Bible Verse for Sunday Service February 16, 2025
Jeremiah 31:3
the Lord appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you
Announcements:
Our church subscribes to the Daily Bread, and to Days of Praise. These devotionals are available on the foyer table and our great help to use in our daily time with God and his word. You are welcome to take some to give out to others as well as to use them for yourself.
March 22nd is the date of this year’s Awana Grand Prix where the Awana kids will be putting together cars to race down the track on race day. The kits will be available soon for purchase. If you are a kindergartner through 6th grade, you can enter. If any adults and teens want to participate, we could have an open class. If you can help, we will need people for the race and lunch, please let Pastor know.
We have put back the dates for our VBS to June 16-20 due to conflicts with commitments with our families and leaders. We trust that this will work out better.
This week in Church History, February 18, 1546: as Martin Luther was dying, where he was born in Eisleben, Germany, he said, “Yes, I want to die, standing firm on Christ and the doctrine that I have taught.”
Sermon:
Today, Pastor Jim continued preparing us for a new pastor by preaching on Titus 2:1-4 in a sermon titled “Seasoned Saints.” In the sermon, Pastor is talking now on life in the church, the focus of Titus 2. Pastor observed in his introduction that this is describing a family. Churches have various groups of people with every group being essential. But, of course, each group has its own strengths and weaknesses. In today’s sermon, Pastor began with a group of older men addressed in this section of scripture. He covered this group in two points.
To begin to discuss seasoned saints, Pastor began by defining his terms. What is this seasoning of the saints?Perhaps the most important aspect of the seasoning is that it applies to everyone in the church, even though the focus of today’s sermon is the older men. Building on his discussion from last week, Pastor observed that essential to seasoning is sound doctrine, doctrine rightly applied. If we are marinating, so to speak, in the Word of God, and not just knowing that Word, but obeying it and applying it to our lives, then we will become seasoned in it. The second component of the seasoning is that we gain it through godly living over time. So we must not expect to become seasoned quickly. And perhaps this is the rationale for addressing the older man first in the scripture.
After covering the process of seasoning, Pastor returned to looking at people in the church, beginning with older men who are described as seasoned saints. Paul in his admonition to Titus lists four characteristics of these seasons Saints. An older man needs to be sober minded in order to qualify as seasoned. This is not just talking about alcohol. It is saying that an older man must be in his right mind free of influence to provide good sound advice. Using a biblical example, pastor mentioned Rehoboam, who took bad advice from his friends versus the good advice offered by the older man. This mistake cost him the vast majority of the kingdom.
A second aspect of this seasoning is men who are God-fearing. These men will have a qualities of being slow to anger, and have the respect of others because of their righteousness before God.
A third aspect of men who are seasoned is that they will exhibit self control. Pastor observed that this would usually come from walking as directed by the Holy Spirit over time.
The last aspect that Pastor addressed of older men who are seasoned is that they are spiritually sound. In a good example to us older men in the congregation, Pastor reminded us that there is a stereotype of the grouchy old man who might say to young children, get off my lawn. Instead of the grouchiness that comes with age, we ought to have a healthy devotion to the truth, which will lead us to love others, and not be grouchy with them. Pastor also remarked that the word chosen here has the aspect of continuing. As Paul remarks in other places, we should keep running the race regardless of time.
To conclude, pastor mentioned that a seasoned man should finish in love. We can bless the church. By serving where we are needed, and helping the church and the pastor. By keeping these things in mind, and acting upon them, we can demonstrate that we are seasoned and not just old.
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.
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