https://www.facebook.com/kim.johnson.5015983/videos/3101838606495171/

Sermon Sunday March 22, 2020

This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Last weeks and this week, and I’m not sure how many more weeks, we have not had church service.

It is not that we didn’t have church, we simply locked the building,

This is not the church; we are the church.

Since we are the church, where did the church worship for the last week. Where is the church going to worship in the next few weeks?

How many slept in, did you do spring cleaning, or did you just have a day of rest, go play golf, or something. After all there is not church.

Some maybe asking why we don’t we come to worship, why not just come any way?

It is not because I did not want to, but thru discernment, and respect of all of us, we locked the doors until at least mid-April.

God didn’t leave us during these times when the world stands still for the coronavirus, but have we left Him, have we put Him on hold as we struggle with fear?

He is still in charge and He is still with us each and every day; He is still on the throne in heaven. His ways are the right ways.

This virus has brought fear to this great nation and throughout the world,

Has it also brought fear to the sons and daughters of God?

We must stand firm even in the times when we walk thru the valley.

Not stopping, not turning back, but walking thru this stormy period of our lives.

There is one who walks with us, who lights the path for us.

We cannot lose sight of who is in charge, I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, what tomorrow will bring, but I know who holds my tomorrow, all of my tomorrows?

Proverbs 19:21 ²¹ The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established.

We don’t understand what is going on or why, but as with other events in the past that we didn’t understand at the time, God will make His purpose know in His timing.

The Lords ways are not our ways; the Lord time is not our time.

We ask God why; we ask God when will this end?

I don’t have the answers, I wish as a pastor I had a direct line to God, kind of like the red phone in the old batman series, but I do have pray and I have faith and I know who is in charge,

And I know the one who does, and it is His council I seek.

That is why we need a lot of prayer, and in times like these with a lot of hand soap.

I pray each day that God’s mighty healing hand would crush this virus, and all that are sick would fully recover.

In fact, at 11am mountain time today, I’ve asked thru social media that we pray as one.

If you haven’t already done so, please tells others to pray.

I know that some will say, yea, yea, yea, those Christian, to which I say yep those Christian serve a might, might God,

God lead me to the story of Jericho and it came to me, we need to pray 7 days in a row and then after our 7^th day of prayer, we need to shout so the walls of the coronavirus come tumbling down.

It is in pray and in action that we learn and do God’s will

Trusting in God and not fearing the things of this life.

We should be sounding the horn of revival instead of one in retreat.

It is not just in times like this, but each and every day, each and every trial, each and every thing that we struggle with, we know that hope has a name, and that name is Jesus Christ.

Love has a name, peace has a name, joy has a name and it is the same name we turn to when we seek answers and that name is Jesus Christ.

Heaven is a real place, and the love of God made it possible for us to spend eternity there.

That His Son would come to die for me, and for you personally.

That is what we share with others, that is what we tell them when they ask how we stay calm in times like this.

Tell them your story, tell them about what Jesus has done for you and the hope He brings.

Tell them that with a word He calmed the storm and with the same words He will quite the storms in our lives.

God has a plan for us, our feet may be firmly planted on earth, but we are likewise seated in the heavenlies, and God want you to be part of the causing of His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We need to share Jesus now more than ever.

People are afraid and they need someone to bring the light of Jesus to calm this storm.

because He is with us, let us also bring that peace to others.

It is His peace that will keep this fear from taking over your life. It is our faith in Jesus Christ that will get us thru anything. I know it can be easy to have fear but in Paul’s letter to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7 he tells him.

For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

It was on the cross that Jesus broke the back of Satan,

Isaiah 53:5 ⁵ But he (Jesus) was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his stripes/bruises we are healed.

We are made whole; we are healed, and our transgressions are paid for. You could say that by His Strips He will also crush the coronavirus, and in His punishment, we are made whole.

It is the blood of the Lame that brings us hope, and peace, it brings us salvations by the grace of God.

So, no matter if we come to this building or we lock the doors, Jesus should be and always will be the reason for our gathering.

