Home Worship Services Sermons Location Contacts Bulletins Links |
FAMILY NEWSPOTLUCK NEXT SUNDAY: Next Sunday is the first Sunday of March, and we have a potluck dinner on the first Sunday of each month. Plan to come and bring something to eat to share with others. It is a wonderful time of food and fellowship, and we need everyone there to enjoy the time with brothers and sisters in Christ. TIMBERS NEXT SUNDAY: At 2:30 P.M. next Sunday we will have a devotional time with the staff and residents at Timbers Nursing Home. We do a lot of singing and have a couple of prayers, and some short messages. We have a number of regulars, and new people every time we come. Interacting with the folks there, helping them to their rooms, and supporting the singing is a great way to serve people, and we need you. It usually lasts about a half hour. BUILDING REPORT: This past Monday (February 20) Richard, Karl, and Bill met with the construction company. They tell us that work on the building with start at 11:00 A.M. on March 18 and will be completed in four days. The company will have one team working outside and one inside. They request that we have someone here at the building during construction time on those four days. If you can help by just being here, please let Richard or Bill know so a schedule can be drawn up. TODAY'S LESSON
At the beginning of our worship time one of our members got up to express that he is cancer free and he wanted to give thanks to those who prayed and supported him, especially his wife. John Clayton's comment at the beginning of his sermon elaborated on that support. This is included in this recording. INTRODUCTION
A. The Bible has many types/antitypes in its stories.
I. EPHESIANS 5:25-33 — Remember last week's lesson.
1. Old story reflecting New Testament truths.
B. This is a story about the wedding of Jacob & Rachel.
2. Great lessons when understood. 3. The things we struggle with come in types. 1. Normal procedures — father gives bride.
C. Genesis 29:15-30 a. Brings her covered to the groom in a chuppah (huppa).
2. Dowry included a slave/servant.b. Leah is the surprise. 3. Wedding feast went on for a week. D. The story is a type of the antitype in Christ and the church. 1. The church is the bride = Rachel.
2. Christ = The Groom — Jacob a. Jacob left Isaac to find a wife among God's people — Genesis 28:1-5
A. Christ left His Father to seek his bride — the church
II. REVELATION 21:9; 22:17 — Be the bride of Christ. 1. Verse 25 — Christ loved (agapao) the church
B. Verse 26 — “Make the [church] holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word.”
2. HE was willing to die for the church. a. Have you ever loved that much?
b. Giving yourself is agapao. 1. Refers to baptism — washing out what stains us.
C. Verse 27 — The result is perfection, not by what we
do, but by what he does. We cannot be that good.2. Sanctify and cleanse it. 3. This is continuous — 1 John 1:7-10. D. Verses 28-29 — Mystery of marriage — becoming one — Genesis 2:23 — “Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” E. Verses 30-33 — The mystery of how we can be saved is mirrored in the marriage of man and wife. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 — The body has different members. THE BACK PAGEOUR SPIRITUAL STRUGGLEOne of the major struggles we have in understanding the Word of God is trying to grasp the spiritual meaning. Many of our religious neighbors have just given up trying, and as a result we see people wanting to make everything Jesus talked about physical. Instead of understanding that “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36), we have folks trying to imagine Jesus being a physical ruler of a political nature, ruling from Jerusalem, and fighting physical wars just like the ones we are all so tired of here on earth today. When we try to grasp heaven and hell, we have people trying to make hell physical with demons in red suits and pitchforks running around torturing those who are spending eternity in hell. We have views of heaven that resemble a first class resort with sensual rewards based upon what our greatest pleasures are in our present bodies. We also tend to have physical promises that are so limited that when we think about it, they probably are things we would lose interest in very quickly. I cannot visualize standing around playing a harp for eternity. Even those things that we love here upon the earth wear out our enthusiasm in time. Remember that new car you wanted so badly when you got it? Where was it six months later? Try to imagine an existence where there is no time. You cannot get bored in an existence with no time, because boredom depends on time. Revelation 21:1-5 finds God doing the best he can to help us understand these things. He talks about the NEW heaven and a NEW earth because the first heaven (the one we see now) and the first earth (where we live now) are all passed away. Because time has ended (2 Peter 3; Revelation 22:13), the things we struggle with now no longer exist. There is no death, no pain, no tears, etc., because these things all depend on time and time has ended (see Revelation 21:4). Today's lesson deals with another part of our spiritual struggle. How can anyone as rotten as me ever be considered to be good enough to spend eternity with God in that timeless existence? Tne answer is “I can't.” I am totally incapable of being perfect (not that any of you need to be told that). It is only because Christ washes me and cleanses me that I can be a part of the “bride of Christ” that the Bible describes. Rachel was not the perfect person Jacob imagined (read the rest of the story). Jacob loved her anyway. Christ says “come, be my perfect (cleansed) bride. Come just as you are, be washed in baptism. I love you!” — John Clayton Our sign by the street!
The sentence on the sign is from 1 John 4:7. Scripture links/references are from BibleGateway.com. Unhighlighted scriptures can be looked up at their website. www.dowagiaccoc.org |
