What is the purpose of coming to church?
According to John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, our goal is to become “perfected in love”, by which Wesley meant we are to achieve that point, somewhere in this life or more likely in the next life, where we want nothing except what God wants, where we are willing to do anything God asks of us, where we are so completely in love with God that God’s will is our will, just as God’s will was also the will of Jesus Christ.
And so, when we come to church, when we walk in our daily life, our goal is to come closer and closer to God.
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19; Acts 2:42-47
King David showed us this desire to come closer to God and to do God’s will.
But doing God’s will requires faith in the goodness, the love of God, and the capacity of God to protect us. And faith often requires courage and bravery.
In our Old Testament reading today, we have an important date in the history of the world. This is the day that the Ark of God’s Covenant, the golden box that was made to contain the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s Rod, and some manna was taken to enter Jerusalem for the first time. To the people of Jerusalem, to their King David, to the people of Israel, the Ark represented the presence of God on earth.
Those who read carefully will have noticed that there was a gap in our reading from 2 Samuel chapter 6. In the first section, the Ark is loaded on a cart, contrary to the instructions that had been given to Moses and Joshua a couple of centuries earlier by God. There was an unfortunate incident along the way. The Ark slipped on the cart, and Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark, assuming that it was better for him to catch the Ark than let it fall into the dirt.
But God did not see it that way. The dirt was neutral, but Uzzah, like all men, contained sin. Uzzah died from simply touching the Ark. David and his nobles decided there was wisdom in stopping the procession and leaving the Ark at a nearby home, the home of Obed-edom. And there the Ark remained for three months. Until David courageously decided to make another effort.
You can imagine David’s counselors. “We tried and a man was killed!”, they said. “That Ark is dangerous, “ another may have said. “We can’t afford to try that again, “ a third said. But David knew that God is good, that there are tremendous blessings in getting closer and closer to God, and David had the courage to face down those who were consumed by fear. And so David’s army was sent for the Ark once again.
This time, the Ark was carried on two poles by a group of men, as commanded by God. As the Ark entered Jerusalem, ram’s horns were sounded, cattle were sacrificed, and David danced before the Ark, whirling around in joy. It was a wonderful occasion, God had entered Jerusalem, and David understood this was a time of joy. Yet his wife Michal, the daughter of David’s predecessor King Saul, was not impressed. In fact, she despised David for his joyful dancing display.
The worship of God has always provoked strong reactions. In David, the man famously said to be “a man after God’s own heart”, the reaction was joy. And David did not confine his joy to a smile. David shouted, he had ram’s horns blown, he sacrificed valuable cattle, he had the palace grill turned up high to grill those steaks, he had everyone turn out, and David danced in his ephod, a gem-encrusted linen robe that was the day’s equivalent of white tie and tuxedo!
Does the worship of God bring you joy? Full out joy? Or do you just smile a little bit because you are concerned someone human is watching, and they might despise you just a little bit?
There is something of the world in us, the culture around us that lets us go wild with joy when the Mountaineers or other sports teams win, screaming and shouting and throwing things into the air, but when the worship of God is the order of the day, we might smile – but not too much.
The world around us feels uncomfortable with the our joy at knowing the Lord, so the culture puts pressure on us. People say, “If you are really a Christian, then you shouldn’t be happy, you should be somber, you should keep your head down, you must sit in church without moving, and above all, don’t tell me you have fun in church.”
And why is that?
I have a theory. My theory is that the somberness of church is because of two wars.
First, there was the great English Civil War. The victorious troops of Oliver Cromwell, the people we know as the Puritans, were against all art, all statues, all beauty in their churches because their leaders considered them to be idols. And the war brought most of the ordinary people of England into the Puritan Army, where joyful people became suspect, possibly spies amongst the army. And after the war, many of these people and their children moved to Massachusetts, where they began the solemn Puritans we know from history lessons.
Yet, gradually, over the centuries, particularly whenever many people heard the Gospel for the first time, there was shouting, joy, running, screaming, even dancing for joy as the Gospel was preached. The Great Methodist-led Revivals of the 18th and 19th century, and even the Pentecostal Revival of the early 1900’s were filled with joy!
