Mark Community Service Letter Made Easy

Mark community service letter

hey everyone as we begin our online liturgy i just want to take a moment to let you know of a couple things wherever you are watching this video we have a link in our weekly viewpoint in it you'll find a collection of different resources and upcoming events and ministries to help draw us into the life of our community this week's viewpoint has some upcoming ministries and events along with a pastor connection q a that i did with sam again you can find it right here under the online liturgy or in the video description wherever you're watching this we hope that somewhere in these links and descriptions you find a next step for yourself into the richness of life together as we seek to learn from jesus towards that end if you are new to our digital space we would love to connect with you you can find an online connection card at the bottom of the viewpoint along with a prayer request form so we can support and join you in prayer and if you're currently joining us for our youtube premiere say hi in the chat or leave a comment at any point during or after the liturgy let's use the tools at our fingertips to create connections with one another regardless of where we are gathered and above all may your hearts be opened and expectant because god is here and jesus invites you to bring all that you are and all that you are currently carrying into his presence in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit let's come to seek the face of god [Music] together [Music] [Music] [Music] hey everyone and welcome again to another weekend another online liturgy joining together wherever we are worshiping together hearing from god's word and i pray peace upon you and as we go through epiphany another good reminder we've talked about the magi but christ is indeed for everyone that's the theme of epiphany and that does not that can be any people group or demographic it can be somebody like paul or saul at the time who was seen as an enemy to the gospel and yet on the road to damascus encounters christ and so let's keep in mind that we carry this gospel this kingdom for everyone there is no one that is left out so let's read our call to worship on the screen in front of you together almighty god by grace alone you call us and accept us in your service strengthen us by your spirit and make us worthy of your call through jesus christ our lord who lives and reigns with you and the holy spirit one god now and forever amen [Music] do all creatures of our god and king lift up your voice and with a sink oh praise him hallelujah vow burning sun with gold indeed thou silver moon with softer gleam oh praise him oh praise him [Music] hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thou rushing wind that are so strong he clouds that sail in heaven along oh praise him [Music] hallelujah without rising moon in praise rejoice ye lights of evening find a voice oh praise him oh praise him [Music] hallelujah hallelujah [Music] let all things creator bless [Music] and worship him in humbleness oh praise him hallelujah praise praise the father praise the son and praise the spirit three in one o praise him oh praise him hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah [Music] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] [Applause] hallelujah praise praise the father praise the son and praise the spirit three in one oh praise him oh praise him hallelujah hallelujah [Music] hallelujah how great the chasm that lay between us how high the mountain i could not climb [Music] in desperation i turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night then through the darkness your lovingkindness tore through the shadows of my soul [Music] the work is finished the end is written jesus christ my living home [Music] who could imagine so great a mercy what heart could fathom such boundless grace the god of ages step down from glory to where my sin and bear my shame the cross has spoken i am forgiven the king of kings calls me his own beautiful savior i'm yours forever jesus [Music] [Laughter] praise christ one who set me free hallelujah death has lost its grip on me you have broken every day there's salvation in your name jesus christ then came the morning that sealed the promise your buried body began to breathe out of the silence the roaring lion declared the grave has no claim on me then came the morning that sealed the promise your parrot body began to breathe out of the silence the rory lion declared the grave has no claim on me jesus yours is a victory hallelujah praise the one who set me free hallelujah that has lost its grip on me you have broken every day there's salvation in your name jesus christ hallelujah praise the one who set me free hallelujah death has lost its grip on me you have broken every day there's salvation in your name jesus christ my little jesus christ oh god you are [Music] as we do each week let's turn to one another speaking words of blessing and doing so letting it mold us in and grow our faith saying these words that have power in the name of christ and so as i say them to you and i'll say them to my friend bruce peace of christ be with you bruce hey south you thanks for joining us this weekend and we're glad that you can be a part of what god is doing here through the various ministries in what is unfortunately a limited capacity yet still doesn't limit what god can do and is still doing i think it's a fair assessment to say our ministries might not be performing at their regular levels as a result of the circumstances around us but to say that there isn't a movement of god in these ministries ultimately gives us the undue credit of god's work when things were