Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, October 29, 2024. A little bit of this and a little bit of that
Good Morning, Good Morning my brothers and my sisters and welcome to Tuesday’s edition of Turning On the Lights for Tuesday October 29, 2024!
Hard to believe that we are this deep into the year and this close to the holiday season.
Today, I am a little out of focus – like that is new – but we end up talking about the TRUTH of the GOOD NEWS and how we must be very intentional in rejoicing in that GOOD NEWS every day!
If even part of the Gospel is not True, like the bodily resurrection of those who die in Christ, then none of it is true.
May God bless you and keep you always and in all ways, and as we always say – KEEP LOOKING UP!
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, October 29, 2024. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, October 29, 2024. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Good morning. Good morning. My brothers and my sisters. Oh, the lights flickering the light from above. Let there be light. Hey this Friday at the Church Town Church of God, CS Lewis Shadowlands 7 o’clock Friday, November 1st 2024. Come one. Come all you’re all welcome. Just come on in grab some water and some popcorn and enjoy the movie. Welcome. Welcome everybody to turning on the lights for Tuesday, the twenty-ninth. Can you believe it of October you are looking live at the sanctuary of the Church Town Church of God where tonight there will be choir practice not necessarily up here in the choir loft, but there will be choir practice. Let me turn off that noisy fan and get you all situated here. So you can look out over there and then we can start to talk a little bit. Oh a little bit about hi Rosie a little bit about last weekend a little bit about this week a little bit about this upcoming weekend. All kinds of good things happening here at the church. And we had quite a time together last Sunday. It was it was a good day of praise and worship. If you ask me, you know, like I said, it was a sermon on staying faithful. Good morning and it was just what I needed to hear 27. Oh yeah, 27. It’s cold this morning, but it’s supposed to be getting up to like the 68 today and tomorrow and Thursday. It’s supposed to be warm and so we have a. Trunk or treat in our parking lot. Thursday evening trying to bring a little light into this world. We’ve been talking a lot about light on Sunday. We talked about light the I found and oddly enough on God find I found an article about dark sanctuaries in light and like I said, it’s not a deal breaker one way or the other. I do believe like my one friend said that if the if the sanctuary if you’re going to call it that is so big that you can’t see the pastor up front. But there are lots of different views on that. I don’t you know we have a sanctuary that is naturally well lit. We have these beautiful art deco lights for sure, but we also 40% of our walls covered by stained glass light just beams in from all over the place and so we don’t know anything different. I don’t wanna know anything different. I think a sanctuary should be lit and I don’t mean lit yo. I mean it should be lighted so that we all can fellowship together and that’s what it’s all about public worship is public worship. You know I’m not a public communal worship is communal worship. If it’s so dark that I don’t know who’s 10 feet away from me, that’s just not my thing. I think we’re you know communal worship is communal worship. We’ve got kids running all over the sanctuary. We’ve got people trying to take care of kids moving and doing all of these things. It’s not gonna be and I’m certainly not gonna do anything. To in right set them set the mood or set the atmosphere so that Holy Spirit will be welcome here or something other heretical statement like that like Holy Spirit. You are welcome here really. Oh okay. That’s you have the power to stop Holy Spirit. Whoa you’re not welcome here. Certainly we can turn our back on the Lord and we can turn our man and many have and many do and many don’t even know the Lord, but he is sovereign. He will do what he wants and go where he wants to go. So that’s really really important. So father we pray that your word will go out today. Hearts and minds will be softened and changed. We pray that repentance will happen in the Kingdom of God will grow in Jesus name. Amen. Choir tonight Council tomorrow. Chunk or treat Thursday movie Friday busy week here at the church very busy week. So however you are going to engage engage. This is important when we talk about staying faithful. It’s going to tie into our conversation today from first Corinthians. I’m gonna be in chapter fifteen. We’re gonna be talking again about faithfulness in Christ and the cornerstone of the church and the purpose of church right. We talked a little bit about the atmosphere. I think that’s we can discuss different things about the atmosphere that we do create, but we need to remember that worship is 24/7 365. If we get caught up in trying to create an atmosphere of worship, we might get caught up in trying to be create a dramatic environment. Good morning. Does that make sense that we’re trying to create a dramatic environment that we’re trying to create more emotional than worship and so that’s my caution. Good morning trace. If you wanna manipulate the environment, you need to be very very faithful to the word and also to the purpose of gathering communally for worship. That’s all I’m saying once you travel down the path of trying to manipulate the environment, you are getting on a little bit of thin ice saying wow I can really get these people hyped up. I can really get these people crying. I can really get these people is that worship. So you know again rock stars and playwrights try to do the exact same thing to get evoke an emotional response to create a connectivity