Messages

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Devotional Manuscript:Why PrayFriday July 24, 2020
Hey church family I want to challenge you to think for a moment or two about prayer… And specifically about some of the common questions that people ask when it comes to prayer. Questions like… If God knows what we are going to ask, why ask? If he already knows what he is going to do, why pray? If my prayer causes God to do some good thing he was not going to do until I prayed, what does this say about the character of God? Why does he sometimes heal when we pray and sometimes not? Essentially, all of those are sub-questions of the one big question – Why pray?
 
Let me suggest to you three answers:
 
The first answer to the question is the one children don’t like to hear… And that is that we pray because our Father says so… Because Scripture tells us to pray. In other words, We pray to obey. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was explicit.. He said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Ask, seek, knock – each is an imperative, not a suggestion. Each is God’s demand of us.
 
The second reason is because prayer changes us. When we are in the presence of God, his Spirit transforms us. It’s been said that Prayer is the way the Carpenter shapes and molds the wood of our lives. He must touch us, to change us. In prayer, we do not talk about him – we talk to him. We do not study him; we are with him. And in the process, our time in prayer makes us more like his Son, which is, after all his purpose for our lives. Prayer does not change God so much as it changes us.
 
There’s a third reason we pray and it’s because… our Father always hears us. Jesus promised: Ask and it will be given to you; Seek and you will find; Knock and the door will be opened. No exceptions. God has an “open door” policy. Billions of people pray in thousands of languages, all at the same time, and God hears each one. You included. Jesus told his disciples that if you were a father in those days and your hungry child asked for bread, would you trick him with a stone? If he asked for a fish, would you give him a snake? Of course not. And compared to God, we are “evil.” Our perfect Father who is love, always hears us. This is the promise of God.
 
We know that “hearing” and “answering” may not be the same thing. I remember coming across a one-sentence theology of prayer and it’s simply this… When we pray, God always gives us what we ask for – – or something better. An anonymous Confederate soldier once wrote: “I asked God for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak, that I might learn to serve. I asked for health, that I might do great things; I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. I asked for wealth, that I might be happy; I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might earn the praise of men; I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life; I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing I asked for, but all I hoped for. Despite myself, my prayers were answered. And I am, among all men, most richly blessed.”
So can we be. This is the promise of God. Amen.
 
 

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Judy Mandl asks us to consider whether we would rather have a little bit or great treasure? A small portion of vegetables or herbs, or a big juicy steak or burger? A dry morsel or a feast?

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” The Death Of John Lewis And The Power Of One LifeThursday July 23, 2020
 
Tribute To John Lewis
Hey church family, at the end of last week an American hero died. Friday, July 16 after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer, John Lewis passed away. The Civil Rights icon was eighty years old. John Lewis was elected to Congress in November of 1986 and served as US Representative from Georgia’s Fifth District for 17 terms. He was awarded more than fifty honorary degrees, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2011. John Lewis was the son of sharecroppers, and he spent Sundays growing up with a great-grandfather who was born into slavery.
 
When Lewis was a few months old, the manager of a chicken farm named Jesse Thornton, was lynched about twenty miles down the road from where he lived. Jesse Thornton’s offense, was that he referred to a police officer by his first name rather than as “Mister.” The result was that a mob pursued Thornton, stoned him, shot him, then dumped his body in a swamp.
 
As a boy, Lewis decided that he wanted to be a preacher. He earned a BA in Religion and Philosophy from Fisk University, and graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville. However, when he was fifteen years old, John Lewis he heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preach on the radio and he felt that God was calling him to join the civil rights movement. According to the New York Times, Lewis “Led demonstrations against racially segregated restrooms, hotels, restaurants, public parks, and swimming pools, and he rose up against other indignities of second-class citizenship.” At nearly every turn, he was beaten, spat upon, or burned with cigarettes. During the Freedom Rides of 1961, the Times reports that Lewis “Was left unconscious in a pool of his own blood outside the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Montgomery, Alabama, after he and others were attacked by hundreds of white people.” It adds that he “Spent countless days and nights in county jails, and thirty-one days in Mississippi’s notoriously brutal Parchman Penitentiary.”
 
Lewis was the youngest keynote speaker at the March on Washington in 1963. On March 7, 1965, he led a group of 600 people marching for Black voting rights in Selma, Alabama. They were met by a group of police officers; Lewis suffered a skull fracture when one of them beat him with a nightstick. “I thought I was going to die,” he said later. The event became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
 
In his early twenties, Lewis embraced a form of nonviolent protest grounded in the principle of “Redemptive Suffering.” Lewis explained his life philosophy this way… He said, “At a very early stage of the movement, I accepted the teaching of Jesus, the way of love, the way of nonviolence, the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation… The idea of hate is too heavy a burden to bear. … I don’t want to go down that road… I’ve seen too much hate, I’ve seen too much violence… And I know love is a better way.”
 
Five years ago, On the fiftieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday, President Obama and former president George W. Bush joined Congressman Lewis in a walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. That same bridge where Lewis and other non-violent protestors had been assaulted by state troopers in 1965 as they called for voting rights for black citizens. Following Congressman Lewis’ death, President Obama said of him, “He loved this country so much that he risked his life and blood so that it might live up to its promise.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, “Progress is not automatic. Our great nation’s history has only bent towards justice because great men like John Lewis took it upon themselves to help bend it. Our nation will never forget this American hero.”
 
