A few weeks ago we did a sermon series called "Sent" where Jesus sent his disciples out to do ministry. We spent a lot of time talking about how he trained them up, sent them out and how they learned from their wins and loses. But one thing I should have emphasized is that he did not send them out alone. Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs.
He did this for lots of reasons. He sent them out in pairs for safety. He sent them out in pairs for accountability. But he also sent them out in pairs for encouragement. When things are hard and we get discouraged...we need the other to lift us up. Ecclesiastes 4 tells us, "two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor: if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up." I am blessed to have friends who help me up. We all fall down sometimes. We all get knocked down sometimes. We are blessed to have people to help us up, dust us off and get us back on our feet. Let us be thankful for that blessing. And let us be that blessing to others. If your brother or sister is in need, or going through a hard time...help them, love them, go with them, be with them, sit with them...pick them up. We are sent, but not alone, we are sent together. In Christ, Pastor Scot
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My 6-year-old LOVES football and wants to play in the NFL someday. We play catch in the backyard pretty often and run a variety of routes, but at some point, he will always want to "go long" where he tries to see how far I can throw and he can still make the catch.
We talk a lot in church about taking steps of faith. Abraham took a BIG step of faith when he left his home and set out for the promised land. Moses took a BIG step of faith when he trusted God and went back to Egypt to set his people free. Peter took a BIG step of faith when he got out of the boat and walked on water to Jesus. We are tempted to take little baby steps of faith. We might ask God for a good parking space or nice weather tomorrow...and while these aren't bad prayers; they aren't big prayers. So why not "go long"? Don't just look for the easy steps, the ones you could probably do on your own or even if you don't get them, it's not a big deal...no trust God with something BIG. Do you feel called to missions? Have you always had a heart to reach the lost but feel unqualified? Are you passionate to serve the poor? Those might feel too BIG for you...GOOD!! Go long and trust God with it! Take that step of faith and see that the Lord is good! In Christ, Pastor Scott Americans like to dream big. When we are kids, people ask us "what do you want to be when you grow up?" and we are expected to say things like Doctor or Lawyer or Astronaut or even President. As adults, we are told to try and get ahead and seek that promotion or achieve more in our professional life. There is constantly competition to win or score or be recognized.
Even in ministry this is true. Pastors are often, sadly, judged by the size of their churches. If you have a large church you must be good. If you have a small church you must be bad or even that you don't have the blessing of God. This way of thinking has hurt me over the years and driven me to seek after numbers rather than just to be faithful in my work as a minister of the gospel. In 1 Thessalonians 4 Paul gives people this advice "make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that you may win the respect of outsiders." As I have gotten older, I have changed my goal in life and in ministry. My goal is now to be faithful. Am I loving? Am I kind? Am I serving? Am I giving? I don't expect results but thank God if they do come. What is your ambition? My advice is to seek the Lord and seek to be faithful...that's it. Everything else is just gravy. In Christ, Pastor Scott In the first chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus is starting to gather his disciples and finds a man named Phillip and called him to be his follower. Phillip agrees and then immediately wants to share this opportunity with his brother, Nathanael. So he goes to Nathanael and tells him that he has "found the one Moses wrote about" and encourages his brother to "come and see."
Phillip didn't keep the good news of Jesus to himself. And he didn't just try to explain Jesus as an idea. He invited his brother to come and see for himself, to experience what he had experienced. He hoped and prayed that when Nathanael experienced the same love and grace and truth that he had seen...he would also be changed. In a few weeks (September 11), we are challenging our whole church family (including you) to invite someone to "come and see" what a church service is like here at Six Points. We want them to experience what you experience. To sing, to read scripture, to be welcomed and to hear the name of Jesus proclaimed. Will you, like Phillip, go the extra mile and share the good news with someone you love and invite them to join you? Don't you want them to see for themselves? Take the challenge! Invite a friend to "come and see" on Sunday, September 11 on our Invite a Friend Sunday. In Christ, Pastor Scott Psalm 46:1 says "God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help IN trouble"
I capitalize the word IN above because I want to clarify that God is not only in control when things go well for us. It might be easy for us to believe that God is only sovereign when all is well or when all our needs or wants or desires are met...but God is ALWAYS in control. Here, and many other places in scripture, we see that God is our help in times of trouble, distress, pain, suffering and other less than ideal situations. We would, of course, prefer to avoid these situations...but that's just not how life works. Life involves difficulty. Life involves loss. Life involves grief. Being a person of faith does not mean we escape pain, but that God is with us IN the pain. God is with us IN times of trouble. You are never alone. In your hurt, in your pain...God is with you. So when you find yourself in the valley, know that God is there. He is with you. You are not alone. In Christ, Pastor Scott In Genesis 1:27, we are told that God made man special. He made us in His own image. There is debate, of course, of what exactly this means, but we know that it means we are different than anything else in creation. The world, the animals, the birds and the fish are all called "good" but only man is called "very good" because we alone are made in the very image of God.