Still, hundreds of years after the Puritans, during World War II, a group of young men were drafted into service. And they were trained by sitting through army lectures about weapons, about tactics, and about the evil that they were fighting. These lectures were serious, for life and death might hang on remembering every detail of a lecture.
When these men, who had seen how a bit of lightness or comedy could get a man killed, when these men came back after the war, they were deeply changed. They were no longer the young, happy boys that were drafted. Now, they were serious men who had seen terrible things, Hell up close, and they took their seriousness into church, for Christ had brought them through the tough times. But they carried their sadness and their memories of Hell with them.
And so church became a serious place, and if their children moved in church, there were instant consequences. And so, a tradition of sitting still in church, of church being a joyless, somber place developed in most of our churches. Satan may not have conquered the world through Hitler, but he drove the expression of joy out of most of our churches. And when that joy left our churches, our desire to commit our lives fully to following Christ left.
But that wasn’t the way things were in the early church...
In our reading from Acts, we see the church as it was a few months after the Resurrection of Jesus. Peter preached a great sermon on the day of Pentecost, 40 days after the first Easter, and 3000 men were baptized that day. (Who knows how many women and children?) Soon after that, talking about this early church of 3000 or so people in Acts 2:42-47:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.
Then fear (many translations say “awe”) came over everyone, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as anyone had a need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with a joyful and humble attitude, praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved.
Let’s look at this in some detail.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.”
The first wave of early Christians understood that there were four important things in their life which overtook their former lives:
First, the studied scripture under the Twelve. It is critical that we understand the Word of God, otherwise our view of God and Christ falls back to mere opinion without anything to back up those opinions. But it takes faith and courage to change our routines, to join in a midweek study or to read the Bible daily.
Second, they came together in fellowship. Christian friendship, coming together regularly, is critical to keep us focused. I’ve constantly found that the Christians who develop the fastest are most involved in the fellowship, making deep, deep friends in the church. It takes faith in God’s goodness and courage to meet new people.
Third, the early church was devoted to the breaking of bread – to eating together and to having regular Communion. The loaves of bread were actually broken during the meal, since this brought a symbol of people who trusted one another well enough to share a loaf of bread – expensive food for the day, a bit of an investment on the family that brought the loaf - but also it meant those who ate trusted the personal hygiene of the people they were sharing with. It takes faith in God’s protection and courage to eat together, to share food with strangers.
And they prayed together. When we pray together, we share each other’s burdens, we care for each other, we fall in love with each other as we go through hardships together. Praying for one another – in fellowship and breaking bread together – means that we become entangled in one another’s lives, like strands of spaghetti on a plate. It takes faith in God’s power and courage to open up to each other, to become vulnerable about our lives to others.
Fear (or awe) of God came over everyone, as the apostles performed miracles and signs. This was not done in isolation, but was observed by those entangled strands of spaghetti people that were the early church. A miracle on a lonely road is one thing – a miraculous healing at a neighborhood dinner is something that gets talked about.
All the believers were together and held all things in common. Did they give up legal title? Generally, no. But they sold their possessions and property – their extra land, their extra donkeys, their extra plates and clothing and furniture – and distributed the proceeds to all, as anyone had a need. They took care of each other.
Now comes the kicker – Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and they broke bread from house to house. It appears they got together every day, studying together every day and eating together. It doesn’t say this was a weekly thing but this had become their life! They just had to get together! It took faith in God and courage to change from their old routines to the new God-focused life.
And they ate their food together – how? – with a joyful and humble attitude, praising God and having favor with all the people. Their meals were joyful, they were humble people before God, they praised God – and everybody liked them.
What was the result?
Every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved. Their faith and courage was rewarded. Their fellowship grew quickly.
There is no greater joy to be found in this life – outside of meeting Jesus face-to-face – as there is when we lead someone we have cared about and prayed about to Christ. And learning how to do this consistently is the best way to come to Christ ourselves, for to be successful we need to learn our Scripture, work on our personal holiness, learn to trust in God, and learn to follow Christ closely to become a disciple who can consistently lead others to Christ. And along the way, our church might grow a bit and our community might change a bit for the better. Imagine if everyone on the street you live on and the next street over became serious followers of Christ!
