Bulletins - New Life Family Church (Blairsville, GA)

- - http://www.facebook.com/newlifeblairsville
My Redeemer Lives
- - Hebrews 6:18b–19NLT
A Shelter In The Time Of Storm (Shelter In Storm)
Days Of Elijah
Evidence
Way Maker
National Back to Church Sunday
I want to welcome everyone on this 2021 National Back to Church Sunday.
Today, churches all over the country are making an intentional effort to invite their communities to join them for worship.
That invitation comes after a year and a half when, even if their church was open, many were uncomfortable worshipping in person.

And then, here in our area we just had a covid outbreak that made many in our church sick.
About two dozen sick with half of those hospitalized.
And 2 men in our church who died due to complications of covid.
That could cause us to be paralyzed by fear.

Such things push us into a pattern where we are uncomfortable worshipping in person.
And maybe even less likely to EVER again attend in person services.

But watching church on TV, even if it is in real time, is just NOT the same.
For the next 3 weeks I am asking you to prayerfully put aside doubt and attend in person services by faith.

Let me try to help you with perspective.
Are you doing anything other than sitting alone in your house?
Sure you are!
So why not attend in person worship?

Every time you get out of bed, you have to exercise faith and refuse to allow doubt or fear paralyze you.
You have to believe that when you get out of your bed or out of your chair that you won’t trip, fall and break your hip like Sister Ruth did week before last.
But she trusted God and He helped her even in that situation.
She is well on her way to recovery.

If you drive your car anywhere — to the grocery store, to the doctor, to a restaurant — you are exercising faith that you will go to your destination and arrive home without problems, injuries or dying.
Going anywhere involves risk — the risk that the media is trying to use to terrify you is covid.
If you go anywhere, you could get sick with covid. You could die!

But you go other places, why not attend church?
It may take faith, but ask the Lord help you to HAVE the faith for attending in person church that you have for anywhere else you may go.
Oh but pastor, I NEED to go to the grocery store to buy food to live.

I submit to you that attending in person church services is important, too.
It is for your spiritual life.
The scriptures speak of the saints gathering together:
To pray, to fellowship, to worship, to hear from God’s Word, to exercise the Gifts of the Spirit

And then, for many of you church is important for your emotional wellbeing.
This is your family.
We need the connection of family.

So, like churches have over the past 2000 years, even in dangerous times, we gather together to meet with God.
We gather corporately to edify and build one another up in the things we need to not just survive, but THRIVE in this life.

The church is made up of its people.
It is not about a building; it is about a collection of individuals who have trusted Jesus with their lives and choose to support one another in the journey.
So welcome to church today.
You are a part of something bigger than yourself, and you are here for a reason.

When we come together like this, we find hope.
We find a hope that empowers us to overcome anything life can throw at us.
Not a wishy washy, doubtful or unsure hope.
Like, “I hope I win the lottery.”
A hope that says the odds are against you.

No, as I preached a few weeks ago on Sunday night, that is the kind of hope those outside of faith have.
Our hope is a confident expectation that God will do what He says He will do.

As I preached on that Sunday night, Jesus is our living hope.
As
Hebrews 6:11–12 NASB 2020
11 And we desire that each one of you demonstrate the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and endurance inherit the promises.

Are you diligently pursuing that kind of hope?
Biblical hope?

Today we begin a brand-new series called Hope Is Here.
I would argue that the greatest need we have in our lives, after the last year and a half we have experienced, after the past couple of tough months, is a sense that there is still hope for those who follow Jesus.

Some of us have experienced great loss in the past year and a half.
It has been a difficult and troubling.
Maybe this time has caused some of us to doubt our faith and the things we used to hold tightly.
Some of us feel broken because of the pain in our country and in our world.
Can we all just agree that we are in need of hope?

Maybe we feel like David in Psalm 31.

Text: Psalm 31:1-5; 9, 12-16, 23-24

Prayer

Like us, David says that he felt times when there was no hope.
He felt forgotten, like a person long dead.
Out of sight — out of mind.

He felt broken.
Terror was on every side.

It was in those times that he had to remind himself that, YES, there is hope.

Story: The situation of reminding ourselves that there is still hope is like the story about a man attending a little league baseball game.
The children were all on the field or in the dugout, playing their hearts out.
It was only the first inning, and the score was already 16 – 0.
One team was losing in a landslide.
The man walked up to the dugout of the losing team and asked one little boy if he was discouraged by the score.
Had he lost hope?
The little boy looked at him, a little puzzled, and said, “Why would I be discouraged? We haven’t even gotten up to bat yet. There is always hope!”

That is one way to look at the challenges that we face in life.
The Church throughout history has had the audacity to have hope in the face of trouble.
It stems from the victory of the resurrected Jesus Christ.

When things looked the darkest for Jesus, as He hung on the cross, He knew it was far from over.
The tomb would not be the end, he would defeat death and come back to life.
With this as the Church’s backdrop, there is always reason for hope.

