Sunday, September 05, 2004
The quintessential country preacher
DENIM DAY AT TINNEY CHAPEL UMC. SENIOR PASTOR REV. DUNCAN GRAHAM PREACHES FROM THE PULPIT AT A PREVIOUS RURAL LIFE SUNDAY. Photo by Angela Wylie.
CHAPEL NEWS TODAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2004:
RURAL LIFE SUNDAY IS ALSO DENIM DAY,
SEPT. 26: 9 A.M. TO 4 P.M.
Wear your jeans! That goes for preachers, too!
Tinney Chapel UMC "sinners" have challenged the "saints" to a contest to fill up both sides of the sanctuary on Sept. 26! That’s an entire congregation clad in denim (blue jeans or overalls). “Make it happen,” says an anonymous "sinner". You can bet Charles Brewer, famous for his "Dad Brewer hamburgers" heard about that!
“Losers buy the hamburgers, winners fry the hamburgers,” explains the challenging "sinner". The race is on!
Guest preacher is Rev. Fred Durham, District Superintendent at Sherman, former pastor of Tinney Chapel UMC and former Mayor of Winnsboro. The Men’s Group has volunteered to serve smoked brisket and sausage for lunch that day.
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REVELATION DISCUSSION GROUP
STARTS OCT. 5
Tinney Chapel UMC proudly announces its start date for the “Claude W. Gifford Revelation Today Discussion Group,” a series of 22 evenings (and lots of homework reading) devoted to The Apostle John’s Apocalypse.
Each Tuesday evening of revealing discussion will begin at precisely 6:30 p.m., and end at exactly 8:00 p.m., in mid-sentence if necessary, so that participants can plan their busy schedules around the event. There will be no breaks and no hosted refreshments.
This unique discussion event features three informal divisions at the end of week # 7 and week # 14, at which time new members may join the group by providing sufficient advance notice for printing additional copies of the text. The 1,000-page text will be printed in segments for each of the three informal class divisions: Chapters 1-7, chapters 8-14 and chapters 15-22. A fee will be charged for each segment of the text to offset printing expense.
GOALS OF THE REVELATION DISCUSSION GROUP INCLUDE: Read about 50 pages of text each week, reduce the mystery of Revelation’s language, understand Revelation through other Bible references, gain perspective on time & place that produced Revelation, discover new meanings to basic principles of Christianity, to relate Revelation to our lives today and tomorrow and to experience Revelation via our own Christian love & fellowship.
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SUNDAY WORSHIP TODAY:
MORNING SERVICE, 9:00 A.M.
Congregational Songs:
Sanctuary
‘Tis So Sweet To Trust In jesus
The Lily Of the Valley
Father I Adore You
O How I Love Jesus
God Is So Good
Freely, Freely
SPECIAL MUSIC BY TINNEY CHAPEL’S QUINTESSENTIAL CHOIR:
Lift Up Your Heads
When We All Get To Heaven
Morning Prayer & Lord’s Prayer: Pastor Duncan Graham
LITURGY BY ASSOCIATE PASTOR GENE MILLER:
Call To Worship
Offertory Prayer
Doxology
Gloria Patri
Apostles Creed
CHILDREN’S TIME:
Senior Pastor Duncan Graham said to the children: “It’s back to school time, and some of you will have new teachers. All of you will, from time to time, have to be tested by your teachers. In that spirit, I’m giving you a test today! No coaching from the congregation, please!
Question # 1 is how many animals did Moses take aboard the ark, two by two?” The children did not fall for that. “Question # 2 is this: What automobile is mentioned in the Bible?” This one stumped the children, and the Pastor said the answer is a “Honda,” mentioned in Acts 2, when the new Christians were said to be all in one “Accord”! OK, the Pastor got them with that curve ball, but perhaps the grade should also be curved as well?
The third question is when does 1 plus 1 equal 3? Again, the children were stumped, and the Pastor explained that Jesus said He would be present when at least two believers gather, or go forth, in His Name. During his closing prayer, the Pastor thanked God for His promise to always be with us. “When You are there with us, we are filled with joy, gratitude and love. Amen.”
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ADULT SERMON:
Pastor Duncan Graham’s topic was “Parables Of The Kingdom,” based on Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43:
13:24 He told another story. "God's kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field.
13:25 That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn.
13:26 When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.
13:27 "The farmhands came to the farmer and said, 'Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn't it? Where did these thistles come from?'
13:28 "He answered, 'Some enemy did this.' "The farmhands asked, 'Should we weed out the thistles?'
13:29 "He said, 'No, if you weed the thistles, you'll pull up the wheat, too.
13:30 Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I'll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.'"
13:36 Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, "Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field."
13:37 So he explained. "The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man.
13:38 The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil,
13:39 and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels.
13:40 "The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act.
13:41 The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom,
13:42 pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen.
13:43 At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father. "Are you listening to this? Really listening?
---The Message Translation of The Bible
“I was glad when they said unto me: Let us go into the House of the Lord. I wanted to praise the Lord. It gives me joy. So I could say for my soul: Soul, let’s go!”
Thus, did Senior Pastor Duncan Graham begin his sermon. “Today, we are in the Gospel of Matthew, and I love Chapter 13 because of the parables of Jesus. Today, we are talking about His parable of the weeds, in which Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven being like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
“A key point we need to keep in mind,” said Pastor Graham, “is that the Kingdom of Heaven is not strictly a future place in the sky when the New Jerusalem occupies space. Rather, the Kingdom is a place where God reigns here on earth! The good seed is sown through the church. I know of no other entity other than the church where the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed.