If you look at the church growth books, there are two basic ways a church is supposed to grow today.
First, there is the Attraction Model - The Purpose-Driven Church approach. Identify your market, develop programs for those people, get a bunch of young adults involved doing the work, pour on the money, and the church will grow as people are attracted by those big splashy programs.
Then, there is the Missional Church approach. Start your missions and encourage the people who come to your food pantry, your clothes closet, your thrift store to join in the mission and then join the church. But missions also take money and youthful energy.
Some years ago, I had a church that had no money – I think one person in the church had a job, the rest were retired or on some form of assistance. Saundra and I were the youth group. Where were the young adults who would do the work? Where was the money to put into the programs?
It was then that I went back to this part of the Book of Acts and asked, what did the early church do to grow their church?
The answer was pretty straight forward.
Deep teaching. Eat together often with Communion. Prayer. Help each other. And joyfully praise God to anybody and everybody that will listen, just like the early church, just like King David did when he danced into Jerusalem with the Ark.
Folks, we are not the Lions Club. We are not a PTA. We are not a Moose Lodge. We are a church.
That means we have the God behind us that can raise people from the dead. He wants us to tell people that story. God wants us to come close to God’s Son and wants us to praise God to everyone we meet. Do we have the faith and courage to do that?
How do we do that?
First, praise God for the weather. Praise God for the rain, praise God for the grass, praise God for the sunshine, praise God for our gardens.
Praise God for our good health. Praise God for our homes. Praise God for our cars. Praise God for our cellphones. Praise God for our families.
Praise God for what God teaches us through trials of money, trials of loneliness, trials of poor health, trials of loss. Give God the glory God deserves.
When you walk into the supermarket checkout line, if you are like most people, you have a full buggy, you let the woman with two items ahead of you. She says, “Thank you. You’re so nice!” How do we respond? “You’re welcome!”
NO! Try this: “Thank God! God told me to let you go ahead.” Give God the glory and praise! After all, if we are honest with ourselves, before Christ got a-hold of us, we would have simply been a jerk and stayed ahead in line.
Or someone says, “This cake is delicious.” We normally say, “Thank you” and smile smugly because WE made that cake.
DON’T! Try this instead: “Isn’t God good? God sent me a little old woman who taught me how to bake that cake about twenty years ago.”
Give God the glory for the things God has done. Don’t steal God's glory. Praise God!
Now…I want you to imagine the effect on people if you begin to praise God regularly.
Your friends and family will think you’ve gone a bit la-la! You know it and I know it. This is where our faith requires our courage and bravery.
But after they get used to this, after about six weeks, people will come to you with serious God-questions – because they’ve decided you talk so much about God that you must be an expert on God!
“Who me? A God expert? No way!”
But you told me you’ve attended this church for decades. Every decade, if you are a regular attender, you have heard 500 sermons. 20 years, a thousand sermons.
Compared to the average person outside this church, you are a God-expert – or you’ve been wasting your time here. Have faith and courage to know that you truly are that God-expert that your friends, neighbors, and family need.
Have confidence when they come to you for advice. Listen to them. Listen to your friends, neighbors, and family members when they ask you for deep, godly advice with their problems or questions.
Questions like: "That volcano in Hawaii, do you think God is trying to tell the people of Hawaii something?"
Or “Why do you think God is letting so many people overdose on drugs?”
Or more seriously: “Why do you think God let my unborn baby die?”
And folks, those are the deep questions people ask of godly friends, friends who seem to know something about God, friends who have shown the love of God to others, friends who do love their neighbor as themselves.
When you get those questions, don’t panic. Be glad. Because your friend has recognized Christ in you. So pray to Jesus under your breath to give you the answer. "Jesus, help me with this answer!" And He will give you that answer. He will.
Our midweek evening studies are going deeper on this subject. We’re learning how to lead people to Christ, how to get them over the barriers, how to answer their questions so that the Holy Spirit can save their souls from eternal separation from God. But it takes faith in God and courage to change our routines so that we can learn what God wants us to learn. (7 pm Tuesdays at Calvary. 6:30 pm Wednesdays at Mt. Clare.)
And it all begins when you are able to overcome your fears and praise God each day to your friends, neighbors, and family. It is amazing how something so simple can change a community.
