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The Worship of Our GodResting in the Renewing Power of God’s Grace?June 6, 2021The First Sunday in Ordinary Time??PreludeWelcome, Announcements and Call to Worship?The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it,the world, and those who live in it;for he has founded it on the seas,and established it on the rivers.Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?And who shall stand in his holy place?Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,who do not lift up their souls to what is false,and do not swear deceitfully.Ps 24:1-4?*Opening Hymn ????????#454 “I have decided to follow Jesus” (G)?I have decided to follow Jesus;I have decided to follow Jesus;I have decided to follow Jesus;No turning back, no turning back. Though none go with me, still I will follow;Though none go with me, still I will follow;Though none go with me, still I will follow;No turning back, no turning back. ?The world behind me, the cross before me;The world behind me, the cross before meThe world behind me, the cross before me;No turning back, no turning back.?Invocation?You, O God, are mighty forever.You cause the wind to blow and the rain to fall.You sustain the living, give life to the dead,support the falling, loose those who are bound,and keep your faith with those who sleep in the dust.Who is like you, O God of mighty acts?Praise be to you forever. Amen.? ????????Passing of the Peace.Leader: May the peace of Christ be with you People: And also, with you,?Hymn ???????? #447 “Jesus I my Cross Have Taken” (G)?Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee;Destitute, despised, forsaken, Thou from hence my all shall be.Perish every fond ambition, all I’ve sought or hoped or known;Yet how rich is my condition! God and heav’n are still mine own.?Let the world despise and leave me, they have left my Savior, too;Human hearts and looks deceive me; Thou art not, like them, untrue.And while Thou shalt smile upon me, God of wisdom, love and might,Foes may hate and friends disown me, show Thy face and all is bright.?Man may trouble and distress me, ’twill but drive me to Thy breast;Life with trials hard may press me; heav’n will bring me sweeter rest.Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me, while Thy love is left to me;Oh, ’twere not in joy to charm me, were that joy unmixed with Thee.?Haste then on from grace to glory, armed by faith, and winged by prayer,Heav’n’s eternal day’s before thee, God’s own hand shall guide thee there.Soon shall close thy earthly mission, swift shall pass thy pilgrim days;Hope soon change to glad fruition, faith to sight, and prayer to praise.? Confessing our Sin to God ?Holy and merciful God,in your presence we confessour sinfulness, our shortcomings,and our offenses against you.You alone know how often we have sinnedin wandering from your ways,in wasting your gifts,in forgetting your love.Have mercy on us, O Lord,for we are ashamed and sorryfor all we have done to displease you.Forgive our sins,and help us to live in your lightand walk in your ways,for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.? Assurance of Pardon?Christ is our peace;those who are dividedhe has made one.He has broken down the barriers of separationby his death and has built us upinto one body, with God.To all who repent and believehe has promised reconciliation.So live as people reconciled. Amen.? Pastoral Prayer / The Lord’s Prayer Tithes and Offerings ?Yours, Lord, is the greatness,the power and the glory,the victory and the majesty.All that is in the heavensand in the earth is yours,and you rule over all.Therefore, Lord, receive these offerings,our tangible expressions of love and gratitude.Transform them into a source of life for many,so that your kingdom may growin the hearts of all.In the name of Jesus. Amen.??‘Confession of Faith The Apostles Creed?The Apostles CreedI believe in God, the Father almighty,creator of heaven and earth.?I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, Our Lord.He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spiritand born of the Virgin Mary.He suffered under Pontius Pilate,was crucified, died, and was buried.He descended to the dead.On the third day he rose again.He ascended into heaven,and is seated at the right hand of the Father.He will come again to judge the living and the dead.?I believe in the Holy Spirit,the holy catholic Church,the communion of saints,the forgiveness of sins,the resurrection of the body,and the life everlasting. Amen? The Equipping of God’s People?Scripture???????? ???????? Acts 28:23-31 ?Message Title: “What is Ordinary Time Part 1.”?Sermon Script: What is Ordinary Time? Part 1: ?Before we get tour text today, let me just sum up what Ordinary time is and hopefully next week I will get to expand on it a little bit. Ordinary time is the season after Pentecost that runs from the last week in June to the beginning of Advent. It is usually a time when sermons focus on the Epistles and the Early Church life through Acts and the rest of Scripture. It is to Acts we turn today, so turn in your bibles with me to Acts, chapter 28 and we will be starting in verse 30. ?Reading of the Text: Acts 28:23-31?23 After arranging a day with him, many came to him at his lodging. From dawn to dusk he expounded and testified about the kingdom of God. He tried to persuade them about Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets. 24 Some were persuaded by what he said, but others did not believe. 