Sunday Service

Psalm 100 says, Shout for Joy To The Lord, all the Earth Worship, the Lord with gladness come before him with joyful songs know that the Lord is God. It is, he who made us? And we are his we are his people, the Sheep of his pasture, enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts. With praise give thanks to him and praise His name. For the Lord is good. And his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. Her him. A praise is number 19.

Jesus Will.

Would you bow in prayer with me? Your God, we lift up your name and praise and we ask that you be with us as we go through this worship service. Prepare our hearts to gain from this time together. We thank you for the fellowship. We experienced at this time and we give you all the praise and glory. Now. Let us say the Lord's prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our debts. As we forgive our debtors lead us, not into temptation, but Deliver Us from Evil. The dying is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Good morning, everyone. I hope everyone had a good week. We did. Let's see. First thing James is not was not able to make it today. So we won't be having his graduation. The see Christy. Happy birthday person. You're having a How many years? How many years did?

Not really. Not really. We have a couple of people we need to add to our prayer list. Patterson. Jeanette's brother, and stormy Nicholson. Connie's friend. And that's all he has. Do we have any other announcements this morning? No, thank you. Yes. We are. Who we are having Bible study at 5, correct?

Okay. Alright, I think we will have our 118.

Going to read the scripture reading later in the service, when I do the sermon. So let us affirmative pay. I believe that Jesus Christ, the son of the Living, God.

Would you bow in prayer with me?

Your lord were thankful that we can take this time to worship your holy name. We each have various needs. You tell us to pray for those and we do sometimes we don't always get an answer immediately, but we trusting you and we know that we will be answered soon enough. We ask you to bless us and we ask that we might be a blessing to others. We pray, especially for those who are vulnerable, those who are in need those, who are poor. Those who are sick, those who need our systems. Are we minister to them in ways, that would be appropriate.

Lord. We thank you for Jesus Christ who died on the cross, so that we might be saved. We asked that we share that among others. all these things, I ask in Jesus name, I meant

In the Gospel of Luke chapter 22, read this about Jesus and the disciples at the Last Supper. When the hour is come Jesus and his Apostles reclined at the table, and he said to them, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suck. For I tell you, I will not eat it again, until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God. After taking the cup he gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among you for. I tell you I will not drink of it of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes, and he took bread and gave thanks and broke it. And gave it to them saying, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Hey, we meet Ladd. together in our Emma's communion.

Eternal gracious. God you are our God and wear your people. May your Holy Spirit abide in US resurrecting. Love for each other. May our Focus be Jesus at the shower and every hour that we might be imitators of his love walking in his way. For Jesus is the way in Jesus name, we pray.

Really father. We thank you. It's for the day and many blessings. You gave us. We pray, you be with us. It coming week. I could do the right thing. I wish you do those. You're sick. And those who need your help our country, and our leaders. There's two gift in The Giver. Jesus Christ, name we pray. Amen.

Phoenix weather.

Change song.

Thank you for somebody has a high note over there. I don't think I could match the

I think it's one at Dixie's daughters.

The sermon today. What about the cross? Just taken from Romans 3:21 to 26 degrees like this, but now apart from the law, the right though. The righteousness of God has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all, who believe there is no difference between Jew and Gentile for all, have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and all are Justified freely. I just grace through the Redemption that came by Jesus Christ. God in Christ, as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance, he has left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time. So as to be just in the one who justifies those who have faith.

May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing of his word.

