July has been a wild and crazy month. With the holiday at the beginning, a community service and our town's festival in the middle, and VBS at the end, I am just now catching my breath. For those who are wondering, we had the biggest VBS in recent memory, averaging between 103 and 104. Our offering was also ten times what was typical. God has blessed in so many ways.
For the sake of those who read regularly, I wanted to do this post and link July's sermons in one post, so that you don't have to dig through them all.
July 1: Answers in Abundance
July 8 (Community Service - I did not preach)
July 15 Dog Faith (posted last year, but still a great sermon)
July 22 Take the Plunge
July 29 Six Things To Do When Going On A Road Trip
I also put up the July and August Newsletter articles.
I'm sorry it took so long to get caught up. I will (with God's help) do better in August.
Pastor Tom
Monday, July 30, 2007
August Newsletter
From the Pastor’s Pen
Vacation Bible School is over, the county fair is only a few weeks away, and before we know it, the children will be headed back to school. It’s hard to believe how fast the Summer has gone by! As we look ahead to Fall, there’s Charge Conference, revival, our cook out, and many other activities. So as I considered how I ought to spend the last few weeks of Summer, I asked myself, “What is the most important thing I ought to do?”
As I thought about it, I realized how easily we become distracted by all of the activity around us and lose sight of the main thing. If we identify ourselves as followers of Christ, then we find the answer in scripture – Jesus told us to share the Good News with others. (Matt. 28:19-20)
This really jumped out at me this week. In a class of roughly 30 children, only one was in church with us last week. Two more regularly attend church with us. Only 10 kids had a regular church home--that means that 2 out of every 3 do not! Jesus told his disciples that the harvest was very great. The problem is that the laborers are too few. (Luke 10:2)
Many of us do not share our faith with others because we simply do not know how. So I want to offer a few practical suggestions that can help us share our faith.
· Build friendships with one or two unchurched people. Many Christians isolate themselves from all non-believers, but in doing so, the cut themselves off from their mission field.
· Don’t force the conversation to faith. Get to know them and be an active listener.
· Ask them questions. Where do you work? How old are your kids? What activities are you involved in? The more you know about the person, the better you will understand them.
· Expect unchristlike behavior. They may have language, habits, and behaviors that offend you.
· If you have the opportunity to invite them to church, offer to meet them at the door and have them sit with you. The unknown of a church service isn’t so scary if there’s someone who knows how it’s done.
· 
Pray for these people, and ask God to guide you through his Holy Spirit. God can give us the words to say if we let Him. It takes labor in prayer to see a life changed.
As we close out the Summer, I pray that each of us will find ways to enter into the harvest field, so that we can see lives changed forever.
- Pastor Tom
July Newsletter
From the Pastor’s Pen
As we enter July, I wanted to pause and reflect on the freedom and liberty that we enjoy as Americans. As I stood at the park last week (for Celebrate America Day) and watched the Boy Scouts present the flag, we all joined in the Pledge of Allegiance. Hear again those familiar words that come near the end of that pledge . . . “One nation, under God.”
One of the fundamental questions of our day is whether or not we are truly united as Americans. Today we find our country as divided as it was during the Civil War. We are divided by many things: the war in Iraq, political parties, social outlooks, our views on the hot social issues . . . this space is far too small to list them all.
Likewise, as individuals we find ourselves divided. We know that as Christians, we are called to live as citizens of God’s kingdom, obeying the commands of Christ and embodying the love of God to the world. Often, this puts us at odds with our own will and the norms of our society.
It is with all of this baggage that we come to those words we all learned as children: One Nation, Under God. Are we indeed united as one? Are we a country under God? How can we be?
First, do the commands of Christ affect the day-to-day life I lead? If not, then we need to read the words of Christ again (the red print in many Bibles) and ask ourselves how it applies to our everyday life.
Second, do I allow politics to define me? Instead of drawing lines based upon a party, we need to educate ourselves about the issues and candidates and vote our conscience. And once the elections are over, we need to pray for our leaders, regardless of who he or she might be.