“I don’t see nominal Christians proclaiming and witnessing Jesus Christ day by day, except as they relate to the church” added the Pastor. “There is no way to grow or disciple except through the church. Thus, where the church is, there the Kingdom of God is! Jesus reigns there in the hearts of people, who are performing God’s greatest command of obedience. We are talking about the True Believers in the Church Universal. Where you find people of faith, there you find the Kingdom of Heaven, in this world, now.
“The bad news is that the enemy, Satan, sows the seeds of weeds among the wheat,” explained Pastor Graham. “At first, it’s hard to tell the difference between certain kinds of weeds and the crop of wheat. A particular weed (possibly called darnel) of Jesus’ day was so similar to wheat that one could tell the difference only when the head of the weed was fully developed. Thus, one had to allow both the weed and the wheat to develop fully before it was safe to separate them. If done before harvest, one risked damaging the crop. But if left to contaminate the wheat, this weed added a bitter taste, ruined good flour and sometimes caused physical reactions such as dizziness and vomiting.
“It’s the same way God will separate the good from the bad at judgment,” explained Pastor Graham. “That’s when the Kingdom of Heaven becomes a specific place. Meanwhile, how are we to tell the difference here on earth? We are to be careful how we judge others. To keep sowing good seeds, we are to keep proclaiming the joys of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Messiahship of Jesus Christ: His ability to save souls. For, no matter how bad one gets, a person is never beyond redemption in God’s economy. So we should be careful what we say in the meantime.
“I read of a woman who was guilty of gossiping a lot,” said the Pastor. “One day she repented and asked the pastor what she should do. He directed her to place a goose feather at the home of every person she had gossiped about. When she had done so, she asked: What next? Her pastor told her to go back and retrieve all the goose feathers. When she tried to do that, she found that all the goose feathers were gone with the wind, and the pastor told her that it was the same with her words: Once spoken, they can never be taken back! Neither can we take back our sins, but we can be forgiven.
“That’s the joy of having Jesus Christ as our Savior,” added Pastor Graham. “We are all to be a forgiving people, free to live and bear fruit in the field that Jesus has sown. We are invited to shine forth as a sun. The parable does not itself bring fruit, but rather the hope of victory to all who will receive it. All this will pass away as nothing to those who are faithful, those who desire to live a life of joy, fulfillment and the greatest glory imaginable.
“Jesus invites us to bear fruit,” added the Pastor. “He invites us to stay close to Him, to be seed sowers, by multiplying what we are in Jesus Christ in the lives of others. Jesus is not here literally, physically, to sow His seeds, but He does it through us. If we deliver works of the seed of God in Christ Jesus, we will bring forth a time of harvest to brighten and enlighten the world. That’s our challenge: He expects it of us.”
In his closing prayer, Pastor Graham thanked the gracious Lord for parables that are filled with the riches of grace and asked for complete understanding that we will be able to perform that which is expected of us with a joyful presence in the Kingdom of Heaven now, not just in the sweet bye and bye.
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CLASSES TODAY:
SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS TOPICS:
WISE ONES: Frankie Brewer: Discovering Our Value In God’s Agenda.
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OVERCOMERS: Jenna Nelson: CHARLES STANLEY STUDY: FEELING SECURE IN A TROUBLED WORLD! (This is a multiple-week study.)
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LADIES BYKOTA: Peggy Boyd, Desiring To Know God Better.
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YOUTH: Stephen Graham: Journey Through The Bible (Quiz) Continued.
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CHILDREN: Linda Hallman: The Story Behind the Symbol of the Fish.
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PAIRS & SPARES, Joe Dan Boyd: Titus 3: Be Ye Doers Of Good.
Pairs & Spares Class Handout is below:
MOMENTS OF TRUTH (Life lessons # 233)
Take home lessons from studying Titus 3 & related Scripture:
1. Paul advises obedience to governmental authority, and many interpreters assume this injunction includes a respect for the priority of God’s commands and the dictates of a believer’s conscience.
2. Paul exhorts Christians to be ready for every good deed. Our challenge is to recall that Paul elsewhere calls us God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, and that Peter described Jesus Himself as someone who went about doing good.
3. The Apostle cautions us to speak evil of no one, and to observe the rules of civility and politeness. Our challenge is to be tolerant of human weakness and sensitivity as we practice forgiveness.
4. Paul never forgot that he was a big-time sinner before Christ came into his life, and he urges us not to be unduly judgmental of others. John Wesley suggests that, as God has dealt with us, so ought we to deal with our neighbors.
5. Paul speaks here, and elsewhere, of God’s love & kindness toward us. Our challenge is to be aware that God’s kindness is intended to lead us to repentance.
6. Paul reminds us that our salvation is based on the work of the Spirit by means of the Word.
TODAY’S DATE: 09-05-04
Pairs & Spares
Sunday School Class
Tinney Chapel UMC
Winnsboro, Texas
ASSIGNMENT FOR NEXT SUNDAY: 09-12-04
READ 2 TIMOTHY 1
Afterwards, reflect upon these things:
1. Paul’s state of mind.
2. A good soldier of Christ Jesus.
3. Calls to courage & faithfulness.
4. Fan into flame the gift of God in you.
5. A spirit of power, not timidity.
TINNEY CHAPEL UMC COMMUNICATIONS
The quintessential country church!
JOE DAN BOYD, COORDINATOR