If you have been a bit lax about praising God to your friends, neighbors, and family, I ask you to take a moment to pray for forgiveness for yourself, for guidance, and particularly for your friends, neighbors, and family who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
King David showed us this desire to come closer to God and to do God’s will.
But doing God’s will requires faith in the goodness, the love of God, and the capacity of God to protect us. And faith often requires courage and bravery.
In our Old Testament reading today, we have an important date in the history of the world. This is the day that the Ark of God’s Covenant, the golden box that was made to contain the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s Rod, and some manna was taken to enter Jerusalem for the first time. To the people of Jerusalem, to their King David, to the people of Israel, the Ark represented the presence of God on earth.
Those who read carefully will have noticed that there was a gap in our reading from 2 Samuel chapter 6. In the first section, the Ark is loaded on a cart, contrary to the instructions that had been given to Moses and Joshua a couple of centuries earlier by God. There was an unfortunate incident along the way. The Ark slipped on the cart, and Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark, assuming that it was better for him to catch the Ark than let it fall into the dirt.
But God did not see it that way. The dirt was neutral, but Uzzah, like all men, contained sin. Uzzah died from simply touching the Ark. David and his nobles decided there was wisdom in stopping the procession and leaving the Ark at a nearby home, the home of Obed-edom. And there the Ark remained for three months. Until David courageously decided to make another effort.
You can imagine David’s counselors. “We tried and a man was killed!”, they said. “That Ark is dangerous, “ another may have said. “We can’t afford to try that again, “ a third said. But David knew that God is good, that there are tremendous blessings in getting closer and closer to God, and David had the courage to face down those who were consumed by fear. And so David’s army was sent for the Ark once again.
This time, the Ark was carried on two poles by a group of men, as commanded by God. As the Ark entered Jerusalem, ram’s horns were sounded, cattle were sacrificed, and David danced before the Ark, whirling around in joy. It was a wonderful occasion, God had entered Jerusalem, and David understood this was a time of joy. Yet his wife Michal, the daughter of David’s predecessor King Saul, was not impressed. In fact, she despised David for his joyful dancing display.
The worship of God has always provoked strong reactions. In David, the man famously said to be “a man after God’s own heart”, the reaction was joy. And David did not confine his joy to a smile. David shouted, he had ram’s horns blown, he sacrificed valuable cattle, he had the palace grill turned up high to grill those steaks, he had everyone turn out, and David danced in his ephod, a gem-encrusted linen robe that was the day’s equivalent of white tie and tuxedo!
Does the worship of God bring you joy? Full out joy? Or do you just smile a little bit because you are concerned someone human is watching, and they might despise you just a little bit?
There is something of the world in us, the culture around us that lets us go wild with joy when the Mountaineers or other sports teams win, screaming and shouting and throwing things into the air, but when the worship of God is the order of the day, we might smile – but not too much.
The world around us feels uncomfortable with the our joy at knowing the Lord, so the culture puts pressure on us. People say, “If you are really a Christian, then you shouldn’t be happy, you should be somber, you should keep your head down, you must sit in church without moving, and above all, don’t tell me you have fun in church.”
And why is that?
I have a theory. My theory is that the somberness of church is because of two wars.
First, there was the great English Civil War. The victorious troops of Oliver Cromwell, the people we know as the Puritans, were against all art, all statues, all beauty in their churches because their leaders considered them to be idols. And the war brought most of the ordinary people of England into the Puritan Army, where joyful people became suspect, possibly spies amongst the army. And after the war, many of these people and their children moved to Massachusetts, where they began the solemn Puritans we know from history lessons.
Yet, gradually, over the centuries, particularly whenever many people heard the Gospel for the first time, there was shouting, joy, running, screaming, even dancing for joy as the Gospel was preached. The Great Methodist-led Revivals of the 18th and 19th century, and even the Pentecostal Revival of the early 1900’s were filled with joy!
Still, hundreds of years after the Puritans, during World War II, a group of young men were drafted into service. And they were trained by sitting through army lectures about weapons, about tactics, and about the evil that they were fighting. These lectures were serious, for life and death might hang on remembering every detail of a lecture.
