Today’s Call to worship ended with, and today’s Message begins with a Benediction. But what is a Benediction? Well, according to Wikipedia (so you know it’s true!), a Benediction is a short invocation or blessing asking for divine help and guidance, usually at the end of a service. I always close our Sunday services with a Benediction as a way to leave God’s Blessing upon each of you each week. This was the last part of today’s Call to Worship from Ephesians 3:20-21:
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Invitation, Praises, and Prayer Concerns; Father of Heaven, and Universe beyond, Lord today we humbly thank you for our very being, and invite you into our hearts. Lord thankyou for all of your untold blessings, and please forgive us of our manifold transgressions of missing the mark you have set. Please fortify us to better praise, glorify and magnify your hole precious name.
Amen!
Message Reading; Matthew 15:1-9
15 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.
As implied in this week’s message title; “Fumblin, Stumblin,and Piddlin Around”. Well, that’s Me! Not bragging, but really!… If I’m not paying attention, and I go off on my own natural inclination, doing the stuff that just comes naturally, “it don’t take long” for me to devolve and revert into a me that’s not so edified, in fact down right petrified like wood. Dead wood. Just kindling for the fire.
Yes, “Fumbling, Stumbling,and Piddling Around” are symptoms of larger concerns that can cause distance between us with the Lord, and God’s family. With fumbling for me usually being a result of my just not keeping my eye on the ball, what is important in life, and piddling around being what I do when I am dithering and just going in circles, again usually due to my not paying attention to the important stuff in my Life.
The important items for me in life are:
My relationship with the Lord
Prayer
Listening to Him
Following Him
Sharing Him
Scripture study
Listening to Him
Living Him
Serving Him
Following through with What God is telling me
***Understanding that the above prepare me for:
My relationships with other people
And repeating what I am trying to do with God
Serving God through other people
Personal growth in all the above and in knowing myself better
Which helps in the prevention of my fumbling and piddling around.
Notice that we have not talked about stumbling. I have buried stumbling in between fumbling and piddling around, because like real life, stumbling in our faith life seems to come out of nowhere and cause real tangible harm in our Faithwalks. The other two can be the cause of our struggles or just a doorway into stumbling, but stumbling often takes on a life of its own.
So, I thought today might be a good time to look at some of the things that exists out there that we all struggle with, and how many of us stumble over in our common Faithwalks in the Lord. It’s a big field of study, looking at the things in life that cause us to stumble in our Faithwalk. Today we will only be touching one rock that makes for a mountain, a beginning of a life of discovery.
It seems that today’s Message Reading with Jesus instructing the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law in the Gospel of Mathew is a great place to start. Beginning with Matthew 15:1-9
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 “‘These people honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me.9 They worship me in vain;their teachings are merely human rules.
To clarify what the Lord is talking about, the topic being referenced by the Lord is “Corban”. This was a Pharisee tradition that held that a child did not have to honor his parents (support them financially), if he declared his wealth to God’s Temple. In other words, a man-made rule or tradition by the Pharisees was negating (canceling out) the Fifth Commandment of God. Read Exodus 20:12;
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Notice God is not hedging, not providing a Pharisee loophole. The language is plain. Jesus is saying that people are breaking God’s law by following the Pharisee’s man-made tradition and these so-called; teachers of the law are ok with it.
Now the Pharisees had another a man-made tradition / rule / law, of washing hands for religious purity before eating. This rule had nothing to do with hygiene and everything to do with man-made sham holiness. They were offended that the disciples of the Lord, the Lord, God Himself were not giving the Pharisees their deference to tradition.
Our Lord caps the conversation by using God’s own words through Isaiah 29:13;
13 The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouthand honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me.Their worship of meis based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Sound familiar? It should. Humanity with the help of the Devil have been pulling this stuff from the beginning.
What causes so many of us to stumble is when other people or we ourselves create hurdles for others and ourselves to overcome just to be considered faithful disciples. And if you think I have anyone specifically in mind besides me the chief obstacle creator of my own universe, think again. We all do this on autopilot without even realizing what we are doing sometimes.
