Sermon June 9, 2010 "I Am the Gate"

We looked at John 10:1-10 at Jesus' next "I Am..." "I am the gate for the sheep," Jesus said. He said this right on the heals of this episode with the man born blind. In the fabric of this lesson is still the tension with the religious leaders and issue of those outside of the religious system.

There is a dualism throughout John's gospel: light and dark, grace and truth, flesh and spirit, in and out. People follow or reject Jesus- there is no third, luke-warm category for the curious.

There were two categories of people in John’s gospel:

The religious who didn’t experience the abundant life of freedom in their relationship with God;

And the non-religious who didn’t experience the protection and security of being in right relationship with God.

It is into this world of twos that Jesus speaks these words, "I am the gate..."

A gate was something that offered a pathway to protection from wolves and theives at night. But that same gate offered a pathway to freedom and feasting in the day. Think about that. Some are lost- they need the protection and security of the pen through which their is only one entrance. Some are enslaved to works righteousness- they need the freedom and feast of the fields through which the gate is their only access point.

In a world of two ways Jesus offers a third. He is the way for the lost to be found. He is the way for the enslaved to be set free. The life of discipleship is good news to the sinner and Pharisee alike.

Jesus is the gate. To those of you trapped in trying to please God through religious practice Jesus is the gate to your freedom and delight to be loved as you are. To those of you going through life your own way with your own agenda not allowing room for God’s plan for your life- know that broad is the path that leads to destruction narrow the way that leads to eternal life. Any old thing won’t do. Jesus is the only gate through who you will have hope in this life and salvation in the next.

Pastor Scott

Sermon June 2, 2010 "I Am the Light of the World"

This "I am..." of Jesus is part of a much bigger story. We read two texts (John 9:1-12 and 9:35-41) but looked at more than these two to gain an understanding of this saying.

Miracles are physical means that point to spiritual truths. This story isn't about a blind man. It's about spiritual blindness. "Who sinned..." is the question that the miracle responds to. Throughout chapter 8 there is mounting tension between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus' ultimate point in this episode is to show what spiritual blindness and spiritual sight look like.

It's the blindman, excommunicated from the church who sees clearly and the professionally religious who are blind. Religion can do that to a person. All ritual, no relationship. We would do well to recognize that our tendency is spiritual blindness- not spiritual sight. Christ is our light. Only he can heal this broken condition.

I closed this sermon with an invitation. The worst thing we can do as blind people is to pretend sight. I invited a time of confession and admission of blindness. One by one, at both services, folks stood up, claiming their blindness, calling to Christ, the light of the world.

Pastor Scott

Sermon April 18 "I Am the Bread of Life"

The first "I Am" statement of Jesus is "I am the bread of life", which can be found in John chapter 6 (6:25- 35; 41-51 were my focus verses). Using a portion of this chapter a number of months ago in my sermon series on our church mission statement I wanted to take a different angle. With such a rich text in the context of such a full narrative it was not difficult to find a different facet of to focus on.

In my study of this passage this time I saw an interesting pattern that this "I am" statement was a part of. The back drop of this passage is once again "the crowd" that is an ever present character in the gospels. The thing I noticed is that Jesus isn't who the crowd wants him to be when they want him to be it.

When this passage begins we read, "a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick." They show up to see miracles of healing. So what does he do? He feeds this healthy multitude with five loaves and two fish. They expected one kind of sign, he blows their mind with another.

The next thing this crowd wants from Jesus is for him to be their king. They want a ruler. What does Jesus do? He withdraws from them in order to escape. He crosses the sea on foot, at night. They want a king, he turns into a secrative hermit.

The crowd follows him across the sea the next day. They want him to be the bread maker again- just like Moses. He could obviously do it. They just want him to do it again. He refuses. Instead he takes on the role of teacher saying that he himself is the bread they ought to seek.

Next, this crowd that wanted to make him king, grumbles at this teaching and says, "Who does this guy think he is? We know his mama and his daddy. He isn't special." They want clarity on who he is. So instead of clarity he tells them to eat his flesh and drink his blood. What?

Ate very turn he resists being who they want him to be when they want him to be it. They want a doctor. He gives them a grocier. They want a king. He gives them a hermit. They want to see so they can beleive. He tells them to beleive without seeing. They want clarity on who he is. He only confuses them with a difficult teaching.

