What is your response when you crest a ridge and see before you a scattering of majestic peaks and towering pines? What is your response when you witness a magnificent sunset and soon after stars and planets at distances unimaginable? How do you respond to the miracle of birth, the miracle of love, the miracle of friendship? For many of us, our response moves us beyond ourselves. Even in the unspoken thoughts of our mind and soul, we acknowledge a power beyond human power. And we worship.
This morning we are in the second of a seven-week sermon series taking seriously the question, “Why Church?” “I can worship God on my own hiking in the mountains, swinging a golf club, drinking a cup of hot coffee or downing a cold beer. Why do I need the church?” Are there good God-given reasons for the Church? Because making a commitment to a Church community is not for the timid, especially in our current day and age.
Today, while a large percentage of Americans still self-identify as Christian, more and more believe the church is unnecessary. Some even see the Christian Church as a hinderance to social progress, a place that is hate-filled, a place to be avoided. Those are conclusions reached by those who misunderstand the Church, and God’s intentions for the Church. Is the Church, including Grace of Christ, imperfect? Yes! But the Church, Grace too, is still God’s chosen organism to bring the hope and love of Jesus to a world desperate for real truth, love, compassion, and relationships.
This series is not an act of desperation. It is not an attempt to beg, badger, or argue, in order to convince people to come back to, or begin to attend, church. It is meant to be an intentional, scripture-based, communication of God’s desire for the church and our part in it. The entire story of God creating us, rescuing us, calling us into a relationship with Him, is about “we” not “I”. Christian life is contra-American individualism. Christian life is an invitation to community.
We Worship Best Together (11AM)
September 25, 2022 • Curt McFarland • 1 Corinthians 16:13–23
We Serve Best Together In Ministry (11AM)
October 30, 2022 • Curt McFarland • 1 Corinthians 12:5–31
Each Sunday for the past two months we have been asking the question “Why? Why Church?” Do we really need the church to know about God, to worship God, to pray, to serve, to love? Aren’t there better, or at least equally effective, ways to do all of the above on our own terms, when, where, and how we want? Why Church? What has been stated repeatedly these seven weeks is that the Church was not founded by a bunch of eager, starry-eyed, religious fanatics. The origin of the Church is supernatural. The Church was established, chartered, initiated, by God Himself. When God set the Church in motion His priorities were not walls, windows, carpets, and lighting. His priority, then and now, has always been people, real people, including you and me. We are God’s priority, God’s Church. In our passage from the Bible this morning it is clear that each of us, without exception, has been blessed and gifted by God so that we can be a blessing and gift to others. Every Christian, every single Christian, has a God-given mission (a place to serve others) in their community, and a God-given ministry (a place to serve others) inside their church. We need the Church to discover and engage, in the right ways and for the right reasons, the passions and abilities given to us by God. If we reject the Church even our best intentions and efforts get messed up. This Sunday is also the first of four Stewardship Sundays. As we ask “Why?” we also ask “How?” How can we best steward (take care) of God’s Church here at Grace. These are Big Questions, beautiful questions, challenging questions, questions that lead us closer to God and to each other.
We Serve Best Together In Ministry (9AM)
October 30, 2022 • Curt McFarland • 1 Corinthians 12:5–31
Each Sunday for the past two months we have been asking the question “Why? Why Church?” Do we really need the church to know about God, to worship God, to pray, to serve, to love? Aren’t there better, or at least equally effective, ways to do all of the above on our own terms, when, where, and how we want? Why Church? What has been stated repeatedly these seven weeks is that the Church was not founded by a bunch of eager, starry-eyed, religious fanatics. The origin of the Church is supernatural. The Church was established, chartered, initiated, by God Himself. When God set the Church in motion His priorities were not walls, windows, carpets, and lighting. His priority, then and now, has always been people, real people, including you and me. We are God’s priority, God’s Church. In our passage from the Bible this morning it is clear that each of us, without exception, has been blessed and gifted by God so that we can be a blessing and gift to others. Every Christian, every single Christian, has a God-given mission (a place to serve others) in their community, and a God-given ministry (a place to serve others) inside their church. We need the Church to discover and engage, in the right ways and for the right reasons, the passions and abilities given to us by God. If we reject the Church even our best intentions and efforts get messed up. This Sunday is also the first of four Stewardship Sundays. As we ask “Why?” we also ask “How?” How can we best steward (take care) of God’s Church here at Grace. These are Big Questions, beautiful questions, challenging questions, questions that lead us closer to God and to each other.
We Serve Best Together In Mission (11AM)
October 23, 2022 • Alex Rule • 2 Corinthians 7:13, 2 Corinthians 8:15
Many of us have learned as children to love God, to be grateful, to ask for things before taking them, to say please and thank you, as well as to respect and serve people, and to have compassion and be generous with others in need. Paul is comforted that the Corinthians wanted to reform their lives and ways. He is please not only because of their good resolve but also because of their good actions by which they were correcting their former practice he even said that after he had boasted about the Corinthians to Titus, they had not let him down. Paul offered the Macedonians the highest praise, for even in the poverty they give generously of what they have. They wanted to offer even more than their strength allow by giving themselves wholly to God first, and then to their fellow believers with exceptional generosity of their own free will, with this the Macedonians demonstrated their sincere desire to receive a spirit gift. Paul sent Titus to the Corinthians to encourage them to imitate the Macedonians.