God is good! Follow Him.

Jesus has invited everyone to, “follow him.” We have been invited to follow Him in a commitment that results in being forgiven of our sins. Every believer has been invited to follow Him each day. The primary motivation for following God is the truth that because God is good. Following Him is by far the wisest thing we can do.

God is good. God is good all the time. God is good in every way. There is absolutely nothing about God that is not good. God is “gooder” than anything else in the universe. Read Mark 10:17-18. The word Jesus used for “good” is one that implies “good in essence” or “good in His very nature.” That means that God is always good in all His ways. Read James 1:17, Romans 12:2, Luke 11:13, and Romans 8:28.  God is absolutely, positively, all the time and in every way good. Being good is part of His essence. It is impossible for God to be or do anything that is not always and, in every way, good.

Most people, and certainly most Christians, believe, at least in theory, that God is good. It gets a little confusing when bad things happen to good people and we ask how a loving God could allow that, but the operative word is always allow and never the cause of anything that is not absolutely good. It also gets a little confusing when we assume that good always means pleasant. Good is not always pleasant but it is always good. We say in the physical world, no pain no gain and occasionally God says that is also true in the spiritual realm. Occasionally God says “I am going to have to discipline you and I know that no discipline seems good at the moment but I am too good to let you keep on that slippery path to self-hurt.” God is good, always and in every way He is good. If we believe that, why is it sometimes difficult to follow Him as He asks?

Some people, often younger but not always, when confronted by the claims of Jesus, say they are not ready to make a decision for Him because right now they want to live the exciting life and when they have had all of the good times they want, then they will give consideration to God. That is saying that this is the good life and the life a good God has laid out for them is not all that good compared to what they have now. God never said, “Come unto me all you who are enjoying life and I will make you miserable.” Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who think life is really good and I will show you what a, really good and abundant life is all about.”

Some people don’t want to make a commitment to God because they feel certain God is going to ask them to change a lifestyle or abandon a destructive sin they like. They aren’t sure the life that God has for them will be worth it. But His life is always good.

Too often when people think about following God, they think about the Ten Commandment’s call on us to live and think God gave those rules to ensure that mankind didn’t really enjoy life.

Actually, it is not God but Satan who was determined to make life miserable for mankind. Satan told Adam and Eve that God was holding out on them, that real life was to be found in exactly what God told them not to do. Adam and Eve believed the story when Satan first presented it to them, and millions have believed it ever since. God knows us, knows what we want, and knows how badly we sometimes want it. God is too good all the time and in every way to even give us permission to do that which He, as our designer, knows is not the best for us. Sin is wrong because it keeps us from having the absolute best that He desires to give to us. But we find it too easy to listen to the lies of Satan and question God’s goodness.

Unfortunately, rejecting the goodness of God is just approving of sin. It also comes into play when Jesus asks us to follow Him completely, to surrender ourselves totally to Him. Too many, when challenged to give God complete control of their life, seem to believe, “If I submit to Him God is going to make me talk to my neighbor about Jesus and you know I can’t do that.” Or “If I really submit totally to Him, He will ask me to give more in the offering but He knows that can’t happen, so why not just drop the subject.”

Too many Christians think that following a good God means that God will make the demand will be that will be most difficult if not impossible to comply with. That’s not the way it is, and while we all know that in our minds, it is often difficult to ignore the lies of Satan and just trust God to always ask us to do that which is good and to live in such a way as to allow Him to really shower His goodness upon us.

The truth applies to allowing God to lead and direct in every aspect of the life of our family, especially in the life of our children. Read Jeremiah 29:9. That was a statement to Israel, but it can equally be said of us and of our children. In our society we want to help our children find the profession they will do well in, so they succeed in ways that look good to us. That is totally wrong but at the heart of our prayers for our children and at the heart of whatever we do to help them choose a path in life should always be “find God’s will and follow that for in the end nothing is better for you than His will because He is always good in all He plans for them.”

Too seldom do we say to our kids things like, “Above all seek God’s will for your life.” Somehow, we have allowed that thinking to apply only to those who are going to be pastors or missionaries. The reality is that God has a perfect plan for everyone’s life and we need to regularly encourage our kids and grandkids to find that will because in the will of an always good God is the fullness of life He desires to give them and we want them to have.

Jesus invited us to “follow him.” That invitation was given personally by Jesus 13 times as recorded in the gospels. Actually, that invitation is not really an invitation but in the Greek is in the imperative or command form, so we are not really invited but commanded to follow Him. Some of those commands were very personal, as when Jesus called the disciples individually. Some of them were very general as He commands everyone who would know His blessing to follow Him. Some of the commands seem directed to those who have never considered Him personally and are really commands to follow Him for the salvation He offers. Some of them are commands to follow His example of commitment and to be willing to give up all self-ambition and be and do whatever He asks of us. Jesus wants us to follow Him. The immediate question is simply, “Why would we not want to follow Him?” If God is always and absolutely good, why would there be any hesitation in taking up our cross and following Him? The only reason I can imagine that we would not want to do all He asks of us is that, while we know in our heads that God is good and following Him would never be a mistake, we are still a little uncertain that all of His commandments are good and all of His expectations will be good. Perhaps we are just a little afraid to just trust Him for all good things. Satan is working overtime to get us to believe the lie he told to Adam and Eve. Satan wants us to think that maybe God is withholding from us.