When these men, who had seen how a bit of lightness or comedy could get a man killed, when these men came back after the war, they were deeply changed. They were no longer the young, happy boys that were drafted. Now, they were serious men who had seen terrible things, Hell up close, and they took their seriousness into church, for Christ had brought them through the tough times. But they carried their sadness and their memories of Hell with them.
And so church became a serious place, and if their children moved in church, there were instant consequences. And so, a tradition of sitting still in church, of church being a joyless, somber place developed in most of our churches. Satan may not have conquered the world through Hitler, but he drove the expression of joy out of most of our churches. And when that joy left our churches, our desire to commit our lives fully to following Christ left.
But that wasn’t the way things were in the early church...
In our reading from Acts, we see the church as it was a few months after the Resurrection of Jesus. Peter preached a great sermon on the day of Pentecost, 40 days after the first Easter, and 3000 men were baptized that day. (Who knows how many women and children?) Soon after that, talking about this early church of 3000 or so people in Acts 2:42-47:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.
Then fear (many translations say “awe”) came over everyone, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as anyone had a need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with a joyful and humble attitude, praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved.
Let’s look at this in some detail.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.”
The first wave of early Christians understood that there were four important things in their life which overtook their former lives:
First, the studied scripture under the Twelve. It is critical that we understand the Word of God, otherwise our view of God and Christ falls back to mere opinion without anything to back up those opinions. But it takes faith and courage to change our routines, to join in a midweek study or to read the Bible daily.
Second, they came together in fellowship. Christian friendship, coming together regularly, is critical to keep us focused. I’ve constantly found that the Christians who develop the fastest are most involved in the fellowship, making deep, deep friends in the church. It takes faith in God’s goodness and courage to meet new people.
Third, the early church was devoted to the breaking of bread – to eating together and to having regular Communion. The loaves of bread were actually broken during the meal, since this brought a symbol of people who trusted one another well enough to share a loaf of bread – expensive food for the day, a bit of an investment on the family that brought the loaf - but also it meant those who ate trusted the personal hygiene of the people they were sharing with. It takes faith in God’s protection and courage to eat together, to share food with strangers.
And they prayed together. When we pray together, we share each other’s burdens, we care for each other, we fall in love with each other as we go through hardships together. Praying for one another – in fellowship and breaking bread together – means that we become entangled in one another’s lives, like strands of spaghetti on a plate. It takes faith in God’s power and courage to open up to each other, to become vulnerable about our lives to others.
Fear (or awe) of God came over everyone, as the apostles performed miracles and signs. This was not done in isolation, but was observed by those entangled strands of spaghetti people that were the early church. A miracle on a lonely road is one thing – a miraculous healing at a neighborhood dinner is something that gets talked about.
All the believers were together and held all things in common. Did they give up legal title? Generally, no. But they sold their possessions and property – their extra land, their extra donkeys, their extra plates and clothing and furniture – and distributed the proceeds to all, as anyone had a need. They took care of each other.
Now comes the kicker – Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and they broke bread from house to house. It appears they got together every day, studying together every day and eating together. It doesn’t say this was a weekly thing but this had become their life! They just had to get together! It took faith in God and courage to change from their old routines to the new God-focused life.
And they ate their food together – how? – with a joyful and humble attitude, praising God and having favor with all the people. Their meals were joyful, they were humble people before God, they praised God – and everybody liked them.
What was the result?
Every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved. Their faith and courage was rewarded. Their fellowship grew quickly.
There is no greater joy to be found in this life – outside of meeting Jesus face-to-face – as there is when we lead someone we have cared about and prayed about to Christ. And learning how to do this consistently is the best way to come to Christ ourselves, for to be successful we need to learn our Scripture, work on our personal holiness, learn to trust in God, and learn to follow Christ closely to become a disciple who can consistently lead others to Christ. And along the way, our church might grow a bit and our community might change a bit for the better. Imagine if everyone on the street you live on and the next street over became serious followers of Christ!
If you look at the church growth books, there are two basic ways a church is supposed to grow today.
First, there is the Attraction Model - The Purpose-Driven Church approach. Identify your market, develop programs for those people, get a bunch of young adults involved doing the work, pour on the money, and the church will grow as people are attracted by those big splashy programs.
