Is church membership biblical? Is it necessary?
Last week we saw that God created the church, that the church is the family of God, his household, his people. Embracing this identity means that we embrace a new leader (King Jesus), a new lifestyle (the kingdom lifestyle), and a new mission (the mission of the king to renew all his good creation). As the church, together as his people, we follow Christ in all of life for the glory of God and the renewal of our neighborhoods.
Here is the rub. All that identity and mission of the church stuff can sound great when it is general. However, that identity and mission is not meant to stay in the abstract, in the realm of ideas. It is meant to touch down into real life, with real people; real people that you commit to, submit to and love in all their (and your) messiness. Membership in the local church, where we rub shoulders with real people, is where this happens. The local church is where the people of God take shape and form.
In preparation for Sunday, please read and pray through 1Corinthians 12:12-27. I can’t wait to worship together this Sunday.
Pastor David
“The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal under the Gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion, and of their children, and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation” (Westminster Confession of Faith 25.5).
This week we look at the portrait of God given to us in the story of Jonah. It is a simple story. A man is running from God and God pursues him in love. As Jonah tells us, God is “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”
Portraits from the Prophets: Jonah
September 29, 2013 • Rev. David Juelfs
This week we look at the portrait of God given to us in the story of Jonah. It is a simple story. A man is running from God and God pursues him in love. As Jonah tells us, God is “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”
Portraits from the Prophets: Amos
October 6, 2013 • Rev. David Juelfs
“The LORD roars from Zion.” The prophet Amos begins his book with a terrifying image. Strike from your mind all your experience with lions behind bars and glass at the zoo; strike cartoons and cuddly stuff animals.
Portraits from the Prophets: Zephaniah
October 13, 2013 • Rev. Adam Feichtmann
Can you imagine what it would be like for God to sing over you? It was merely a spoken word that brought the universe into existence. What would happen if God lifted up his voice and not only spoke but sang?
This Sunday we are continuing our series on the Portraits from the Prophets by looking at the book of Zephaniah. Zephaniah as a prophet has one single message, “The Day of the LORD is coming.” At the end of the book he paints a magnificently beautiful picture of a great Day of blessing when God will remove the guilt of his people, restore his presence with them, and then rejoice and sing loudly over them. The reality of God singing over his people is almost something too grand to comprehend, something too wonderful to grasp. But Zephaniah makes it even more marvelous when he paints it’s diamond-like radiance in front of the dark and gloomy background of the Day of the LORD as a day of wrath as well as a day of blessing.
On Sunday, we are going to explore the Day of the LORD as a day of wrath and a day of blessing, and ask the questions: How can it be both? How can God come in both wrath and blessing? And how does Jesus Christ resolve this tension for us, so we can rejoice in God’s singing over us?
I look forward to worshipping and singing with you all this Sunday as our God sings over us as well.
Adam Feichtmann
Portraits from the Prophets: Habakkuk
October 20, 2013 • Rev. David Juelfs
O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
(Habakkuk 1:2)
Are you allowed to ask questions like that? The book of Habakkuk in the Hebrew scriptures opens with some tough questions. You can hear the anger and the pain. Habakkuk was an 8th century prophet in the southern Kingdom of Judah during Judah’s final years. He looked around at all the evil and chaos, and it seemed like either God did not hear his cries for help or didn’t care enough to help. Maybe God was not powerful enough to make a difference.
Habakkuk asked his hard questions and God responded. Habakkuk got a vision of God as a fierce warrior King completely in control, a God that could be trusted with every question, with every evil, and with every need.
Come to worship this Sunday with your own questions for God and let’s listen together as he responds.
Pastor David
Portraits from the Prophets: Obadiah
October 27, 2013 • Rev. David Juelfs
Failure after failure, set back after set back. Do you know what it feels like to think you will never win?
In our march through the Minor Prophets this fall, we have seen stirring images of God, but a dismal view into the faithlessness of his people. In mercy God sends his spokesman, his prophets, to call his people back to covenant faithfulness. Yet they continue to rebel against him, to violate the dignity of others, and even to violate their own dignity. As God warned, their refusal to live out their mission as his covenant people meant the destruction of their nation by foreign powers. In 722 BC the Assyrian army crushed the northern Kingdom of Israel and those ten tribes of Israel were lost to history. Tragically, the southern Kingdom of Judah followed the same path. After generations of repeated warnings, God allows the Babylonians to destroy the northern Kingdom and God sends his remnant people into exile.
The book of Obadiah, likely written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, announces God’s judgment against Edom, a neighboring nation to Judah. Edom delighted in the destruction of God’s people, refused aid to Judah’s refuges, and even handed those refuges over to the Babylonians.
Failure after failure, set back after set back. Is there any hope for God’s people as they suffer under the weight of their self-inflicted tragedy?
God commissions Obadiah to speak into this shadow with a message of hope. God wins and so do you if you are on his side. Those who hurt you are not going to get away with it. Take heart. All is not lost.
God wins.
I look forward to worshipping together this Sunday.
Pastor David
Portraits from the Prophets: Haggai
November 3, 2013 • Rev. David Juelfs
Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left? Five, because deciding is different than doing.
