Sabbath Worship 12/02/2017

In case you missed it - here is Sabbath Worship Service from 12/2/17

Thanks Pastor Tom for bringing this message!

Services 10-15-17

Sunday School:

Worship Service

GRACE, Our Ladies Retreat 2017

If you weren't able to join us in person, don't miss out! All of our broadcasts over FaceBook Live this weekend are also available on YouTube. I hope this weekend is as much of a blessing for all of you that it was for me.

Grace the Great Equalizer

The Story of Sarah

Grace that Overflows

Grace in Times of Loss

Grace in Times of Trial, Testimony by Mandy Wingate

Special Music by Mandy Wingate (Sorry, I was a little slow getting the video started!)

A Call to Grace, Testimony by Jennifer Moodie

We LOVED these videos by Michael Jr. (Christian comedian). To visit his YouTube channel, click here, and to find out about a Michael Jr. Comedy Event near you, click here.

From the Merton Bobo Archives: Joseph's Schooling

The note below was written by my Dad on November 19, 2010, many years before He went home to be with the LORD (for those of you unchurched people, that's the religious talk way of saying, he passed away). He published it on FaceBook originally, and I am taking the time now to send it around again this time via blog post. My Dad loved the LORD more than anything in the world (which is saying something, because he really loved his family a lot!). He had so much to teach and sadly, and I'm ashamed to admit I didn't always listen as I should. But that is one failing I don't have to regret. So much of his teaching lives on, and we can learn and grow from it still. So without further ado... 

Joseph's Schooling

November 19, 2010 at 2:57pm

Today's triennial Torah Portion is Genesis 39

Joseph has in the past had a prophecy concerning his future in which his brothers and his father and his mother would bow down to him.  His brothers and his father had initiated him into his schooling at that time by his brothers anger at him for his prophecies.  His father had kept what Joseph said in his heart but was angry with him.  (Genesis 37.)

The 2nd part of his schooling was when his brothers sold him into slavery.  Now YHWH had a great job for Joseph but Joseph was not ready.  He is in school as he travelled to Egypt as a slave.

This brings us to today's Triennial Torah Portion. 

We have the 3rd part of Joseph's schooling in chapter 39: 1-6,  Joseph is sold to Potipher.  If you will notice however, this is the important part: YHWH is preparing Joseph for a great work and so he must endure by patience which comes from faith and hope as he learns what he needs to know to do the great work.  Notice that even as a slave, YHWH is with Joseph.  Notice YHWH blesses Joseph even as a slave.  Our testings may seem hard but we must keep trusting the Creator for  we can be blessed in the middle of out testings even as the Master prepares  us for greater works in the future.

The 4th part of Joseph's schooling (Genesis 39: 7-23) comes when he is tempted by Potipher's wife and then falsely accused and thrown in the King's prison.  Most followers of the Creator maybe would begin to doubt. But notice Joseph is not alone for YHWH was still with him.  Who would believe the place of communion with the Creator would be the prison of the King of Egypt.  If Joseph was anywhere else he would not have been where YHWH wanted him.  Once again he is blessed by the Creator.  "Now no testing at this time seems pleasant but in the future it yields the fruit of righteousness."  Hang in there when HaShem is teaching you, there are greater works ahead.

In His Name,

Merton

An Eyeball On Jesus

By M.E. Bobo

I stink at mowing the lawn. Everything about it is aggravating to me, and my only goal is that when I'm done mowing most of the grass be shorter. Now true gardeners and landscapers would NEVER leave a lawn looking the way I do. Mostly because I can't walk in a straight line to save my life. It's not my fault. The first step to walking straight is walking, and as anyone can tell you, I'm not good at that. A friend of mine recently told me that if I wanted straight lines when mowing my lawn then what I needed to do was pick a spot on the other side of the lawn. I should walk toward it. The key point however (and this really stuck with me) was that he said to pick a point, and DON'T take your eyeball off it! Do that and you'll be fine.

To my surprise, when I followed this one simple instruction I walked in a straight line. Even when the lawn dipped or I met with a hole. My line remained straight. As long as I kept my eyeball glued to that one spot on the other side of the lawn. Of course it makes sense when you think about it. My body moved in whatever direction I fixed my gazed on.

No wonder God tells us to keep our eyes on Him!.

Just imagine how different Peter's story would have been if he hadn't looked away from Jesus. And remember that while he did - he walked on water!

"Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" (From Matthew 14)

When Jesus is our focal point - we perform miracles. And this is not limited to Peter alone.

