Stillmeadow Sermon Podcast

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You can feel the joy of the anointing! Anointed to bring real change. Transformation for those in prison, blind and lame! And John reminds us that as John the baptist was not the light but a witness to the light, we get to be bearers of the light of joy, carriers of joy ourselves!

Comfort, comfort my people.God’s words to a world in need of peace.Hear those words in the middle of your turmoil, church.Be those words to others in the middle of their turmoil, church.As John straightened the path and declared the presence of God, we get to go into the wilderness of our world and be the peace of Christ to people who need it.

We look forward to the day when the world will have no more heartache or terror. We hope for that day. But Christians do not hope as the world without Christ hopes...no, we have a hope because He has given us Himself. He rent the heavens and came down. He became one of us and now lives within us as a living hope.

In Ezekiel God says that he will search out the lost and broken sheep of Israel. And he also says that he is going to judge between the sheep and the goats and rams and between the fat sheep and lean sheep. “I will save my flock and they will no longer be plundered” is the promise that he makes. He later says that he will rid the land of savage beasts (a promise for peace!). And in Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus reveals that in the end days there will be a judgment between sheep and goats…the sheep being those who reached out to the poor and downtrodden…those same sheep that God says he wants to protect in Ezekiel. What’s the invitation here? The invitation is to join God in reaching out to those who are overlooked and oppressed.

Moses writes a Psalm about our days being numbered. Jesus shares a parable about how our days are numbered. Both should lead us to understand our responsibility to share the Gospel.

This entire Psalm is an epic retelling of the Exodus, retelling the ancestors failures (hearts not loyal to God, spirits not faithful to him v8, they were disloyal and faithless v57) but then celebrating the kingship of David

Today’s Psalm is one of those songs that reminds the people of God that no matter their circumstance, we have a God who hears us when we cry out, a God whose love never fails, a God who is truly good.

Moses is allowed to see the promised land, but not allowed to enter. When he dies Israel mourned for 30 days in the plains of Moab. But Joshua was filled with wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him, so that Israel obeyed what Joshua said. So, we have the leader’s realization that his followers would see more than he would (or that he could only take his people so far), the mourning over the loss of a leader, the transition from one leader to the next.

Moses asks that God’s presence go with them. If we are going to be families that carry the mission of God, it starts with knowing Him and spending time with Him.

The Israelites grew impatient with Moses’ absence on the mountain and wanted instant gratification for their worship. Aaron could have said no to their demands, and someone else could have too, but nobody stood up to say “this is not wise, friends!”

Here we see that God gives the 10 commandments. In a very real sense Exodus-Deuteronomy are the mission statement of the Jews, the Code of Conduct, the manner in which they were to live in the world. The 10 Commands can be organized around this: loving God and loving others. Perhaps as Christian households, we can find practical ways to love God and love others…write a mission statement that encompasses both.

We come again to Meribah and Massah, but let’s look at it with an alternative reading. What if the Israelites (only 3 months into their liberation) had come to Moses with the idea of sharing their water, rather than their complaint? Philippians 2 reminds the church to live with a humble attitude like Christ. When we let our complaints get the best of us, we become critics instead of contributors. God takes us to places where at first glance it looks like we are out of resources, but that’s just part of the formation of us as a character community. We have the mind of Christ to push through those times of trial.

You know the phrase “It’s all good”? Well, in the life of the redeemed community, “it’s all grace.” When the people got into the wilderness there was no food, but God, in his grace, provided manna and quail, for each day. Grace and grace again. It was food for the rich, for the poor, for everybody who lived within their community. And in Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus reminds his disciples that God gives grace to everybody no matter when they join the team. Don’t be jealous of God’s generosity! All that matters to us in our community is to live like Christ (Philippians 1:21-30).

The story in Matthew to revealed that God’s plan for salvation is that we receive the gift of freedom and forgiveness and extend it to others. The story of the Red Sea deliverance is incredible…they only had to be still and allow God to free them from what looked like an impossible situation. But their liberation was a part of God’s character formation of them as a community. So we as Christians live with an attitude that we want to put no stumbling block in front of another believer, no Red Sea in the middle of their escape from sin (Romans 14:1-12).

