Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Churches
Sermon - 1 Kings 19:8-18 - What are you doing here Elijah?
June 20, 2010
Listen to this sermon.
Today I will be continuing with a series of sermons on the prophet Elijah. Elijah was the prophet of God at a very dangerous time for God’s people. The Omri dynasty in Israel was busy nationalizing farms for money and power, and converting the nation to worship the Phoenician weather god, Baal. Two weeks ago we saw the beginning of a three year draught which demonstrated the powerlessness of Baal and the great love and compassion of our God. Last week we saw how God was determined to stop the hoarding of grain and money by the government so that his people could be fed. Today we will look at the end of the draught and God’s decree on the Omri dynasty. But before we get to one of the most dramatic stories is all of scripture please pray with me.
“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)
The draught had reached its three year mark and showed no sign of letting up. Time and again the prophets would climb to the high places and ask Baal to open the windows of heaven and let the rain fall. But no rain came. As the draught deepened water became scarce and the crops dried up and died.
So, Elijah proposed a contest to end the draught. He and the prophets of Baal would both go to the high place of Baal worship on Mount Carmel. The prophets of Baal would pray that Baal would send the rain. Elijah would pray to his God Yahweh to end the draught. Whichever God sent the rain would be the God of Israel. Two great fires were laid out. The prophet of Baal danced around their pile of wood imploring Baal to ignite their fire with lightening, a fairly easy task for the so called weather God. Nothing happened. Baal seemed to be absent, or maybe he never existed at all.
Elijah soaked his wood with water and prayed that Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel, would set it on fire. And the fire exploded in seconds and the draught came to an end. With absolute proof that Yahweh is God, Elijah, in triumph, had the prophets of Baal slaughtered by the sword. And this got Queen Jezebel angry. She sent a message to Elijah telling him that he was next to die. So in fear Elijah fled south through Judah into the Negev Dessert. And there Elijah, afraid and alone, was ready to die.
We have all experienced times when we feel all alone. We wonder where God is. And when God seems distant we become afraid. I have often wondered where God is. Last year was a difficult one for me. I knew that my contract at my church would not be renewed for a variety of reasons. After three years in seminary and two years on a pastor’s salary in expensive Southern California my savings were nearly exhausted. But as I neared the end of my pastorate in November I was confident that God would call me to a new church. I had applications at churches all over the country. But church after church told me that a few families in their congregations had lost their jobs in the bad economy and they could no longer afford to hire a new pastor. With 20% unemployment in California I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to find other work. And the work that was available did not pay enough to compensate for the high cost of living in Los Angeles. I was facing the same problems as many people in my congregation. As Christmas approached I still had not found a call, and I began to wonder where God was. I should have read about Elijah in the book of Kings.
1 Kings 19:8-18 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 10 He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."
11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 14 He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too." 15 The LORD said to him, "Go back the way you came,
Elijah knew that he had to find God somewhere or die. So he retraced the steps of his ancestors, the Israelites, and returned to Horeb, the mountain of God where Moses had received the Law, the covenant with God. Elijah climbed the mountain, as Moses did, to find God. Elijah experienced the wind racing across the face of the mountain and thought that God might be that wind, but then realized that his God had created the wind. So the wind was not God. Then the earth shook and Elijah thought the God might be the earth, Mother Nature, but the he remembered that his God had created the earth. So the earth was not God. Then he saw fire and molten rock billowing up from the volcano and through that God must be fire, but recalled that God created fire. So the fire could not be God. And then Elijah remembered that God can only be found in the silence of prayer.
Whenever we feel that God is far away, missing, lost, unresponsive, inept or awol all we have to do to find God is to turn to God in prayer. Asking the question “Where is God” is nonsensical. God is always with us. And God always knows where we are. God is always asking the question “What are you doing here?”
This is the question God asked Elijah. God didn’t want Elijah sitting some mountain top complaining about his lot life. Elijah had work to do. Ahab and Jezebel had to be removed as king and queen. The Omri dynasty had to be brought to an end. Worship of Yahweh, the Lord God had to be restored to Israel. It was time for Elijah to get to work.
And so whenever God seems far away and we turn to God in prayer, God reminds us of our call and renews us for ministry. So don’t be surprised when searching for God that God will find you and give you a task that you never expected. While I was searching for God I received a call from Pocomoke to be a pastor of two churches on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. This was not what I expected. I had married a Korean wife, and I expected that God would send us somewhere with a large Korean population. I knew about the Eastern Shore from summers in Ocean City and Bethany Beach. So, just as I was beginning to wonder if God wanted me to be a pastor after all, I received a call from you. Your pastor nominating committee wanted me to come to the eastern shore to preach. And you called me to be your pastor. God was working through you to affirm my call and renew me to begin a new ministry right here in Pocomoke.
Elijah’s call was dramatic. Elijah was told by God to anoint Elisha to continue his ministry as prophet. A new king was to be anointed in Syria who would defeat Ahab in a battle where which would lead to his death. And Elijah was to anoint Jehu to begin a new dynasty in Israel that would return the county to the worship of Yahweh..
So whenever we feel that God is missing and we turn to God in prayer, be prepared for a call to an amazing new ministry. God has big things she wants each of you to accomplish. But you will only find what God has for you when you think God is missing and you turn to God in prayer.
On this Father’s day we should remember that we can always find God in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. One day Jesus of Nazareth was searching for God and he climbed a mountain to be with Moses and Elijah and pray. This Jesus taught us that we who believe in him are truly children of God and entitle to pray to God and our father.
Father in heaven; bless all of the fathers of this congregation. Help then to find you in prayer. And be with them as they lead their families to worship you. We pray this in the glorious name of Jesus. Amen.
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Thursday, June 24, 2010
Sermon – 1 Kings 21:14-21 – Abuse of Power
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon – 1 Kings 21:14-21 – Abuse of Power
Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Presbyterian Churches
June 13, 2010
Listen to this sermon
Good morning. Today I am preaching my second in a series of sermons drawn from Kings, books one and two. These books were once united, but had to be split to accommodate the ancient skill of scroll making. One scroll could not hold the entire book so it was divided into two scrolls, part a and part b. And so we have the books of First and Second Kings. In First Kings we have already seen a cataclysmic struggle taking place between Ahab the King of Israel and Elijah the Prophet of God. This struggle represented a larger cosmic struggle between Yahweh, the God of Israel and Baal, the Phoenician weather god. Last week we saw Yahweh closing the windows of heaven to keep the rain out causing a three year draught proving that Baal was either powerless or nonexistent. Today we will look at the socio-political struggle and the economic ramifications in Israel which were the direct result of the idolatry that Ahab and Jezebel had introduced into the country. But before we get to all of this please pray with me.
“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)
1 Kings 21:14-21 14 Then they sent word to Jezebel: "Naboth has been stoned and is dead." 15 As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, "Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead." 16 When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth's vineyard. 17 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: 18 "Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth's vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it. 19 Say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?' Then say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood-- yes, yours!'" 20 Ahab said to Elijah, "So you have found me, my enemy!" "I have found you," he answered, "because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD. 21 'I am going to bring disaster on you.
There is a story from Greek antiquity about a King named Midas. Midas wanted power, absolute power. So he wished that everything he touched would turn to gold. His wish came true. But when he tried to drink some water it turned to gold as it touched his lips. Food turned to gold when he tried to eat. And when he tried to embrace his own daughter, she too turned to gold. As the old saying goes, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” King Midas teaches us that life is not about hoarding things and amassing great wealth. There must be some other purpose to life.
Ahab may have been the King of Israel but he had completely turned away from the God of Israel. He may have thought that he is now worshiping his wife’s god, Baal, but in reality he was worshiping power. And the power he worshiped was corrupting him. He wanted to hoard more and more things and amass greater and greater wealth.
As a powerful person Ahab usually got what he wanted, and he wanted Naboth’s vineyard. At first he tried to buy the vineyard from Naboth, but Naboth refused. Ahab wanted the field to “grow vegetables”. He was not planning to grow corn or potatoes. The term “vegetable garden” in the Old Testament refers to a farm being used to supply the military with food and grow grain for the King’s storehouses. Ahab wanted the field to enhance his own power and wealth. With it he could feed a larger army and have grain to trade internationally.
Naboth was not about to give up the land with out a fight. He and his family had been given the land by Yahweh, the God of Israel. It was to stay in their possession forever provided that the cared for the poor, the needy, the widows, the orphans and the aliens in Israel. This was the covenant between God and the farmers of Israel. And Naboth was not going to break his covenant with God. So he told Ahab, “no deal”. Ahab was so overwhelmed by his lust for power that after Naboth’s rejection he was overcome by depression and went to bed refusing to eat.
Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, decided to act on her own while he sulked in bed. She, like her husband, coveted their neighbor’s land. She sent letters pretending to be the king, and got others to bear false witness against Naboth. And she had Naboth murdered. Obviously the Ten Commandments didn’t slow her down any.
This is just one story representing many more as the descendants of King Omri attempted to nationalize the farms of Israel. Before Omri the land was considered as being owned by God. God allowed families to farm the land provided that they generously shared the food grown with the poorest in the community. The farmers were not to harvest all the way to the edge of the field. They were not to pickup what fell off their wagons. That way the poor could glean the fields and get enough food to survive. But with the king’s desire for power there was no longer any concern for the poor. Any excess went into his storehouses and poor went hungry. As more and more land was nationalized to satisfy the desire for power of the king, less and less was available for the poor to glean. The poor were hungry. God had to act to stop Ahab and save his people so he sent Elijah to speak with the king.
