a church in the World

The Great Exodus: The United Methodist Church Loses More than 1 Million Members in One Day as African Conference Rejects Liberal LGBTQ Stance

More Than They Think A couple of weeks ago, we were introduced to a woman who had many sins, but she knew that because of Jesus, she was changed. She was changed in such a way that her gratitude had no bounds. This led her to crash a fancy party where Jesus was. She washed his feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and anointed them with expensive oils. The important people there believed that Jesus couldn’t be a prophet. If he were a prophet he would know that the woman was one of the worst sinners. And a true prophet would never let “that sort of person” touch him. But as we shall find out today, that Jesus is much “More than a Prophet.”

"It Can't Be That Bad" Last week, we discussed how we must know our sins to truly show our love. At the end of last week’s message, I believe the Lord put on my heart that one way we can help ourselves really know the depth and breadth of how awful our sins are is to understand the place where we will go if we are not in Christ. That place is Hell. Regretfully, multitudes of churches in the post-Christian era in the United States and many developed countries skip over the clear doctrine of Hell. Pastors and teachers act as if no one in the Bible ever mentioned Hell. The unbelievable truth is that the person in the Bible who talked about Hell the most was Jesus! So today, we will make it clear to anyone who has ears to hear that Jesus Knows that Hell is Real, Do You?

"I'm Not That Bad" Angelique and I just finished watching “Schindler’s List” again. It is hard for me to believe that the movie is over 30 years old now. If you have not seen it, it is a great movie. I don’t want to give too much away if you haven’t seen it, so this is a little of a spoiler alert. Oskar Schindler was more of a playboy than a businessman. He wanted to make a lot of money so he could have a good time. On his way to making a lot of money during World War II, he did an amazing thing in Kraków, Poland. He saved over eleven hundred Jews from the gas chambers. In 1933, there were almost 3 million Jews living in Poland. There are currently around 4,500 Jews living in Poland. The number of Schindler Jews currently living, these are the survivors Oskar Schindler saved, and their descendants is over 6,000 people. Think about those numbers. Can you imagine the love those Jews have for Oskar Schindler? Even though they know he is a playboy, and he has many faults, can you imagine what they would be willing to do for him? Their love for him to this day is great. Because they understand what they were saved from. When you truly understand the depth of the awfulness you have been saved from, your love for the person grows astronomically. Do we understand the depth of the awfulness all of us put ourselves into? I don’t think we do. I know I don’t act like I should in this area. Furthermore, I know it in my head, but not my heart. Today, as we continue following Jesus, our Lord gives us a picture of someone, who because she truly sees her sin for what it is, she is able to abundantly show her love to the Lord. ===================================== Worship Music for the Week: https://tinyurl.com/20220724aciw

"Farming" A city boy like me does not know a lot about farming. I know you need rain, sunshine, and good dirt and that is the extent of my knowledge. So, if I saw the picture that you are seeing now back when I was growing up, and for those of you who are on audio, we are showing a picture of two oxen and there is some wooden thing on top of the necks of both of the oxen. And that is what I would have called it, a wooden thing. However, it has a name. It is called a yoke. In our following of Jesus (Matthew 11:28 – 30), our Lord talks about a yoke today. It is the difference between His yoke and the yoke of men. And there is a huge difference. For with men, the yoke is a burden but with Jesus, it will become our joy. =================================================== Worship Music for Today: https://tinyurl.com/20240512aciw

"No Tryouts?" All of us have at one time or another, tried out for a team, auditioned to be a part of a performing arts group, or applied for a job. In all of these situations and others similar to them, we had to show that we could perform at a level for us to be accepted into the team, group, or organization. This is what we are used to. We bring this sort of thinking to the idea of becoming a Christian. We have to meet certain performance requirements to become a Christian. However, as we journey with Jesus, we discover that his acceptance criteria are unlike anything we've encountered in the world. He is the one who decides who joins Their team, and His standards are unique. For there are "No Tryouts for Team Jesus." ======================================================= Worship Music for the Week: https://tinyurl.com/20220717aciw

