Serving Christ, changing lives!
Holy Thursday: Our joint services with Bethany and Campbelltown continue at 7:00 PM on Holy Thursday. This time, we will be venturing to Campbelltown to hear Lynn Heckman preach. The service will be held in the Fellowship Hall incorporating a light meal, message, and communion.
See you Thursday.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Jim
Sixth Sunday in Lent – Palm Sunday: This Sunday is often called Palm-Passion Sunday, as it is the last Sunday before Easter. We need to be sure we are not going from one mountain top experience, the Triumphal Entry, to the second mountain top experience with the resurrection, without going through the valley. At First Church, rather than pack too much into one Sunday service, we are encouraging everyone to participate in the special Holy Week services, including the Good Friday service.
For Palm Sunday we will focus on two scriptures, Philippians 2:5-11 and Luke 19:28-40. Our sermon topic will be “Determined,” which perfectly describes Jesus’ attitude and the one we too should adopt.
See you Sunday.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Jim
5 Let the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.And being found in human form,8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
28 After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” 32 So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said, “The Lord needs it.” 35 Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying,
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
9am Service:
10:30am Service:
Fifth Sunday in Lent: While the nation may debate “Birthright Citizenship,” being a Christian is not a birthright! On this last Sunday before Palm Sunday, we will read from Philippians 3:4b-14 and John 12:1-8 as we hopefully begin to realize what we need to do to become a citizen of heaven. Our message will be “The Citizenship Test.”
See you Sunday.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Jim
4 If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ,[a] the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ[b] and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal;[c] but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved,[d] I do not consider that I have made it my own;[e] but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly[f] call of God in Christ Jesus.
12 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them[a] with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii[b] and the money given to the poor?” 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it[c] so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
9am Service:
10:30am Service: