Sunday Sabbath January 10 2016  AN EXCELLENT SERMON

Last Sunday I gave a synopsis of Derrick Wright’s sermon.  Today I will do the same with Pastor Tom Flaherty’s address to the congregation.  The title of the message was “COME AS YOU ARE”.  Scripture reference is from Luke 15:20-32 which is about “The Parable of the Lost Son”.

Now those of you who have attended church on a regular basis have probably heard the story of the son who leaves with his inheritance, uses it up on prostitutes and extravagant living, and finally destitute, decided to return to his father.  I have heard this message many times.  However, I have never heard it told quite like it was today.  I found it to be interesting and right on; identifying with the analogy which Pastor Tom used.   It was very thought provoking and eye opening.  I recommend that you take a look for yourself by googling City Church Madison WI and going to MEDIA.  Check out today’s (January 10^th) sermon.  Extremely well presented to purposely touch your heart.

On the back of our Sunday morning brochure is a message for all who take the time to read it.  It is titled: OUR DESIRE.  There are four short paragraphs, each with a topic.  The topics are:  1.  COME AS YOU ARE.  2.  CONNECT WITH GOD.  3.  CONNECT WITH PEOPE.  4.  CONTEND FOR MORE OF GOD’S PRESENCE.

Pastor Tom indicated that he will be teaching on all four of the topics beginning with today’s message.  Today’s sermon title, as I said above, was “COME AS YOU ARE”.  Here is the text on the back of our bulletin:

“THERE IS A GREAT JOY IN REALIZING THAT YOU DON’T NEED TO PRETEND OR PERFORM FOR GOD; HIS LOVE IS DEEP, PASSIONATE, AND UNFATHOMABLY ENDLESS.  HE SENT HIS SON TO DIE FOR US SO THAT WE COULD BE RESCUED AND DRAW CLOSE TO HIM.  JESUS TRULY IS A FRIEND TO ALL, AND WE DESIRE TO EMULATE THAT EVERY DAY BY EXTENDING HIS LOVE TO OTHERS AND MEETING PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE.”

In a nutshell, Pastor Tom explained that Jesus is waiting for us to come to Him, just as we are.  We don’t have to clean up our lives or try to impress God.  God loves us as we are.  He will slowly work the miracle of “cleaning us up”.  He accepts who we are, what we are, regardless of past sins or unforgiveness toward others, habits, or anything else we might think of that would cause us not to approach Him.  What Jesus desires, is to have a relationship with us.  But first, we must offer Him our lives.  Even when we have known God and walked away from Him, He will welcome us back with open arms, thus, the example of the parable of the lost son.

The words of that little paragraph on the back of the bulletin kept noodling around in my brain as I listened to the morning sermon.  I use poetic license and began to write the lines of a poem referring to the words in the bulletin.  If it were a scripture I referred to I would call it “a scripture poem”.  But since it was from our bulletin, I’ll call it “a bulletin poem”.  Who knows, perhaps I’ll be inspired to write a poem for each of the four topics on that back page.  Following is the poem I received from that inspiration.

COME AS YOU ARE

By Kathleen Martens

January 10, 2016

God of the universe

Is awesome beyond measure.

Though He owns the earth and stars

It is YOU He treasures.

You need not ever pretend,

God does not ask you to perform,

Or be something you are not

He knew you before you were born.

God’s love so deep and passionate

That He created you for heaven above.

His Son died so we might live,

So unfathomably endless is God’s love

God calls you to draw close

So He can truly be your friend,

That you too can give to others

All the love, that to you, He gives.

Accept all people as God accepts you.

Extend your love and a helping hand.

No greater gift you can ever give

Than helping another, by Christ to stand.

I believe the moments we spend in seclusion with the Scriptures and communicating with God, are the most important moments of our entire day.  Some days I do not spend my mornings alone with Him, but I speak to Him every day.  Even though I may listen to sermons on my Iphone throughout the day, it does not compare with my quiet time, alone in his presence.  That is when our intimacy grows.  It makes a great difference in my life.  I will paraphrase what I heard Pastor Tom say in one of his sermons years ago.  He said, “If you take time out to spend time alone with the Lord and with the Scripture, WATCH OUT, BECAUSE IT WILL BECOME ADDICTIVE.”  And I found out that he was correct.  Try it, it may amaze you.  If you are going to be addicted to something I don’t think there is anything better to be addicted to.  It would be my joy if I receive a response from even one person, that what I am saying in today’s blog caused them to stop and take time to be alone with God each morning.  The more time we spend in God’s presence, the more intimate our relationship becomes.  If you love God, share that love with another.  And what better day, than on the Sunday Sabbath?

It is only 3:25 p.m. and I think I shall go and rest an hour.  I hope your day is restful also.  May God’s peace and joy be with you.