As the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico grows, similar issues of land-use, hoarding and amassing great wealth face us today. The United States government is holding BP liable for not only the environmental effects but also the economic impact of the spill. There have been calls for the government to seize the assets of BP. And as the stock price of BP declines the investments of many British pensioners are being affected. Obviously there are no winners in the oil spill off the coast. In all of this we should remember that the Gulf of Mexico, like Naboth’s vineyard, was given to us by God for our benefit. God wants us to have the Gulf fish, shrimp and oysters to eat. God wants us to have the oil to heat our homes in the winter. And God wants to make certain that part of what comes out of the Gulf is used to benefit the poor and needy in our land. But God will oppose any use of the Gulf that is based on greed and hoarding. This purpose of drilling for oil is to heat our homes and power our cars, not to amass wealth for BP or excessive taxes for the government. The crises in the Gulf may be God’s corrective action to bring the uses of the Gulf into agreement with God’s will.
All of this teaches us that, like Naboth, God has given us jobs and businesses and farms not to be used to satisfy our lust for money and power, but to care for the poor and needy of our land. We are not to hoard things and amass great wealth. God gives us what we need and expects us to help others in need.
Where do we stand in all of this? Do we passively stand by watching as governments and corporations follow Jezebel in hoarding resources and amassing great wealth? Or do we stand with the poor of the world and insist that their needs be met? These are question we all face. Following God is never easy, but unlike hoarding and amassing wealth it is our path to happiness. The psalmist puts it this way,
Psalm 52:7-8 7 "See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!” 8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
So we receive love and blessings from God and we are called not to hoard our blessings and amass great wealth. Rather we are to share our blessings with those in need and the promise of scripture is that God will bless us with more than we could ever imagine.
Let us pray. Father in heaven we are grateful for all you have given us. Help us to be satisfied with what we have. Help us to generously share what we have been given. And help us to not covet what our neighbor has. We pray this in the name of your son who gave his very life for us. Amen.
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Sermon – 1 Kings 21:14-21 – Abuse of Power
Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Presbyterian Churches
June 13, 2010
Listen to this sermon
Good morning. Today I am preaching my second in a series of sermons drawn from Kings, books one and two. These books were once united, but had to be split to accommodate the ancient skill of scroll making. One scroll could not hold the entire book so it was divided into two scrolls, part a and part b. And so we have the books of First and Second Kings. In First Kings we have already seen a cataclysmic struggle taking place between Ahab the King of Israel and Elijah the Prophet of God. This struggle represented a larger cosmic struggle between Yahweh, the God of Israel and Baal, the Phoenician weather god. Last week we saw Yahweh closing the windows of heaven to keep the rain out causing a three year draught proving that Baal was either powerless or nonexistent. Today we will look at the socio-political struggle and the economic ramifications in Israel which were the direct result of the idolatry that Ahab and Jezebel had introduced into the country. But before we get to all of this please pray with me.
“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)
1 Kings 21:14-21 14 Then they sent word to Jezebel: "Naboth has been stoned and is dead." 15 As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, "Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead." 16 When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth's vineyard. 17 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: 18 "Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth's vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it. 19 Say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?' Then say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood-- yes, yours!'" 20 Ahab said to Elijah, "So you have found me, my enemy!" "I have found you," he answered, "because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD. 21 'I am going to bring disaster on you.
There is a story from Greek antiquity about a King named Midas. Midas wanted power, absolute power. So he wished that everything he touched would turn to gold. His wish came true. But when he tried to drink some water it turned to gold as it touched his lips. Food turned to gold when he tried to eat. And when he tried to embrace his own daughter, she too turned to gold. As the old saying goes, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” King Midas teaches us that life is not about hoarding things and amassing great wealth. There must be some other purpose to life.
Ahab may have been the King of Israel but he had completely turned away from the God of Israel. He may have thought that he is now worshiping his wife’s god, Baal, but in reality he was worshiping power. And the power he worshiped was corrupting him. He wanted to hoard more and more things and amass greater and greater wealth.
As a powerful person Ahab usually got what he wanted, and he wanted Naboth’s vineyard. At first he tried to buy the vineyard from Naboth, but Naboth refused. Ahab wanted the field to “grow vegetables”. He was not planning to grow corn or potatoes. The term “vegetable garden” in the Old Testament refers to a farm being used to supply the military with food and grow grain for the King’s storehouses. Ahab wanted the field to enhance his own power and wealth. With it he could feed a larger army and have grain to trade internationally.
Naboth was not about to give up the land with out a fight. He and his family had been given the land by Yahweh, the God of Israel. It was to stay in their possession forever provided that the cared for the poor, the needy, the widows, the orphans and the aliens in Israel. This was the covenant between God and the farmers of Israel. And Naboth was not going to break his covenant with God. So he told Ahab, “no deal”. Ahab was so overwhelmed by his lust for power that after Naboth’s rejection he was overcome by depression and went to bed refusing to eat.
Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, decided to act on her own while he sulked in bed. She, like her husband, coveted their neighbor’s land. She sent letters pretending to be the king, and got others to bear false witness against Naboth. And she had Naboth murdered. Obviously the Ten Commandments didn’t slow her down any.
This is just one story representing many more as the descendants of King Omri attempted to nationalize the farms of Israel. Before Omri the land was considered as being owned by God. God allowed families to farm the land provided that they generously shared the food grown with the poorest in the community. The farmers were not to harvest all the way to the edge of the field. They were not to pickup what fell off their wagons. That way the poor could glean the fields and get enough food to survive. But with the king’s desire for power there was no longer any concern for the poor. Any excess went into his storehouses and poor went hungry. As more and more land was nationalized to satisfy the desire for power of the king, less and less was available for the poor to glean. The poor were hungry. God had to act to stop Ahab and save his people so he sent Elijah to speak with the king.
As the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico grows, similar issues of land-use, hoarding and amassing great wealth face us today. The United States government is holding BP liable for not only the environmental effects but also the economic impact of the spill. There have been calls for the government to seize the assets of BP. And as the stock price of BP declines the investments of many British pensioners are being affected. Obviously there are no winners in the oil spill off the coast. In all of this we should remember that the Gulf of Mexico, like Naboth’s vineyard, was given to us by God for our benefit. God wants us to have the Gulf fish, shrimp and oysters to eat. God wants us to have the oil to heat our homes in the winter. And God wants to make certain that part of what comes out of the Gulf is used to benefit the poor and needy in our land. But God will oppose any use of the Gulf that is based on greed and hoarding. This purpose of drilling for oil is to heat our homes and power our cars, not to amass wealth for BP or excessive taxes for the government. The crises in the Gulf may be God’s corrective action to bring the uses of the Gulf into agreement with God’s will.
All of this teaches us that, like Naboth, God has given us jobs and businesses and farms not to be used to satisfy our lust for money and power, but to care for the poor and needy of our land. We are not to hoard things and amass great wealth. God gives us what we need and expects us to help others in need.
Where do we stand in all of this? Do we passively stand by watching as governments and corporations follow Jezebel in hoarding resources and amassing great wealth? Or do we stand with the poor of the world and insist that their needs be met? These are question we all face. Following God is never easy, but unlike hoarding and amassing wealth it is our path to happiness. The psalmist puts it this way,
Psalm 52:7-8 7 "See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!” 8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
So we receive love and blessings from God and we are called not to hoard our blessings and amass great wealth. Rather we are to share our blessings with those in need and the promise of scripture is that God will bless us with more than we could ever imagine.
Let us pray. Father in heaven we are grateful for all you have given us. Help us to be satisfied with what we have. Help us to generously share what we have been given. And help us to not covet what our neighbor has. We pray this in the name of your son who gave his very life for us. Amen.
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Sermon – 1 Kings 17:17-24 – A Man of God
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon – 1 Kings 17:17-24 – A Man of God
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
June 6, 2010
Listen to this sermon.
Good morning and welcome to Beaver Dam church on this Communion Sunday. Today we turn our attention to the Old Testament and one of its most important figures. We will be looking at the prophet Elijah, a man of God. When Elijah saw God’s people being led astray he risked his own life to bring them back to God. All along he was confident of God’s love and faithfulness. But before we look at one of the most touching stories of God’s faithfulness in all of scripture, please pray with me.
“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)
1 Kings 17:17-24 17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?" 19 "Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!" 22 The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!" 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth."
In the tenth century before Christ the people of God wanted a king because they were afraid. They were afraid of the Philistines who had begun settling on the coast and brought with them terrifying new weapon made from iron. The bronze weapons of the Israelites were no longer adequate. So they wanted a standing army with modern weapons made from iron and a king to lead them. There was no real need for this because God had protected them for hundreds of years. Wanting a king and a modern army was a sign of their unfaithfulness. God’s people were unwilling to trust God. So they anointed a king and then their troubles started.
A hundred years later a king came to the throne in Israel. He was a violent army general named Omri. He nationalized the farms and built storehouses for the grain which he used to build up his army and his new capital city called Samaria. He negotiated peace treaties with the surrounding nations and arranged for the marriage of his son with the daughter of a Phoenician priest. This son, Ahab, became king and his wife Jezebel convinced him to covert to and lead his nation to the god Baal.
Baalmarqart was the Phoenician weather God. If your fields were to wet to plant potatoes you would climb a local hill and pray to Baal to close the windows of heaven and keep the water out. Of if your fields were baking in the summer sun you would return to the hill and ask Baal to open the windows and let the rain fall.
Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel, did not want his people to worship Baal because Baal was a false God, he did not really exist. So Yahweh sent the profit Elijah to speak with King Ahab. And this must have really annoyed Ahab because Elijah’s name literally means “Yahweh is God”.
So Elijah, Yahweh is God, appeared before Ahab an announced a test. Yahweh was going to close the windows of heaven and lock them for three years and Baal couldn’t do anything about it. Elijah, confident that the promised drought would occur fled to the wilderness where God provided him with food and water. Ahab went back to his lavish lifestyle confident that his storehouses of grain and his cisterns filled with water would satisfy his needs no matter what happened.
This contest between God and Baal affected more that just Ahab and Elijah. As the drought deepened people became hungry and thirsty. Their health began to deteriorate. Some died. As you heard earlier a woman raising a young son lost her husband, and then watched as the limited amount of grain and olive oil in her panty began to run out. And she realized that it was just a matter of time until she and her son would also die. This woman had been betrayed by her god. She was a worshiper of Baal, and Baal did not send the rain as promised.
