THE LADIES BYKOTA SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS, led by Peggy Boyd (standing), was one of the new ministries initiated during 2004 at Tinney Chapel. Photo by Rev. Gene Miller.

CHAPEL NEWS:

CONGRATULATIONS TO:

· David & Mollie Stanton for leading the recent Residents Encounter Christ (REC) Walk at the Johnston Unit.

· Adler & Hearne, for a memorable concert Saturday night at the Trails Country Center for the Arts (TCCA) that was alternately a source of laughter and tears, before a (practically) packed house. A highlight: Lindy’s daughter, Kate, joined the former Tinney Chapel musical duo on one selection, to perform a stunning instrumental break, her fingers flying furiously up and down the guitar neck, on her father’s bluesy, up-tempo tour de force composition, Soup’s On. “Kate has been playing guitar only since last March,” reported the properly proud papa.

· The Beavers and the Stevens for their vision and courage to begin a new fellowship ministry for the elderly. If you’d like to help, attend the new ministry’s inaugural planning session at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 15, in (where else?) Fellowship Hall. The meeting concludes with LUNCH & if you need a RIDE, CONTACT CAROLYN & DICK BEAVERS OR LINDA & BILL STEVENS.

CHILDREN'S SERMON TODAY:

“Are you all familiar with the game, Simon Says?” asked Pastor Graham. Yes, the children knew that game. The Pastor then gave them a series of quick commands, according to the Simon Says rules. Pretty soon, the rapid pace of the commands proved a tad confusing, and the Pastor used that as an object lesson in how we can all be misled, moving quickly to the example of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness.

There, Satan tried to confuse Jesus in an attempt to convince the Son of God to perform actions that would have been contrary to the Will of God, the Father. In each instance, Jesus recognized the faulty logic used by Satan and quoted Scripture in His refusals to comply. Eventually, Satan gave up and left “for a more opportune time.”

“Jesus was keeping Himself in the Word of God,” explained Pastor Graham. “If we do that, we are less likely to stray. Our best defense is always to look at what God’s Word says. That tells us what we need to live up to.” In his closing prayer, Pastor Graham asked the Lord to bless these young people: “Make them obedient to Your Word,” he added. “And may they never be misled or side-tracked by anything. Amen.”

ADULT SERMON TODAY:

Senior Pastor Duncan Graham’s sermon topic today, “Lazarus Come Forth,” was based on John 11:1-57, but he read only selected passages during a paraphrase of the familiar story of what might well have been the most impressive of the miracles performed by Jesus: Raising Lazarus from the dead!

“Jesus has left Jerusalem and Judea to go back to Galilee,” explained the Pastor, who discussed the political ramifications. “Pontius Pilate was in charge of Judea and one of the Herods was in charge of Galilee. In Judea, some were already beginning to seek how they would arrest and kill Jesus. While Jesus was in Galilee, word got out that a friend of Jesus, Lazarus, was sick, and his sisters wanted Jesus to come and heal their brother.

“But Jesus continued His work for a while, eventually telling His Disciples that they would go to Bethany because of Lazarus,” said the Pastor. “The Disciples were immediately concerned for the safety of their Master. By the time they arrive, Lazarus has been dead four days and has been buried. Jesus is met by Martha, one of the sisters of Lazarus, and He asked where they have buried their brother. She takes Jesus to the burial place, but also tells Him that if He had come earlier, Lazarus would not have died.

“Mary, the other sister of Lazarus, also appears in the account, and we learn that a lot of Jews had come to mourn for Lazarus,” explains Pastor Graham. “Jesus asks that the stone be rolled away from the burial place, and prays in a manner intended to cause the Jews to believe in Him as the Son of God when He raises Lazarus from the dead. We are told that Jesus wept on this occasion, but I believe that his tears were because of the unbelief of those who did not accept His message and ministry as the Messiah, and thus they could not be led into His Light.

“We still have some of that mindset today,” said the Pastor. “Some of the ‘religious’ do not believe. Our claims to Christianity need to be lived.”

Here, the Pastor read from the Scripture:

11:38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

11:39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days."

11:40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"

11:41Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.

11:42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me."

11:43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"

11:44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."

