are God’s children, the sons and daughters of the king. What do we have to hide? Even the things of the past are no longer important, they are overcome by what Christ has done for us in bringing us into the family, and the Holy Spirit is doing in us to transform us from the inside out. This is the ultimate recognition of grace, to live in honesty with one another. To refuse to judge, to refuse to fear the judgment of others, but to be in complete unity as one body.

This unity is held together by our obedience to deal with our disagreements and even anger with one another in a way that brings about healing, not wounding. It is not a sin to be angry. It is a natural response we have to injustice, or pain, or being wronged. What we choose to do with that anger can become sinful if we allow it to fester, if we refuse to practice constructive confrontation, if we let it go down to bitterness and drive a wedge between ourselves and another person. Then it is sin, then it causes wounds that become gangrenous. And injuring our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, or allowing a wound in our hearts to fester by continually picking it open gives the devil a foothold. It is like making a whole in the network of sentries around the castle so that the enemy can sneak his troops over the wall.

Paul describes many things that are part of the old life and the alternative new life actions. Stealing is part of that old life. Working—not only for our own living, but so that we can find value in sharing with others is part of the new life. Tearing people down through course language and gossip is part of the old life. Building people up in conversation and bringing them encouragement in what we say is part of the new life. Seeking a loophole so that you can still engage in the habits you enjoy while feeling smugly superior is grieving to the Holy Spirit, it is trying to hang onto the old life while pretending to live in the new. So don’t do it. Life in Christ is not about what you can get away with, it is about how deeply you can immerse yourself in Christ to experience his abundance. This is why Paul tells the Ephesians to imitate God as dearly loved children.

When kids see their parents and do what they are doing, it is not because there is some rule that they must. It is out of love and a desire to be just like daddy. I remember when Kathrina started taking her plastic alphabet letters from the fridge 9particularly the green letter “T”) and shaving just like daddy, or when she would want to help mommy sweep and mop the floor. Bella loves to help do the dishes, and both girls love to sit in the computer chair and “work.” It should be the same with us. We should love our heavenly daddy so much and desire to be like him that our behavior naturally patterns after his. And we know that God is love, we should live in love towards God and one another, following the pattern Christ set for us.

That pattern does not include, and never will include, sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscenity or coarse joking. Why, because they are on the “bad” list? Well, they are, but not just because someone arbitrarily decided they were bad. No, these are symptoms of a greater problem. You know that it is not good for your lungs to fill up with fluid. You know it is bad to loose feeling in your hands and feet. You know that it is really bad to start having body parts fall off. But if you go to the doctor, his concern is to find out why these things are happening. The same is true of the sinful habits in our lives. Paul tells us the basic diagnosis as to why these bad things, immorality, impurity, greed and obscenity, would show up in our lives. The problem, he says, is idolatry. That is the real sin here. That is the root. “But I don’t bow down to an idol!” You protest. But if you can’t say no to sexual immorality, lust has become your god. If you can’t say no to dishonesty and greed, self has become your god. If you can’t say no to obscenity and coarse talk that tears others down to make you look good, popularity and the praise of men has become your god. These become the things you imitate and seek after above everything else. Watch out for idolatry, it is the root disease of all kinds of infection in the Christian life. Now Paul gives a warning about people who will try to tell you that this is all meaningless. They will tell you it doesn’t really matter what you do. They will say that grace covers everything, so live like you want to. Well, grace does cover everything that we allow it to cover. If we are following another god, a god of darkness, emptiness, loneliness, deceit, and death; if we are sacrificing and surrendering ourselves to those gods in idolatry then we cannot simultaneously be surrendering ourselves to the One True Living God and his abundant grace.

As Paul says, there is no fellowship of light with darkness. You cannot have a little darkness and a little light. Wherever there is light, darkness has to flee. Do not deceive yourself into thinking that you are in the light when you are surrounding yourself with darkness. The last admonition Paul gives is to live wisely. We know that the way of the world is foolishness, and there are a lot of ways to ruin your life foolishly. That is why I think the only thing Paul mentions in this little section is don’t get drunk. Probably the biggest thing you could have done in Paul’s day to ruin your ability to make good decisions was to get drunk. Now we have added a whole host of intoxicants and drugs that contribute to stupid decision making. Instead of turning to intoxication to feel good about ourselves and to gain confidence, why not instead be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will come in, give us a good picture of who we are in Christ, give us strength for every situation, give us peace and confidence and a sense of God’s love and grace. All that and no hangover or worries about the foolish things we did the night before.

All of these things that Paul tells the Ephesians again are a way to fulfill the life lived in gentleness, patience, humility, and unity through love. The keys are to stop living like we did before, put off the old, put on the new, imitate God like his children that we are, and live wisely. In this way our lives serve to glorify God, to build up the body of Christ around us, and to satisfy our souls in a way the old life just could not have done. We can’t do all of this alone. But we can have this life with the help of the Holy Spirit and by encouraging each other with Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual songs. Our lives of love and thanksgiving help those around us to continue walking in their new lives as well, and we all build each other up as one body with Christ as the Head.

Weekly Schedule 9/13/09

2009-09-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

Tuesday September 15th-

Coffee at Amanda's 9:30 am
Elder's Meeting 6:30 pm

Sunday September 20th- 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: Sonship 101

2009-09-15T06:37:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 4:1-16.
Paul has been telling the Ephesians where they stand. He told them to rejoice and praise God because they were adopted as his children, and they had received every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. He reminded them that they used to be dead, and now they are alive. He reminded them again, that as gentiles, they were separate, foreigners, outcasts, and now God has brought them near in Christ. Paul shared with them that he prays for them, twice he has shown them his prayers for their hearts, their eyes, their inner being to be enlightened to know the hope God has called them to, his power for them, and his love that surpasses all knowledge. Paul has been showing them right where they are: loved, accepted, adopted, blessed, prayed for, appointed a special ambassador in Paul himself. Now he tells them the rest of the story.

Now Paul tells them that their position in Christ, their calling, requires a change in the way they live. It didn’t require a change to get them into that position, but once they are there their lives must change. Why is that? Well, let’s play pretend for just a minute. Let’s say there is a beautiful kingdom, with a great and mighty king. Let’s say that this king has a son who one day sees a beggar in the street and through his intercession with the king on behalf of the beggar the king decides to adopt the beggar as his son. So now the beggar is the son of the king. In order for the beggar to become the son of the king he had to do nothing, the prince did all the work. But because he is the son of the king now there are certain things required of him.

He can’t go around wearing a beggars clothing. He can no longer sleep on the street without a blanket. He must eat good food. He may be given assignments by the king. And he needs to get along with the other members of the king’s household. The same is true for the Ephesians that Paul is writing to. They were adopted into the king’s household. Now they must not live like the beggars they were before. Paul tells them, and we need to hear this as well today, that the first thing about living in the king’s house is getting along with others.

Paul gives some nice baby steps: humility, gentleness, patience, love, and unity. These are the values of the kingdom, and as the king’s children, we must live them out with each other first. We talked about some of these kingdom values at the recent ladies tea. Humility is simply a matter of being grounded, knowing who we are as children of the king, without forgetting the beggar we used to be. Gentleness is being approachable, available to those in need. Patience is waiting for God to work in us and in others in his own timing, even when it hurts. Love holds all these things together, and really is what makes it possible for us to consider being humble, patient, and gentle; love that does not come from us, but that comes from God at work in us. Paul reminded the Ephesians of God’s work in them, his mighty power, and his love that surpasses knowledge. That love is at work in our hearts to produce love in us for others. When all of these kingdom values are in play, we will be unified. This is of vital importance, because as Paul tells the Ephesians, we are all part of one body.

