Bible Verse for Sunday Service February 18, 2024
Isaiah 2:17
And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,
and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,
and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
Announcements:
Deacon’s meeting on Tuesday February 21st to consider some of the things that were brought up in the annual meeting as possible projects for the coming year, kitchen updating, striping the parking lot, and sound insulation in the fellowship hall. We need to work out a date.
This May, Malachi and Madison Warneke (nee Orelup) go to El Salvador on a mission’s trip, with the plan of serving churches and the community of Santa Ana as part of their campus ministry team. They plan to build shelters for needy families, attending church services and pray meetings, observing classes at Hosanna school and distributing food. Also, they may participate in a prison outreach. Each of them pays $1700 towards the costs of the trip. If you would like to help, you can donate at church and mark your check “Warnekes.”
On March 23, we will once again host the AWANA Grand Prix, which is a fun day of racing cars that the Awana kids make. Beside being fun, it is a great outreach to families, and a good opportunity for involving parents in a project with their children. We run the races in the morning and serve lunch as noon. Please volunteer to help set up the track, run the race, and serve lunch. Let us know if you can help. Car kits are available for $10 each. Any child, attendees at Awana or not, may participate.
On the foyer table you will find the March-May copies of the Daily Bread devotionals. You may take copies for your self and others at no charge.
Sermon:
This Sunday, Pastor Jim preached on Hebrews 11:8-16 in a sermon he titled “A Spiritual Eye Exam.” Pastor compared our physical vision to our spiritual vision. Eyeglasses or contact can correct our physical vision, but what is necessary for good spiritual vision so we can “see” the promises of God, and the snares of the devil? A good way to start is with a spiritual eye exam, that requires a standard. Working with this analogy, Pastor explored it in two points.
First, we must have faith in God’s provision for us. We have to see these instructions with the eyes of faith. We have an example in Abraham when was instructed to leave his country without knowing where he was to go. Psalms also instructs us on walking the path that God has set for us. Proverbs too instructs on leaning on God’s instruction not our own. These three examples, get us off to a good start of seeing with our heart.
Next, we need faith in God’s promises, that they will come to pass, even if we are selves do not live to see it. Pastor illustrated this by reference to Abraham was promised a land and a child, but never lived to see the land possessed by himself or his descendants. We also see it worked out in another example from Abraham, who allowed Lot to pick the land he wanted, but nevertheless, God richly blessed Abraham with the land he worked. These promises, or reminders of them, extend to the New Testament where Peter reminds us of them.
For the last part of the spiritual eye exam, Pastor posited faith in God’s preparation. Jesus when he left the earth promised he was going to prepare a place for us with many rooms. John describes this new heaven and earth in Revelation. We should then use our time well here on earth, reminding ourselves constantly of the greater prize that lies ahead.
With the spiritual exam detailed, how do we pass it? Pastor covered this briefly. We should be obedient to what we know is true. Moreover, we should be content with our lot in life. Wherever we are we can be content. Our spiritual father Abraham was content even though he didn’t see himself possess the land he was given. In all things, we should be steadfast. Again our example Abraham, he didn’t return to Ur, his childhood home.
So in all things the Kingdom of God. If we pursue that with our spiritual vision, we can be sure everything else will be added to 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.