Tinney Chapel Today

MORNING SERVICE, 9:00 A.M.

Elena Darby joined the church today!

Pastor: Rev. Duncan Graham

Greeter: Roger Schneider

Sound: Bob Deitering

Ushers: Roger Schneider & Danny Lake.

MUSIC

Pianist: Pat Hollingsworth.

Songleader for hymns: Angela Wylie.

Songs: In My Heart There Rings A Melody, Glory To His Name, Sanctuary, The Nail-Scarred Hand.

SPECIAL MUSIC

Medley (including When We All Get To Heaven and King of Kings) by the Tinney Chapel UMC Choir.

Today’s choir singers, included Pat Hollingsworth, director; Jami Smith; Marcella Salter; Alice Deitering; Angela Wylie; Bobbie Hollingswoth; Ronny Ellison; Clay Spears and Sadie Jordan.

Call to Worship & Opening Prayer

Morning Prayer & Lord’s Prayer:

LITURGY

Offertory Prayer

Doxology

Gloria Patri

Apostles Creed

CHILDREN’S SERMON TODAY:

Tinney Chapel UMC Pastor, the Rev. Duncan Graham, presented the children with a puzzle picture of Jesus: To see Jesus, they were told to gaze intently at the page for at least 15 seconds, after which they might see Jesus. This activity led the Pastor into a Bible story about two men walking, after the first Easter Sunday, toward a place called Emmaus. They were upset at the events of the past few days, which had seen Jesus arrested, tried, crucified, dead and buried. On Him these two men had pinned their hopes of a Jewish Messiah, and they now seemed to consider these hopes of no further avail.

Suddenly Jesus joined the two men walking on the road, but they failed to recognize Him. Jesus went through the motions of asking what concerned the two men, and then used the opportunity to teach them what Scripture actually says about the necessity for the Messiah to suffer all those things which they had just related as having befallen Jesus. Not until the three reached Emmaus, and they were about to dine, was Jesus recognized in the breaking of the bread, at which point Jesus promptly disappeared.

Pastor Graham’s message to the children today was that if we want to see or meet Jesus, we should look at the Scriptures, pray real hard, desire it with all our hearts and it will happen. In his closing prayer, the Pastor called for God’s richest blessings on the young hearts represented here today, that they seek after Jesus with all their hearts and that all may see Jesus.

ADULT SERMON TODAY:

In today’s sermon, perhaps as a tribute to Tinney Chapel church secretary Elaine Knoop, who was a team member of an Emmaus Walk this week at Lone Star, Texas, Pastor Duncan Graham preached on the original Walk to Emmaus. His Scripture today was Luke 24:13-34. To view the New Living Translation of today’s Scripture, click HERE

The Pastor noted that today’s sermon was also a part of his continuing look at the post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus, which might also be regarded as first-fruits.

“In retrospect, one might ask why these two men did not recognize Jesus,” said Pastor Graham. “But Scripture tells us that God kept them from recognizing Him. Why? I suppose it was because Jesus had something important to teach them. They needed to do some self-evaluation.

“As they walk along, the two men talk about the hopes they had for the recently crucified Jesus, who had been prophet and a teacher,” continued the Pastor. “They had also regarded Him as the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel, but the as-yet-unrecognized Jesus teaches them that they had misunderstood what He was all about. He had not come as a great military, political leader to deliver Israel from all its misery. Some of the people then did not believe in a Resurrection because their lives were so miserable: They simply wanted to get it over with.

“If any of you have not struggled with the difficulties of life, just wait,” emphasized Pastor Graham. “Anyone who has no difficulties must already be in the cemetery, and if that person died without knowing Jesus, he still has problems.

“Meanwhile, these first-century people were chafing under the Roman yoke,” added the Pastor. “It was a tyrannical empire, and many were anticipating a day when they would be free from oppression, and the Messiah was the hope of many for realizing that deliverance. They expected the Messiah to raise them to the top of the heap, where they would be king of the hill, so to speak: free from the Roman yoke.

“Just to be free of all troubles in this life does not answer the problem of sin—yours or mine,” said Pastor Graham. “Such a deliverance as these people expected would be only temporary, only for this life and not the next life. How many of you think that life is short? Many of us, including me, once thought we would be always young. So, perhaps we are like those men on the road to Emmaus. Perhaps we have the wrong idea about our own needs.

“I have engaged in self-evaluation, and have asked myself why I preach and why I pastor,” added the Pastor. “I have asked myself if I do it for my own ego, for the attention it brings and other similar questions of self-evaluation. I have asked myself if I am on the right road in doing this. I have asked myself if I am doing this for Him or for myself.

