Sermon – Romans 11:29-32 – Pruning the Church

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Romans 11:29-32 – Pruning the Church

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

August 14, 2011

Two weeks ago we heard Paul’s anguish as he talked about his disappointment in not being able to bring his own people, the children of Israel, to belief in Jesus Christ. But Paul was assured that since God is faithful the covenants God had establish with the Jews were still in force. God had not left his people. Last week we saw that the covenants that God had establish with the Jews also apply to non-Jewish Christians, us, because of our confession that Jesus is Lord. Today we will see why the majority of Jews did not accept Jesus because this was part of God’s plan. Let us pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Romans 11:1-12 ^NIV Romans 11:1 I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ² God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah-- how he appealed to God against Israel: ³ "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"? {3 1 Kings 19:10,14} ⁴ And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." {4 1 Kings 19:18} ⁵ So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ⁶ And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace. ⁷ What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, ⁸ as it is written: "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day." {8 Deut. 29:4; Isaiah 29:10} ⁹ And David says: "May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. ¹⁰ May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever." {10 Psalm 69:22,23} ¹¹ Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. ¹² But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

For several weeks now we have been looking at the Book of Romans. This book was written by the Apostle Paul to a church he did not establish and had not yet visited. But he knew about them because he had met two of their members, Pricilla and Aquila, in Corinth where they all worked together in the leather industry. Pricilla and Aquila had come to Corinth from Rome in 51AD because of an imperial edict ordering all Jews out of Rome. Six years later the Jews were permitted to return and the Christian Jews found the church they left was now very different. Gentiles, non-Jews, were in control holding leadership positions. The church had grown significantly with Gentile believers. It had become a Gentile church. It was almost as if God had used the Emperor to prune back the church, by sending the Jewish Christians away, allowing new growth to start. Now that the Jews were returning they needed to be reintegrated into the church, regrafted onto the bush they had been pruned from. The purpose of Paul’s letter to the Romans is, in part, to deal with problems that have arisen since the return of the Jewish Christians.

As we have seen, Paul’s concern is that the majority of Jews have not accepted Jesus as their Messiah and Lord. Paul is astonished by this because the proclamation he has been making is such good news that everyone should accept it. Who wouldn’t want to hear that God loves us so much that he sent his son to die for us so that we would have eternal life? But for most of the Jews this was rejected. Paul knew there had to be a reason for this so he searched the scripture, the Old Testament, for clues about what might be happening. What he found was that time and again throughout the history of the children of Israel, God had hardened their hearts so that for a time the number of believers was diminished, but this eventually led to even greater growth in the numbers who believed. Elijah, at one time, believed that he was the only believer left, but God assured him that thousands remain and from them faith would grow.

We saw this earlier in our Old Testament reading from Genesis. This week and last we have been looking at the story of Joseph. He and his brothers were the first children of Israel. Remember how God hardened the hearts of Joseph’s bothers when they sold him as a slave in Egypt. It looked like God would punish them for this dastardly deed by killing them all with a drought. But Joseph used his time as a slave to because a government official in Egypt in charge of grain storage, and was able to save his brothers from starvation. God had hardened the brothers’ hearts to save them. So too with the Jews in the first century, God had hardened their hearts so they would not believe in Jesus, to save them.

God knew that if the first century Jews believed in Jesus they would control the churches and the Gentiles, the non-Jews, would never come to belief. So by holding back the Jews, God allowed the Gentiles to develop the church, greatly expanding the number of believers. God had pruned back the bush far enough so that it could grow back even larger than before.

Paul took this to by analogy why the Jews were not accepting Jesus as Lord. They has been pruned away from the church by God allowing Gentiles to come to faith. But remember that God remains faithful to the Jews. So just as the Jewish Christians were returning to the Roman Church once a Gentile Church had been established so too will all Jews accept Jesus as Lord once the church is fully established by Gentiles and we love God with our whole hearts, mind and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves. But this has never happened. We have never loved one another just as God loves us. We have hated the Jews, forced them to leave our communities and persecuted them. As a result of what we have done the Jews have yet to accepted Jesus as Lord. Because sin still clings to us so closely we have never accomplished Paul’s dream of building a fully inclusive church of Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, slave and free. And so God must continually prune back the church to prepare it for future growth.