One of the things that we will learn thoughout this series is that Jesus may not be who we want him to be. But he is always everything we need him to be. He was never not what this crowd needed. But they rejected him because he was food when they asked for healing, alone when they asked for a king, required faith when they wanted to see, and was cloudy when they begged for clarity.

Jesus may not be who you want him to be. But he is everything you need him to be. I closed this sermon with a simple story about how two people discovered this truth of Christ's sufficiency at the table of our Lord. One had been asking for deliverance. He discovered a broken Christ. One wanted more blessing. He discovered a Christ that demanded more of him. Jesus, in those moments was not who they wanted him to be. But he was everything they needed him to be. Thanks be to God!

Pastor Scott
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Sunday April 11, 2010 "Who Is This Jesus?"

This begins a new sermon series in John's gospel.

John's gospel is built around seven signs or miracles, seven discourses, and seven sayings. This series will take a look at these seven sayings: the I Am statements.

I am the Light of the world.
I am the bread of Life.
I am the door.
I am the good shepherd.
I am the resurrection and the life.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I am the true vine.

To get into this series I felt it necessary to understand how John's gospel "works." He lays this out in his prologue (1:1-18).

Verse 1 and verse 18 are essentially saying the same thing. The Word was with God (pros ton theon- literally "toward God") and was God. And in verse 18 we read that the One and Only Word is at the Father's side. He is now where he was before time began. What John's gospel seeks to tell us is the story about the blip on the screen of eternity when this Word became flesh and took up residence with us.

This Word, while he was here, was named Jesus Christ. He was full of light and life. Light and life are the two things that frame God's activity in creation. First in Genesis 1 the word demands light and darkness is put in its place. Lastly in Genesis 2 the Word breathes into humanity the breath of life. This creator Word of God was not diminished when he became incarnate. He was stilled filled with that which made him God- Light and Life.

This Word, while he was here, was filled with grace and truth. He was filled with the strange paradox of complete holiness and complete love. This paradox that demands righteousness and yet loves sinners, that judges the nations, yet forgives the repentant, lives in perfect harmony in the person of Jesus Christ- even as his deity lives in perfect harmony with his humanity. They are both at once all the time.

This story of Jesus is a story about God. It is a story about God's holiness and love in our midst all at once. This is a story about God's glory on display! God's glory upon which no one can gaze but which we can behold in Jesus. The beauty and irony of John's story is also filled with tragedy.

He says that the Light shined but the darkness did not comprehend. The Word came to that which he created but the created did not recognize him. The Son of God came to those who were his own but his own did not receive him. This is a story that has tragedy beyond compare.

But it is also a story of hope. "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."

I am preaching this sermon series so that we might understand who Jesus is, recognize who Jesus is, and receive who Jesus is. And in so doing experience the irony of calling the glory of God our savior and friend.

Pastor Scott
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Easter Sunday 2010 "The Empty Tomb"

We read Mark's account of the resurrection in Mark 16:1-8.

This account is filled with trembling, bewilderment, fear, and fleeing.

The point of the sermon was very simple. Jesus of Nazareth lived in Palestine 2000 years ago. Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on a Roman cross. History, and not just biblical history, bears witness to this.

No good historian can deny the existence of Jesus. No good historian can discount his crucifixion on a Roman cross. What history can not account for is what happened with the tomb!

The lynchpin of the Christian faith hinges on the real and bodily resurrection of Jesus. If by faith we believe what we cannot know, that he was indeed raised from the dead it changes everything. If he was not raised then we who believe he was are to be pitied more than all people.

One thing is for sure: when it comes to the resurrection it makes all the difference inthe world and the next. One way or another, Easter changes everything.

We concluded this sermon at the communion table set before us. We looked at Luke's account of the road to Emmaus. In the mystery, sadness, and fear of the day Jesus shows up. The Resurrected One goes unrecognized. But it is in that table that he is revealed. May it be with us! May the sacrament be the vehicle through which the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see and experience the risen Lord in a way that changes everything!

Pastor Scott

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Palm Sunday 2010 "Figless"

Bad blogging does not become me!



I need to update my sermons for the last 3 (busy) weeks.



Palm Sunday was a wonderful celebration of Christ, our prophet, priest, and king.



However, the sermon was a stern warning us about not being ready for Jesus' second triumphal entry.



