Love for Life

Intro

Good morning everyone, my name is DJ Palmire and I’m one of the elders here at Pillar Woodlawn and I’m glad to see you here this morning. I want to thank Scott for coming up from Pillar Dumfries to help us out by leading the music this morning. Scott, we’re grateful that you and your wife came to be with us the morning and appreciate your time and efforts.

As you look around, you’re seeing the effects of the Thanksgiving 4-day on our congregation. Many people are traveling, some of you may have traveled too. We live in an area where there are few people who stick around for holidays and so on weekends like this, churches in the area have low attendance. Often the Thanksgiving holiday in particular means loving our family by traveling for about as long as we’ll be in town, depending on where they are. We sacrifice our time and sanity to drive on 95 with the rest of the East Coast to get to family and friends because we love them.

I hope that your Thanksgiving was an opportunity to reflect on what God has given to you and done for you this year. I think of the life of our church over the last 12 months and think about all we have experienced in interpersonal conflict, a hard PCS season where we lost important families and then received many of you wonderful families who have stepped right into service. I think about the new faces I’m constantly seeing each week as I stand on stage and the way that God has sustained our church through a staff transition. God has truly blessed this congregation and I’m glad to look back over that time and praise the Lord for it.

As we head toward our passage today, I want you to consider the messages you hear about what life should be like, or what it takes to live a good life, or to make a good life better. The first thing that came up on the internet when I asked google what the good life was was this:

The good life is a life of luxury, pleasure, and material comfort.

If this is “the good life” then most of the world’s population is severely lacking in it. Yet it does seem to be the desire. Think of the American dream: work a job you’re passionate about, own a home, have a couple kids, save for retirement and retire early. It’s all about me.

What the world around us offers to us as the good life is about what makes me happy, it’s based on what I think is best. There is a long history of this type of thinking that stretches all the way back to the Garden in Eden. The snake offers to Eve what he describes as the good life: you’ll be like God knowing good and evil. It turned out the life that was offered by the snake was nothing but a counterfeit and it took her away from real life. The story of the Bible is one that describes how God has ordered history to bring us real life, the life we’ve been created for but have lost due to our sin.

Today we’re going to be in 1 John 5:1-12 . What we’re going to see in today’s passage is that a person who loves God already has eternal life.

And so our main idea today is just that: A person who loves God already has eternal life

We’ll seek to answer the questions: What does it mean to love God? How do we know we have life? What does eternal life look like?

Let’s read the passage, today I’ll be reading out of the English Standard Version

1 John 5:1–12 ESV

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Lord Jesus Christ, open the eyes of our hearts and enlighten our mind with the light of the understanding of your Holy Scripture and teach us to do your will. Amen.

What it means to love God (vv. 1-3):

These first few verses are really a completion of the thought that began back in chapter 4. Last week, Cody reminded us that we are responding to God’s love as followers of Jesus and that we receive it, or it comes to us, and then is to be shown to others through us. The instructions are practical. 1 John 4:21 “And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.” The bottom line is that to love God requires that we love our brother and sisters. So John starts by explaining who our brothers and sisters are. Verse 1 says

1 John 5:1 ESV

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

So to love our brothers and sisters is to love those who also have been born of him. The argument goes like this: because we have become God’s children, we become the siblings of God’s children. Siblings are to love one another, so we are to love God’s children. David Allen says:

John is saying there are also children in the family, and if you love the father, it is a foregone conclusion that you are not only going to love the father who birthed you, but you are going to love everybody else in the family as well.  Many of us have siblings in our family. In the process of growing up in our physical family we had to learn to love our siblings. Sometimes it didn’t come easy for us, or for them to love us!

This is an unnatural thing, quite frankly, because we’re all God’s children by adoption. The text today talks about being born of God and we are, but in some ways we’re born with pre-loaded baggage, we’re not blank slates when it comes to our character and personalities. What that really means is that we come with baggage that impacts how we view our new siblings. For those who are already in the family, it can be easy to see the new sibling as a threat to their position in the family, be turned off by their behavior patterns, or just dislike them because they’re different. For the new sibling, it is hard to break into the relationships that have already been formed in the family in order to feel like they belong and it can take a long time to develop the security of feeling like a brother or sister.

It takes work on the part of all the siblings for everyone to feel like a member of the family. The parents can lead the way with good modeling and encouragement, but ultimately it’s up to the kids to welcome the newcomer and make them feel at home or to keep them on the outside.