We often go through life with our eyes scattered, looking at every circumstance close to us. And let's face it - there are a lot of scary circumstances: addiction, illness, poverty, lost job or relationship, or death. Even good circumstances can distract us from looking to Jesus for direction in our life's decisions. As a result, the track we leave is just a mess. We follow the direction of our gaze right into doubt, foolishness, and terrible decisions wreaking havoc all over the path we make. If we would just keep our eyes glued to Jesus, we would always move right towards Him. I know it isn't easy, to walk that straight and narrow. But one thing I can say for sure - I've never regretted a moment that I trusted God. I can't say that about anything else.

So let's get to walkin'. And keep those eyeballs glued on Jesus!

Bridezilla

By Gayle Johnson Bragg

For the last 2 months, my family has been under severe spiritual attack. I mean severe. Every day something new happens. Even when something good happens, it is immediately replaced by another spiritual hit. 

It all started when I began teaching spiritual warfare in Sunday school. At first, everything was going ok. A few flaming arrows, but nothing severe. Then everything changed. The hits came daily when I started binding the strong men listed in the Bible. And they were enough to start ripping the very fabric of my family. The one place of spiritual refuge I had was inside my church. 

But then, even that changed. The attacks started coming from inside the church. The very people I turned to for support started ripping the already fragile fabric of my family. You see, after 2 months of constant warfare, the behavior of my grandchildren started changing. They were feeling the stress too, and especially for an already hyperactive 3 year old, his behavior became worse. Instead of volunteering to help with him, we were attacked for his behavior. 

Now, I'm one who believes that a child needs to LEARN to behave in church. They can't learn that in the nursery. Going to the nursery for bad behavior is a reward. What he learns is, if I act badly in church, I get to go play. Wrong message. 

The hits also included attacks on my husband's character. Undeserved attacks. Because the attacker didn't bother to find out the truth. They just attacked. See Satan working there? I do. 

I have a strong faith in God, and He has granted me wisdom, knowledge and discernment because I ask for them daily. I KNOW what is going on. Satan comes only to kill, steal and destroy. (John 10:10) He wants to kill my faith, steal my joy and destroy my family AND my church. 

I have seen SO MANY people wounded by the Bridezilla of the church.   The attitude that some people are just not worthy of the Grace of God is prevalent in the Bride of Christ, that the victim is more worthy than the offender of God's grace and mercy. When did we forget that we are ambassadors of Christ? (2 Cor. 5:20) We SAY we follow Christ, but did we forget that where He leads is to the sick and hurting, not to the "Religious" people?  (Mat. 9:10-13) Did we forget that Jesus hung out with the sinners, not the saints? You know who He hung out with, the tax collectors and prostitutes, the very bottom of the social ladder. He called the Pharisees a "brood of vipers".  (Read everything Jesus said about the Pharisees in Mat. 23: 13-39). And don't forget who screamed out "Crucify him!"  That was the religious people, not the sinners He came to save. (Mark 15:9-14)

So, what have I learned from these attacks? I AM the one who judges others, even when I don't know their story. I AM the one who thinks God's grace and mercy are only for the "religious".  I AM the one who shouted "Crucify him!"  I AM the one who held the nail.  I AM Bridezilla. 

God make me Holy because You are Holy. 

“You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.”

‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭20:26‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Don't be a Bridezilla. Be Christ like. 

Don't treat God so casual

Our goal is to look at both perspectives that God intentionally shares with us because He wants us to know these things about himself. 

This week we are going to look at the tabernacle the temporary place of worship, and How he prescribed his people come into his presence, in the coming weeks we will look at the temple and God instructions for coming to him and then we will begin to explore various characters in the narrative of Scripture and how they came into the presence of God. 

For example, Priests who mishandled fire, Jesus telling the disciples to let the children come to him because we are all to seek after him like a child does, Uzzah who touched the arc of the covenant and was struck dead, or when God tells Moses to take off his sandal's because he is on holy ground, or the throne room of God in Revelation where angels perpetually sing Holy Holy Holy is the Lord almighty, or how about the woman who washes Jesus feet with her tears.

But this morning I want to start with the word AWE In a moment I am going to show you some breathtaking pics of nature

Because many times we will see something and be filled with AWE/Wonder>>captivate you, stop you in your tracks, they arrest you into being still and receiving the awesome beauty….which leads you to being in awe of the one who created it all!

So let me show you a handful of pictures here.  Joe please pause on each slide for 10 seconds or so to let folks soak in the scene and the beauty of the Solar poetry of a Sunrise/Sunset; the peace and stillness of winter, or the majesty of the mountains

The word translated as “awe” throughout the Bible is the Hebrew word “yirah” which also means respect, reverence and worship. 