Today, in the midst of so much uncertainty I just want to assure you that because God is good, we can follow His command to become His child. We can follow Him and His example and know with certainty that everything He tells us to do is really best. We can be certain that because He is good, if he tells us to stop doing something, He calls sin it is not because He wants to ruin our life but because He wants to give us fullness of life. Because God is always good, if He asks us to do something it is not because He wants to embarrass us or upset us but because He knows us better than we know ourselves. God is always good so when He looks upon us, He sees us in terms of both time and eternity and knows what is truly good for us.

God is good, all the time. God is good in every way, so why should we not follow Him completely as He has commanded?

MANBECK’S ZION EVANGELICAL

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

Worshiping the Lord in Spirit and Truth

July 26, 2020

A Year in Ephesians

Norman Dixon, Pastor

610-589-2034

Email: Dixonnorm@comcast.net

Web Site:  www.manbecks.org

Organ Prelude to prepare your heart for worship

Welcome and opportunities to Worship and Serve

Greet one another in the Name of Jesus          

Call to Worship – Psalm 113:1-4               

* Opening Chorus #48                                             Mighty Is Our God

* Invocation 

* Opening Hymn #21         O for a Thousand Tongues (Marked stz)

First Scripture – Matthew 24:3-14

Praise Hymn #669                                                    Make Me a Servant  

*Prayer Hymn #746                         He Keeps Me Singing (stz. 1 & 5) 

**Pastoral Prayer

Offering of Tithes and Gifts to the Lord 

via offering plates in the back of the Sanctuary  

Special Music – Eve Kurtz

Scripture:  Luke 21:5-13 

Sermon:  “Signs of the return of Jesus”

* Hymn of response #759                                What If It Were Today?

*Benediction

* Recessional Response #235        Take the Name of Jesus (1^st verse)  

Leave to Serve

  *Please Stand                                                **Please kneel (if able)

“If you plant weeds 

don’t expect to pick flowers.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS

TODAY:

• Special Offering/Child Evangelism Fellowship

SATURDAY:

• PGACOC Chicken BBQ/pick up at Church School
• Newsletter                                                                            7:00 P.M.

NEXT SUNDAY:

• Pig Roast meeting                                                             10:00 A.M.

LOOKING AHEAD:  

• August 9 – Building Fund Offering
• August 29 – Newsletter                                                      7:00 P.M.
• August 30 – Special Offering

Statistics:  July 19, 2020

                                  Attendance:  Worship Service – 30

                                                          Worship Service – $ 

Not too late for Chicken BBQ tickets.  See Cathy or Deb Lehr for tickets for Saturday, August 1^st.  Donation is $8.00 for ½ chicken and baked potato.  Pick-up will be drive thru from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Church School building.

Pig Roast will be held on September 12.  Meetings will be held during the next few weeks.

At this date the Autumn Stroll is still going to be held.

PRAYER CONCERNS

• Betty (Granddaughter Carlee had knee surgery)
• Carol (Treatment of Jenny)
• Kathy Price (fractured left forearm and she’s left handed)
• Pray for our service men and women
• Those of our church family who are traveling this summer
• Those battling cancer:

Pastor Lloyd Yeager (prostate cancer)  

Tim Ditzler – stage 4 pancreatic cancer            Bob Kramer

Mike     Sis Sagusky      Jake Wolfe           Rick Fidler

Cindy Segal (liver cancer)

Bill (Deb had radiation and they got the spot but found more)

• Military:  Zack Frankfort, Navy     Keith Gillespie   

               Ashley Somers, Navy       Caleb Reiter

         Lois’s grandson, Kolby – Air Force

• Nursing home/Assisted living residents

               Grace Kimmel   Nancy Wildsmith          

  Edgar Bennett 

PRAISE: 

• Hannah Wagner got engaged
• Jonathan (painted barn roof/done safely)
• Deb R. (Evan got approval for back surgery)

• Decision on Week Day Church School
• Joe Toy (Street ministry in Philadelphia)
• Jamie and Anita Farr (Wycliffe in Florida)
• Robert and Bettina Schaeffer (L.I.F.E. Ministries in New York City)
• Wagner’s & Stoltzfus’s (Rift Valley Academy in Africa)

Return of Jesus

During this pandemic many Christians are thinking about the statement by Jesus found in Luke 21:10-12 that says one of the signs of His return would be pestilence,   Read Revelation 6:7-8 and Revelation 15:1. Are we in the last days before the return of Jesus?

