Bible Verse for Sunday Service May 18, 2025
Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations
Announcements:
Ladies Bible Study, 10 AM, Last study for the summer: This Tuesday will be the last meeting for the summer. After the study, the ladies will go out for lunch. Thanks to Sandy Schlosser for leading the group.
VBS Workers Meeting May 21 at 6:30 PM: we will have just one meeting to get organized for VBS, so this is an important meeting to attend. Let Natasha know if you can serve in our VBS will help out in anyway.
Improving Your Health Wednesday 5 PM: because of the VBS meeting, the group will be meeting at 5 PM
Vacation Bible School June 16 – 20th, 9 AM to 11:45 AM: The VBS theme this year is “Wonder Junction” and we feature old West decorations, and a focus on the person of Jesus Christ. The children will learn who Jesus is, and what he has done for us. We look forward to an exciting week and ask for your prayers as we prepare.
VBS cards on the foyer table: help to get the word out by letting families know if about upcoming VBS. There are small business size cards on the foyer table for you to use to invite others.
LaVie Baby Bottle Campaign: We are giving everyone an opportunity to give to the LaVie Clinic’s baby bottle campaign. Your gift will be used to fund the services offered by LaVie, which assist women facing unplanned pregnancies. Use the bottle for your gift, and then bring it back and place it in the bag anytime in the next four Sundays, by Father’s Day.
Sermon:
Reverting back to his series in Revelation after Mothers Day, Pastor Jim spoke to us on Revelation 2:1-7 in a sermon titled “A Not So Perfect Church.” Pastor introduced the idea by first reminding us that Jesus analysis of these five churches in Revelation 2 is one for the ages. It describes structural problems with churches then and now. As Pastor observed, as there are no perfect people here on earth, there are no perfect churches. But, you could take this survey of churches as a way to look for a church in which you could serve and worship, as if you had moved and were looking for a new church. With that in mind, Pastor looked at this first portion of Chapter 2 in four points.
To begin, Pastor looked at Jesus role in the New Testament church, He is the overseer. He powers it, and does everything in His church. He is present in the church, and by seeing everything, He has knowledge of His church. From all of this, He is in an unique and perfect position to offer feedback on how His church was doing. In the review that follows, Jesus illustrates He understands human nature, choosing to commend first, then to point out defects.
In first speaking to the church at Ephesus, Jesus commends the church. He notices its diligence in carrying out its mission and service to its community. He also praised them for their discernment. No false teacher could get by them. So, this church had some good qualities. But, in all things churches peopled with humans will have problems.
Jesus having found good, now explains to the church its problems. They had let their love of him grow cold. Perhaps, no longer motivated by His love, the members had fallen into routine and mindless service. In other words, they had left their first love, Him. Besides remarking on this, Jesus explained where this leads, losing their light or their witness. So, effective Christianity, disciplining and evangelizing, requires the motivating love of Jesus.
After an analysis, good and bad, a prescription for change naturally follows, and Jesus next gives his prescription. Firstly, remember, go back and rekindle that love that started you on this path. Also, repent. Perhaps some sin, pride, or self satisfaction is making that love cold. Take care of the sin by recognizing it, repenting, and working on restoration with Jesus. With all this done, refocusing on the Jesus and the mission of the church is possible.
This analysis and admonition can help us. We must not lose our first love. If we left it, He doesn’t change, we can return and go back to Him. Pastor advised that this is obviously a choice. So, he advised us, make the right choice..
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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