Peter is a perfect example. When Jesus is foretelling His future imminent death (crucifixion for our sakes), Peter decides its time for some man-made, Peter decided and mandated unfolding of history. The Lord’s response is recorded in Matthew 16:23;
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Peter is showing the side of humanity that we all struggle with ourselves, then to the point of becoming a stumbling block for other people, even for the Lord! So many times, in life, the things I thought were smart or right in my head, floundered on the abyss when I spoke about them out loud. Many times, because I was trying to out holy the Lord Himself with ideas like:
If skipping a meal for a good cause is good, fasting a week and then bragging about it is even better!
Forcing the hardship, I am placing on myself on other people, then making it mandatory to be holy.
Judging others based on the bogus standards I have created in my head. Things like;
Dress and appearance
Prayer format and style
Lifestyle
All things, I don’t need to waist precious time on when there are so many things, we can be working on together for everyone’s edification, and God’ praise, magnification, and glorification.
But when I begin to create rules, and dogma that work as a roadblock between God and me, and then other people, His creation, woe is me! Tenfold! Something that may have started out as a great idea, can go south in a heartbeat when I am driving the Bus instead of the Lord.
This is when I need to pay heed to Paul’s instruction from his letter to the church in Rome. Paul was addressing the infighting that was taking place in the church at the time, so he unloaded his thoughts in Romans 14:10-13;
10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.11 It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,‘every knee will bow before me;every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.
The last sentence says it all for me, and definitely an area that I must focus working on if I really mean it about this thing, I call a Faithwalk with you and our Lord! So; Instead, I will make up my mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister,That prevents someone from getting closer to God.
And we can do this without being co-dependent, or enabling bad behavior in other people. In other words, my saying no sometimes to someone’s bad behavior is that person’s own stumbling over the Lord’s outline, guidance, and direction for our lives.
In fact, in life there is the stumbling that happens due to our missing the mark, which is bad and to be avoided, and then there is the stumbling that people do when it is over the direction and command of the Lord and God’s divine plan, which is a sad fact in life. Because it leads us into rebellion with Him, since we are picking the world’s ideals over His Grace.
Paul also spoke of this when instructing the Church in Corinth the difference between the wisdom of this world, and the wisdom which is our guidance from God. Quoting from 1 Corinthians 1:21-25;
21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
More than few have stumbled over the fact that God would go to the ends of the earth to renew a relationship with all of humanity. And He wants one with you today as well! Not based on the “Fumbling, Stumbling,and Piddling Around” you, but the you who is open to Him, willing to listen and share with Him, and willing to accept that the offer is available to all the people in your life. Even those you don’t; understand, get along with, or like.
In fact, we might be talking more about your stumbling and challenges than other people at this point. That’s for you and God to decide, not me. Thankfully, at the end of the day, its God that does the judging, and more importantly the saving. In spite of my; “Fumbling, Stumbling,and Piddling Around” challenges that I’m working on with Him who can heal me.
I need to keep this in mind when I get so caught up in the differences that exists in all of God’s peoples. It reminds me of Today’s Call to Worship from Ephesians 2: 11-22. Especially at the end beginning at verse 19, when Paul capstones how we all have been invited to God’s party writing;
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
Here comes my favorite part: …
22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
When we are open to His Holy Spirit, God can and will build us together. Different unique one-of-a-kind people who can become His dwelling place! And instead of; “Fumbling, Stumbling,and Piddling Around”, we are thriving together instead of searching for reasons to exclude others and ourselves by creating man made stuff that counters God made grace.
My hope and prayer for you this week, you get a chance to appreciate all that the Lord is doing in your life, and as you search yourselves, that you love the person you find, as you aim to work on the “Fumbling, Stumbling,and Piddling Around” person we all can be at times.
Amen!