The return of Jesus is an important biblical teaching. Jesus Himself promised to return. In the New Testament no teaching, apart from that which offers or explains salvation, is given the space given to the certainty of the return of Jesus. Bible scholars have noted that, on average, one in every 12 verses in the New Testament deals with His return in one way or another. God the Father declared in Acts 1:11 that Jesus would return. 

Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, creator and sustainer of all things is going to one day return to earth and when He does every believer will rejoice and shout for joy as every believer will be instantly transformed into His likeness. What a day that will be! Read I Thessalonians 4:16-17 and Matthew 24:30. 

The fact of the return of the Lord is set forth so strongly and described so vividly in the Bible that one cannot miss it. History is moving toward the personal, physical, visible return in power and glory of Jesus Christ as Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

The question is never “Will He return?” but only, “When will He return?” That He will return is as secure as God who cannot lie and who will do all things exactly as He has said. But “When?” is the question. The church of the first century believed so strongly that His return would be immediate that some literally sold all they had, quit working and were sitting around waiting for that event. Paul wrote to them in Thessalonians and told them that it may be today or tomorrow or not for some time so get back to work and keep on working with all you have until He returns.

We are now 2000 years later. History records numerous times when the church believed it was in the last days and yet He has not returned. While many outside the church scorn and scoff saying, “See he will never return”, we who believe God’s Word know that He is coming, and that return could be very soon.

“Why do many say the return of the Lord seems imminent or soon?  We cannot know the hour or day when the Lord will return, but Matthew 24 and Luke 21 record Jesus’ answer to disciples who wanted to know the time of His return. Jesus described in detail the signs that the church could look for before His return. He even stated that we were to be carefully looking for them.  

Read Luke 21:10-12. A lot has been written about those signs. There will be war and the rumors of such. There has been no period of history that has seen as many or as severe wars as our present generation. Earthquakes are in the news continually. Scientists tell us that there have been more earthquakes in the past century than at any known period of history before. There will be famine. We know that in Africa the locust has destroyed most of the food supply for the coming year with famine sure to follow.  Those involved in famine relief around the world write that in any given year as many as 200 million could die from starvation. 

The word “pestilence” is not easy to translate as it seems to have included a variety of issues, so it is often translated as “plagues.” In recent years Bible scholars have pointed to such plagues as Ebola and SARS. We have seen HIV infect an estimated 75 million and an estimated 33 million have died from it. The annual flu kills annually up to half a million worldwide and now we have Covid-19. The figures on that continue to climb every day.

Jesus went on to declare there will be persecution of Christians. We are all aware of the worldwide persecution against the church and it is not going to get any better as we move closer to the return of Jesus.

Put it all together and we see earthquakes, global unrest, famine, pestilence, and persecution in ways never before seen. It seems like God’s prophetic calendar is playing before our very eyes. Read what Jesus said in Mark 8:18. 

Read Matthew 24:37-38. Jesus said that the moral condition in the days just before His would be similar to those in the days of Noah when God said it was so terrible that He had to judge the whole earth. One cannot read the paper today or listen to the rantings of society regarding the freedom every individual should have to do whatever he wants and not picture the days of Noah.

Luke 21:24 gives another sign of the return of Jesus. Jesus said we were to look for the end of the times of the Gentiles. I know of no honest biblical scholar who does not take that to mean the end of Gentile rule over the nation of Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular. The rule of the Gentiles began in 586 B.C., in the days of Daniel of the Old Testament when the armies of Babylon swept through Israel and Jerusalem and foreigners began to control that nation. It passed from Babylon to Greece to Rome and in 70 A.D. under Roman rule the city of Jerusalem with the temple and everything that city stood for was destroyed. For nearly 2000 years the nation of Israel was not really a nation and Jerusalem was controlled by one country after another. At the turn of the last century a move was made by Zionists to get back the land that they believed was given to them by God and therefore belonged to them. In 1948 Israel again became a nation in the land of promise, a nation of 700,000 cast immediately into a war against an Arab world of 500 million. Few believed the new nation could survive but, in the years since, Israel has demonstrated its ability to be a nation returned home. Then in 1967, in what is called the Six Day War, Israel captured all of Jerusalem for the first time since 586 B.C. 

There is no way we can say for sure that this is the final end of the times of the Gentiles, but we cannot help but marvel at what is happening. 2000 years ago Jesus said “I am coming back” and when His disciples asked when, Jesus said “I cannot tell you the exact time but I will tell you this, there will be signs that all of you can easily see and the biggest one will be Jerusalem and when it all comes together, look up for my appearing is about to happen.” In Matthew 24 Jesus said that when these signs occur that generation would see His return. If 1967 was the fulfillment of Luke 21:24 then indeed we could very well be in the last 50-70 years of time to which I will add what John said in Revelation, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”

The real question is not so much what day will He return or even if He will return in our generation, which many of us expect, but what does the possible imminent return of the Lord mean to each of us? The first issue is, are we ready for His return should it be today? Matthew 24:40 tells us that when He returns one will be taken and one will be left behind. The return of Jesus will be great joy, blessing and happiness for all eternity for all who love Him and belong to Him by faith, but at the same time for those outside of Jesus that return means the opportunity of redemption is over and all that remains is judgment and eternal death.