Elijah came to her home and asked for something to eat. He told her that Yahweh, his God, would provide enough grain and enough oil to sustain all of them until the drought ended. Elijah asked the widow to believe this, to have faith in his God. She did believe and was blessed by God with sufficient food.
But her faith was fragile. When her son died she feared that her unfaithfulness to Baal might have been the cause. But Elijah, using the power of God brought her son back to life. This miracle sealed the deal, and the Phoenician follower of Baal, from Jezebel’s home town, became a believer in Yahweh, the Lord, God of Israel.
This is a story of faith, not just belief in God, but trusting that God will love and care for us no matter what happens. So if you find yourself in the hospital after a stroke or after surgery on your back, your knee or your stomach remember that God loves you and is with you always. We can have faith in a faithful God.
Psalm 146 puts it this way, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in Yahweh his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—the LORD, who remains faithful forever.”
Thomas A. Dorsey, “Georgia Tom” as he was called was the son of a revivalist preacher. Tom played the piano and went on to study jazz. For forty years he was the music director for Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago and served as the President of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. In 1932 Tom’s wife died and Tom’s placed all of his faith in his faithful God. And God blessed him with a hymn which has become the most successful gospel song ever written and the theme song for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. We sang it earlier, and listen again as it talks about faith in a faithful God.
1. Precious Lord, take my hand,
Lead me on, help me stand;
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;
Through the storm, through the night,
Lead me on to the light;
Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.
2. When my way grows drear,
Precious Lord, linger near;
When my life is almost gone,
Hear my cry, hear my call,
Hold my hand lest I fall;
Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.
We are gathering around this table this morning to remember the great faithfulness of God. No matter what happens God is faithful and will be there with us. If we have no money, no food, nowhere to turn God is there. If we loose our health or a loved on dies God is there. God is always faithful to those who believe. We trust that God is with us and loves us no matter what happens. So we return again and again to feed on this spiritual food that will never run out and will always satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst for God and lead us to resurrection and eternal life.
Over the next few weeks we will continue our look at the contest between Yahweh and Baal
and the conflict between King Ahab and Elijah. The final destruction of faith in Baal is still in the future, but already God has proven his faithfulness, love and compassion.
Lord, God of Heaven, we thank you for being our rock upon which we stand. We thank you for your steadfast love for us. We trust that you will be there whenever we need you. Amen.
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Sermon – 1 Kings 17:17-24 – A Man of God
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
June 6, 2010
Listen to this sermon.
Good morning and welcome to Beaver Dam church on this Communion Sunday. Today we turn our attention to the Old Testament and one of its most important figures. We will be looking at the prophet Elijah, a man of God. When Elijah saw God’s people being led astray he risked his own life to bring them back to God. All along he was confident of God’s love and faithfulness. But before we look at one of the most touching stories of God’s faithfulness in all of scripture, please pray with me.
“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)
1 Kings 17:17-24 17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?" 19 "Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!" 22 The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!" 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth."
In the tenth century before Christ the people of God wanted a king because they were afraid. They were afraid of the Philistines who had begun settling on the coast and brought with them terrifying new weapon made from iron. The bronze weapons of the Israelites were no longer adequate. So they wanted a standing army with modern weapons made from iron and a king to lead them. There was no real need for this because God had protected them for hundreds of years. Wanting a king and a modern army was a sign of their unfaithfulness. God’s people were unwilling to trust God. So they anointed a king and then their troubles started.
A hundred years later a king came to the throne in Israel. He was a violent army general named Omri. He nationalized the farms and built storehouses for the grain which he used to build up his army and his new capital city called Samaria. He negotiated peace treaties with the surrounding nations and arranged for the marriage of his son with the daughter of a Phoenician priest. This son, Ahab, became king and his wife Jezebel convinced him to covert to and lead his nation to the god Baal.
Baalmarqart was the Phoenician weather God. If your fields were to wet to plant potatoes you would climb a local hill and pray to Baal to close the windows of heaven and keep the water out. Of if your fields were baking in the summer sun you would return to the hill and ask Baal to open the windows and let the rain fall.
Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel, did not want his people to worship Baal because Baal was a false God, he did not really exist. So Yahweh sent the profit Elijah to speak with King Ahab. And this must have really annoyed Ahab because Elijah’s name literally means “Yahweh is God”.
So Elijah, Yahweh is God, appeared before Ahab an announced a test. Yahweh was going to close the windows of heaven and lock them for three years and Baal couldn’t do anything about it. Elijah, confident that the promised drought would occur fled to the wilderness where God provided him with food and water. Ahab went back to his lavish lifestyle confident that his storehouses of grain and his cisterns filled with water would satisfy his needs no matter what happened.
This contest between God and Baal affected more that just Ahab and Elijah. As the drought deepened people became hungry and thirsty. Their health began to deteriorate. Some died. As you heard earlier a woman raising a young son lost her husband, and then watched as the limited amount of grain and olive oil in her panty began to run out. And she realized that it was just a matter of time until she and her son would also die. This woman had been betrayed by her god. She was a worshiper of Baal, and Baal did not send the rain as promised.
Elijah came to her home and asked for something to eat. He told her that Yahweh, his God, would provide enough grain and enough oil to sustain all of them until the drought ended. Elijah asked the widow to believe this, to have faith in his God. She did believe and was blessed by God with sufficient food.
But her faith was fragile. When her son died she feared that her unfaithfulness to Baal might have been the cause. But Elijah, using the power of God brought her son back to life. This miracle sealed the deal, and the Phoenician follower of Baal, from Jezebel’s home town, became a believer in Yahweh, the Lord, God of Israel.
This is a story of faith, not just belief in God, but trusting that God will love and care for us no matter what happens. So if you find yourself in the hospital after a stroke or after surgery on your back, your knee or your stomach remember that God loves you and is with you always. We can have faith in a faithful God.
Psalm 146 puts it this way, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in Yahweh his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—the LORD, who remains faithful forever.”
Thomas A. Dorsey, “Georgia Tom” as he was called was the son of a revivalist preacher. Tom played the piano and went on to study jazz. For forty years he was the music director for Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago and served as the President of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. In 1932 Tom’s wife died and Tom’s placed all of his faith in his faithful God. And God blessed him with a hymn which has become the most successful gospel song ever written and the theme song for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. We sang it earlier, and listen again as it talks about faith in a faithful God.
1. Precious Lord, take my hand,
Lead me on, help me stand;
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;
Through the storm, through the night,
Lead me on to the light;
Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.
2. When my way grows drear,
Precious Lord, linger near;
When my life is almost gone,
Hear my cry, hear my call,
Hold my hand lest I fall;
Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.
We are gathering around this table this morning to remember the great faithfulness of God. No matter what happens God is faithful and will be there with us. If we have no money, no food, nowhere to turn God is there. If we loose our health or a loved on dies God is there. God is always faithful to those who believe. We trust that God is with us and loves us no matter what happens. So we return again and again to feed on this spiritual food that will never run out and will always satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst for God and lead us to resurrection and eternal life.
Over the next few weeks we will continue our look at the contest between Yahweh and Baal
and the conflict between King Ahab and Elijah. The final destruction of faith in Baal is still in the future, but already God has proven his faithfulness, love and compassion.
Lord, God of Heaven, we thank you for being our rock upon which we stand. We thank you for your steadfast love for us. We trust that you will be there whenever we need you. Amen.
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Sermon – Proverbs - 8:1-4, 22-31 – Wisdom Speaks
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon – Proverbs - 8:1-4, 22-31 – Wisdom Speaks
Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Presbyterian Churches
May 30, 2010
Listen to this sermon.
Good morning and welcome to Beaver Dam Presbyterian Church. This is Trinity Sunday, the day each year when we remember that we worship one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our belief in the trinity is what distinguishes us as Christians. The great theologian Augustine once was wondering how to explain this concept of the trinity. A story goes this way: he was walking along the beach one day and saw a boy running back and forth into the ocean putting water in a hole that he had dug in the sand. Augustine has him what he was doing. The boy said that he was trying to put the ocean into the hole. Then Augustine realized that he was trying to put an infinite God into his finite mind whenever he tried to think about the Trinity. 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)
This past week Grace returned from a conference in Chicago. I picked her up at BWI Airport and we had dinner in Annapolis. It has probably been ten years since I was last in Annapolis. It is a beautiful city. While we were there we saw the midshipmen in their sparkling white uniforms for the Naval Academy’s graduation ceremonies. It prompted me to think about my own time in college.
Over thirty years ago now I left home and went to Dickinson College in Carlisle PA. Since I was good at math and science I figured that I would be a physics major. While studying Physics I realized that I was asking bigger questions than science could answer. I was learning how things worked but I wanted to know why thing worked as they did. This led me into the philosophy department where I began taking classes in the philosophy of science, philosophy of religion and ethics. There I learned that we understand our world through something called wisdom. The only way I could find answers to my questions about why things are was by first acquiring wisdom. I learned that a philosopher is literally a “lover of wisdom”. So I decided to study philosophy to find the wisdom I was looking for.
I studied the great philosophers, Plato Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, and many others. And I found a consensus that wisdom could be found in the human mind. Our ability to think, to reason, is what allows us to make sense of the world around us. We construct in our minds the framework we need to understand the world we live in. This is called wisdom. Wisdom as an activity of the human mind is something most of us take for granted today. We assume that we are wise enough to govern ourselves, to grow food, teach children, and to do all the things necessary for a functioning society. And we believe that this wisdom comes from inside us, from our ability to think.
But increasingly we see the limitations of human wisdom. We thought that we were wise enough to safely drill for oil in the Gulf. We thought that we were wise enough to prevent credit bubbles and recessions. But time and again human wisdom falls short.
