top of page

This Week at First

Live Services

9 AM Contemporary

10:30 AM Traditional

ree

Independence Weekend: This week we will focus on growing the Kingdom of God. Our readings will include Galatians 6:1-16 and Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 and our message will be titled “Two by Two, or Four by Four.”


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


Galatians 6:1-16


Bear One Another’s Burdens

6 My friends,[a] if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted.  2 Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill[b] the law of Christ.  3 For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves.  4 All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work, will become a cause for pride.  5 For all must carry their own loads.

 

6 Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher.

 

7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.  8 If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.  9 So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.  10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.

 

Final Admonitions and Benediction

11 See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand!  12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised—only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.  13 Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh.  14 May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which[c] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  15 For[d] neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!  16 As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.


Luke 10:1-11


The Mission of the Seventy

10 After this the Lord appointed seventy[a] others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.  2 He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.  3 Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.  4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.  5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’  6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.  7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house.  8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you;  9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’[b]  10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say,  11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’[c]  



Note - bulletins are not available yet! Thank you for your patience and please check back later.






9am Service:


10:30am Service:


ree

Third Sunday of Kingdomtide: Sometimes it seems that Jesus is harsh or insensitive with the people around him. This Sunday, we will be looking at why it might seem that way--how Jesus' love includes impressing upon us how extremely important his words and actions are. The sermon title is "God's Loving Insistence" using Luke 9:51-62 and 1 John 5:1-5.


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


Luke 9:51-62


A Samaritan Village Refuses to Receive Jesus

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.  52 And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him;  53 but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.  54 When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”[a]  55 But he turned and rebuked them.  56 Then[b] they went on to another village.

 

Would-Be Followers of Jesus

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”  58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”  59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”  60 But Jesus[c] said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”  61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”  62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”


1 John 5:1-5


Faith Conquers the World

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ[a] has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.  2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.  3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,  4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.  5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?









9am Service:


10:30am Service:


ree

Second Sunday of Kingdomtide: Even the best people have bad days, but do we let our bad days get the best of us? Elijah was having a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day,” but he didn’t move to Australia, he got up and did as God directed him. Maybe we should too! This week we look at 1 Kings 19:1-15a to see what it has to say to us that can help us with life’s issues. Our message will be “Accepting Help.”


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


1 Kings 19:1-15a


Elijah Flees from Jezebel

19 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.  2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”  3 Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.

 

4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”  5 Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.”  6 He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again.  7 The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”  8 He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.  9 At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.


Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  10 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

 

Elijah Meets God at Horeb

11 He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake;  12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.  13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  14 He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”  15 Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus."










9am Service:

10:30am Service:


Palmyra First UMC

717-838-2551

520 E. Birch St., Palmyra, PA

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

bottom of page