Podcasts about we trust in god

Sermon Series: “Westminster Church: Who We Are” Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 Sermon Title: “An Evangelical Community: People of the Gospel” Sermon Slides: SLIDE 1 – Sermon Title Slide SLIDE 2 – Today's Big Idea: As Evangelicals, We Trust in God's Power … Not in Human Efforts, Tradition, or Strength. This Power is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. SLIDE 3 – Overview Statement for our Series: “Westminster is a Reformed, Presbyterian, Evangelical, and Missional Church. We are Reformed in our Theology, Presbyterian in our Polity, Evangelical as a Community, and Missional in our Ministry.” SLIDE 4 – Point 1: The Gospel … Creates and Transforms a Particular People for God. SLIDE 5 – Romans 7:18, 21 – “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out … So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” SLIDE 6 – Romans 8:1-2 – “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” SLIDE 7 – Insert a Copy of Point #1 of Sermon SLIDE 8 – Romans 1:21-22 – “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” SLIDE 9 – Galatians 3:2-3 – “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” SLIDE 10 – Insert a Copy of Point #1 of Sermon SLIDE 11 – Conclusion: “As Evangelicals, we confess that the Gospel is the explosive and exclusive Power of God to effectively create God's People and to change God's People … into the very Image of Christ.” SLIDE 12 – Point 2: The Gospel … Sets Us Apart as a Peculiar Community to the World. SLIDE 13 – Conclusion: “While God's Gospel offends many, God uses the same Gospel to win many to Himself, who see the grace of God in the Cross and in us, who are being lifted up with Christ … as trophies of God's grace!” SLIDE 14 – Sermon Uses: Four to Help Us Grow in Our Church's Identity. SLIDE 15 – As Evangelicals … We Must Preach the Gospel to Unbelievers for their Conversion. SLIDE 16 – As Evangelicals … We Must Preach the Gospel to Ourselves for our Transformation. SLIDE 17 – The Gospel is Offensive … Don't Change It or Add Insult to Injury.

We trust in God. But we also trust in Jesus, because he is God. Watch on youtube: https://youtube.com/live/RUnugcG4JM4

  Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA 2E71 All Saints Day 11:00 a.m. Baptism Sunday 3 November 2024 Daniel 12:1-3 Psalm 24 Revelation 21:1-6a John 11:32-44 “See I am making all things new… I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 21). 1. In three days there will be an election. We have heard about authoritarianism and the Deep State, that this might be the last election we will ever have. We have been told that the United States Department of Justice will seek retribution against political enemies, that doctors will be prosecuted for performing health procedures like abortions or gender transition therapies, that our own armies will be deployed against regular American citizens. We are afraid that our marriages will be declared invalid and that we will be singled out for persecution.   Candidates have said that America's domestic enemies are more dangerous than our foreign ones. News broadcasters have told us that rather than protecting us from foreign dictators our political leaders admire them. We see signs that the meager efforts we are making to slow down climate change and species extinction may be undone. We have been told that the elections cannot be trusted, that immigrants are in some way unseen threats. We are reminded that the person we choose will alone have power to destroy life on earth by launching nuclear weapons.   There is so much more I could say about this but I don't need to because we are all getting five text messages a day from politicians who act as if they know us, who talk as if they alone can save us.   In 1965, 70% of Americans said that religion is very important. In our time 45% of Americans agree with this statement. [i] Some may say that we are becoming less spiritual as a society. But one might argue instead that we are less likely to express our spirituality through religious institutions and more likely to invest other parts of our life with ultimate value.   The sociologist Max Weber (1865-1920) had a theory that the evolution of religious life has led us in the modern world to have seven “value spheres” that at times compete with each other. These include: religion, family, politics, economics, art, science and eroticism. Some thinkers today believe that as people participate less in religion they invest spiritual meaning in other spheres, particularly politics.   Philip Gorski writes, “the most important form of sacrality today is arguably “the political.” For the populist right, the sacred is most often “the nation,” or ”Christian nation” or “Hindu Civilization.” For the progressive left, the sacred is more often democracy or social justice... [N]ation and state, party and ideology, race and identity, have become sacred objects of devotion for many.” [ii]   Many of our most secular friends have become missionaries writing letters and visiting distant places trying to inspire people to vote. This makes sense since the political sphere has tremendous power to control taxation, wage nuclear war, curtail climate change, preserve democracy and balance inconceivable levels of wealth inequality.   2. In the time of Jesus the Romans mercilessly demanded that subject peoples worship the emperor as a god. The situation seemed hopeless. But according to the Gospel of John, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” John goes on, “the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him… but to all who received him he gave power to become children of God” (Jn. 1). This light which shone in Jesus still shines today.   The purpose of the Gospel of John is to draw us into a new world, into life in God. He writes about seven signs. The first happens when Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And the last occurs when Jesus returns to enemy territory in order to bring his friend Lazarus back from the dead.   Jesus narrowly escapes being stoned to death in Judea for saying that, “The Father and I are one” (Jn. 10). Then he gets a message from two sisters that “the one you love is ill.” Jesus' friends can hardly believe it when he tells them that he is going back to the place where he was almost killed. The name Lazarus means “God is my help.” Jesus feels so deeply moved by the grief of Lazarus' sisters Martha and Mary that he himself weeps. Jesus knows that bringing his friend back to life will lead to his own death. And this is exactly what happens. Later, the authorities reason that Jesus must die because by raising the dead he will inspire the masses who will then provoke the Romans to destroy the temple and their whole culture. High Priest Caiaphas says, “it is better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed” (Jn. 11).   The pivotal moment occurs when Jesus says to Martha, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” The point of this is not that Martha's believing has anything to do with her brother coming back to life. It is that Martha's faith will help her to see the action of God that is already happening in Jesus.   3. And this is how faith is. We trust in God first and then we come to see the world in a completely new way. St. Augustine (354-430) was an African saint born in the fourth century. He calls this faith seeking understanding. We say yes and give our hearts to God. And then God opens our lives to the divine mystery.   St. Augustine helps me to understand these elections and Jesus' invitation into a deeper reality. In 410 Rome was sacked. Pagans argued that this defeat happened because the gods were punishing the Romans for converting to Christianity. [iii] In response Augustine wrote his book The City of God.   In it Augustine describes two cities the earthly city and the city of God. These are not distinguished by jurisdiction or location. One is not on earth and the other in the skies. Instead, they are two fundamentally different ways of organizing human community. They are distinguished by their love. The earthly city revolves around love of self, the lust for power and domination.   The city of God is characterized by love of God and neighbor. Because God values human freedom we find ourselves in a shared territory that is occupied by citizens of both cities. Now is not a time for separating the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats. We will not experience perfect justice, peace, goodness or beauty in this life. Politicians will always let us down.   In 418 Augustine puts this in another way when he writes to Boniface, the Roman general in charge of North Africa. Boniface wants to impose Christian practices with the sword. Augustine disagrees and writes, “We ought not to want to live ahead of time with only the saints and the righteous.” [iv] In other words we should not imagine that we will achieve the ideal in this world. Politics is the way that we live in the time we have now. We should expect disagreement, compromise, debate and be patient with those who disagree with us. The message is simple on All Saint's Day in San Francisco let politics have its place. But it should never become our god. Regardless of who is elected, our God is on the throne. Jesus, through his life and death ushers us into another reality. That light shines through our darkness.   Last week after church I had lunch with our former bishop Bill Swing and Cricket Jones the wife of our longtime dean Alan Jones. Alan died in January and the three of us still look visibly upset when we talk about him together. Hesitantly I asked the two about their most powerful memories of Alan and Cricket's wedding which took place in France at Chartres Cathedral.   Bishop Swing talked about drawers of vestments from the sixteenth century. Then Cricket described a moment from the service. She and Alan were perched on little chairs in front of the high altar. And as the bishop was going through the prayers she felt as if her little chair rose up into the air by four or five inches. And then she had a sense that all the saints who had ever been there were present with them. In her mind's eye she could see them standing all around the apse on each other's shoulders with such deep love. [v]   In three days there will be an election. But as we baptize children into the new life of Christ may the ones we love and all the saints be present with us. Let us have eyes to see that God is making all things new. [i] “Forty-five percent of Americans say religion is "very important" in their life, with another 26% saying it is "fairly important" and 28% saying it's "not very important." When Gallup first asked this question in 1965, 70% said religion was very important. That fell to 52% in a 1978 survey, but the percentage ticked up to nearly 60% between 1990 and 2005. Over the past 20 years, a declining share of Americans have said religion is important, dropping below 50% for the first time in 2019.” From, “How Religious Are Americans,” Gallup News, 29 March 2024. https://news.gallup.com/poll/358364/religious-americans.aspx [ii] Robert Gorski, “Disenchantment of the World” or Fragmentation of the Sacred,” in Robert N. Bellah, Challenging Modernity (NY: Columbia University Press, 2024) 319. [iii] In his book The City of God Augustine writes that rather than the gods protecting Rome, Rome protected her gods. [iv] “At the heart of Augustine's political wisdom is an awareness of what time it is. Late in his life, he counseled Boniface, a Roman general governing the precinct of Africa. In a letter from 418, Augustine addresses Boniface's frustrations with uprisings and incursions by those who despise the Christian faith. Boniface thinks he knows what the kingdom of God is supposed to look like, and he's tempted to impose it—to make the kingdom come. Augustine cautions the impatient ruler: “We ought not to want to live ahead of time with only the saints and the righteous.” Trying to “live ahead of time” means imagining we can achieve some ideal embodiment of justice—whether it's utopia or the kingdom—by imposing our will. Politics, Augustine counsels, demands patience. Politics is the art of forging a life together in the now. The institutions of our republic and the practices of democracy are eroded precisely when we imagine that we can live ahead of time. Political liberalism is accumulated wisdom about how not to live ahead of time.” James K. A. Smith, “Wisdom from Augustine in an Election Year,” The Christian Century, November 2024. https://www.christiancentury.org/features/wisdom-augustine-election-year?check_logged_in=1 [v] The novelist Susanna Clarke in an interview with the New York Times says, ““I feel very strongly that if you could see the world as it really is, if you could get further beyond your ego and the sorts of ways in which we trap ourselves, if you could just see the world beyond, every moment would be miraculous.” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/25/books/susanna-clarke-strange-norrell-sequel-interview.html?campaign_id=69&emc=edit_bk_20241101&instance_id=138448&nl=books®i_id=13508633&segment_id=181999&user_id=f284507f51aad420f13c2727d615ae11

September 29 Worship Service Groveport UMC, Groveport Ohio WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS BREAKTHROUGH PRAYER: Amazing God, We pray that through the Holy Spirit Your preferred future for Groveport United Methodist Church will be made clear to us. Give us the courage we need to follow You wherever You may take us. We ask that You bind us together in love so that we can bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to our friends, families, and community. Open our eyes so that we may see the amazing things You are already doing among us. AMEN. PRELUDE “He Has Made Me Glad” LIGHTING OF THE ALTAR CANDLES *OPENING HYMN “Shout to the Lord” CALL TO WORSHIP: Leader: The Lord has a shelter for you! People: Abide in the shadow of the Most High. Leader: The Lord has refuge for you! People: Abide in the fortress of your God. Leader: The Lord has a safe place for you! People: Abide in the presence of the Lord. Leader: The presence of the Lord is here. People: Let us bring the first fruits of praise and worship. HYMN “In Moments Like These” CONFESSION OF FAITH: We are not alone, we live in God's world. We believe in God: who has created and is creating, who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh, to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit. We trust in God. We are called to be the church: to celebrate God's presence, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God. Amen. FIRST SCRIPTURE READING: Psalm 100:4 OUR TIME OF PRAYER (During our time of prayer, the altar rail is open for all who wish to come forward.) HYMN “Sanctuary” PASTORAL PRAYER THE LORD'S PRAYER OUR TITHES AND OFFERINGS Special Music *DOXOLOGY *PRAYER OF DEDICATION CHILDREN'S MOMENTS - (All children1st through 6th grades are invited to attend Jr. Church at this time.) SECOND SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 17:11-19 SERMON “The Magic Word” *CLOSING HYMN “Great is Thy Faithfulness” #140 *BENEDICTION *SENDING FORTH “As We Go” POSTLUDE “Victory in Jesus” *Stand

Grace is not simply the pardon of our sins; it is the power to press on in obedience. We trust in God's ever-arriving gracious power to enable us to do what we should.

We trust in God, but can God trust in you? Will you stay faithful forever to Him even when situations are not good around you. Stay tuned as Prophetess Tiny shares this encouraging word.

