A Global Methodist Church
Today's message is "Peace in Life." Keeping the peace requires living in harmony. Living in harmony means realizing that making sacrifices and compromising is often more important than "being right". A church family and our families need to be intentional about keeping the peace with one another. That requires Devine intervention. In order to maintain peace, we need to spend time with The God of Peace. Colossians 3:1-17 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
Today's message is "Dealing with Conflict." The message from Mr. Long this morning is "It is better to be righteous than to be right." So many times we waste energy and damage relationships by trying to be "right" when whatever the conflict is doesn't matter nearly as much as the relationship with whom we are disagreeing. This always happens when we take our eyes off of Jesus. Jesus taught us how to deal with conflict and how to love people. The promises are clear and rewarding as well. Matthew 5: 9-10 God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
Loving your fellow man is much more important than loving your pride. Matthew 5: 43-48 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
There is no place for conflict in our lives. We must all do all that we can to avoid it as well as resolve it. Skip the gossip and go right to the source. Put yourself in their shoes and give the grace even if it may not be deserved. Dealing with conflict starts with being in prayer and in the word daily.
Today's sermon is titled "A Man of God." From 2nd Corinthians 5:11-21 Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
All fathers are called to men of God. Men, we need to step up and lead. We need to spend time in prayer and in God's word. We need to live by example as well as by direction. Happy Father's day. Let's do this!
Today’s sermon is “Warriors of the Cross”. Pastor Jon Long reminds us that we are the church of Jesus Christ and we will never get away from preaching The Word of God, but we need to keep up and be the church of the future for the kids that we are so desperately trying to hold in order to continue to spread the Gospel message of Jesus Christ to this fallen world. We are not of this world but we are in it and we need to reach those that are lost. It is our time to be warriors of the cross and do the things that might make us uncomfortable but do them for Jesus Christ no matter the cost. It is time to be the church that Jesus needs us to be until His return.
Jesus left us with this command and promise before He ascended into Heaven from Matthew 28:16-20. Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted! Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. each these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
It's time to let go of all doubt and instead trust in Jesus Christ and obey His commands. It is time to move and do whatever it takes to make disciples and baptize them. Let’s go church. The time for being comfortable is over. There is too much at stake for us to sit back and relax now. As we move into this Vacation Bible School week, lets pray about the next things that God would have us do and do them without compromise, without fear, without doubt and without holding back. Let’s Go!
Today’s message was brought by our Lay Leader, Steven Sprague and is titled “Trust God! Really?” Romans 4:18-24 Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have!” And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb. Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.
Abraham trusted in God when everything he could see wasn’t adding up to seeing the promise that God made to him. That is our challenge as well. Trust is assurance in what we do not yet see but is his His promise.