Welcome to join us for a worship service on Sunday at 11 am, or on Youtube at the link below. A few special events at church to keep in mind: Board Meeting (Thurs 3/18 6 pm), Women’s Meeting (Sat. 3/20 11 am), Men’s Breakfast (Sat 3/27 8 am), and Palm Sunday service (Sun 3/28 11 am). We’ll celebrate Easter Sunday on April 4 with Sunrise Service at 9 am followed by an Easter Breakfast and worship service at 11 am. We’re hoping to resume Wednesday night Bible Study and Sunday School at church in April. And Food Pantry continues to be open each Tuesday 5-7 pm.
Call to Worship: Psalm 107:1-3
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.
*** And indeed, the redeemed is you, who have invited the Lord into your life!
Invitation, Prayer Praises, and Intercession Requests: Father in Heaven, today we humble come to you in deep thanks for all that you have bestowed in our lives, and in our Faith family, including our redemption by you. Lord today we ask that you continue to grow us and make us into your tools in this dark and hurting world, that we might make our little corner of it brighter for other people.
Amen!
Message Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10
1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions- it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Message: “Road Trip Children, Redeemed”
I remember when I was 4 going on 5 yrs. old we lived in a little house next to an alley, and down the alley on the next street and around the corner was a little market that had a candy counter just out of reach. We used to walk down the alley with our Mom baby brother and 3 year old sister, where mom would trade our empty pop bottles for cash to buy items we needed at I think 2 cents a bottle. One day I had the free-market idea of redeeming our bottles in the basement some empty and some unopened for what seemed to be of more value (a stash of candy just beyond reach at the store). So I loaded up the wagon while mom was busy and entered the world of free markets. Really free in my case. Fortunately the market had our phone number. I had moved beyond the minor leagues of discipline, moved up to the majors, and I had a date with my Father that evening. Beginning a routine that would last for about 12 years of my waiting for my dad to get home.
I guess in our worldly life we all struggle with what is of value to us. Saving for tomorrow, spending for today, imagining our future, hoping for our family and community. Sometimes, we get so focused, so caught up in the pursuit to redeem our efforts, labor, and money for things that we often forget what’s really is important in life.
Even when we think, hey I’m a good person (whatever that means), we get so lost in being a good person that we forget to anchor that sentiment, those goals or activities to someone much more profound than we will ever be able to understand, the Lord. Like Peter, we jump right into whatever it is, many times without thinking about our Lord’s help. God’s generous availability and grace to walk with us step by step.
Then again, many of us are so caught up in whatever we think important in the moment that everything else takes a back seat. I know a guy that got so caught up watching reruns of a home improvement television show, that he almost forgot to prepare a sermon that week.
It’s so easy for us to lapse into the petty things of life that derail us in our quest for the meaningful, coupled with our hardwired cravings for instant gratification, fear, greed, and ego. And what you end up with is the kind of people who Paul was instructing in today’s Message Reading from Ephesians 2: 1-10 you and me;
1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
Side note: we said it before and I’ll say it again, God saves us not based on how good we are, but on how great God is!
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions- it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Paul teaches us that we all come to the table of God’s kindness, dead in our transgressions, but saved in the Lord’s grace. Withered in our own deeds, yet flourishing and thriving in and as God’s handiwork!
Just so no one will think that we are the only ones God is doing this for, or that we have been blessed more that other people in earlier times, God has a rich and robust history is saving people who do not deserve His grace. Just look at our ancient ancestors who lived the Exodus of the Bible under Moses. Numbers 21:4-9 instructs us how messed up the people of God were in the wilderness, and the lengths that God went to forgive and redeem His wayward children.
4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
This passage outlines, just how childish adult human beings can be when everything becomes about them. Reading this passage reminds me of when I was a child and we would go somewhere in the car. It wasn’t an official car ride unless the ashtray up front was full of the remains of 20-30 some odd smokes, that had sacrificed themselves to provide endless wasps of nicotine lofting to all involved. In between endless sorties Kool Menthol Mild’s you would hear from the back of the car; I’m thirsty, I need to use the bathroom, she’s breathing on me, and then a classic; he just bit me.
Like my siblings and I, the children of Israel, really acted like children. They were never satisfied, whether it was fresh water from a rock or Mana fresh from Heaven daily. When complaining started about the lack of meat on the table, quail was provided. To read Exodus and reflect is to hope that you never tempt the Lord like that, and pray for His patience and grace just the same.
Trust me, when my dad said, you don’t want me to stop this car, that was it. We were about to be redeemed, one backside at a time, we knew enough to lay low for a while. Perhaps our most profound insight was to know not to go beyond a certain point, or you would enter the point of no return; my Dad’s form of Armageddon!