Finally, do I look for ways to use the bounty that God has provided to me to help those who are less fortunate than myself? America has been blessed by God. It is among the richest nations in the world. God has given us an abundance, not for our own pleasure, but as a tool to further His kingdom. Consider John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, who required each family in the societies (similar to our Sunday school classes) to adopt a family less fortunate than themselves. They would look for opportunities to bless that family and embody Christ’s love to them. The Bible makes it clear that if we turn a blind eye on the plight of the poor and powerless that God will bring judgment.
God has richly blessed this country with liberty and prosperity. I pray that we as Americans might be a blessing to God in return.
~ Pastor Tom
Answers in Abundance
Note: This sermon is based on Chapter 2 of David Jeremiah's book, "The Prayer Matrix"
Matthew 7:7-8 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
A man went to heaven and saw St. Peter sitting in a room full of filing cabinets. "What’s in the filing cabinets?" asked the man "They are full of all the unclaimed gifts and blessings that God was prepared to give his children, but that they failed to ask for," Peter answered, “and one drawer has your name on it.”
Some of us will be amazed in eternity to realize the potential ministry impact we could have had, and the blessings we could have known, if we’d only asked for them.
After Jesus instructs us to ask, seek, and knock, he gives us some amazing, unconditional promises. Look at what it says: everyone who asks . . . receives! He who seeks. . .finds! And to him who knocks, it will be . . .opened! Do you see any loopholes? Does he say anywhere that God answers some prayers but not others? Does it say that he only hears some prayers? NO!!! God’s guarantee for us is this: he hears and answers every prayer. Ask and receive, seek and find, knock and watch the door open – these are ironclad promises. I know that there are other passages that lay out further guidelines for prayer – things like praying according to God’s will, praying in Jesus’ name, and praying in the Spirit. But the fact remains that in this passage, Jesus strongly teaches the profound effectiveness of simply asking – without weighing down the process with our restrictions.
In his book With Christ in the School of Prayer, Andrew Murray says it simply and powerfully: “God means prayer to have an answer.” Look at the biblical witness: Prayer opened the Red Sea, brought water from a rock and bread from heaven; prayer made the sun stand still, brought fire from the sky, and overthrew armies; prayer healed the sick, delivered the oppressed, and raised the dead. Things we think are impossible, God does when people pray.
I read the true story of a mother whose young daughter took ill one morning at school. After the mother picked the girl, she called the doctor and described the symptoms. He said that there was a rash of flu-like afflictions. He couldn’t see the girl until the next day, but suggested an over-the-counter medicine that the mother could pick up to help her.
The mother got her daughter to bed, told her she was to the store for the medicine, and hurried from the house.
She rushed to the store, purchased the medication, but when she returned to the parking lot, she discovered that she had locked her keys in the car.
Her first response was to call her daughter and tell her she would be a little longer than she had expected. He daughter told her, “Mommy, get a coat hanger. I’ve seen on TV how they just stick a coat hanger down the window and unlock the car door.”
The mother went back into the store and was able to get a wire hanger, though she had serious doubts about her ability to open the door with it. But being a woman of prayer, she was not put off. She simply lifted her need to God. “I don’t know what to do, Lord. My keys are in the car, the doors are locked, and my daughter is at home sick. I’ve got this hanger, but I have no idea what to do with it. Please send someone to help.
As she finished praying, a car pulled to the curb and dropped off a passenger not five feet from the woman. This must be God’s answer to her prayer. The man didn’t look like the kind of person God would typically send, in his ripped jeans, arms covered in colorful tattoos. But she said, “Sir, can you help me?”
“What’s the problem,” he asked.
“I locked the keys in my car. I got this coat hanger, but I don’t know what to do with it.”
“Lady,” he said, “where’s your car?”
She took him to it, and after bending the hanger, quickly used it to pop the lock. The overwhelmed mother threw her arms around the man and gave him a big hug. “You are such a good man.”
“Lady,” he said, “I’m no good man. I just got out of prison.”
As the man walked away, the mother prayed, “Thank you, Lord. You sent me a professional.”