The prospect of the return of our Lord is an encouragement and challenge to us as Christians. Read Luke 21:34

First, we are not to be “weighed down with carousing” The word “carousing” literally means to spend or use wastefully or extravagantly.” Jesus said that because there is a possibility that the Lord’s returning soon, we need to evaluate how we are using the resources we have.  Instead of building larger barns to keep our goods in we can and should use our resources to reach the lost before it is too late. Second, we are to avoid drunkenness, which is probably not a problem for us but a caution to a society that is more and more involved in drugs and other stimulants used to avoid reality. 

If we really believe that the Lord may come back soon, we should not be overcome with the cares of this world, or the anxieties of life. Things are not always easy in life, but we are on the winning side. While a view of the soon return of the Lord is not an excuse to reject reality or responsibility, it is a call to put it all in perspective, to see life as going somewhere even as history is going somewhere.

Think about how you would live if you knew for sure Jesus was coming back in two weeks.   Jesus said, “Be always on the watch.” That is a constant challenge for us as well as an encouragement to us as we live in these uncertain times.

MANBECK’S ZION EVANGELICAL

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

Worshiping the Lord in Spirit and Truth

July 19, 2020

A Year in Ephesians

Norman Dixon, Pastor

610-589-2034

Email: Dixonnorm@comcast.net

Web Site:  www.manbecks.org

Organ Prelude to prepare your heart for worship

Welcome and opportunities to Worship and Serve

Greet one another in the Name of Jesus          

Call to Worship – Psalm 62:1-2; 11-12               

* Opening Chorus #83             There’s Something About That Name

* Invocation 

* Opening Hymn #571                                Trust and Obey (stz. 1,3,4)

First Scripture – Matthew 5:1-10

Praise Hymn #669                                                    Make Me a Servant  

*Prayer Hymn #549                                     Higher Ground (stz. 1,2,3) 

**Pastoral Prayer

Offering of Tithes and Gifts to the Lord 

via offering plates in the back of the Sanctuary  

Special Music – Judy Lengle

Scripture:  Hebrews 5:11-14 

Sermon:  “How to tell if someone is a real Christian”

* Hymn of response #429                 They’ll know We Are Christians

*Benediction

* Recessional Response #235        Take the Name of Jesus (1^st verse)  

Leave to Serve

  *Please Stand                                                **Please kneel (if able)

“God always answers knee-mail.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS

NEXT SUNDAY:

• Special Offering/Child Evangelism Fellowship

LOOKING AHEAD:  

• July 25 – Newsletter                                                           7:00 P.M.
• August 9 – Building Fund Offering
• August 29 – Newsletter                                                      7:00 P.M.
• August 30 – Special Offering

Statistics:  July 12, 2020

                                  Attendance:  Worship Service – 27

                                                          Worship Service – $1,117.00 

                                                                Building Fund – $470.00

See Cathy or Deb Lehr for Chicken BBQ tickets for Saturday, August 1^st.  Donation is $8.00 for ½ chicken and baked potato.  Pick-up will be drive thru from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Pig Roast will be held on September 12.  Meetings will be held during the next few weeks.

At this date the Autumn Stroll is still going to be held.

PRAYER CONCERNS

• Pray for our service men and women
• Those of our church family who are traveling this summer
• Those battling cancer:

Pastor Lloyd Yeager (prostate cancer)  

Tim Ditzler – stage 4 pancreatic cancer            Bob Kramer

Mike  S   is Sagusky     Jake Wolfe           Rick Fidler

Cindy Segal (liver cancer)

• Military:  Zack Frankfort, Navy     Keith Gillespie   

               Ashley Somers, Navy       Caleb Reiter

         Lois’s grandson, Kolby – Air Force

• Nursing home/Assisted living residents

               Grace Kimmel   Nancy Wildsmith          

  Edgar Bennett 

PRAISE: 

• Donna (had a safe trip to work after the pile up on 81)
• Laure (husband got his blood pressure under control)

• Decision on Week Day Church School
• Joe Toy (Street ministry in Philadelphia)
• Jamie and Anita Farr (Wycliffe in Florida)
• Robert and Bettina Schaeffer (L.I.F.E. Ministries in New York City)
• Wagner’s & Stoltzfus’s (Rift Valley Academy in Africa)

Marks of a Christian

What are the characteristics of committed Christian? A genuine Christian has made a personal commitment to Jesus as Savior and, therefore, has the Holy Spirit living within. Read Romans 8:16, and I John 3:24. Since we cannot see the Holy Spirit in an individual the only way to test the genuineness of one’s claim to be a Christian is to observe in one’s life those characteristics the Bible says a growing Christian should display in everyday living. Various passages give a description of the Christian life and collectively they give every Christian a guide to how one should live.