to the environment that it may be that you walk away from it going. That was awesome. That was awesome, but was it worship right and again we’ve talked about this before as well. Oftentimes in our modern orders of worship. If you will, we say we have a 20 minute block of worship and then we have the message. You know what if you go that far rosy you see that if you go that far you see that I’m in charge or me and my team are in charge and we’re going to create an environment that’s going to manipulate the people’s emotions. That’s far to that one side. Part of the side of artificial emotional. And so you’re right about that and my point is that our sinful natures. I’m like if I were to do that and I’m like wow like that was cool. These people are really into it. There are more and more people are coming to experience. I’m going to go deeper and deeper and deeper into it and we’re going to have a problem with that, but we do dramatically alter the environment. For example, Christmas Eve. We talked about that on Sunday as well when in order to demonstrate the power of the light right, we light the Christ candle in the middle of a blacked out sanctuary and it is amazing. It’s amazing to see and so there are times and an appropriate times and places for such things, but it’s a good discussion to have and my only point is that if you are in charge of such things be careful be biblical understand that worship is not a 20 minute block of time that is in the middle of your service. Worship is worship and we were worshiping all the time and then on a particular time or times during the week we gather together and join in together in worship. That’s the difference. It’s not like turn it off and go church. I gotta turn it on or you know you go to church and then now you’re drinking your lattes and having talking to people. Oh, oh, lights go down band is coming up now. It’s time to worship you’re doing it wrong. You’re doing it wrong and so you’ve gotta be aware of that is my only point right be aware of that be aware that you’re we are disciples of Christ. We are worshiping all the time. Good morning and then we gather together at particular times and we continue. We build upon that we strengthen one another. We learn more. We go deeper and we part ways again. But we’re still a congregation in contact with one another needs met all of these and then we come together again at a particular time and guess what we go more deeply into things through the hymns and through prayer through song and through the word. So it’s a it’s a good always good and I’ve said before I have had I should say I had no experience with such things when I came into the pastorate nearly 13 years ago. I didn’t know I had spent 10 years in the Methodist Church. That’s kind of liturgical to the exact moment. It’s liturgical means that you have a set order and a set amount of time for every element in the order and you follow that liturgy straight through and if it’s meant to be an hour, then it starts and it stops at 60 minutes. If the pastors sermon is meant to be 20 minutes, it is 20 minutes. It’s not 21. It’s not 22. It’s 20 minutes right, so that’s very liturgical now every church more or less has a liturgy. It’s just a matter of how strict that liturgy is. We have an order of worship. It alters from time to time. We do several different ways of getting into the word and prayer and sharing music together. So we’re very we’re not tied to the liturgy. So that’s all I ever knew and so when I became a pastor again, even done how to do church, I went to the Bible. So what does this say about doing church and that’s what the epistles are so dear to me. I learned so much from them sort of just by the way Paul is teaching and lots of times he’s teaching how not to do it and so by learning how not to do it such as the church in corn, you can learn how to do it. We talked about the order and the structure and the lack of chaos and all of those different things and God is not a God of disorder and chaos. God is a God of order and purpose and so when we create a liturgy when we come together for communal worship, we create it with purpose in mind right. We create it with purpose in mind. So there you go. There’s a little something on ecclesiology. Lots of my talks are on ecclesiology. That’s talking about the church here on Earth and what we’re supposed to do and how we’re supposed to do it. Fall. My daughter has the same problem. Fall is the roughest season for that weather transition and now right the weather is messing with us even more as it’s 32° at night. If we wake up to frost and then it gets to be almost 70 in the afternoon and you’re like, oh, please please pick one my head and my throat and my sinuses are all like pick one please. Let me now remind you dear brothers and sisters. I call you all brothers and sisters. Good morning. Good morning. My brothers and my sisters. I’m happy to do that. I enjoy that very much followers of Christ. If you’re not a follower of Christ today, I would invite you to listen wherever you may be hearing this. Maybe you’re hearing it on the podcast, whatever the case may be. Listen to the word of God. Repent believe profess. Become a brother or sister of mine. Well, that might be a deterrent become a brother or sister in Christ. Oh my goodness. That’s disgusting and I’m very very sorry, but you get the real deal with me. You get the real deal with Brian D. See what I did there D Brian D D Warner. So first Corinthians 15. Let me now remind you dear brothers and sisters of the good news I preached to you before. You welcomed it then and you still stand firm in it. It is this good news that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you unless of course you believe something that was never true in the first place. Let me remind you of the good news that saves your soul. You have you for those who continue to be