25 Disagreeing among themselves, they began to leave after Paul made one statement: "The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah 26 when he said, Go to these people and say: You will always be listening, but never understanding; and you will always be looking, but never perceiving. 27 For the hearts of these people have grown callous, their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. 28 Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen." 30 Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house. And he welcomed all who visited him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.?May God Bless to our hearts, this reading of His Holy Word. ?In the summer of 2007 I took a short-term missions trip to Dallas Texas through Global Expeditions. While there we worked for a Homeless Mission called Mission Arlington, one day even moved 2500 blankets from a third floor storage space to a truck outside. We also were responsible for running VBS's at the various apartment complexes that dot inner-city Dallas. These were places were house churches had been planted or were being planted. One of those places was the Donna Lynn apartment complex. As soon as we set foot there, the spiritual darkness was obvious, before departing the bus we were told to remove any blue or red clothing, since gang tattoos lined the walls. As we walked through the dimly or unlit passages to knock on doors to invite kids to the VBS, the spiritual darkness deepened. We set up on a basketball court in the middle of the complex and had about 30 kids come join us, and that is when we discovered how deep the pain in this place ran. Not even five minutes into the location the kids had broken into our candy chest and instead of eating it, were using skittles as rocks that they slung at us. I heard 5-10 year old's say things to some of the girls in our group that were profane, and were, for lack of any better term, sexual harassment. Eventually some of the teens came out with knives and guns, our team leaders saw this and helped us systematically retreat to the bus. After returning to the compound early, we debriefed and waited and waited for Matt from Mission Arlington to come and help us figure out the next steps. ?To many, we felt like and even looked like we had failed at Donna Lynn that day. I am sure that many thought Paul a failure as well when it comes to our text today. By our 21st century metrics of success he certainly was, chained to a Roman guard, living under house arrest, at his own expense. Even the story of how he got there might make us think he was a complete failure. That is, from Acts chapter 24-28 nothing seems to go right for Paul. While traveling to Jerusalem for Pentecost he is told he will suffer and be thrown in prison. When he arrives he is falsely accused of defiling the inner-court of the temple. While he is held in Jerusalem, bounced back and forth between Festus the Governor and the Barracks, there are as many as 3 planned Assassination attempts. He then appeals to Caesar and is put on a ship to Rome, during a storm the ship sinks and everyone miraculously survives, they end up on Malta until they can find new transport, Paul is brought to Rome and now is under house arrest waiting for his day before Caesar Nero. Of course, even after he arrives we might call him a failure. The Jews come to him, he argues with them day and night for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that all they need to do is believe in Jesus and call on the name of the Lord to be saved, repent of their sins and be baptized into the name of the father son and Holy Spirit and even they reject his message which Paul brings from The Law and the Prophets in the same way Jesus had on the Road to Emmaus. After they come to his lodging in verse 23, they go away divided and even though some believed, Paul seems to upset all of them when he quoted from Isaiah 6:9-10. ?Now, this quote is important, it is important because it comes from a very specific call to Isaiah in chapter 6:1-10. A passage that we, for some reason, use for missions though it has nothing to do with preaching the good news of the Gospel, but with preaching coming Judgment on Israel and Judah. It has a Parallel passage in Psalms 118:8-10 and generally we think that Isaiah's message was to make this people like the idols they worship instead of YHWH. These idols have ears but do not hear, eyes but do not see and mouths that do not talk. So in Isaiah's original context God is saying that judgment is coming, so make them like their idols, my patience has run out. Even though God will bring them back from Exile, at this time, he is fed up. In Paul's day though idolatry was not as prevalent among the Jews, at least in terms of bowing down to a handcrafted idol. Instead, the people had made Moses, the law and the prophets, as well as their traditions above obedience to God and had rejected God's call to Israel to be a light to nations and had rejected the Son of God, Because of this, they are again to have hearts that do not understand, eyes that do not hear, and so on because