God sends the prophet Haggai to call the people of God to jump off the log. Stop talking about doing it, stop saying you are going to do it. Do it. God brought Israel back from exile. They were to restore the city of Jerusalem and rebuild the temple again. What started with great energy in their return from exile in 538 BC, slowed and stopped by 520 BC. Other priorities took center stage. God sent Haggai to get the people moving again, to call the people of God to put him and his mission at the center again. This is not a call to make God a priority again, but to recognize that life only makes sense and only works when God is at the center of our life together. God is not just one of our priorities, not even just the top priority, Haggai is calling the people of God, then and now, us and them, to recognize that God is at the center of everything. Any other approach to life, in the words of Haggai, is like putting your salary, day after day, week after week, month after month, into a bag with holes. Empty. Worthless.
Haggai is a short book. In preparation to hear God speak to us this Sunday, read and pray through the book of Haggai. God loves us. We can trust him. He has much to teach us through Haggai.
Pastor David
Portraits from the Prophets: Malachi
November 17, 2013 • Rev. David Juelfs
I love you.
You’re a mess.
But I am not done with you. The best is yet to come.
The book of Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament, probably written around the mid-fifth century. Malachi is likely a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, and the people of God are discouraged and dissatisfied. The wonderful promises of a restored temple and capital in Jerusalem, of restored prominence and prosperity, have not come to pass. What was supposed to be beautiful is ugly. The people of God were tempted to believe that they would get a better life, a better return on their time and energy, if they invested elsewhere.
God sends the prophet Malachi as a wake-up call to his people, “I love you and I am not done with you. Trust me.”
I can’t wait to worship together this Sunday. Consider reading the book of Malachi this weekend. At four chapters it will only take a few minutes. Let’s all pray and prepare to hear from God this Sunday and respond together with trust.
Pastor David
Portraits from the Prophets: Joel
November 24, 2013 • Rev. Adam Feichtmann
This Sunday we will be hearing from the prophet Joel. In this short book we are informed of a terrible locust plague that has hit Israel. And by locust plague, Joel is describing a literal storm of locust, 80 million thick. Imagine dark clouds of flying insects that make the day seem like night.
As an agrarian society, Israel is not just facing a bad weekend, they are experiencing an event that will ruin their economy for years. In the midst of their tragedy, the prophet Joel stands up, grabs everyone’s attention, and begins to give clarity and hope to a people lost in a sea misery and pain.
Join me for worship this Sunday as we listen not only to Joel’s message to the people of Israel, but God’s words to us, as we, like Israel, experience similar tragedies in our modern society. To prepare for our study, consider reading the book of Joel this weekend. At only three chapters it will take about 10 minutes to read.
I look for to worshiping with you!
Adam Feichtmann
Will We Wait Forever?
December 8, 2013 • Rev. David Juelfs
Here is a four letter word that you never want to hear… “wait”. The Advent Season, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, is about waiting. Waiting reveals us. Consider the last time you were forced to wait. What did that experience tell you about yourself? Waiting also reveals God. It is often through waiting that God shows himself to us. Are you using the season of Advent to learn how to wait for God?
We spent the fall studying the minor prophets and we conclude our study this Advent with three weeks on the book of Zechariah. Zechariah is often quoted in the New Testament and speaks powerfully into a season of waiting. This Sunday we will focus on Zechariah 7-8 and ask the question, “Will we wait forever?” As our waiting reveals us, in our waiting God reveals himself and shows us that in him we have all that we need and more.
I can’t wait to worship together this Sunday.
Pastor David
Waiting for a Priest
December 15, 2013 • Rev. David Juelfs
Christmas morning with little kids, just hopping with excitement and joy. If you let them they would dive head first into the presents, and rip through the paper and packages in an instant. I also love the comedy of their honesty. Get them a present they don’t like or don’t know what to do with and they will tell you, maybe even just throwing it aside with a confused shrug to see what is next. They haven’t yet learned the subtle art of accepting a gift you don’t like without offending the giver.
God has a wonderful gift for you. Are you ready? Rip open the package and take a look. He got you a priest! Excited? Do you like your new gift? Maybe like me you kind of shrug at this gift with a confused look. What is a priest for? Why would I want that? I can think of some other things I might have liked better.
This Sunday we continue our look at the book of Zechariah. The people of God have returned from the exile and God has given them a gift. A priest. And not just them, but us as well. God has given us a priest and it is better than you can imagine.
For all those who feel like they don’t measure up. For all those who feel like you are hopelessly on the outside. For all those who fear they don’t have the endurance to keep up with those racing around them. This sermon, this gift of a priest, is for you. There really is no better gift. Trust me.
I can’t wait to worship together.
Pastor David
Waiting for a King
December 22, 2013 • Rev. David Juelfs
Sing it with me, “All I want for Christmas is my…
King to come!?! I don’t think that’s how it goes.
In our final sermon on the Minor Prophets we will look at the promise God makes to his people to send them a King. I know that when we think of Kings we think of fantasy novels and global celebrities, but we really do want a King. Really. In all of our longings for a secure future, in all of our desire to have clear direction in our life, our hopes for comfort and safety; in all of this what we really want is a good King.
I know that it is not the first thing that rolls off our lips when we reflect on what we want, but the truth is we are all longing for a King. The good news is that he has come and he is coming.
I can’t wait to worship together.
Pastor David