Last Summer I went out to look at the shrubs in front of our house on Greenway Ave. They looked OK on the outside, but I could see a lot of dead wood on the inside. So I began to prune the bushes back getting rid of all the dead wood. When I was finished they really looked ugly, little more than misshaped sticks coming up from the ground. But this year the shrubs have grown back and they are beginning to look better. They are on the way to being even more beautiful than before. You have to prune back bushes from time to time to keep them growing to their full potential.

We see this in the church as well. Whenever we see the church in decline, with falling membership and tightening budgets we must remember that this is God at work pruning us back so that we will be ready to grow even larger and more beautiful than before. When we discern that God is pruning us back it is time to prepare ourselves for the future growth. We do this by becoming more spiritual with daily prayers, Bible study, worship and service to those in need. Through these spiritual practices we become the foundation upon which God can build a church. But don’t think that the people God prunes away from the church are forever lost. This is certainly not true. God prunes them way to prepare us. Once this happens many, if not all, will return and their relationship to the church will be even stronger than before.

So don’t be afraid of falling numbers. See it, as Paul did, as part of God’s plan to make the church even stronger than before. Prepare yourselves for the day when you will be the spiritual leaders of a growing church. When you are ready spiritually, God will send new people to our doors and bring some whom we have lost back to us again, and our churches will be stronger than even.

Lord Jesus, we pray that your spirit will come upon in worship and prayer. Prepare us as your followers to provide spiritual leadership to the church. When we are ready, we ask that you send new people to our doors and bring back the people we have lost. And we pray for our church be stronger than ever. In Jesus’ glorious name we pray. Amen.

Sermon – Romans 10:5-15 – The Word is Near You

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Romans 10:5-15 – The Word is Near You

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

August 7, 2011

Last week we saw how our faithful God continues to honor the covenants he had made with the Jews. This is something we should expect given the faithfulness of God. And even though we should tell Jews the good news of our salvation in Jesus Christ, we should not condemn them if they do not believe. Our relationship with Jews should be as cousins not enemies.

The covenants between God and Jews called for obedience to the law in exchange for blessings from God. So the Jews were to be circumcised, eat kosher foods, obey the ten commandments, follow the code of sexual propriety, and do whatever else God commanded them in scripture. In return God would bless them with children, land, food and of course his presence with them. It was pretty good bargain.

But are we part of those covenants? We are not descended from Abraham. Must we be circumcised? We did not inherit the land. Must we obey the ten commandments? These questions bother us just as they the Roman church in the first century. Paul's response came in Romans 10. But before we look at what Paul said let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Romans 10:5-15 ⁵ Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them." ⁶ But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷ "or 'Who will descend into the deep?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸ But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: ⁹ That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. ¹¹ As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." ¹² For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile-- the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, ¹³ for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." ¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵ And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

The church has always struggled for reasons why we should obey God's law. In the Middle Ages many thought that by obeying the law, God would love you and let you into heaven. The idea was that just as saints led exemplary lives and went to heaven when they died so too should we. By obeying God's law we could build up some credits on our account which could be used to get us into heaven. The Protestant reformers said that this notion was ridiculous. Salvation, our ticket to heaven, came free of charge by the grace of God. Our salvation had nothing to do with anything we did and everything to do with God's free choice. God saves us because God chooses to, not because of anything we have done.

So why bother obeying the law? If our salvation has nothing to do with what we do or not do, then why even try to do what is right? Why go to church? Why obey the 10 commandments? Why care for the poor and needy? If doing these things has nothing to do with our salvation then why do them at all?

Martin Luther said that for Christians the law served two purposes. The first purpose was to convict us of sin. When we hear God's commandments read from the Bible we realize how far we have fallen short. Do we really sacrifice for those in need? Do we really set aside a full sabbath rest each week? Are we always faithful to our spouses never lusting after another? When we hear the law we know how far we fall short. This prompts us to bow our head and confess our sins.

The second purpose of the law, according to Luther, was that by obeying the law society would function better. Who would argue that Pocomoke would be a better place it no one ever lied or stole something, or cheated on his wife or her husband? Society needs the rule of law to order itself. And this law is enforced by the police power of the state. You could be thrown in jail if you do not obey the law. And so even though the threat of punishment can lead to obedience of civil, this is not really a positive reason why a Christians should obey God's law.

Calvin added to this list of Luther's a third use for God's law: training in righteousness. Calvin pointed out that as Christians grow in the likeness of Jesus Christ they will want to do what God tells them to do. God's law is one way for us to know what God wants from us, not as a means of salvation – that is only by the grace of God, but as a teaching tool for those who have been saved leading to progress in piety, good behavior.

