All of our upcoming events can be found at the bottom of the website’s homepage.
Small Group Fun
These photos were from our last Redemption Seeker’s Bible study ministry.
Sermon
Tonight I have something special for you all. Adult youth group games are back! Those who have been with us for a couple years will remember them. I would have you all do an activity or game during the sermon. That’s how we chucked ping pong balls at a teenager during the lesson regarding the armor of God. Fun times and they are back.
So, I need some volunteers. As many as I can get. Line up at the front in a line. I want to weave this yarn around each of you. Tangle you together. Now, your jobs are to work together to get free from the yarn. However, you can’t just pull it off. You must roll it up into a ball as you go. Begin!
There is a message that this activity is connected with. It will be revealed throughout tonight’s sermon.
“Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” –Luke 14:27
Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard this verse before or something like it. How have people used it?
This verse is not about suffering through personal struggles. It is not about biting the bullet through pain. To pray harder if you have addiction. This is not about carrying across of torture. Yeshua, Jesus already did that for us. No, this verse is about arrogance. It is about selfishness. Carrying your cross is about putting aside your own selfish desires for the sake of the Gospel. To accept that our wants and desires are not always part of Yahweh’s plan. This verse tells us to be ready to face hardships as we continue to be loyal to the path the Lord has set before us. To be ready to sacrifice. To face rejection. All for the sake of our Lord and savior Yeshua HaMashiach. All for Jesus Christ. This is a daily choice. Minute by minute. Second by second.
Just look at our church. We have a great example. I was even telling my aunt about it just this week. You see, the second place our church met at, within its first year, was at a Recovery Center in Carter county. It was a great space. It had a kitchen, a big open area, and within a neighborhood. However a hate group heard about us. They began spreading lies about us. They claimed we were monsters and wanted to hurt people. All because we are lgbtq+ inclusive. All because we refused to put up boundaries to access Jesus. Then one fateful day someone set fire to the building. They tried to silence us. They tried to stop us. But we picked up our burnt cross. We looked rejection in the face and screamed back. What we didn’t do was carry this burden alone.
“The next day Moses sat as judge for the people, while the people stood around him from morning until evening. When Moses’s father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, ‘What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?’ Moses said to his father-in-law, ‘Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, they come to me, and I decide between one person and another, and I make known to them the statutes and instructions of God.’ Moses’s father-in-law said to him, ‘What you are doing is not good. You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you, for the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone. Now listen to me. I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You should represent the people before God and bring their cases to God. Teach them the statutes and instructions and make known to them the way they are to go and the things they are to do. You should also look for able men among all the people, men who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain; set them as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. Let them sit as judges for the people at all times; let them bring every important case to you but decide every minor case themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will go to their homes in peace.’” –Exodus 18:13-23
In this passage Moses’s father-in-law is seeing the pressure of trying to lead and govern the people. Moses was doing it alone. What did his father-in-law say to him? “You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you, for the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.” This led Moses to appoint more leaders under him to help. Because if he tried to keep at it as a lone wolf he would crash and burn. Our own leadership has felt that. For 3 years us Elders have done almost everything. Our church was too small to be able to take over tasks. But as we’ve grown we are beginning to see that shift. Moses needed help and so do we. That’s why we started the events team. To help shoulder the burden. We are all in this together. My job as your pastor is to teach and guide you. To show you God’s instructions laid out in the scriptures.
“Then God spoke all these words, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.’ ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.’ ‘You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.’ ‘Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.’ ‘Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. ‘You shall not murder.’ ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ‘You shall not steal.’ ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.’ ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.'” –Exodus 20:1-17
These are what tradition has labeled as the ten commandments. They are believed to be directly from Yahweh Himself. Pinned by his own finger. Given to Moses on Mount Sinai. These instructions are one of the foundations to our faith. These are examples of my own responsibility as a shepherd. To make known to you what God imparted to humanity and later to his one and only Son. My job is to make disciples in His name, The Great Commission.
As disciples we are burden bearers. We each carry a section of the cross. We are All saints in the priesthood of Yeshua Hamashiac. We all have a role to play as believers. Just as you work together to untangle yourselves from the yarn, we must team up to share the good news that Christ’s Redemption Church was anointed for. To show all have a seat at Jesus’s table. No one will be denied. No judgment. No shame. So that we can stand before the throne and account for our actions in this life. When the Holy Father looks at what we did in the Messiah’s name, who did we bring to the Son? Bridges. Not barriers. These are the burdens we bear. But together it can be light as a feather. For the glory of God.
Amen.