The texts we looked at were Jesus' ride into Jerusalem in Mark 11:1-20 and the description of Jesus' second triumphal entry when his kingdom is consumated at the last in Revelation 19:11-16.



The message was one of warning; a theme to often overlooked on Palm Sunday. The story of the triumphal entry is one about no one being ready for who Jesus is or what he had come to do.



1. The foal wasn't ready to be ridden. It had never been ridden before. Jesus needed not only this colt as a display of his kingship, but an unbroken one as prophetic message that ready or not, he is here as king.



2. The crowd wasn't ready for a messiah that would suffer. They wanted the crown but not the cross through which it must come.



3. The fig tree wasn't ready to bear fruit. It may have not been the season for figs, but the Lord of the universe was hungry and the fig tree was held accountable to for its lack of fruit.



4. Those overseers of the temple were not ready for God to show up. Here they were at the place designated for God's presence with his people. But when God shows up they have turned the house of prayer in to a den of thieves. They were cast out.

In Revelation 19 we get a glimpse of Jesus' second coming. It is quite different than his first. The foal is a war horse and the only robe mentioned is the one the King is wearing and it is dipped in blood and the armies of heaven are in tow.

Are we ready?

Submit to his Lordship.
Take up your cross daily.
Invest your life in bearing fruit for God's kingdom.
Become a person of prayer.

We closed with reading from Matthew's gospel.

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.' 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.' But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!' But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.’

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

Pastor Scott

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Sermon March 21 "The Devil Is Going Down"

This final sermon in this short series on the reality of Satan came from two texts: Ephesians 6:10-18, in which Paul admonishes the believers in Ephesus to put on the full armor of God so that they could stand against the devil’s schemes; and Revelation 22:1-6, in which John’s vision of the new Jerusalem includes the tree of life which humanity was barred from access to because of the curse.

Paul reminds us that there is a war going on! But it’s not against flesh and blood. It’s against the spiritual forces at work in the world that oppose the things of God. “Stand firm then…” is Paul’s big appeal. And he makes this appeal by telling them how to dress for the battle- like a Roman soldier.

Put on the belt of truth. Christ is the truth. The truth is that Jesus was who he said he was- the tomb was empty. This truth defines the whole of history and eternity.

Stand firm with the breastplate of righteousness- a tall order for sinful people. However, Paul explains to the Philippians that it is Christ’s righteousness not our own that defines us.

Our feet should be fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. The sandals of a roman soldier were designed not for protection but swiftness. We ought to be swift in our willingness to advance the good news of Jesus Christ.

Take up the shield of faith so that the fiery arrows of the devil might not find purchase in our flesh. Faith, the gift of the gospel, is able to protect us when Satan would have us doubt the character of God and his affection for us as his children.

Wear the helmet of salvation. This is our hope that comes with the gospel- that God’s grip on us is eternal. We have been saved. We are being saved. We will be saved.

Wield the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. This is what Adam and Eve forgot in the garden and what Christ clung to in the wilderness. The Word of God is the weapon of those who would share in this victory over Satan.

And finally Paul gives one last admonition for those in the battle. Pray. Pray all the time. Pray for everything. Pray on alert. And keep on praying, not just for yourself but for all the saints in this battle with you. We must always be in communication with our command if we would stand firm.

We closed with this picture of the New Jerusalem in Revelation that shows us the outcome of this battle. God wins. The garden we were expelled from is where the New Jerusalem is built. The tree we were barred from is the one that gives nourishment to the nations. The curse is no more.

Good news! God wins and we are his. Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. Stand firm.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon March 14 "The Devil's in Your Desert"

The Devil Is Real and He Doesn’t Like You

The second sermon in this series was entitled “The Devil’s in Your Desert”. This was a contrast in images from last week’s look at the devil in our garden. The primary text for this sermon was Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the wilderness from Matthew’s gospel 4:1-11. We also looked at what Peter says of Satan in 1 Peter 5:5b-11.

Although these temptations were uniquely messianic they do provide us with a basic scheme from God’s enemy. Life is a desert at times. Sickness, depression, poverty, worry, physical weariness… any of these things come to us in seasons- sometimes long seasons. In this state we become easier prey for our enemy the devil- that roaring lion. That’s why after 40 days of fasting Satan came to Jesus. He was weak, tired, lonely, seemingly broken- lion food.