The golden anniversary of a married couple is their 50-year anniversary. Have you ever been to a 50th anniversary of a couple that is obviously still in love? And not just in love; there is something special about their relationship. They finish each other's sentences when you listen to them talk inside a group. They anticipate the topic the other person wants to talk about. How they talk is similar. Their voices may differ, but the tone and the cadence seem similar. I'm telling you that if you look at the photos that will be there from when they got married and follow the photos over their lives, you would swear that they now look more alike. It is a special and beautiful bond that points us to the supernatural and beyond-understanding bond that God the Father and God the Son have. As we follow Jesus, we stay in Matthew 11:27 for another week as we explore this bond that has been from eternity past and will continue forever into an eternity future. It is a relationship and a bond where "They Know Each Other Like Themselves." ================================================================= Worship Music of the Week: https://tinyurl.com/20240428aciw

"The Master of Sound" What you see here is a soundboard. A really big soundboard. The soundboard is the supreme lord of all sound. When music is being created by artists or for a soundtrack of a movie or for anything sound related the soundboard is king and in full control of all sound. The singer can sing as loud as they want or the trumpeter can blow as hard on her trumpet as she wishes, but if the person in control of the soundboard turns the knob that controls their sound off, what they do will not be heard, no matter how hard they try. The master of the soundboard is the master of sound. Today as we follow Jesus, He makes a claim of not just being the master of sound, but the master of all. Is that true? And if so what difference does that make in the lives of His followers? Well, we hope you can join us today as we dig in to see if Jesus is the Master of All.

Husbands can really relate to this. Actually, if you have ever been a child with parents or guardians you can relate to this too, but especially husbands. So, husbands, have you ever tried to do something for your wife? I mean you were really trying your best to please her with something. You thought you had done everything. You went through your checklist and double-checked your memory banks of what you remembered her telling you in the past. So you know you are good; however, when she returns, your whole world is turned upside down. You were wrong. This same scenario works for children thinking they have done what their parents wanted them to do, but they missed it somehow. It may be something they have told us about many times, but somehow, our brains process it differently. I know you husbands definitely know what I mean. We are going back a little bit and looking at Joseph. He was a husband, and we are going to see that he was wrong about something, but what he did was actually correct. I know that sounds weird or counter-intuitive, but I hope you join us today as we talk about “We Were Wrong, but Also Correct.” ================================================================= Worship Music for the Week: bit.ly/240414wotw

"Too Smart to See" ‬This is a photo of Richard Dawkins signing one of his books. In preparing for this sermon, Richard Dawkins came to my mind because he was in the news this week for a comment he made about Islam and Christianity. I don’t want to get sidetracked, but Richard Dawkins is one of the most famous atheists in the world. His book “The God Delusion” has sold over three million copies since its release in 2006. In the book, Dawkins argues that belief in God or gods is a delusion akin to other mistaken beliefs. He presents scientific evidence and philosophical arguments to support his case. This week also got me thinking about the statistics on high school students who, when they graduate from high school, say they are Christian, but after they finish college, they have moved away from Christianity. The data from Lifeway Research from 2017 indicates that 66% of high schoolers stopped attending church regularly for at least a year after turning 18. Actually, this number is better than the 70% number from 2007. What about higher education leads people to turn their back on God? We know that the Bible says knowledge is actually good: Psalm 18:15 An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. So, what is happening here? Well, guess what? Jesus has a little bit to say about that today as we continue following Him in His earthly ministry chronologically. Where He will make the point this week that we can have “Knowledge With No Understanding.”

"Day of Hope" ‬ We want to be able to share the Hope of Christ with everyone the Lord puts in our path who is open to at least asking a question or listening, but many times we are not prepared to be able to provide answers besides saying “It’s in the Bible, so it’s true.” That is a very unsatisfactory answer for people who do not hold the Bible as credible. My heart is to help Christians be prepared to answer questions from the skeptical world and with today being the celebration of the resurrection there is no event greater that we need to be able to give answers to the world on. So today is an attempt to give you a tool to help on this topic. Please send us any questions that you may havewhile you are watching. We will do our best to answer them. When you engage with material you retain so much more of what you are hearing. He is Risen!