intentional in their relationship with Christ. It is still good news and you rejoice in it every day. Perhaps you don’t know what I’m talking about because you believe something false from the start. So there’s a little caution in there. One it is the good news that saved you. What have you done? We’ve talked about what have you done with this gift that you’re given? We have several parables on the gift that we’re given right the bags of silver and all of that. What have you done with the gift you’re given? Are you intentional in your relationship with Christ? For those who are we wake up every morning and it’s good news. We are complete as the Lord wants us to be complete and we rejoice in that every day and we gather together again. We worship right and then we come together for our communal worship and we remind one another of the good news that saved us and we rejoice in that and we go more deeply into that and we talk about being very intentional in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It’s a thing. Paul talks about it being a thing. You know the good news. You’ll stay in the good news. If you don’t know the good news, if you believe something false from the very beginning, hey, let’s get this straight. Then let’s work on it. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins. Just as the scripture said he was buried and he was raised from the dead on the third day. Just as the scripture said he was seen by Peter and then by the twelve after that he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive. Though some have died, of course. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him for I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church. And that goes to Paul’s backstory as Saul and an operative of the religious hierarchy Roman government and seeking out this Jesus what they believe to be this Jesus cult and persecuting them to the point of death trying to wipe them out trying to rid the Jewish culture of this Messiah worship. But we know Saul on his way to Damascus and boom Jesus knocks him off the donkey and talks to him and he says you are going to have a special purpose because you basically are you’re a well educated worldly man. You are going to bring the message of salvation to the Gentile world because now right and Jesus sends now people are going to have to believe in the word alone. So we believe in the word and now we open our hearts to the power of God’s Holy Spirit and we understand and we know and we are moved to know that it is true. We repent and we turn to God. We submit our lives to him. We are saved so it would have been a little bit easier right if Jesus is still walking around and say okay. This is this is like this guy’s God because he’s 2000 years old now walking. Yeah, but God’s not going to coerce us that way of our own volition. It is our faith by which we are saved and a faith comes from hearing and we hear and we are moved by the power of God’s Holy Spirit right. So now Paul is that guy and he considers himself the least of the apostles and all of that because it happened to him after all of that after the resurrection and after Jesus had appeared to so many others. Jesus went for Paul. He said here’s your purpose. My page turned. I was like what happened, but whatever I am now it is all because God poured out his special favor on me and not without results for I have worked harder than any of the other apostles. Yet it was not I, but God who is working through me by his grace. So it makes no difference whether I preach or they preach for we all preach the same message. You have already believed you’ve already believed it yet you’re going to hear it again and again and again. That is one of the meta narratives of all of scripture is the same story of the message of God and the power of God and then people going away from it. It is told again and again and again. God’s presence is there again again and again. The message is preached again and again and again and human beings walk away from it cycle back around. I mean we just are that way. God knows it and so when you read scripture and you’re reading through every book of the Bible and you’re like this is the same message over and over and over. It is it is the power of God under the old covenant. The holiness that is demonstrated under the old covenant. All of the prophecies of the Messiah that are in the Old Testament under the old covenant and then we move into the gospels and the story of the Messiah Jesus Christ and then the commentaries on what happens next this great mystery the church that Jesus founds right creates so that his word and his story his good news can go out to the four corners of the world. I said earth and world at the same time world. What is the vessel? What is the conduit? What is the tool that Christ is going to use to spread the good news the church and this secret we learned was held from even the angels right Satan and the demons and the angels. It was God’s secret and in his good time, he created his church his bride and the bride’s purpose to share the good news right one of the purposes, but obviously one of the primary purposes, but tell me this since we preach that Christ rose from the dead. Why are some of you saying there would be no resurrection of the dead for if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either and if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless and your faith is useless and we apostles would all be lying about God for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but that can’t be true. If there is no resurrection of the dead and if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised and if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you still guilty of all your sins in that case all who have died believing in Christ are lost and if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in this