It was then that Satan used 4 tactics that we would do well to be aware of when we are in the desert.

Scheme 1. He tried to get Jesus to question his identity. Jesus had just been baptized by John and heard the great affirmation. God the Father called out from the heavens "This is my son in whom I am well pleased." That's who Jesus was. But Satan's first two temptations begin with "If you are the Son of God..." It was an attempt to get him to question who he knew he was. Satan's first ploy against us in the desert is the same. Are you really God's child? If God really did care for you why this 40 days of trial and weakness? The truth is we are heirs with Christ- we are God's children and just like it was the Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness, so too it is God who has led us into our own deserts- because the testing of our faith produces endurance that we may be made mature in Christ Jesus!

Scheme 2. Satan appeals to Jesus' most fundamental need at the moment- his physical hunger. "Turn these stones into bread." Satan would have our carnal appetite distract us from God's greater purposes. C.S. Lewis' demon Screwtape speaks of appealing to that part of his patient over which he had most control- his stomach. Tiger Woods "turned stones into bread" and fed his carnal appetite because he could. He became lion food.

Scheme 3. Satan appeals to that part of Jesus' humanity that was self-aware- his ego. "Throw yourself down off of the temple mount- let the world see how great you are." There is a part of us that longs to be noticed- to be recognized, to be honored in the eyes of others. There is an appetite for ourselves to be the objects of other’s envy. Satan would have us feed our ego just as he would have us feed our physical desires. Screwtape writes, “The Enemy [God] wants to bring each man to a state of mind in which he could build the best Cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in that fact, without being any more or less or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another.”



Scheme 4. Satan appeals to that part of Jesus' humanity that would accumulate earthly glory and excercise power and dominion over others. "Worship me and the world is yours." The will to power is the poison of Satan. The first and worst place he makes this appeal is within the marriage. Satan would have us be people constantly striving for dominion over our own worlds. God, of course, would have us take the lowest seat at the table in order that we might serve.



So how do we withstand the schemes of the devil when he is in our desert? Jesus stood on the rock of the Word of God. How fitting that Jesus' retorts to Satan's temptations all came from the book of Deuteronomy! Deuteronomy was given to the children of Israel when? After 40 years of wandering in the desert where God had brought them right before going into the promised land!



Be alert! Our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. The devil is in your desert. Let us stand fast on the Word of God knowing that we are his.


Pastor Scott
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Sermon March 7 "The Devil's in Your Garden"

A Communion Sunday...

Having just finished the series on our mission statement and being in the middle of Lent I happened upon a three week sermon series idea that is a bit odd for Presbyterians. The unofficial (but in my mind it is official) title of this series is "The Devil is Real and He Doesn't Like You." For three weeks we will look at the fact that Satan is a real thing- not an idea or a metaphore but an actual created being that rebelled against God and is opposed to God's purposes in the world and in our lives.

Sunday we looked at Genesis 3:1-10 as the foundation for this study through a sermon entitled "The Devil's in Your Garden."

1. We have an opponent who wants us to fail- to rob our glory, to tarnish God's image in us, and to choke God's breath out of us.

2. The Devil hasn't changed his playbook that much. In the garden God gave Adam a rule of law that was more freeing than restrictive. "You may eat of any tree... except this one." Satan, incarnate as a sepent, found Eve and asked, "Did God really say...?" This question pretends as though God's word is subject to revision. The devil's first ploy in the garden is to have us question the authority of God's word.

3. Once God's clear command was brought into question, Satan convinces Eve there there will be no consequence in her disobedience. "You will not die..." God becomes a liar in Eve's mind. Adam and Eve attempt to become God. Satan is obeyed. God is ignored. And the results? Shame, seperation, and death. The devil's second ploy is to convince us that adherance to God's word is simply humanity being duped by a cosmic kill-joy.

I left the pulpit to conclude the sermon. I walked to the table prepared with the Lord's Supper. And I spoke the gospel. Though death came to us through the tree in the garden, life comes to us through the tree of calvary. Genesis says, "she took some and ate..."- fruit that results in death. Jesus says "take and eat." - fruit born from his death that results in life.

The devil's in your garden. Hold fast to his word. Seize the fruit that gives life!

Pastor Scott

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Sermon February 28 "Making Christ Known through Our Life Together"

Sunday was the final sermon in this series on our Church mission statement. The two texts we learned from spoke clearly about the most effective means of communication we have for making Christ known; namely, our communal life on display for the world to see.