good which should not take the ownership or faithless or responsibility away from us but recognize that the power which brings people to serve to follow to surrender to christ has always been and always will be a work of the spirit in junior high ministry leaders are giving of their time to serve with faithfulness creativity despite everything that is holding us back the normal rewards and fruit that our leaders see which encourages them to continue to serve as so far few and in between yet they still remain serving it would be wrong with me to take credit for this as i feel emotionally weak from this whole pandemic but in my weakness he is made strong what a beautiful reminder for myself that i am to be faithful to god's call and by his power there will be fruit to use what paul says in first corinthians 3 we plant we water but god is the one who grows the planter the waterer are nothing without the growth our call is to be faithful faithful to sow and to water and ultimately trust in god to grow this weekend we want us to recognize that giving is a part of faithfulness to sow and water with our finances with our service with our prayers to the various ministries here at south hew or other places where christ's name is being made known that by our faithfulness to these things god will grow we're called to be faithful in our giving but be encouraged that in our giving by faith god will not be sparingly in growth our various ministries might be limited now but let's sow into what god is going to grow and for those who have been faithfully giving to south you through our finances through your service and prayer thank you for your generosity and trust to see what god will grow here at selfie if god is prompting you to give financially you can do so through our website or on realm or even by dropping it off and if you feel called to serve or pray you can get involved by emailing connections at southviewchurch.com would you join me as we pray together heavenly father may our hearts be aligned to faithfully sow and water what is before us and to trust you with the growth [Music] and a season riddled with fear confusion division and distrust may you work among us by your spirit may we be people marked by the peace and hope in you and may nothing else in our lives attempt to take that place for our extended family at trinity baptist church in shepherd king lutheran church may they also be marked by your spirit and experience growth only you can provide we ask for your kingdom to come and for your will to be done by the name of christ and by the power of the spirit we pray amen [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hello friends so good to be joining together with you again as we continue in our teaching series that we've called when followers of jesus miss a mark as we consider some of those times when christians don't look or act very much like jesus and today we're considering a topic that is one of the most divisive between our culture and followers of jesus in fact in a survey done by the barnard research group of 16 to 29 year olds it was this topic that those younger adults identified as their greatest disagreement with the church 92 percent of the young adults surveyed who were outside the church said that their number one perception of christianity and christians is that they are anti-gay so how do we do a teaching series on followers of jesus missing the mark and not talk about this topic now my intent today is not really to look at the biblical teaching on sex or sexuality or homosexuality i mean we've done that previously in a teaching series that you can watch or listen to on our website the series is called sex and sexuality i'd invite you to do that if that would be of help and just so you know in that series we really just kind of walk through why we believe that according to scripture homosexual behavior not homosexual orientation but homosexual behavior is against what god desires that it's not in line with god's will so i want to be clear i mean what i'm sharing today i'm sharing as one who does not affirm homosexual behavior and i fully realize that some of you might disagree with me on that but again that's not really what i'm focusing on today and the reason i'm even mentioning our view on this at the start is because some of you won't be able to hear me without me noting that up front and i also realize that some who disagree with me on this you won't want to hear whatever else i say because of what i've just shared but i do hope you can continue i hope you can listen so what today are we focusing on we're focusing on how we walk with how we treat those who would identify as homosexual or more broadly who would identify as part of the lgbtq community now dr david kinnaman he's a president of the barna research group and he wrote a book called unchristian in which he kind of just lays out the results of the research they did with young adults to find out their perceptions of christianity in the church and this research really began by laying out 20 terms that young adults again who were outside the church could choose from 10 of the terms were positive 10 of the terms were negative and they asked these young adults and which of these terms best describes christians from your perspective and experience and the positive terms the ones we would hope would be on the top of their list compassionate caring understanding merciful those didn't even make the top five to those young people really the top five included those things that we've been talking about in this series narrow-minded sheltered hypocritical judgmental but the number one term that they used to describe followers of jesus was anti-gay 92 percent of them put