"Sulfur From the Sky is Better?" ‬ As many of you know, I am a high school teacher, and one of the challenges we now must deal with is our students having earbuds in their ears all of the time listening to music or watching their latest TikTok fave. They are doing it while we teach, and then they get an attitude when you tell them to stop. They listen to them in the hallway, so they are oblivious to anything you say or do when you are trying to get their attention. This is a challenge because if they cannot hear you, something bad could be happening in the hallway where we are trying to protect them from it, and they will never hear us, and they could get hurt. As we continue following Jesus, he is talking to a large group of people who are like my students. They all have in their earbuds, listening to music so loud that they cannot hear anything else. They cannot even hear Jesus imploring them to listen to Him so they can save their own lives from destruction. I pray that the Lord uses me today so you do hear him because you don’t want to be one of those with earbuds in their ears who do not hear the Lord and will have it “Worse than those from Capernaum.” =============================== Sermon Notes: https://tinyurl.com/240324aciw

Did you know the Bible can be confusing sometimes? That’s where we are today, following Jesus step by step through His ministry. We have a verse, just one verse where it is not clear as to what is the correct meaning. Matthew 11:12 "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force." Sometimes, what Jesus is saying is not as clear as we would like and will require additional prayer, work, and study. I hope you can join us today as we “Breaking Through the Opposition.” ======================================================= Worship Music: http://tinyurl.com/aciw-240204 ---------------------------------------------------------------- I Here are the FREE resources for Bible study discussed in the message: * Bibles: https://www.biblegateway.com/ * Parallel Translations: https://www.biblestudytools.com/parallel-bible/ * Interlinear Bibles: https://www.biblehub.com/interlinear/ * Concordances: https://www.biblestudytools.com/concordances/ * Lexicons: https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/ * Dictionaries: https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/dictionaries/ * Commentaries: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/

Who are some of the superstars of the Old Testament: * Abraham * David * Moses * Elijah If you had a Mount Rushmore (the mountain in the United States where the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt are carved in stone) for the Old Testament, those gentlemen might be on that mountain. So, what I will share with you today might be a little shocking to you. A follower of Christ who is as unknown as any person could possibly be is greater than Abraham, David, Moses, Elijah, Esther, Joshua, Miriam, Hezekiah, etc. Greater than anyone you can name from the Old Testament. I know. Sounds crazy. And the reason is so simple and so profound at the same time. “The Kingdom is Better” ============================================ Worship Music: http://tinyurl.com/aciw-wmotw

‬Have you ever been in the midst of a lot of people, and all of them are talking at the same time? However, there is one voice that stands out. There is one voice that is clear, that is distinct, that has something special about it. You can't put your finger on it exactly, you just know that what that person is saying resonates with you in a way that no other voice in the room does. Today, as we continue following Jesus, we focus on the voice in the midst of everything going on at this time in Israel. This is the special voice that millions of people have been waiting to hear for a very long time. That voice was there in their time, but not everyone who heard the voice believed what he was saying. In a sense, that voice is still speaking to us today. Do you hear it? Do you believe it? Today, we hope to share with you and show you that “The Voice is Here.”

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes -- Matthew‬ ‭11:7-9‬ What do you go out to see? What do I go out to see? Do we think about it? Does it make a difference? Let's talk about that today. I hope you will be able to join us. -- Coach

Are You Really the One? Have you heard the term, "It looks darkest before the dawn?" Well, right now, it's looking pretty dark for John the Baptist. We see that John has been put in jail, so he is starting to question if Jesus really is who John said He was. Have you ever been there? You were sure about something, but then it didn't happen or worse, not only it didn't happen, but your life started going downhill and sometimes fast. Did you start wondering, did I hear correctly? Did I read that correctly in God's word? It sure does not look like that is happening for me. This is where John is right now, and we are going to talk about how if God actually said it, then He will Do it.

