WELCOME
Communion Worship Service
Good morning First Baptist. We welcome you to worship this morning. Be sure to remember your brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the week as you pray for them, and as the Holy Spirit brings their faces to your mind. Be sure to also connect with them in the ways that are possible. And if you have any questions or would like to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to contact the church through the church telephone and leave a message. (519-733-4144)
Songs
Call to Worship
Spring is about to break forth!
Everywhere- new life is happening! Feel the wonder and power of God’s creative energy Feel the awe and joy of God’s love for us. Let us worship God with a full sense of joy and expectation. Let us open our hearts, our spirits, our souls, to God’s lavish love.
GOOD MORNING FBK & WELCOME TO WORSHIP!
Songs
Prayer
Prayer of Confession & Assurance
The act of confessing our sin is not simply a recitation of our faults and wrongs, but also an opportunity to receive God’s mercy and share in that abundant grace. Confident of God’s love for us, let us offer our prayers, first in silence.
SILENT PRAYER
Patient Lord,
we find it easy to blame others and other circumstances for the things which happen in our lives.
We hear the words “if only” and wonder why things didn’t happen differently for us.
Too often we want you to be a “magic” presence which will, with the wave of a wand, cure our ills, give us success and happiness; but we don’t necessarily want to take responsibility for our attitudes and actions. Life is.
Things happen which we didn’t plan for and events swirl around us over which we have no control. But to place blame and not to find ways in which we can work through the situations is detrimental to everyone, especially ourselves.
Forgive us when we are so busy placing blame that we don’t recognize your presence and love for us.
Free us from placing our own desires first and foremost.
Help us to look at the many ways in which you are working in the world for peace and justice, and enable us to be part of that ministry. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon:
Let go of your fears. God has forgiven you and offered to you God’s healing love. Accept this free gift, for it is given for you through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
Made New
Moving Past Our Past
Today's Message: Pastor Marlee Page
Hello, church! We are so glad you have chosen to be with us for worship this day.
Last weekend we had the joy of celebrating Easter and the fact that the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive!
Today we continue our sermon series called Made New. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us today. That means that through our faith in Jesus, God gives us all that we need to live a transformed life and to be made new.
Last week we discussed how it is our faith in Jesus that makes us new. When we confess with our mouths that Jesus is our Lord, and when we believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved.
That is the Good News of Easter.
That is the Good News for today as well!
This morning we will take a look at another one of the far-reaching effects of the resurrection. One of the incredible results of our faith in Jesus is that we are given the power to move past our past. You heard me – move past our past!
One of the greatest obstacles to growing in our faith is the inability to fully accept & receive the forgiveness of God.
However, our mistakes, shortcomings, and failures do not have the last word and final say over us. Our living Saviour is the one who has the last word and final say.
I recently read this story about a Pastor who went to meet with a member of his church who was in the final days of his life. He had battled cancer for 15 years and had decided to stop treatments and come to terms with the end of his life. They had a wonderful visit. Through tear-soaked eyes the man told the Pastor about how he had struggled with so many regrets about so many things in his life. It was a source of great pain for him. But he also shared that just a week before his children had written him letters to share some of their final thoughts with him. Each one of their letters made one thing abundantly clear: whatever shortcomings the man thought he had as a father, his children had forgiven him, and they loved him. He shared this with the Pastor that those letters transformed his heart, and he was ready to meet Jesus because he was confident that the grace of God had covered his past mistakes.
There is something about becoming aware of your own mortality that causes one to wrestle with the past. Not all of us find ourselves in the same situation as this person but we all can feel held back by our history from time to time.
However, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has changed everything. It proves to us God’s love for us. It makes available God’s grace for us. In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven- completely forgiven!!
LIVE BY THE WINDSHIELD, NOT THE REARVIEW MIRROR
I love this idea of living by the Windshield not the rearview mirror!!!
How many of us, in moments of darkness, are still consumed with regret and shame for whatever it is in our past that wants to rear its ugly head?!?!