We see from this that the law of God has many uses, but we still wonder why we as Christians must obey it. We don't have to obey the law as part of the Jewish covenant with God. We don't have to obey the law as a means of salvation. So why do we have to obey God's law? Paul says, here in the tenth chapter of Romans that Christians have to obey God's law because of something we have all said. There is something each of us, all Christians in fact, have spoken with their lips which obligates us to obey God's law. What could this possibly be?

Every Christian at baptism, or at confirmation if baptized as a infant, must speak with their lips the oldest Christian confession of faith, older than even the Apostles Creed. What each person must confess with their lips to become a Christian is to say that Jesus Christ is Lord. Every person who is a member of Pitts Creek or Beaver Dam church has made this confession. All we require for membership is that you confess with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your hearts that he was raised from the dead. And if you have done this, you and all people throughout the ages who have made the same confession are assured of God's salvation.

So why would this confession lead us to be obligation to obey God”s laws? The answer is simple. If you speak with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord, and if you believe in your hearts that he was resurrected from the dead and exalted to the right hand of God, then you must obey him. This is what it means to say that Jesus Christ is your Lord. Jesus is now in control of your lives. So certainly we must obey God's laws.

This is the essence of Paul's theology. We are saved by the grace of God through faith. Our faith is expressed in our confession that Jesus is Lord. The lordship of Jesus Christ now governs our lives. We follow Jesus Christ as disciples by obeying God's law.

So what does the Lord Jesus Christ, the one raised from the dead and exalted at the right hand of God, command us to do? Here are his words from Matthew 28

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So the command that we have received from our Lord Jesus Christ is to spread the good news of the coming kingdom of God to everyone we meet. We are to invite everyone we know to come to church to hear this good news proclaimed. If you have spoken with you lips that Jesus Chirst is Lord and believe in you hearts that Jesus lives and is exalted at the right hand of God then you are obligated to spread the Word of God to everyone in Pocomoke.

If you don't tell others about your faith how will they ever know about God? If you don't invite people to church how will new people know to come here. If you really believe in Jesus show it by encouraging people, who do not already go to church, to come to Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek. This is what it means to be a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul promises that whenever you talk to people about our Lord Jesus Christ the Word of God will be near. So evangelism is not up to you. All you have to do is begin the conversation. And when you do the Holy Spirit will be present communicating the Good News of Jesus Christ. So just talk with people about your faith and your church and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. Amen.

Sermon – Romans 9:1-5 – What About the Jews?

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Romans 9:1-5 – What About the Jews?

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

July 31, 2011

Last week we read these words in Romans chapter 8:

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can separate us from God's love is an important principle to remember. God is faithful and will never leave us. God will never forget the promises he has made to us. We have been and will continue to be richly blessed by God. But what about the Jews? Has something separated Jews from their God? Was the Jews' God unfaithful? Did their God leave them? Did God forget all the promises that he made to them? Has God stopped blessing the Jewish people? Will God punish the Jewish people in hell for eternity for their believe that Jesus was not the Messiah, the Christ?

The answer of the church for centuries has been a resounding “Yes!”. We have blamed the Jews for their refusal to believe in Jesus. Because of their unbelief God has ripped up the ancient covenants and promises and started over with the church. God has removed their blessings and given them to us. God will punish them for eternity while we will enjoy the blessings heaven.

This way of thinking has led Christians to force Jews out of their communities, imprison them and even kill them. For the church's historic antisemitism we must confess what we have done and repent. With this in mind we will be looking at Romans 9-11 over the next few weeks. These are some of the texts that Christians have used to condemn the Jews. Let's look at them in a new way. But first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Today, 500,000 Jews live in France. A recent poll indicated that about a quarter wish to leave because of rising antisemitism. 82% say that antisemitism is a major problem in France. 78% say that it is getting worse. 38% say that they have been targets of antisemitic attacks. And 58% say they know someone who has been attacked. (www.jewishfederations.org)

Antisemitism has always been around and continues today. Even Christians are part of the problem. This is true even though we worship the same God and share the Hebrew scriptures, our Old Testament. The Apostle Paul was himself a Jew and suffered the antisemitism of the Roman Empire.

Paul's ministry was to both Jews and non-Jews, Gentiles. With the Gentiles he was hugely successful in bringing them to Christ. But the Jews, his own people, were resistant. Paul agonized over all of this and wrote these words.