The church works similarly. We have a God who has demonstrated and modeled the type of love he wants us to have for each other and has given us the encouragement and mandate to do it, but it the responsibility to act on that falls on us.

We have the choice to welcome the new siblings with open arms and love them well or to reject them and keep them on the outside.

And maybe to put a finer point on it, love is not just nice words and warm-fuzzy feelings. There’s actual meat to love listen to how the Apostle Paul describes love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-6

1 Corinthians 13:4–6 ESV

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love is an action. The word that is used here for love, agape, is the one that describes God’s love for us. That agape love that speaks to the sacrificial love that puts others ahead of us and looks to their needs above our own. We heard about the sacrificial love of Jesus today in our lectionary reading, how Jesus stepped out of heaven, set aside his glory, in order to suffer in our place. That’s the love we’re encouraged to show to others.

But John doesn’t stop there, he goes on to say in verses 2 and three:

1 John 5:2–3 ESV

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

So not only is there a love for one another that is to mimic Jesus’ love for us, there’s a clear connection between loving God and keeping his commandments. Or maybe let me be a little clearer: obeying his commandments. To love God is to obey his commandments.

Some of you may hear that and your hackles raise up or your spidey-senses start tingling. Some of you are going to inevitably be concerned about legalism and following rules. You may have come from a tradition that was legalistic and used obedience as a weapon against you to shame you into acting particular ways or to keep you in line.

I want to first acknowledge that if that’s you, that’s not what we’re talking about here. I’m not interested in manipulating you into thinking or acting a certain way to show your “true faith.” And God isn’t into coercion either. What we’re talking about is willing participation with the creator of the universe, who’s commands are alway good and always result in his glory.

I’ve been reading a devotional in this season leading up to Christmas and there was a description of Mary’s obedience to God that smacked me right in the face. Speaking of Mary’s obedience to God’s plan at the announcement of Gabriel the authors say this:

In a world that misunderstands, her example is a powerful corrective, revealing that obedience is more than simply doing what we’re told, despite ourselves. It’s a free act of cooperation, in which we work in [partnership] with God as our lives are molded into the shape of his life-giving love.

Robert Yarbrough says this:

Love for God is not separate from keeping his commands. God’s commands teach his people how to do what God accepts as pleasing (Rm 12:1–2). Knowledge of God transforms the human will, making what was once a burden light and easy to carry (Mt 11:30).

Another way to say it is that that agape love is meaningless apart from its expression in action and conduct. It’s not about your feelings toward someone, it is the action that you take that proves or disproves your love for them.

I’ve heard Pastor and Author Francis Chan talk about this idea of obedience being tied to love using the context of parenting children. Here’s a short clip of that.

(Francis Chan Clip) https://www.youtube.com/clip/Ugkx-0xFmBUyFK3mAYnNDicnY04ksVmiDbKW

Oof. The first time I heard that I was struck to the heart. I’ve spent a lot of time memorizing scripture and talking about Scripture and God’s commands, but I haven’t spent nearly as much time trying to act in obedience to them.

More practically, we should identify what it is that we are to obey. Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:37-40

Matthew 22:37–40 (ESV)

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

And in John 13:34-35

John 13:34–35 ESV

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

If the whole law and the prophets can be summed up in Loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and loving our neighbor as ourself and then Jesus’ new command is to love one another as he loved us, what does that even mean?

These can seem really abstract because they are often spoken of in ways that are abstract. “To love God is to obey his commands, and his commands are to love him.” Or “To love someone is to do what’s best for them.” But read the words of Jesus recorded in the gospels and look at his life.

Jesus is our example: He left the glory of heaven, lived a humble life obeying his Father. He submitted every aspect of his life to the Father’s will and depended on him for every situation. Our love for others must follow Jesus’ example and be rooted in actions that seek to care for others’ needs and in tangible ways. Jesus didn’t show his love by having good feelings toward us, he stepped out of heaven, put on flesh and lived among us. He healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, taught, forgave sin, and then gave his life. These were tangible actions that Jesus took to show his love for us. Jesus’ love for us wasn’t demonstrated in feelings about us, rather in his action. Likewise, our love for others has to be rooted in action on behalf of others.

In loving others, we demonstrate our love for God, just as Jesus’ love for us also demonstrated his love for God.

So, our first question was What does it mean to love God? The next is how do we know that we have life?