Many Biblical characters find themselves struggling to reconcile their past as well. One in particular is a man named Paul. Before Paul had an encounter with Jesus, his name was Saul. He was a persecutor of the Church and an enemy of God’s people. He did many things that were sources of shame and guilt. He addresses his approach to his past as he writes to the church in Philippi.
Scripture Reading: Philippians 3:13-14
Philippians 3:13-14
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Paul first acknowledges that he has not arrived.
The destination to which God has called him to is still before him. He is a work in progress. The way in which he is committed to allowing God to finish his work in him is by forgetting what is behind him.
All of the evil things he had done to the early Christians, he was forgetting about. He was not making this decision to somehow sidestep responsibility, but instead he was confident that God had great things ahead of him.
He knew that if he spent his days focused on what had happened, he would not be prepared for what was yet to come to pass.
My very first car accident happened when I was 17 years old. Oddly enough, I was the only person and vehicle involved. I was parked on our church’s property- we attended Olinda United Church at the time and the church on the Olinda Sideroad was still open and the Youth Group was having pizza before we headed to Windsor to see the movie “Gorillas in the Mist.” I was tasked with going to get the pizza.
That morning before we left for church, we had found out that a young man from the community had died in a car accident just down that road, so my mom & dad had asked me to be extra careful knowing that I had some running around to do as well as driving to Windsor that day.
At Olinda, where we parked was almost like a side yard, so the ground was a little rolling and uneven. I was parked facing the cemetery and right on the edge of the road.
As I jumped in the car to go grab the pizza, all of their words were ringing in my ears so I was very concerned about the cars behind me, I was looking over my shoulder, checking my mirrors and all around and then when I started to back up- I thought I’m going to cut it tight so as to make sure I avoided all the cars behind me.
BUT what I didn’t notice was the fire hydrant up by my right front corner!!! Until the BIG CRUNCH as I backed up!!! I got out and walked around. My heart sank!
If I had made sure I looked out the windshield as much as I had looked behind me, I would’ve noticed at least the top of the Bright Yellow Fire Hydrant to the right of my car.
In trying to protect myself and deal with the worries of what could happen, I made an even bigger mess than if I would’ve paid attention to what was really happening and stayed focus on where I was going.
Like driving a car, we were never meant to navigate life looking behind us, God created us to move forward.
Paul was choosing to live through the windshield of life rather than the rearview mirror. Many of us in this room find ourselves stuck in a rut because we cannot or will not receive the grace of God, and in turn, forgive ourselves.
The truth is that there is no way to rewrite history. What is done has been done.
When we relive our past by saying things like we would have, we could have, we should have, we are not bringing about any kind of meaningful change. Rather, we are simply robbing ourselves of the good work Jesus has done in our lives through his sacrifice on the cross and the good work he wants to do in our lives as he calls us heavenward. We become like a sailboat on the water with no wind. We become stagnant, with no source of power with which to move forward.
TO MOVE PAST OUR PAST, WE MUST PUT IT TO DEATH
Being made new is no easy task. We are often tempted to peek behind us and feel regret. To take full advantage of the power available to us in the resurrection, we must align ourselves with Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Paul writes about this as well in the book of Galatians.
Galatians 2:20-21
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
According to Paul, our past mistakes, sins, shortcomings, and missteps must be crucified with Christ. They must be nailed to the cross and put to death.
We must die to our old self in order to come alive to all of the new possibilities and opportunities that God has ahead of us.
The old self must be removed so that Jesus Christ can take up residence in us and live through us.
Paul tells us that this is possible only by faith in the loving grace of God.
In fact, Paul says that aside from the grace of God, there is no way to be made new.
This may be a helpful way to think about how the grace of Jesus washes away our past regret. We live our lives as sinful and broken individuals. With this in mind, we make mistakes. Our sins hurts God, others, and ourselves. We lie, cheat, steal, gossip, and much more. The more that we add these sinful thoughts, words, and actions to our lives, the more regret can grow and cloud our past, present, and future. Eventually, we need something or someone to clean up our past so we can live unhindered. This is what the Bible tells us Jesus did on the cross. His blood is the payment for our sin. His sacrifice is the cleansing agent for us. His resurrection is proof of the power of the cross.