Romans 9:1-9 ^NIV Romans 9:1 I speak the truth in Christ-- I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit-- ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, ⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Paul is agonizing over a difficult problem. His own people, the children of Israel, have mostly ignored the good news of Jesus Christ and failed to recognize him as their messiah, the Christ. Paul doesn't understand this at all. God grace for who believe is such a good thing everyone should accept it, especially the people of God. The fact that so many have rejected Christ is a source of great agony and disappointment for Paul.

What Paul could have done was to condemn the Jews for what they had failed to do. This is the common reaction: to blame Jews for believing in Jesus Christ and placing the blame of their eternal damnation squarely on their shoulders. But this is not what Paul told the church of Rome. Paul saw the relationship between the Jews and their God very differently.

What Paul goes on to say is the God has made repeated promises to Israel. Remember the promise God made to Abram, that his descendants would number more than all the stars in heaven. And when the children of Israel were in Egypt, God promised them freedom and land. God promised that David's heir would always sit on the throne. And God promised a messiah; a promise fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

God showed his faithfulness to these promises even when the children of Israel turned their back on God. Remember how God freed them from slavery in Egypt and guided them for forty years in the wilderness. Remember how God raised up judges to protect them from their enemies. Remember how God used the Persian King Cyrus to return the children of Israel to their homeland after being exiled in Babylon. Remember how God sent Jesus as their Messiah. God is truly faithful to his people.

But if we now believe that God has ripped up the covenants he made with the children of Israel, what does that tell us about God? Is God really faithful if he turns his back on his own people? If the Jews were plan A and were supplanted by the Church, plan B, can we still say we worship a faithful God? And if God was unfaithful to his chosen people, what makes us think that God will be faithful to us? Will the Church, plan B, be replaced by something else, plan C, and our salvation lost? Paul says a resounding “No!” to all of this because God is faithful. God has always been faithful. God will always remain faithful both to us and to the children of Israel.

And this leads Paul to say something crucially important about God. God is always free to act anyway God chooses, and so God will freely choose to whom he will extend his mercy. This is the theological doctrine of election. Our salvation depends not on what we do, but on the choices God makes to save us.

God has chosen the children of Israel as his people. God has promised to bless them richly. And he has! Paul says. “4b and to them (the Children of Israel) belong the adoption (as the people of God), the glory (of God's presence among them), the covenants (and promises he has given them throughout history), the giving of the law (which has blessed them with good lives), the worship (where his presence is felt and sins forgiven) … 5 to them belong the patriarchs (Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, (Jesus Christ).”

So God is faithful. He has richly blessed the Children of Israel, and will continue to do so. So why do they not believe in Jesus? Paul says 32 “Because they did not strive for it (belief in Jesus) on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works.” The Children of Israel in the first century were more concerned about the form of their religion than about their faith. Temple worship, sacrifice, and holiness were emphasized over faith. And without faith they were unable to believe in Jesus. Gentiles, on the other hand, had no concern for these things and were therefore more likely to develop the faith they needed to believe in Jesus.

This comes to us as both good news and a warning. The good news is that just as God remains faithful to the Jews fulfilling the promises he made to them, so to will God remain faithful to us. Remember that nothing can separate us from the love of God. But the warning is that if we are too focused on worship or buildings or mission or youth programs we may forget to develop our faith, our belief in Jesus Christ.

So what should we do about the Jews? Like Paul, we must continue to tell them the good new that in fulfillment of their scriptures Jesus has come as their Messiah ushering in the Kingdom of God. Like Paul, we must pray for the Jews that they will come to belief and find salvation. But we must also recognize the Jews as the children of God and as the inheritors of God's promises. Amen.

Sermon - Romans 8:26-39 – Nothing Can Separate Us from God's Love

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon - Romans 8:26-39 – Nothing Can Separate Us from God's Love

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

July 24, 2011

So far in the eighth chapter of the Book of Romans, we have been listening to the Apostle Paul tell us that we are not good enough. We are not good enough to restore the image of God we were created with. We are not good enough to return creation to its original goodness. Since we are not good enough are only hope is that a superior outside force will come and make thing right. The good news is that God has come to counter the effects of sin and restore us and all of creation. God has come in the person of the Holy Spirit.