I once heard a story once about a bank president who was retiring. He and his successor met one day for lunch. The new guy said, “Sir, I have been watching you for years as this bank has grown. I hope to follow in your footsteps. Can you give me some advice? What are the keys to your success?
The retiring president simply said, “Make wise decisions.”
His replacement replied, “How do I make wise decisions.”
The president said, “In one word, ‘experience’”
“And how do you get experience?”
The president said, “In two words, make unwise decisions.”
And so the limitation of human wisdom: we become wise by making unwise mistakes.
The problem is that wisdom is not the product of the human mind. Rather, wisdom is a creation of God that God then used in the creation and ordering of the world. The Book of Proverbs puts it this way.
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 (my translation):
Does not Wisdom proclaim, and the Teacher delivers her voice?
On the heights, by the road, in the house and on the pathways she stands.
“To you, men and women, I call, my voice to the children of Adam:
The LORD acquired me at the beginning of his journey, before his work of times past.
Ages ago I was established, before the beginning of the Earth –
when there were no seas, I was brought forth in birth,
when there were no springs abounding with water
before the mountains were prepared for farming
before the hills, I was born.
God had not yet made the earth, or the beginning of the soil of the land.
when God prepared the heavens I was engraved in it.
when God made firm the clouds above
when God made strong the springs of the deep
when God set the boundary of the sea that the water not encroach the shore.
when God marked off the foundations of the earth
I was beside God as the architect
I was daily God’s delight, dancing before him all the time, rejoicing in the world, God’s earth. And my delight was the children of Adam
Proverbs 8 is a work of Hebrew poetry. It takes an abstract concept, “wisdom” and personifies it as a woman. The work of this woman can be seen everywhere we look in all of God’s creation, in the wise ordering of the world. She is the reason science is possible. Scientists are constantly looking for her, and evidence for what she has done can be found everywhere because she is hollering at us from every street corner.
We are told that Wisdom was the first of God’s creative works. This was necessary so provide for the wise ordering of the world as it was created. Wisdom decided that two atoms of hydrogen should be joined with one atom of oxygen to form a molecule of water, and God said that it was so. Wisdom ordained that every action should have an equal but opposite reaction making rockets possible, and God made it happened. Wisdom established the rules of evolution which has produced the biological diversity of the earth, and God created the plants and animals and the DNA that made this happen. The author of proverbs described God’s creation as dance where God and Wisdom whirl and twirl and rejoice in each other’s arms.
Wisdom’s favorite activity was the creation of all of us because Wisdom could give us many things: the ability to raise chickens and cows, the ability to sing and play instruments, the ability to preach and teach other, the ability to make cloth and grow crops, and the ability to lead others. We can do all of these things because we are wise, not with the wisdom of the world, but with the wisdom of God, sent to us as a gift to joyfully dance, whirl and twirl with us.
As we dance with Wisdom we learn to fear God, to turn from evil and embrace what is good. We seek out and learn from our counselors. We desire knowledge and reproofs that lead us to better lives. We learn to think before we speak and always use gracious words. With Wisdom dancing at our side we can help the poor, and build up the church.
“I was out shopping yesterday, and whom did I run into? Wisdom, yeah, there she was. She called me over and we began talking, Wisdom and I. Then I went down to the courthouse, and there she was again, making a plea for justice in some dingy courtroom where somebody had been unjustly accused. After that I dropped by the school, and she had gotten there before me calling for students and teachers alike always to seek the truth. Then I went for a walk in the woods, moving along the trail in quiet meditation. Wisdom snuck up on me and said, “Now that we are alone, I have something I want to share with you, a present I want you to enjoy. You know, I have been around for a long time, really for the beginning of time. I have been whirling and dancing with God all along. I am God’s delight, laughing and playing. I want you to know the lightness of spirit and gladness that come when you welcome me. Will you set aside those thoughts, words and deeds that make your life heavy and sad for you and others? Will you come and laugh and play with me? Will you come and dance with me? Will you?” (adapted from Feasting on the Word)
Holy Spirit we ask that you deliver to us the give of wisdom so that we may recognize God in the world around us. Help us to learn to dance with Wisdom so that we might whirl and twirl with delight. And join us in this dance with the Father and the Son so that we may delight in the dance of the Trinity whirling and twirling for eternity. Amen.
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Sermon – Proverbs - 8:1-4, 22-31 – Wisdom Speaks
Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Presbyterian Churches
May 30, 2010
Listen to this sermon.
Good morning and welcome to Beaver Dam Presbyterian Church. This is Trinity Sunday, the day each year when we remember that we worship one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our belief in the trinity is what distinguishes us as Christians. The great theologian Augustine once was wondering how to explain this concept of the trinity. A story goes this way: he was walking along the beach one day and saw a boy running back and forth into the ocean putting water in a hole that he had dug in the sand. Augustine has him what he was doing. The boy said that he was trying to put the ocean into the hole. Then Augustine realized that he was trying to put an infinite God into his finite mind whenever he tried to think about the Trinity. 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)
This past week Grace returned from a conference in Chicago. I picked her up at BWI Airport and we had dinner in Annapolis. It has probably been ten years since I was last in Annapolis. It is a beautiful city. While we were there we saw the midshipmen in their sparkling white uniforms for the Naval Academy’s graduation ceremonies. It prompted me to think about my own time in college.
Over thirty years ago now I left home and went to Dickinson College in Carlisle PA. Since I was good at math and science I figured that I would be a physics major. While studying Physics I realized that I was asking bigger questions than science could answer. I was learning how things worked but I wanted to know why thing worked as they did. This led me into the philosophy department where I began taking classes in the philosophy of science, philosophy of religion and ethics. There I learned that we understand our world through something called wisdom. The only way I could find answers to my questions about why things are was by first acquiring wisdom. I learned that a philosopher is literally a “lover of wisdom”. So I decided to study philosophy to find the wisdom I was looking for.
I studied the great philosophers, Plato Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, and many others. And I found a consensus that wisdom could be found in the human mind. Our ability to think, to reason, is what allows us to make sense of the world around us. We construct in our minds the framework we need to understand the world we live in. This is called wisdom. Wisdom as an activity of the human mind is something most of us take for granted today. We assume that we are wise enough to govern ourselves, to grow food, teach children, and to do all the things necessary for a functioning society. And we believe that this wisdom comes from inside us, from our ability to think.
But increasingly we see the limitations of human wisdom. We thought that we were wise enough to safely drill for oil in the Gulf. We thought that we were wise enough to prevent credit bubbles and recessions. But time and again human wisdom falls short.
I once heard a story once about a bank president who was retiring. He and his successor met one day for lunch. The new guy said, “Sir, I have been watching you for years as this bank has grown. I hope to follow in your footsteps. Can you give me some advice? What are the keys to your success?
The retiring president simply said, “Make wise decisions.”
His replacement replied, “How do I make wise decisions.”
The president said, “In one word, ‘experience’”
“And how do you get experience?”
The president said, “In two words, make unwise decisions.”
And so the limitation of human wisdom: we become wise by making unwise mistakes.
The problem is that wisdom is not the product of the human mind. Rather, wisdom is a creation of God that God then used in the creation and ordering of the world. The Book of Proverbs puts it this way.
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 (my translation):
Does not Wisdom proclaim, and the Teacher delivers her voice?
On the heights, by the road, in the house and on the pathways she stands.
“To you, men and women, I call, my voice to the children of Adam:
The LORD acquired me at the beginning of his journey, before his work of times past.
Ages ago I was established, before the beginning of the Earth –
when there were no seas, I was brought forth in birth,
when there were no springs abounding with water
before the mountains were prepared for farming
before the hills, I was born.
God had not yet made the earth, or the beginning of the soil of the land.
when God prepared the heavens I was engraved in it.
when God made firm the clouds above
when God made strong the springs of the deep
when God set the boundary of the sea that the water not encroach the shore.
when God marked off the foundations of the earth
I was beside God as the architect
I was daily God’s delight, dancing before him all the time, rejoicing in the world, God’s earth. And my delight was the children of Adam
Proverbs 8 is a work of Hebrew poetry. It takes an abstract concept, “wisdom” and personifies it as a woman. The work of this woman can be seen everywhere we look in all of God’s creation, in the wise ordering of the world. She is the reason science is possible. Scientists are constantly looking for her, and evidence for what she has done can be found everywhere because she is hollering at us from every street corner.
We are told that Wisdom was the first of God’s creative works. This was necessary so provide for the wise ordering of the world as it was created. Wisdom decided that two atoms of hydrogen should be joined with one atom of oxygen to form a molecule of water, and God said that it was so. Wisdom ordained that every action should have an equal but opposite reaction making rockets possible, and God made it happened. Wisdom established the rules of evolution which has produced the biological diversity of the earth, and God created the plants and animals and the DNA that made this happen. The author of proverbs described God’s creation as dance where God and Wisdom whirl and twirl and rejoice in each other’s arms.
Wisdom’s favorite activity was the creation of all of us because Wisdom could give us many things: the ability to raise chickens and cows, the ability to sing and play instruments, the ability to preach and teach other, the ability to make cloth and grow crops, and the ability to lead others. We can do all of these things because we are wise, not with the wisdom of the world, but with the wisdom of God, sent to us as a gift to joyfully dance, whirl and twirl with us.
As we dance with Wisdom we learn to fear God, to turn from evil and embrace what is good. We seek out and learn from our counselors. We desire knowledge and reproofs that lead us to better lives. We learn to think before we speak and always use gracious words. With Wisdom dancing at our side we can help the poor, and build up the church.
