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This Week at First

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March 10th: The Main Thing



March 10th – The Fourth Sunday in Lent: It has been said, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” So, what is the main thing in your life? What gets lifted up above all else? In our scriptures from both Numbers 21:4-9 and John 3:14-21, we hear about things that are lifted up. This week we focus on “The Main Thing.”


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


 

This Week's Scriptures

Numbers 21:4-9

4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea,[a] to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way.  5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”  6 Then the Lord sent poisonous[b] serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.  7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.  8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous[c] serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”  9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.


 

John 3:14-21


 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.[a]

 

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

 

17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.  20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.  21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”[b]


 






9am Service



10:30 Service




March 3rd: A Zealous Fool



March 3rd – The Third Sunday in Lent: Did you ever ask, “What was God thinking?” This week, we acknowledge that part of our faith seems like foolishness to many people, but is it foolishness to you? Our scriptures will be 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 and John 2:13-22. Our message is titled “A Zealous Fool.”


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


 

This Week's Scriptures

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  19 For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,    and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

 

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.  22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,  23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,  24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.  


 

John 2:13-22


Jesus Cleanses the Temple

13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.  15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.  16 He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”  17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”  18 The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?”  19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  20 The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?”  21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body.  22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.


 






9am Service


10:30am Service



February 25th: And Your Excuse Is . . .



February 25th – The Second Sunday in Lent: This week, we turn our attention to the hard work of following the Lord and we look to both the Lord himself, as well as Abraham and Sarah as our examples. The scriptures will be taken form Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 and the message will be titled “And Your Excuse Is . . .”


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


 

This Week's Scriptures

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

The Sign of the Covenant

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty;[a] walk before me, and be blameless.  2 And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.”  3 Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him,  4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.  5 No longer shall your name be Abram,[b] but your name shall be Abraham;[c] for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.  6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.  7 I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring[d] after you.  


15 God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.  16 I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”  


 






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