How do we know we have life? (vv. 6-10)

This section of our passage today, seems to me, to be a parenthetical statement. Like John was moving along talking about love and the result being life, then in these verses he leans over and whispers like a little secret, “hey dear reader, we can have confidence based on these things.”

In both Roman and Jewish law, the facts of a legal case had to be established by two or three witnesses. John here provides three witnesses to the reality of Christ and his work. So John turns to testimony.

The word that John used that we translate testified is related to the word from which we get martyr. This is a word that John loves to use, he uses more than all other New Testament authors combined. It refers to giving accurate information about which a person has direct knowledge.

John starts to talk about the witnesses or testimonies by using metaphors to discuss Jesus’ life and death. In verse 6 he first talks about the witness of the water and the blood

1 John 5:6 (ESV)

This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood…

Water is a typical metaphor for John, which shows up in John 3 as Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and that a man has to be born by water and the spirit. In it, Jesus seems to be linking being born of water with being born of a woman. It is the natural birth. In this sense, John is talking about Jesus as having come being born of a woman. In other words, He was actually a human being.

John pairs this water image with the testimony of the blood. He most notably uses this specific pair of water and blood in his description of the soldier piercing Jesus’ side after his death. John 19:33-34 says

John 19:33–34 ESV

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

The pair of water and blood in our passage today seems to be an affirmation that not only was Jesus a man, but he also died. There is a false teaching that pops up every couple of centuries that denies that Jesus actually died, but that either it appeared that he died or that there was a substitution so that Jesus did not actually die. John fights against that by affirming Christ’s bodily birth and death on the cross.

This is important for us because if there was no death, then there is no resurrection. If there is no resurrection, there is no victory over sin and death. If there is no victory over sin and death, we are still under the curse and stain of sin and unable to have true communion with God.

Rather, John affirms that Jesus did die, we were cleansed from our sins and we are offered new life through his resurrection. This new life is not just after this earthly life ends either, it is a life that continues. In a stunning conversation with Martha after her brother’s death we read this. John 11:23-26

John 11:23–26 ESV

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

We have resurrection life that starts now. The first two witnesses are water and blood, then he turns to a third.

He calls on the Holy Spirit or what he names the Spirit of Truth. John recalled Jesus talking about the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth in John 14, 15, and 16.

The testimony of the Spirit in Jesus’ life began early on. Shortly after Mary discovered she was pregnant, she went to visit her formerly barren relative Elizabeth who was pregnant with the man we come to know as John the Baptist. When Mary greeted Elizabeth, this is what Luke recorded in Luke 1:42-45

Luke 1:42–45 ESV

and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

The testimony of the Spirit continued at Jesus’ baptism at John’s hand, and continued throughout Jesus’ ministry as he worked miracle after miracle and then was continued in the life of the apostles and believers after Jesus’ ascension back into heaven. The Holy Spirit testified to Jesus as the Son of God.

From my limited understanding of legal proceedings, the credibility of a witness is crucial to the outcome of the trial.

Cornell Law School defines a credible witness as someone who is believed to be honest and competent based on their knowledge, experience, training, and appearance of trustworthiness. If a jury or judge believes that a witness is credible and trustworthy, their credibility might afford their testimony added weight. By contrast, witnesses who are deemed untrustworthy are unlikely to help a case and could potentially harm it.

Multiple factors can affect the credibility of a witness, including the following:

The consistency of the witness’s present and past statements about what happened

Whether the witness heard or saw what happened

The witness’s training and experience in the field about which they are testifying

Whether the version of events presented by a witness makes sense

Whether the witness has any relationship with either party and could have potential biases

among other factors

The testimony of a credible witness can play an important role in confirming a version of events and carries added weight because of the testimony’s apparent objectivity.

In our passage, the credibility of the primary witness is leaned on really hard. Listen to what John has to say. 1 John 5:9-10

1 John 5:9–10 ESV

If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.

John basically is saying that if you believe a credible human witness, how much more ought you believe the witness of the creator of the universe? If you discount the witness of the creator of the universe, you are claiming that the God of creation is a liar. He points out what a big claim that is for those who reject that Christ has come in the flesh, lived, died, and was resurrected.

To reject that is to call God a liar. To reject God’s testimony about Jesus is to call him a liar.

While it may seem like an aside, this section holds important truths that impact our lives. The testimony of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are the hinges on which our faith turns. Without them, we don’t have a way into the kingdom because the barrier of our sin has not been taken away. If we deny Jesus bodily life and death, we claim that God is lying and that Christianity is just a set of good ideas. But it’s not a set of good ideas is it a historical event affirmed in multiple sources.