When we are adopted as his children, God not only makes us part of his family or his household, but he makes us part of the church, the bride of Christ, which is one organic unit. The church, no matter how we try to divide it into denominations or sects, is one body. We all have the same hope, we all have the same Holy Spirit at work in us, we all have the same Lord Jesus. We may disagree on how to baptize, but we all agree in the necessity of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. We have one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism. We all have the same God and Father who is over all and through all and in all. Paul wants the Ephesians to know this, to grab onto it, to hold tightly to this truth because sometimes it is hard to see the bonds that hold us together.

We are all part of one body, but even though we are one, we have many different gifts, different roles to play, different assignments from the king. Paul tells the Ephesians that Christ led captives in his train and gave gifts to men. These assignments and talents come from Christ by way of the Holy Spirit. Here Paul calls it grace. Grace has been appointed to each of us as Christ saw fit. He didn’t do a survey to find out what you think you should be doing, he gave you a gift and he expects you to use it. But that isn’t fair! Some people would protest, but I would answer that it is not fair to take a beggar and make him part of the king’s family. The king doesn’t ask those in his household what they want to do, he knows them well and he gives them the tasks as he sees fit. As independence-loving Americans it takes a while for us to wrap our minds around that concept. Trust me, I would never have thought that I would make a good pastor. It was nowhere on my radar, but God called me. I argued strenuously against it. But you can’t win an argument with the king. He is the king. He wins.

Grace has been apportioned to each one of us, that means we all have a job to do, and that we have been given the ability to do it. Paul doesn’t list all of the spiritual gifts here, so don’t worry if you don’t see your gift in these verses. Paul gives a basic overview not of God's gifts to men, but of what God has given to the church in order to produce maturity. It says he gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. Apostles are sent ones, the ones that God tells to go somewhere else to tell the gospel, these are our missionaries. Prophets get a bad rap as spooky mystics who tell the future, really a prophet is simply someone who speaks forth the word of God. This is the person who will tell you the truth no matter how much you want them to blur the lines for you. Evangelists are those who are devoted to the good news. These guys can’t wait to talk about the good news of the gospel of Jesus to anyone and everyone. At the end of the list are a squashed together double-teamed group of pastors and teachers. Pastors are shepherds, they live in the field with the sheep. They lead them to water and show them where the good food is, and keep the sheep from eating poisonous plants or falling off cliffs. Teachers teach the word of God, the things of God. Good teachers don’t just throw information at you, they get you to take hold of it yourself and spur a hunger for more.

These are not just gifts that God gives individual people, rather they are the gifts that God gives to the church. He gave to the church some people to go, some to speak the Truth, some to have a passion for the gospel, and some to shepherd the people and engage them in learning about God. He gave these gifts to the church so that the body might be built up. The job of missionaries, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers is not to make a name for themselves, but to prepare God’s people for works of service. Their job is to get others ready to go, to speak the truth, to share the gospel, to lead and to teach so that the whole body is built up and comes together in unity.

Unity is so important because it is only by learning to stick it out together and learn from each other that we can hope to attain a maturity of faith and understanding that will enable us to grow up in all things. Paul ends this section with a reminder of who is really in charge, Christ is the head of all things. We are supported by ligaments, but the whole body has to do its part as the head directs it so that the body can be in tune. Then the body works together to build itself up instead of tear itself apart. This is a lesson the church is desperate to learn. More blood has been shed and more martyrs made in the church because of Christians killing Christians than by any other means. Usually it is over matters that don’t really matter. I am not suggesting we accept every new wave of thought and teaching, obviously Paul would say that would make us still infants. But not rushing to judgment, considering our standpoint, returning to scripture and evaluating both perspectives in humility, gentleness, patience, and love; we may just find that we are the ones in the wrong, or that it is a matter of no consequence one way or the other. If there must be confrontation, after this time of searching, it can be done as we are instructed "speaking the truth in love." Then we will find when we are neither persuaded nor provoked to wrath at every new wave of teaching, that we have grown up into Christ-likeness. And we will have passed the first level of Sonship 101: how to get along with others in the king’s household.