Then, there is the Missional Church approach. Start your missions and encourage the people who come to your food pantry, your clothes closet, your thrift store to join in the mission and then join the church. But missions also take money and youthful energy.
Some years ago, I had a church that had no money – I think one person in the church had a job, the rest were retired or on some form of assistance. Saundra and I were the youth group. Where were the young adults who would do the work? Where was the money to put into the programs?
It was then that I went back to this part of the Book of Acts and asked, what did the early church do to grow their church?
The answer was pretty straight forward.
Deep teaching. Eat together often with Communion. Prayer. Help each other. And joyfully praise God to anybody and everybody that will listen, just like the early church, just like King David did when he danced into Jerusalem with the Ark.
Folks, we are not the Lions Club. We are not a PTA. We are not a Moose Lodge. We are a church.
That means we have the God behind us that can raise people from the dead. He wants us to tell people that story. God wants us to come close to God’s Son and wants us to praise God to everyone we meet. Do we have the faith and courage to do that?
How do we do that?
First, praise God for the weather. Praise God for the rain, praise God for the grass, praise God for the sunshine, praise God for our gardens.
Praise God for our good health. Praise God for our homes. Praise God for our cars. Praise God for our cellphones. Praise God for our families.
Praise God for what God teaches us through trials of money, trials of loneliness, trials of poor health, trials of loss. Give God the glory God deserves.
When you walk into the supermarket checkout line, if you are like most people, you have a full buggy, you let the woman with two items ahead of you. She says, “Thank you. You’re so nice!” How do we respond? “You’re welcome!”
NO! Try this: “Thank God! God told me to let you go ahead.” Give God the glory and praise! After all, if we are honest with ourselves, before Christ got a-hold of us, we would have simply been a jerk and stayed ahead in line.
Or someone says, “This cake is delicious.” We normally say, “Thank you” and smile smugly because WE made that cake.
DON’T! Try this instead: “Isn’t God good? God sent me a little old woman who taught me how to bake that cake about twenty years ago.”
Give God the glory for the things God has done. Don’t steal God's glory. Praise God!
Now…I want you to imagine the effect on people if you begin to praise God regularly.
Your friends and family will think you’ve gone a bit la-la! You know it and I know it. This is where our faith requires our courage and bravery.
But after they get used to this, after about six weeks, people will come to you with serious God-questions – because they’ve decided you talk so much about God that you must be an expert on God!
“Who me? A God expert? No way!”
But you told me you’ve attended this church for decades. Every decade, if you are a regular attender, you have heard 500 sermons. 20 years, a thousand sermons.
Compared to the average person outside this church, you are a God-expert – or you’ve been wasting your time here. Have faith and courage to know that you truly are that God-expert that your friends, neighbors, and family need.
Have confidence when they come to you for advice. Listen to them. Listen to your friends, neighbors, and family members when they ask you for deep, godly advice with their problems or questions.
Questions like: "That volcano in Hawaii, do you think God is trying to tell the people of Hawaii something?"
Or “Why do you think God is letting so many people overdose on drugs?”
Or more seriously: “Why do you think God let my unborn baby die?”
And folks, those are the deep questions people ask of godly friends, friends who seem to know something about God, friends who have shown the love of God to others, friends who do love their neighbor as themselves.
When you get those questions, don’t panic. Be glad. Because your friend has recognized Christ in you. So pray to Jesus under your breath to give you the answer. "Jesus, help me with this answer!" And He will give you that answer. He will.
Our midweek evening studies are going deeper on this subject. We’re learning how to lead people to Christ, how to get them over the barriers, how to answer their questions so that the Holy Spirit can save their souls from eternal separation from God. But it takes faith in God and courage to change our routines so that we can learn what God wants us to learn. (7 pm Tuesdays at Calvary. 6:30 pm Wednesdays at Mt. Clare.)
And it all begins when you are able to overcome your fears and praise God each day to your friends, neighbors, and family. It is amazing how something so simple can change a community.
If you have been a bit lax about praising God to your friends, neighbors, and family, I ask you to take a moment to pray for forgiveness for yourself, for guidance, and particularly for your friends, neighbors, and family who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Amen.
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