Why does God answer any of our prayers? Oswald Chambers, in his typically pointed style, writes: “There is only one kind of person who can really pray, and that is the child-like saint, the simple, stupid, supernatural child of God; I do mean stupid.” I don’t want to speak for you, but I guess that means I qualify as someone who can pray! Chambers goes on to say that it is nonsense to try to use mental reasoning to explain why God answers those “stupid” prayers. He answers not because of our earnestness or our suffering, but because of Jesus’ suffering. The mystery of why God answers our prayers is wrapped up in the answer to why he redeems us through the cross – it points to an infinite love that is far beyond any human explanation.
R. A. Torrey has written some of the best books on prayer. He says, “when I realized what real prayer meant, realized that prayer was having an audience with God, actually coming into the presence of god, and asking and getting things from him, it transformed hi s prayer life.
Before that, prayer had been a mere duty, and sometimes a very irksome duty, but from that time on prayer has not been merely a duty but a privilege, one of the most highly esteemed privileges of life.
Before that the thought that I has was, “How much time must I spend in prayer?” The thought that now possesses me is , “How much time may I spend in prayer without neglecting the other privileges and duties of life?”
As we get deeper and deeper into this thing called prayer and begin to experience the presence of God, I hope that you too will begin to find it one of the highest privileges in your life.
Take the Plunge
John 4:4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." 11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" 13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
Our VBS this year is called “Take the Plunge”. We’ll be challenged to make a splash with Jesus. The main verse for this theme comes from a familiar story, the woman at the well.
As Jesus traveled south out of Galilee, he crossed through Samaria. And it was the sixth hour (that is, it was high noon.) And as he came to Sychar, he went to Jacob’s well, he found a woman drawing water from the well and he asked her “Are you willing to give me a drink?”
Now the Jews and Samaritans got along about as well as the McCoy’s and the Hatfields. The Jews refused to recognize the Samaritans as Jews because they had intermarried with other peoples during the exile. Because of this, they cut them off from worshipping in the temple. So the Samaritans build their own temple area in Samaria. A war of words ensued until, during the time between the OT and NT, the Jews raised and army and destroyed the Samaritan temple. So here is Jesus, a Jew, asking a Samaritan for a drink at a well dug by their common ancestor, Jacob.
And it was worse than that. According to the Jewish tradition, a man did not speak to a woman in public, especially not one to whom he was not related. By asking for a drink, Jesus was violating cultural rules that had been in place for centuries.
The woman was so taken aback, that all she could do was ask him, “How can you be asking me for a drink? I am a Samaritan and a woman.” (v. 9)
Jesus answered, “If you knew who was asking you for a drink, you would be asking me for the living water. For everyone who drinks of it will never be thirst again. The water I give will spring up to everlasting life.”
The woman answered, “Sir, I want a drink of this water.”
I want to make a couple of quick points about this story and how it relates to us today.
First, this week, we’ll have the opportunity to welcome into this church many children and parents who like this woman are thirsty. They may have some church background, they many come for Kid’s church, but they don’t have any real grasp of the Love God has for them.
Second, though many of them are looked down on by culture and society, we can follow the example of Christ and cross over those cultural boundaries to show them we genuinely care about them. It amazes me that it is those who are the most unchristlike that most desperately desire to hear the good news and are most impacted by it.
How can we be like Christ? There are three things we need to do:
1. Listen. The Unchurched so desperately want someone to listen to them and really hear what they are saying. This week there will be times that we have to tell the kids to be quiet and listen to what we have to say, and there that is fine, but we also need to take the time to listen.
2. Love. Find the ones who don’t fit in and love on them. Find the ones who are the worst behaved and love on them. Find the ones who act like they don’t care and love on them. You see, if we want them to see Christ, we have to show them His love. And Christ’s love is unconditional.
3. Pray. Now I know there are some who can’t be here this week. I want you all to be praying. Pray over the kids, the teachers, the helpers, the games and crafts, and food, the music. Pray that God will open the hearts and minds of all those that are there that we may have an eternal impact on the lives of these children. Those who are here can be Praying too. Pray for God to prepare hearts to hear the word and to respond. Pray for the words to say, for the patience to listen, and for Christ’s love to so fill you to overflowing that it can spill out on those who are here. You see, prayer and work have to go hand in hand. Without prayer, we’ll have a good program, but that’s all it will be.
