Bible Verse for Sunday Service February 6, 2022
Psalm 3:3-4
But you, O Lord, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
I cried aloud to the Lord,
and he answered me from his holy hill.
Announcements:
In chronological order, our announcements this week cover, February 17th when the deacons will convene to discuss upcoming projects, including a storage shed and paving the parking lot. With the mix-up on the Gideons’ presentation resolved, we can look forward to a report on February 27th. Looking ahead to March 26, it isn’t too soon to be thinking about the AWANA Grand Prix, were volunteers make this happen by setting up and running the race. And, introducing a new occasional feature, this week in Church History, on February 9th, 1709, John Wesley was rescued from a burning parsonage at 5 years old.
Sermon:
Pastor continued his review of the beatitudes in Matthew, 5:9-11, Jesus’ proclamation of the arrival of the Kingdom of God with a message titled “People Principles from the Beatitudes.” These three verses provide us principles for us live by in the world, powered by the Kingdom of God.
Being a peacemaker is critical for being blessed. But, how can you be one. Being at peace with God is the critical first step, which of course comes from embracing Jesus’ work on the cross to reconcile us to Him. With that we can move on to the next step, peace with ourselves. That peace that we have with God is no good if it doesn’t deliver a sense of peace within us. Worry, anxiety and quarreling will not be found in our daily lives if we have this peace. But, it doesn’t end there. Having received God’s peace through the Kingdom, what happens next. We are not like the Dead sea, always receiving and never giving. We must use our peace to generate peace with others. Pastor warned us that a lot of time, we do nothing. We let’s God’s appointments slip by.
Pastor illustrated this last point by recalling the interaction between two baseball players when America was still a segregated country, Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese. Reese could have let the crowds boo and hiss Robinson when he made a mistake. Instead he put his arm around him in solidarity. What an example of Christian brotherly love. If you want to learn more about this incident, I found this article helpful.
Lastly Pastor connected up our skills as peacemakers to the being persecuted for righteousness sake, being active agents in God’s Kingdom, being his sons and daughters doing his work. If that is true for us then we will be persecuted for the right reasons. And in bearing up under that persecution we will earn real rewards in Heaven. What an encouraging message to us all. Let’s take these beatitudes to heart in our service to the Lord in God’s Kingdom here on earth now.
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.
Here is a video record of the service on Rumble, an alternative to YouTube.
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Lastly, if you would like to see all the services, you can find them here.