world. That’s powerful stuff. If it’s not true, if one part of it’s not true, then all of it’s not true. If there is you say there’s no resurrection, how can there be resurrection and many modern modern progressive churches say look this resurrection myth right? It’s really nice, but come on right there. It is if Christ is not bodily resurrected, then there is no resurrection. Then what is our hope? Where is our hope? Our hope is just to know Christ while we are alive and now to what end to what purpose make the world a better place now. I mean that is part of our purpose as Christians do not get me wrong, but what is our hope for the future? God gives us hope for the future in in in the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ defeating sin and the power of sin defeating death itself and the power of death over us. What’s the power of death? It’s the fear of death. It’s the compromising anything that you might believe or say that you believe for the sake of your life. Say Oh my gosh. I don’t want to die. I’m so afraid. I’m so afraid. That’s the power of death and you don’t think Satan can manipulate that. To tarnish your soul come on now so Paul’s landed on the line there say hey that’s false doctrine right there that there is no resurrection and if there if you’re preaching that then don’t preach anything else because if that’s not true, then it’s all useless for what is our purpose be nice people. Right and an atheist or a Buddhist or a Muslim can be a nice person. Okay. It’s way more than that as a Christian being filled by God’s Holy Spirit and living in his will exercising our spiritual gifts growing the Kingdom of God. It’s much more than that as a Christian anyway than being a nice person, but there is not only just purpose in the life of this life. There is hope in the life to come. That’s a good thing. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of the great harvest of all who have died. So you see just as death came into the world through a man now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam. Everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life, but there is an order to this resurrection. Christ was raised as the first of the harvest. Then all belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back. After that the end will come when he will return when he will turn the kingdom over to God the Father having destroyed every ruler and authority and power for Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet and the last and the last enemy to be destroyed is death for the scriptures say God has put all things under his authority. Of course, when it says all things under are under his authority that does not include God himself who gave Christ his authority. Then when all things are under his authority, the son will put himself under God’s authority so that God who gave the son authority over all things will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere. If the dead will not be raised, what point is there in people being baptized for those who are dead? Why do it unless the dead will someday rise again? And why should we ourselves risk our lives hour by hour for I swear to your brothers and sisters that I faith face death daily. This is as certain as my pride in what Christ is fighting my pride in what Christ Jesus our Lord has done in you and what value was there in fighting wild beasts. Those people of Ephesus if there will be no resurrection from the dead and if there is no resurrection, let’s feast and drink for tomorrow. We die. Don’t be fooled by those who say such things for bad company corrupts good character. Think carefully about what is right and stop sinning for you to for to your shame. I say that some of you don’t know God at all. Alright, that’s a lot. But when we read that you hear Paul saying the same thing over and over and over and over and over again. And Christ is the first now there’s a lot there we learn about the Trinity and the structure of the triune nature of God and we’ll get into that if you want to. It’s fascinating study the triune nature of God and how that triune nature of God is taught through so many scriptures from cover to cover and we learn about the role of Jesus Christ God incarnate right and we what his purpose is and when his purposes are accomplished. He goes back under the umbrella of Yahweh. Does that make sense? Just it’s fascinating stuff and that’s probably where we’re going to end today because our day needs to get started on a Tuesday morning. We are going to talk a little bit more about this and the resurrection and what it means for us as believers on Thursday. We’ll talk a little bit about what we’re going to be doing Thursday night Friday night. Saturday is also busy here at the church. We have a serve day at the church. So we’re going to be trying to find some things to do around here and throughout the community always something going on. So wherever you are, I hope that you are invested in a body that worships Christ and teaches that worship is all the time and that you gather together certain times to worship collectively communally to strengthen yourself to grow in your faith to strengthen your knowledge of the word to learn and to grow and to become the disciple of Christ that he knows you can be now we we go and we live our lives as such and as we learn from first Corinthians 15, there’s purpose now there’s purpose now not just being a nice person. There’s purpose as we live in the will of God now and there is hope for the age to come for if Christ has not been resurrected and death has not been been defeated. Then none of it makes much sense. Cornerstone of our faith dear Lord, we pray that you would reinforce our faith to us in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Good lord willing in the creek. Don’t rise. I’ll see you Thursday morning for turning on the lights.
0 Comments