that in their top five now dr kinnaman who is himself a follower of jesus shared this after having these discussions with these young adults who they surveyed listen the most common perception of christians today is that we are anti-homosexual they actually say that we so show special contempt towards people who are gay or lesbian that we don't have the ability to love these individuals they say that we've made it so easy to talk about this sin in black and white terms that we've lost the ability to love those who identify as lgbtq as jesus what this is a generation that wants to do what jesus did to get into people's lives to understand what makes them tick to hear where they are broken or hurting so when they see a group of people who are separating from that who say we won't hang out with prostitutes and sinners like jesus did they rightly criticize that group and say they're not walking as jesus would so this is what is quite fascinating and really very sad these young adults are saying we know jesus hung around with prostitutes and sinners and tax collectors and likely homosexuals but we don't see you christians acting much like jesus in fact you seem to have a special contempt for anyone identifying as lgbtq now i realize that for some people today i mean they would say unless you affirm homosexual behavior you are unloving you are homophobic you can't be loving they would suggest if you don't support their behavior i mean so is that true i mean can you love someone even though you don't support their behavior and choices and yes absolutely in fact just talk to parents of young children parents love their kids all the time even when they don't affirm their behavior and we also need to realize in this i recognize it that there is an offensiveness to the gospel of christ to the teaching and guidance of scripture there is we realize that it's often misunderstood but again that's not what i'm wanting to address today i'm really talking about when we do actually treat others with contempt or with a lack of authentic love and what i'm suggesting what this teaching series is really is about is that perhaps we need to listen to and and really just kind of consider if there are areas where we rightly do need to be challenged and grow even change to help us be more authentically like jesus and it's important we wrestle with this friends because some of these kids are your children they're your kids your grandkids your nieces and nephews and if the demographic of south you is much like society then somewhere around five percent of our community would identify as lgbtq so how do we walk with how to respond to those who say i'm gay or i'm lesbian and my desire today is to perhaps kind of just stretch us a little in light of god's word to i hope mold us in christ's likeness and really also this might raise more questions than it answers and that isn't necessarily bad so even if we believe that homosexual behavior is against what god desires how do we walk with those who identify as lgbtq and and let me note in that i i don't think there's some kind of monolithic lgbtq community where everyone within it has the exact same views or experiences in life by lgbtq today i'm just simply referring to anyone who'd say i'm lesbian or i'm gay or i'm bisexual or i'm trans or i'm queer questioning how do we walk with them now as we consider this i think we need to differentiate between how we walk with fellow believers and on the other hand how we walk with those who are not members of the church body those really who don't know christ because scripture makes that differentiation and really a prime example of that being what the apostle paul writes in first corinthians 5. and let me just read an extended passage of what paul says on this this is first corinthians 5. and as we hear it remember this is a word of god and this is what paul says we'll pick it up in verse 9. i wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people not at all meaning the sexual sexually immoral of this world or the greedy or swindlers or idolaters since then you'd need to go out of the world but now i'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother meaning they're a fellow follower of jesus if he or she is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater reviler drunkard or swindler not even to eat with one for what i have to do what do i have to do with judging outsiders is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge god judges those outside okay so we read that and think but every one of us is guilty of sin even some of these every week so if we followers if we followed this how would anybody be left in the church here well understand paul makes clear elsewhere he is talking here about followers of christ who are walking in just an ongoing pattern of sin and they are doing so with really a defiance towards god they aren't broken they aren't grieving about their sin they really are celebrating their sin and that's the situation paul is addressing there in corinth even so these are really difficult words for our day right so is that what paul really means and let's be sure to note he's not just talking about sexual immorality let alone homosexual immorality here be clear he's also talking about followers of jesus who are greedy who are idolaters who are deceitful but in love in love we are to encourage and and really even challenge one another this way in the body of christ so really this this is very sobering exhortation for each one of us within the body of christ about our own lives truly am i treating the sin in my own life too casually i mean before we point to others we first need to ask ourselves this question what paul is saying here so that's paul