God has taken the mantle and message of salvation away from the Jews and given it to the Gentiles and Jesus himself prophesies judgement that is at this time in biblical history just 7 short years away. Because their religious law's and practices had become an idol to them, the Gospel was now going to be proclaimed to the Gentiles, who would listen. ?By all merits, we would think Paul is a failure right? The people he first reached out to, the first ones he shared the Gospel with reject the message. But note what happens next, and how the book of Acts ends. Verse 30: "Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house. And he welcomed all who visited him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance." Without Hindrance? How is that possible, Paul's first listeners reject him, on top of that he has to pay to maintain his lodgings, we know from the book of Philippians that He is under guard and in chains 24/7. Paul is not free, he cannot go to and fro, yet he tells the Philippians that the Gospel has even spread to some in Caesars household. Yes, it is unhindered, even with the threat of death hanging over Paul, even though by every measure of success we can muster, even in the Roman world, Paul is a complete failure. But yet, Luke ends Acts with these words: "Without Hindrance." The good news of Jesus was unhindered by Paul's situation. ?Despite my story from earlier, it was not hindered at the Donna Lynn apartments either. That afternoon Matt asked us if we would be willing to go back. The complex wanted a VBS and Church plant, and so everyone in our group but 1 agreed to go back. We set up in a different location, invited the kids like before, some took the teens over to play basketball at the High School across the street. And we shared the message of salvation with those kids, out of the 30 that came day after day, 23 came to faith in Jesus. The Gospel was unhindered, amidst all the darkness in that place, the gang signs and unlit passage ways, the Gospel was unhindered. The light of the Gospel shone deeply in that place and today there is a thriving, multi-ethnic church that meets there. The Gospel, was not hindered by our first day there and is still unhindered there today. ?I wonder, could it be what we consider a failure is the perfect recipe for God to show us how unhindered His gospel really is? Yes, it is true that this Church has had a rough few months and that those who broken their covenant with this congregation have hurt us, but does that mean the Gospel is hindered among us? By no means! Yes, it is true we have just gone through a Global Pandemic and that we are now on the verge of a national mental health crisis, but does that mean the Gospel is hindered? No way! If this Church belongs to Jesus, if Jesus is the one building This Church, if Jesus is the one defining this Church than the Gospel will not be hindered here. The message of Salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ alone, by Grace, through Faith will continue to be proclaimed in this place and from this place. Proclaiming the full gospel of Jesus which includes, in Jesus own words in Luke 4:18 "proclaim good news to the poor, freedom to the prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind and setting the oppressed free." That is all done through Jesus who tore down the dividing wall of hostility between his created human-beings, made in his image, that includes loving God with all our hearts, souls and minds and loving our neighbor as ourselves. The Gospel proclaimed with our words and backed up with our lives in the social sphere so that others can know the blessing, the incredible blessing of knowing Christ as savior and having a personal relationship with Him. ?But Brothers and Sisters, as I said last week, we also have to be credible witnesses and to do that we have to make sure that we do not fall prey to attitudes that can hinder the Gospel working in us. We have to make sure we do not become like the Jews, caring more for the Law and the Prophets, for religiosity, than for the work God is doing through Jesus, so that Christ does not reject us and give His gospel work here in BC to someone else. We also have to be on the lookout for Sins like Pride, Greed, Selfishness and attitudes like placing traditions before people, apathy towards the lost and towards our community can all cause us to bear bad fruit which and when a Church bears bad fruit or no fruit at all among its members, it will be cut down by Christ so that something new can grow in its place.?Preaching the Gospel cannot just be the purview of the Pastor, we must become a Missional Church here in our community that is reaching out and meeting needs, where everyone is reaching out to their neighbors, getting to know them and their stories and sharing the good news of Jesus with them, in their stories. You have heard it said that there is no retirement in the Kingdom of God, there are times of rest, which Jesus modeled, and some of you I know need rest and I encourage you to take it, but once you are rested, preach the Gospel with your words and life. And throw off all those sins that so easily ensnare us, throw off apathy, throw off worries over money. Instead of talking about the people who are not in Church, let's talk to the people who do not