The fundamental problem with our world is the spiritual death of mankind. There is nothing we can do to change that. What can dead people do to save themselves? Ezekiel speaks God's word to the very dry bones and they came to life. Only God can raise us from spiritual death to life. He accomplishes that through the proclamation of God's word by the power of His Spirit. This means that the first and most important activity of our Christian life is to sit under the faithful preaching of God's word. We trust in God's sovereignty in our redemption and in the redemption of the world. He is the one who saves and raises people from spiritual death to life, just like how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

We trust in God's plan.

Paul sets off to sail for Rome, and he sees early on that the trip will have troubles. Things will not go well, including the potential loss of life. And no one listens. What do we do, when we see those we love make bad choices?  What are we to do? We know that God is at work in all things, even pain and consequences. So, we pray, trusting in God to teach, protect, and guide. We trust in God, even when we see that the road ahead will be hard.  Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up. Read our passage here - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+27%3A+1-12&version=NRSVUEYou can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Believers are not immune to the pains of life. People of faith get sick, die in accidents, and can lose their jobs. Today Dr. John teaches on the promise of hope from Romans 8:28. Our confidence rests not in luck or our ability to avoid life's struggles. We trust in God who is at work in everything for good. Take heart, God is in control.The Power of the Gospel: The gospel of Jesus has the power to save us by granting us eternal life. The gospel also has power for us to live this new life. In this 5-week series, Dr. John Neufeld explores Romans 5-8 and focuses on the powerful grace of God which enables us to live with victory, joy and peace. To those who feel defeated in their Christian walk, these truths offer hope and help. 

Grace is not simply the pardon of our sins; it is the power to press on in obedience. We trust in God's ever-arriving gracious power to enable us to do what we should.

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?St. Thomas Aquinas when answering the question of whether God exists brings forward two objections. The second objection says that everything we see in the natural world can be explained by nature or by human reason; therefore, we do not need to suppose God's existence. To this objection, St. Thomas says that we can trace back what is done in nature back to the first cause, which must be an immovable and self-necessary first principle, which we call God. He then references his Five Ways which are converging and convincing arguments to demonstrate God's existence. For the remainder of today, I would like to focus on the first objection that St. Thomas raises to God's existence. If you are unfamiliar with the disputed question format used by St. Thomas in the Summa and in many other scholastic works, it goes like this. There are objections posed, then a section where a brief response is given beginning with “on the contrary.” Then the main teaching is delivered in the “I answer that” section and is followed by the specific responses given for the objection posed at the beginning of the article.  For the first objection to God's existence, St. Thomas puts it this way:“It seems that God does not exist; because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word ‘God' means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist (ST I, q.2, a.3).”Of course, this is an argument, not a slam dunk. God does exist and He is goodness itself. But can you feel the weight of the argument? If God is infinitely good, then why is there evil? In other words, why do bad things happen to good people?Here on Earth, there is no sufficient answer to this argument. How can there be, really? We see evil happen and sometimes the human suffering which results is so extreme that no justice seems to ever come to fruition. Or perhaps it is not moral evil but physical evil. Why do children develop horrifically painful diseases? Why do mothers and fathers lose their children to miscarriage and stillbirth? In the goodness of creation, why are there devastating natural disasters that cause widespread death, destruction, and catastrophe? The Problem of EvilThis so-called “Problem of Evil” has plagued philosophers, theologians, and ethicists for millennia. The presence of evil and suffering in the world is the strongest argument against an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient God. The logical formulation of the problem of evil is laid out in Aquinas' objection, and we will get to the response to this objection a bit later on. The evidential formulation, on the other hand, is the one that packs the biggest punch because we can see gratuitous evil, pain, suffering, and misery. No one needs proof that evil exists; we need look no further than our own sins or the sins of those around us to show its existence. The reason that the evidence of evil is so powerful is not based on its logical intricacies but because of emotion. The natural human response to suffering, pain, blatant evil, and injustice is repulsion. We have a visceral, subconscious reaction to the evil that we encounter. And we wonder: how could God allow this? I imagine that if you have never asked this question, “how could God allow this?” then you are fortunate enough to have not suffered a real trauma. I want to share a time of suffering in my own life to begin to show how we can handle inevitable sufferings when they come. My wife and I suffered a miscarriage a few years ago, and I did not know how to process it. I did not allow myself to recognize and feel my feelings. And after a few months, I realized that I was very angry with God and was depressed and despairing. How could He do this to me and to my wife? What did I do wrong? It was horrendous. I still have a profoundly vivid memory of lowering my son Gabriel's little casket into a hole in the ground. It was truly awful and unnatural. I know that my wife and I desired Baptism for him and I believe firmly that he is in Heaven interceding for us. But I wanted to hold him. I wanted to get to know him here on Earth and watch him grow like my other boys. Yet, it was not to be. Since then, we suffered another miscarriage but this time I felt my feelings a bit more intentionally. I talked about the experience with friends and my priest. I grieved. I wept. I prayed. But I did not despair this time. What was different? Most recently, I experienced the same emotions but I recognized and gave them over to Jesus, as best as I could muster. I aimed to unite my suffering with His Cross in a more profound way than a few years ago. The suffering was imminently present, but by grace I was able to abandon myself more to Providence, I suppose. My response of faith and abandonment to Divine Providence was not perfect but I am positive that I grew over these last years. So, when suffering, pain, and evil come, and they will, and we ask “how could God allow this?”, what is our response? Before we get more into the response to the problem of evil, I want to look at what evil actually is. That way, we can better recognize it and even avoid it, to some extent. What is Evil? The Catholic Encyclopedia teaches that there are three kinds of evil: physical, moral, and metaphysical. Physical evil arises from nature and includes sickness, accident, death, anxiety, disappointment, disabilities, and imperfections in regards to the full development of human powers. Moral evil is the “deviation of human volition from the prescriptions of the moral order and the action which results from that deviation (Catholic Encyclopedia).” These are intentional acts which transgress against the precepts of the Catholic religion or of the nature of the human person, generally. Metaphysical evil is the mutual limitation of various parts of the natural world. The climate and natural causes adversely affect plants and animals. Predators rely on the destruction of life to remain alive themselves. The constituent parts of nature also have a system of perpetual decay and renewal. This type of “evil” is really more a relative perfection rather than an imperfection because creation was designed, as it is, by God.In all cases, evil is negative, not positive. Evil consists in the loss or deprivation of something necessary for perfection. Pain has a disturbing effect on the sufferer and is, thus, a physical evil. Moral evil is evil because we are using reason improperly to choose a lesser good or neglect a higher good.Some argue that evil does not actually exist. Instead it is merely a “lesser good” in place of a higher good that ought to be. It is an imperfection where perfection ought to be. It is a hole where there ought to be a whole. But our human experience points to a more complicated reality. What we can be sure of, though, is that God did not create evil nor does he cause evil. Nothing is evil in itself, but is evil in relation to other things or persons. The same fire which burns and destroys gives life-giving light and heat. The same water which drowns gives life and nourishment. The same free will which chooses evil has the capacity to choose good. Perfect vs. Permissive Will of GodGod is perfect. He does not suffer any defect of weakness or change. He does not change His mind. If He could change, then He would simply not be God. In His wisdom, He created all things visible and invisible with the Divine foreknowledge that His creatures, namely humanity and some of the angels, would spurn Him. This is a mystery. He had no need to create anything, but He did so to manifest His goodness, wisdom, power, and love.One of the important distinctions to draw at this juncture is the difference between God's permissive will and His perfect will. Simply put: God has a perfect will. Another, admittedly imperfect, way to phrase this would be His “original plan.” The perfect will of God for humanity consisted of a desire for Adam and Eve to follow his indicative will. The indicative will of God is what He wants and how He wants it, perfectly. We see this indicative will for Adam and Eve in Genesis. He told them not to “eat the fruit of ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil' (Gen. 2:17).” When Adam and Eve disobeyed sin, entered the world, along with the consequences of sin: suffering, pain, and death. Human suffering was not part of God's original plan. In giving humanity free will, God permitted, or allowed, evil to enter the world. His free creatures, made in His image and likeness, rebel against His indicative and perfect will and commit evils. These are not within the perfect will of God; they belong tacitly to the permissive will of God. And He alone has the long-view. Only He knows the end of the story. And He assures us that His justice will come to full fruition in the end.What is the Response to the Problem?We should recall the great diversity of metaphysical evil which comes together to embody the universe as a whole. Stars explode and go supernova. Matter is sometimes transformed in violent and destructive ways. Predators eat other animals. Herbivores eat, and therefore destroy, plants. These relative perfections are not imperfections. Then, we stop to think about physical evils which befall mankind: sickness, plague, death, anxiety, and the like. And we know that human suffering often comes from true moral evil. The world and its inhabitants seem far from what might approximate perfection.Frankly, this is where human reason hits an insurmountable roadblock. No ideology, school of thought, or religion can sufficiently speculate about the order of nature. Though we cannot know with human intelligence the full understanding of this mystery, we can be assured that God is completely justified. We can experience suffering and pain and wonder why it is happening while simultaneously acknowledging that God, in His perfect goodness, knowledge, and power, does know. Not only does He know, but He also fully cares. The response to the Problem of Evil is not logically satisfying because it is a mystery with no earthly solution. But as St. Thomas More said, “Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.” The Catholic Faith as a whole gives the only satisfactory response to the Problem of Evil, even if it is not emotionally satisfying when we are in the thick of it. And this response is not an “easy answer.” It is not a quick response which puts the problem to rest. Instead, the response to the problem of evil bears fruit in prolonged contemplation, the practice of trust, faith, hope, love, prayer, study, and only with God's grace. Let us return to St. Thomas Aquinas' exploration of the objection to the existence of God based on the problem of evil. He responds this way, quoting St. Augustine:“As Augustine says (Enchiridion xi): ‘Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil.' This is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce good (ST I, q.2, a.3).”Like I said, it is not an emotionally satisfying answer. We long for justice and peace. And we want it now. In our fallen world, it can be easy to give in to despair. But we are called to trust in the infinite goodness of God. If He allows evil to exist, then He will produce a good out of it, though we may not see it in this lifetime. If He allows evil to exist, then His justice will be made perfect in the end. As St. Paul teaches us:“We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28).”Redemptive SufferingAnd as I have already mentioned: God not only knows of our suffering but He also fully cares. We can see this on full display in the apparent triumph of evil, pain, and suffering on Good Friday. On the Cross, the Son of God died for love of you and me. If we were there on Calvary's hill, we would be justified to some extent to question God's wisdom or His omnipotence. For the Apostles, this dark day seemed like the end. How could a good possibly come from all this suffering, misery, and death? Even the demons thought that they had won a great victory. But the story did not end on Friday. On Easter Sunday, Jesus Christ burst forth from the tomb, the one who died who dies no more. Our God knows the way through suffering and death to eternal life.As the Catechism puts it: “By his passion and death on the cross Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive passion (CCC 1505).” In moments of affliction, suffering, and pain, we can offer these experiences as prayers when we unite them to the perfect Cross of Christ. Our sufferings then are transformed into grace for ourselves and others. We can “offer up” our sufferings for others, and it can even bring us spiritual healing and peace. Taking the Long PerspectiveHuman suffering is real and persistent. We all suffer. In this valley of the shadow of death, we do not see the full picture. In our limited human perspective, we do not even always see the good that God works in spite of evil. Nonetheless, the merits of Christ on the Cross continue to flow as grace to us through the Sacraments. And so, we hold fast to the truth of the Catholic Faith. We trust in God, especially in the darkest times. Through consistent prayer and cooperation with grace, we intentionally unite our sufferings to the Cross and conform ourselves to the Savior. We rely on the intercession of the sorrowful and immaculate Heart of Mary who was pierced by accompanying her holy Son on the way of His Passion.May we contemplate and, by God's grace, eventually adopt the perspective of the great St. Teresa of Avila who said that:“In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.” This does not downplay the real pain of human suffering. But it helps us enter into the eternal viewpoint of Almighty Good, who knows and cares. Will Wright Catholic Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Will Wright Catholic Podcast at www.willwrightcatholic.com/subscribe

Grace is not simply the pardon of our sins; it is the power to press on in obedience. We trust in God's ever-arriving gracious power to enable us to do what we should.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. We  trust in God and find refuge from the storms of this life. God is our strength. We are so blessed as believer in that we do not have to face life's problems and difficult situations on our own or in our own strength, for God tells us he is our strength......................................................Listen to podcast by Rev. Subhash Chand Panwar.You can call - 91 - 8826215678.