We looked again at the Acts 2 passage that provides a concise snapshot of the life of the first body of believers in the gospel message. Weeks ago we mentioned that the four disciplines this early church was devoted to were scripture study, fellowship, worship, and prayer- our four keys to knowing Christ. What we looked at on Sunday was what those disciplines resulted in.

“They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” The result was the transformation of the world around them as people were being redeemed from lives of sin into life in Christ. Their witness was their life together.

And why was this the case? We discovered that in the passage we read from John 17. Jesus prays, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message… may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me… may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Christ’s prayer was that the unity of those who would believe through the message of the apostles would bear witness to the world of God’s love for them in Jesus. The church does a disservice to the cause of Christ when we are divided over the trite and inconsequential. How we serve and sacrifice and honor one another within the body is the validity of our testimony; it’s the picture of our profession; it’s what makes our faith ring true for the lost around us.

In closing this sermon I drew attention to a prayer card that we printed. This business card on one side said, “________________ is committed to prayer for First Presbyterian Church of Ocean Springs.”

And on the reverse side it had a prayer based on the mission statement we have been studying which reads, “Great God of love, give us a vision for your church. Show us how it is that we are to know you more fully. Reveal to us what it would mean for us to make Christ known both near and far. Through your Spirit we pray that you would do more in us and through us than we could ask or imagine for the sake of your kingdom and glory. In the name of Jesus we pray these things. Amen.”

Those cards were handed out to the congregation after both services. Lord, hear our prayer.

Pastor Scott

Sermon February 21 "Making Christ Known through Our Testimony"

On Sunday we discussed the role of our own personal testimony in fulfilling our mission of making Christ known. Our scripture texts were from Psalm 40:1-8 and Acts 22:3-16.

One of the most powerful ways that we share Christ with others is through the narrative of our own experience with Jesus. Our unique stories of encounter and redemption have the potential to speak into the suffering and difficulty of others. Through the vehicle of our story the Spirit speaks to others who need to hear that Jesus loves them not as a theological concept but rather as an actual event in our lives.

The conversion of Saul (depicted above in Michelangelo’s painting of that name) is the story of the most famous testimony in the world. It’s a story that Paul owns in Acts 22. With no shame he told of his evil and murderous ways as he persecuted “the Way.” Then Jesus interrupted him on the way to Damascus. He became Christian who was told by Christ to preach Jesus to the world. So he did.

Who he was. Where Jesus met him. How Christ changed his life.

The three essential components of a testimony. But a testimony is not relegated only to our conversion. Any experience of God’s work in one’s life is just a new chapter of a testimony that will grow until we reach glory.

That’s the picture we get in Psalm 40. “I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit… and placed my feet on a rock… Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.”

The Psalmist says where he was, tells how God met him with deliverance, and how his life was changed. All of this with idea that this deliverance was part of his story that he would tell so that many would "see and fear and put their trust in the Lord." That should be the hope of our own testimony. Your testimony is a story that should be shared because it is good news.

However simple or boring we may think our own experiences with God are (hey, none of us have a testimony like Saul/Paul), God wants us to share those experiences with others. At our Sunday evening service I passed out worksheets to encourage folks to write down and outline their own stories of God’s work. We heard some great testimonies that night! Here’s what the worksheets said:

Where you were… (the trial)
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city… I persecuted followers of this way.” Acts 22


Where Christ found you… (the redemption)
“He lifted me out of the slimy pit; out of the mud and mire.” Psalm 40


How your life was changed… (the new life)
“Therefore, if anyone was in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians

Ask God for opportunities to share your story with others. Watch his kingdom grow through such a simple thing.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon February 14 "Making Christ Known through Our Words"

Two Lucan New Testament passages were the focus of this sermon on making Christ known through our words. Luke 8:1-9 is where we read the parable of the sower. And in Acts 17:16-34 we find the story of the Apostle Paul in Athens as he waits for Timothy and Silas.

Last week we looked at “letting our light shine” as a means of making Christ known. But To let our light shine without telling people why it shines is like being in a boat and throwing a life preserver to a person drowning in the ocean- and then driving off in the boat leaving them there. They may no longer be drowning. But they’re not saved.

Paul tells the church in Rome, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?”