The Passover was the final act of judgment that brought freedom for the Israelite people from the oppressive Egyptians. And it is celebrated annually. In the first Passover, God exacted justice on humanity and in the death of Jesus, God allowed his son to experience injustice in order to bring justice to all of humanity. So we are a redeemed community that has one debt: to love one another. And this comes out in how we confront each other when we are in sin, which Jesus gave us instructions to follow. In receiving communion, we will be sure to invite people to evaluate their relationships and see if there are any that need to be repaired, any forgiveness offered and any apologies needed.

The personal God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob hears the cries of his oppressed people and chooses a man to be a part of his rescue plan. Each of us are called by God and sent by the Great I AM to our perishing world. And if we choose to go, we carry the cross of Jesus, denying ourselves (Matt 16:21-28). And if we are to go, we do it with sincere love, not allowing evil to overcome us, but overcoming evil with good (Romans 12:9-21). As a community, we are sent to rescue those who have been enslaved by sin, those who have been oppressed by hate, those who have been locked down by systems of deception and distraction…and we have the Great I AM with us.

To be enslaved is to be put on the same level as property, to be valued not as a person, but as an object. The Israelites had moved from neighbors to objects and cried out to God. Romans 12:1-8 reminds us that we are not to conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed in the renewing our thinking, starting with the recognition that each member of the rescued community is graced with their station and strengths. The mid-wives in Exodus used their station and skills to save babies! But it must be clear (like Romans says): God’s action brings the transformation, our faith invites it in. We live in view of His mercy.

Our family history offers both a legacy to follow and an opportunity to improve. We can learn from the mistakes of the past or we can allow them to be repeated. We can heal from the wounds we have received or we can internalize them and cause the same wounds on others. We can take the victories of the past and apply them to our current circumstances. We cannot ignore the past. We must go back in order to go forward. We can break free from the past in order to live in God's love in the present. Through this series we will explore the life and family of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob.

Our family history offers both a legacy to follow and an opportunity to improve. We can learn from the mistakes of the past or we can allow them to be repeated. We can heal from the wounds we have received or we can internalize them and cause the same wounds on others. We can take the victories of the past and apply them to our current circumstances. We cannot ignore the past. We must go back in order to go forward. We can break free from the past in order to live in God's love in the present. Through this series we will explore the life and family of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob.

Our family history offers both a legacy to follow and an opportunity to improve. We can learn from the mistakes of the past or we can allow them to be repeated. We can heal from the wounds we have received or we can internalize them and cause the same wounds on others. We can take the victories of the past and apply them to our current circumstances. We cannot ignore the past. We must go back in order to go forward. We can break free from the past in order to live in God's love in the present. Through this series we will explore the life and family of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob.

Our family history offers both a legacy to follow and an opportunity to improve. We can learn from the mistakes of the past or we can allow them to be repeated. We can heal from the wounds we have received or we can internalize them and cause the same wounds on others. We can take the victories of the past and apply them to our current circumstances. We cannot ignore the past. We must go back in order to go forward. We can break free from the past in order to live in God's love in the present. Through this series we will explore the life and family of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob.

Each story from Genesis we’ll explore is an invitation to trust God in the middle of our own waiting times, to believe that He is always up to something good.

In the Waiting: Trusting God in the Middle Moments. Each story from Genesis we’ll explore is an invitation to trust God in the middle of our own waiting times, to believe that He is always up to something good.

In the Waiting: Trusting God in the Middle Moments. Each story from Genesis we’ll explore is an invitation to trust God in the middle of our own waiting times, to believe that He is always up to something good.

In the Waiting: Trusting God in the Middle Moments. Each story from Genesis we’ll explore is an invitation to trust God in the middle of our own waiting times, to believe that He is always up to something good.

In the Waiting: Trusting God in the Middle Moments. Each story from Genesis we’ll explore is an invitation to trust God in the middle of our own waiting times, to believe that He is always up to something good.

Living Hope Through Creativity

Living Hope Through Suffering

Living Hope Through Community

Living Hope Through Holiness

Living Hope - Through Courage

Trusting the unchanging God in changing times.