As the final example of how we are good enough Paul turns to one of his favorite subjects, prayer. Because of sin we are not even able to pray as we should. With this warning in mind let us pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

To begin this morning let's take a look at Romans 8:26-28.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. ²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

There are essentially two kinds of prayers. The first is the liturgical prayer. These prayers are written down, sometimes approved by a church council, and often memorized. This morning's prayer of confession was a liturgical prayer, and we use these often in worship. Liturgical prayers are good at using language to express the mystery, the majesty and the otherness of God. The Lord's Prayer, taught to us by Jesus Christ, is a great example of liturgical prayer. In this church we still stay the Lord's Prayer using the King James Translation with it rich Elizabethan English that preserves the majesty of God. But there is a problem with liturgical prayers. They can become mechanical with over use. You say that same prayer over and over again and eventually you are just pronouncing the words. Any meaning in those words is lost. I experience this with the Apostles Creed. I had said it so many times that I could say it aloud in church while thinking about something else. When I became a pastor, four years ago, I decided to give it a rest and and have the congregation respond with less familiar passages from scripture or the Book of Confessions. Lately I have felt a need to return to these important words of believe, and we will be saying the Apostles Creed together more often.

The second type of prayer is often used by churches as a corrective to mechanical liturgical prayers. It is called the spontaneous prayer. These prayers are not written down and are rarely memorized. They come the heart whenever the need to talk to God arises. In spontaneous prayers we address God directly and bring him our gratitude, our requests, our confessions, our problems and our feelings. We authentically bring ourselves to God.

But like liturgical prayer there can be a problem with spontaneous prayers. When God becomes familiar to us and we lose the sense of majesty and mystery that surrounds God. Sometime with spontaneous prays God become a best friend, who always answers the phone, and will listen to your problems for as long as you want to talk.

So which of these kinds of prayers should we use? I think that both are important and there needs to be a balance in church and our individual prayer lives. This is what I want. But what does God want? What kind of prayers does God want to hear?

The Apostle Paul was an avid prayer. He prayed constantly for churches. If anyone knew how to pray it was Paul. But Paul confesses that we really don't know how to pray. I've experienced this in our morning prayers. Every day at 6am we gather for prayer. I often wonder what God wants us to do with this time. Should we meditate on scripture. Should we talk about scripture? Should we pray silently or out loud? Should we limit our prayers to the church and community or pray for the whole world? Should we say the Lord's Prayer every morning? I have to admit, with Paul, that I really have no idea how God wants us to pray.

Prayer should be very natural for us. It is just communication with our creator. We were made to communicate with God. But as a result of sin we no longer know how to pray. We sense that we must pray, and we follow other's example of how to pray, but we really don't know how God wants us to pray because sin has so distorted us.

Our only hope is that God will restore the communication channel with us. We have a basic need to hear God's voice. We long to know what God wants for us. But there is no way that we can communicate with God, the creator of the universe, on our own. Why would our majestic God in heaven listen to our prayers? How could limited finite creatures like us every hope to communicate with an unlimited, infinite God?

Paul's answer is profound. The only way we could communicate with God in prayer is through the working of our triune God. God, the Holy Spirit, enters us and knows our deepest thoughts, feelings and desires. The Holy Spirit then communicates these to God, the Son, who because of his humanity can think our thoughts, feel our feelings, and have our desires. Jesus Christ then uses his divinity to communicate all of these to God, the Father. And so God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, knows our thoughts, our feelings and our desires without us even saying a word. And the processed is reversed as God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, blesses us with love.

So how should we pray? Should we use words that are printed and memorized? Should we just talk to a person named, God? Maybe we shouldn't use words at all. Maybe God is not interested in words, because words are a human invention. Maybe we just need to be silent and let the Holy Spirit act within us by communicating our thoughts, feelings and desires without words.

This is why we use a third kind of prayer. It is a prayer that is neither written down nor consisting of words addressed to God. This kind of pray is called silent prayer. In silent prayer we rest in the arms of God, enjoying his presences and allowing him to communicate to us confident that he already knows who we are.

As the Apostle Paul rested in God arms he heard God's voice. This is what God said:

²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

God knew you before you were created. He already knows everything about you. These is nothing that you have to tell God. And this God, who created you, has also chosen you to be made in the image of his son. Even though this image has be completely defaced by sin God will send his Spirit to restore this image and to call you to restore all of creation. You have been been restored and given new life to glorify God because God loves you.

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to this?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

³⁴ Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-- more than that, who was raised to life-- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen.

Sermon Romans 8:12-25 Creation Waits for the Children of God

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon Romans 8:12-25 Creation Waits for the Children of God

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

July 17, 2011
Listen to the Beaver Dam Worship of July 17.

