Bible Verse for Sunday Service April 21, 2024
Psalms 18:29-30
For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the Lord proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
Nahum 1:7
The Lord is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
Announcements:
Our ladies will have a fellowship luncheon on this coming Saturday, April 27. Come out and enjoy a time of getting together for fellowship and encouragement. For the theme, it is pineapples. If you can bring a dish that includes pineapples as an ingredient, that would be great. As an alternative, we would welcome any kind of salad or dessert.
Another Weschenfelder is celebrating at the church! Kasey Weschenfelder invited the the church to her bridal shower which will be held at the church on May 4, from 1PM to 3PM.
About a month ago, we highlighted Jackson Dierenfield who has cancer. We announced the prayer need, and also the need for financial support. Our church body helped. We received a thanks from his parents.
This summer in VBS we will be going on a “Great Jungle Journey.” As usual, we will need adult and teen volunteers. We set the dates as June 10-14, beginning each day at 9AM. If you can help in any way, let us know by filling out the insert in today’s bulletin and leaving it on the foyer table or giving it to Natasha or Pastor. We are having an organizational meeting for everyone on May 22 at 6:30PM. Here is the promotional video that played in church today:
Sermon:
Today, Pastor Jim spoke to us on Heb 11:30-31 and Joshua 6 in a sermon titled “The Effect of Faith.” In today’s sermon, Pastor spoke on the effect of faith on the walls of Jericho and a particular woman of Jericho, Rahab. To introduce these subjects, he recalled Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 3 about building on the foundation provided by the Lord. Do we build with materials that will transfer to heaven, like gold, or we building with hay and stubble, things that are burned up in the judgment. Pastor’s point was the Israelites had 40 years of hay and stubble wandering around in the desert, but they built with indestructible materials in their conquering of Jericho. Pastor started with Jericho.
Jericho’s walls certainly experienced the faith of the Israelites. These walls were a challenge. How to deal with Jericho protected by them? To the Israelites, Jericho was a fortress protected by very formidable walls that they had to deal with. They could not go around this city on the way to promised land. Their path lead through this city. It was obvious that this was not a human problem. God had to intervene, and intervene he did. Even though the residents of Jericho were confident in the walls, God spoke in advance to Joshua in the past tense: He had given the city to Joshua and the Israelites. All the Israelites had to do was to be obedient to His command exactly. They needed to walk around the city only. Following these instructions caused the walls to collapse so the Israelites could enter the city and devote it to destruction.
Taking Jericho by faith also illustrates another instance of faith worthy of inclusion in Hebrews 11, the faith of a woman, Rehab. She had first given shelter to the Israeli spies, understanding that the God was with them. Those spies promised her that she would saved. She was released from the destruction because of her faith. It protected her and her family. But, you could also say that the visit from the spies revealed her faith. Lastly in considering her, Pastor reminded us that what happened to her can serve as a picture of salvation. By her faith, she was saved from destruction. We find this salvation fruitful later in that Rahab is mention in Matthew 1 in the genealogy of Jesus through David.
In closing Pastor returned to his point from the introduction about paths either filled with hay and stubble and things burnt up in the test of work, or the things of gold and silver, the good work that survives. He exhorted us to a steady stream over the course of our lives to works of gold and silver. Dear Lord may it be so for all of us.
Accessing the Service, Bulletin and Sermon Outline:
Here are the pages from the bulletin, click on the images below to see them full size:
If you would like to have the sermon outline, you can download it here, a pdf file.
If you would like a link to this service you can find it here. Perhaps you would like to share it with your friends. You could also share that link on social media, if you use any of the providers. We use Rumble, a safe alternative to Google’s YouTube.