We trust in God's grace for our salvation, but how does His grace change the way we live and love? Pastor Andrew Farley says the new way of grace releases us from the crushing pressure of religious demands; it frees us. Pastor Farley takes us beyond trying to the depth of God's grace as we continue to explore “who is God?” on Ken and Deb in the Morning. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame. (From the Introit for the First Sunday in Advent)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Like the Last Sundays of the Church Year, the season of Advent provides time for us to be trained in patient waiting. The Sundays just past taught us to patiently wait for the return of Jesus in glory. The Sundays of Advent will teach us to patiently wait for the Incarnation of Jesus. This time of waiting is characterized by increased devotion to the hearing of God's Word and to prayer. And in that hearing and praying our trust in the Lord is renewed. We lift up our souls to God, our only confidence, for we have no trust in anyone else. He is our only hope and salvation. We may have many enemies--the world and the devil himself, and even our own flesh--but they will never exalt over us because God is with us in the flesh of Jesus. Those who give in to the enemies, who abandon trust in God will not succeed. They will be ashamed. God spare us from such foolishness! In Christ, we wait on the Lord and trust in Him, and not in ourselves, so we will never be ashamed. We trust in the Lord, so we cling to His Word and hear what He has to say. He shows us His commandments, the way to live, and greater still that He sent His Son to take our human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. In that flesh He would bear our sins to death on the Cross in order to remove our shame and silence our enemies. In faith we wait for the Lord. We trust in God for salvation all the more. The Lord is truly good to sinners like us. He instructs and leads us throughout our lives by His Word. Despite the attacks of enemies without and within, God leads us in His paths of love and faithfulness. He promises never to abandon us, but to be with us always, even to the very end of the world. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Amen.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch

All Saints Sunday, Revised Common Lectionary Year BRevelation 21:1-6aAt the end of our Bible, God promises to make all things new. Death and mourning and crying and pain remain with us, even as God promises they will be no more. We trust in God's promise.

Learning to trust God and entering into His rest can be scary. However, it is where we must desire to be. Before we desire it, however, we have to learn how to manage our own emotions so that we can listen fully to Him. Our ability to enter into the rest of God comes in stages. First we begin to hear Him, then we begin to flow with Him, then we begin to look to Him when we are scared, distracted, etc. Finally we figure out that trusting Him in a place of rest is the best place to be. In this session, I am working with a two-year-old filly named Lilly. I affectionately call her “Lilly Bean.” Lilly was a challenge when I started her. She would not let anyone come near her so to see the progress she has made can only be credited to the Lord. Let this lesson teach you how you too can and must enter the rest of the Lord!  Thanks for tuning in.Be blessed to be a blessing!Check us out on our site at: https://www.waterwindwine In this session, I used music from Joyspring. I used both the instrumental and the regular version of the song “Walkin with me.”https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/ft0dfmUcKN/and https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/rtYsU9jCDR/

We have come to the end of Christ's example of suffering for believers, and now Peter moves on to explain how what Jesus did at Calvary makes possible our obedience in all these matters.----Christ did not suffer primarily to leave us an example. There was a far greater purpose for His sufferings, and now Peter announces that greater purpose.----Recall that Christ did no sin as He suffered, as Isaiah had foretold, and neither ought we. He uttered no falsehoods, and neither should we. He didn't revile or threaten when His persecutors reviled Him and did Him harm, and neither should we.----Instead, Christ committed Himself to the One Who judges righteously, and so must we-----God His Father would set all things right for His Son. The Father would vindicate Jesus for the cross. The Father would do justice to Christ for dying for His people's sin.----We trust in God's righteous judgment also. He will avenge all the wrongs against His loved ones-----And God will be just in justifying those who trust in Jesus, because Jesus has satisfied all the demands of divine justice in our place, and for our crimes.----But now, Peter explicitly states the grand purpose of Christ's sufferings- Jesus His Own self bore our sins in His Own body on the tree-----The prior mentioned sufferings of Jesus were undertaken in such a manner as to provide a perfect Lamb of Sacrifice to bear our sins at Calvary-----Peter's text is Isaiah 53, and Isaiah had promised by the Spirit of Christ that Jesus would behave in precisely these ways as He suffered, so that He might be punished by God for our sins laid upon Him.----It pleased God to crush Jesus for our sins on the cross. He bore them in His Own body.

Grace is not simply the pardon of our sins; it is the power to press on in obedience. We trust in God's ever-arriving gracious power to enable us to do what we should.

We trust in God's sovereignty and obey to His glory.

Trust can be so hard and may feel at times like it is blind. But we don't trust in God with out reason or cause. We trust in God because of his character. We can trust him because of who he is. Genesis 12:1-4 Jeremiah 17:7-8 https://subspla.sh/b6b9k7y

In this episode we break down the services that a financial advisor can provide. It is more than just calculations. It is humanity and a loving spirit. We trust in God to lead us down the right path, but we must use discernment and gather as much information as possible. A.B. Ridgeway explains that it takes someone special to handle the complex.Need A Financial Advisor?Schedule a no obligation free consultation: www.abrwealthmanagement.com/consultationSubscribe to Financial Advisors Say The Darndest Things Podcast:https://www.abrwealthmanagement.com/podcastApple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/financial-advisors-say-the-darndest-things/id1546970147Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/0nkiUkwoJalvgFhZnsIbkkGoogle Podcast:https://podcasts.google.com/search/financial%20advisors%20sayFind us on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/abrwm

In this episode we break down the services that a financial advisor can provide. It is more than just calculations. It is humanity and a loving spirit. We trust in God to lead us down the right path, but we must use discernment and gather as much information as possible. A.B. Ridgeway explains that it takes someone special to handle the complex.Need A Financial Advisor?Schedule a no obligation free consultation: www.abrwealthmanagement.com/consultationSubscribe to Financial Advisors Say The Darndest Things Podcast:https://www.abrwealthmanagement.com/podcastApple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/financial-advisors-say-the-darndest-things/id1546970147Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/0nkiUkwoJalvgFhZnsIbkkGoogle Podcast:https://podcasts.google.com/search/financial%20advisors%20sayFind us on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/abrwm

OUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST SERIES MESSAGE 4 – MORE THAN CHOSEN We live in a world today that is filled with constant attacks on our identity in a variety of ways. As I had mentioned before, covid -19 has become political- diversity in America has turned into race wars, politicians is bowing down to protesters, But the fact that socialism does not lead to communism does not reduce the negative impact that socialist ideas have on society and the general welfare of mankind. Socialism always involves a powerful state and powerless citizens, and the equality it promotes applies to everyone but to those who run the state (think modern day control slavery). In our first message titled “Who Are you”, we shared about the importance of recognizing who we are, as well as remembering who we WERE.  In turn, this will assist us in discovering WHY we are which helps us to know both our general and specific calling. The next message was titled “More than a Work” – We saw that we are created in God's image and because of that we are to declare who God is to a lost and dying world.  We also looked at Scripture to help us realize that we are “more than a piece of work”, but we are truly God's handiwork and then, the tremendous video by the skit guys showing God wants to continue to shape and mold us for His glory. I shared a message titled: More than a Servant - Not only are we Servants, but we are also: A Citizen of Heaven – We need to remember; this is not our home. A Friend of God – A friend's relationship goes deeper than a Citizen or a Servant. A Child of God – And the deepest of all relationships is a family relationship. We have that with God. The 2 Scriptures that serve as our Series Text are the following: 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Colossians 1:27 (NKJV) – 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So, let's get into today's Message titled: “More Than Chosen”. While we are chosen, we know today that it goes even deeper than that.  today's let's look at: Ephesians 1:3-4 (NKJV) 3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, It's amazing to think that even before the foundation of the world that God had a plan for humanity, which includes each one of us here today.  As I said awhile back, Jesus made the first step toward restoring that relationship when He came to die on the cross for us.  The next step was when we came to the realization of God's love and reached out toward Him and chose to serve Him with our lives.  In other words, those of us who have come to Christ, and those who will in the future are taking God up on His offer of Salvation and Freedom from Sin. Paul says that God "chose us" to emphasize that salvation depends totally on God. We are not saved because we deserve it but because God is gracious and freely gives salvation. We did not influence God's decision to save us; he saved us according to his plan. Thus, there is no way to take credit for our salvation or to allow room for pride. The mystery of salvation originated in the timeless mind of God long before we existed. It is hard to understand how God could accept us. But because of Christ, we are holy and blameless in his sight. The first thing I would like to look at today is that we have been: CHOSEN AND APPOINTED John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” While it's a wonderful thing to be chosen, it's even more significant to know that we have also been appointed or placed exactly where God wants us to be for maximum Kingdom impact. God is the one that does the positioning and placement within the body and we can trust that He knows exactly what He's doing. As I've said before, earthly illustrations always fall short when trying to explain heavenly concepts, but they do help just a bit. When you go into a place to interview, it's not just so that you can work at a place in general, but you want to be placed in the exact job that will highlight your gifts and abilities.  A place that will make the overall company perform better because you are where you can come alive so to speak not just because you were “chosen” to work for that company, but you are now “appointed” to work in the department that helps you and the company be successful. Who ultimately makes the call?  The owner, or should we say the one who writes the check makes the ultimate choice of where you will function We've already talked about this a bit, but we see in verse 16 that God chose us for a purpose – That we would go and bear fruit, and that the fruit would last, or remain.  When we are in complete alignment with God's will and purpose, we can in turn ask God for “whatever” and know that we are asking in His will.  One of my favorite stories about how God chooses people is found in the Old Testament and involves David who would be appointed and anointed by God to be the King of Israel after Saul. Let's look at that briefly today: 1 Samuel 16:10-12 (NKJV) 10  Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen these." 11  And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all the young men here?" Then he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here." 12  So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!" Samuel the Prophet was told to go to the house of Jesse where the next King would be chosen, and Jesse had 7 of his sons pass in front of Samuel.  Samuel basically looked at Jesse and said “is this all you got”?  Jesse's response was that there was one more but he had already made up his mind that Samuel wouldn't want to see him because he was far too young, he was just a shepherd boy, and those who were older should be considered first choice. Yet, God saw something that man didn't see!  God saw something family didn't see! You may be here today feeling content in just knowing God has chosen you and you've chosen to serve Him, but did you know God wants to do amazing things in you and through you? Don't become overwhelmed with what others say you aren't but get wrapped up in who God says you ARE! Sometimes, you might feel like the child on the playground who's always picked last, but let me assure you today that we serve a God who doesn't look on the outside, but He looks on the inside and sees that gem in you that may be hidden from the world! He not only chooses you, but He appoints you! Secondly today, you are not only Chosen, but you are: GOD'S SPECIAL POSSESSION 1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Perhaps some of you here today have what you would call a “special possession” – There could be value to you based on the financial worth of whatever it is, but more than likely, there is value based on something that exceeds financial value, and that would be sentimental value. What a tragic thing it is to see homes devastated by tornadoes, hurricanes, or fires like we've seen this week in California.  Before the invention of computer cloud backups for such things as family photos, quite often if someone were to go back to the rubble, they would search through all of it to find things like a family Bible, or family photos that if destroyed could never be replaced.  While in the eyes of other people they weren't worth anything, to the one owned them, they were priceless! As we have said, the enemy of your soul's desire is to make you feel worthless and useless even as a Child of God.  Yet, we need to remember, he's not our owner or boss anymore! He was quite satisfied to leave you on the trash heap of life, but truly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Jesus Christ saw the beauty in each one of us here today to the point that He not only “said” He wanted us, but He did something about it! Romans 5:8 (NKJV) 8  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We are accepted and loved and valued by a wonderful God! We all have a desire to be accepted and in fact, some people go out of their way to be accepted even despite making choices that would be detrimental to their well-being! We often hear of crazy new fads that come out that people feel they must try and often it's with the idea of being accepted. Who ever thought that something as mundane as Tide Pods would become a challenge for kids to the point that it became a year ago?  Some of the challenges that have come out have served to remind us that “common sense isn't so common anymore”, but they also serve to remind us that people are looking to be accepted. Some of you grew up in a home where you never felt quite good enough.  If you got a C in school, you were put down because you didn't get a B or an A – If you got an A, you were put down because you didn't get an A+ - I'm not saying there's anything wrong with challenging our kids and young people to be their best even if it means a little hard work along the way but be sure to provide a welcoming and loving atmosphere where they feel accepted! Kids that don't feel love and accepted and valued at home often find ways of finding it somewhere else. I'm glad God values us enough to not only lead us into the good things, but to warn us to stay away from the destructive things!  Verse 9 in the King James says that we are a “peculiar” people – Some don't like that interpretation because it makes it seem like we're a bit weird.  Well, to the world, we are in fact, a bit weird.  But that word means “purchased”! In other words, we were bought with a price - 1 Corinthians 6:20 (NKJV) 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Jesus paid the price with His own precious blood on Calvary because He saw the value in you and me! Something is only worth what someone else would pay for it.  In other words, if I were to bring a collectible item here looking for a buyer, the only one who might purchase that thing would be someone who has studied and KNOWS the exact value of it! It would then become their possession if they were willing to pay the price regardless of what someone else might think! Lastly today, in addition to knowing that we are CHOSEN AND APPOINTED and GOD'S SPECIAL POSSESSION, we must know today that we are: CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." While all of us can say without a shadow of a doubt that everything that comes into our lives are not always “good” things that we would sign up for if we had the choice. There are heartaches and heartbreaks that come along that come into our lives not because God put them there, but because we live in a sinful, fallen world.  When we become a Christian, we don't insert ourselves in divine bubble never to be impacted by negative things.  Yet, the key is not avoiding the negative things, but realizing that God can take those things we view as negative, combine them with the things we call good, and work them all out for both our good, and His purpose! One of the important keys though, I believe, is that we don't become embittered against God and even people who may have been what we would call “instruments” in the hands of the enemy! The mindset of the world is that when you treat someone bad, that there's such a thing as “karma” that will come around and get you eventually.  Well, I don't believe in “karma” and as a matter of fact, it's a Hindu belief that should have no place in the Christian's vocabulary. Romans 8:28 flies in the face of the thought of Karma – I'm so glad that those of us here today who serve, and love God don't get what we deserve.  Jesus Christ came to bring us forgiveness and to erase our past, but He can even use some of the things and people that caused us pain to bring healing to our own lives, as well as the lives of others. If we don't forgive and release people who have hurt us, and the things that have caused us pain to the Lord, then we will become bitter to the point we believe everyone is out to get us. The enemy wants you to be sick with the disease of “get-even-ism” instead of realizing that God can take the bad and the good, mix it together for our long term peace and ultimately, His purpose! Note that God's goal isn't to make you and I happy, but it's to fulfill His purpose! This promise also isn't for everyone, but those of us who have identified WITH Christ, and have our identity IN CHRIST! We have a new perspective, a new mind-set. We trust in God, not in worldly treasures; our security is in heaven, not on earth. Our faith in God should not waver in pain and persecution because we know God is with us!   Professor E. C. Caldwell ended his lecture, “Tomorrow,” he said to his class of seminary students, “I will be teaching on Romans 8. So tonight, as you study, pay special attention to verse 28. Notice what this verse honestly says, and what it doesn't say.” Then he added, “One final word before I dismiss you—whatever happens in all the years to come, remember: Romans 8:28 will always hold true.”   That same day Dr. Caldwell and his wife were in a tragic car-train accident. She was killed instantly, and he was crippled permanently. Months later, Professor Caldwell returned to his students, who clearly remembered his last words. The room was hushed as he began his lecture.   “Romans 8:28,” he said, “still holds true. One day we shall see God's good, even in this.” We are More than Chosen: We are Chosen AND Appointed We are also God's Special Possession We are also Called according to HIS Purpose          