And if we come, let us not come in fear, but with the assurance that no matter what this world brings, there is One who brings more.

Our scriptures this morning comes from Psalm 91 it is a message of hope, it reminds us that we live under the promises, the protection and the very presence of God. We are not to fear darkness nor disease nor death because we have a God who is in control.

Psalm 91

¹ You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
² will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust.”
³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence;
⁴ he will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night,
or the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ or the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
or the destruction that wastes at noonday.

 

 

 

 

 

Pray

When David wrote this Psalm he was going thru a crisis of his own, he was on the run from King Saul,

David was appointed King by God, but Saul was not ready to give up his power.

David need to face his fears, to overcome his anxieties, and the uncertainties he faced.

I have seen these things come to pass over the course of the last month. Our fear, our anxieties and feeling that we live in perilous times.

We are at a standstill, I read Friday that California is in a mandatory lock down, with a stay at home order,

The order has forced the closure of dine-in restaurants, gyms, public events, everything

Likewise, New York and now New Jersey Governors have also signed an executive order mandating 100% of state’s workforce must stay home

United Methodist Churches in Oregon, Idaho, Washington and Alaska have been told not to have church services until, at least April 12.

As it is with churches throughout this great nation.

School, sporting events, concerts are all being postponed. The stock market, the job marked,

Were going to get thru this, but people are concerned.

This pandemic is causing fear and anxiety, people are looking for answers

With cases increasing every day, where more are dying from this virus, we can lose hope,

A lot has changed because of this, however one thing has not changed, that is God, God has not changed.

There is hope in the one who was, the one who is, and the one who is to come

The one who was with us in past diseases, past natural disasters, past wars, and other tragic event, and He is the one with us now as we live thru these things and the one who will continue to be with us always.

Our God is bigger than all the past things, all the things now and all the things in the future

He is even bigger than the coronavirus

Because He is bigger we must remember that Greater is He that is in you, then he that is in the world

He is greater than anything we face.

Our strength is in the Lord, our hope is in the Lord, our peace is in the Lord.

No weapons formed against us can prevail, not the coronavirus, or any other virus, not being restricted to our homes and most definitely not fear. No weapons can prevail.

Do you trust God, do you put your faith in Jesus, are you seeking Him during these troubling times?

We need to seek Him daily.

If you are only a Sunday morning Christian, you will never experience fully the presence of Jesus.

It is this presence that will help you in your times of need.

But to have that closeness of Jesus, you have to draw near to Him

Your churches may be closed, but we still must draw near to Him

You may be stuck in your house, but that will not keep you from drawing near to Him.

We as a nation have put God on a shelf and we keep Him safe until the time comes when we need Him.

We say we got this, don’t call us, we will call you.

We turn from His word, we put our bibles on the shelves and we follow the world.

And now, we cry out HELP!

Could it be that we have said this for so long that the God is showing us that we need Him?

In fact, He may even allow what is going on now to get us to draw near to Him.

It may be that what we are going thru, and how long we go thru it will be determined by how long this nation fights against drawing near to God.

Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness, how long will it take us to draw near.

We know from our Psalm that God is “My refuge and my fortress, in whom I trust.

That He will

deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence;
⁴ he will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
David wrote this at a time when he feared for his life, he found refuge under the protective wings of God

With this he could face each day with hope and peace.

We too should have that hope and peace, not fear

With all that is going on, it can be easy to find fear, not that were looking for it, but it has come to us, but we must remember that we are not to fear

Not to fear death, not to fear trial, darkness, the devil, not to fear demons, and not to fear disease

Because we have a God who is in control, who is in charge of everything. He is with us in every situation and in every storm we face.

We are always under His protection, His presence and His peace

But pastor we could die, yes, one day we will all die,

But we haven’t yet and until we do, what will we do, where will we go and who will we tell.

My first breath after I take my last breath here will be in heaven.

All the pains, the sickness, will be gone, all the tears Jesus will wipe away.

