WELCOME
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
Welcome to this community of faith, the family of God!
We come as families, large and small in number, seeking God’s love.
God’s love is here for you.
Help us to understand how we are connected to God.
We abide in Christ Jesus, in love and compassion.
May our spirits be renewed and our connection to God be strengthened through our worship today.
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
Forgiving God, in a world filled with so much pain, we would rather shut our eyes and be blind than see things as they really are. Grant us the courage to face the reality of our world, and give us the strength to bring your light to those who walk in darkness. Help us see others as you see them, and forgive us when we do not trust you enough to open our eyes to the possibilities before us. Heal our self-inflicted blindness, O God, and lead us in the footsteps of the Light of the World, who reveals your glory in his life, his teachings, and his love. In his holy name, we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon:
Christ came to lead us in paths of righteousness and to guide us through our lives. Christ is with us in times of danger and times of peace. The goodness and mercy of God are given to us each and every day of our lives. God forgives us for our failings, upholds us in love, and leads us to the place that Christ has prepared for us. Believe in your heart that God loves you and forgives you. We believe! God help our unbelief!
Made New
Part of God's Family
Today's Message: Pastors Marlee Page and Dave Page
These past few weeks we have been talking about that fact that we can never lose sight of the power of Easter because it makes us new. That’s been our theme since Easter Sunday – Made New!
In the first week of this series, we learned that it is our faith in Christ that transforms us into the people that God wants us to be.
Last week, Marlee shared that because of the grace of God we can move past our past. Our sins and mistakes do not have the last word and final say, Jesus does.
This week we will take a look at another part of the far-reaching effects of the resurrection. When God makes us new, we become a part of his family.
That’s one of the ways that Jesus’ resurrection makes us new. We become part of the family. Where there once was a great divide between us and God because of our sins, the cross spans the chasm and allows us access to him. Grace changes our relationship with God from enemies to friends. The most powerful word that we are given in the scriptures is “adoption”. Adoption in that that our relationship with God even goes a step beyond friendship! You must understand this – He becomes our father, and we are invited into his family because we have been adopted by him.
Scripture Reading: John 1:9-13
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
When Jesus came into the world, there were two reactions to his arrival. Some received him as the Saviour of the world, while others rejected him as a fake and a fraud. John tells us that to those who did receive him, God gave the right to become children of God. Based upon our faith in Jesus, we are grafted into God’s family with him as our father.
This adoption has nothing to do with physical birth, but rather it is a spiritual one. We become reborn of God by the grace offered to us in Christ.
POINT #1 – EVERYONE IS WELCOME IN GOD’S FAMILY
It is easy to feel like we don’t belong in the family of God. I know some of you listening to us this morning – here or online….We know that you struggle with this. We think that we have too many blemishes or make too many mistakes. But when you begin to look at Jesus’ family tree, you begin to see that we all fit right in.
The Gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy of Jesus. Here are some of the names of people who show up: Jacob was a liar, David was an adulterer and murderer, and Rahab was a prostitute.
What can seem like a list of broken and flawed people, when you look at it closely, becomes a beautiful tapestry of non-perfect people who are loved by God and welcomed into his family.
There is a story about a little boy who was trying to learn the Lord’s Prayer. He was learning by listening to others as they recited it on Sunday mornings. Finally, he was ready to give it a shot. Full of confidence one Sunday, he belted out the prayer to the best of his ability, praying, “Our Father who art in heaven, I KNOW YOU KNOW MY NAME.”
That little fella may have gotten the prayer wrong, but in the end, he was right. God does know his name; God knows each of our names. He knows everything about us and he loves us just the same.
The resurrection makes us new by giving us a new birth into a spiritual family.
There are incredible benefits that come to us by being in the family of God. These benefits are put on display in the early Church in the book of Acts.
Acts 2:42-47
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
The first Christians were not that different from you and me….in light of the very broken world around them….in the face of persecution and political oppression, poverty, sickness – you name it!!
They were looking for a place to belong.
They were in need of intentional community.
They were faced with the struggle of persecution and they did not feel at home any longer in the Jewish faith because of their dedication to the risen Christ.
Can you relate to any of those feelings or yearnings…. to belong??
What they longed for they found in the family of God. The Bible tells us that these Christians spent time together under the teaching of the apostles, and they fellowshipped with one another around the table. They prayed with and for one another.
They shared with one another and sacrificially met each other’s needs. They enjoyed each other’s presence and shared in the common bond of Christ’s love.
POINT #2 – GODLY COMMUNITY IS ATTRACTIVE
Verse 47 is what I find most compelling. This family that God was building through the church was so attractive that their numbers grew daily.
People outside God’s family saw something they wanted to be a part of. I think there were two major reasons for this:
The Family Of God Does Life Together
We most fully experience the love and grace of God in connection with one another. This is what the early church understood. They worshiped together, ate together, prayed together, enjoyed each other, and shared openly with each other with glad and sincere hearts. When these elements are all present, it causes communal flourishing that otherwise would not be possible.