Introduction Well, this is my third opportunity to live stream with you, so grateful that you could join us today, and I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have to minister the word of God. These are certainly extraordinary times that we're living through. I've never been through anything like this in my life, I know neither have you. And we're aware through the Internet, through the news services of the untold millions that are affected by this, over half a million that have actually caught the disease, and some good number, tens of thousands have died. We're also acutely aware of the economic impact on all people but on small businesses, on hourly workers, and we're mindful of all of this and beyond this, there are just so many changes that this has brought, which have produced a lot of disappointments, things that people were intending to do, they were hoping to do, and now they can't do them, and so they are very disappointed. And there's not one of us that's not suffered to some degree, some changes and some disappointments and some setbacks because of this, but we should look beyond all of this to Almighty God who sits on a throne, he sits enthroned in the heavenly realms. We should understand that God rules over Heaven and Earth. “That all the nations before him are like specks of dust on the scale and like drops of water from above.” God is king over all. And not only that, but he is doing a secret work in the lives of people all around the world by these changed circumstances. Things that we will not really fully understand until we get to Heaven, but God is at work around the world, he uses times of suffering, and when he chooses to, and when he moves his little finger, the flood of this virus will recede like the waters of Noah's flood and we will return to the beautiful world still under the curse of Adam. We know that death is the final enemy, and it's going to be here until the Lord returns, until the Lord comes, but we'll return God willing to normal life. But not only that, every step of the way God is going to give us everything we need for life and godliness, and he's going to do that by the ministry of the word. We're going to be fed, we're going to receive in the scripture, the food of faith, and that's what we're here for, today. This morning is no different. How wonderful has this journey been for us through the Book of James? And it's coming to an end this morning. And isn't it incredible how perfectly God's word lines up with our circumstances again and again? Now we follow a pattern of sequential exposition here in this church and we go from passage to passage, book after book, and last week we saw how beautifully the text lined up with the suffering and the circumstances that we're going through, we're told to be patient in affliction. Patient in suffering, through James 5:7-12. We need to be patient like a farmer waiting for the autumn and spring rains. We need to be patient like the prophets who spoke the word of God to reluctant people. We need to be patient like Job, who lost everything of earthly value in this world. All his possessions, he lost his children under the secret assault of Satan, but he never lost his faith. And he said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I will see God." Now how timely is that reminder that word from the Lord. How timely was it last week? And this week we're going to be fed again with another timely word from the Book of James, the power of prayer when facing any and every circumstance that we could face in life. Things that afflict us, things that make us happy. And how prayer is the uniting theme of this text. And especially prayer in times of sickness, and we see how perfectly God's word lines up with our circumstances. Now, we western Christians are used to looking to technology, to science, to solve so many of our life problems. We forget about God's amazing power to heal sick people directly, especially through prayer. God heals every disease and sickness, categorically. Every disease and sickness known to man, God heals people suffering from those illnesses. And he does it daily, even hourly whether those sick people acknowledge him or not. “God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good. God sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous,” and so, he also sends the blessings of healing on people around the world who don't even know him or acknowledge him day after day. Now, it's true. Sometimes God uses technology, uses science. He uses medical research, pharmaceutical research, amazing technologies like radiation therapies or even genetically designed therapies that didn't even exist five to 10 years ago, tailor-made for specific people that are suffering. We here in Durham are near some of the very best research hospitals in the world, and not just a few miles from where I stand right now are some of the best pharmaceutical companies in the world. And we've heard many people praying for a cure to COVID-19, and people we know are working on that. And when God just opens up his hand, he's going to give secret insights to scientists as he's done time and time again. Again, whether those scientists acknowledge him or not. Some of those researchers are believers, brothers and sisters in Christ who do their work as an act of worship to the Lord, and God may show them insights to help them discern how to heal this. Sometimes he uses people who are not believers, who don't acknowledge him at all. I believe in Heaven God's going to get credit for all of the scientific advancements there have ever been in history. When credit was robbed from him in this world, it's going to be given to him in Heaven. So we wait on God for that. But we're also aware that God heals directly. Sometimes he uses medicine, sometimes he uses surgeries, but he's able to extend his hand and heel and He does it many times in answer to prayer. God is a healer, the Bible reveals this plainly. Exodus 15:26, "I am the Lord who heals you.” “I am the Lord who heals you." Again, Psalm 103, the first three verses says, "Praise the Lord, O my soul, all my in most being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases." And again, see the sovereignty of God in all of this. In Deuteronomy 32:39, the scripture there says, "Behold now that I myself am he. There is no God besides me. I put to death and I bring to life. I have wounded and I will heal. And no one can deliver anyone out of my hand," that's Deuteronomy 32. Now, some day as I said, this COVID-19 virus, like every other disease ever known to man, and every other injury ever known to man in this dying world of ours will become obsolete. Hallelujah. We are going to the New Heavens and the New Earth where it says in Revelation 21, “He will wipe every tear from our eyes, there will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who is seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new.’ And then he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and they are true.” So, he wanted that vision written down by the Apostle John, so that we could read it and be encouraged. And then in the next chapter of Revelation, Revelation 22:1-3, these wonderful words, amazing words, "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life as clear as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. And on each side of the river, stood the Tree of Life bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him, and they will see his face." That's our future. Every disease and sickness, obsolete by the Tree of Life. But we're not there yet. We know we're not there yet. We're a week closer. Praise God, every week brings us closer to that wonderful vision, but now is a time of suffering, it's a time of sorrow and in some rare cases related to this disease, it is a time of death, and God is calling on us to pray to him as never before. This affliction is an opportunity to unleash the power of God through prayer for healing. And no text in the Bible is better for this purpose than James 5:13-20. Now, many of us definitely myself included, feel how weak we are in prayer. I don't consider this a great strength in my life, I often feel defective in prayer, I feel powerless. And often we feel guilty about our prayer lives that we do not pray as we should. Now, we've read so many great quotes from church history of the men and women of God who have been men and women of prayer, and then they have given encouragement to their brothers and sisters about prayer. I was reading this week Charles Spurgeon, and he had a lot to say about prayer. Spurgeon said this, "To pray is to enter the treasure house of God and to gather riches out of an inexhaustible storehouse." What an incredible image that is. Like we're going into Ali Baba's cave, but it's not like the door is going to close, we have to say, “Open sesame.” We're going to go in and just get all the riches of God's grace and His power and His goodness. Again, Spurgeon said, "The ship of prayer may sail through all temptations, doubts and fears straight up to the throne of God." What a great image that is. But on the other hand, Spurgeon warned, neglected prayer is the birthplace of all evil. Can I just urge you, friends, Christian brothers and sisters, do not neglect prayer during this time. Do not let sin drive out prayer. John Bunyan said, "Prayer drives out sin or sin drives out prayer," and so, don't let that happen to you. Don't be prayerless. Alright, well, we read those great quotes, but then we look at our own prayer lives, and we see the weakness of our prayer lives, and we know that we need help. God has sent the Holy Spirit as the primary instructor in prayer. Charles Spurgeon, again, said this, "Prayer is an art which only the Spirit of God can teach us. He is the giver of all prayer." Well, that's a great quote from Charles Spurgeon isn't it? But isn't it better to hear the Holy Spirit himself through the Apostle Paul talk to us about this. Listen, Romans 8:26, it says, “in the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don't know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” So the primary way that the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses is by instructing us through the scripture on prayer and James 5 is a wonderful place to start. I. When Should We Pray? Pray At All Times for Every Reason So, let's begin by just following the order of the text, and ask when we should pray and then closely related to that, we're going to ask who should pray. Let's begin with, when we should pray. Verse 13, look at verse 13, it says, "Is anyone among you suffering? You should pray." So we should pray when we're suffering. What about when we're happy? Verse 13, “Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.” So that may not refer to prayer, but you can imagine singing the song up to God out of thankfulness. When we are sick, verse 14-15, “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up”. And then when we have sinned, we should pray. Again, verse 15, “If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other, and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” So honestly, there is no circumstance in our lives when we should not pray. As the scripture says, pray without ceasing. Or even better, Ephesians 6:18 has a marvelous detailed unfolding of this. It says, “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Comprehensive prayer life. Alright, that's when we should pray, always. II. Who Should Pray? Individual Christians: Pray for Yourselves Who should pray? Let's circle back and look at that. Well, let's start with individual Christians. Individual Christians should pray for themselves, you dear Christian should pray for yourself. When you're in trouble. “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray.” James talking about trouble uses a general word for suffering or affliction of any type. Whenever you're suffering, whenever you're in trouble, you should pray. Suffering often pulls individuals away from God. It can make us wrongly distrust God. We may question him, wonder what he's doing, wonder who he is. I remember reading the story of the great missionary to Burma, Adoniram Judson, and at the lowest part, I would say of his entire life, he lost his wife Nancy, he lost their little baby as well, nothing good really had happened in his ministry, and he went out into the jungle nearby where he lived and he dug a hole there, like a grave and sat staring into it for hours. And he said with despair, "I came to bring life and have brought nothing but death." And then he said this, “God is to me the great unknown. I believe in him, but I can't find him." That's what can happen in suffering. It can feel like, God, who are you? Where are you? Job, got to that point. In Job 30:20-22, Job said, "I cry out to you O God, but you do not answer. I stand up, but you merely look at me. you turn on me ruthlessly. With the might of your hand you attack me, you snatch me up and drive me before the wind, you toss me about in the storm." Well, when we're going through afflictions, sorrows, difficulties, that's exactly the time we should draw near to God in prayer. Just take the text simply. Verse 13, “Is anyone of you suffering? Let him pray.” The Happy Should Pray Secondly, individuals should pray whenever they're happy. “Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.” At our happiest times we should go back to God and we should thank him for those blessings and sing praises to him with “songs, and hymns and spiritual songs in our hearts with gratitude to God.” Earlier in James we learned, “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly light.” So, if you're happy, it's because God has done something to make you so. He's given you some blessing, go back and sing a song of praise to him. So prayer should be the life breath of our individual daily walk with Christ. Jesus in John 15, gave that beautiful analogy, "I am the vine and you are the branches.” We need to abide in him. Remain in Him. And He makes it very plain that happens by the ministry of the Word combined with prayer. He said, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." So we should pray continually, individually in our walk with Christ, as an expression of our walk with Christ. But we also can see a corporate life of prayer here as well. We are blessed to be in a healthy local church. One of the greatest blessings in my life is to ust a member of First Baptist Church, Durham. It's a great blessing, and James in this text, extends prayer out beyond the individual level to others in the Church, beginning with the elders of the church. The Elders of the Church for the Sick and Sinning Look at verse 14, "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord." This is a fascinating passage. Sickness, elders, anointing with oil, and then the issue of sin. There's a lot to unravel here. The Roman Catholic church found, in this text, grounds for the seventh sacrament, which they called extreme unction done to the dying in the same way prosperity Gospel people and health and wealth people have come to this text, and found sacred anointing oils that you can... They'll give it to you if you send them a healthy donation to their TV Ministry, something like that. So you can get little bottles of oil. So it just comes from this. So there's a lot of questions that we may have as we read this. What is this talking about? Well, let's keep it simple initially, just in terms of church government polity, you can see the plural elders here in a single local church. “Is any one of you sick, you should call the elders [, plural,] of the church.” So, we believe that this is strong evidence for the plurality of elders within a local church. But why should a sick person call the elders? Well, there is a sense of spiritual leadership in elders. They should be men mighty in prayer. They should be men able to wrestle on our behalf in prayer, and to be victorious. And when they come it says, they should anoint the sick person with oil. What does that mean? One of two possibilities. One is that this is a spiritual, sacred or symbolic anointing, so it's completely spiritual, sacred, symbolic, and the other is, it may refer to actual medicines. The application of physical medicine. So, the first, in terms of the sacred anointing, or the spiritual anointing, we know in the Old Testament.Significant individuals in society prophets, priests and kings were anointed with oil to mark them apart. So the king would sometimes be called the Lord's anointed. And the flowing down of the oil in the head represented the ministry of the Holy Spirit in that person's life. So anointing the sick person with oil would be bringing in the ministry of the Holy Spirit symbolically, not