When asked if he regretted not continuing in traditional ministry as a young man, John Lewis said, “I think my pulpit today is a much larger pulpit… I preach every day.” Friends… Now it’s our turn.
 
 

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Judy Mandl reflects on Psalm 62 and encourages us to realize that when we’re waiting, we are most often waiting on God and He is worth waiting for.

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Jesus is Coming Again TodayWednesday July 22, 2020
 
Hey church family. Did you hear the news? It’s official. Jesus is coming again. Some of you hearing me say that, are thinking, “Pastor Rick, that’s not news. The Bible repeatedly tells us that Jesus is coming again. And we’ve been sharing that message for 2,000 years.?” Yes, that’s true. The Bible does say that, and He is coming again. But do you know the date? If you haven’t heard, today, Wednesday, July 22, 2020 is the date. At least that is the latest prediction by one group of folk, who believe to have an inside track on this stuff. And depending on the time at which you’re viewing this video, he may have already come, or he may on his way. And again, depending on your theology, for you, that may be either good news or bad news.
 
I typically don’t pay a lot of attention to those who try and set a date for Christ’s return, for a couple of reasons. First, because with the passage of time, those predictions inevitably wind up to be proven wrong. And second, because Jesus himself speaking of the time of his return in Matthew 24:36 told us, “No one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” For that reason, if someone tells you a specific date or time, the only thing, based on Scripture that you can bank on is that that date which they’re telling you, will not be the date that Jesus does return
 
But what if one of those predictions was right? What if Jesus was coming back today? And you knew that? Would that change the way you were living right now? Inasmuch as none of us know, or can know the specific date of Christ’s return, the advice of Scripture is to be ready. To be living your life in such a way that when Jesus does return, whether that is today, or whether that’s years from now, you won’t have any regrets.
 
So let me ask you, “What would you do different today, if you knew Jesus was returning tomorrow?” “And what would be your reason for not doing that thing right now?” Don’t put off until tomorrow what God is asking you to do today. In the words of Psalm 37:3 – “Trust in the Lord and do good.”
 
 

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Raquel Blanchard reminds us of the promise of God found in Jeremiah 29:11-12 and encourages us to cling God’s promise during those times when it’s difficult to understand what He’s doing.

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Pastor Andrew reflects on Philippians 2:7 and considers the question, “What exactly was it that Jesus emptied himself of, when he left heaven to come to earth?”

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Judy Mandl shares a story from Acts 9 to remind us of the impact that one relatively ordinary life can have on many others.

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” You Can check out Anytime You Like, But You Can Never LeaveMonday July 20, 2022
 
Hey church family. This whole staying at home thing… Has it messed up any of your travel plans? Are there any trips that you had planned, that had to be postponed, rescheduled, or cancelled? Here’s a sign of the times: an airport is offering passengers who really miss air travel a trip to nowhere. I’m not making this up. Taipei’s Songshan airport made the offer earlier this month, and in response to their offer they received about seven thousand applications. Sixty people were chosen for the half-day “trips” that will continue over the next couple of weeks. Those selected for the phony flights receive boarding passes. They go through the sane airport security process as if they were traveling internationally. They gather at the gate. They then board an Airbus A330 which is Taiwan’s largest plane. They take their seat, and make sure it’s in it’s full upright position and that their tray-table is secured. And then… And then… And then the plane goes nowhere. After a while, the lucky passengers return to the same gate from which they left.
 
As I reflected on that story, I thought, there are a lot of people who had trips planned, who have cancelled them, because they did not want to take the chance of getting on an airplane and traveling with a group of other passengers to whom they were not related, in the midst of a global pandemic. I try not to judge others, but as I heard this story about these flights to nowhere, I couldn’t help but think… How whack do you have to be to get on an airplane in the middle of a pandemic? Not because you’re job requires it… Not because you’re travelling to visit a family member who you haven’t seen in some time, or because you’re attending a wedding or a funeral or some other important event. But simply because you’re bored and you miss sitting on an airplane, and you miss going through airport security. Folks you couldn’t make this stuff up.
 
Psalm 90:12 reminds us, “Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” Or as the Living Bible puts it, “Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.” Ephesians 5:15 says, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise” (NLT). One of the gifts – and I put that term “gifts” in quotes as I’m using it here. But of the gifts that some of us have been given during this time of “stay at home” or “work from home” or whatever that may look like for you – one of the gifts is more time. How are we using it? Are we making the most of it? Or just waiting impatiently to find out what the next installment of the new normal is going to look like?
 
C.T. Studd said it best: “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” I want to challenge you and I want to challenge me to ask ourselves – what are we doing with our time – what are we investing in today that is going to outlast us and make a difference for Jesus and His Kingdom?
 
 

A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Many of us have trouble finding time to pray. There’s work and family and school and friends and recreation. And then the crises hit! Time for prayer seems like an impossible luxury. Judy Mandl points us to the example of Jesus in Mark 1:35, who following a very busy day made the choice to get up before the sun rose, to spend time with His Heavenly Father.