But “yirah” also means fear.  Some of you may have grown up thinking to “fear the Lord” meant being scared of Him…but when we experience things like these sunsets or mountains or wintery bliss, we do not experience fear.  

We feel awe and reverence.  We feel “yirah”. 

Having this type awe and reverence for God will motivate you to do His will and Scripture tells us in Proverbs 9:10 that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom”.

So lets dig into what the OT has to say about the example of the Tabernacle as as way to understand his presence and the expected reverence.

So Israel is fresh out of slavery in Egypt and has no idea how to be a country a community and God drops the 10 commandments on them (see Exodus 20) He covenants with them so that they understand how to maintain a society or a country.

Then notice in Exodus 23:20-23 READ…..I'm gonna drop this not push it meaning make note of this and go back and look for yourself because God was clearly stating my presence will be with you and you need to be careful to obey.  If you do so I will clear the way for you, where I guide you I will provide for you, but you cant mix it up with all these other Gods you gotta take following me seriously.

In chapter 24 Israel accepts and joins the Lord in this covenant.  Then in chapter 25 the Lord instructs Moses to take up a sacred offering i.e. the spoils of Egypt that God put in your pocket were put there because I now want you to use them to build a dwelling place for my presence.  So chapter 25 goes into incredible detail about the materials and the artisans required to construct this tabernacle.  As a recovering architect I clearly see the detailed construction documents for His house and the items that the what we used to call FF&E the furnishings, fixtures and equipment that are to go inside it.

Now you and I tend to want to skip over these meticulous details, but God is very specific about sizes, dimensions, materials and how things were to be used.  WHY?  Well because the tabernacle of Moses was the temporary place of worship.  The word tabernacle is a translation of the Hebrew mishkan, which means “dwelling-place.”

The overall shape of the tabernacle followed traditional structures of the time. It consisted of an outer court, approximately seventy-five feet wide by one hundred and fifty feet long, with a fifteen-foot by forty-five-foot structure in the back (Exodus 27:9–19).

The court walls consisted of linen curtains attached by bronze hooks to a series of pillars. The pillars were supported on the bottom by bronze sockets and possibly held in place with rope that attached to bronze rings. The gate, always facing east, was about thirty feet of blue, purple, and scarlet woven into a curtain of linen. The altar of burnt offering and the bronze laver that the priests purified themselves in sat in the courtyard.

The tent was divided into two rooms: the Holy Place, where the table of showbread, the golden lampstand, and the altar of incense sat; and the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was placed. The rooms were separated by a veil, similar to the entry screen, embroidered with cherubim and hung from four gold-covered acacia posts by gold clasps.

The purpose of the tabernacle was to provide a place where the people could properly worship God. Priests sacrificed animals on the altar in the outer court. The bread of the presence, the continually burning lampstand, and the offering of incense were all in the Holy Place. And once a year, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies as part of the ceremony of the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). 

The phrase tent of meeting is used in the OT as the name of a place where God would meet with his people this is the place where the cloud and the pillar of fire would hover over and then begin to move which was their clue to pack up and follow him

As you can see this process for meeting with God was incredibly detailed including God being a fashion designer by outlining the garments the priests were to wear when coming into his presence. 

There are dedication or ordination ceremonies for the priests that included being consecrated and dressed at the entrance to the tabernacle, bull sacrifices at the altar and outside the camp, washing of hands/feet in the bronze laver before approaching the incense alter or they would die, daily/ongoing maintenance of the incense on the altar and oil in the lampstand and  anointing the tabernacle with oil and consecrating the utensils used so that they are holy and all that they touch become holy.

The lampstand was to be placed in the first section, called the Holy Place.  The lamp was to be tended by Aaron and his sons so that its light never went out. The lampstand was to give forth light day and night (Exodus 27:20–21). The lampstand’s being the only source of light points directly to Christ as being the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5). Jesus is the “true light that gives light to everyone” (John 1:9) and the only way anyone can come to the Father (John 14:6).

The bread of the Presence (also called the showbread or shewbread in some translations) was special bread always present on a table in the tabernacle (and later in the temple). Leviticus 24:5–7 describes this bread:

The Old Testament showbread placed on the table in the tabernacle provides a wonderful picture of Jesus, the Bread of Life. Jesus is holy before God, He provides true sustenance, and He is always present. “Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry’” (John 6:35).

The one time a year when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies was on the day of Atonement, which was when special sacrifices were conducted for the sins of the nation which culminated in the both the holy place and holy of holies being filled with incense (prayers of his people) and to shield the priest from the holy presence of God. 

The High Priest who had a rope tied around him would go into the holy of holies and sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the arc of the covenant, thereby covering the sins of the people.  The reason he has a rope around him is because if he were to to die form coming into the presence of the holiness of God they could pull the body out, because no-one else can go in.