that anything really happens through the actual physical oil, but that the Holy Spirit comes in, and ministers. But it's also possible that the anointing with oil represents the application of physical medicines. And so we Christians are not at all averse to medical procedures, surgeries, the binding up of wounds and the application of medicines. And so the oil may represent all of those things. Isaiah 1:6 says, "From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there's no soundness only wounds and welts and open sores, not bandaged or cleansed or soothed with oil." So that that would be a therapeutic approach there. Again, Good Samaritan, Luke 10:34, "The Good Samaritan went over to the wounded man who was lying by the side of the road, bandaged his wounds and poured on oil and wine, and then he took the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn and took care of him." Now, some commentators argue against this saying like oil is just linked to injuries not to sickness, but it could be that this is just representing all physical methods of healing which we believe in and we use, though we do not trust in them ultimately. It could be that the elders of the church might be among the wisest in the community at dealing with sickness back in Jesus' day, back in the days of the apostles. It was so often the case, this was before the Industrial Revolution before the Scientific Explosion, where we separated out and the scientific methodology was applied to medicine and you became a scientific medical specialist. And we have many of those beautifully in our church. But even back in the Puritan days and in the days of the pilgrims, the best healers in the community frequently were the pastors, they were the most educated ones. And those were things that pastors would learn is basic first aid and care. So, at any rate, these are what a sick person should do. Notice also that James links sickness with possible sin, possible sin. Look at verse 15 and 16, "The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." So there's a clear linking in those verses between possible sin and the sickness. So now we have to deal with the question that comes up again and again, “Is there a link between sin and disease? Sin and sickness?” This was a question that came up in Jesus's day with the man born blind, "Who sinned? This man or his parents?” Remember that question. So there's this linking. So what we have to realize is that not every sickness that happens in this world can be directly linked to individual personal sin, but some can. So James raises it up with the word, “if,” that's what the word, if, means: If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. So God sometimes actually does discipline his people, by sickness. In Hebrews 12:6 it says, "The Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." And so occasionally, that discipline may be sickness. I believe every individual Christian who gets sick should bring their sickness privately in their prayer closet to the Lord and say, "Lord, am I being disciplined for some sin?" Psalm 139, "Search me O God, and know my heart, and show me and see if there's any sin in my life." Then when the elders come, I think the elders after comforting, consoling, ministering, medicine or whatever, all of those things, and praying, at some point when it's reasonable, the elders I think, should ask gently and lovingly, "Are you aware of any sin in your life that this might be a discipline for?" Do it at a time when the person is alone, and can answer without shame or embarrassment. Now, this is a far cry from Job's friends who assume that Job's afflictions were because of his sins. To them it was a given; If you're sick, God is judging you for some sin. That is so far the other direction. So we cannot do that. At one point, one of Job's friends even said to the most righteous man that had ever lived, up to that point, "Is not your wickedness endless?" I mean, that's not a friend, a friend doesn't do that. But the elders, I think, can and should have this kind of ministry. So just bring that up. Now, COVID-19, we really could say is a worldwide plague. And recently, with one of my kids, I did a study on the word “plague,” and again and again in the Bible, there's a direct link between human sinfulness and plagues that come. And so for us, we ought to see a sense of solidarity with the human race, even if we're not personally aware of any sin in our lives. We're part of a sinful human race in Adam. We should be willing to pray in light of this plague and the connection to the sins of the human race, and pray that God would use this disease COVID-19 to bring people to repentance, that they would see individual sins in their lives, and that they would repent and find faith and find forgiveness in Christ. So individuals should pray for themselves. The elders should pray for the sick, and then the church as a whole should pray for one another. Church Members for Each Other James expands prayer to the whole church, again in the context of sickness and sin. He says, "Therefore, confess your sins to each other, and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." So if there is any sin involved, that individual should confess his or her sins to God directly. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." But this passage isn't talking about that. It's talking about a horizontal confession of sins to one another. And I think sometimes we need to do that. I think in discipleship, we believe in having discipleship partners, men, with men, women with women. And you need to have people in your life that you can do this with. Confess your sins, pray for each other, hold each other accountable. And this is something that accountability partners and prayer partners do for each other. In any case, it is a powerful thing to share in each other's joys and sorrows through corporate prayer. That's a great privilege that we have. And friends if I can say now more than ever, we should be hungrily looking for ways to pray, people to intercede for, expanding ourselves out to find people to pray for. III. How Should We Pray? Pray in Righteousness All right, how should we pray? Well the text has a lot to say about the manner by which we pray. First of all, we should pray in righteousness, in righteousness. It says in verse 16, "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." Sin blocks prayer, sin blocks prayer. Isaiah 59:1-2 says, "Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear, but your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." So we need to be righteous in order for God to hear our prayers. People often ask, does God hear the prayers of unbelievers? God is under no covenant obligation to hear or answer the prayer of any unbeliever. But what we know as Christians is we all began unrighteous. Believe on Christ for Salvation Romans 3 says very plainly, "There is no one righteous, not even one. There's no one who understands, no one who seeks God.” All of us began as unrighteous, and God in his mercy, sent his Son, the only truly righteous man that's ever lived. And he lived a sinless life. And he died an atoning death on the cross so that sinners like you and me can be fully forgiven of all of our sins and be seen to be righteous in the sight of God. So if you are an unbeliever, and you've come to this live stream today, I'm so delighted that you're here. This is a moment that I want you to hear and to listen to the Gospel. God is able through simple faith in Jesus Christ to make you righteous, to make you fully forgiven of all of your sins. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, "God made him, [Christ,] who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." There's a great exchange that happens at the cross: Our sins are given to Christ and he dies under the punishment and the wrath of God, his righteousness is given to us and we live shining and bright in Heaven forever by simple faith in Christ. So justification righteousness enables God to hear our prayers, but also there's a matter of practical righteousness. Psalm 66:18 said, "If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." So if you are violating your conscience, your prayer life will become powerless. So repent, confess your sins, turn from those things, and draw near to God in prayer. So first, how should we pray? We should pray in righteousness. Secondly, we should pray in the name of the Lord. Again, verse 14, "Is anyone of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord." In the Name of the Lord Now, what does it mean to pray in the name of the Lord or in Jesus' name? It's not just to say, "In Jesus' name, Amen," so that all your friends know that you're done praying. It's more than that, far more than that. Jesus' name represents his reputation, who he was as a man, how he lived. But more than that it represents his kingdom and his purposes, and his glory, and all of those things. And so to pray in Jesus' name means to pray, lined up with Jesus's purposes, lined up with Jesus' kingdom, lined up with his promises, where he's going, and for his glory. So even the prayer for the sick should be made in Jesus' name: "Lord, Jesus, if it would be for your glory and the advancement of your kingdom that this person should be raised out of this sick bed, please do it." That's what it means to pray in Jesus' name. So often our prayers are not in Jesus' name, but they're for our own selfish purposes. As James talked about earlier in James 4:3, "When you ask you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." This is the time to set all of that aside, and to pray in Jesus' name for his glory, for his kingdom. In Faith Thirdly, we should pray in faith. Verse 15, "The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise them up." To pray in faith means to pray relying on Jesus the invisible. To see him who is invisible as seeing him who's invisible, it says that about Moses in Hebrews 11. It means praying, confident that there is an invisible God on an invisible throne, and we believe in his power, and his love, and his compassion, and we're praying, trusting, relying on him in faith. Now we are not thinking like the faith movement, the name it and claim it or prosperity Gospel people that say that faith can create a reality that God never intended. Not at all. I've said for years faith is the eyesight of the soul by which we receive the available light there is in the room. By faith we are lining ourselves up with God's purposes. By faith, we are trusting in him to do what is for his own glory. So that faith movement is so devastating when parents who bring their children to faith healers and then the children die, and then they're told even more they didn't have enough faith. That's not what this is teaching. We trust in God. And we believe in him, we rely on him in prayer. So we should pray in righteousness, we should pray in the name of the Lord, we should pray in faith, and we should pray in expectancy, with an expectant heart, expecting that God is going to do something. I love the King James Version translation of this James 5:16, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Isn't that wonderful? Pray Expecting A Powerful Outcome Some time ago, I was driving by a church that had a sign ministry. And I have to be honest, some of the signs that I see in sign ministry are very cheesy, but this one stuck with me, and it was powerful. And it was this, “Pray until something happens.” I was like, "That's incredible." That stuck with me. Let's keep praying, trusting that God is going to work, he's going to act. Prayer is powerful and effective. God wills to do much through prayer. When we pray, we must pray expecting that God can do anything, that God is going to use COVID-19, to work all things together for good for his purposes. For those that are called by his name. Prayer means that so many of the things that God accomplishes, he is going to do through prayer. And we need to know he, Jesus, is every bit as powerful to heal as ever he was in his physical life on Earth. You read in Matthew 4:24, concerning Jesus, "News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics and he healed them." So various diseases, there was no sickness or disease that Jesus could not cure. In Mark 7:37 it says, "People were overwhelmed with amazement, he has done everything well, they said, he even makes the deaf hear, and the mute speak. There is no disease that Jesus cannot cure." And he's the same today as he was then, he's the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 13:8. Notice the statement on healing here, verse 15, “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well, the Lord will raise him up.” It's kind of a concentric circle thing where the oil drops off, and you're just left with a prayer offered in faith. And then even the prayer offered in faith drops off and it's just the Lord. The Lord raises him up. In the end, it's the Lord that does it, not the oil, not even the prayer ultimately, but it is the Lord. And notice the expression "the Lord will raise him up." Doesn't that make you think about the resurrection? For me, it does. It makes me think about the ultimate resurrection. Friends resurrection day's in two weeks, but you know, you can actually celebrate it today. We can celebrate that Christ has risen. We actually do as Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ every day, and as I've already said, we are going to a world where there'll be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain, every disease will be healed. So this sick brother or sister in bed, may actually even die from this illness. But we don't need to fear because the Lord will raise him up. The day will come when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out. Or as Jesus said in John 11:25-26, "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die." Do you believe this? So, dear friend, I'm asking you, do you believe that Christ has risen? Do you believe that he is Lord, then God will save you if you call on the name of the Lord, in the resurrected Lord's name, he raises up sick people. Ultimately, he'll raise up all of his people to eternal life. So we must believe in the powerful effectiveness of prayer for God has worked amazing things in redemptive history by the prevailing prayers of his faithful people. IV. Elijah, a Man of Prayer Elijah was a Man Just Like Us Now, he brings out one of the great examples of faith-filled prayer there is and that is Elijah. Elijah, a man of prayer. Look at verses 17-18, "Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years." Verse 18, "Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain and the earth Earth produced its crops." So Elijah is an example of the power of prayer. Now he begins by saying Elijah was a man just like us or of like passions. We need to be told this because Elijah was different, dear friends, in some very significant ways. Very few of you, if any of you eat locusts out in the desert and wear a leather belt around your waist with camel hair garment. John the Baptist did it because he came in the spirit of Elijah. And then Elijah at the end of his life, ascended to Heaven in a chariot of fire. He didn't even experience death like the rest of us. But James still he's saying, "Look for all of that, he was a man of like passions to us. He was just like us. He struggled physically with the same things, hunger and thirst and weariness, and even discouragement." So James's idea is, Elijah was, in one sense nothing special. And we actually can therefore imitate him in faith-filled prayer. Now Elijah's whole ministry was a display of the power of prayer, so many aspects of it. There are many things we could talk about. But James zeroes in especially on the drought. James’ Focus on the Drought We learned something here and this happens from time to time in the New Testament, a well known Old Testament story that there's a detail the New Testament writers tell us that's not in the Old Testament. And one of those is we are told here, Elijah prayed that it would not rain. So before he pops in, mysteriously pops into the narrative, in 1 King 17:1, we've never heard of Elijah the Tishbite, he just pops up and says, "As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain, except at my word for the next several years." Then he disappears. Before that ever happened, the text says, James tells us, "Elijah prayed earnestly, fervently, that it would not rain. He prayed for the drought." Now, you're like, “why would he do that?” Why would anyone pray for an affliction like this? Well, it has to do with the Law of Moses, and with the blessings and curses that Moses gave to the Jewish people, the Israelite nation, before