When I last read the book of Romans, where are scriptures from? It raised an important question for me. What about the cross? In some places the cross is not emphasize as much as it should be and yet we find in the Book of Romans this emphasis on what Christ has done bringing us at one with God, through his sacrifice on that cross. There are three things. The cross effects. What you believe about Christ what you believe about, man? And finally, what you believe about evangelism. We will look at each one briefly. First, what you believe about the cross, says a lot about how you view Christ. There might be little reason for the cross. If you believe it was just a coincidence that Jesus was crucified. But if you believe is Paul rides that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and God has presented him as an atonement in the cross become Central to our faith in the Old Testament sacrificial. Lambs were offered to God for Penance. Is it coincidence that Christ the Lamb of God should shed his blood for the Final Redemption of mankind? Because of Christ perfect sinless life. He was the perfect ideal sacrifice. And so the question, what do you believe about the cross about Christ, was his death happenstance or part and parcel of God's plan for the Salvation of mankind. The cross is Central to how we view Christ. Was he just a good teacher that met an unfair death or savior of mankind? In our confession of faith. We State I believe in Jesus as my personal savior, savior implies salvation. S, what you believe about the cross, reflects your belief about, man. If we view Christ as a good man or moral teacher, we leave out his divinity. Who will save us? Popular today is the notion that man doesn't need saving. He can save himself. In other words, religion is a nice thing that we don't need a savior. We are pretty good as it is. Our works are. What is important? This is been called Works righteousness. Paul spent Great Lengths of his time, writing to the Jews who believe that doing the law would save them, but inevitably a human cannot follow every aspect of the law. That's if you depend upon the law, you will come up short, regardless of how hard you try. Plus, you were ignoring God's provision through the atonement. It took much time and energy for Paul, to get the legalistic Jew to change the mindset of the Lost, saving someone for thousands of years. The Jews had followed the letter of the law. God would show a better way. And imagine with me for a moment, a rule book as large as the modern dictionary with potentially millions of rules. The deal is, if you follow 85% of the rules, which would be an exceptional feat for any human. You still fall short. No, one can follow every law. So what do you believe about, man? Is he self-sufficient? Can he save himself or does he need a savior? Now imagine with me a courtroom. Someone is sitting on trial for their life and the lawyer says you got 70% of the law. All right. Go before the judge issues, his verdict of guilty for not having kept a hundred percent of the law. A man stepped forward to the Judges Bench and says, his debt is paid in full. Not because of Merit, but because of faith, in the Cross of Christ, I don't believe man can save himself. And I am not ashamed to admit that I need a savior. I'm not saying that man is worthless, certainly not know, without a cross. It looks pretty bleak. We need a savior. So how do you see Christ? How do you say, man? Finally, how you view the cross? Ultimately shows, your understanding of the need to do evangelism. Some in the church have a difficult time with evangelism. It is something done overseas, some believe, a Banjee ilysm is too judgmental, and that issues like unity and social action to be pursued. They are nice ideals, but the reality says, we need growth to generate money and people in the used. Otherwise, we're dead in the water. I suggest that we believe in some sort of evangelism, the Great Commission in the Apostle, Paul call us to do no less. I do not believe in judging, please hear me. Evangelism done. Correctly is not about judgment, but about love. It is genuine concern for your neighbor. It could be as little as inviting, your neighbor, to church or visiting someone, after they have visited the church, but it doesn't have to be about any kind of judgment. I do believe there are hurting people in our area region and Country in need of a savior. That might sound too simplistic for our faith. I suggest that we get down to the nuts and bolts for the faith. Why is it that some churches are growing and other denominations? Not so much. I believe. One of the reasons is a focus on evangelism. In seminary, there was one class on evangelist. And it wasn't elected. It should have been a required course. Instead, we studied world religions, but not how to evangelize someone who is a member of another religion. You don't have to, to attend, Seminary to be good at Evangel, has some of the best of Vangelis, local and abroad have no degree from Seminary, but one thing they have and that is a love and knowledge of the Bible at the center of the FAE is the cross. It is also the center of our worship and weekly communion. In the Christian church Disciples of Christ. Each time. We gather for worship. We partake of the Bread & cup representing the body and blood of Jesus. The service of communion calls us to remember a rugged cross on Golgotha. That is far from the 14-karat gold crosses. We see people wear today. The cross asked. What about Christ? What a man, what a vandalism. It may not always be easy to discuss sin and salvation, but it is scriptural and it is Central to the Fig, you know, before he said into thy hands. I commit, my spirit. Jesus was on the cross of Calvary and ask my God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? Before he said, not my will, but thine be done. Jesus ask that the cup pass from him in the garden. Why is this important? Because it shows the humanity of Christ in a sense. He is like us and that gives her life meaning week. We need to acknowledge that the humanity and Divinity of Christ are Orthodox beliefs that have come down to us Through the Ages. Jesus had to be both fully human and fully Divine. Just save us some Christians, forget the Divinity of Christ and claimed that he was a good moral teacher. That's not Orthodox belief. Either to save us. Jesus must be divine. I and the father are one. Said Jesus, he cannot be mere human and provide us with salvation. He must be divine and human. It is a mystery. But Orthodox as handed down by the church fathers, never forget the humanity and Divinity of Christ. It just gives us a more complete picture of the whole Jesus. Never forget the cross. We should focus on what Christ has done for us and what that means to us. That is why I believe in the centrality of the Cross, never leave out the cross. The central tenets of our faith. The cross is what makes Christianity different from any other world religion. In no other religion does the Supreme Being come down to take on the cloak of humanity to die on the cross for the sins of mankind to make us right with God. That would seem as a weakness for any Supreme Being in another religion to do this. Therefore. I believe that the cross is Central to the Christian faith. Namely who would have come up with this mode of reconciliation between God and Mankind, who would have thought of this. Surely. The Redemption would have come in a simpler fashion. The cross is a complex theological concept, that cannot just be made up. It is not understood until after Easter. It's significance is not understood until much later. Paul helps us understand the significance of the Cross. He explains the necessity of the Cross. He argues for the centrality of the cross, the atonement explains how we are made, right with God, Jesus's crucifixion is the Final Act of final sacrifice. To make right the relationship between Mankind and God, let us never forget the centrality of the Cross. Let us prepare our hearts for the gift of God, the salvation of Mankind, through the love of God. What wondrous love? God has for us, that he would give up perfect Holiness to come down to be human and divine to save us and make us right with him. A God who makes the sacrifice through his son, Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Let us. Thank God. Ferguson Kia.

We now would unite. When we, now would invite those, who would Unite with the church by transfer a membership or confession of Faith to come forward as we sing Our Hymn of invitation.

Thank you for being and worship today. I hope you have a good week and I may the Lord bless you and keep you until we meet again.