Marysville Nazarene

Baggage--we all have it and we all carry it. The baggage we carry weighs down our relationships with others--family and friends, co-workers and neighbors. Our baggage gets in the way of an honest walk with God, ruins marriages, and ends friendships. BUT…there is good news for those who are weary of carrying their baggage everywhere they go. Through the life of Jacob we will learn how God uses our baggage to help us know Him, and then invites us to give Him all that weighs us down. In Jacob’s baggage we find redemption, reconciliation, purpose, and value. Life does not have to be heavy. We are invited to travel light. Baggage will teach us let go.  This week we will open up the bag of family relationships and sibling rivalry, revealing the impact Jacob and Esau's relationship still has on our world today.

Chloe shares her testimony and journey to baptism!

Celebrating the sacrament of baptism as we dwell in the new life we have in Christ. To dwell in Him is to hunger, desire, and yearn to get rid of the "old" and embrace the life we were created to live. 

To be holy as God is holy is a call to heart purity that is best exemplified in how we love others--not in the checklists, the do's and don'ts, and the "dips." Allowing ourselves to dwell in Him leads to a stronger presence of God in our life that brings about genuine worship--a move of God that leads us to seek that which we may be lacking. Or as Rich Villodas puts it, to ask ourselves... "Do I worship God or do I worship the experience of God?"

Last week, six of our teenagers attended Nazarene Youth Conference in Tampa Bay. Over the course of their time there, they had an opportunity to drink the water of life--to taste and and be filled to overflowing, to hear the ways God is calling them toward His  purpose! There's something stirring in our young people, and as a result, in our congregation as well. Water was made to move. When it sits still, it gets nasty. Our teens have living water that is ready to move, and it will move with or without us. So our challenge is this--how can we, as a church, facilitate the flow of that water?

We strive to live Godly lives and to act in Godly ways, but do we actively seek to understand what God wants for us and the people in our sphere of influence? Do we want what God wants? Do we will His will in our lives?v

In 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, Paul charges Christians to spread "the fragrance of the knowledge of [Jesus Christ] everywhere." For we are the "aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." Unfortunately, not everyone likes the scent of his truth. While our witness always spreads the fragrance of Christ, it's not always received the same way. Regardless, our testimonies produce a powerful fragrance that God delights in, for nothing pleases Him more than to see his Son glorified in our lives. We were given the power of the Holy Spirit to USE it for the fulfillment of God's purpose in our lives. Have you put your holiness into action?

The call to holiness begins with (and is about) our relationship with God--a vertical atonement in which God draws near to us and we draw near to Him, and then its horizontal application to our everday lives.  Whatever is inside of us is what comes out of us. If we have discontent, bitterness, hurt... that's what we'll give others. If we're drifting off course or allowing the world to fill us, that's all we'll be able to offer, because our horizontal relationship is an expression of our vertical relationship. If the vertical is out of whack, so is our witness to the world.

We like the idea of being in the presence of the Holy Spirit, but often draw the line at wanting His presence in us. But the filling of the Holy Spirit that takes place in Acts 2:3-4 is a complete and total permeation and saturation of the Spirit--there was fire in the house and in those waiting in the upper room! And just like it is with smoked meat, where the evidence of a fire (smoke) is soaked up by the meat and not just on the surface like it is with imitation smoke, you can't cover up the real thing! Are you wanting God to simply fill the room? Or to fill YOU? The difference is critical... and a fire is burning for those who would seek it.

With our pastoral staff in Indianapolis attending the 30th General Assembly of the global Nazarene church, we'd like to thank Mike Griffith and Steve Brown for leading the music this morning, and Todd Gates for sharing the message! 

In Psalm 8, David ascribes glory and awe and wonder to the Creator for his majestic works, but then asks... who do we think we are that God would be mindful of us--and the answer? We are the most significant representation of God's glory! Despite how small and insignificant you might be in the universe, YOU are a masterpiece. An image-bearer. Beloved. And regardless of what stage of life you're in--graduating high school or somewhere either before or after--your purpose is to bring glory to the Creator.  

Being God's chosen people is not about separation, but rather invitation. The burn within us compels us to send smoke signals to a world that needs to hear the message, but it's not just looking the part, saying the right words, or doing the right things when others are watching. We are called to be the real thing. When you examine your faith, what fruit is your life producing?

Christ commands us to let our light shine before men, to use whatever means we have at our disposal to relieve the suffering of others and drive out the darkness that shrouds the lives of so many. When we are yoked to Jesus, we become light!  Time to get our hands dirty...

We all fall somewhere on a temperature scale of 1 (cold) to 10 (hot) when it comes to evangelism, and yet God calls us the salt of the earth--we bring flavor! Are we living a life that creates a thirst in others that can only be filled by the Living Water? In our ever-evolving--or devolving--society, preservation of the "salty" life we're called to live is more important than ever! So what can we do this week to yoke ourselves to Jesus and raise our outreach temperature by one degree?

Justice is getting what we deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. And grace is getting what we don't deserve. Love is the doorway to grace, and though often misunderstood, grace is an incredible, indescribable, amazing gift of God.

Our love for God shapes our heart. The more we love God, the more we see the world as Jesus sees it. And as we see others as Jesus does, love moves us to follow Him into the fields! Love prepares the soil for ministry, service, and outreach. And this "dirty work" is what opens us up to share life with those others may not see, or seek to avoid.

Jesus invites us to take his yoke upon us. To learn as He leads. But if we are "yoked"--joined or connected to something--that is anything but Jesus' easy yoke, then we are un-yoked to Him. Disconnected. Bearing a burden that is unnecessary. But Jesus invites us to more! He wants us to dig in, get our hands dirty, and let him guide us toward loving Him and loving others according to His teaching, His Law. "For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:29)  

When we stop praising, fulfilling our purpose becomes less of a priority. When we stop fulfilling our purpose we tend to be less concerned with God’s nature. And when we stop pursuing the nature of God and participating in the divine nature, we allow the sin from which God and Christ saved us back into our lives.  When we lose sight of our WHY, we eventually lose our WAY. But praise be to God--hallelujah--for He came that we might find our way through Him. Jesus himself will drink from the fourth cup, The Cup of Praise, with us, and heaven will be filled with the praises of His people. For God's greatest promises are discovered when we accept His invitation to the party.

We have been studying how the Old Testament promises reflected in the Passover find fulfillment in Jesus Christ in the New Testament. And because the stone was rolled away, the tomb still empty, we can live our lives from a position of victory! God keeps his promises! But whether we recognize it or not, we spend much of our time fighting, or reliving battles that have already been decided, living outside of those promises.  Drink of the fourth cup--the cup of praise! For death has been defeated. Jesus is ALIVE!

God has a plan for you, and we discover His plans for us when we drink from the third cup. The Cup of Redemption is found when we embrace our spiritual gifts. Doing so brings about awareness and empowerment to do something you might feel inadequate about or unsure of...but 87% of those who believe never get to this cup. You have been redeemed! Restored. Perhaps it is time to drink of the third cup and see yourself the way God sees you.