got paul's guidance we could say for among the membership of the church body and again i realize that there are many questions that this passage raises that we just can't address fully today but we can't read first corinthians 5 really isolated from the rest of the new testament so what other guidance does scripture give us now one of the terms that's used in the new testament to describe those who are unbelievers and to describe believers who are not repenting is to call them gentiles and tax collectors and really it's that term gentiles and tax collectors that jesus uses in matthew 18 to describe believers believers who are walking in sin where jesus says if a believer continues in a sin after being confronted three times matthew 18 17 let him beat you as a gentile and a tax collector because in in that culture in that day those who are viewed as being farthest away from faith were the gentiles the non-jews and the deceitful tax collectors okay so then i think we can then rightly ask how then did jesus treat gentiles and tax collectors well it was far different from the shunning kind of rejection and self-righteous attitude that's so often practiced by too many christians i mean when we see jesus engaging gentiles and tax collectors or kind of any group of unbelievers we see someone who gives huge amounts of time and tension and grace to them i mean so much so that the religious leaders accused jesus of being one of those pagans because he spent so much time with him in fact listen to how matthew put it this is in matthew chapter 11 and verse 19. this what they said look at jesus a glutton and a drunkard a friend of tax collectors and sinners i mean jesus showed just extravagant love and respect to the gentiles and tax collectors he didn't ignore their sin he certainly didn't condone it i mean for example when there was a woman who was actually caught in the act of adultery and she was brought to jesus by a mob that was condemning her jesus forgave her and said go and sin no more i mean he acknowledged that what she did was wrong but also gave her almost shocking mercy and grace that was his pattern and we also need to note that jesus spent just a great deal of time with such people he would truly he would just kind of go out of his way to do so okay zacchaeus you crooked tax collector up in that tree get down out of there we're going to go have a dinner together or what about matthew matthew the author of the gospel of matthew his job was a tax collector when jesus said to him come follow me so again how then do we walk with those who identify as lgbtq and we rightly ask what would jesus do well jesus had this way of putting people before rules he always did it you know john 4 it's a another beautiful passage of scripture describing just a profound very memorable story and it's it's so defining about jesus because at this point in john 4 jesus has gone into samaria and remember jews didn't associate with samaritans because they viewed them as filthy godless betrayers but jesus he's traveling through samaria with his disciples and his he sends his disciples into town to get something to eat but he just stops about noon at a water hole now anyone who is jewish that read john's gospel would know where this was heading because important things happened at wells at these watering holes do you know what happens at watering holes boys meet girls at watering holes it was true in the bible it's true today i mean everyone who read this would know isaac met his wife rebecca at a well jacob met his wife rachel at a well moses met his wife zipporah at a well and in first samuel 9 it talks about this future king saul meeting a group of women biowell so all that that's a background to the story in john 4. so here's jesus he's sitting at a well and he's waiting for a woman to show up now he's not looking for a wife because he has a very different agenda and she shows up this is what we read john 4 7 a woman from samaria came to draw water jesus said to her give me a drink now she was surprised at this because jews didn't drink after samaritans using their cup it was it was just too intimate and not something you would do even so jesus please give me a drink and he takes a drink and then he says to her woman if you knew who you were talking to i would give you living water that you would never be thirsty again with and she said i want some of that water and jesus said well okay then go get your husband and that was kind of the way back in those days before you wore wedding rings to find out is this person married or not are they single and this woman says i don't have a husband and jesus said right you told me the truth you don't have a husband you've been married and divorced five times and the guy you're living with right now he's not your husband and then he goes on to reveal to her that he's the messiah so she goes back into town and she brings as many people as she can back to jesus at the well and we read this in verse 39 many samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony okay okay so i'd invite you to search very carefully in john 4 for the place where jesus first lectures her on the sin of living with a man outside of marriage now it's not that jesus didn't think that was important it's just that jesus doesn't talk about it at all here i just want you to search to see where he says before you tell anybody else about me kind of get straighten up your life and get out of your sin he doesn't do that he simply loves her and offers her living water and this woman of broken sinful serial immorality becomes the first missionary and evangelist to her own people and and many them put their faith and trust in him because of her because that's what