Bible Verses for Sunday Service March 5, 2023
Habakkuk 3:4
His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
Hebrews 9:22
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Announcements:
Thank you to all those faithful church members who turned out to help make the Awana Grand Prix a success. It was a great race day with 26 cars registered. Besides the racing, the church served a hot dog lunch.
Daylight Savings Time begins next Sunday at 2AM. So please remember to put your clocks forward next Saturday so you aren’t late for church.
Awana awards night is April 5th at 6:30 to 8PM. If you’ve helped with Awana or you have a child in the program, please be sure to attend to support this wonderful program to reach children with Christ.
On March 16th at 7PM, the deacons will meet at the home of Phil Witschi to discuss purchasing round tables for the fellowship hall, and the need to hire a janitor to clean the church.
Steve Jones announced that he will be moving to New Mexico shortly to be with his daughter to help with adoptions she and her husband are planning. We will all miss Steve.
On April 20, LaVie will host 321 Improv, a Christian improv group. Laughter will fill that night, along fun and prizes. Everyone is welcome, but it is geared towards youth ages 11-18. While it is a fundraiser for LaVie, SBC will receive free tickets for their youth groups. Pastor Jim needs to know by Feb 28 how many tickets to request. You can find more information on the church bulletin board.
Special: Mixed Quartet
As listed in the church program, we had a mixed quartet performing “How I praise Thee, precious Savior.” If you would just like to watch this aspect of the service, or listen again to this hymn, you can watch here, or you can watch online.
Sermon:
Preaching through the Gospel of Luke, Pastor spoke to us on Luke 5:20-26, a sermon with the title “The Greatest Miracle.” This is the second part of the sermon last week about the healing of the paralyzed man lowered by his friends through a hole they made in the roof. Pastor asked us to consider that Luke chronicles a lot of Jesus’ miracles, but this is the best one, or greatest, for its illustration of Jesus forgiveness of sin.
What makes the miracle wonderful is Jesus actually performs two miracles, firstly forgiving the man’s sins then healing his physical body. It is a story of forgiveness of sins granted. In talking to the assembled crowd, Jesus firstly addresses the problem, the problem of sin. Perhaps the man’s physical condition is a reflection of his spiritual condition. Sin has crippled him. He needs, like we all do, forgiveness of his sins. Like the man, we all have to accept the solution, that Jesus has the power to forgive sins because he is God. Pharisees assembled here found this part of the miracle too much. They understood correctly, only God could grant forgiveness of sins. But, couldn’t accept that Jesus was God.
However, Jesus validated what could not be seen by the people present, the forgiveness of sins by a lesser miracle, the miracle of physical healing extended to the man. With this second miracle, the only choice for those present is to recognize the authority of Christ. Once we do that we can move on to act on the authority of Christ in our own lives. We enjoy, are free, from our sins in Jesus. We can show that to others, and reach them with the good news of this forgiveness of sins that anyone can have in Christ.
In the last part of the story, we learn a key detail of the healed man’s attitude to the miracles he experienced. We learn he went home, walked home, and gave God the glory for this healing. This is something we can do in our daily lives, give God the glory for the miracle we have experienced, the forgiveness of our sins, and the bountiful life we receive. Our lives will show a change through the blessing we receive. Something that was evident in John Newton’s life. Pastor included a quote from him in the bulletin: “I went to Africa that I might be able to sin to my heart’s content. I was a wild beast on the coast of Africa till the Lord caught and tamed me.” This is a perfect example of God’s blessing of salvation.
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.