they entered the promised land. And it says very plainly in Deuteronomy 28: 23 and 24, "God said to the Jews, 'I will make the sky over your head to be bronze, and I'll make the ground beneath you iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder. It will come down from the skies until you're destroyed." Why would God do that? As a direct punishment for idolatry, for falling into the sins of the Canaanites and all of their wickedness, for breaking the covenant. Well, Elijah looked around and said, "Lord, they're breaking the covenant, they've been doing it for for decades. God, would you please bring this discipline, bring this drought so that the people of Israel might turn away from Baal and turn back to you the true Lord." This covenant curse was meant to bring Israel back to repentance. And that's, I think, why Elijah prayed. Now it's interesting, when Elijah had that contest with the prophets of Baal, in 1 Kings 18, the next chapter, he says something very interesting about his prayer life. As he's praying for fire to fall down from Heaven on the sacrifice, he says this, 1 Kings 18:36 and 37, "Oh Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have," listen to this, "Done all these things at your command." That's very important. It all started with God. So when Elijah began praying that it would not rain God was ahead of that. And he gave him that prayer burden, "Pray for this Elijah." We never get ahead of God in prayer, we never think of anything first. God is always leading us. And so, "I've done all of these things at your command," and then it continues, "Answer me, oh Lord, answer me so that these people know that you, oh Lord are God, and that," listen to this, "you are turning their hearts back again." So this whole thing came from God through the prayer warrior, to the end that the people would turn back to God and follow him. At the end of the three and a half years, he again prayed for rain, we know that, he kneels down, he sees nothing and then he goes back again. His servant does and he sees nothing, and he goes back a third time. And then there's this little cloud as small as a man's fist, and the rain came. This is the Confidence We Have in Prayer Now, this is the confidence that we have in prayer. It's amazing how God linked rain and dew to the word of a man. "There'll be neither dew nor rain in the land for the next several years except at my word." That sounds arrogant, doesn't it? But God gave him that power through prayer. He linked it to Elijah's prayer very much like Joshua in Joshua 10:14 when Joshua prayed that the sun would stand still in the sky, so that they could finish defeating their enemies. The day was lengthened. And Joshua 10:14 says, "There's never been a day like it before or since," listen to this, "A day when the Lord listened to a man." And so God in His wisdom includes us in what he's doing. He draws us in. And he has the idea. Elijah said, "Just let everyone know that I am your servant, I am the Lord's servant." He said that in first king 17:1, "As surely as the Lord lives before whom I stand." In other words, I didn't do this on my own. Ultimately, the man and woman of prayer has stood in the presence of God and heard what the Lord wants him or her to do in prayer. We are as Henry Blackaby said in Experiencing God, finding out where God is at work and joining Him. Better, I think even to say God reveals us to us what he's going to do. He discloses himself to us, and then we join him in it in prayer. So can I just apply this immediately now to COVID-19? I don't know that any man or woman of God prayed that this illness would come. I don't know that God might actually put a burden like that on someone, because God can use disease to turn people's hearts back to God. But whether anyone prayed that it would come, we can act like Elijah in the midst of this and say, "Oh Lord, use this disease, the way you used the drought back in those days to turn Israel's heart back to you. Let this COVID-19 time turn people's hearts away from materialism, away from lust and sin, away from the pleasures of the flesh, away from all of these things, and turn to God in Christ, finding forgiveness of sins and finding a new rich life in the power of the Spirit.” V. The Mission of the Church: Rescuing the Perishing Now Elijah's mission in restoring the Jews, that God was bringing all of the people back to himself through this prayer ministry and drought ministry, links up with the final two verses in the Book of James. Look at them with me, the mission of the church is to rescue the perishing. Verse 19 and 20, "My brothers if one of you should wander from the truth, and someone should bring him back, remember this, whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way, will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins." Now, the whole book of James has been focused on genuine faith, what does genuine saving faith look like? And the church's responsibility to be certain that people that we know are actually continuing to walk in newness of life. Our church covenant says we will watch over one another in brotherly love. So if you know that someone is wandering away from the faith, make a phone call. I know right now we do social distancing, but at some point that will end and these words will still be there. We need to go after people, we need to go visit them, show up on their doorstep. We need to pray with them. We need to talk to them, say, "You know I've not seen at church recently," or, "You used to come to home fellowship. What's going on in your life?" You know, as Jesus is the Good Shepherd, he leaves the hundred on the hills, and goes to look for the one that wandered off, so must we go after people that wander. We should make phone calls. If they're caught in a sin, we should restore them gently, Galatians 6:1 "watching ourselves." And James says if we win them over we're rescuing them from death, and covering over a multitude of sins. Now the death we're rescuing them from really isn't so much physical death, though it might be, because God does do that in disciplining for sin. We're talking about eternal death, the second death, Hell, and cover over a multitude of sins. That's the atoning work of Christ. And Psalm 32 says, "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." And so the covering up is through the blood of Christ through faith in the blood of Christ. So we should pray for each other. We should go after those that are wandering. We should rescue them and bring them back into the fold. VI. Application All right, let's finish with some applications during this time of sheltering at home, sheltering in place, of quarantining, COVID-19 and these things, just follow the text. Just do what it says, just step by step. If you're in trouble, pray, take it to the Lord in prayer. I love that hymn. Take it to the Lord in prayer. If you're in trouble, take it to the Lord in prayer. If you have reason to be happy and thankful, and let me just stop and say, find reasons to be happy and thankful. There's so many of them. Take it to the Lord in prayer, and song. If you're sick, or someone you know or love is sick, take it to the Lord in prayer. If you need forgiveness of sins, take it to the Lord in prayer and do it within the context of the church as the text says, find ways to bless people during this crisis. Reach out as you're able, find ways to give. Andy Winn told us about the benevolence fund, give more money, pray for people, find out what needs are in the city and pray. And even once this thing is over, there's still going to be many, many ways we can minister in the aftermath. Close with me if you would in prayer. Prayer Father, we thank you for the beauty of your word. We thank you for the things that it teaches us and how it prepares us to live lives that are pleasing you. Thank you for this incredible 12 week journey we've had in the Book of James. Thank you for all the details and the insights. We could have preached 12 more weeks in this incredible book. Lord, help us to pray, teach us to pray, and help us to pray as we have never prayed before, with passion, spending more time in it, working on it, and developing it for your glory. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Audio Transcript: You're listening to audio for Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.comI'm going to read from Acts 3:17-26. This is not the most Christmas-y passage, but it comes in the time of Pentecost after Jesus has died and resurrected and ascended into heaven. The spirit descends upon the apostles and they begin teaching about God. Where do they go first? They go to the Jews, who missed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the anointed one. The apostles heal a man who's been lame his whole life and he begins leaping and walking and it's drawing attention to the crowd, so this is the sermon that Peter delivers to that crowd.Acts 3:17-26, "And now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers, but what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and turn back that your sins may be blotted out. The times of refresh may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his Holy prophets long ago. Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him and whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people. And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaim these days.You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, "And in your offspring shall all the families of the Earth be blessed." God having raised up his servant, sent him to you first. To bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.'" Please, this is the word of God. Please join me in prayer. Lord, since the fall, it's inherent in our nature to question your authority, to question our need for you in our lives, to question just the use of your word, your direction, towards us. We want to be independent from you, Lord. Even those of us who know we're saved by grace through faith, we have a tendency to want to stray, to lean on our own strength, to push forward to find meaning and things that are not you. But Lord, we realize that that is impossible and today we repent of the tendency to just want to be autonomous, to be separate from you, to take pride in our own actions and strength.Lord we pray, Holy spirit, convict us of our need for your word in our life. Let it fill and satiate our soul. Bring us refreshment today through your word. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Today, we are in our second week of advent. We did not make it easy for ourselves as pastors and staff this year. We're doing some theology, some Christology. Every year that we choose a theme to cover for advent. We're talking about just the man, Jesus Christ. Last week we talked about Jesus, how he was the Messiah and he needed to be God and man, and what that meant for us. This week we're talking about Jesus as prophet, next week, priest and the week after, King. The name Messiah, the name Christ, has requirements to it. And that's that Jesus, it says Jesus was the fulfillment of the scriptures and he fulfilled these roles as prophet, priest, and King. And so, today, I want to explain to you, what does it mean that Jesus was our prophet, and what does that mean for our lives?To start, I want to just emphasize, what is advent? I think this is a good starting point. I grew up in church. Every week we lit four candles, at the center was the Jesus candle. That's about all I remember. I didn't learn much about the meeting, so advent is a season where God's people, Christians, wait for the return of Christ in glory to consummate his eternal kingdom. Why do we do this? We do this because, the church is in a similar situation to Israel at the end of the old Testament. We're in exile, we're waiting and hoping and expect prayerful expectation for the coming Messiah to come back to make all things new. Why do we do this? Israel looked back to God's past actions when he freed them in the Exodus from Egypt while they looked ahead for the first coming of Christ. In the same way that church during advent, we've looked back upon Christ first coming, his incarnation, and we do celebrate that, but at the same time we look forward in anticipation and longing that he is going to fulfill those promises, that he's going to come back.Advent is a period of tension. The song that really captures it is, "Oh come, Oh come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the son of God appears. Rejoice, rejoice, Emanuel shall come through thee, oh Israel." On one end, it's a solemn period in the sense that, we are waiting for Christ's return. If you just can think of the old Testament community, those faithful, the remnant Jews just waiting, "Is God actually going to deliver on this promise?" The prophets have stopped speaking, the presence of God is not at the temple. Is the Messiah ever going to come? They had said, "Okay, he came, he freed us from Egypt." Now, we as Christians, we look back. Christ didn't come. We're waiting for him to come. The hard part about celebrating, acknowledging the advent in our culture is that, we have Thanksgiving and then immediately Christmas starts.I think I heard Christmas music actually in October this year and, the whole period, instead of this period with a bit of solemnity mixed with joy, there is hope, it just becomes this busy season of party after party. Church gathering after church gathering, work, our jobs celebrate Christmas and the new year. A lot of time we're busy, we have a lot of excitement. By the time we get to Christmas, Christmas is supposed to be that point, the solemnity goes away. Jesus Christ has come. We sing joy to the world with full authority but, ironically, Christmas is that time where we feel the most loneliness. We feel isolation. Joy, peace on earth, Goodwill to men, are you serious? I have to spend the week with my in-laws. I have to spend the week with my parents who are going to remind me of my singleness and my childlessness. Cousin Eddy and his kids and his RV are going to be here freeloading for a week. God, help me more than ever. Give me your presence more than ever in this period.And so, we kind of have reverse. Advent's full of hype, full of emotion, full of excitement. Christmas, just the way it tends to go. We feel this deep isolation. What does that look like for some people? Some people don't actually get to take off from work. They look at everybody else celebrate and they don't get that. That's really isolating. Some people don't have friends or family and they see everybody else gathered. They feel the loneliness. Some of us are crippled on the holidays just thinking of just people that have died recently that were close to us, relationships that have ended. Even if we have time with our large families, a lot of us when we spend that time, we realize we don't even know the people that were spending time with. How do I not know my parents anymore? I used to spend all this time with them. Even spouses, you get to a point where you are spending time with each other in an extended fashion for maybe one of two or three times throughout the year, and you're like, "I don't even know you. What do we do together? How do I interact?"It's just, you either just ignore it or there's a lot of explosion and just that feeling of isolation. Contrastingly, the holidays can be great. We do spend that time with others. We feel this sense of joy just being surrounded in a community of love, of talking, being heard, knowing and being known. What I want to emphasize here is that, there's something inherent in our nature that the holidays bring out. That we want to be heard and we need somebody to talk back. That's a part of our nature. It's a part of the way we were created. That's essentially what Christmas is about. Man needs God. He needs God's direction in life. Adam walked in the garden, he needed God to guide him, to help him to interpret the world around him before he fell and Adam sins. We need a means to have that connection with God again. How does God do that? He comes in the form of a baby and provides that.But just thinking about the tension, whether the extreme loneliness and isolation you associate, the extreme joy and bliss that you feel at Christmas. It tells us something about ourselves and I'd argued today, this is, these emotions that are exacerbated by Christmas, they show us our need for Jesus as our prophet, somebody who talks to us and somebody who we need to respond to. I'm going to make three points today. Jesus, our prophet, is the source of truth, source of meaning and the source of freedom. Just very simply, I want to speed through Jesus as our prophet. He is the source of truth. Verse 18 and 22, tell