Scripture for Nov. 25th: Luke 4:18-21; Isaiah 7:14

Sermon: Expect A Miracle

Luke 4:18-21: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Isaiah 7:14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

“Things never change.” We often hear this statement from discouraged Christians as they survey the world around them. It seems that conditions in the world don’t get better, and if anything, they only get worse. But in the midst of chaos and sin in the world, God is actively working and performing His will through the lives of average people, and in some cases, performing miracles.

In the text above, Jesus announced to those who knew him for many years, some of whom probably knew Him since He was a child, that He was the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 6:1,2. In other words, He was declaring Himself to be the long-promised Messiah. But the people could not accept this – they saw Jesus as part of the world around them, a world where there was not much hope and no expectation of God performing anything close to a miracle. Because of their lack of faith and pessimism, they missed the greatest miracle in all history – the Son of God, “Emanuel”, living in their midst.

We, too, can miss what God is not only doing today, but what He desires to do in the future. We do this when we live in our own doubt, faithlessness, and pessimism and fail to accept the fact that God is a God of miracles. God performs miracles and wants to perform them in our own lives, in the lives of others and in our church. We will talk more about expecting miracles as we begin the sermon series, “A Different Kind of Christmas” on Sunday. Hope to see you then!

Scripture for November 25th: Acts 16:22-34

Sermon Title: Overcoming Independent Behavior

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

“I’m the boss.” This is an attitude that many will display in their lives as they relate to others. What is important to these individuals is that they get their way and that relationships benefit primarily themselves. For others, because they have experienced material success, they feel as if they don’t need anyone to help them. They believe that they “pulled themselves up” through their own power, so they certainly don’t need to be dependent upon anyone else.

The truth is humans lack control of so many circumstances in life. No one can totally control when and how disease will impact one’s life. Many a person who is seemingly healthy today may be in the hospital tomorrow. A simple drive to the grocery store one afternoon may alter a person’s life if he or she experiences a serious automobile accident on the way there. Millions of people in the past have gone to sleep thinking they were wealthy but woke up the next morning to learn that their financial advisor embelizzed their savings. Humans don’t control all their affairs or circumstances; ultimately events will happen in every life that will be unexpected, unavoidable and very much unwelcome.

The passage above demonstrates this. At one moment the jailer is in charge. He was respected and controlled the lives of those who were in the jail. Later, we find that he is not even in charge of his own fate. At this point, he becomes dependent on Paul and Silas, mere prisoners, and ultimately, God. His perspective changed because his circumstances changed. However, the truth never changed – the jailer never really was in charge of his life, before or after the earthquake – God was always the final authority.

This coming Sunday we will talk about how we can overcome our natural tendencies to display independent behavior and by doing so, become more dependent on God in our lives as we conclude the sermon series, “Love Busters.” Hope to see you then!

Scripture for November 18th: Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon: Overcoming Our Annoying Habits

Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to a desert. There He was tempted by the devil. Jesus went without food for forty days and forty nights. After that He was hungry. The devil came tempting Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to be made into bread.” But Jesus said, “It is written, ‘Man is not to live on bread only. Man is to live by every word that God speaks.’” Then the devil took Jesus up to Jerusalem, the holy city. He had Jesus stand on the highest part of the house of God. The devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. It is written, ‘He has told His angels to look after You. In their hands they will hold You up. Then Your foot will not hit against a stone.’” Jesus said to the devil, “It is written also, ‘You must not tempt the Lord your God.’” Again the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain. He had Jesus look at all the nations of the world to see how great they were. He said to Jesus, “I will give You all these nations if You will get down at my feet and worship me.” Jesus said to the devil, “Get away, Satan. It is written, ‘You must worship the Lord your God. You must obey Him only.’” Then the devil went away from Jesus. Angels came and cared for Him.

We often excuse our behavior, our annoying habits that are destructive to our relationship with others, by saying that this: God made me this way. In this statement that is often made, we find the biggest barrier to change – our stubborn unwillingness to do anything different. We are often very comfortable with who we are and what we do and don’t want to consider how our actions hurt others. If we are going to improve so that we can be a greater blessing to others, we must first desire to change.

W.F. Harley, Jr. talks about how important it is for married couples to be willing to change our annoying habits when he writes the following: “The bottom line is that a couple who want to stay in love must pay close attention to the way they affect each other. A marriage just doesn’t work if either spouse ignores that reality. Whether they’re intentional or not, habits affect the love they have for each other. So if one spouse finds some of the other’s habits annoying, they simply have to go. Otherwise, their marriage won’t be what either one wants it to be.” The truth is this can apply to any relationship that we have – unless we are willing to change our annoying habits, we will not have the type of relationships that we want with others.

So when we decide we truly want to change, how do we do this? We will talk more about this on Sunday, as we examine how Christ overcame the temptation and the influence of Satan in the passage above. Hope to see you then!

Scripture for Nov 4th: Lamentations 3:19-24

Sermon: Our Past, Present and Future in God

"I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

How do you view your past? I believe how you view your past will influence how you view your present and future. For the prophet Jeremiah, his past include so much agony and heartache. He saw his homeland overtaken by a great army, literally hundreds of thousands die due to the ongoing war, and countless of others taken into captivity. Jeremiah lived during a period in which his country experience great bitterness and gall (suffering). And yet as he remembers his “affliction and wandering” he is reminded of this:

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.”

Although Jeremiah went through some terrible experiences, he still was able to see God’s great love throughout those experiences. He still, in the middle of his country’s downfall, was able to see how God had blessed Israel and how God was ever faithful.

The notes in a study Bible, The Open Bible, says this: “One of the most remarkable statements of faith in all of Scripture, coming as it does after the awful cry of desolation in Lamentations 3:1–18. Despite the immediate horror and God’s seeming silence (v. 8), the writer remembers all the evidence of God’s compassions and faithfulness in the past; he refuses to give up hope now. Though every earthly possession is gone, God is the best portion (v. 24, inheritance) of all."

How do you see your past? Are you angry or upset over difficult circumstances that you had to experience? Or maybe someone has hurt you greatly and you are still bitter over the experience. If so, the prophet Jeremiah has news for you: God was faithfully loving you through every circumstance and relationship that you experienced. And it only was because of His love that you were not “consumed” by those circumstances and relationships. You survived because of God’s love and today you are given new opportunities because of His faithfulness. God shows us His love in new ways each and every day and today the prophet Jeremiah would have you know this about the ways God demonstrates His love for you: “They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

This coming Sunday we will celebrate our past, present and future as a church. And as we do, I hope we will be reminded that God has been a loving presence in our church throughout her existence. And because of this, we can be excited about what He is doing now, and what He will do in our future. Hope to see you Sunday and plan on joining us for lunch at our pot-luck dinner immediately after the worship service as we celebrate the faithfulness of our great God.