In various teachings Jesus gave us four characteristics of a disciple or Christian. They are as follows:

1. Absolute Surrender. Read Luke 14:27 and 33.
2. Absolute Fruitfulness. Read John 15:8. In the context of the New Testament that fruit implies growing in the fruit of the Spirit. Read Galatians 5:22-23. 
3. Absolute Love. Read John 13:35.
4. Absolute Obedience. Read John 8:31.

Another description given to us is found in the passage we call the beatitudes that introduce Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Found in Matthew 5:1-10 we see a Christian described there as one who is “poor in spirit,” one who is “meek,” one who “hungers and thirsts for righteousness,” one who is “merciful,” one who is “pure in heart,” one who is a “peacemaker,” and one who is willing to be “persecuted because of righteousness.” That is a list of characteristics of someone God will richly bless that we should review often and reevaluate our lives by them. 

Paul gave various descriptions of what the Christian life should look like. Read I Thessalonians 5:16-18. While given in the form of a command, Paul pictures a Christian as one who is characterized by joy, praying and being thankful.

Another description of a Christian is found in Hebrews 5:12-14. Read those verses. A characteristic of a Christian that Paul wrote about is that he is a growing/maturing Christian. Christians are growing spiritually as they grow in their knowledge of God through a growing knowledge of His Word. 

In the Bible, as in Hebrews 5:12-14, the term milk implies a basic food that does not require any chewing. A baby drinks, and his body does the rest. But as any parent knows, it is not long before we must begin feeding a baby more solid food. In time the body needs a variety of foods that are essential to health and growth. In the Bible milk is symbolic of basic doctrines that are essential in making a decision for Jesus while meat depicts food that is more complete and leads to a deeper spiritual life. A sign that one is a sincere Christian is his or her desire to grow spiritually and therefore willing to chew on solid foods.

Read II Timothy 3:16 to see the areas we will grow in if we study the Bible. A study of Scripture enables a Christian to grow in an understanding of truth (doctrine). Studying Scripture enables us to understand how to live or how to grow in holiness (reproof and correction). And studying Scripture enables a Christian to know what pleases God (training in righteousness).

God gave the Bible as a self-revelation of Himself and what He expects from Christians. He has also given us the Holy Spirit and among the tasks of the Holy Spirit we have Him helping us to understand God’s Word when we read and study it. He also helps us recall it when we need to be reminded of a truth to hold onto, a promise to claim, and a command to be obeyed.

God’s Word declares some areas in which we should be growing and that is growth possible only as we increase our knowledge of God’s Word. The Bible encourages us to grow in our faith. Jesus spoke several times, according to Matthew’s record of Jesus’ life, of those who were “of little faith.” In Luke 17:5 we read that the disciples asked Jesus to, “increase our faith.” Read Romans 10:17. Most Christians want a deeper and more consistent faith life and the primary way that will happen is through a deeper understanding of God’s Word. We must spend more time in the Bible. 

God’s Word declares Christians should be growing in holiness, that is in living as God would have them live. We cannot live as God wants us to unless we know what His expectation is. We learn that as we study God’s Word. Read I Thessalonians 4:1-2.  Paul urged the Thessalonians Christians to follow more and more closely what is today the equilivent to what God has given us in His whole Word. 

We are to be growing our faith, growing in holiness, and growing in our love for one another. Read I Thessalonians 4:10 and Philippians 1:9. The New Testament tells us various times that we are to love one another and grow in our love. The more of God’s Word we know and of God’s love for us, the more we will want to love the brethren. 

The New Testament describes Christian growth as a process that takes time but is the responsibility of every believer to be committed to it. It is a lifelong process but an important one if we are going to become all God redeemed us for. The process will not be completed until we are in God’s presence but is a process we should take seriously here and now.

Sunday July 12, 2020

Norman Dixon, Pastor

610-589-2034

Email: Dixonnorm@comcast.net

Web Site: www.manbecks.org

Organ Prelude to prepare your heart for worship

Welcome: Opportunities to Worship and Serve

Call to Worship Psalm 95:1-3

*Opening Chorus # 209 This Is the Day

*Invocation 

*Hymn # 572 Blessed Assurance (All 3 stanzas)

First Scripture Psalm 96:1-6

*Prayer Hymn # 636 I Must Tell Jesus (Stanzas 1, 2)

**Pastoral Prayer

Special Music Deb Reiter

Scripture: Psalm 96:7-13

Sermon: Sing to the Lord

*Hymn: # 406 Wonderful Words of Life (Stanzas 1, 2)

*Benediction

*Recessional Response #235 Take the Name of Jesus (1st)

