Markham County Park, Sunrise, Florida
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29
Today we visited the First Baptist Church at Weston, where it seems their sanctuary doubles as a basketball court. Not quite sure how they do that since the chairs seemed to us to be attached to each other. Either that, or someone is extremely OCD in their set up because the chairs were perfectly aligned with each other. Anyway, the chairs filled the court, but not every chair was filled. Maybe 150-200 people scattered about? But they also have a second service, so maybe it’s more widely attended. Their ‘coffee’ area is outside under an overhang near the entrance to the building. That was sure different! The music was good, the sound was good, the communion was quiet, the people were somewhat friendly. It’s just not quite the same friendliness you find in a small church. And they stand for the initial scripture reading, which was really nice, but they don’t stand for subsequent verses during the actual message. I suppose that would be pretty distracting. : )
The Pastor is working through I Corinthians, and this week was focusing on Chapter 13, verses 4-7.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (In the New King James – which is what they use – verse 7 says: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.)
The title of today’s message was “Love Always Hopes”. According to the Pastor, this is 14 out of 15 characteristics of true Christian love.
True Christian is supposed to always hope. And not in the way the world thinks, as in wishful thinking, “I hope I get an ‘A’ on my test” or “I hope the Cleveland Indians win the pennant this year” or “I hope I don’t catch that cold”. Christian hope is a confidence in things that haven’t happened yet. It’s certainly of something that’s yet future. “The hope of salvation for others”, “the hope of heaven”.
God is gracious even when we fail and will never give upon us until we look like Jesus. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) When we don’t love as God loves, God doesn’t receive glory and our witness is greatly diminished because we look just like the rest of the world – – or worse.
The exercise of our Christian love is to always hope. The way we do that is to never give up on someone. The hope that one day, the person(s) we should be loving will change. That we never stop praying for them. That we never give up on them and consider them worthless. That they will discover the grace of God and repent. And we continue doing that until the day they or we die or Jesus returns.
Our culture today has no room for redemption. The world says things like, “You’re a liar! You’re a racist! . . . and that’s all you’ll ever be!” It leaves no room for a person to change from what they may have been 20 years ago. Christian love doesn’t believe that, because we’ve all been changed! We’ve all been redeemed! Praise God He doesn’t see us as the world does! That He never says, “You’re hopeless! I give up on you!” On the contrary, I John 4:7-11 says, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us; He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
And this can only be done through the power of the Holy Spirit within us. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)
We also learn hope through reading His Word. For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)
So who are we supposed to hope for? We hope for the lost that we know. Family, friends, co-workers. People that we know for certain have yet to embrace the love and forgiveness of God.
We hope for the lost around us that we don’t know. Those in our community and the prevailing culture. Our first response should be love and concern, not anger and disgust.
We hope for our Christian friends or former friends who’ve wandered from the faith and need to return, or who display faults that need to be repented of.
We hope for our spouses. Those who treat us or live differently in private than they do in public.
But before passing judgment on any of these, we must first consider our own sinfulness. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:3 & 5)
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48)
In conclusion, there are NO hopeless cases. If you’ve written someone off, repent because it’s sin.
Before communion, we sang a very moving and convicting confession of sins. The song title is “Forgiven”, written by Brittany Kauflin, Kate DeGraide and Rebeca Elliot.
VERSE 1
Lord, forgive us for our pride
When our faith becomes a show
Dressed in righteous deeds to hide
All the stains below
We have judged Your sons and daughters
For the sin that is our own
May we now forgive each other
And lay down our stones
CHORUS
Forgiven, forgiven
Through the blood of Christ
We are forgiven
VERSE 2
Lord, forgive us for our love
Of the things we wish to own
We forsake the feast above
For all the crumbs below
Though You’ve made us sons and daughters
We do not the world disown
May we find our greatest treasure
Is in You alone
VERSE 3
Lord, forgive us for our shame
When we can’t release the past
When we’re quick to take the blame
But forget we’re free at last
We avoid Your sons and daughters
For the fear we don’t belong
Give us eyes to see each other
Through Your only Son
We did something a bit spontaneous today. We went to their church picnic! Can’t remember ever attending an outdoor church picnic in February, which was part of the allure. 😊 The other part? The Pastor specifically invited first-time and short-term visitors. According to the first initial of our last name, we were supposed to take a side, but without any notice, we had nothing that wouldn’t have to be kept warm and we didn’t know if that was possible. So we changed our last name to Gamble (that’s Blaine’s sister’s name) and took homemade chocolate chip cookies instead. You do know I’m just joking about actually changing our name, right? We can’t lie in church! 😊
Since we were home from church before 11am, we took another bike ride to try to find the pavilion they were using for the picnic. It took a bit, but we eventually found it.
By the time we’d ridden around and watched more radio-controlled planes – some of which actually had jet engines! – it was time to go fetch our cookies.
It was so hot today, we wanted to drive to the picnic and we didn’t want to be the first there, so we left at 2pm, which was the start time.
There were a couple hundred people there already! So many cars, there was no place left to park and people were toting large coolers full of stuff to share!
We chickened out.
And so. We went. But we never even got out of the Jeep.
Wouldn’t you think it was be easier to feel at home in a large group like that? But no. Had it been a much smaller group we would’ve had no trouble. Plus our just-under-three-dozen- cookies looked pretty paltry now. So instead, we went home and ate a couple of those cookies before I put them back in the freezer.
What did we eat? We made tacos. And they were really good! But not as good as a church pot luck. 😊