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This Week at First

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Hearing the truth is not always easy. When the truth is bad, there is sometimes a tendency to want to shoot the messenger. Fortunately, for Nathan, he was able to deliver his message to the King without losing his head. Nathan was doing exactly what Jesus tells us to do, hold one another accountable. Our scriptures of the week will be 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a and Luke 17:1-4. The message will be “Listen Carefully.” In recognition of the 70th Anniversary of the Groundbreaking for Palmyra First Evangelical United Brethren, we will celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion using the service from the ritual used by the Evangelical United Brethren Church in 1954.


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a


26 When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him.  27 When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.


Nathan Condemns David

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord,  12 1 and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.  2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds;  3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him.  4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.”  5 Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die;  6 he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

 

7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul;  8 I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more.  9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.  10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.  11 Thus says the Lord: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this very sun.  12 For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”  13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”



Luke 17:1-4


Some Sayings of Jesus

17 Jesus[a] said to his disciples, “Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come!  2 It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.  3 Be on your guard! If another disciple[b] sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.  4 And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.”

   








9am Service




10:30am Service



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Inevitably, one thing leads to another. This has been true throughout history. This week, we will look at how one thing led to another for Israel and King David and how similar things happened to the followers of Jesus. Will we just let one thing lead to another or will be take control of situations so that one thing leads to the right thing? Our scriptures will be 2 Samuel 11:1-15 and John 6:1-21. The sermon is titled “One Thing Leads to Another.”


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


2 Samuel 11:1-15


David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba

11 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

 

2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.  3 David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”  4 So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house.  5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

 

6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David.  7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going.  8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king.  9 But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.  10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?”  11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths;[a] and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.”  12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day,  13 David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

 

David Has Uriah Killed

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.  15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”  



John 6:1-21


Feeding the Five Thousand

6 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.[a]   2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.  3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples.  4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.  5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”  6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.  7 Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages[b] would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”  8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,  9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”  10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they[c] sat down, about five thousand in all.  11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.  12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.”  13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.  14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

 

15 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

 

Jesus Walks on the Water

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea,  17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.  18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.  19 When they had rowed about three or four miles,[d] they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified.  20 But he said to them, “It is I;[e] do not be afraid.”  21 Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

   








9am Service




10:30am Service



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When you have what seems like a good idea, do you vent it with others or just plunge ahead with your plans? When we have what seems like a good idea for the church, how do we evaluate its merits? Using 2 Samuel 7:1-14a and Mark 6:7-13 we will focus on “Whose Will?”


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


2 Samuel 7:1-14a


God’s Covenant with David

7 Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him,  2 the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.”  3 Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.”

 

4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan:  5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in?  6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle.  7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders[a] of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”  8 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel;  9 and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.  10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly,  11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.  12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.  13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.  14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.



Mark 6:7-13


 7 He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.  8 He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts;  9 but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.  10 He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place.  11 If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”  12 So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent.  13 They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

   








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