Sermon Reflections from Embracing Grace | Alex Hardt | February 25,2024
Pastor Alex addressed the last rhythm for staying close to God which is service. When you draw close to God with prayer, study and reading the Word, try to cultivate Love for others sincerely, seek to witness to the transforming power of Christ, it leads you to service. What do you do with your faith? Now that you know God, desire to commune with Him, are practicing His love when with others and telling others about Jesus, you may ask what more do I need to do? All of these things leads you to love God more deeply, have a genuine love for others and desire to see them with you in the kingdom of God. But, not everyone is ready and willing to listen. Service is a way of showing others the love of God in a tangible way- no words required – just smiles and an open hand. Reaching out to others in love with food, a kind email, cookies, a welcoming smile and words of greeting are ways of showing God’s love. Nothing is expected in return. You aren’t doing the kind deed to ‘get’ something, only to give. This something very foreign to the world’s system of getting, doing and working for gain. How does this happen? Paul tells us in Colossians 2:6-7 “ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Our actions are a direct result of Christ being in our lives, indwelling and motivating us to love the world as He did. Pastor Alex had many scriptures of Jesus’ actions as He modeled this while here on Earth. Being rooted in Christ leads us to reflect God’s goodness to the world. Are you overflowing with grace and love because of your faith in Christ? Are you rooted and grounded in our faith? This is not something you get quickly but it grows over time as you allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life. The sanctification process of becoming more and more like Jesus begins at the moment of belief in Jesus and continues growing throughout your life. It is truly a life changing process made possible only in Christ. Christ alone is the reason for our change. Without Christ, good deeds are just good deeds and have no eternal value. Because Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, we can be rooted and grounded in Christ producing a life that is abundant and filled to overflowing with thanksgiving, hope and love. A life motivated by Jesus is one that loves to serve others and express His love for them. Deeds are done out of love and gratitude. It is the process of giving out the love of God. As you made the bags with goodies to give to someone in need, you were motivated by the desire to help someone else and show them a bit of God’s love. Lianna got the blessing of leading and helping others to do something nice, possibly creating an opportunity for someone to talk of Jesus and His love, and showed others a tangible way they could act. Lianna also got the joy of giving and being able to participate in God’s kingdom. You get the blessing of participating, giving out and possibly talking to someone about Jesus. You also get joy in giving out and participating in God’s kingdom. A win-win with blessings and joy for all in service to our King. Thanks Lianna for this great lesson in tangible love. Linda MESSAGE LINK Click Here to View the Message on Youtube Our Sunday service is online and in-person at 11:00am. Come visit us at 5353 Concord Blvd, on the corner of Concord Blvd and Kirker Pass. Sermon Reflections from The Bible is For Life | Alex Hardt | May 28, 2023
Pastor Alex chose as the text for the message James 1:19-27. This is a practical and direct portion of scripture that links the Word of God, Faith and actual living of life. They interact with each other as we allow the truth of God’s Word to lead our faith in Jesus and provide us guidelines for day to day living. James does not pull any punches but lays it out for us clearly so we can see the connection and seek to live by God’s Word. God’s Word is for deep diving. One can choose to live on the surface but learning to dive deeply into God’s Word leads to us being able to listen, meditate, memorize and study it with intentionality. Why be intentional? God want to affect change in our lives. He wants us to be able to cope and rise above the sin of this world. He wants us to belong to Him and know what is right and wrong by His standards. To have the Word affect us, we need to sit down and listen to God. That means spending time in the Word and with the Word and as Pastor Alex brought up we need to be in community as a person of God. As the Word impacts us, we are transformed and can better cope with those around us. James tells us that God’s Word will change how we see ourselves and the world around us. If we listen and become a doer of the Word, we will see ourselves more clearly- as God sees us. We won’t go away and forget who we are. We will not be Sunday Christians but everyday Christians seeking to serve, live and honor God as His Word describes. That authentic life will give us freedom and cause us to remember how to act with others by God’s standards using godly priorities in our lives. We will be able to cull out the world’s pollution and influence from our lives and seek and know His truth. Lastly, James focuses on the truth of religion- what it is and how we are to be doers of the Word? When we hear the Word of God, we are to take it in and then apply it to our lives. Just letting the sermon go in one ear and out the other, does little to add value to our lives. We need to meditate upon God’s truths we hear and read and say to ourselves, how would God have me use this? What difference will this make in the way I talk, act and relate to others? If you find your Bible study is not affecting change in your life, you can be assured that it is not the Word. It is the doer- the one who hears is not processing and using the Word. The doer is not applying the lessons and truths to their life. For example, James 1:26 ”Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” If you consider yourself a Christian and engage in gossip or telling tales, James would say that your faith is useless. If you walk does not line up with the truth of God’s Word you are deceiving yourself and lying about your faith. That makes for a worthless witness for Jesus. James 1:27 “ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Here James is telling us bluntly that as a believer you are to be a doer of good for others, seeing to the less fortunate and you are to keep yourself above the sin of the world as much as you can. You are to seek to do good and not go along to get along and indulge in the world’s practices. Both of these verses, help us see practically how James is telling us to use God’s Word and principles of living contained within them to live for Him. What kind of a witness will we have if we ignore others, fail to show compassion, seek our own gain and talk openly about others in negative terms? Pastor Alex summed this up as God’s Words lead us to action and connects what we know and learn from His Word into our lives. Faith grows as we apply God’s lessons and truths each and every day. Not easy stuff or for the fainthearted for sure. However, we know God’s Word equips us. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” We can claim this truth in our lives and rely upon God and His Word through the power of the Holy Spirit to ready us for the world and its challenges. Praise God! Linda SERMON LINK Click Here to View the Sermon Our Sunday service is online and in-person at 11:00am. Come visit us at 5353 Concord Blvd, on the corner of Concord Blvd and Kirker Pass. |
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