When we put to death our past by nailing it to the cross of Christ, we are then released from its power over our lives. We are made new. We are made clean.
I love how the Message translates verse 20….
“The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.”
This brings us to point #3….
MOVE FORWARD IN FAITH
Paul gives us the secret to how we are to live considering the forgiveness of God.
In the Galatians passage: he says that he now lives his life by faith in the Son of God.
However, just because our past has been forgiven, does not mean that we will not make mistakes in our future. To live into the newness of life that Jesus offers us, we have to move forward in faith. This faith gives us a confidence that it is because of God’s love that we have been forgiven, and it is because of God’s love that we can receive forgiveness in the future.
My children are wonderful, but by no means are they perfect. In our house, we have tried hard over the years to not have mistakes or disobedience linger or hang over their heads. It does not matter whether they have drawn on a wall with a marker, hurt their sibling, or talked back disrespectfully or even bigger things….… We correct what had been done, discuss how to do things better next time and always end by telling them that while we may not have liked what they had done, they are forgiven, let’s learn from it and that they are loved no matter what. We wanted our girls to be able to feel free to live life without the fear that we are ashamed of them or angry with them. We communicated this by displaying love through eye contact, eventually quiet voices & genuine compassion, and lots of hugs and kisses.
This is the way God parents us as well (minus the loud voices.) He treats us with compassion. He addresses our brokenness, but with love, care, and kindness.
The Bible says this in many ways.
Psalm 103:8
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
God is abounding in love. It is because of this love for you and for me that our past is covered.
Sometimes it is helpful to imagine in our minds the face of God before us.
Some people see disappointment on His face.
We imagine him to be cosmically frustrated by our sins.
However, the Bible tells us that God’s countenance toward us is approval, acceptance, forgiveness, and affection.
Not because of anything we have done, but because of what Jesus has done on our behalf.
I have heard a great quote about this that says,
Grace is the face that love wears when it meets imperfection.
You can move past your past because of the grace of God.
You may need to seek forgiveness for something that happened.
You may need to put boundaries in place.
You may need to choose to live differently in the future.
What you don’t need to do, however, is to carry around guilt and shame.
……The cross allows you to move past your past.
Communion
Invitation to Communion
Dear Heavenly Father as we see the table spread before us we are reminded of your great love towards us in sending Jesus into this world to save sinners. We confess that we are sinners, and we ask for your forgiveness through the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Having confessed our sin we know that as your word says, we are forgiven.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9).
Lord Jesus as we come to this table we do so acknowledging you as our Lord and Saviour, the one in whom we have faith because of what you achieved on the cross of Calvary. We confess you as Lord of the church and our own individual lives. We praise you for your grace and your willingness to die on the cross so that we might be forgiven. Lord we come to receive from you every blessing that you wish to impart to us. Lord Jesus we want to meet you at this table, we want to realise in a new way the joy of knowing that we are loved by you.
The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God with us – given for you…take the elements now and be thankful.
Lord God, how extravagant your love for us is!
You continually pour upon us blessing upon blessing – in the lives of people near and dear to us, in the beauty of creation, in the skills and abilities you have given to us.
There is so much for which we are thankful. Yet in the midst of this thankfulness, there lurks the demons of demand and confusion.
We want you to be in control of taking care of all the things that threaten us. We want you to prevent us from facing times of confusion and doubt. Actually, we want to have a more complete faith.
How hard it is for us to see that we need to take some time to honour and praise Christ instead of continually asking for Christ to do things for us. We have a lot to learn.
Lord, teach us! Open our hard hearts to the healing words you have for us. Give us patience and persistence in our service to you. And when we stumble and thrash around faithlessly, bring us back to your presence; that we may find healing and hope.
God, I receive your forgiveness and grace for me. I know I do not deserve it, but I know that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection has made it available to me. Free me for joyful obedience as I seek to live life your way.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.
Song
Benediction
As God’s extravagant love has been poured out for you and on you, go now into God’s world offering healing hope and love to all, building bridges of peace wherever you go. AMEN.
Blessings & have a Great Week!