No let’s zoom back out from the details upon details and the rules and pomp/circumstance of how God very clearly prescribes for his people to come into his presence at this time in his Story.

The first covenant had regulations for worship and the place of worship, but Jesus who is the mediator of the new covenant has become the high priest.  And I encourage you this week to go and read Hebrews 9 that shows that these important aspects of the Jewish law are no longer necessary since Christ has become the High Priest once and for all, he became the sacrifice that secured our redemption forever.

This being said, what would God have you and I understand about his holiness, about us coming into his presence? 

What Biblical principles in Exodus and the Tabernacle are transferable to us today?  Not as legalistic must do’s, but rather as markers that inform us about who this God is that we are approaching and worshiping?

Remember the point of this series is for us to better understand reverence for God, regardless where we are, so that we model that, teach this approach to God to our kids and to those who come to faith in Jesus and are learning how to walk with God.

Moving In Faith

Click here to watch this Sunday's message by Kevin Russell on our Facebook Live feed.

Click here to watch our Sunday School lesson as well.

Ever hear a message/podcast or be in a conversation where someone else was telling a God story, and you realize that this is one of those divine moments where God intervened and specifically sent you a message through another person to provide clarity or direction or insight into something in your life?

I had one of those this week where my IMPD partner was sharing about the Bible study lesson he was wrapping up on Wednesday night, that God connected to a series of conversations that were had in Wednesday night Pulpit committee meeting.

He was teaching out of 2 Kings 7:3-11 if you want to get a jump start and turn there, and as he shared highlights of what they talked about I quickly realized how relevant and applicable it was for me and for us as a congregation to hear and to apply because there are some parallels in this passage to where we are as a congregation.

So God has interrupted our regularly schedule programming of the Don't Treat God so Casually Series that we began last week so that we can receive what He wants to say to this church out of 2 Kings 7:3-11.

So let’s turn there now and READ 2 Kings 7:3-11

So lets unpack this culturally and contextually so we can harvest the most out of these passages.

V3 says there were 4 men sitting at the city gates, lepers in fact. 

WHY were they sitting at the gate?

The LAW as in Torah required lepers (anyone with a skin disease/discharge or contact with a dead body) be outside the camp/gate.  For more on that do your own reading in Numbers 5:2 so these folks were complete social outcasts

So these men cannot be inside the protective walls of the city because of the law and social rejection associated with what was a considered a divine curse.

But it important to understand that the Israelites were under siege by the Aramean army (modern day Syria).  To understand the intensity of this situation you have to connect this with the battle tactics of the time. 

Enemy armies commonly used a siege on a fortified city to starve off the occupants or to reduce the #’s to the point that when they stormed the gates they would be unable to defend themselves.  So they literally would encircle the city and just wait them out, nothing coming in, nothing getting out.  It is so bad that one commentary reports that a donkeys head was going for $350 worth of silver…like who want to eat a donkey head for dinner let alone give a couple a hundred bills for it?

As the famine sets in nobody was bringing them food outside the gate anymore, because their only means of sustaining themselves was begging off passersby who were coming in/out of the city gates or the roads leading to the city. 

So these men, these lepers now are stuck between a rock & a hard place.  They are outside the walls, totally exposed to the elements and the enemy, with no food and no way of obtaining food/water…..as if being a leper wasn't bad enough it just got REAL for these 4.

In v3-4 they come to that proverbial fork in the road and they must make a decision to act in unity.  The text says the men discussed “why should we sit here waiting to die?…we will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there.”  “So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean (Syrian) army.  If they let us live, so much the better.  But if they kills us, we would have died anyway.”

So they are stuck, left choosing between dying here or dying there.  And they are discussing throwing themselves on the mercy of the enemy through surrender hoping they will at least get to eat as a prisoner, and if not well at least they will have died quicker than starving to death here at the gate. 

They had reached a point where they had nothing to lose, death was unavoidable.  Funny how God brings clarity when we are out of options.

CONNECTION POINT:

Many of you have expressed to a pulpit committee member or to an elder that this church is dying and that something needs to be done immediately.  Some have viewed this pastoral search process as the hail mary/holy grail fix to all our problems as if hiring a PT pastor/shepherd is going to magically make all our problems go away. 

A few of you have expressed that John is brought on you would have to say goodbye to ECC, and yet others have clearly said what are you waiting for if he’s not hired we are going to lose long-time members.

I want to draw a parallel to the the perspective of the 4 lepers and likely what many of us in this church are probably experiencing right now.