And yet, it seems to me, that since that moment we have attempted to return the favor. We seek to remake God in our own image. We of course don't have the power to change the actual nature of God; but we pretend that we do. We pretend that God is like us. We like to think that God thinks like us, acts like us, loves like us and even hates like us. We pretend that God hates the people we hate and loves the people we love. We pretend that God cares about what we care about and only those things. We do not control God any more than we control a hurricane. We cannot make God any more than we can make a mountain. God is God. He is who He is. He does not change. His goodness cannot be undone by our will or desires. Our fallen nature does not tarnish Him. So let us remember our place. He is on the throne; and we are not. We are made in His image, not He in ours. We seek to be like Him, not the other way around. God is God and God is good. Let us worship Him accordingly. In Christ, Pastor Scott We don't like to think about death. It makes us uncomfortable. As a kid I didn't like graveyards, they creeped me out. Now, part of my job is to go to graveyards and help with funerals...ironic, right?
But death is part of life. We all die, eventually. In fact, once we die, no matter if you are buried or cremated, you eventually become a pile of dust (ashes). Given enough time, your body will break down into the same thing that it was made from, dust. Remember that in Genesis 2, God formed Adam (which literally means 'dirt') from the dust. We are made from dust and eventually that is what we turn back into. This is why you often hear the phrases "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." The good news, for those who have put our trust in Christ, is that our bodies were never intended to last. We are told by Paul that our physical bodies are like a tent and eventually wear out. Some last a bit longer than others; but all earthly bodies eventually wear out. But we are promised heavenly ones that will last forever. No more dust, no more decay. Death is inevitable; but our hope is in one who holds the keys to the kingdom of life everlasting. In Christ, Pastor Scott God gave the 10 commandments to the people of God so that they would know what is good and what is bad. They needed a frame of reference of how to live and what was acceptable behavior. They needed to know what God's expectations of them were.
We believe that these commandments apply to us today. We have actually used them to help make our own laws here in the USA. We don't allow murder or stealing...partly because they are in the 10 commandments. But there is one commandment we like to ignore. We don't like it, it's annoying and we find it old fashioned and so we just don't follow it. In fact, when people try to remind us about this commandment we tend to insult them and call them names. Can you guess which one I'm talking about? The Sabbath. God commanded us to follow the Sabbath. It was not a suggestion. It was a commandment. And it wasn't one of the 630 commandments in the Old Testament; it was one of the 10 commandments. It's a biggie. And yet, how many of us actually take regular times of rest and worship? How many of us set aside time each week to do this? Very few. Almost none. And if I ever challenge someone to take Sabbath, they balk. They tell me how important they are or how busy they are. And if I tell them that I do take Sabbath...they call me lazy. I even had someone tell me once that the devil doesn't take a day off; so neither should I. I told them they need a better role model because God did take a day off and so should they. Sabbath is good. Rest is healthy. God commanded it and you should do it. Not just on vacation. Not just once you burn out. You should do it often. You should do it weekly. It's a commandment. They aren't optional. Do you trust God enough to stop your human effort and believe that He will still provide? Can you learn to be still? In Christ, Pastor Scott In Joshua 3, the people of God are finally ready to go into the promised land. To give a bit of context let's remember that, in order to get to this moment, they had to endure slavery, barely escape with their lives, wander in the desert for 40 years and now finally they have reached the long awaited moment...and yet; one more barrier remains; the Jordan River. Now, God has parted water for them before of course. But that was a sea, this is a raging river. There is no bridge, there are no boats...how will they cross?
And to add to the stress, God does not stop the river first. He makes them wait. Joshua tells them this, "Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: 'When you reach the edge of the Jordan's waters, go and stand in the river." They actually have to go and STAND in the river before the water will stop. This is actually where we get our expression "get your feet wet" because in order to make the river stop they have to be willing to look foolish, to put themselves out there and take a step of faith. My question for you today is...are you stepping out in faith? Are you really? Where? How? When was the last time? When did you actually put yourself out there? When did you do something that you were willing to trust God for? When did you do something or say something or risk something where you NEEDED God to come through for you? In truth, we often live our lives on our own power and our own strength. We talk about faith and quote the Bible; but we do very little that requires real faith. So, are you willing to get your feet wet? Are you willing to step out and trust God? When? Where? In Christ, Pastor Scott |
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