11:45 Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.

11:46 But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did.

11:47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, "What shall we do? For this Man works many signs.

11:48 If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation."

11:49 And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all,

11:50 nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish."

11:51 Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,

11:52 and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.

11:53 Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death.

11:54 Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with His disciples.

11:55 And the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves.

11:56 Then they sought Jesus, and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple, "What do you think--that He will not come to the feast?"

11:57 Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command, that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it, that they might seize Him. ---New King James Translation

“This whole experience occurred close to the final Passover Feast that Jesus shared with His Disciples,” said Pastor Graham. “Soon, He will be flogged, tortured, crucified and killed. We have just entered the season of Lent. On Wednesday, we had the ceremony of the ashes and the oil. We are also beginning to approach the time for rejoicing in the resurrection of the Lord. But, beginning in the first or second century A.D., Christians began to use this as a time of preparation. As Christians, we prepare ourselves for that time of crucifixion and resurrection by a constant condition of repentance: Prayer, presence in service, dedication to the Word.

“As we fill ourselves daily with the Word of God, it will purify and guide us to a more righteous mode and make us more obedient to God’s Will and realization that we are saved by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ. None of this necessarily means that we have achieved perfection. We need help from God to overcome sin and be pure and holy as Jesus was. To purify our hearts and minds. To live in that holiness that God has provided. If we think we are saved and are without sin, we are only fooling ourselves.

“The only thing we can do is root it out,” added the Pastor. “The Good News is that we are washed in the Blood. Here, we ask, with John Wesley: Is it possible? The answer is yes: Jesus came to tell us that. We are to think not of self, but of Him and of others. We are to let Him live in and through us. Then, we can become the kind of people He wants us to be, with an attitude of penance in our lives.

“Faith leads us to joy and victory in our lives,” said Pastor Graham. “We serve a wonderful God. He also commands that we be obedient, leading us away from sin and into righteousness. Though life, more and more I want to walk as He walked, out of gratitude: To live as He lived, do as He did by serving and blessing others. Jesus never did anything wrong! It’s interesting that the government found nothing wrong with Jesus, but the religious folks did. They, and their status quo, were threatened by Jesus.

“We need to ask ourselves if we have become so satisfied with our own world, that we don’t want it to change,” added Pastor Graham. “That we don’t want something better? That something would jerk us right side up and right side out! That’s drastic, but it may be what we all need if we are to avoid complacency. How do we get there? Well, I’m glad you asked. By an attitude of humility. If we say, Lord, deal with my sin, that’s the wrong attitude. Rather, we should say: Lord, deal with me, so I can be the person You want me to be. So that I can do that which pleases You.

“Help me realize that it’s not about me, my life and my family or the circle of friends I gather with in church,” said the Pastor. “It’s about which world is the right one. Say, if you want to change the whole world, one person at a time, start with me, not your neighbor! God is not interested in your recommendations about your neighbor. He knows them better than you do. He is interested in your willingness to present your life to Him: Here am I, use me, change me, work through me!

“That’s His desire,” emphasized the Pastor. “God is no respecter of persons. He does not care how great or how lowly we are. He is as interested in working through us as in anyone else in the world. Lazarus was not raised from the dead because he was such a great person. We hear no more about Lazarus and his effect on changing the world. All we know is that he was a friend of Jesus, and that he was raised from the dead. We can only hope that Lazarus did work for Jesus after this. But there’s nobody more special than you and there’s nobody Jesus loved more than you.

“Sometimes our own unbelief causes us to lose sight of the fact that God knows when the sparrow falls and He knows the number of hairs on our heads. He knows that much about you and me. He knows you intimately, and cares about you. The glorious thing about the characters in the Bible is that they responded back to God. They would give up everything to serve and follow God, and do His bidding, even to death. The Apostles and others did this. Nothing is more important than to do the Will of God as gratefully as the others did it.

“The truth is that we do not forsake all to follow Him,” declared Pastor Graham. “We still think of ourselves more than Him. But the greatest joy in life comes when we sell out to Jesus Christ, and give ourselves totally to His Will and service. The Lent season reminds us to prepare our hearts, our lives, in somber, serious remembrance that Jesus Christ sanctified it all for you and me.