Benediction; Based on 23 Psalm;
1 May the Lord be your shepherd, and you not want. 2 May He make you lie down in green pastures, lead you beside still waters, 3 May He restore your soul. May He guide you on paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though you walk through the deepest, darkest valley, May you fear no evil, for He is with you; His rod and your staff, may they comfort you.
5 May He prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies. You anoint your head with oil; your cup overflows. 6 Surely your goodness and love will follow you all the days of your life, and may you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen!
8 I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants— but let them not turn to folly. 9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. 11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. 12 The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. 13 Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.
Happy 4th of July! Book club is now on hold until Fall, but otherwise we’re continuing with the regular schedule of Food Pantry on Tuesday, Bible Study on Wednesday, and Sunday School, Worship Service, and Fellowship Time on Sunday. See the Calendar for details. Welcome to church!
Happy Father’s Day! Welcome to church this week for Food Pantry and “Prayze” Hot Dogs on Tuesday 5:30-7 and Bible Study (studying Exodus) on Wednesday at 6. And then on Sunday, there’s Sunday School starting 9:45 (studying Matthew), and Worship Service at 11 am followed by lavish snacks in the Fellowship Hall catered by the Fellowship Committee, who have been going all out. The next book club date is July 1, discussing Forgiving What You Can’t Forget. Hope to see you soon!
https://youtu.be/-soVH8QtSvA
20 June 2021 Sunday Message:“Fly Fishin’ Essentials”
Welcome to First Baptist this week for Food Pantry on Tuesday, Bible Study on Wednesday, Book Club on Thursday, and Sunday School, Worship Service, and Fellowship Time on Sunday. See the calendar for specific times. Look forward to seeing you soon!
https://youtu.be/nkgJN09vZzw
13 June 2021 Sunday Message;“Myths from the Abyss”
Call to Worship; Ezekiel 34:22-24
22 I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the Lord will be their God, and
my servant David will be prince among them. I
the Lord have spoken.
Invitation, Praises, and Prayer Concerns; Father of Heaven, and Universe beyond, Lord today we humbly say thankyou for all of the blessings you have provided our little band of saints. Lord, we ask you for forgiveness as we seek to forgive other in this faithwalk of ours, and pray that you would equip us for the service we hope to give to our fellow created.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.
2 Timothy 4:3-5
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Message;“Myths from the Abyss”
Today, I am honored to be able to share a message that God shares with us throughout scripture. Honored because there is nothing especially special about me at all, and yet I get to share God’s word with people I care deeply for and think about a whole lot. That’s kind of the way it works for us in this walk of ours. We share and encourage each other in this walk of ours together.
In times past, the last thing I wanted to talk about would have been feelings, love, or even about Jesus Christ. And that is not bragging, but a sad truth fueled by the social myths of the time. One was instructed through society not to talk about anything that showed weakness and your faithwalk with the Lord was kept a strictly privet endeavor.
This was due to the way many of us were raised back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Not to mention the 20s,30s, and 50s! A guy that talked about that kind of stuff might just get pounded by others, so called friends, colleagues attempting to keep the unwritten code of the tuff and stout. Those guidelines that directed how people in modern society should behave or suffer the consequences, or at least a look of irony from your Dad. No scandalous behavior was to be tolerated in the family!
Perhaps one of the few positive corrections that our ever male effeminized, socially weakened, and structurally embittered culture has provided us is the ability to explore how we feel about things deep down. Of course, this is the tradeoff for ever more narcissism, and even less outward expression permitted that contradicts the sanctioned speech by an ever-changing consensus of taste. If anything, we still self-censor, it’s just that the topics are ever changing.
Self-censored unspoken beliefs coupled with mandatory expressions of wokeness and modernity, are the norm of contemporary myth making, and the rewriting of history. Which leads me to today’s message title “Myths from the Abyss”. I originally thought of using “Tales from the Darkside”, but that was already taken. Plus not all is lost in our hope of sharing light in darkness.