us that Jesus is a prophet, "They tell us that Jesus is a prophet, but what God we're foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer, he's thus fulfilled."Moses said, "The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him and whatever he tells you, and it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people." So Jesus is a prophet. All the prophets were pointing to him. I just want to clarify from the front, we're not going to get into mystical prophecy talk today. Just basic definition of a prophet. Pro, for me, it means, the roots of the word means before speak. We're not talking necessarily about something that will happen in the future in detail today. A prophet, before anything, was a spokesman before God. An example of this from scripture is, that just clarifies my point is, it comes from Exodus seven. The relationship that Moses and Aaron had, that God appointed.God told Moses, "See, I've made you, Moses, like God to Pharaoh and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of this land. Aaron was the prophet that spoke with the authority of Moses. Moses got everything from God himself. And so, prophets, they did tend to have a foretelling meaning, a prophetic ability to speak about the future, but they also had this forth-telling in a similar sense that they were like preachers of their day. They're inspired by the Holy Spirit. One thing to think about prophecy is that they didn't just speak from their own minds, their own opinion, their own state of consciousness, they spoke from, the way they finished or began their words were "thus sayeth the Lord." What they said was what God says.And so, Jesus came into the world and he did function as a prophet. He represented the father, John 15:15, "But I've called you friends for all that I've heard from my father. I've made known to you." Jesus gave us the scriptures in order that we might believe and have life. But these, the scriptures, are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. We need, going back to Adam in the garden, God gives us general revelation. All people are image bearers of God. We can look at the world around us and we can discern through beauty, through majesty, through the way of simple equations, explain how the world works. We can know that there is a God, but we need special revelation.We need God to speak to us, to tell us the means to have peace with him, and that was the way in the garden. Adam always had a communication or relationship with God. Jesus is still prophet, just to finish the theology of it all. Jesus is still serving in this office. He provides for the building up of the body of the church today, and he sends the Holy Spirit to equip the church to do the work of the ministry. This is Ephesians, "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all tend to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son God. "To mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes."So Jesus came, he was a prophet, he is our prophet, and he spoke with the same authority as the prophets of old. Said thus sayeth the Lord. This is the word of God and just this idea that this is the word of God, Christianity says we have the source of absolute truth. Why do I need to harp on this right now? Because, there's a lot of people you talk to, even in our church, that say like, "This truth, I like that it's good for you, maybe not for me." I talked to a girl recently who was in a religion 101 class and she had to interview a religious professional and she said this, "Thank you for telling me about this. I'm glad that this is the truth for you." As Christians, we don't have to fight back, but we should explain, we don't view ourselves as one truth. One means to God amongst many other. We believe that Jesus came and taught us the truth and he speaks to us through scripture and he, in fact, spoke in his physical presence to us.There is, I just want to dig into it, there are a lot of different forms of opposition to this stance that Christians have, that we have the absolute truth and we don't hold it over other people in disrespect. But we need to know how to engage these arguments and just locally, two of the primary just challenges to the authority of God's word are science and new age spirituality. Science, This isn't something new. It says, we've learned more and more about the natural world. We don't need religion anymore to fill in the spaces. We just accept that we are formed by a random crash of molecules and we take what we learn from it. We take those laws and we just accept our state of meaninglessness. But the challenge of science is weakening. There's a new book, Rebecca McLaughlin wrote it called, Confronting Christianity. She gives a whole list of current MIT professors who are Christian.She goes in detail about Francis Collins, the director of the NIH, the National Institutes of Health, his conversion to Christianity after not growing up Christian. Basically, there is a lot of people in science saying that science is limited. It can only speak into things pertaining to science. A quote from Rebecca says, "Science has a place, a vital one in modern society. We can all benefit from the knowledge we have gained through the scientific method, first devised by Christian scholars." Of Christians. Were not saying, "Stop listening to science." We're saying, "Look at it from the proper lens. Science is good." At Mosaic, and if you go through the books of our members, a huge percentage of people are scientists."But if we elevate scientific truth above all other kinds, and believe that the scientific script rules out other stories, we have no grounds for morality and no basis for rebelling against our genes. We are bags of cells and waste with an expiration day, and it doesn't mean anything. And so, we as humans, we believe in these ideals of love and justice and mercy, and it doesn't check with our nature to view ourselves in the way that science does." So the argument of science has shaken, but there's a new challenger here and, especially here in Brookline and Boston, that's new age spirituality, this consciousness movement. It's starts with the opposite. God is in all of us. Bring out the God within you. What can one do to obtain different levels of consciousness and perspective? What are those spiritual-physical experiences, yoga experiences, chemically-induced travel and intellectual experiences of which you post photos of on social media. That help you become or ascend the better version of yourself. It's just confusing.We live in this age of science, but now there's this trend towards spirituality. Pew Research Center released the results of a survey in 2017 that concluded that about a quarter of U.S. adults, 27%, now say they think of themselves as spiritual but not religious. That percentage is up eight percentage points in five years. That's quite a leap. How do I know that this is a movement, and it's dangerous to Christianity because there's a spirituality, but it's still rejecting the authority of a sovereign God. We have two yoga studios, three to four blocks this way, three up the road at Coolidge corner. There's six in Brookline village. I don't know about, you when I drive here in the morning, there are just people pouring through those doors, and it's all day into the evening. The church I grew up in, I get Facebook invites for yoga classes there.Is the challenge on Christianity as blatant as science? No. Here's what this challenge typically sounds like. I'm quoting from a website for January 1st, "Kick Off Your Year Right event. After staying out late on New Year's Eve, sleeping in and going to the brunch in the South end, at two o'clock you can attend an event called Renew To Be You: Connect, Inspire, Uplift. The workshop. We'll begin with a reflection on what has passed to release old ways of being and tap into untapped potential. We will then flow through a heart-opening vinyasa class, incorporating pranayama mantra to connect and unite the breath, mind, body, and spirit. We will end with a guided visualization to help you see and realize the dreams in your heart. Following this movement practice will put pen to paper and set some intentions for the new year to come."It's talking about this practice of emptying yourself to allow for new, as you ascend to a different level of consciousness or try to force yourself to that point, this new vision for your life. That's the opposite of what scripture says. Scripture says, "Be filled with the spirit." Open your Bible every day to try to know the will of God. Be careful when you open your heart, open your mind, to be filled after you empty yourself. You are susceptible. Christianity says, "Susceptible to spirits that are antagonistic." That know God and reject him and they're trying to recruit you to his side. We live in this age where truth is being attacked on all fronts, and we have several sermons on this if you dig the Mosaic history. The confusing thing is that both of these do attack just this idea that, when I wake up in the morning, I answer to somebody. I answer to God. It's rarely just one of these two. I think there's science and then there's this mysticism, the spirituality, coming from Eastern influence on our society. And the movie Avengers, Endgame, shows this.If you haven't seen the movie, you've had enough time, but Thanos, the villain, who at the snap of fingers has the ability to decide who survives and who does not. He seemingly beats the Avengers and, what does he do after this big fight that lasts several movies? He goes into a garden and lives in a shack with a nice fireplace that takes us back to the imagery of the garden of Eden and all of a sudden the Avengers do show up. It's mutated animals. It's scientifically, genetically-modified humans. It's these better versions of ourselves that show up and they take Thanos down in that moment. That doesn't give away the whole movie, but it's not just the scientific influence, it's Dr. Strange, the Eastern mystic, was crucial in taking down Thanos. And so, this is creeping into our society.This view that science, that mysticism can fill this hole for a gap of truth. But Christianity just says, no, to that. We get applications to Mosaic saying like, "I want to become a member because this is the truth that is for me." That is not the Christian stance. We say this is the truth for everybody. Everybody, the greatest news they could hear is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The prophets, you think of the prophets back in the day. Elijah faces the prophets of Baal. Did he just say, "Oh, you guys are right. Let's sit down and have a Ted circle"? He said like, "Let's throw it down, my God versus yours." Now, we don't do that in an active sense. We're not there walking on the streets fighting people, trying to call God down to bring fire on people. We trust in the Holy spirit.We trust in God's great justice that he will bring when he comes back to make all things new, but we stand on this truth, and Jesus stood on this truth. There's no way around that, and just, I want to emphasize, truth is not something that is inside of us. It's outside of us. It's not this New Age Movement that says that we have it within us, we just need to bring it out. This need for truth outside of us has been the case since the garden of Eden. Theologian Richard Gamble says this, "Well, Adam was dependent on God for his understanding of general revelation before the fall. Pre-lapsarian, pre-fall Adam, was not to understand God's creation by observation and experimentation alone, but was to work in conjunction with God's supernatural communications to him.Like us, Adam was not merely to observe and interpret the world. Unlike us, however, Adam was able to receive the precise meaning of all creation directly from the artist and architect himself. Today, we also turn to the artist to interpret his beautiful creation, but must turn to God's self-revelation in scripture to accomplish this task. God was present with Adam from the very beginning. Adam's first experiences were connected to hearing God's word. God's command, his law to Adam and Eve, was meant to determine the course of their lives. It gave them their understanding of themselves." So the Bible doesn't talk about truth of scientific facts. It doesn't talk about subjective experience being the determining factor of truth, it talks about absolute truth that comes through embracing that we are created beings in need of direction, the source of truth, our creator.And so, Jesus Christ is the prophet that preaches that truth. He did that in his life. Point two though, Jesus was more than just a prophet. I want to build on this. Jesus our prophet is the source of meaning, and so just want to look, emphasis is on all in these verses. "But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaim these days of Christ." The emphasis is on all, all of the prophets spoke of this coming, this Messiah, this man Jesus Christ. There's something special, God is speaking in a way through Christ that he never spoke before. I want to go through a couple of verses that also emphasizes and explain a little bit more.Hebrews 1:1-3, "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. He used to speak through the prophets now, but now he speaks through the son again." I just want to read one more passage. John 1, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and then the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."Verse 14, "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth." A lot of verses. These are to emphasize, Jesus doesn't just bring the word, he is God's word. And there's something special about him coming. It's not just the words that he said, it's the way he lived his life, who he was, was an expression of who God is. To understand this, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God, we can use it to explain, Jesus was the creator. Part of the Trinity was with God when he created the heavens and the earth, but John here, he's also in a day influenced by Greek thinkers. In the beginning was the word, logos. Logos is a word that had implications for people of that culture at that time. Greeks were looking for centuries for this principle of the logos. Logos would be the thing, it was the central principle that all of life was going towards and it would explain meaning.It would give life meaning if we could understand it. John here, he knows that. He's not saying Jesus ... The Greek culture, they fluctuated. How do we find meaning? You look at the history of their culture. It was through asceticism, living mystical lives, seeking wisdom, trying to understand the soul on one side, and they had generations of that. They had other generations that said, "Eat, drink, be merry like true materialists," and they didn't find satisfaction. Ultimately, you see, they were able to accomplish a lot to civilize the world, but ultimately, their power structures fell down. They didn't have God to clarify, it's the unity of the spiritual and the material that we both need and Jesus Christ provides meaning for both. He is the unity of the spiritual and physical. He is the logos, and he's the exact imprint of God's glory in this life.And so, we have these abstract standards of love and joy and mercy, and they are without definition until we actually see Jesus came and he was the embodiment of those things. So, how do you find logos? How do you find meaning in your life? We place our faith in the prophet, verse 18, "But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and turn back that your sins may be blotted out. That times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus." This author's saying that the Greeks, their culture never settled. They never had a reason to promote that asceticism, never had a reason to promote that materialism. Actually, both the material and the spiritual matter and the way that we find meaning is living for this creator, Jesus.He's the one we were created by, the one we were created for. And so, when we place our faith in the fact that he suffered for us, we can have meaning. We can have purpose. We can see God for who he is, see the world properly. And so, the best way to really understand this though, is to think of the ... For those who are skeptics, who are atheists, who are true materialists, all that we have is this world. This material, and we're sacks of cells. You're saying you do not have a logos. There's no source of meaning. Your world is unintelligible. If you're not an image bearer of God with a soul as different from all of the animals around us, God breathed life into men, you don't know who you are. You don't know where you came from, how to get rid of the guilt that you have or even understand why you experience guilt in this life and, how do you get rid of that guilt?You can do that by trying to create your own logos, create your own meaning and relationships and looks, money, accolades, children, whatever it is, but everything is going to crumble. They're not substantial grounds to stand on. Also, your position says, we can't speak to each other. What does that mean? Like John Lennon, some people might think all we need is love. What is love if not defined by an absolute standard? And so, you spread this message of love and you get that message in some experience that raises your consciousness. Maybe someone else has an experience that raises their consciousness and they say, "In order for the world to have peace, for the world to flourish, for us humans to have joy, we need to eradicate the lands of this specific people group."Your communication has no meaning in the sense that you have no standard to appeal to. Neither side can say what is right and what is wrong. And so, CS Lewis, he took this view. He was an atheist before he became Christian and he wrote about where he was. "My argument against God was that the universe seems so cruel and unjust, but how had I got this idea of just an unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. "What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show is bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be a part of the show, find myself in such a violent reaction against it? Of course, I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own, but if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too.For the argument depended on saying the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. Thus, in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist, in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless, I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality, namely my idea of justice, was full of sense. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning. Just as if there were no light in the universe and, therefore, no creatures with eyes, we should never have known it was dark. Dark would be without meaning." Some of you just resist Christianity because you take the sense, you think about suffering and evil and death in this world and you view them as, you say, "It's not fair. It's cruel, but you're appealing to standards and understandings of what is good and fair and just that are your own.If you don't have a God, you don't have a basis to express this anger, this frustration towards God. But Christians, we do have a reason. Jesus is our rock and we normally talk about that in an emotional sense. Like, he gets us through those hard times, and that's true. We need to turn to Jesus. We need to listen to worship songs when our emotions are pouring out, but Jesus is also as our prophet who comes in, not just brings the truth, but as the truth. He's our grounds for having confidence that we can stand on being Christian intellectually. We can say what is right and what is wrong and not being consistent with our beliefs. We can preach the gospel with confidence. We can hold each other accountable. We find our meaning, our logos, in serving the one who created us.We serve the church. We love those in the church. We have a reason to do all of this and, you get rid of God, there's no point doing it all. If God's ever proven false, we shouldn't be here. But if you don't have this view, you have no reason to hold anybody accountable to any form of morality. People in Boston are really difficult. The locals, you've survived this cold, you've survived these rising rental prices, you've built up resilience. You say like, I don't ..." You resist this need, this pull towards God that is on your soul. If life is meaningless, like, "I'm okay." Transplants, you are people who made it somewhere. You've been able to just climb the different echelons in your career. You've had success, you've had relationships, you're building the family and you're saying like, "If life is meaningless, it doesn't matter. I'm okay." But scripture says you take that view, eventually, Christ is the rock you need to build on, all other ground is sinking sand.If you really are a child of God and you start placing any of these experiences, these relationships, these things to give you meaning, he's just going to be painfully strip those from you until you give him the worship that he desires. So Jesus gives us meaning. Finally, Jesus, our prophet is a source of freedom. Verse 19. "Repent, therefore, and turn back that your sins may be blotted out. That times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus." I love that word, refreshing. That's like, who here needs refreshment today? If you live in Boston, you need it all the time. This is such a good word. If I could describe my life before I became Christian, it would be, "I'm tired." it was five years of living in an inconsistent manner as a "Christian." The question was like, "Andy, how are you?" "I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm just tired." This is the talk of people in despair. I'd went through every method.In college, I went to the counselors. I tried to build my identity, find fulfillment, find meaning as an athlete, as a student, through relationships, through accomplishments, nothing landed. The last thing I wanted to do was to actually, I knew the gospel. I knew it well enough. The last thing I want to, like when I'm mad, I want to get mad at ... When I'm bitter in a bad mood, not filling my mind with the word, I want to look at my church that I grew up and say, "Man, you didn't teach me that gospel good enough." But I knew it. What I resisted was submitting my ... While I tried out all those other methods, I just didn't want to submit my life to God, submit my life to his word. I knew he offered freedom, but I didn't want to give up the sin in my life. These idols I had in my life.So, we get refreshment when we come, we say, "God, I believe your word. Jesus, You are my savior." We get refreshment when our sins are blotted out, when we realize that Jesus dying on the cross, he washed our sins white as snow. That's what refreshment is. And so, some people they, the truths of scripture, Jesus appeals to them, but you're just resisting. You don't want to give up those things that you're clinging to. You know God is going to ask you to repent, turn away from some things, turn towards some behaviors and actions. He's going to ask you to spend time in community to share your fears, share your worries, share your triumphs, share your failures, share your sins, spend time with the stinky people and people who look different than you, and you're just resisting.God offers us refreshment. Proverbs 3:5-8, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil." Here's the best part, "It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones." I want that. Who does not want that? Why resist? Does that simple short-term pleasure, is that worth this healing to our bones and human to refresh, or refreshment to our bones? Is that not better than just that thing that you're clinging to? A famous author of the 20th century was, he was at least honest.He said, "For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of the system claim that it embodied the meaning, the Christian meaning they insisted of the world. There is one admittedly simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt. We would deny that the world had any meaning whatever." Now, I don't know if he was taught a poor presentation. The Bible says sex is good within the confines of marriage between a man and a woman.I don't know if he ever learned that view in several periods of the last century where sex was taught wrongly, but he's an extreme example of somebody who has clung to, clung to something. He knowingly pushed against the word of God, and so, what is it for you? I asked, what is freedom? Freedom is typically viewed as the lack of any restraint. To be able to do what we, want when we want. That's how it's defined in our world, but just look at the world. What is freedom? When I write my sermons, I have a public room in the building I live in, I live downtown. I just see, literally a minute after minute, these giant airplanes taking off and they're coming towards the skyscrapers of downtown and they're turning and they're veering away. And it's just thousands of pounds of metal in the air with just chemicals that could just explode if not handled properly. I'm like, "How does that work?" Somebody observed the laws of aerodynamics and that's what enables the plane to take off.We as humans are no different. We find freedom when we live under the structures that God created us to live under, and that goes back to Adam in the garden. Adam, you have freedom to live in the garden of Eden. Do what you want, but don't eat from this one tree. Adam had to give it to God that God was God, Adam was the creature. Adam was dependent on God's instruction, God's word in his life. Freedom, as a Christian, when we live under God's design, we live under his word. We treat it as the absolute truth that we should follow. We don't do it in spite, not religiously, not Pharisaically. We do it out of gratitude for what Christ has done for us. When we understand that, we get to become the person we are created to be. People ask me, "Why would you go to ministry?" Honestly, I just think I'm doing the thing that God created me to be. I saw myself, as I took different steps in the church, I saw myself fulfilling my potential, and other people were affirming that. like, "What is that for you?"If you're not submitting your life to God, you can't see the world properly. You can't see your life properly. Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, regarded as the best sports movie ever by many. He said, "When I run," his sister is yelling at him for not going to China, not leaving Scotland to go to China after he's qualified for the Olympic games. He eventually goes on to win a gold medal. He responds to his sister, and he says, "When I run, I feel God's pleasure." When we submit to the Lord in gratitude and thankfulness for the fact that we had a single problem, our sin, that prevented us from getting access to God. We believe that God came into this world as a baby and he lived the life we didn't live, died the death we deserve, conquered the penalty for sin once and for all, we can have freedom in him. Some of you push, you're pushing against just God's truth. You're trying to define it on yourself.Your journey towards becoming a person you were created to be was taking God's truth and seeing them. This is the truth that I need to surround my life around. Some of you are just, again, you're angry at God. You think, "This is not right. There's suffering, there's evil. Now, God, how could this be a part of your plan? This is unjust." You want to shed this influence of God on your life, but you have no means to do that. There's no meaning to your argument if there aren't standards given by God. We might not ever understand why things in this life happened the way that we do, but the fact that God came into this world to care for our problem of sin, to address it, to give us access to him, to be able to receive his instruction, it shows us that the answer can't be that he doesn't care.Some of you, you want freedom. You might come to church and you come around the holidays. Every once in a while you read a spiritual book. You pray when things get hard, but you've never said like, "God, I submit my life to you. Thank you for sending Jesus. Thank you for taking the punishment I deserve. I submit my life to you." You just don't know this freedom. You have to surrender all of yourself and, how are you sustained in this life, you go to the gospel each day. This Christmas story, my struggle with Christmas is that we feel this tension. We need to be waking up every morning and just filling our minds with the word of God that we needed. Our sin was so bad that he had to send a baby to come save us. I don't understand the holidays because, I was so convicted of my sin at one point, and my need for Christ, and resounded in the freedom of that, that I just don't ...Fortunately, by God's grace, I'm growing to the point I don't need the holidays for that strong reminder. That should be all of us. How are we sustained? We wake up, we fill our mind with the gospel. The message that the prophets proclaimed in the old Testament and on throughout the new. Jesus is the means for our salvation. We have this free gift of grace from God and one day he will return to come and make all things new. We need to fill our minds with that every day, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free."Please join me in prayer. Lord, we repent of attempting to assert our authority from you. We repent of saying we don't need you. We repent of anger and angst towards you that was baseless and not justified. Lord, we know that in coming in the form of Jesus Christ, you do care for us. We know that Jesus Christ was given all authority on heaven and earth and his promises will be fulfilled. He will return one day. Lord, as we live in this tension where you've already won the battle to establish your kingdom, Lord, sustain us as we wait the day that you return and just reign in full. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Gathering in God's NameChimesAfter the chimes, we invite you to use this time to make the transition from getting here to being here. Take these few minutes to silently prepare for worship and allow the Spirit to refresh you.Prelude Chorale Prelude on Land of RestRobert Powell (1932-)Little Toccata on Land of RestJohn KuzmaInvitation to Ministry*Opening Hymn 261 God of Compassion, in Mercy Befriend Us (O Quanta Qualia)*Corporate Confession (Unison)Lord, forgive us when our words diminish the hopes and dreams of others.Lord, give us the strength to never let others diminish our hopes and dreamswith their words.Amen.*Assurance of God's Love*Response Glory Be to the Father*The Passing of the PeacePlease greet your neighbors with: The Peace of God be with you.Listening for God's WordWord to the Children *When the music begins, children are invited to gather on the chancel steps.This, this is where children belong, part of our family, part of our song. Be with us, pray with us, help us grow strong: this is where children belong.Prayer for Illumination (Unison)Soften our hearts,attune our ears,and open our mindsto your Word for us this day. Amen.First Lesson Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2 (New Testament Pew Bible page 171)Response to ReadingLeader: Listen to the voice of the Spirit speaking to the Church.Response: Thanks be to God.AnthemHow Beautiful Are The FeetHandelDianne Briscoe McKenzie, soloistSecond Lesson John 6: 32 – 42 (New Testament Pew Bible page 85)Sermon The Things We StealThe Rev. Ian Gregory CumminsMoment for ReflectionResponding to God's GraceSacrament of Holy BaptismAmelia Grace, daughter of Tom and Bethany RiegerThe Invitation*The Baptismal Creed (Unison)In life and in death we belong to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve. We trust in Jesus Christ, fully human, fully God. We trust in God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father. We trust in the Holy Spirit, everywhere the giver and renewer of life. With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Glory be to the Creator, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen. (Excerpted from A Brief Statement of Faith.)*The Baptismal PrayerThe PresentationPastor: [Parents light baptismal candle from the Paschal candle] This candle represents the new life in Christ. It is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. May all who have received this sacrament walk as children of the light and may God keep the flame of faith alive in them forever.People: With joy and thanksgiving, we welcome you into Christ's church, to share with us this ministry, for we are all one in Christ. Amen.Call to PrayerIn The GardenC. Austin MilesDianne Briscoe McKenzie, soloistPrayers of the People and The Lord's Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.Offering Ourselves and Our GiftsPlease sign and pass the red attendance pad, including address and phone. If you would like to receive the weekly Montview email update, include your email address. As many of us contribute electronically or by a check in the mail, your holding and passing the offering plate is an act of blessing and dedication to our life together in Jesus Christ. OffertoryTreesPoem by Joyce Kilmer Music by Oscar RasbachDianne Briscoe McKenzie, soloist*Response 591 Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow (Doxology)Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise Chr