That is why Jesus told the parable of the sower. We’re the farmer. The seed is the gospel. Every person you see is the soil. And eternity hangs in the balance; salvation on the one side and damnation on the other.

Our culture tells us that religions are simple different paths up the same mountain. But Peter in Acts 4 says this of Jesus, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." We are not responsible for the soil of the human heart. We are simple responsible to sow the seed of the gospel wherever we find ourselves.

That’s what Paul did when he found himself in Athens. He shared Jesus with those people. They called him a “babbler” as he spoke of the resurrection. That word “babbler” in Greek is the word “spermalogos”. Sperma- seed. Logos- word. They were accusing Paul of spreading seeds with his words! That is what we are called to do.

Paul spoke into the reality of the agnostic pluralism of the Greek culture there in Athens using their own idols and poets as the spring board for his proclamation. The result? Some scoffed and rejected him. Some said they would be interested in hearing more. And some believed the gospel and were saved. The path, the rocky ground, and the fertile soil.

At the end of this sermon there was an invitation to place your faith and trust in the only name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved as we prayed this prayer together:
“Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner in need of salvation. I believe you died my death for me on Calvary. I believe you rose again to give me eternal life. I give my life to you. Give your life to me. Amen.”

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

Pastor Scott

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Sunday, February 7 “Making Christ Known through Our Actions”

Our focus passage this Sunday came from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:13-16. This is where Jesus calls his followers both salt and light. We also looked at the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they resisted bowing down to the idol created by the king of Babylon.

There was a shift on this particular communion Sunday. Whereas our mission to Know Christ” has to do with the internal strength of discipleship, “Making Christ Known” has to do with the external focus of mission. The first dynamic we discussed in making Christ known was action- how we live.

Jesus called his followers salt and light. Both salt and light impact their environments. Jesus calls his followers salt and light- environment impactors- because he was salt and light. The most basic and fundamental way we make Christ known is by being salt and light in a bland a dark world through our actions- the way we live our lives bears witness to the one who has impacted us.

We discussed two primary ways that we can be environment impactors- salt and light- for Christ.

1. Resisting the ways of this world.
Our three friends from Daniel resisted what the culture was doing. The result was not only encountering God in a unique way but allowing King Nebuchadnezzar to see God’s glory as well.

The Greek word “ecclesia” translated “church” literally means “called-out-ones.” Being called out from our culture means to resist the patterns of this world for the sake of God’s glory.

2. Pursuing excellence in all we do.
Whatever we do, we are to do with our whole hearts as unto the Lord, not for men (Colossians 3:23). To illustrate this we looked at some edited clips from the movie Chariots of Fire. Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell understood this concept of pursuing excellence for God’s glory.

In one scene he tells his sister that he knows God has called him to ministry in China, but that God also made him fast. “When I run, I feel his pleasure… and to win, to win is to honor him.” A life lived for excellence unto God is a life lived as salt and light and bears witness to Christ’s redemptive work in those who believe.

-Pastor Scott

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Sunday January 31 "Knowing Christ Through Prayer"

Psalm 77... a memory of a time of deep prayer. Matthew 11:25-30... Jesus prays spontaneously, teaches earnestly, and invites genuinely.

These two texts were the focus of this week's theme of knowing Christ through prayer.

We had the Ocean Springs Mardi Gras parade last Saturday. Thousands of people yelling to folks they don't really know, "Throw me something mister!"

That's the way we often treat prayer. Sometimes those prayers are answered. We catch the beads. We are grateful. We get ready for the next float to come by. Sometimes our prayers are not answered. No beads are thrown to us. We may get frustrated. We get ready for the next float to come by.

And so it goes. Prayer remains a mystery. Sometimes God answers it. Sometimes he doesn’t.

But we must understand a basic and fundamental truth. The purpose of prayer is not found in the results that gets but rather in the process of the prayer itself.

If we focus on prayer as the means to a result we are hoping for then we have missed the point of prayer all together. And such prayer can actually hinder our faith in God rather than deepen it. True prayer is the difference between yelling “throw me something mister” at a Mardi Gras parade and sharing what’s on your heart with a dear friend. The first may involve being heard, but the second involves being known. Prayer is the place where we come to know Christ more fully than anywhere else.

Jesus desire was to be known. And that is why he said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and burden is light.”

