Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Please remember that the Milton-Freewater Ministers Association’s food drive ends December 12, which is next Sunday.

2. Angel Tree Kids- Kathy to share

3.

If you have any announcements, please contact Pastor John or Barbara Goodenough and we will get them put in the bulletin and announce here at the beginning of church.

Introduction

Good morning, and welcome to FCC, where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth, one verse at a time, one book at a time.

Today, we want to contemplate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ by taking communion as a church family.

I want you to know that this is an ordinance that the Lord gave to his disciples and the Holy Spirit had Paul institute it here in the book of Corithians where I will read from.

Communion is a time to remember what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.

The bread and wine are tangible, physical reminders of Christ’s love for us.

Every time we eat and drink, it is a reminder of the sacrifice of Christ.

At the same time, communion is also a time to examine ourselves and our walk with God, as instructed 1 Corinthians 11:27-29.

It is a time to do a heart check.

Are we walking out our faith and living in an active relationship with Jesus, allowing the Holy Spirit to move in our lives and to sanctify us.

Or are we living life according to our choices and only partaking in communion ritualistically?

It’s all about communion and fellowship with God.

The dictionary describes communion as: “a close relationship with someone in which feelings and thoughts are exchanged:”

Here at FCC, we invite all our brothers and sisters in the Lord to take communion with us.

So please come to the table.

First, I will pray us in and during this time of prayer, I will pause so we can allow the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts, so we take communion with our hearts being right with God.

Second, after I say amen, please come, come to the table and get your cup.

As you return to your seat and we will take together.

After service, Mike will have garbage can at the back of the sanctuary where you can dispose of the cups.

How does that sound?

Let’s read the text and remember our Lord with a sincere heart, a heart that desires to worship whole heartedly, in Spirit and in Truth.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, we bow before you in humility and ask You to examine our hearts today.

Show us anything that is not pleasing to You.

Reveal any secret pride, any unconfessed sin, any rebellion or unforgiveness that may be hindering our relationship with You.

Pause

Lord as we take the bread and of the cups representing your broken Body and poured out blood for us, we remember and celebrate Your faithfulness to us and to all who will receive You. Thank you for exchanging our sinfulness, for your righteousness and for paying the price for our sin.

In Jesus Name we Love You, Amen!

Review

We have come as far as Colossians 4:10 and this is where we will pick up today.

Let us remember that this power packed epistle is about the pre-eminence or the supremacy of Jesus Christ in the life of a believer.

We are at the salutation of the letter, or the close if you may and Paul spends 12 verses on talking about those who have helped him.

He leaves a picture for us church.

A snap shot of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

This picture clearly shows us that we are not to be Lone Rangers, but rather connected to others.

If the apostle Paul needed others church, how much more do we?

What is the number one thing in your life that cause you the most pain?

What is the number one thing in your life that brings your healing?

It All Starts with Relationships

Everything significant in life starts with relationship.

At the end of the day, your faith, your family, your work, and your leadership are all based on who you relate to and how you relate.

Your life is motivated by love for others, being part of a family, a desire for intimacy and vulnerability, choosing to work on a great team, and creating a product or service that helps others.

We are happiest when we know our lives revolve around people.

Conversely, we are not ourselves, not our best selves, when we are isolated and alone.

~Dr Townsend~

Read Colossians 4:10-18

Last week, we dealt with Tychicus and Onesimus, this week, we are going to deal with a few more, well maybe.

But regardless, we will be talking about the importance of relationships.

I was hopeful that we would finish today, but guess what, the Lord has one more week for us in the great letter!

So, here are 3 more of Pauls companions or fellow workers if you may.

It is important for us to realize no ministry or minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be successful without others.

In fact, if you spend any amount of time with a successful person and you ask them who or what they contribute their success to, if they are believers they will say God and others!

So before, I sahre about these three Jews who helped Paul become successful, I wanted to look back to the text that we finished with last week:

It is important for us to look at this verse in the context that it was written.

Solomon just finished up talking about the vanity of selfish toil and about how when we toil for ourselves we are miserable, just plain miserable.

No matter how much we make or how much we have, if we are not toiling for the Lord and others it is all vanity and grasping for the wind.

God wants us to labor church, but to labor in the right spirit, with the right motives, for the right reasons!

Blessed are the balanced!

Church, the text we read before this is used often at weddings and it can be used for that, but it is also written in the context of friendship or the value of friendship church and that is what we are talking about today.

Let’s take a close look at this here in Ecclesiastes 4;9-11 to see what the Lord has in store for us.

First, I think it is important to for use to realize and understand that we are all on the highway and there are only two highways church:

Broad Way

Narrow Way

Here in just a few minutes you will understand why I brought up being on the highway church.

But in the meantime, just remember we are just pilgrims and sojourners passing through this life and heading to the next.

Ronnie Scroggin who attended here a few years ago when he lived in the are stopped taking my calls and would not receive my text.

He was not in the best health when he came here, but when he moved, his health got worse.

He was diagnosed with cancer and became very angry and depressed at God and others, and therefore disconnected from others.

Do you think his condition got better or worse?

You right, it worsened!

His attitude was not one of gratitude, until the Lord and others put him in check.

A few weeks ago, Ronnie called me to apologize for cutting me off and then he explained why and what was going on in his health.

His attitude is one of gratitude and humility, not anger and ungratefulness!

He has now called me two weeks in a row, and has opened his heart to me about his goals for the end of life.

Certainly, we talked about death and I need to share his response:

My question was simple church, How are you doing with the possibly of dying?

Do you have any fear?

Ronnie’s response was, “ John, I am at peace with dying and I have no fear!

Have you ever prepared to move or go on a trip?

You know the excitement that comes with it?

That is how I feel!

I am excited to make the move from my address here on Earth to my eternal one in Heaven.

How does that set with you?

Ronnie suffered alone for about a year, until he came to the end of himself and cried out to God and others.

And this is what we see here in Ecclesiastes and Colossians.

Lets look deeper:

Why are two better than one?

Solomon’s experience with the independent man, the man who is absorbed with himself caused him to consider the importance of friendship and the value of people doing things together.

He may have recalled the Jewish proverb, “A friendless man is like a left hand bereft (deprived) of the right.”

Perhaps he watched some pilgrims on the highway as he was writing this letter and drew this conclusion, “Two are better than one.”

Church, are two better than one?

Absolutely!

Two are better than one church, but let us not forget that the devil is destroying families all over this great nation.

He is break church families apart for trivial things and convincing the multitudes that the grass is greener on the other side.

Think about the divorce rates, think about how many people today move form person to person, from church to church.

Think about how many clubs and organizations that used to cultivate relationships and now many of us are Lone Rangers.