“I was out shopping yesterday, and whom did I run into? Wisdom, yeah, there she was. She called me over and we began talking, Wisdom and I. Then I went down to the courthouse, and there she was again, making a plea for justice in some dingy courtroom where somebody had been unjustly accused. After that I dropped by the school, and she had gotten there before me calling for students and teachers alike always to seek the truth. Then I went for a walk in the woods, moving along the trail in quiet meditation. Wisdom snuck up on me and said, “Now that we are alone, I have something I want to share with you, a present I want you to enjoy. You know, I have been around for a long time, really for the beginning of time. I have been whirling and dancing with God all along. I am God’s delight, laughing and playing. I want you to know the lightness of spirit and gladness that come when you welcome me. Will you set aside those thoughts, words and deeds that make your life heavy and sad for you and others? Will you come and laugh and play with me? Will you come and dance with me? Will you?” (adapted from Feasting on the Word)
Holy Spirit we ask that you deliver to us the give of wisdom so that we may recognize God in the world around us. Help us to learn to dance with Wisdom so that we might whirl and twirl with delight. And join us in this dance with the Father and the Son so that we may delight in the dance of the Trinity whirling and twirling for eternity. Amen.
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Thursday, May 27, 2010
Sermon – “Heirs of God” – Romans 8:13-17
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon – “Heirs of God” – Romans 8:13-17
Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Presbyterian Churches
May 23, 2010
Listen to this sermon.
Today is Pentecost Sunday. This is the birthday of the church. We remember the morning, just fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when the Holy Spirit entered the world and empowered the church. Since that moment we have never been alone and God has never been distant because in the Holy Spirit God is with us to empower and comfort us. So this is a glorious day as we celebrate the Holy Spirit with us here in this church. That’s why we are decorated in red to symbolize the Holy Spirit coming as tongues of fire. But before the fireworks start 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 8:13-17 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs-- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
If you search for the keyword “spiritual” on Google you will find 93,500,000 websites. There are over 85,000 books on the topic of spirituality on Amazon. TV and movies are filled with stories about the spirit world. By any measure Americans are looking for a genuine spirituality. But they don’t seem to be particularly successful in finding what they are looking for. So they keep searching for new churches or reading new books trying to find the spirituality they need.
Some say that they are “spiritual but not religious”. This indicates a failure on the part of churches to provide the genuine spirituality people are looking for. Churches are divided in controversy, held back by tradition, and consumed with ethical enforcement. People seeking genuine spirituality have been overworked, criticized and sometimes abused by churches. So people search for answers in bookstores and on the internet, hoping that they will find what we all need, a genuine spirituality.
The Church of Rome was searching for a genuine spirituality in the middle of the first century. This church had been founded shortly after the Day of Pentecost when a few pilgrims who had heard Peter speak that day in Jerusalem went back to Rome and started a church. This church was primarily Jewish in nature, but had a significant outreach to gentiles. In 49AD the Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. People like Priscilla and Aquila were forced to leave Rome leaving the gentiles behind in the church. The gentiles then took leadership of the Roman Church until the death of Claudius when the Jews returned. As Jews returned to the church they tried to retake their former leadership positions but were rejected by the gentiles who now held those positions. As a result the church was divided by conflict. And this conflict prevented its members from finding the genuine spirituality they were looking for. So when Paul heard about the conflict in Rome he wrote a letter, the Book of Romans, to the church telling them that genuine spirituality can only be found in Jesus Christ.
According to Paul we are all spiritual people. But the spirits we inherit from our ancestors are spirits of sin. These spirits so warp us that even though we may want to do what pleases God, we cannot. The spirit of sin is like a disability that affects everyone. It causes us to always pursue our own wills and desires, completely ignoring what our creator wants. We satisfy the cravings of self-love rather than the needs of our neighbors whom we are supposed to love. Even though we were created in the image of God the spirit of sin so distorts us that God’s image can just barely be seen. When people search for spirituality outside of a spirit filled church they find this spirit of sin. The spirit of sin causes us to fear. And fear is what the devil uses to get us to give up our freedom and become slaves. We become slaves to adultery, or slaves to lying, or slaves to stealing, or slaves to killing, or slaves to money and power, or slaves to false gods. We are all enslaved by our fears by the spirit of sin.
According to Paul there is only one way to find a genuine spirituality. You can’t find by chanting for hours until your mind goes numb. You can’t find it in loud music mesmerized by its strong beat. You can’t even find it in the beauty of a mountaintop or seashore. Genuine spirituality can only be found in Jesus Christ because Jesus sends his Spirit to kick out the spirit of sin that has enslaved us. Only Jesus’ Spirit frees us to be what God created us to be. Jesus’ Spirit does this by making us children of God. As children of God, we no longer inherit the spirit of sin from our ancestors. Now we inherit the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The reason God sent his Spirit into the world was to prepare us for the coming age. It prepares us for the eventual transformation of this world. The Holy Spirit which transforms us in the church will one day transform all of creation. To prepare for this day we must first be adopted as children of God and heirs to his kingdom. But as heirs to his kingdom we also have responsibilities. Paul talks about the responsibilities in chapter 12 of Romans.
Romans 12:9-18 Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Nothing in this list would be remotely possible for someone with the spirit of sin. But with Spirit of Christ in us all these things are doable and must be done. Christ has redeemed our past and now Christ’s Spirit is leading us into an exciting future.
I once heard a story about a man who went to a hardware store looking for a new saw. The salesperson showed him the most current model and said that with it a person could cut ten cords of wood a day. The next day the man returned. He was exhausted and could barely drag himself and the saw into the store. He told the salesperson that after working all day with the saw he was only able to cut one cord of wood. “There must be something wrong with the saw”, he said. So the salesperson took the saw and his exhausted customer and went outside behind the store. There he started the saw. “What’s that sound?” the man asked. “I have never that before.” Without power it is very hard to cut wood with a chain saw. The same is true with us. Without the power of the Holy Spirit it is very difficult to please God. But if Christ’s Spirit is within us we inherit the power we need to please God as God’s children.
So how do we know if we have Christ’s Spirit within us and that we are heirs of the kingdom and children of God? This is a vital question because if we do not have Christ’s Spirit within us we are still infected with the spirit of sin which leads to death. If we want eternal life then we must receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So how do we know for certain that we have received this gift?
According to scripture we know that we have received the gift of the Spirit of Jesus Christ when our behavior begins to change. Without the Holy Spirit we are sinners who do what displeases God. So if we displease God with our behaviors we know for certain that the Holy Spirit is not in us. But when we see our behaviors begin to change and we start doing things not motivated by our own selfish desires but by a desire to please God then we know for certain that the Holy Spirit is with us, empowering us, and that we are heirs of the kingdom of God. So when you experience a desire to sing in the choir, or help a Sunday school class, or volunteer at Samaritan Shelter or come to Sunrise Prayers then you will know that the Holy Spirit is in you transforming you into what God created you to be.
Holy Spirit, come into our lives this day. Empower us to live as obedient children of God. Prepare us for the day when all of creation will be transformed. Give us a genuine spirituality. And bless us with willing spirit to live in ways pleasing to God. Amen.
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Sermon – “Heirs of God” – Romans 8:13-17
Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Presbyterian Churches
May 23, 2010
Listen to this sermon.
Today is Pentecost Sunday. This is the birthday of the church. We remember the morning, just fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when the Holy Spirit entered the world and empowered the church. Since that moment we have never been alone and God has never been distant because in the Holy Spirit God is with us to empower and comfort us. So this is a glorious day as we celebrate the Holy Spirit with us here in this church. That’s why we are decorated in red to symbolize the Holy Spirit coming as tongues of fire. But before the fireworks start 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 8:13-17 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs-- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
If you search for the keyword “spiritual” on Google you will find 93,500,000 websites. There are over 85,000 books on the topic of spirituality on Amazon. TV and movies are filled with stories about the spirit world. By any measure Americans are looking for a genuine spirituality. But they don’t seem to be particularly successful in finding what they are looking for. So they keep searching for new churches or reading new books trying to find the spirituality they need.
Some say that they are “spiritual but not religious”. This indicates a failure on the part of churches to provide the genuine spirituality people are looking for. Churches are divided in controversy, held back by tradition, and consumed with ethical enforcement. People seeking genuine spirituality have been overworked, criticized and sometimes abused by churches. So people search for answers in bookstores and on the internet, hoping that they will find what we all need, a genuine spirituality.
The Church of Rome was searching for a genuine spirituality in the middle of the first century. This church had been founded shortly after the Day of Pentecost when a few pilgrims who had heard Peter speak that day in Jerusalem went back to Rome and started a church. This church was primarily Jewish in nature, but had a significant outreach to gentiles. In 49AD the Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. People like Priscilla and Aquila were forced to leave Rome leaving the gentiles behind in the church. The gentiles then took leadership of the Roman Church until the death of Claudius when the Jews returned. As Jews returned to the church they tried to retake their former leadership positions but were rejected by the gentiles who now held those positions. As a result the church was divided by conflict. And this conflict prevented its members from finding the genuine spirituality they were looking for. So when Paul heard about the conflict in Rome he wrote a letter, the Book of Romans, to the church telling them that genuine spirituality can only be found in Jesus Christ.
According to Paul we are all spiritual people. But the spirits we inherit from our ancestors are spirits of sin. These spirits so warp us that even though we may want to do what pleases God, we cannot. The spirit of sin is like a disability that affects everyone. It causes us to always pursue our own wills and desires, completely ignoring what our creator wants. We satisfy the cravings of self-love rather than the needs of our neighbors whom we are supposed to love. Even though we were created in the image of God the spirit of sin so distorts us that God’s image can just barely be seen. When people search for spirituality outside of a spirit filled church they find this spirit of sin. The spirit of sin causes us to fear. And fear is what the devil uses to get us to give up our freedom and become slaves. We become slaves to adultery, or slaves to lying, or slaves to stealing, or slaves to killing, or slaves to money and power, or slaves to false gods. We are all enslaved by our fears by the spirit of sin.