come to church, learn their reasons, hear their stories. The only path forward for this Church, is to become a Missional Community that grows through the Lord adding to our numbers, those who are being saved. ?Now, I know what you're thinking and saying: "Pastor, what if they will not listen." Then continue to walk with them in the hopes that they may see Christ in you and believe. You also might be thinking that people do not want to hear the message of Christ, that younger people are turned off from Him. Let me assure you, that could not be further from the truth. People are open to hearing the word of God, they just have not had anyone tell them, they are open to be invited to church, they have just not had anyone invite them.?And Rachel and I will continue to model this to you, especially once we start to return to public life after the Baby is born. Starting after VBS we will no longer have Friday Prayer here at the Church, instead I will host Friday office hours somewhere in a public place in town like the Mainstreet Market, or Lions Park, as a way to meet the people who come to those places who do not know Jesus. That will be on top of our trips to the park and the pool. These are all things you can mimic yourself, if you are willing to step out of your comfort zones and talk to those who know who do not know Christ. VBS, by the way, is a great way to do Missions here in Buffalo Center, and I hope you'll come to our meeting at 11 in the Church basement. ?If Jesus made us all witnesses in Buffalo Center, North Iowa, America and the World, as He did in Acts 1, then we all must be witnesses in those areas as God has given us opportunity. We must continue to proclaim boldly that: ?Gospel MessageClosing Prayer?Almighty God, Father of all mercies,we, your unworthy servants, give you humble thanksfor all your goodness and loving-kindnessto us and to all whom you have made.We bless you for our creation, preservation,and all the blessings of this life,but above all for your immeasurable lovein the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ,for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your merciesthat with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise,not only with our lips, but in our lives,by giving up ourselves to your service,and by walking before youin holiness and righteousness all our days,through Jesus Christ, our Lord,to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.?Communion: ?The Invitation Beloved in the Lord, as we draw near this table we gratefully recall the words of Jesus when he said: “I am the bread of life, which came down out of heaven: If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread which I will give in my flesh for the life of the world he that eats this bread shall live forever. ?The Words of Institution The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Hear the words of the Holy Supper as they are delivered by the Apostle Paul?1 Corinthians 11:23-28 23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for[a] you. Do this in remembrance of me.”[b] 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.]?The Ministry of the BreadThe Lord Jesus on the night he was to be betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said “Take, eat, this is my body, broken for you, do this in rebrembrance of me, …Once the bread is passed… “The Bread of Christ, broken for you, eat all of it” ?The Ministry of the CupAfter the same manner he also took the cup saying: “This is cup is the new covenant in my blood, this as often as you drink of it do so in remembrance of me”…Once the cup is passed… “The Blood of Christ, shed for you, drink all of it” ?Prayer: ?You are holy, O God of majesty,and blessed is Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.He took upon himself the weight of our sinand carried the burden of our guilt.He shared our life in every way,and, though tempted, was sinless to the end.Baptized as your own, he went willingly to his deathand by your power was raised to new life.In his dying and rising,you gave birth to your church,delivered us from slavery to sin and deathand made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit. Amen *Closing Hymn: ???????? #359 “Guide me O Thou Great Jehovah” (G)?Guide me, O Thou great *Jehovah, [*Redeemer]Pilgrim through this barren land;I am weak, but Thou art mighty,Hold me with Thy pow’rful hand.Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven,Feed me till I want no more;Feed me till I want no more.?Open now the crystal fountain,Whence the healing stream doth flow;Let the fire and cloudy pillarLead me all my journey through.Strong Deliv’rer, strong Deliv’rer,Be Thou still my Strength and Shield;Be Thou still my Strength and Shield.?When I tread the verge of Jordan,Bid my anxious fears subside;Death of death and hell’s Destruction,Land me safe on Canaan’s side.Songs of praises, songs of praises,I will ever give to Thee;I will ever give to Thee.?Benediction ?As you have been fed at this table, go to feed the hungry.As you have been set free, go to set free the imprisoned.As you have received, give.As you have heard, proclaim.And the blessing that you have receivedfrom Father, Son, and Holy Spiritbe always with you. Amen. Postlude ................
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