top of page

This Week at First

Live Services

9 AM Contemporary

10:30 AM Traditional

August 31st: The Good Guest and the Good Host

    ree

    Labor Day Weekend: Showing hospitality to strangers is not always easy, but it is our Christian obligation. In the book of Hebrews, we are reminded of our obligation. In the Gospel recorded by Luke, Jesus gives us a lesson on how to be a good guest. Between the reading from Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 and Luke 14:1, 7-14, we should be able to discover how to be hospitable. Our message will be “The Good Guest and the Good Host.”


    See you Sunday.


    Grace and Peace,

    Pastor Jim


    Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16


    Service Well-Pleasing to God

    13 Let mutual love continue.  2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.  3 Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.[a]  4 Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.  5 Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”  6 So we can say with confidence,

    “The Lord is my helper;    I will not be afraid.What can anyone do to me?”

     

    7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.  8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  



     15 Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.  16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.


    Luke 14:1, 7-14


    Jesus Heals the Man with Dropsy

    14 On one occasion when Jesus[a] was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.  



    Humility and Hospitality

    7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.  8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host;  9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.  10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.  11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

     

    12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.  13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”









    August 24th: Acceptable Worship

      ree

      What makes our worship acceptable to God? This week, we will be reading form Hebrews 12:18-29 and Luke 13:10-17 to see if we can more fully understand what is acceptable to God and what is not acceptable. Our message will be “Acceptable Worship.”


      See you Sunday.


      Grace and Peace,

      Pastor Jim


      Hebrews 12:18-29


      18 You have not come to something[a] that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,  19 and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them.  20 (For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.”  21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”)  22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,  23 and to the assembly[b] of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,  24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

       

      25 See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!  26 At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.”  27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.  28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe;  29 for indeed our God is a consuming fire.


      Luke 13:10-17


      Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman

      10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.  11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.  12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”  13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.  14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.”  15 But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?  16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”  17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.







      9am Service:


      10:30am Service:


      August 17th: The Activist Christian

        ree

        While we all want peace and quiet in our homes, in our lives, and in our church, sometimes we need to take action on important issues. This week, we will refer to Hebrews 11:29-12:2 and Luke 12:49-56 for some advice on when we need to sit back and let things happen and when we need to be actively engaged with both God and the world around us. Our message will be titled “The Activist Christian.”


        See you Sunday.


        Grace and Peace,

        Pastor Jim


        Hebrews 11:29-12:2


        The Faith of Other Israelite Heroes

        29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned.  30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.  31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient,[a] because she had received the spies in peace.

         

        32 And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—  33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,  34 quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.  35 Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.  36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  37 They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two,[b] they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented—  38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

         

        39 Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised,  40 since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.

         

        The Example of Jesus

        12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely,[c] and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,  2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of[d] the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.


        Luke 12:49-56


        Jesus the Cause of Division

        49 “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!  50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!  51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!  52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three;  53 they will be divided:

        father against son    and son against father,mother against daughter    and daughter against mother,mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law    and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

         

        Interpreting the Time

        54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens.  55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens.  56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"






        9am Service:


        10:30am Service:





        Palmyra First UMC

        717-838-2551

        520 E. Birch St., Palmyra, PA

        admin@palmyrafirst.org

        ©2022 by Palmyra First UMC. Proudly created with Wix.com

        bottom of page