Last week we saw that salvation is more that just having our sins forgiven and receiving a ticket to heaven. Salvation also includes the coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives today renewing within us the image of God with which we were created. The effects of sin had completely erased all of God's image from us. So God sent the Holy Spirit to renew it within so that we can once again hear God's voice, respond to God's call, and obey God's will. Today we will see that this blessing is not just for us but for the whole world. Let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

I read an article this past week about a couple of atheists who attend church every week and enjoy it. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/atheists-may-actually-like-these-10-elements-of-church-culture/ That's right atheists who enjoy church! Amanda Westmont and Joel Gunz both call themselves non-believers, but they attend church every Sunday to write a blog for Beliefnet.com. The blog is called, “Year of Sundays”. One of the things they like about church is the food. They love the pancake breakfasts and the Sunday evening spaghetti suppers. They like the beautiful architecture, the stained glass windows, the beautiful artwork. They really like the charity work churches do, everything from feeding the homeless to building awareness of poverty. But their favorite thing about church, for these two atheists is the live music. They love the ancient chants, jazz worship, and the pounding rhythm of praise songs. And best of all, all of this is free.

So how is it that two atheists could come to church every Sunday and love what we do, but never find God in any of it? The Apostle Paul has an answer.

Romans 8:18-23 ¹⁸ I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; ²⁰ for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; ²³ and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.evidence of the creator in creation. Remember that everything was created good. And so long as we obeyed God's will, creation would stay that way. But once sin entered into the world and we started following our own way rather than God's way both the image of God within us and the evidence of the work of the creator in creation has been covered over and can no long be seen. Creation itself has fallen into sin. This is apparent here in Pocomoke. How else would you explain the problems of drug addiction and alcoholism, the problem of poverty, and the problems of marital infidelity and domestic violence? In a world created by God none of these things should be happening. But sin has obscured the goodness of God's creation and these and other problems abound. And so the atheist are unable to see God even in church.

The mistake that the atheists make is that they believe that the world can deal with its own problems. If we have just the right government program and spend enough money any problem can be solved. But as the country has gone deeper and deeper into debt and has many layers of government programs, the problems are still here and the solutions seem so elusive. The world is incapable of solving it own problems because sin has distorted creation, obscured the goodness with which it was created, has twisted it into a world of problems. The atheists will eventually realize the futility of trying to fix the world's problems with their good intentions. An outside force is needed to restore the goodness of the world. And this is where it gets really interesting. The outside force that the world needs, is us. What the world is waiting for is for God's Holy Spirit to transform us into the children of God so that we will listen to what God says and act upon it transforming the world.

So what do we do? How is it that we become God's agents for world transformation? It starts with prayer. As the image of God is restored in us we have the ability to communicate with God. So with the help of the Holy Spirit we can pray, and listen to God's voice. The Apostle Paul tells us that when we pray to the Father the Holy Spirit lifts us up to God as God's adopted children. Paul says that since we are God's children then we must also be heirs of God's creation.

And since Jesus is also God's heir we must be siblings, and as siblings we share in his glory. That is what all of creation is waiting for. It longs for the day when the children of God emerge and transform all of creation back into the goodness that God had intended. All of creations is waiting for us, the children of God, to come with God's glory.

All of this takes time. But it has already started. Already the Holy Spirit dwell is you. Already you are lifted up to God in prayer. Already you hear God's voice. Already the image of God you were created with is being restored. And God is using all of this so that you will be the instruments that God uses to recreated a fallen world.

The place where all of this starts is in church. Yes we have good food here. Yes our music is beautiful. Yes we have a beautiful historic building. Yes we do good things for our community. But church is much more than all of this. Church is where we come into contact with the risen Christ in the Word of God and in prayer. And it is through this contact that God's Holy Spirit enters us, transforms us in God's adopted children and sends us out to restore goodness to a world that has lost it.

So we need to pray that everyone who comes into our doors will find Jesus Christ here and be transformed by the Holy Spirit right here in this church. I hope that the two atheists writing for Beliefnet will one Sunday come to Pocomoke and worship with us and be surprised when they find out that our worship is more than just music, and architecture, and food, and good works – find out that our worship is worship of a living God who is Lord of our lives.