Leave to Serve

*Please Stand **Please Kneel if able

Today: Building Fund Sunday

This Week: CEF Ministries. Would have been camp at Manbeck’s

PRAYER CONCERNS

• Bob Zimmerman Family. He went to be with the Lord.
• Larue (Brother tore his meniscus/pray quick recovery)
• Betsy (Nephew lost everything in a fire)
• Willis (daughter Morgan, transition from HI to GA/doing better)
• Betsy (unspoken request)
• Jon (John Miller/heart issues and tumor removed from his brain)
• Marion (her grandson)
• American public/opioid epidemic
• Those battling cancer:

Pastor Lloyd Yeager

Tim Ditzler – stage 4 pancreatic cancer

Mike   Sis Sagusky     Jake Wolfe           Rick Fidler

Cindy Segal (liver cancer) 

Military:  Zack Frankfort, Navy     Keith Gillespie   

               Ashley Somers, Navy      

         Lois’s grandson, Kolby – Air Force

• Nursing home/Assisted living residents

               Grace Kimmel   Nancy Wildsmith          

  Edgar Bennett 

PRAISE: 

Good rains.\Parking Lot paved 

• Joe Toy (Street ministry in Philadelphia)
• Jamie and Anita Farr (Wycliffe in Florida)
• Robert and Bettina Schaeffer (L.I.F.E. Ministries in New York City)
• Wagner’s & Stoltzfus’s (Rift Valley Academy in Africa)

 Psalm 96

Psalms 96-99, along with Psalms 47 and 93, are classified as Psalms of enthronement because they depict God as He reigns supreme in power and majesty from His throne on high. It is also classified as a praise Psalm. The praise Psalms follow a similar pattern. They begin with a call to worship or praise God, often in song. Then they detail the reasons for that praise, reasons that always center on the character and activity of God. They conclude with a renewed call to continue the praise to God.

Psalm 96 is a Messianic Psalm because it presents the message of salvation that Jesus will offer to the whole world. It’s a missionary Psalm because it talks of the whole earth responding to God and worshipping Him. It looks ahead to the millennium as it pictures a coming world order or government ruled over by God Himself. This Psalm covers it all. It reminds us of how much we have that we should be thankful for. It instructs us to share that joy with others and then tells us we can not only sing a new song of redemption but a new song of hope as we look forward to the return of the Lord.

We are told three times in the first 2 verses to Sing to the Lord. The command to sing is followed by three additional commands, the commands to praise, to proclaim and to declare.  We are also commanded in verses 7-9 to ascribe or attribute to God glory as well as bring an offering to Him. Verse 9 repeats the command to worship and fear Him in a healthy way. Verse 10 commands us to declare to the nations that God reigns and is coming to judge and to establish a righteous kingdom. 

The Psalm begins with a command to sing a new song. When the Bible speaks of a new song it is a song that can only be sung by God’s people as they discover in fresh ways truths about God. Read Revelation 5:9 and14:3. The new life God provides us with truly gives us a new song. 

The idea of a “new song” has a dual dimension to those songs. We sing a new song whenever we reflect on so great a salvation that God has provided for us. That story is an encouragement and comfort to us. But there is another dimension to our new song. There ought to always be a newness to our song and in our witness because there should always be a newness in our walk with Him. Read Lamentations 3:22-23. Because His compassion is new every day, so too should an element of our song of praise be new every day.

Verse 2 tells us to “proclaim” His salvation from day to day. The word “proclaim” is literally “preach” or “herald” and implies a sharing of the message of salvation. What is significant is the call to do this literally daily. 

According to verse 3, our new song is to, “Declare his glory among the nations.” That is another way of declaring the universal nature of the salvation message. While the church holds to the universality of the gospel, there are still hundreds of groups of people that are considered un-reached with millions of people still needing to hear the gospel for the first time. The task of missions is not over.

Verse 3 tells us that we are to declare His “marvelous deeds among all peoples.” We are to give a testimony of God’s love and provision. We are to tell others what God has done for us. We must also remember His daily provision for us.  Tell of the peace He gives in times of need. Tell of the quiet voice of encouragement He gives when things get tough. Tell of how He displays His love for us and of the marvelous care and provisions He provides for us. They all become even more marvelous when we remember that they are not deserved. 

Verses 4-6 spell out why He is worthy of our praise. God is great and worthy of being greatly praised because He is above all the other supposed gods who are only idols. The Hebrew word for “idol” is a fascinating one. It literally translates as “a no thing.” That more than adequately describes anything we worship instead of the true and living God. Obviously, the true God is above any no-god. Those verses then contrast the God of Israel with the heathen gods and idols and declare we are both able and compelled to praise God because of His greatness. One does not need to be ashamed of God. Idols are made by men, according to verse 5, while our God created everything including the heavens. Psalm 19:1 tells us that those “heavens declare the glory of God.”