We come to Christ in our prayers. In our prayers we bring our hardships and burdens, our failures and shortcomings, our hope and our despair and we say “take this.” But our rest from these things comes not from leaving them there and waiting for a result, but rather hearing Christ say to us, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” Christ’s desire is not simply to answer our prayers but to be yoked with us step for step while he carries our burden. That’s what prayer is: the process of walking with Christ as he carries the weight of our lives.

We discussed 2 keys to resisting "Throw me something mister!" prayers:

1. Honesty

C. S. Lewis wrote, "In prayer we must lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us."

2. Listening

What distracts us from prayer? Perhaps the things that come flooding into our minds when we try to pray are not distractions to our prayer but the burdens we actually need to allow Jesus to carry with us.

Christ came that we might know him. Prayer is that place where he makes himself known.
And there in is the power of prayer. Not in its being answered but in its being heard.
Prayer is the place God meets his people.
Prayer is the place where Jesus takes our burdens and invites us to walk with him.
Prayer is the means of knowing Christ for who he is.
Prayer is where he leads us to knowing him more fully.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon January 24 "Knowing Christ Through Scripture"

Knowing Christ through scripture was our theme this past Sunday. We looked at two passages: Luke 24:36-48 and Acts 8:26-35.

Both of these passages introduce us to ways in which the scriptures give us access to knowing Christ more fully. Without the scriptures we are destined to an incomplete and embarrassingly small picture of who Jesus actually is. We have a default Jesus, if you will.

The disciple turned apostle Phillip had a default Jesus too. We looked at his story briefly in John’s gospel.

John 1:45…
“Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’”

Phillip thought he knew who Jesus was and why he had come. He based this on his reading of the Law of Moses and the prophets.

John 6:5-7…
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"

Jesus tested Phillip. Phillip thought he knew Jesus. But his knowledge of Jesus didn’t include Christ as creator of all things.

John 14:7-9…
“If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?”

Phillip’s understanding of Jesus didn’t include him as Emmanuel. In John 1 Phillip knew just who Jesus was. By John 14 Jesus is asking “Don’t you know me, Phillip?”

In Luke 24 after Jesus’ resurrection we see Jesus “opening up the minds” of the disciples to understands the scriptures- the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Jesus shows them that it is all about him.

Christ would have us know him for who he is and not who we make him out to be. We will come to know Christ more fully only through the scriptures that he himself, through the Spirit, will open our minds to understand.

In Acts 8 the Spirit tells Phillip to go over to the chariot in which the Ethiopian eunuch was reading a passage from Isaiah 53. “Of whom is the prophet speaking?” the eunuch asks.

Up until Christ opened his mind to understand the scriptures, Phillip would have never seen that passage of the suffering servant in Isaiah as one about the messiah, his Lord, Jesus Christ. But on that day Phillip could tell the eunuch about Jesus.

Only through a life spent in the scriptures will the small Jesus we carry around in our minds give way to who Christ really is in all of his fullness.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon January 17 "Knowing Christ Through Fellowship"

The first church was devoted to fellowship- koinonia. Acts 2:44 says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common [koinos].”

One image that the Apostle Paul uses for the church is that of “the body of Christ.” We looked at I Corinthians 12:21-27 where Paul says, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

As the church we represent how Christ is revealing himself to the world. To a person we represent the care and character of Christ. When we suffer along side of someone who is hurting we are Jesus’ compassion to them. When we rejoice with someone who celebrates we are the delight of Christ to them.

As the church, we are not only capable of revealing Christ to each other we are called to do just that. When we see ourselves as the body of Christ and live in connection to one another as a result, it is through that kind of fellowship that we come to know Christ more fully.

We looked at 3 ways in which this first body in Jerusalem came to know Christ through fellowship.

1
Acts 2:45, “Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”
Part of fellowship means a willingness to sacrifice on behalf of the needs of others- to give of ones self.

In allowing ourselves to admit our needs, and being willing to do with less to meet the needs of others we will come to know Christ more fully through our fellowship.

2
Acts 2:46a, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.”
We must remember, there were no church buildings. There was no place that was the church. The temple courts were simply the public. The temple courts were busy with hundreds of not thousands of people. They were the church not defined by a gathering place. They were the church not defined by a gathering time.

In seeing the whole of our lives as the living out of who we are as the church we will come to know Christ more fully through our fellowship.