Let's take a look at how God is using his adopted children to transform the world, Here is a portion of the most recent blog post by one of our atheists, Amanda P. Westmont. Listen to what the Holy Spirit is doing for this atheist.  http://blog.beliefnet.com/yearofsundays/2011/07/spiritual-journey-update.html

“Two weeks ago, I had one of the worst days I can ever remember having. I’d spent the afternoon up to my eyeballs in pure, unabashed ugliness. I honestly thought it couldn’t get any worse, but then a police officer pounded on my front door, read me my rights and accused me of committing a felony. I went from feeling LOW to feeling LOWLOW. Of course it was all just a big misunderstanding. A tit-for-tat taken one titty too far. Fortunately, after a few words and a few tears, the police officer agreed with me, shook my hand and left...

(Then) there was a Facebook note from Donna Van Horn, one of the pastors at The Bridge, inviting me out for the drinks we’d been talking about having since I first met her on that perfectly imperfect Sunday in March. There was no way she could’ve known what was going on with me, but she somehow managed to reach out to me at the EXACT moment I needed her to. I immediately penned an enthusiastic, if profanity-laden, acceptance and sent it off to her with a complaint that she was making it really hard for me not to believe in God anymore...

I’ve had every reason to hunker down. To shut out the world and keep myself safe. But if these Sundays have taught me anything, it’s that reaching out is the only answer. I had to ask for help. I didn’t ask God or Jesus or Buddha, but I put the word out on my blog and simply asked for support. And I received. Literally hundreds of prayers, blog comments, e-mails, Facebook wall posts, calls from old friends and even flower deliveries rolled in. I was literally overwhelmed with love.

Because of the heathenous things we write on this blog, Joel and I are probably the two most prayed-for souls in all of Portland, Oregon, but this was the first time I ever really FELT those prayers, welcomed them even. And the constant fear I’d been living with dissipated enough that I was able to get back to my life...

I do know I’m going to start reading the Bible and see how I feel about it. I’m doing this not as a road to accepting Jesus Christ as my personal savior, but because a) I write a religion blog and my Biblical ignorance is becoming embarrassing, b) I’ll be reading along via The Bridge’s bi-weekly Bible study group called Red Letter Pub, which means there will be Bibles AND booze, and c) I’ll take advantage of ANY OPPORTUNITY to hear Donna Van Horn speak. She’s a quiet one, that pastor, but if I learned anything by accepting her invitation and having her over to get sauced on my patio with the other Church Ladies of The Bridge, it’s that virtually everything that comes out of her mouth is golden. I don’t have to believe in Jesus to want to surround myself with people doing their damnedest to live like him...”

Ms Westmont, like all of creation is groaning under the weight of sin, hoping that one day she would have a glimpse of God's glory. Lets all pray that she will find God in the Bible study at Bridge church and that she too will be transformed by the Holy Spirit into what she was created to be, and that through her God will transformation our fallen world. Amen.

Sermon Romans 8:1-11 – The Spirit Dwells within You

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon Romans 8:1-11 – The Spirit Dwells within You

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

July 10, 2011
Good morning. Last week I had the great pleasure of attending the Presbyterian Big Tent in Indianapolis. Several Presbyterian groups held their annual conferences at the same place and at the same time. I saw some old friends that I haven't seen in a while. We worshiped, studied and ate together. I had breakfast with the Multicultural Church Conference and heard about their efforts to help our churches reflect the ethic diversity of their communities. I attended two sessions with the Evangelism and Growth Conference hearing from a speaker from Intervarsity, a Christian outreach into colleges and universities. And I had dinner with our Presbyterian immigrant congregations and experienced their great cultural diversity. It was a wonderful experience and I thank the church for allowing me to do this for my annual study leave.

Today we are here to listen to the Word of God. So lets pray. “Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Earlier this week many people were glued to their television sets watching as a judgment was handed out to a young woman. This woman had been accused of killing her own two year old daughter and dumping the body in a swamp. She had also been accused of lying to the police. She stood up in court waiting for judgment to fall. This is what we can expect when the day comes and we stand before God making an account of what we have done with our lives. An accuser, Satan, will be their reminding God of everything we have done which we should not have been done and everything we have not done which we should have done. And God will pronounce judgment upon us. When this happens there is little we can do. We may try to point out all the good things we have done, but it won't be enough. So we will expect that a just God will judge us harshly.

As Casey Anthony stood before the judge, a jury of her peers said that there was not enough evidence to prove that she had murdered her child. The judge then adjudged her “not guilty”. She will soon be released from prison. In the same way when we stand before God waiting to be adjudged, Jesus Christ will stand up on our behalf and tell God the he has already paid the penalty for our sins. For all who believe in Jesus, trust in him with their lives, God will adjudge them not guilty, and we will be free to enter heaven. This is the bedrock foundation of our faith and the good news that we are to proclaim to a world that desperately needs to hear it.