James Montgomery Boice, in his commentary on this passage, wrote, “If you are not worshipping God of the Bible exclusively, as God says you must do, you are not worshipping God. You are not a Christian.” P. 785

Note that in verse 4 David personified the character of God. It pictures His character or splendor, majesty, strength, and glory as if they were individuals. In ancient times Kings had their thrones and before them stood various individuals who were responsible to do their bidding. Those individuals stood ready to obey any directive and to accomplish the will of the king. The Psalm depicts God on His throne with His essence or nature ready and able to accomplish His will. Collectively those attributes picture a God worthy of praise because of who He is intrinsically. God’s very essence is splendor and majesty, worthy of our awe and worship. He is the Almighty One who can do what He desires as opposed to idols that can do nothing because they are, literally, a “no-thing”. 

Verses 7-8 include the trilogy of “ascribe” that parallels the trilogy of “sing” in the first three verses. These verses are also almost a copy of the opening verses of Psalm 29. To “ascribe” is literally to “give” to God what is, according to verse 8, the worship He deserves. He is worthy of our worship because of who He is and what He has done. 

A part of our worship, according to verse 8, is to bring an offering to Him. In the Old Testament, of course, those offerings of praise and thanksgiving or the acknowledgement of one’s sins, took place in the form of animal sacrifices brought to the temple. They were the way the Israelites said they were sorry for their sins or thankful for God’s provision. When we come to the New Testament and the church we no longer need to go to the temple, in fact there is no temple, but the sacrifices are still required. Paul told us how we are to bring a sacrifice to God. Read Romans 12:1. 

Verse 9 is an important verse on worship. It reminds us that we are to come to God in worship truly recognizing the awesome nature of God. The NIV writes that we are to come trembling while some other translations say we are to come in fear. We come before God in worship not with a scared fear but with a sense of awe and reverence. There is always a delicate balance in our worship between recognizing God as being our Father in heaven and remembering that He is eternal, almighty, truly holy One. Recognizing the splendor of His holiness is the starting point of approaching Him with a sense of awe.

Verses 10-13 deal with the worship that belongs to Him because He is coming again to judge sin and correct the curse of sin. The Psalmists presented what at first seems to be a contradiction when he called on us to rejoice over the coming judgment. That apparent contradiction is not explained until we discover in the New Testament that when Jesus returns Satan and sin will be righteously judged. The Apostle Paul tells us that a major part of the judgment on sin will be the restoration of God’s creation to what it was before man’s sin. That includes God’s gracious care for believers. including the abiding with Him forever, but it is more than that. Read Romans 8:20-22. 

This Psalm presents two major challenges. First, it challenges us to be more serious and deliberate in our worship. We are to be that way because of who God is and what He has done for us. We are to worship Him not only for what He did for us on the Cross, but for the new displays of His love and care that we see every day.

Second, we must be willing to openly share the gospel. We need to stand with the Psalmist and declare the gospel everywhere. We should not be hesitant to stand up and “sing,” that is tell others, what God has done for us. We do that as we verbally share our faith and as we support missions.

Sunday July 5, 2020

Norman Dixon, Pastor

610-589-2034

Email: Dixonnorm@comcast.net

Web Site: www.manbecks.org

Organ Prelude to prepare your heart for worship

Welcome: Opportunities to Worship and Serve

Call to Worship Psalm 117

*Opening Chorus # 83 There’s Something About That Name

*Invocation 

*Hymn # 356 Redeemed (stanzas 1, 2 and 3)

First Scripture John 3:16-21

*Prayer Hymn # 635 In the Garden (1 and 2)

**Pastoral Prayer

Scripture: Romans 8:1-3

Sermon: Our Shepherd

*Hymn: # 807 My Country, Tis of Thee  (Stanzas 1 and 4)

*Benediction

*Recessional Response #235 Take the Name of Jesus (1st)

Leave to Serve

*Please Stand **Please Kneel if able

July 4^th American Freedom and True Freedom

This weekend we celebrate the birthday of America and in the end that is the celebration of our freedom. We enjoy an unbelievable amount of freedom that is only a dream for millions of people in many parts of our world. This week we ought to thank God for the freedom we enjoy and for all who have made it possible for us to have it. Unfortunately, too often we take the freedom we have for granted and forget both its cost and the responsibility that comes with it.

American freedom did not come freely. It all began 244 years ago, when on July 4th, 1776, 56 brave men signed a document known as “The Declaration of Independence.” Many of them paid heavily for taking that stand. Freedom was not free and a part of what we are to remember is the price paid then and paid since then to retain that freedom. The price of our freedom has always been high but that price has been gladly paid by those who initially declared their freedom and by the thousands who have paid the extreme price since then to maintain it because they believed that to be free was truly worth any price.

The blood spilled by Americans to secure our freedom was not, however, the first-time blood was shed for freedom. Nearly 2,000 years ago the blood of Jesus was shed so we could all experience true freedom. Read John 8:34-36 and Romans 8:1-3.  

As Americans we need to remember that the freedom that we all enjoy is a temporary freedom while the freedom Jesus provided is designed to be an everlasting freedom. The freedom Jesus provided gives us freedom first, from the penalty of sin, second, from the power of sin and finally from the very presence of sin. It is complete and glorious freedom, far more valuable than our American freedom that can be either lost or abused.

First, the death of Jesus allows us to be set free from the penalty of sin. To fully appreciate the significance of that freedom we must look back to the sin of Adam and Eve and remember what was enslaved by that sin. We know that when God created Adam and Eve, He placed them in a beautiful garden and had perfect fellowship with them. They had only one restriction; there was a tree that they were forbidden to eat of. The outcome of eating that fruit was spelled out very clearly, “the day you eat of it you will die.” That death took three different forms.  Death in the Bible always means separation. The death that God spoke of was first a spiritual death, which meant the fellowship initially enjoyed with a holy God was no longer possible. That spiritual death took place the moment man became a sinner. God could no longer come to them and walk and talk to them. Second, that death meant physical death. As a result of decay, sickness, disease, and lots of other by-products of sin, death entered the world.  Physical death is separation of the body and soul. The Cross dealt with the death that comes to all men. Third, the death that came to us because of sin is an everlasting death, an everlasting separation from the God.  Read Romans 3:23 and Romans 6:23.  

Because of man’s sin we lost the freedom that God desired for us. On the Cross Jesus paid the price of our sin. He took upon Himself our death sentence. He died in our place. We were dead in our sins, but Jesus took our sin upon Himself so all who believe in Him can be free of that sentence. 

When we talk of freedom from death in Jesus, we need to see this in terms of three precious freedoms lost by sin. Paul wrote in Romans that the death of Jesus in our place on the Cross was adequate to not only justify us but to satisfy the just nature of God allowing the penalty of death to be covered. With the penalty of sin covered we have the reversal of all that was lost by sin.

Immediately we have the new freedom of spiritual life. We too often ignore this freedom. Spiritual life means we can talk to God, which is what prayer really is. Spiritual freedom means we can worship God and know the worship is acceptable. Spiritual freedom means we can be conscious of His presence with us each day. Unfortunately, too many fail to realize the full reality of that freedom, choosing instead to live each day in their own strength and seemingly unaware of His walk with us. 

His death also brought freedom from physical death. Physical death is still going to be an issue we will all face unless Jesus comes again before we die, but the judgment associated with physical death was cared for by Jesus. Paul detailed for us in I Corinthians 15 the truth that the resurrection of Jesus guarantees the resurrection of all who have accepted His provision on the Cross. Read I Corinthians 15:42-58. 

The provision of the Cross is a freedom from an everlasting separation from God. We can now know that we will spend all eternity with God. Read II Timothy 1:10 and John 3:36.  Because we have been set free from separation because of sin we don’t have to say things like, “I hope I’ll get to go to heaven” or even “I think I will” but rather, “I will spend eternity with Jesus in Heaven because He provided freedom for it and promised it to me as His child.”

If freedom from the death caused by sin were all that was provided for us on the Cross, we would have incredible reason to rejoice and give thanks. It is, however, only one part of the freedom available because of the death of Jesus for us. His death provided us with the potential of freedom from the power of sin. In a sense that provision will not be fully realized until we are with Him in glory but the potential of being victorious over the grip of sin is ours if we learn to rely on the power available to us through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Apostle Paul talks of what that power means to him when he wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Theologically this is called sanctification which means that as Christians we have a power within that is greater than that of Satan and his sin. Read Ephesians 6:10-13 and I Corinthians 10:13.  

What we need to do is to determine where we need to change and then realize that the power to make that change is available to us. You and I don’t have to be slaves to sin. We can have freedom from its power if we allow God to work in and through us. Too many Christians are slaves to some addiction, not always a major one like drugs but often a simple habit or character trait that has been a part of them too long. They would like see it gone but have decided it is simply something they and their family must accept and live with. Too often we forget that there is freedom available in the power of Him who was raised from the dead. Paul, therefore, could speak in Philippians 3:10 of wanting to know even more fully that power in his life.

In Jesus we have freedom from the penalty of sin called theologically justification. We also have freedom from the power of sin called sanctification. Ultimately, we will have freedom from the very presence of sin which is called glorification. In heaven there will be no possibility of sin. Satan will not be there so there will be no temptation. In addition, we will all be transformed into the holy likeness of Jesus and will have no desire to sin. The fellowship experienced by Adam and Eve in the garden before sin will once again be a reality. Read Philippians 3:21-22. What a blessing that will be!

As we celebrate America’s freedom let’s not fail to celebrate and live in the freedom all who have accepted the finished work of Jesus on the Cross have. In Jesus we have freedom from the penalty of sin that allows us to have true fellowship with God and guarantees new glorified bodies and an eternity with God. We have a freedom from the power of sin that enables us to overcome temptations and live as He would have us live. And we have the freedom to look ahead with excitement and peace to the reality that one day we will be in His presence with not only new bodies but new hearts and there, there will be no more sin. That is freedom to be enjoyed each and every day.