“As a young man, I sold insurance for several months, and spent some time in hotel rooms,” said Pastor Graham. “I began to read the Bible regularly during those hotel stays, and the Lord came to me in one of those rooms. I knew His Presence in a way that I had not previously. He told me there was something He wanted me to do. I went to my pastor, who asked me what I thought He wanted me to do. I told him that I thought He wanted me to go back and serve the people at Buffalo, my home area, or that He wanted me to go into the ministry.

My pastor asked me where I thought I could help the most people, and my answer was the ministry,” recalled the Pastor. “So I prayed about it. In my own flesh, I did not want to preach or pastor. The idea scared me. I went through self-evaluation, and asked myself if I believed the Lord wanted me to do it. I asked myself if I thought I could do it. I wondered what the Lord would have me do.

“These people on the road to Emmaus were in need of this kind of self-evaluation,” said Pastor Graham. “Meanwhile, Jesus began to teach them that He did not come to overrun the world. Rather He came to pay for, to suffer for the sins of you and me. He came to give Everlasting Life. Now, I don’t know what Heaven is all about, or what we will do there. But I believe God has a plan. He may have us running from galaxy to galaxy, working on stars that burn out! Whatever He has in store will be much greater than anything we have ever done here on earth.

“The mission of Jesus to this world was not a temporary fix,” explained the Pastor. “Rather, He did it to take care of all Eternity. When these men on the road to Emmaus heard all this, they got so excited as the teachings of Jesus took them to a new plateau of understanding. Later, when they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, they couldn’t wait to return to Jerusalem to tell the disciples, where they learned that Jesus had already appeared to Peter. That was a confirmation of what Jesus had already told them.

“These post-Resurrection appearances are the heart and soul of the Christian message of the Gospel of Christ,” added Pastor Graham. “Much of this was foretold by the prophets, going all the way back to Genesis, establishing the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, that His message and purpose would be accomplished in ways that confound the things of the world and that, if we listen, we can find the right path to live forever with Him. I thank God for Jesus Christ, the most wonderful gift that has ever been given to us. He is greater than a shiny bicycle. He is the greatest thing you have ever witnessed. His appearances are not over: It will happen again! Like a lightning flash from east to west. He will take and keep those who are His children. In all Eternity."

In his closing prayer, Pastor Graham called upon our gracious Heavenly Father: “We give thanks to Your Son, Jesus, constantly, daily, and we pray that we may know His purpose. Help us also to walk in accord with His purpose. Amen.”

CLASSES TODAY:

SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS TOPICS:

WISE ONES, Frankie Brewer: Affirm Christ As Lord.

LADIES BYKOTA CLASS, Peggy Boyd: Conform To God’s Purpose.

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, Ronny Ellison: Life Lessons from 1 & 2 Peter, a study by Max Lucado.

CHILDREN, Linda Hallman: Easter: Doubting Thomas.

REMNANT, Joe Dan Boyd: Proverbs 4: Know How To Live.

The Remnant Righteousness handout # 262 is below:

REMNANT RIGHTEOUSNESS

Life Lessons # 262 from studying Proverbs 4 and related Scripture:

1. The 4^th Chapter of Proverbs promises that its teachings will, if dutifully followed, teach us to know understanding, or how to live.

2. Understanding is viewed as a gift from God, according to Carl Schultz, writing in Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Understanding is a gift worth praying for.

3. The nature of the gift of understanding is perhaps best exemplified by asking where it may be found: “God alone knows,” explained Job in Job 28:12,20,23.

4. Hearing is no assurance of understanding (Daniel 12:8), and it goes beyond the collection of data. Carl Schultz says the injunction is to trust in the Lord rather than rely on our own understanding, as we are also told in Proverbs 3:5.

5. In The Message Translation, we are advised to sell everything, buy wisdom, forage for understanding and forget it not.

6. When Paul speaks of winning or gaining Christ (Philippians 3:8-10), commentator John Gill interprets him to mean gaining a greater degree of knowledge of Him.

7. The King James Translation directs us to exalt wisdom (Proverbs 4:8), and commentator John Gill quotes the Talmudists as saying the Hebrew word for exalt in this case signifies a diligent search for wisdom.

8. Don’t take the wicked bypass, advises The Message Translation, while on Wisdom Way and The Righteous Road.

9. The road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker, while the ways of right-living people glow with light and the longer they live, the brighter they shine.

10. It is suggested that we keep the Word in plain view at all times, concentrate on it, learn it by heart and avoid bad company.

TODAY’S DATE: 04-10-05

The Remnant

Sunday School Class

Tinney Chapel UMC

Winnsboro, Texas

ASSIGNMENT FOR NEXT SUNDAY: 04-17-05

READ PROVERBS 5.

Afterwards, reflect upon these things:

1. Maintain discretion.

2. Preserve knowledge.

3. Drink water from your own cistern.

4. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

5. Avoid adultery.

6. A man’s ways are in full view of the Lord.

BIBLE READINGS TODAY:

Readings for the Third Sunday of Easter: Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19; 1 Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35.