Notice how in the crucible that tough moment when it is dark and the outlook is bleak the lepers perspective is limited to the natural world around them.  Meaning it is very clear from the Scripture that they THOUGHT that death was unavoidable, there is no good way out of this so they made a decision to go to the enemy camp.  Notice that God is nowhere in their perspective, nowhere in their outlook or is he mentioned in the conversations.  Where was the faith of these 4 men?  The Scripture does not say, but it does define what their actions/words suggest.

So lets look inward, lets take a look in the mirror ECC.  If we are honest with ourselves we probably are feeling about like these 4 lepers.  We probably have had some conversations with our spouses/friends/kids about if we do this ECC is going to starve to death, or if we do this long time members are going to leave.  In many ways the outlook is a shared one with the lepers die if we stay here or die if we go there.

Like the lepers we are at that fork in the road where a decision in unity has to be made.  Notice that v5 says at “twilight” which is that sliver between full darkness and light breaking through.  Twilight is that place between indecision and decision. 

Family I know we are in twilight right now, and here’s the kicker, satan wants us to stay right here.  But we gotta make a decision because inaction is death too, just like sitting at the gates was for these 4 men.

Let us return to the rest of the story in Scripture.

When the men rose up in twilight and with a sound decision moved toward the enemy camp everything changed.  The text tells us in vs 6 that the 4 lepers went into the camp expecting the worst.  But what did God do?  God made the enemy hear a thunderous sound, as in 1000’s of horses/chariots like an army in numbers so great they shook the earth.  So great was this sound that it caused trained soldiers to panic and leave everything and run.

Notice that the victory is was God’s, nobody lifted a finger and in fact were undeserving.

V8 tells us that these 4 men arrive to en empty camp, not a single soul.  They move from 1 tent to another eating/drinking and plundering the clothes/gold/silver.  You find this theme running throughout scripture  God raises up another people group/nation/king and has them dig wells, plant fields and vineyards so that He can ultimately give it to his chosen people.  In this case the lepers had no idea that somebody else was holding onto their blessings that he had already prepared for them.  You see just like the Israelites crossing into the promised land God will reallocate the blessings that he has prepared for his people AFTER we move in faith.  And that is what these 4 lepers did.

However, with chicken bone in one hand and a cup of wine in the other and gold/silver filling their pockets their first reaction was selfish “take care of me first” we know this because they begin to hide their plunder and then their consciences kick in and point out that “this is a day of good news and we aren’t sharing it with anyone”  and so they immediately go back and tell the gatekeepers.  Our decisions are like an earthquake in that they have aftershocks or long lasting impacts

Family it may look like we are stuck and cannot move forward without a pastor or that we cannot invite others to church because we don't have a pastors, but I beg to differ because of what I see in this text.  These 4 lepers, these men were the absolute bottom of the social ladder no one would speak to them let alone believe them if they were to engage in a conversation.  Yet when they found themselves in the unsearchable riches of God they did not even wait until morning to run and tell others about the goodness of God.

We find ourselves in the exact same spot, wretched sinners saved by grace.  We know the unsearchable riches of Christ Jesus and we see His thunderous work being done here at ECC and we should be running back to the city and telling others about what He is doing…regardless of whether He has installed a new under shepherd or not. 

So let me land this plane with a closing idea about time, because many of us are feeling pressed for time, the intensity of the situation compels us to make a decision ASAP in this twilight season of a pastoral search.

There are a two different Greek words for time chronos which is where we get the idea of chronological it is the tick tock linear idea of time  Then there is kairos which carries with it the idea of the right time—the idea of a predetermined time or an opportune time.

When you and I redeem the time we are purchasing out of slavery the fleeting opportunities that we are presented with.  in other words we “make the most out of every opportunity” or “make the most out of your time”.

This idea is spoken to in Ephesians 5:16 that says “Make good use of every opportunity you have, because these are evil days” and in Colossians 4:5 where it says “Be wise in the way you act toward those who are not believers, making good use of every opportunity you have”

Family I urge us to use wisely the time he has given us by reaching out to other to share the Good News of Jesus Christ, not letting a pastoral search process or whatever you see when you survey the landscape around you.  because remember that God has already prepared the blessings for those who move in faith.

Today in honor of Memorial Day we are going to close out our service with a Memorial day prayer via video that helps us to remember those who fought for the right to worship and speak of Jesus.

ROLL VIDEO

WW1 poet Robert Binyon said of the fallen soldiers “they shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.  We will remember them”

So family amidst your picnics and family gatherings and the rest of an extra day off please take a moment to remember our fallen soldiers, 1st responders who have died to provide us with the very blanket of freedom that we enjoy.

WE WILL NEVER FORGET