In the Gospels, Jesus was always offering hope to those around him.
Whether it was a crippling disease, an oppressive government, a physical or spiritual hunger, or an evil attack, Jesus would meet people right where they were.
The people in the scriptures knew that if Jesus is here, then hope is here.

POINT #1 – LIFE IS HARD
In our Psalm, David is struggling.
Various theologians have tried to connect the writing of this psalm with a certain event in David’s life.

It could have been when the men of Keilah in 1 Samuel 23 double-crossed David.
David had delivered the city from attacking Philistines.
But then Saul heard of David’s victory and had sent an army to capture David.
Saul thought for sure he had David cornered.
David, knew Saul’s plans.
I believe God told him.
Knowing Saul’s plans 1 Samuel 23:12 (NASB 2020)[tells us that ] … David [asked God], “Will the citizens of Keilah hand me and my men over to Saul?” And the LORD said, “They will hand you over.”

David had just delivered the city from being defeated, plundered and burned by the Philistines and THIS is the gratitude they show?
Most of us would have been disappointed, discouraged, broken.

But this wasn’t the only time that David felt discouraged and broken.
Probably one of the worst times was when his son Absalom plotted and succeeded in taking the kingdom away from David.
It’s one thing when people you don’t know double-cross you… but when it’s your own flesh and blood, your own son?

So David writes Psalm 31 from a place of experience.
David knew what it was like to be betrayed.
To be discouraged.
To feel like he was shattered into a million pieces.

POINT #1 – WE ALL HAVE EXPERIENCED BROKENNESS

That is how WE sometimes feel.
Maybe we feel it’s not PEOPLE who have betrayed us — but it was God Himself.
“God, You didn’t come through for me the way I asked you to do so! You’ve left me high and dry. Hurting. Abandoned. Broken.

These are the times when we are in desperate need of a reminder that there is hope.
Life’s circumstances have a way of leaving us hopeless.
I would imagine that there are many in the room/online today who know exactly what this feels like.
Waiting for a diagnosis, paying off bills, saving a marriage, enduring Covid-19, and trying to grow spiritually.

It is times like this when we feel like we cannot keep going and all we want to do is give up.
But, like David said at the beginning and at the end of the psalm:
God is faithful.
When we cry out to Him He hears and answers us.
He rescues us.
We can take courage when life is tough — because our hope isn’t in this life — our hope is in God.

POINT #2 – THE CHURCH IS A PLACE OF HOPE
Not only is God a source of hope, but being in relationship with His people will also raise us up.

Verse 23 talks of God’s people.
It encourages ALL of God’s people:
To love God
To recognize that God preserves those who are faithful to Him.
To be strong
To take hold of the hope the Lord gives.
This is the way we get through brokenness and difficulty.
A lot of times we need to ENCOURAGE one another to do these things.

We encourage one another: Never doubt that God loves you!
Return that love.
Love God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength.

We encourage each other to stay faithful to God.
That He will rescue and preserve us.

We encourage each other:
With the words of Ephesians 6:10 (NASB 2020) … be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

We exhort one another:
Never give up hoping in God.

The fellowship of believers is a powerful weapon against discouragement and brokenness.

POINT #3 – GOD PUTS THE BROKEN PIECES BACK TOGETHER
We believe, we trust that God will put all the broken pieces back together.

David proclaimed in vs. 14

He recognized that he needed to trust God with the pieces of his broken life.
Times of brokenness help to also shatter the illusion of control.
We come to realize the truth of vs. 15:
that our times are in God’s hands.
That He alone is our rock of strength
He alone is our stronghold in a day of trouble
That for His Name’s sake he will lead and guide us.

To God be the glory!

Turn to God
So turn to God this morning.
I want to invite you, with your broken pieces, your disappointment, your discouragement — to believe that God can make something beautiful of your life once again.
I want to invite you to trust the community that he has placed you within to offer hope to one another and live out this wonderful, grace-filled life together.

If you have never experienced these things then I call you to repent of your sins
Turn away from them and ask Jesus to forgive you.
Surrender control of your life to Jesus.

If you once had relationship with God, but you have neglected that relationship — turn to Jesus.
Do what 1 John 1:9 says:
1 John 1:9 NASB 2020
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

PRAY
Church Contact information

We have discovered hope, a confident expectation of God, in our relationship with Jesus Christ and in the relationships we find with one another inside the Church.

This is where hope is found: in relationship with Christ and in relationship with one another.
The truth is we all find ourselves in need of rekindling hope.
Perhaps our need for hope stems from a sense of discouragement and brokenness.

This does not have to be the end of the story, because when Jesus meets us here, hope is here.

Do: Offer the brokenness of your life to Christ and choose obedience. Forgive others and welcome them into the family of faith.
(Pastor, be sure to mention that the Hope is Here series is continuing next week and invite guests to return for the next sermon)
- - Hebrews 6:11–12NLT
- - Psalm 31:1NLT
- - 1 John 1:9NLT
Just As I Am
- - http://www.facebook.com/newlifeblairsville

Hebrews 6:18b–19NLT

National Back to Church Sunday

Turn to God

Hebrews 6:11–12NLT

Psalm 31:1NLT

1 John 1:9NLT