Service January 12, 2025

Bible Verse for Sunday Service January 12, 2025

Luke 12:32

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Announcements:

Next Sunday, right after church, we will have a potluck dinner, and after that the annual meeting. We will approve the budget, elect officers, and discuss the kitchen and bathroom remodeling plans. For the potluck, please bring a dish or two to share.

Nominations for Church Officers are made by our deacons and they are on the foyer table. You can make other nominations up to a week before the meeting. If you wish to to make a nomination, you can add a name to the list. Be sure to check with Pastor first, and also check with the person you wish to nominate.

Our church directory will be out soon. If anyone would like to help put the directory together, please let Pastor Jim know.

Jim Rooney’s mother went home to be with the Lord. The service for her, Joyce Rooney, takes place on January 13th at 11AM at the Stevenson & Sons Funeral Home in Miles City. Please be praying for safe travel for those attending and for family members in their grief.

Sermon:

Today, Pastor Jim continued preparing us for a new pastor by preaching on 1 Timothy 3:14-16 in a sermon titled  “Behaving Properly in Church.” Perhaps you were thinking that we would hear a sermon on how we should behave. But, as Pastor pointed out, this is a letter by Paul to Timothy. So it advises him on how behave. But, it will help us as we think about who we are and the church in our search for a new pastor. Pastor Jim explored what the church is in three points.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, he reminded us that the Church is a family, the household of God. This description helps us remember that the church is not a building. We have a building in which to attend church, but we the congregation is what Christ would call His church. If this is true, we should see each other as family, and we should behave towards each other as family. Here we have some pertinent advice in Romans, love one another with brotherly love. To help us with an image, Pastor reminded use that mountain climbers climb roped together to look after each other in case one should fall. In church, we should be the same.

Further developing his first point, Pastor remarked that another way of thinking about this is that a Church is an assembly, the church of the Living God. After all, assembly means “called out ones.” When we are gathered to worship Him in our building, we are truly the church. Now, we are assembly of different believers. And, much like a machine made of different parts that are turning and rubbing on one another, and require lubrication, so do we. A machine requires oil to cut down on friction. We require the oil of the Holy Spirit, grace, which comes through submission to Him.

For Pastor’s final point, he remarked that the Church is a necessity, and the pillar and ground of truth. Of course, the church stands for the absolute truth of God’s word, teaching and defending that truth today against relativism. Useful for us in our search for a pastor is a list of qualities in this verse for a pastor to serve God well. In this section of scripture, Paul alludes to the beauty of a famous pagan temple to remark that we should be beautiful and attractive to the world in representing Jesus.

To conclude, we should consider ourselves as part of the church, and see ourselves from God’s perspective. If we love Him well, we will attract others to the real church, the living stones.

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.

Lastly, if you would like to see all the services, you can find them here.

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