One of the challenges I definitely have is thinking that I am in control. I am the one who makes things happen. I am the one who has the knowledge. Staying with the Christmas theme, we look at someone from Bethlehem (and not who you think) with the correct perspective knowing it was never them. ===================================== Worship Music: http://tinyurl.com/aciw231231

"The Waiting is the Hardest Part" Oh baby, don't it feel like heaven right now? Don't it feel like something from a dream? Yeah, I've never known nothing quite like this Don't it feel like tonight might never be again? Baby, we know better than to try and pretend Honey, no one could've ever told me 'bout this I said yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah The waiting is the hardest part Every day you see one more card You take it on faith, you take it to the heart The waiting is the hardest part The first question of the day … “Who is that band?” Yes, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. I know, I know, you never know where I am going with a message. Honestly, when I am preparing, I don’t either many times, but in preparing this week, this song popped up earlier in the week, and I kind of brushed it off. Then it came back yesterday, and I thought a little more about it and then one more time, so I started preparing to use it, asking the Holy Spirit, “Am I really supposed to use this song,” well I am talking about it now, so I guess I got the go ahead. The song's title is “The Waiting is the Hardest Part,” and with Christmas, there are so many people, young and old, looking forward to Christmas Day. Did you ever think about how many people in the world are looking forward to Christmas? I did some research this week, and there are 160 countries that officially celebrate Christmas, and another 20 have Christmas celebrations. There are only 195 countries worldwide, so that is over 92%. Now, a question I have is this: are we waiting for Christmas for the right reason? I agree that waiting for something you want is hard, and if it takes a long time to come, it is really hard. But what is worse is waiting for something that you really want, and when it finally arrives, it is not as exciting or fulfilling as you had hoped. Today, we will talk about waiting, but waiting for something that will exceed our expectations, thoughts, and dreams … and so the waiting may be the hardest part, but “The Waiting is Worth It.”

It was either 1985 or 1986 because I remember driving from Charlottesville, VA, through the winding roads of West Virginia in the pouring rain in the first car I had bought with the money I had earned—the Red Rabbit. If I could have had white knuckles, I would have because that was the toughest drive up to that point for me in my life. Twisting through those mountains on slick roads and seeing the drop-off that would happen if I skidded out of control was bad enough, but my heart was already at the lowest it had ever been because my beloved “Pop” had died. This was my Mom’s Dad, who is one of the kindest and nicest people I have ever met. I still remember to this day being such a brat when I was thirteen, and he was so kind and caring, and I was terrible to him. I still regret that memory to this day. This was my first loss of a loved one of someone very close to me. There had been a few other relatives who had died before Pop’s passing, but no one of his magnitude. The loss, the crestfallenness of losing someone you loved so much, is incalculable. Jesus understands pain and emptiness, and He has compassion for His people when they are walking through this type of valley. As we follow Jesus today, we shall see how “Christ has Compassion for the Crestfallen.”

First off, let me apologize to all of our email subscribers. I forgot to send out the Sunday Worship Service email last week. Please forgive me. Last week’s Heaven series message was “Know Thyself.” We covered topics on whether we would be capable of sinning, free will, male & female, and other topics. However, I ran out of time, and I wasn’t able to cover everything that I wanted to get to, so we will be doing Part 2 this morning. Today we are going to spend our time correcting a common misconception that we will not be ourselves when we get to Heaven. So in knowing thyself, we shall see from Scripture not only will we be ourselves, but better than we ever have been.