Men and women for over 2000 years have staked their lives on its truth. So, I encourage you to take comfort in the truth of the claims of Christianity. There’s no need to cave into post-modern sensibilities that claim that Christianity is a good set of ideas or one of many ways to get to God. God has demonstrated with power and continues to bear witness to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Don’t shy away from it, embrace it and live a life that acts like its true! And do you know what happens when you do that? You discover what true life looks like.

What does that life look like (vv. 4-5, 11-12)?

If you were paying attention at home, you’ll notice that I skipped over verses 4 and 5, don’t worry, this is where we’re talking about them. Verses 4 and 5 are connected with verses 11 and 12 because they have the common theme of the result of Love. Remember, our main idea is that if we love God we already have life, these two pairs of verses describe to us what that life is.

First we have life as victory over the world

In verses four and five we read this:

1 John 5:4–5 ESV

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

The initial question that comes up is, what does John mean when he says that we’ll overcome the world? But before that we have to understand what he means by the world?

When talking about the world, John does not mean that we are overcoming the material world around us as if the material world is inherently evil or bad. It’s not. In fact in creation, God saw that the whole of creation was very good. Our sin has caused the destruction and misuse of the world, but it doesn’t make the material world evil or bad.

What John has in mind by talking about the world is explained to us earlier in the letter. In 1 John 2:16-17 we read

1 John 2:16–17 ESV

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

John is using the world as a metaphor for all the things that are disordered within us, the sin, and the influence of the evil one in our lives. In John’s perspective, within us there is either what is of God or there is what is of the world. If we have been born of God, we have what is of God, if we haven’t yet been born of God we have what is of the world.

Alexander Maclaren says this about the world: —the world, meaning thereby the sum total of outward things, considered as apart from God—the world and God we make to be antagonists to one another. And the world woos me to trust to it, to love it; crowds in upon my eye and shuts out the greater things beyond; absorbs my attention, so that if I let it have its own way I have no leisure to think about anything but itself. And the world conquers me when it succeeds in hindering me from seeing, loving, holding communion with and serving my Father, God.

In other words, the things that get in the way of my relationship with God are the things of the world.

But John says that in our faith we overcome the world. So what does it mean that our faith overcomes the world?

When John says “our faith” he’s not talking about affirming certain statements in some intellectual way. He’s talking about an active faith that is what the apostles taught to their disciples as they spread the gospel to the world.

See the apostles didn’t just come with a proclamation of the good news of Jesus, they brought with them a way of life in which the gospel of Jesus was lived out in every aspect of life. It included ways of prayer, fasting, feasting, learning and memorizing Scripture, and certain actions like giving to the poor. It meant learning how to glorify God in the mundane of work and raising kids and in being part of the gathered church. It meant the overcoming of the world within us as we fight the temptations that rage.

It was a way of life that demonstrated their allegiance to Jesus as Lord and that he was in charge of every area of life. It is most notably demonstrated in the lives of martyrs. The first martyr, Stephen, was a man committed to this life of faith and as the Pharisees turn to stone him, he not only forgives them but he does not attempt to escape, but instead entrusts his soul to the Lord. Church history is full of examples of men and women in every age who after living a life of faith faced certain death with love in their hearts for their persecutors and welcomed death as a reward for their faithfulness.

But it doesn’t happen all of a sudden. It happens as we practice saying no to the selfish desires within us. It starts as we fight the battle against anger, lust, gluttony, laziness, and the other temptations that crowd our soul. The Spirit helps us as we do battle and little by little we are given victory over the things that get in the way of our relationship with the Lord. Life looks like not being overcome by the temptations and desires of this life, but embracing our all Loving Lord and master and experiencing oneness with him that are not interrupted by our desires.

And when we have this kind of life, one uninterrupted by desires, we have true life.

First we have life as victory over the world and then

Second, we have true life when we have Jesus.

John’s vision of life is not like some of our visions of heaven us playing harps, sitting on clouds in the sky one day. It’s not a “one day we’ll be there” situation, it’s a present reality. It’s possible to have life today, here on the earth before we have died. This vision of eternal life is not merely about the quantity or length of life, but also about the quality of life. Jesus tells us in John 10

John 10:10 (ESV)

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John’s vision of having life is not a future, but something for now. The words that John use there indicate a present action. We have life right now. It’s here for the taking right now, not sometime in the future after we die.