If you fear death, perhaps your clinging on to this world, which is not our world too tightly

Just as David, we are living in a time of unknown, and if we look at verses 5-6 we see that he did not right about living in fear

⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night,
or the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ or the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
or the destruction that wastes at noonday.

We should not fear life and what life brings us

David was a man after God’s own heart, no he wasn’t perfect, he fails short, as I fall short on daily basis, yet what Christ did on the cross and when God raised Him from the dead,

The love we were given, lets us face these fears with a protection that nothing can defeat.

When we are in the hands of God, when He holds us in the palms of His hands, nothing, nor no one can remove us from His protection.

Psalms 91 is a great chapter to read today and any day that you face the unknown

This virus will one day pass from us, but don’t let the opportunity to come to know Jesus on a personal basis pass you by.

Don’t let another day go by without Jesus in your life, ask Him today, right now.

Believe with your heart and confess with your tongue and you will know peace even in troubled waters.

We all need to fall to our knees and ask God for forgiveness,

Trusting Him and seeking His will, His purpose

Let us ask Him to come into our lives, that we can have the hope and peace that we so desperately want right now. To know Jesus and have a closer relationship.

Hebrews 6:19 We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain,

This is what Christ gave us on the cross, that we can now go before the presence of God.

And in His presences, we can defeat fear that this darkness brings. with God in our lives, even in all of this, He brings good news. He tells us

When we fear the right things, then we don’t have to fear the wrong things

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge

Declare your dependence upon God, not our independence which so many have sought

So we can dance in times of troubles

Sing in times of unrest

Love in times of destruction

And worship in times of despair.

Come, now is the time to worship, turn off your televisions, now is the time to worship,

Put away your fears, now is the time to worship

Christ defeated Satan, now is the time to worship

The grave could not hold him; death could not keep him.

Oh death where is your sting, where is your victory,

Now is the time to worship.

Wont you come to Christ and come to worship

If God puts it on your heart to give, please give, the doors may be locked but God’s work is not done

 

Pray

COVID-19 is reported in Idaho’s Treasure Valley as of Friday March 13. This is a fluid situation so there will be changes not reflected on this web page.

Bishop directs cancellation of March 15 and 22, 2020 services – affects Idaho

Read more here:

Pastoral letter: New Coronavirus guidelines call for suspending worship

Further reading:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

Home

Ash Wednesday service runs from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The ashes placed on the forehead remind us that we are mortal and will return to dust. They are the remnants of last year’s burnt fronds from Palm Sunday.

Family and friends are welcome to join in for Scout Sunday – Feb. 9th at 11 a.m.

Bible studies continue on Wednesdays at 12:30, led by Debbie W.  All are welcome, no signup needed.

Service begins at 11 am. Sit anywhere. There’s a sound system and big screen with prompts for lyrics etc. 

We have a Welcome Hymn, Call to Worship, then Opening Hymn and Opening Prayer through about 11:10 a.m.

Then we have announcements, a prayer hymn, then congregants share joys and concerns followed by The Lord’s Prayer in unison.

Next up is Children’s Time and two more hymns, followed by a reading in unison.

Then comes a Scripture Reading and Sermon that usually runs from about 11:30 to about noon.

Closing comes with an offering, doxology, hymn and benediction which usually ends the service by 12:15 p.m.

JOIN US IN THE FELLOWSHIP HALL FOR COFFEE AND COOKIES AFTER THE SERVICE. WE’D LOVE TO GET TO KNOW YOU!

Would you like to know more about the known history of advent? Yes? then click here: https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/where-did-the-season-of-advent-come-from

Holiday Craft Bazaar 9 am through 4 pm.

Admission: Suggested donation of 2 items for the Middleton Food Pantry.

Baked Potato Lunch 11:30 am through 1:30 pm

$6.50 for a hearty baked potato with selected toppings, coleslaw, beverage, and a slice of pie.

Saturday November 23rd 9 am to 4 pm, 104 E Main, Middleton Idaho