For the week of March 10 – 4th Sunday in Lent
Morning prayer: God of the covenant, in the glory of the cross Your Son embraced the power of death and broke its hold over Your people. In this time of repentance, draw all people to Yourself, that we who confess Jesus as Lord may put aside the deeds of death and accept the life of Your kingdom. Amen. (Lectionary prayers)
Opening Hymn: #378 Amazing Grace
- Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.
- ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.
- Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
- The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be, and long as life endures.
- Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail, and mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil, a life of joy and peace.
- When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.
Psalm 107:1-3
O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those He redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
Children’s Time BLACK Jeremiah 4:27-28
For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.
Children’s Message
Purple and blue reflect and lift up God’s royalty as King of Creation and the boundaries of God’s Kingdom, the heights of heaven and the depths of the ocean.
Red is the color of the stain of our sins and now today we look at black as the color of darkness and death.
Black is the darkest color, a coalition of all the colors. In scripture, black and dark end up being interchangeable. We need darkness to identify the light. God speaks into the darkness and calls out light in the beginning of creation.
Black being the symbol of death, comes from diseases that turn the skin black, like leprosy and starvation.
Our first two colors characterize God and how we view God’s authority, while the next 2, red and black, are best defined through the human condition of sin and mortality. God has provided a remedy for both and that is Jesus. Jesus makes it possible for our sins to be forgiven and Jesus has destroyed death, this way we can be with God forever.
Prayers of Intercession: Thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayers for those dear to our hearts. We now pray as You have taught us: 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 sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: Remember the two Lenten challenges: Give “30 Pieces of Silver” to finance building a bathhouse for Withrow University College. Pray for the administrators, staff and students of Withrow University College and our scholarship students: Emmanuella and Ebenezer.
Thank you for giving your offering to LUMC. Thank you for doing ministry with us.
Offering prayer: God of unwavering love, You have held nothing back in Your love for us, not even Your Son. How we marvel at that kind of love, and how we long to reflect a portion of that devotion back to You. As we dedicate our offerings to You, lead us away from our tendency to hold back and worry that there will not be enough. Help us to live as the people of love and abundance You have called us to be. In Christ, we pray. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of preparation: #98 To God Be the Glory
- To God be the glory, great things He hath done!
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
who yielded His life an atonement for sin, and opened the lifegate that all may go in.
Refrain: Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father thru Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done!
- O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood, to every believer the promise of God;
the vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. (Refrain) - Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done,
and great our rejoicing thru Jesus the Son;
but purer, and higher, and greater will be our wonder, our transport,
when Jesus we see. (Refrain)
Message Scripture: John 3:14-21
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Those who believe in Him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
Message: Pastor Becky
Is there anyone in this room without some form of corrective lens for their sight? Do you remember the first inkling that something may be off with your sight? I couldn’t see the blackboard at school clearly. I didn’t notice the change, but my teacher could tell. She alerted my mother, so off to the eye doctor we went.
What struck me during the exam was the part where they cover one of your eyes and begin flipping lenses and asking: better lens 1 or 2? Better 1 or 3? Miraculously through all the lens flipping, we get a pair of eyeglasses with a better ability to see. Unfortunately, we will go through many lens changes for our physical sights and probably some surgical interventions as well. Our sight is important. Our sight helps us navigate the world. We have to monitor our sight and keep it in the best shape we can.
The same is true for our spiritual sight. It is our ability to see the world, each other and ourselves as God sees us.
For a long time, John 3:16 has been a lens that we have used to see God and Jesus. It was probably one of the first verses of scripture we were taught and we memorized.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.”(NRSV)
Actually it may be this phrasing you are more familiar with:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” (KJV)
That’s the lens; pretty simple and basic really. God loved the world. Gave us Jesus and anyone that believes in Jesus won’t die, but will have eternal life.
Whole religious movements have been founded on that one verse. Remember the rainbow wig guy at every professional football game with his sign JOHN 3:16. Along the way the message got shortened to Jesus or die. It became a sweeping evangelical movement with zeal and condemnation. Somewhere our lens got too narrow and missed that verse 17 should never have been separated from verse 16. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” Condemnation wasn’t the purpose of Jesus coming, salvation is.
Through Jesus the world would be saved. Think over all that Jesus did and said. Did He refuse anyone healing? Do we have any indication anywhere that Jesus turned a person away? There were those that left Jesus. There was the rich young man. Jesus sent out 72 disciples and by the end of His earthly ministry we only have the names of 12 men and a handful of women. Did Jesus ever verbally condemn any person? Jesus condemned deeds, notions, beliefs, and practices – but He never cut anyone off from redemption.
It changes the way we see Jesus when we use the lens of salvation from the very beginning. Jesus is lifting people up, healing them, forgiving them. People could not help but be drawn to Jesus and the everlasting life He offers. To be included, to be cared for, to be a part of a family, to be important to someone, to have somewhere and someone to turn to in times of hardship and trouble and not be condemned for being in need? Who wouldn’t want that when you look at what the world offers?
Salvation begins now, at the first meeting of Jesus. Jesus is the light dispelling darkness. It is doing what is true that brings us to the light. A decision we may have made in our head, that has to get to our heart, so we, too, are clearly seen doing what we do in God. The God who calls us to love because it is neither the sending of Jesus or our personal duty to condemn.
Look to save, to be light – to speak the kind word, the gentle word. To uplift each other’s work, to extend grace. We are not called to be a hindrance or an obstacle to another’s experience of mercy and meeting Jesus. Sometimes, before folks can believe in Jesus, they have to believe that we believe in Jesus. Our actions display our belief. What do yours show?
Closing Hymn: #364 Because He Lives
- God sent His Son, they called Him Jesus; He came to love, heal, and forgive;
He lived and died to buy my pardon, an empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.
Refrain: Because He lives, I can face tomorrow; because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives.
- How sweet to hold a newborn baby, and feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance, this child can face uncertain days because He lives.
- And then one day I’ll cross the river; I’ll fight life’s final war with pain;
And then as death gives way to victory,
I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He reigns.
Go into your week with the blessings of The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit.