But the children of Israel were like that bunch of kids that lived down the street, they always played it right to the edge and beyond. This time they had finally pushed the barrier beyond comprehension.
When you are in the desert relying of God for food and water, it’s a given that to complain about the amenities is considered bad form even in the worst of circles. After whining about the food yet again, God responded in verse 6;
6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
Now snake may taste like chicken but sacrificing your life for a (kind of) chicken dinner is also pushing the envelope. Those snakes were scary and nasty, and they must have been fast because many died. Once again, the Serpent has made an appearance in scripture with negative implications. Except the Serpent in this passage as in all cases, is carrying out God’s plans.
**Side note; when all this is said and done it will be the Lord’s will, and plans that are fulfilled. Many times we can’t even understand an inkling of God’s majesty with prayer, scripture study, and reflection.
So our children (us on any given day) the children of Israel, asked Moses to pray for them to the Lord, and here is what God came up with:
8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
God does have a sense of humor, at least when it’s not you in the Bull Pen or on-deck for punishment. God has Moses make a snake, the immediate source of Israel’s current pain (at least that’s the perception they must have had). But what was the real source of Israel’s angst? Could it have been Israel that was imposing pain on Israel?
Yes, just like you and me in our daily lives. We start to go down that road of going it alone without the Lord, we start to think in terms of us before others, and me before God if He even comes up at all in the formulation of my greed, lust, or ego. Then Walla, it’s time for; the Humbling. That time when in our humility we begin to realize just how short of grace we are and how much our Lord loves us by caring enough to discipline us; His children.
So in my mind, discipline and being disciplined can be a good thing. And when God disciplines us, many times He uses the very behavior, object, or source, to get our attention. Case in point, praying for life in our Food Pantry produces a pallet with case after case of Life cereal, instructing us to trust in Him. Or concern for the expense of keeping a church open, only to find God providing when we give him all the praise and credit.
Israel too will be humbled with the very sign of their own selfishness. God uses a serpent to show the depth of Israel’s degeneracy in the very midst of God himself. To wake up a people sleepwalking in their semi-automatic actions of hardheaded wickedness, God had Israel look straight into the source of their pain and angst; their partnership with the serpent. Scripture’s symbol of evil.
What I find so interesting as I study deeper into this event, is how relative what is happening to the children of Israel is to us in the here and now. We all are right now making informal deals, compacts, or agreements between our greed, egos, selfishness, or fears, and the powers of evil. Without even knowing it we sacrifice what we want most of all for the immediate gratifications of now.
It begins innocently enough many times without much thought, but it starts with removing God and replacing the Lord with someone or something else. Usually nothing big happens at first, but as we go further and further down that road, of whatever it is that is hanging on to you (you name your poison), and after a while before you know it, you are rebelling against your Lord, and addicted.
If you find yourself in this predicament right now in this predicament, you can avoid all of that snake business, the need for being humbled yet again with the Lord’s painful discipline, by asking the Lord for His help. Turning over your life to God does not mean to stop living, but to begin living without continually looking over your shoulder, or feeling horrible about your actions daily.
Lifting the snake up and looking at our defects straight on, and coming to terms with what is claiming a horrible toll in our lives helps us to look up to our Lord for His grace and forgiveness, and direction in our lives, that are afflicted in pain and strife. Our Lord speaks to us about this very concept in the Gospel of John 3:14-21
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
**You have heard this before, now focus on the next important fact that must drive our reflections.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
**Condemned because those people will not believe how far the Lord will go to save you through His sacrifice or let God’s Holy Spirit reside within you.
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
I am reminded of what Joshua said to the tribes of Israel in when the children of Israel decided to renew their covenant with the Lord after once again, they had misbehaved on their road trip, their faithwalk in life. Joshua 24:15
15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates… But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
As for me and mine we will serve the Lord and live in His light of righteousness. Accepting His discipline when we are blessed with it, and sharing His grace with the people He places in our lives.
This wonderful life of ours in many ways are like those car rides of my youth. Sometimes it feels like there is nothing but confrontation; hair pulling, biting, and name calling, but then there are those moments when somehow we are able to reach the better angels of our future nature (in Heaven), and witness the sublime. Like seeing new things for the first time out the windshield of our 65 Olds-88 4-door hardtop, or just meeting the people you will be in relationship with through eternity. With God’s Love, the Lord’s redemption, and the sustaining power of the Spirit, we might just become; “Road TripChildren, Redeemed” for the ages.
Amen!
Benediction; based on Joshua 24:15, and Numbers 6:24-26.
15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates… But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
24 “The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”