Anyone who has books on a bookshelf knows that bookends matter. Without bookends, things fall down and fall apart. On the Sunday of my trip to Costa Rica for our Convening General Conference of the Global Methodist Church, it occurred to me that the days of life, and life itself, need bookends as well. Then my heart was quickened to remember the helpful bookends of the Lord’s prayer. It starts by acknowledging that the Father above is holy and that our desire is for His kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as in heaven. At the end of the Lord’s prayer, we thank God and acknowledge that the kingdom and the power and the glory are all His forever. In a real sense, at our best, we live completely surrendered with our kingdoms and wills to His kingdom and will on a daily basis.
The life and ministry of Jesus models the importance of bookends as well. At the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus, He was baptized not because He had sin, but to model for us the way to a life washed clean of sin. He modeled surrender in the waters of baptism to the will and way of the Father. Then Jesus surrendered His will to the Father’s in the Garden of Gethsemane as He prayed “Not my will, but thine be done.” Then He surrendered His very life to the Father on the cross, as He prayed, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” Christ modeled surrender like no other!
In the journey of the Christian life, we are born into the prevenient grace of God, surrender our lives to the lordship of Jesus through the justifying grace of God and move toward a life fully surrendered to Christ through His sanctifying grace until the day that we surrender our lives completely through glorifying grace as Christ-followers who join the church triumphant.
This Sunday I will wrap up our Fruit of the Spirit sermon series by preaching on the last in the list of the Fruit of the Spirit. Over the past four weeks we have covered love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness. This coming Sunday, I will preach on where self-control is needed and how to truly experience it, as we dive into the essential fruit of self-control.
This Sunday is also our last fifth Sunday celebration of 2024 (that is hard to believe!) We will have one combined contemporary and traditional worship service at 8:45 in the traditional sanctuary. After worship we will all move to the gymnasium to pack 30,000 meals with Rise Against Hunger. In the near future, we will announce which country in need will receive these meals. Our goal is to raise $12,000 to provide 139 children with meals for an entire year. In essence, you and your family can feed a child for an entire year for $90! After packing the meals, we will all enjoy a great meal catered by Zachary’s in the Artz Fellowship Hall.
Here are three ways you can help with this special weekend. First, pray that God will use it for His glory and to accelerate the spread of the gospel. Second, consider making a donation to help provide meals for children in need. Third, dress casually this Sunday (jeans or shorts and t-shirts). We will also have beautiful new T-shirts for everyone to wear this Sunday. This will enable us to pack the 30,000 meals without worrying about messing up nice clothes. I hope to see you at Columbus First this Sunday!
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