So Adamsville, what do you think? Can we take the plunge and make a Splash with Jesus?
Six Things To Do When Going On A Road Trip
As Christians, we all want to be at the center of God’s will for our lives. As I began to reflect, I came back to this verse. To understand the will of God, we are to renew our minds. How? Prayer and Scripture. But too often, this leads to frustration. How many of you have ever made a New Year’s Resolution to read the entire bible in a year or to pray for one hour every day? What happens? We get up an hour earlier, and we do really well for a while. But then we miss a day. So we do twice as much to catch up. Eventually, it becomes an immense burden.
And that’s where the frustration comes in. That is when I realized that we are coming at the whole thing wrongly. Where in the bible does it tell us we are to read the bible in a year or pray for an hour every day? You see, when we use that approach, prayer and study of Scripture become burdens that the enemy uses against us, making us feel inadequate. Instead, we need them to be there to empower us...to transform us. The problem comes from our view of prayer and scripture. We need to realize that prayer and scripture reading is really two parts of a single conversation. Read Word, (find out what God is saying) then pray! How do I start to pray? It’s easy. Just let him start the conversation in the word. To do this, we need to approach reading the bible differently also. We need to quit reading for distance and begin to read for depth. To illustrate this, let's look at the analogy of a road trip.
Six things to do when going on a road trip
1. Fill up your tank. You need gas to get where you’re going. Spiritually, that means asking the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us while we read. Without his guidance, it just won't make sense. Begin with a short prayer: God, let your Holy Spirit teach me from Your word today. Amen.
2. Choose your road. If you want to go to New York, you might want to go East instead of West. In the same way, you need to be intentional about picking your starting place in scripture. The story is told about one man who used the “Point and read method” He let the Bible fall open and pointed – it said, “Judas hung himself” Well, he tried again – “go and do likewise.” We need to read the Bible in context and to do that we need a starting point. If you don’t have a favorite book to start in, try starting with a gospel like Mark or John.
3. Slow down and take in the scenery. Too often, we miss the scenery in a hurry to reach our destination. When we read scripture, don't worry about getting to the end of the chapter or even the end of the verse. Read slowly and look at the scenery. Use your imagination a little bit. Can you hear the crowd? Can you smell the fish on the sea shore? Can you see the crowd pressing in on Christ? Try to engage your senses when you read and look at the scenery.
4. Pull off at a scenic viewpoint. On a road trip, these Historical markers or particularly stunning part of nature. When a particular verse or phrase really grabs your attention, stop. Focus on that verse or phrase. Try putting the emphasis on different words and see how the meaning changes. Try putting it in your own words.
5. Take a picture of yourself. What does this particular passage or verse seem to say to you today? Is it speaking to you? What is it saying? Write it down so you can preserve it, just as a picture preserves a moment on a trip.
6. Send a postcard home--Move into prayer. God spoke, now just tell him what you heard, where you've been, and what you saw. As things come to mind, put them into the prayer. Again, it doesn’t have to be a long prayer; rather, it should just be a natural extension of your study.
(Actually there is a step 7.) When you've said all you need to say, go on to the next scenic viewpoint. Go back to step 3 and continue reading until you get there. When a verse or phrase speaks to you, move into prayer and tell God about it.)
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Apologies and Good Intentions
I know that it has been several weeks since I have posted. There were two weeks that I eitgher used an old sermon which was already up on my blog or did not preach, last week we had guests Sunday through Wednesday, and homecoming here in Adamsville (our community festival) Wednesday through Saturday. Sunday we kicked off our Vacation Bible School. God has been so gracious and so faithful to our prayers. Even though we traditionally average 70-80 children, we've been averaging just over 101. I also have to travel South today to conduct the funeral services for a dear friend. To top it off, all four of us (my wife and two kids) are physically under the weather. Hopefully, I'll kick this bug and get back to the keyboard with my sermons and other posts next week and if all goes well, I may post some of what I've missed!!
Thank you all for your patience, your prayers, and for reading the ramblings of this pastor.
God Bless
Tom
Thank you all for your patience, your prayers, and for reading the ramblings of this pastor.
God Bless
Tom
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