3
Acts 2:46b, “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”
Part of fellowship means having lives that are open to each other. These people ate together. They sat around dinner tables around Jerusalem and laughed and cried and prayed and shared the stuff of life with one another. We ought not diminish or downplay the place of sharing a meal with our church family.

A commitment to the table with one another is a commitment to knowing Christ more fully through fellowship.

Pastor Scott
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Sermon January 10 "Knowing Christ Through Worship"

In Acts 2 we discover that the first church devoted themselves to 4 things. They committed to worship, fellowship, the scriptures, and prayer. These four things are what we will study in this first section of this sermon series focused on how we know Christ.

The passage we looked at in our discussion of knowing Christ through worship was Colossians 1:15-20. This passage addresses why we worship in the first place. I made this point, “So often we miss the point of worship when show up on Sunday morning hoping to get something out of it. As though the point of worship is what we glean from it. Worship is not about us or what we get from it. The most basic and fundamental concept that we must understand is that we do all of these things because they glorify and honor God. Our operative thought concerning worship ought not to be the hope that we can get something out of it, but rather that we can bring something of worth to it.”

It is to this end that our passage speaks. Christ is why we worship.

This Colossians passage says four things about Christ that are the foundation of why we gather to worship.

1. All things were created by him.
We come to know Christ in our worship because as we celebrate the handiwork of God’s creation we are celebrating the work of Christ. He may have been born on Christmas, but he was born into a world that he created.

2. All things were created for him.
Not only is Christ worthy of our worship because he created all things. But he created all things, especially us, so that we might give him worship. We are not the focal point of creation- Christ is. As his creation we have been infused with the purpose of glorifying him. In our worship we fulfill our reason for being and in so doing come to know Christ more fully.

3. All things are held together in him.
He is worthy of our worship because he still holds the stars in their place. By his word the planets stay in their motion. By his will summer gives way to fall, and fall to winter, and he brings the planet back to life with spring. The very seasons exhibit the redemptive fingerprint of Christ. We come to know Christ in our worship as we celebrate the fact that he’s got the whole world in is hands- and they are loving hands.

4. We are reconciled to God through him.
We come to know Christ more fully in our worship because our worship is a celebration of the good news of the gospel- namely, that the Word that created all things and sustains them for his glory left that glory, abandoned the heavenly place, in order to be born as a peasant and die as a criminal. And why? Because we sinned.

By him. For him. In him. Through him.
When Christ is in the center of our worship then in our worship we will come to know him.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon January 3 “To Know Christ and to Make Christ Known”

On this communion Sunday we began a sermon series on our church mission statement: “To Know Christ and to Make Christ Known.” This will be a 9 week series. This week I reintroduced the mission statement (which is on the front of our bulletins each week) to the church. Over the next 8 weeks we will spend the first four discovering how it is that we come to know Christ more fully and we will spend the next four discovering what it means for us to make him known. Oh, how the kingdom would grow if particular churches were internally strong and externally focused!

The focus passage this week was John 6:25-40. In this passage we find a hungry crowd seeking Jesus for the wrong reasons. They want to “see” who he is. They want to have their bellies filled with more of the loaves and fish he miraculously distributed the day before.

Jesus’ frustration with this crowd is born in the fact that this multitude is interested in the product of his power but not so much in what his power says about who he is. Jesus says that God has but one thing that will please him: Believe in the one whom he has sent. The crowd begs for more proof that he is worthy of such belief appealing to the manna in the wilderness.

Jesus proclaims that he is the true bread that has come from heaven.

Two things hang in the balance of knowing Christ as the true bread.
1. Satisfaction in this life. “Whoever comes to me will never hunger and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

2. Salvation in the next life. “And this is the will of him who sent me that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.”

The whole of this life and the next hang in the balance of knowing Christ- through faith believing that he is who the scriptures testify him to be.

After coming to the table to celebrate the sacrament- Christ the bread broken for us- we closed our worship together by joining in a statement of purpose:

Leader: Church, what is our mission?

Congregation: Our mission is to know Christ and to make Christ known.

Leader: How is it that we come to know Christ more fully?

Congregation: We come to know him through worship, fellowship, in the Scriptures, and in prayer.

Leader: How is it that we make Christ known?

Congregation: We make him known through our actions, our words, our testimony, and our life together.

Each component of the congregational response will be the focus of our next 8 weeks together.

-Pastor Scott

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