Fact is in the midst of all the confusion, with right turned to wrong, and wrong now considered right in our ever-confused society, we still have refuge in our Lord and in each other. When leaders seem to lead astray, and one unrefined behavioral low-bare is exchanged for an ever-lower standard of vulgarity, the family of God will find refuge.
In fact, we may take heart in the fact that we are not alone. Those times such as these have been in the forefront of concern for the family of God countless times before, and are represented in numerous places in scripture. Case in point, today’s Call to Worship reading from Ezekiel 34:22-24; makes clear that there has been misdirection before, and God knows how to save His family;
22 I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another.23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the Lord will be their God, and
my servant David will be prince among them. I
the Lord have spoken.
After explaining how upset God was with the shepherds of Israel, and why the Lord was upset at their selfishness and unconcern for the people at the beginning of Ezekiel chapter 34, the Lord declares that David (his decedent Jesus Christ) will be their prince. That God will be Israel’s Lord and Shepherd.
In the unfolding of history, God has always been ready to save His family, when they were willing to walk in and with the Lord. Or a quote that I will use from Micah 6:8;
…To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Even when the leaders of God’s people were corrupt in days past, the Lord’s family still had refuge in God, and when the people themselves trusted in the Lord, God has always been available to redeem His people as just mentioned in Ezekiel 34. And is also instructed in Ezekiel 13:10-14;
10 “‘Because they lead my people astray, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash,11 therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth. 12 When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, “Where is the whitewash you covered it with?”
13 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury.14 I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the Lord.
(The walls we build to keep God out)
Whitewashing the flimsy wall of a shallow faithwalk, or a bankrupt relationship with the Lord, only hides the flaws that make up a person’s faith (or lack thereof), or an entire church’s misdirected commitment to God (by serving ourselves), for only so long before those walls implode under their own weight. Then those who lead others into such a whitewashed, bogus, and defunct state of affairs with the Lord will ultimately be addressed and handled by the Lord, and then; we will all know He is God!
But what is the whitewashing of this age that covers all of the malignancy and misdirects the angst of the moment? What are some of the myths that lead us off course and off the mark? Here are a few that quickly come to mind:
It’s all good; … Only God is good. This saying is used to gloss over all kinds of nonsense in our culture, and when we relativize everything in our society, we kick the can down the road instead of dealing with things head on.
We must make up for the bad that was done; … How? First off, shouldn’t we address the things we have control over in the here and now? Things like my attitude. The past is the past, you can’t own it, only learn from it and make today a better place, by sharing the light of God. One day at a time by walking humbly in and with God, begins with addressing the plank that is in my eye before I look to broadcast my virtue with things before my time and out of my control.
I’m a good person; … Big deal. Hell is full of good people who trusted themselves over God to save them from their miserable addictions of and to their selfish selves.
This is what you get when society tries to go it alone, philosophizing and rationalizing without God’s aid in the process. In fact, Myths of the day are being formulated continuously in the moment by people who are unaware that they are adding to the confusion by trying to find meaning for all of the confusion in their lives.
Paul it appears understood this challenge in life and the greater human condition as well. It seems that part of the battle that is being fought for the sole of the people of Rome was the war of Gospel over myth. Rome was one of the churches who Paul instructed later in his evangelical career in this fight for truth. We have part of today’s Message Reading from Romans 1:16-17 where Paul squares off on the notions of the time by giving his personal testimony;
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.
And when we live by faith, pray, study scripture, worship, serve other people, praise, glorify, and magnify God’s holy and precious name, when we really live by faith, … we are equipped to detangle, diffuse, and demystify the Myths of the moment. The “Myths from the Abyss”.
Additionally, when we live by faith, we are prepared for the sound doctrine that comes from the Gospel. From Scripture. Not from me, or someone charismatic, unless we are using God’s Word (scripture). Not from the crowd that seeks to chase itself in a never-ending game of “your it”, and; “look what I can do”. No, it’s this crowd that seems to want to push away from God and His plan in favor of the selfish pursuits of the moment.