According to Paul there is only one way to find a genuine spirituality. You can’t find by chanting for hours until your mind goes numb. You can’t find it in loud music mesmerized by its strong beat. You can’t even find it in the beauty of a mountaintop or seashore. Genuine spirituality can only be found in Jesus Christ because Jesus sends his Spirit to kick out the spirit of sin that has enslaved us. Only Jesus’ Spirit frees us to be what God created us to be. Jesus’ Spirit does this by making us children of God. As children of God, we no longer inherit the spirit of sin from our ancestors. Now we inherit the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The reason God sent his Spirit into the world was to prepare us for the coming age. It prepares us for the eventual transformation of this world. The Holy Spirit which transforms us in the church will one day transform all of creation. To prepare for this day we must first be adopted as children of God and heirs to his kingdom. But as heirs to his kingdom we also have responsibilities. Paul talks about the responsibilities in chapter 12 of Romans.
Romans 12:9-18 Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Nothing in this list would be remotely possible for someone with the spirit of sin. But with Spirit of Christ in us all these things are doable and must be done. Christ has redeemed our past and now Christ’s Spirit is leading us into an exciting future.
I once heard a story about a man who went to a hardware store looking for a new saw. The salesperson showed him the most current model and said that with it a person could cut ten cords of wood a day. The next day the man returned. He was exhausted and could barely drag himself and the saw into the store. He told the salesperson that after working all day with the saw he was only able to cut one cord of wood. “There must be something wrong with the saw”, he said. So the salesperson took the saw and his exhausted customer and went outside behind the store. There he started the saw. “What’s that sound?” the man asked. “I have never that before.” Without power it is very hard to cut wood with a chain saw. The same is true with us. Without the power of the Holy Spirit it is very difficult to please God. But if Christ’s Spirit is within us we inherit the power we need to please God as God’s children.
So how do we know if we have Christ’s Spirit within us and that we are heirs of the kingdom and children of God? This is a vital question because if we do not have Christ’s Spirit within us we are still infected with the spirit of sin which leads to death. If we want eternal life then we must receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So how do we know for certain that we have received this gift?
According to scripture we know that we have received the gift of the Spirit of Jesus Christ when our behavior begins to change. Without the Holy Spirit we are sinners who do what displeases God. So if we displease God with our behaviors we know for certain that the Holy Spirit is not in us. But when we see our behaviors begin to change and we start doing things not motivated by our own selfish desires but by a desire to please God then we know for certain that the Holy Spirit is with us, empowering us, and that we are heirs of the kingdom of God. So when you experience a desire to sing in the choir, or help a Sunday school class, or volunteer at Samaritan Shelter or come to Sunrise Prayers then you will know that the Holy Spirit is in you transforming you into what God created you to be.
Holy Spirit, come into our lives this day. Empower us to live as obedient children of God. Prepare us for the day when all of creation will be transformed. Give us a genuine spirituality. And bless us with willing spirit to live in ways pleasing to God. Amen.
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Friday, May 21, 2010
Sermon – "How Can I Be Saved?" – Acts 16:16-34
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon – "How Can I Be Saved?" – Acts 16:16-34
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches
March 16, 2010
Listen to this sermon.
Good morning and welcome to Beaver Dam church on this wonderful Lord’s Day, the seventh Sunday of Easter and, traditionally, the Sunday when we think about the ascension of Jesus to heaven. Since Easter Sunday we have been looking at the Book of Acts and we have been amazed at the transformation we see in the disciples of Jesus Christ. This showed that something amazing had happened, namely the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Last week we saw how all of this motivated the Apostle Paul to begin evangelizing gentiles, with Lydia being the first convert to Christianity in Europe. Today we will watch as Paul continues to evangelize gentiles in Philippi. This will give us clues about how to evangelize the unchurched of Pocomoke. 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)
Acts 16:16-34 16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.
19 When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice." 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. 27 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. 28 But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!" 29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—
you and your household."
32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and
to all the others in his house.
33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds;
then immediately he and all his family were baptized.
34 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 family.
In today’s scripture we see Paul interacting with gentiles in Philippi. With Lydia they brought a believer to faith. But now Paul was meeting non-believers outside of the synagogue. These people were not familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures found in our Old Testament. They did not believe in the Lord, God of Israel. And they had never heard of Jesus Christ. So let’s look at what happened when Paul began meeting them.
The first person Paul ran into was a slave girl telling fortunes. We are told that she had a spirit, literally the spirit of a python. This was a reference to the Oracle of Delphi, who in ancient times would predict the future from the Temple of Apollo. She would sit over a fissure in the earth, breathing ethylene gas and in a drug haze tell people what they wanted hear. Most of the Oracle’s predictions were vague and ambiguous. This is what we see in Philippi near the synagogue. This slave girl keeps telling Paul and his companions that they were “servants of the Most High God”. This could be a reference to the God of Israel, or it could refer to Zeus – ambiguous. This fortune telling eventually annoyed Paul and so he helped the girl. Scripture says he casted out the spirit. Maybe he helped her to get away from the drugs that kept her enslaved.
When people are enslaved by drugs or alcohol they often only recover with the aid of God. This is an important principle of twelve step programs like Alcoholic Anonymous. When people realize that God is the only answer to their enslavement they are usually ready to talk about faith. This gives us an opportunity to reach out to recovering addicts and invite then into the community of the church. Sadly, we have no record that this slave girl in Philippi ever came to faith. Even though there is no guarantee of success when we reach out to addicts we must still share our faith with those who have finally realized that substance abuse is actually worship of a false god and invite them to find the true God in Jesus Christ.
The next people that Paul ran into were the owners of the slave girl and the magistrates in the market place. The slave girl’s owners were upset because she was no longer fortune telling and that their revenue had fallen. And the magistrate was upset because Paul was preaching the lordship of Jesus Christ and not the lordship of Caesar, and threw Paul and Silas into prison. Although neither the owners nor the magistrate would consider themselves slaves, but they really were. They were slaves to money and power. Paul made no attempt to bring the owners or the magistrates to faith because they were so tied to the worship of money and power they just would not be receptive to a message of faith in Jesus Christ. So sadly they never came to faith, and we never hear from them again.
Finally Paul ran into a prison guard. The prison guard slept through a divine earthquake which freed Paul from his chains. When he did wake up he saw the cell door open and realized that he had failed in his most important duty to guard these prisoners. This meant certain punishment and possibly death. Driven to despair, the prison guard was ready to fall on his own sword and die, but was stopped just in time by Paul. And this prompted the guard to ask the most important question in all of scripture, "What must I do to be saved?"
What must a non-believer do to be forgiven by God and receive the gift of eternal life? Here in church we all know the answer to this question. All of us could say, “Believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” But how does a nonbeliever come to this belief? The process by which a nonbeliever comes to belief is called conversion. And let’s look at how the prison guard was converted to faith in Christ.
The first step in the conversion of the prison guard was to listen, with his family, as Paul proclaimed the word of God. Preaching and teaching of the Bible are essential ingredients in conversion. Preaching and Bible study open our hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit who delivers to us the gift of faith. This is why it is so important to invite nonbelievers to attend church and Christian education classes. In church a nonbeliever hears the word of God and then experiences the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. Knowledge of the gospel and experience of the Holy Spirit is the soil in which belief grows. So we here in the church must provide opportunities for worship and Bible study so the nonbelievers in our community can come to faith and be saved.
Notice especially that the prison guard does not come to faith as an individual. He receives the gift of faith as part of a family. This is why it is so important to have programs in place for people of all ages. Even children and youth need to be taught Bible stories so that they too will come to faith and be saved.
The second step in the conversion of the prison guard was his participation in Christian service. He washed the wounds of Paul and his companions. It is through service to others that our faith, which is first established in the hearing of the proclamation of the Word of God, is then strengthened. In service to others our faith grows into maturity. This is why it is so important to encourage new people in the church to participate in activities for the community. New people need to be invited to bring food for our coffee hours, or teach children in Sunday school, or help out at Samaritan’s Shelter. These activities turn intellectual faith into living faith. And remember that service opportunities must involve the whole family. That way children and youth learn how to serve others and this will strengthen their faith too. We are told in scripture that after the prison guard and his whole family heard the word of God proclaimed and participated in Christian service that they were then ready to profess their belief in Jesus Christ and be baptized into membership of the church.
Finally, the jailor invited everyone over to his home for dinner. This is the third and final step in conversion, being an active participant in Christian community. So new people coming to the church must be warmly welcomed into our groups for women and men. They must be invited to our coffee hours. New people have to be able to find new friends when they come to this church. So we must be a friendly and welcoming church that truly desires to build community with others here in Pocomoke.
So, what must someone do to be saved? The simple answer is to believe in Jesus Christ. The harder question is how can we help people to believe? The answer for this one is that we must provide opportunities for preaching and teaching, Christian service, and community building. If we provide these opportunities for people of all ages and begin inviting people to our church more and more people will come to belief and more and more people will be saved.
Lord Jesus, as your followers we ask for your help. Give our church the gift of evangelism so that we can better go into our community to proclaim the good news. Give us the gift of preaching and teaching so that as new people come to our church they will come to belief and be saved. Give us more opportunities to serve the poor and the needy in our community. Help us to reach out to our neighbors to create a Christian community at this church. We pray all this in your powerful name confident of your help as we strive to grow this church. Amen.
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Sermon – "How Can I Be Saved?" – Acts 16:16-34
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches
March 16, 2010
Listen to this sermon.
Good morning and welcome to Beaver Dam church on this wonderful Lord’s Day, the seventh Sunday of Easter and, traditionally, the Sunday when we think about the ascension of Jesus to heaven. Since Easter Sunday we have been looking at the Book of Acts and we have been amazed at the transformation we see in the disciples of Jesus Christ. This showed that something amazing had happened, namely the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Last week we saw how all of this motivated the Apostle Paul to begin evangelizing gentiles, with Lydia being the first convert to Christianity in Europe. Today we will watch as Paul continues to evangelize gentiles in Philippi. This will give us clues about how to evangelize the unchurched of Pocomoke. 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)
Acts 16:16-34 16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.