We are going to start in a place that may seem a little unusual. That is ancient Greece and the Oracle of Delphi. The Oracle of Delphi is also known by Delphic oracle, Pythia, and Pytho. She is considered the most famous ancient oracle who was believed to deliver prophecies from the Greek god Apollo. One of the things the Oracle of Delphi did was force travelers to investigate themselves before asking any questions of the Gods. Because this, and nothing else, was considered the starting point for understanding the world. The sibyls were wise women who’d trained since childhood to reveal the message of the oracles. In their room, the following inscription was written: “I warn you, whoever you are, Oh! You who want to probe the “Arcana of Nature”, that if you do not find “within yourself” that which you are looking for, you shall not find it outside either! If you ignore the excellences of your own house, how do you pretend to find other excellences? Within you is hidden the treasure of treasures! “Know Thyself” and you will know the Universe and the Gods.” Aristotle also said: “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Hmmmm… that sounds very familiar: Psalm 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Knowing who God says you are and who you will become is critical. Therefore this week, as we continue our study of Heaven, we will focus on Knowing Thyself, from the perspective of who we are now as Christians and who we are becoming.

19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. Revelation 21:19-21 The Scripture for today is hard to get your mind’s eye to even imagine the picture. All those precious stones are on the foundations of the wall of New Jerusalem. There are twelve separate gates to the city, and each gate is one pearl. Not pearls in each gate, but the gate itself is a pearl. To help us understand the value of each of these “gate” pearls, let’s look at one of the biggest pearls in the world. One of the most famous pearls ever is “La Peregrina.” It is about the size of a pigeon egg, about 4 centimeters or 1.5 inches. This pearl was appraised at over $11 Million USD. Now if we go back a couple of verses, we see that the walls around New Jerusalem are 144 cubits high. That means the gate needs to be 144 cubits. Now that is a challenge because we don’t know how long a cubit is. Well, let me help us out there. A cubit is 18 inches. That means the pearl is taller than a 20-story building. It’s a gate, so it has to be wide enough for transportation to get through. At least a chariot. We know that exists because from earlier in the Heaven series, we saw Elijah was carried off into heaven by a chariot with horses. The Bible doesn’t say how many horses, but since it is plural, we know there had to be at least two. I researched that the width of a chariot for a single horse is a little over 4.5 feet, so with two horses, that would be 9 feet. So this pearl is over 20 stories high and 9 feet wide. I don’t want to bore you with the math, but just one of those pearls would be worth over 123 Billion USD. Yes, 123 Billion. And I haven’t even mentioned the see-through gold streets. Not golden, but gold. Amazing, Remarkable, Stupendous, and any other group of words you want to put together do not do justice to what we will see, touch, feel, hear, and smell when we are with the Lord in “Our Tomorrowland.”

You may have noticed the background image is a little bit different this morning. I re-watched Wakanda Forever this week and it reminded me of a point that we will be talking about today. The fictional country of Wakanda is a kingdom. In preparing for this message I found out there are around 43 monarchies in the world, but over 30 of them are ceremonial. This means the monarch doesn’t have any real power. However, twelve of the monarchies still gT absolute power to the monarch similar to what Queen Shuri of Wakanda has. This is the power where whatever the monarch decides is what shall be done. And she or he gives power to whomever they choose. For example, and this is a spoiler alert, so if you haven’t seen Wakanda Forever yet, please turn the sound down and make sure you cannot read lips. Queen Shuri at the end of the movie chose to give the power to rule the kingdom of Wakanda to another person. Where that person would be the monarch, that person would be royalty, that person will have the chance to rule. There is another royal person, the Greatest Monarch of all who has the ability to bestow royalty on whomever He pleases.

"Our Neighborhood" Most of you watching or listening to me now have lived in more than one place. I have a question for you. In your life up to this point, where was your favorite place to live? The last time we talked about Heaven I used the analogy of Extreme Home Makeover. I want to carry on that theme for today. One of the most important things about looking for the right place to live is finding the right neighborhood. How the neighborhood looks, are there good schools, are there recreational activities nearby, etc. I know for me what really makes a great neighborhood are the neighbors. Are they easy to talk to? Do they care about you? Do they look out for the property you steward while you are away? So when you are thinking about the best neighborhood you have ever been in with the best neighbors, do we realize in heaven, God will be our neighbor. I know, hard to conceive, but that is what we are going to be talking about today. God Will Be Our Neighbor