My wife and I are in a small group we call it….The Tribe…
For almost 20 years now we gather often, we study and discuss the word together, we try our best to apply it to our daily walk…we went to church together for about 15 of the last 20years….but you know what really makes us a Tribe? It’s the fact that we have and continue to do life together. From Adoptions, to Illnesses, to raising Children, even to losing parents… we have committed to doing life together, with Jesus always at the center. I can’t imagine doing life alone.
1 John 1:3
3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
John tells his readers everything he knows about Jesus’ sacrificial love because it would allow the hearers then to have fellowship with one another. The power of a community like this can only finds its origins in the fellowship shared with God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Family of God Meets Each Other’s Needs
The other thing that was attractive about God’s family in the early church was the fact that they were meeting each other’s needs.
They were entrusting to one another their struggles, trials, and needs.
Then they were doing what was necessary to meet those needs.
They were the physical presence of God in each other’s lives.
They were His hands and feet.
In order for any family to function in a healthy manner, each individual must do their part to bring about this flourishing. The community of faith that we exist in today is no different. We must be willing to meet the needs of those around us. When we do, we become attractive to other people. .
I read something a while ago that convicted me to make sure I play my part in the family of God. This could be a helpful thing to for you to stay in touch with:
“This is my church. It is composed of people just like me. It will be friendly if I am. It will do a great work if I work. It will make generous gifts to many causes if I am generous. It will bring others into its fellowship if I bring them. Its seats will be filled if I fill them. It will be a church of loyalty and love, of faith and service. If I make it what it is, then I am filled with these. Therefore, with God’s help, I dedicate myself to the task of being all these things I want my church to be”.
When we are made new and welcomed into the family of God, it is important to remind ourselves that this family is meant to continue to grow. Whether it’s through being there in a crisis, encouraging one another, maybe even physically serving someone in a way that they need, People outside God’s family will see something they want to be a part of.
And we need to be ready to make space for that…
POINT #3 – MAKE SPACE AT THE TABLE
When we experience the love of the Father, we are compelled to share it with people who have never felt it before. Church Family, always be reminded that the Bible tells us we are the light of the world…So, when we shine brightly through our words and actions, the world takes notice.
Matthew 5:16
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Our good deeds become invitations to the fellowship, community, and family that we experience through our faith in Jesus. It is how we make space for others to come and join as well. Matthew says that the response of those who see our acts of love will be to glorify our Father in heaven and perhaps become His children themselves.
I love the imagery of those dinner tables that have multiple sections. The tables that have two, maybe three sections that could be added or taken away in the middle to shrink or expand the table. What an outreach tool those tables can be…. People that I grown up around than know about God’s family never seem to have the sections taken out….the table is always extended, why? Because in my experience they are the kind of people that treated everyone like family. There were always extra people who would come for supper and there were extra chairs in order to add more to those tables.
You can see story after story in our region today about the homeless crisis and the food security issues so many people face. There’s another epidemic that get’s far less coverage in the news cycle. It’s the spiritual homelessness epidemic, one that I would argue is much a bigger problem!
FBK we always need to go out of our way to make sure that there is space at our table for those God brings to us. Is this what will be said about us over the next 200 years? They made space for me….Will we be known as the kind of people who would add extra space at the table so others could be a part of the family?
“They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
That is what the resurrection does in our lives. It makes us new and invites us into God’s family, so that we might invite others to join as well.
Application points:
#1 Be Intentional:
- Are you secure in your standing as a member of God’s family or are you doing life on your own? – stop it and get plugged into the family of this church.
- Are you serving in the day to day family needs in this church
- Congregational Care
#2 Be Inviting:
- Who is God putting in your path?
- What can you do to make a space at the table?
- Men’s breakfast; Ladies IF Gatherings, Youth Group…
The early church shared such a deep sense of fellowship around their belief in the resurrection of Jesus. They supported each other’s faith based on their shared love for Jesus and their commitment to living out His teachings. They shared with anyone who had a need and spent time together. This spirit of community was what allowed their numbers to grow each day and for the Gospel to spread far and wide. Even today, especially today, we can enjoy the community that comes from faith. Being a part of God’s family helps us experience all that God has for us.
Let’s pray together.
Prayer
Dear God,
how difficult it must have been for the disciples, having again spent time with the Risen Christ, to be confronted with his upcoming return to God.
They wanted to keep him near them forever, but he was called back home to his Father. He understood their fears and their concerns and offered to them a sense of what they must do.
They must truly love each other as God has truly loved each one of them.
Can we do any less? We are called to love each one here, with the kind of love that Christ displayed, patient, respectful, strong.
Our world would have us believe that love is that emotion which is manipulative; we love in order to get what we want. How sad it is!
We are called to a higher understanding. Love must take the form of service and compassion, of hope and proclamation, of patient waiting and urgent striving for the good of all people.
Open our hearts today, Lord, and imprint your message of love upon them, that all we say and do is done in your name and for the sake of your people and your world. AMEN.
Song
Benediction
Friends and Beloved of Christ, you have been chosen to go into this world with the message of God’s love.
Bear fruit of hope and joy, peace and justice, with all that you meet.
May God’s peace be with you all. AMEN
Blessings & have a Great Week!