19 When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice." 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. 27 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. 28 But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!" 29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—
you and your household."
32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and
to all the others in his house.
33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds;
then immediately he and all his family were baptized.
34 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 family.
In today’s scripture we see Paul interacting with gentiles in Philippi. With Lydia they brought a believer to faith. But now Paul was meeting non-believers outside of the synagogue. These people were not familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures found in our Old Testament. They did not believe in the Lord, God of Israel. And they had never heard of Jesus Christ. So let’s look at what happened when Paul began meeting them.
The first person Paul ran into was a slave girl telling fortunes. We are told that she had a spirit, literally the spirit of a python. This was a reference to the Oracle of Delphi, who in ancient times would predict the future from the Temple of Apollo. She would sit over a fissure in the earth, breathing ethylene gas and in a drug haze tell people what they wanted hear. Most of the Oracle’s predictions were vague and ambiguous. This is what we see in Philippi near the synagogue. This slave girl keeps telling Paul and his companions that they were “servants of the Most High God”. This could be a reference to the God of Israel, or it could refer to Zeus – ambiguous. This fortune telling eventually annoyed Paul and so he helped the girl. Scripture says he casted out the spirit. Maybe he helped her to get away from the drugs that kept her enslaved.
When people are enslaved by drugs or alcohol they often only recover with the aid of God. This is an important principle of twelve step programs like Alcoholic Anonymous. When people realize that God is the only answer to their enslavement they are usually ready to talk about faith. This gives us an opportunity to reach out to recovering addicts and invite then into the community of the church. Sadly, we have no record that this slave girl in Philippi ever came to faith. Even though there is no guarantee of success when we reach out to addicts we must still share our faith with those who have finally realized that substance abuse is actually worship of a false god and invite them to find the true God in Jesus Christ.
The next people that Paul ran into were the owners of the slave girl and the magistrates in the market place. The slave girl’s owners were upset because she was no longer fortune telling and that their revenue had fallen. And the magistrate was upset because Paul was preaching the lordship of Jesus Christ and not the lordship of Caesar, and threw Paul and Silas into prison. Although neither the owners nor the magistrate would consider themselves slaves, but they really were. They were slaves to money and power. Paul made no attempt to bring the owners or the magistrates to faith because they were so tied to the worship of money and power they just would not be receptive to a message of faith in Jesus Christ. So sadly they never came to faith, and we never hear from them again.
Finally Paul ran into a prison guard. The prison guard slept through a divine earthquake which freed Paul from his chains. When he did wake up he saw the cell door open and realized that he had failed in his most important duty to guard these prisoners. This meant certain punishment and possibly death. Driven to despair, the prison guard was ready to fall on his own sword and die, but was stopped just in time by Paul. And this prompted the guard to ask the most important question in all of scripture, "What must I do to be saved?"
What must a non-believer do to be forgiven by God and receive the gift of eternal life? Here in church we all know the answer to this question. All of us could say, “Believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” But how does a nonbeliever come to this belief? The process by which a nonbeliever comes to belief is called conversion. And let’s look at how the prison guard was converted to faith in Christ.
The first step in the conversion of the prison guard was to listen, with his family, as Paul proclaimed the word of God. Preaching and teaching of the Bible are essential ingredients in conversion. Preaching and Bible study open our hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit who delivers to us the gift of faith. This is why it is so important to invite nonbelievers to attend church and Christian education classes. In church a nonbeliever hears the word of God and then experiences the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. Knowledge of the gospel and experience of the Holy Spirit is the soil in which belief grows. So we here in the church must provide opportunities for worship and Bible study so the nonbelievers in our community can come to faith and be saved.
Notice especially that the prison guard does not come to faith as an individual. He receives the gift of faith as part of a family. This is why it is so important to have programs in place for people of all ages. Even children and youth need to be taught Bible stories so that they too will come to faith and be saved.
The second step in the conversion of the prison guard was his participation in Christian service. He washed the wounds of Paul and his companions. It is through service to others that our faith, which is first established in the hearing of the proclamation of the Word of God, is then strengthened. In service to others our faith grows into maturity. This is why it is so important to encourage new people in the church to participate in activities for the community. New people need to be invited to bring food for our coffee hours, or teach children in Sunday school, or help out at Samaritan’s Shelter. These activities turn intellectual faith into living faith. And remember that service opportunities must involve the whole family. That way children and youth learn how to serve others and this will strengthen their faith too. We are told in scripture that after the prison guard and his whole family heard the word of God proclaimed and participated in Christian service that they were then ready to profess their belief in Jesus Christ and be baptized into membership of the church.
Finally, the jailor invited everyone over to his home for dinner. This is the third and final step in conversion, being an active participant in Christian community. So new people coming to the church must be warmly welcomed into our groups for women and men. They must be invited to our coffee hours. New people have to be able to find new friends when they come to this church. So we must be a friendly and welcoming church that truly desires to build community with others here in Pocomoke.
So, what must someone do to be saved? The simple answer is to believe in Jesus Christ. The harder question is how can we help people to believe? The answer for this one is that we must provide opportunities for preaching and teaching, Christian service, and community building. If we provide these opportunities for people of all ages and begin inviting people to our church more and more people will come to belief and more and more people will be saved.
Lord Jesus, as your followers we ask for your help. Give our church the gift of evangelism so that we can better go into our community to proclaim the good news. Give us the gift of preaching and teaching so that as new people come to our church they will come to belief and be saved. Give us more opportunities to serve the poor and the needy in our community. Help us to reach out to our neighbors to create a Christian community at this church. We pray all this in your powerful name confident of your help as we strive to grow this church. Amen.
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Friday, May 14, 2010
Sermon: Evangelism – Acts 16:6-15
Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon: Evangelism – Acts 16:6-15
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches
May 9, 2010
Listen to this sermon.
Good morning and Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in the congregation. I am happy to report that I spent a day this week in Northern Virginia visiting my parents. Grace and I celebrated my father’s birthday and Mother’s Day by taking them out to dinner. So I hope and pray that all of you mothers will have a blessed day today. And here is a Mother’s Day Card for all the mothers in the congregation from the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 31:10-31 10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. 11 Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. 12 She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. 13 She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. 14 She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. 15 She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. 16 She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. 17 She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. 18 She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. 19 In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. 20 She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. 21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. 22 She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. 23 Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. 24 She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes. 25 She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. 26 She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. 27 She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. 28 Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 29 "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." 30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. 31 Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
Today we will be looking at a very distinguished first century woman. Her name is Lydia and she is a very successful business woman, dealing in expensive fabrics. She is also a gentile God-Fearer and attends a synagogue near the river in Philippi. But before I tell you her story please pray with me.
“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)
Acts 16:6-15 6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; 8 so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.
9 During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." 10 When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
11 We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days.
13 On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there.
14 A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth.
The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.
15 When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home." And she prevailed upon us.
Let’s talk about evangelism. Evangelism is a spiritual gift we receive from God. With this gift we proclaim the good news to people of little or no faith and rely on the Holy Spirit to strengthen their faith and become a part of the community of God, the church. So God gives us evangelists to begin the process of conversion and church growth. One person who had the gift of evangelism was the Apostle Paul.
In today’s passage we see the beginning of Paul’s attempt to convert people to belief in Jesus Christ. After his own conversion experience on the road to Damascus, Paul joined the church at Antioch and was there as it experienced tremendous growth. Trying to duplicate what he saw there, Paul made two attempts to start new ministries and both of these were complete failures. Trying to take a strategy that works in one church and use it in another will probably not work. Each church has to find its own way of bringing people to faith and this involves trial and error and the likelihood of many false starts. Like Paul we need to be persistent, get up from our failures and move on.
After his first two failures Paul had a dream. He had a vision of a man from Macedonia in northern Greece. This man needed help and asked Paul to come. Paul acted on this dream and set sail for Europe for the church’s first overseas mission trip. We don’t know anything about the man in Paul’s dream and there is no record that Paul ever met him. So Paul’s dream seems not to be a literal summons to respond to a need but an indirect action, by the Holy Spirit, to get Paul into Europe. We can expect from this that evangelism is less about our plans and more about what the Holy Spirit is doing in the community through us. Churches tend to think that they will grow with new programs or new music or even a new pastor. All of these might be good things to do. But ultimately evangelism is about what the Holy Spirit doing in the community and the church being an obedient servant following the Spirit’s direction.
Paul probably had no idea how to convert the people of Europe to faith in Jesus Christ. So he did what he usually did in times of uncertainty. He engaged in spiritual disciplines, Sabbath keeping and prayer. He went down to the side of the river where he supposed that there might be a synagogue engaging in prayer on the Sabbath. This shows us that evangelism always begins, not with a new program, but with spiritual disciplines like , prayer, Bible study, worship, and Sabbath keeping. Taking care of our own spirits helps us to be aware of the Holy Spirit and its work in our community. That is why a church that wants to grow must first immerse itself in daily prayer and meditation on scripture. This leads to spiritual growth which precedes numerical growth.
Paul entered the synagogue and began praying. There he met a woman named Lydia. She was a businesswoman. She sold purple cloth which by law only the upper class could wear. So she was probably very prosperous and had many contacts among the leaders of the community. And in her encounter with Paul we see the elements of successful evangelism.
We see, first of all, that Paul encountered Lydia on her turf. She was in a place that was familiar and comfortable, her synagogue on the Sabbath. This is important. When we want to approach people about faith we have to go to where they are. We can’t just sit here and hope that people will come to church on Sunday mornings to find Jesus. We have to go out to where the people are, to Hardees, or Rotary meetings, or tractor supply stores, or PTA meetings, wherever people meet. There we can meet people where they feel safe and are comfortable and therefore are receptive to what we have to say.