“I believe with all my heart that if you had been the only sinner, He would still have died: To the least of these. He knows your name, where you live and your Social Security number. He wants you to follow and serve Him. This Lent season, we will look at some examples of the last days of Jesus, to prepare us for that celebration of joy, the celebration of our great Savior: Have Thine own way, You are the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me.”

In his closing prayer, the Pastor said: “We come in the Name of the Lord, Jesus. Do a glorious thing in our lives. Something special. We ask that, through Your help and strength, we be changed to the image of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Yes, Lord, begin with me. Amen.”

CLASSES TODAY:

SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS TOPICS:

WISE ONES, Frankie Brewer: Overcoming Pride.

LADIES BYKOTA CLASS, Peggy Boyd: Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet.

TINNEY CHAPEL MEN, Bill Knoop: The Case For Christ, a study by Lee Strobel.

OVERCOMERS: Jenna Nelson: The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.

YOUTH: Stephen Graham: Fellowship.

CHILDREN: Linda Hallman: Valentines.

THE REMNANT CLASS, Joe Dan Boyd: Healthy Churches Transforming The World, Part 2.

The Remnant Class handout is below:

REMNANT RIGHTEOUSNESS

Life Lessons # 254 from the recent “first nationwide Healthy Churches training” for the United Methodist Church, held in Houston, Texas.

Quotes from the Rev. Rudy Rasmus, St. John UMC, Houston:

1. To pay our apportionments, because of our strong belief in the importance of the Methodist Connectional System, we have borrowed money in 2 of the past 3 years.

2. To be an effective church leader, know how to dream.

3. A church leader should be accountable to somebody: Start with God and move down. You are not a Lone Ranger or a Free Agent. You are capable of doing something stupid.

4. Be able to make other leaders: Bring other people in to leadership.

5. Worship is the gateway to our community: It is the one glimpse that some have of God.

6. The goal of worship is to entertain, quicken the conscience, image the beauty of God, elevate the will to the purpose of God.

7. To be effective, worship must be epic: People need to feel something.

8. To be effective, worship must be experiential: A means for experience is the transformation of the person who has the experience.

9. Welcome the experience!

10.Worship is more than a couple of prayers and a song. It is more than remote control.

11.To be effective, worship must be a participatory environment.

12.My goal is to reach those who are not even thinking about going to church.

13.Our survey of those who attend St. John’s UMC revealed their top three reasons for showing up: (3) Our music & worship. (2) Our preaching. (1) To feel the love.

TODAY’S DATE: 02-13-05

The Remnant

Sunday School Class

Tinney Chapel UMC

Winnsboro, Texas

ASSIGNMENT FOR NEXT SUNDAY: 02-20-05: Healthy Churches, Part 3.

READ OR RE-READ AND/OR REFLECT YOUR CHOICE OF PREVIOUS ASSIGNMENTS IN THIS SERIES. In addition, go to:

http://www.lrc.edu/rel/blosser/Farrar.htm

http://www.hopeforfamily.org/resurrection_easter_church_f01.htm

Afterwards, reflect on thoughts from the above links:

1. When I am at church, I find that everyone else, from the Pastor on down the line, encourages me in my faith and strengthens my desire to serve the Lord with all my heart and soul and mind and strength. Likewise, I do what I can to have this effect on everyone else. This synergistic effect is amazing in that everyone, through the simple act of meeting together, can strengthen everyone else. --Ben Farrar

2. As St. Kreekor Narékatzee points out: “The greatest gift of prayer is not receiving that which we ask for, but being in the presence of God while we pray.” People with this understanding go to Church precisely because they want to be in the presence of God within a community of believers. They do not need to go to Church in order to be in the presence of God; they can do that at home as well. But being in the presence of other faithful while praying adds a greater sense of inspiration and enormity to prayer … it transforms prayer to worship! These are the people who have a relationship with God that is personal, direct, inspirational, and realistic. These are the faithful whose lives are truly enriched by the Faith! ---Rev. Fr. Stépanos Dingilian, Ph.D.

BIBLE READINGS TODAY:

Readings for First Sunday in Lent: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11.