This is why Paul instructed Timothy in his young ministry to remain strong in his faith. Again, from today’s Message Reading this time from 2 Timothy 4:3-5;
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
When humanity back then, and society now aimlessly decides to revert to it’s unwholesome past, the People of Godmust; keep our heads in hard situations, endure hardships, and be the evangelists God has intended (by sharing His good news and service to others), through all the duties of our own individual, and combined ministries.
We are the bulwark for God, one good kind word of encouragement at a time of someone’s duress, one smile, one pat on the back, one prayer for His grace for someone else in the moment. That is what being a Christian of the working day is all about!
And then coming to grips with the fact that the battle we are engaged in, this cosmic battle for good over evil, begins within your own heart. You are housing some of the dirtiest, nastiest, and barbaric battlefields of the war that God is fighting. Humanity always has. Paul alludes to this as we continue to read his instruction to the church in Rome in Romans 1:18-25;
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Paul is saying people deep down know there is a creator. More than a creator, God, but choose to do their own thing. Not thanking God or glorifying Him, but in essence mocking God by worshipping mortal images, and manmade stuff instead. Paul goes on to say that people are without excuse.
There was no excuse in Paul’s day, the times past that he had spoken of, nor is there now in our own time today. This is why our ministries (all of you have one), are so important, because we must be in the business of sharing the good news that a relationship with God is available to all people accepting the invitation, and then living the truth we instruct. That the person someone sees on a Thursday is the same person they saw in Church on Sunday.
But why is any of this important? Why if we are already saved, do we need to worry about all of the junk going on in our sick society? You know the “Myths from the Abyss”! Stuff like;
What was right is now wrong
What was wrong is now encouraged
Fairness applies to only a select group
Society can perfect the human condition
Well wrong and right as God instructs us in scripture remain the same. Fairness, justice, and mercy apply to all people, and only God can perfect us, not society. And only God affords us free choice where a society that seeks to perfect you will always seek to remove your free choice. It has to, to impose it’s will on those who would rather follow the Lord instead of the world of man-made diversion.
There is nothing new with what we are talking about. This is just another chapter, another skirmish in a seemingly endless battle for the hearts and minds of a people loved by their creator. And we are called to share light in darkness!
Paul goes on to describe what people do when they choose their own paths outside of the Lord’s direction, guidance, and salvation. Romans 1:28-32 is Paul’s diatribe, a venting of frustration written down for our instruction.
As I repeat Paul’s instruction, see if you can see any of what is being depicted relevant to our society today;
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
It reflects a people who listened more to the popularity of the moment, the Myths from the Abyss, than to the sound instruction from the Prophet Micah from 6:8 to; “
…To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
No, the people of the past are very much like the people of today, and Paul’s frustration shines through his writing. So does God’s!
At the same time, hope is not lost. If this has been the ongoing condition of people from the time of the fall of humanity in the Garden with Adam and Eve, then the opportunities also remain for us, in a God who loves us in spite of us.
So how do we deal with all of those Myths from the Abyss, and the untruths of our age? By praying to God for His direction, studying scripture for His Word, alone and with your church family, and then thinking about the big challenges that we face in a spirit of our being equipped to handle this time of opportunity.
This moment is a masterpiece, and you are God’s tools of completeness. Together in our imperfections, we get to serve divine perfection, elegance, and grace. Our Lord remains in control, and we have access to truth over myth every time we reach out to the King of Kings.
Amen!
Benediction; Based on Romans 1:16-17 and Numbers 6:24-26
16 For we are not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.
And
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.
We continue to have many opportunities to participate at First Baptist, with Food Pantry and Hot Dogs on Tuesday, Bible Study on Wednesday, Book Club on Thursday, and Sunday School, Worship Service, and Snacks/Fellowship on Sundays. Check the calendar for times, and welcome to join us!
Celebrating Ascension Day today! Also the conclusion of our mission project with $1,803 raised for the Heifer Project. Lots on the calendar this week, with choir practice, food pantry, bible study, and book club. Look forward to seeing you soon!