Paul started to talk with Lydia about faith. This is how conversion starts – in conversations with people. Paul talked about the good news of Jesus Christ and his own personal experiences after his encounter with Jesus. This is all we have to do in evangelism: tell people about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the impact it has had on our lives. We all have compelling stories to tell. Others need to hear these stories before they can come to belief. And scripture promises that if we talk to others about our faith, the Holy Spirit will work though us and our words to bring them to belief.
After Lydia heard what Paul had to say, she wanted to hear even more about Jesus. So she invited Paul and his companions over to her home where the conversations about faith could continue. You see, people are on spiritual journeys. They are all satisfying their spiritual needs is some way. Maybe they do it with books and videos. Maybe they listen to Christian radio. Maybe they attend church or a small group. But we have the only thing that will satisfy their spiritual needs, the gospel Jesus Christ. So if we share the good news and our stories with people already on a spiritual journey they will want to know more about what we already have. This is our great opportunity for evangelism – to enter into the conversation about spirituality happening in American today and contributing our faith in Jesus Christ as an authentic spirituality. Paul brought the gospel into Lydia’s spiritual journey and this led to her conversion and the establishment of the church of Philippi.
So how can we do evangelism in our church? We start by determining what spiritual gifts are present in this congregation. According to demographers, about 10%, of us have the gift of evangelism, but only about ½% of us realize it. Those who have the gift of evangelism must be identified and nurtured. The rest of us have to be ready to help the evangelists with prayer and hospitality and by using the other gifts the Holy Spirit has given us to build up the church.
Once we have determined who the evangelists are, then we need to turn our attention to entry points in the church. An entry point is a place where people can interact with the church. For example the choir is an entry point for people in the community who love to sing. Our groups for women and men and Sunday morning classes are entry points for people looking for opportunities for Bible education. Our Sunrise Prayer Service is an entry point for people who need prayer. Special events and Sunday worship can all be entry points. Anything could be an entry point so long as it is something we are excited about and provides us something of interest or personal value. Those with the gift of evangelism should focus their efforts on bringing people into the church through these entry points where new people will find a fellowship of people with like interests with whom they can share their spiritual pilgrimage.
After we have determined the gifts of the congregation and entry points into the church our next task is to find bridge people. Bridge people link groups in the community with the entry points in the church. For example a bridge person might be a member of the choir and of the PTA and could invite people at the PTA who like to sing to be a part of our choir. Farmers in the church could invite other farmers to come to our Bible study on Fridays. Teachers in the church could invite other teachers to early morning prayers before school starts.
In Acts we saw what could happen when a person with the gift of evangelism, Paul, meets a bridge person, Lydia, and they develop an entry point, fellowship in her home. A house church was started in Lydia’s home and she began inviting her family, friends, customers and business associates. The church of Philippi, the first church in Europe, was born.
Later Paul wrote these words to Lydia and this new church.
Philippians 1:1-11 NRS Philippians 1:1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God's grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11 having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
Let us share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of Pocomoke and pray that this work too will be completed when Jesus returns. Amen.
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Sermon: Evangelism – Acts 16:6-15
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches
May 9, 2010
Listen to this sermon.
Good morning and Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in the congregation. I am happy to report that I spent a day this week in Northern Virginia visiting my parents. Grace and I celebrated my father’s birthday and Mother’s Day by taking them out to dinner. So I hope and pray that all of you mothers will have a blessed day today. And here is a Mother’s Day Card for all the mothers in the congregation from the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 31:10-31 10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. 11 Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. 12 She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. 13 She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. 14 She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. 15 She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. 16 She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. 17 She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. 18 She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. 19 In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. 20 She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. 21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. 22 She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. 23 Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. 24 She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes. 25 She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. 26 She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. 27 She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. 28 Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 29 "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." 30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. 31 Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
Today we will be looking at a very distinguished first century woman. Her name is Lydia and she is a very successful business woman, dealing in expensive fabrics. She is also a gentile God-Fearer and attends a synagogue near the river in Philippi. But before I tell you her story please pray with me.
“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)
Acts 16:6-15 6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; 8 so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.
9 During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." 10 When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
11 We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days.
13 On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there.
14 A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth.
The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.
15 When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home." And she prevailed upon us.
Let’s talk about evangelism. Evangelism is a spiritual gift we receive from God. With this gift we proclaim the good news to people of little or no faith and rely on the Holy Spirit to strengthen their faith and become a part of the community of God, the church. So God gives us evangelists to begin the process of conversion and church growth. One person who had the gift of evangelism was the Apostle Paul.
In today’s passage we see the beginning of Paul’s attempt to convert people to belief in Jesus Christ. After his own conversion experience on the road to Damascus, Paul joined the church at Antioch and was there as it experienced tremendous growth. Trying to duplicate what he saw there, Paul made two attempts to start new ministries and both of these were complete failures. Trying to take a strategy that works in one church and use it in another will probably not work. Each church has to find its own way of bringing people to faith and this involves trial and error and the likelihood of many false starts. Like Paul we need to be persistent, get up from our failures and move on.
After his first two failures Paul had a dream. He had a vision of a man from Macedonia in northern Greece. This man needed help and asked Paul to come. Paul acted on this dream and set sail for Europe for the church’s first overseas mission trip. We don’t know anything about the man in Paul’s dream and there is no record that Paul ever met him. So Paul’s dream seems not to be a literal summons to respond to a need but an indirect action, by the Holy Spirit, to get Paul into Europe. We can expect from this that evangelism is less about our plans and more about what the Holy Spirit is doing in the community through us. Churches tend to think that they will grow with new programs or new music or even a new pastor. All of these might be good things to do. But ultimately evangelism is about what the Holy Spirit doing in the community and the church being an obedient servant following the Spirit’s direction.
Paul probably had no idea how to convert the people of Europe to faith in Jesus Christ. So he did what he usually did in times of uncertainty. He engaged in spiritual disciplines, Sabbath keeping and prayer. He went down to the side of the river where he supposed that there might be a synagogue engaging in prayer on the Sabbath. This shows us that evangelism always begins, not with a new program, but with spiritual disciplines like , prayer, Bible study, worship, and Sabbath keeping. Taking care of our own spirits helps us to be aware of the Holy Spirit and its work in our community. That is why a church that wants to grow must first immerse itself in daily prayer and meditation on scripture. This leads to spiritual growth which precedes numerical growth.
Paul entered the synagogue and began praying. There he met a woman named Lydia. She was a businesswoman. She sold purple cloth which by law only the upper class could wear. So she was probably very prosperous and had many contacts among the leaders of the community. And in her encounter with Paul we see the elements of successful evangelism.
We see, first of all, that Paul encountered Lydia on her turf. She was in a place that was familiar and comfortable, her synagogue on the Sabbath. This is important. When we want to approach people about faith we have to go to where they are. We can’t just sit here and hope that people will come to church on Sunday mornings to find Jesus. We have to go out to where the people are, to Hardees, or Rotary meetings, or tractor supply stores, or PTA meetings, wherever people meet. There we can meet people where they feel safe and are comfortable and therefore are receptive to what we have to say.
Paul started to talk with Lydia about faith. This is how conversion starts – in conversations with people. Paul talked about the good news of Jesus Christ and his own personal experiences after his encounter with Jesus. This is all we have to do in evangelism: tell people about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the impact it has had on our lives. We all have compelling stories to tell. Others need to hear these stories before they can come to belief. And scripture promises that if we talk to others about our faith, the Holy Spirit will work though us and our words to bring them to belief.
After Lydia heard what Paul had to say, she wanted to hear even more about Jesus. So she invited Paul and his companions over to her home where the conversations about faith could continue. You see, people are on spiritual journeys. They are all satisfying their spiritual needs is some way. Maybe they do it with books and videos. Maybe they listen to Christian radio. Maybe they attend church or a small group. But we have the only thing that will satisfy their spiritual needs, the gospel Jesus Christ. So if we share the good news and our stories with people already on a spiritual journey they will want to know more about what we already have. This is our great opportunity for evangelism – to enter into the conversation about spirituality happening in American today and contributing our faith in Jesus Christ as an authentic spirituality. Paul brought the gospel into Lydia’s spiritual journey and this led to her conversion and the establishment of the church of Philippi.
So how can we do evangelism in our church? We start by determining what spiritual gifts are present in this congregation. According to demographers, about 10%, of us have the gift of evangelism, but only about ½% of us realize it. Those who have the gift of evangelism must be identified and nurtured. The rest of us have to be ready to help the evangelists with prayer and hospitality and by using the other gifts the Holy Spirit has given us to build up the church.
Once we have determined who the evangelists are, then we need to turn our attention to entry points in the church. An entry point is a place where people can interact with the church. For example the choir is an entry point for people in the community who love to sing. Our groups for women and men and Sunday morning classes are entry points for people looking for opportunities for Bible education. Our Sunrise Prayer Service is an entry point for people who need prayer. Special events and Sunday worship can all be entry points. Anything could be an entry point so long as it is something we are excited about and provides us something of interest or personal value. Those with the gift of evangelism should focus their efforts on bringing people into the church through these entry points where new people will find a fellowship of people with like interests with whom they can share their spiritual pilgrimage.
After we have determined the gifts of the congregation and entry points into the church our next task is to find bridge people. Bridge people link groups in the community with the entry points in the church. For example a bridge person might be a member of the choir and of the PTA and could invite people at the PTA who like to sing to be a part of our choir. Farmers in the church could invite other farmers to come to our Bible study on Fridays. Teachers in the church could invite other teachers to early morning prayers before school starts.
In Acts we saw what could happen when a person with the gift of evangelism, Paul, meets a bridge person, Lydia, and they develop an entry point, fellowship in her home. A house church was started in Lydia’s home and she began inviting her family, friends, customers and business associates. The church of Philippi, the first church in Europe, was born.
Later Paul wrote these words to Lydia and this new church.
Philippians 1:1-11 NRS Philippians 1:1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God's grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11 having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
Let us share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of Pocomoke and pray that this work too will be completed when Jesus returns. Amen.
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