The first seven chapters of the Book of Romans deals with this reality, but in the eighth chapter the Apostle Paul give us something new to think about. Let's listen to what he says.

Romans 8:1-11 ^NRS Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law-- indeed it cannot, ⁸ and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. ⁹ But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

We have been assured that when we die God will declare us “not guilty” and we will go to heaven. All we have to do is to believe in Jesus Christ by trustimg Jesus with our lives. It is important to understand what will happen when we die, but it is also important to understand what is happening now as we live. Salvation means that not only will we be saved from our sins after death, but we are also saved from sin while we live in this life, in this time, in this world.

Paul wants us to remember that we were created by God, in the very image of God, and that all of God's creation is good. Since we were created in the image of God it is only natural that we would listen for God's voice and respond by molding our wills around God's will. This is what God had intended when he created us. But as a result of sin the image of God that was given to us at creation has been worn away and no long exists. The image of God in our lives has been tattooed over so many times by sin that it can no long be seen. It is buried under too many coats of paint. As a result we no longer care about what God wants and we only follow our own desires. We hear that God wants us to go to church on Sunday, but some respond “why bother?”. We are told not to lie and cheat because these displease God, but some don't care what God wants and do it anyway. Sin causes us to follow our own wills and do whatever we want to do. The image of God is gone from our lives, we are slaves to sin. Paul calls this condition “flesh”. Calvin called it “total depravity”. Whatever you call it it is the same, our inability and unwillingness to listen to and follow the will of God.

But Paul says there is good news. We are not condemned to live our lives in this fallen state because God sends his Spirit to restore the image of God that God has created in us. The effects of all those years of disobedience are wiped cleaned, fixed and painted. We are made like new and the image of God is restored to it previous luster.

We are in the process of restoring the Dickerson Memorial Manse. New paint is going on the walls. A new floor is going in the kitchen. Its former beauty it coming alive with light and color as it is restored to it former glory. So too with us as the Holy Spirit comes upon us cleaning and painting and restoring the image of God we were created with. As a result of the restoring work of the Holy Spirit we can once again listen for God's voice, know what God wants, and follow God's lead. The Holy Spirit breaks through all that separates us from God. The evil powers that keep us in their grip are destroyed. Our slavery to sin is broken. We are given freedom to live. And all of this comes to us as a gift, the blessings of heaven.

The Holy Spirit is the gift that we received after Jesus' death and resurrection. We receive this Spirit in our baptism and it comforts and guides us in our new lives. The Spirit dwells within us helping us to listen to God and obey his voice. The Spirit assures us that we will receive all of God's promises, that there will be no condemnation for all who believe in Jesus Christ. So Christ's death was not only a payment for our sins leading to a not guilty verdict after we die, but it is also the victory over sin and death that allows us to now live our lives in a way pleasing to God.

And this opens for us exciting new possibilities. Once we abandon our own limited and flawed dreams and desires and embrace our destiny an exciting new world opens for us a we follow God wherever God may lead. The Spirit is offering you a new life lived in the presence and in obedience to God. Embrace this new life now and experience the abundance God has prepared for you.

In a few weeks Casey Anthony will walk out of prison. She will be free having been adjudged “not guilty” She has been given a second chance and an opportunity to live a new life. Will she continue live as a slave to sin, or will she accept Jesus Christ into her life and believe in him. Will she allow the Holy Spirit to guide her by molding her will around God's will? If she does she will enjoy the fruits of abundant life and never again have the experience of being judged with her live in the balance. Or will she return to her old life, with the image of God obscured, following her own desires and ignoring God? If she does this surely she will face God's judgment.

A lot of people were praying for justice for Casey's daughter Calee. Many are now disappointed believing that justice has been denied. It is easy to pray for justice for a two year old victim. It is much harder to pray for the transformation of a bad mother. But this is what we are called to do. We all need to pray that God will send his Spirit upon Casey Anthony, restoring what he had created, so that she will live her life not as a slave to sin as she has done, but as a child of God leading her to new life lived in the Spirit of God.

God Almighty, we pray this day that your Spirit will come upon us, restoring us and renewing your image within us. We pray this blessing on all who are slaves to sin. And we ask that your Spirit help us to listen your voice and obey your will to your glory. Amen.