jesus was like so today i want to invite us again to be those kind of followers of this jesus this jesus kind of christian again we may or may not all agree about homosexuality i'm fairly confident we don't all but we are all being stretched trying to figure things out here but here's the thing that i think we can agree on jesus loved people he loved people that other people wouldn't love they would look down their nose at them but jesus he would reach out to them now i know i know that some of us have a fear that if we walk lovingly with somebody from the lgbtq community we might in some way miscommunicate that we affirm or condone their behavior and just a few suggestions on that the lgbtq community knows we don't agree with their behavior and and secondly if you say what what about my kids what am i about my kids misunderstanding what we're doing talk to them about it explain it to them how we're called to live as we follow jesus i mean jillian and i had those conversations many times with our kids as they were growing up that that's part of parental discipleship but above all look again at jesus and how many times people accused him of affirming sinful behavior even so he loved unbelievers and tax collectors you know a fellow pastor shared this story and i saved it for this message today and really you'll see it's quite similar to the other stories that we've been hearing in the series a woman named wendy she wrote this pastor i'm a lesbian who is a partner and three children i've never been to your church but this email is not about being gay or about the church's stance on being gay it's about one of your members whose name is carol carol lives next door to me she was one of the first neighbors to come and say hello when we moved in and then wendy shared how they had previously lived in another neighborhood and the people there had so harassed her children her and her partner that they had to move from that neighborhood to find another home so she was understandably anxious about the people who are going to be her new neighbors but she wrote this carol lives next door to me and she was one of the first neighbors to come and say hello to me she was warm and inviting and one day she invited us to church so i told her that i was gay she didn't raise an eyebrow or frown she just invited me to church again so i checked out your church's website and saw that your church has talked about this issue and not just praying that it would somehow go away i've never valued a church by the number of people in the pews or the amount of money in the offering what i am moved by is a woman so touched by this jesus that she came into my life with grace and she lives a life that so many could learn from she opens her home to people in need she checks on those who aren't feeling well and she shared christ with a woman that she knew was gay because it was in her heart to do it i've been truly blessed by this woman and am hoping to visit your church in the future now as i read wendy's letter i couldn't help but think that carol this follower of jesus just profoundly emulated jesus at that well in samaria as she simply just kind of reached out in christ's love to those around her and friends we are called as modeled by our king jesus to be merciful ones and when we are when we are full of mercy people see christ in us and when we live that way what we offer to people is the love and welcome that jesus offered when he offered living water to a woman at a well you know i am very aware that for a number of us joining in this is likely far from a theoretical or just an intellectual issue or question it it's one that you are reflecting about deeply yourself perhaps about your own sexuality or perhaps that of someone you care about or love maybe a friend or a family member and just my heart is with you in this and really if you'd like to talk more about this please don't hesitate to let one of us pastors know we would love to talk with you but i also want to encourage you with the words that jesus says as much today as when he first expressed it because he put it this way in matthew 11. jesus says to you even right now come to me all you who labor in our heavy life and i will give you rest to take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle and humble in heart and in me you will find rest for your souls because jesus alone friends is our hope so let's pray to our god will you pray with me in our gracious father i pray for those who are asking questions perhaps struggling grieving would you comfort and guide them father and father for us as a church body would you forgive us for the ways we have not reflected your love your grace and would you lead us would you empower us by the holy spirit of christ himself to express your truth and your love to all people this we pray in the wonderful name of jesus and all god's people say amen glad to be joining together friends so glad and i do hope you can join in next weekend and next weekend we're going to be celebrating communion together so i'd invite you encourage you during this week if you can get elements for communion together just some pieces of bread and a cup of juice of some kind together for us to celebrate this when we gather next weekend and again encourage you towards the alpha course online that's going to begin this monday january 25th it's a a great ministry to join in and reflect on some of these great questions of life together but as you do walk into this week of hell of whatever it holds for you now may the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of his holy spirit this you may weak you may abound in hope in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit amen [Music] [Music] you