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This Week at First

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9 AM Contemporary

10:30 AM Traditional

September 22nd: Healing and Wholeness


Our reading from both Mark and James speak of healings. In one case, we are told to offer prayers and anointing for healing. In the other, the disciples are griping about someone who is offering a spiritual healing. Come and hear what Jesus told his disciples. Our readings will be from James 5:13-20 and Mark 9:38-50. The message will be “Healing and Wholeness.” We will also offer an opportunity for you to receive an anointing with oil for “Healing and Wholeness.”


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


 

James 5:13-20


The Prayer of Faith

13 Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.  14 Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.  15 The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.  16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.  17 Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.  18 Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

 

19 My brothers and sisters,[a] if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another,  20 you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s[b] soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.


 

Mark 9:38-50


Another Exorcist

38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone[a] casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”  39 But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.  40 Whoever is not against us is for us.  41 For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

 

Temptations to Sin

42 “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me,[b] it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.  43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell,[c] to the unquenchable fire.[d]  45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.[e][f]  47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell,[g]  48 where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

 

49 “For everyone will be salted with fire.[h]  50 Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it?[i] Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

   

 







9am Service:




10:30am Service:



September 15th: What is Better for Others?


As we honor the work of our ambulance workers and those involved in managing emergency situations, we will turn to Philippians 2:1-11 and Mark 10:46-52 to see how God responses to people in need. Our message will be titled “What is Better for Others?” During the second service, we will honor those who stand ready to respond to all kinds of emergency situations.


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


 

Philippians 2:1-11


Imitating Christ’s Humility

2 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy,  2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.  4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.  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.


 

Mark 10:46-52


The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus

46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.  47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”  49 Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”  50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.  51 Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher,[a] let me see again.”  52 Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

   

 







9am Service:

(Not available)


10:30am Service:



September 8th: Welcome


Jesus came to earth to offer salvation to everyone. During his time on earth, he reached out to the least, the last, and the lost. By Jesus’ standard, how are we doing at reaching out? Using the James 2:1-17 and Mark 7:24-37 as the foundation for our message, “Welcome.”


See you Sunday.


Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim


 

James 2:1-17


Warning against Partiality

2 My brothers and sisters,[a] do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?[b]  2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in,  3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,”[c]  4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?  5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.[d] Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?  6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court?  7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

 

8 You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.  10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.  11 For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.  12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.  13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

 

Faith without Works Is Dead

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters,[e] if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?  15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,  16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?  17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.


 

Mark 7:24-37


The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith

24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre.[a] He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice,  25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.  26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  27 He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  28 But she answered him, “Sir,[b] even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”  29 Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.”  30 So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

 

Jesus Cures a Deaf Man

31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.  32 They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him.  33 He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.  34 Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”  35 And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.  36 Then Jesus[c] ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.  37 They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

   

 









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