Later on John records Jesus talking about life in John 17:

John 17:1–3 (ESV)

“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

To have life is that know God and Jesus Christ. According to 1 John 2:4-5, To know God is to obey his commands. Later on in Chapter 17 Jesus further describes life that he offers as oneness with one another and with himself

John 17:20–21 ESV

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Jesus describes that abundant, right now life as: being one with one another and with the Father and the Son. But this isn’t an aspiration. It is really possible and has really happened. Listen to Acts 2:42-47

Acts 2:42–47 (ESV)

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

This is abundant life. One where there is unity with the body of Christ, the needs of each are met with sacrificial service and giving, constant prayer with and for one another, eating together, searching the Scriptures, learning the Scriptures. This is what real life is. This is the invitation to you today. Do you want to continue to live a life that is for yourself, where you meet your needs and only meet others if it’s convenient, where that fix is just enough to get you excited, but leaves you hung-over and wanting more? Or do you want true life that is right now, where the joy of fellowship and unity mean that everyone is cared for and loved, where everyone’s needs are met, including yours, and the peace that comes with experiencing God’s love through others?

This is all available today, right now. A person who loves God already has eternal life.

Prayer

Psalm 63:1–8 (ESV)

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;

for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

O merciful and compassionate God, we acknowledge your incredible love for mankind recognizing that we have done nothing deserving of your great love and mercy; yet you continue to shower us with your blessing and grace. We are a people who’s love grows cold, a people who tend to wander and forget the God we love. Stir up your love within our hearts so that we may show your love to others. May you grant us to experience the true life, the eternal life, that you offer to us as we love you more and more every day. God may we demonstrate your love to a world around us that is lost without you. Amen.

Communion Intro

In his letter, John reminds us of the blood as a testimony to Jesus. It is through his blood, John says, that we receive the cleansing of our sins. It is Jesus blood that was shed on the cross that we may be covered and atoned for. The author of Hebrews says this about the shedding of Jesus’ blood Hebrews 9:11-14

Hebrews 9:11–14 CSB

But Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), he entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?

Jesus has cleansed us from our sin and cleansed our conscience so that we can serve the living God. We are invited into the real life, the eternal life because of his blood. He has given us a way to remember that sacrifice and give thanks for it in the Lord’s Supper. So in a few minutes I’ll invite you to come down the center aisle and take a piece of bread and a cup of juice and return to your seats. When the song is over, I’ll lead us through consuming the bread and juice together. We ask that if you are not a follower of Jesus that you do not come and partake, but instead reflect on what Jesus has done on your behalf and consider what it would mean for you to turn away from your sin and follow him. For those of you who are followers of Jesus, we invite you to come whether you are a member of our church or not. As you come, I encourage you to either spend that time doing what Paul calls examining yourself and confess your sin to God or to sing along with the song that Scott will lead us in. Lets stand and come.

(O Mighty King over all creation. You have brought to us life, true life, in your death and resurrection. You conquered death and brought to us life everlasting. May we who have taken this bread and cup turn and be an example of life to those who do not know you. O Lord Jesus Christ, fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit that we may know and understand your commands, but more importantly to do them so that we can have life in you. May our love for you be demonstrated in our love for others and our unity with you grow ever more so that we experience your life right now. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.)

Announcements

just a few announcements this morning

Women’s ministry gathering this coming Saturday from 10 to noon at the Embers’ home. If you have questions or need directions you can see Dori or Emily and they’ll be able to help you out.

Next Steps which is our class for potential new members is next week right after church. It’s an opportunity for you to find out more about our church, who we are, what we believe, and what membership means to us. It doesn’t mean that you have to become a member, but it is the first step in the membership process. Again that’s next week right after service in the fellowship hall. If you’re interested in attending, please register on our website so that we know how much food to provide and how many children will need to be cared for during that time.

December 14th we’re going to have a Church Christmas party from 5-7. Come hang out and spend time together, a viewing of the Polar Express will take place for the family to be part of. Come stay for some of the evening or the whole time!

Lastly, Kid’s ministry is in need of 2 nursery volunteers for the 3rd week of the month. This would be a recurring way to serve the church by hanging out with our littles once a month. If you have questions or are interested, you can come see me after service and I can get you in touch with Lauren Mogey who leads our children’s ministry and she’ll get the process started.

Now lets stand and sing one final song.