Bible Verse for Sunday Service April 06, 2025
Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Announcements:
Awana Leaders Appreciation Supper, Wednesday 6:30 PM. We want to have a time of fellowship for the Awana leaders and their families on Wednesday night. We greatly value their dedication to the ministry, and want them to know they are appreciated. We will also spend time to discuss plans for continuing the ministry in our church. Anyone interested in helping with Awana in the coming year is invited to attend. Let Gaylene know if you can bring a salad or a dessert to share.
Our Easter breakfast this year will be on April 20. Join us for breakfast on resurrection morning. We will have a short time of worship along with the breakfast. Be sure to sign up to let us know if you are coming, and if you can help with the food items.
Easter Booklets on the foyer table. Our Daily Bread Ministries has sent us a number of copies of “The Hope of Easter. This is a booklet of 10 daily devotionals that lead up to the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ. Feel free to take one for yourself or to hand out to someone else.
Program for Mother’s Day Sunday. Brianne Hofer is planning on having a short program with the children on Mother’s Day. She wants to have the children meet with her during the morning services leading up to Mother’s Day.
Sermon:
Today, Pastor Jim closed out his series on Titus, and preparing for a new pastor by preaching on Titus 3:8-15 in a sermon titled “Titus To-Do List.” In this concluding sermon on Titus, Pastor went over Paul’s final instructions/advice to Titus. Pastor analogized it to a to-do list. You could think of it as Titus has finite time on the isle of Crete, and Paul wanted him to use it in the most effective way. A to-do list is a great way to prioritize. With these verses in mind, we should have our own list. What would our list look like? Pastor offer four items for consideration.
Most important on our list should be something to affirm our faith, some results from our faith. While it is certainly true we are not saved my works, good works that we do are evidence of a saving faith that we have. Moreover, good works generally tend to profit or help others. That in turn illustrates our love of our brother or sister. For an illustration of this idea, Pastor talked about Dorcas, who died, but Peter brought back to life because she was so loved on account of her good works.
On our list next is something to avoid. Paul gave positive and negative instructions. On his avoidance list were arguing about stories and the ceremonial law. For his part, Pastor generalized that to avoiding foolish things. In Paul’s time, that might have been the tradition of hand washing by the rabbis. Once you become a believer, perhaps it is easier to spot things that are foolish. But, we should also avoid things that are useless. Spotting useless activities in our lives might require more introspection. We should take inventory, see what we can drop, and what we can add for the Kingdom.
We can also have on our list things to criticize if we see them. Pastor gave us one example, if we see disunity in the church that is something we can admonish. Always, we should remember that one of Satan’s tactics is to divide and conquer. We must not let disagreements divide us.
Lastly, we should think about what we could admit profitably. Pastor asked us to consider two sources of strength. One is that we should admit we need people. Paul needed them too. He commends the people who carried the letter to Titus. But, most importantly, we need grace. And, how do we get it? We must refer to John where Jesus analogizes himself to the vine and we are the branches. Stay connected to Jesus so we can receive His grace.
Pastor concluded by asking us to consider. We do have a to-do list. What is on it? Let’s tune it up.
Accessing the Service, Bulletin and Sermon Outline:
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If you would like to have the sermon outline, you can download it here, a pdf file.
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