01/07/2024 Church service

周日礼拜

视频

         Love is not Passive 爱不是被动的

 
Heb 10:19-25: And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
希伯来书 10:19-25: 弟兄姊妹，耶稣已用宝血为我们开辟了一条又新又活的路，使我们可以穿过幔子，就是祂的身体，坦然进入至圣所。 并且，我们有一位大祭司管理上帝的家， 祂洁净了我们被罪困扰的良心，用清水洗净了我们的身体。因此，我们要信心十足、真诚地到上帝面前。 我们要坚定不移地持守我们所认定的盼望，因为赐应许的那位是信实的。 我们要想办法彼此相顾，激发爱心，勉励行善。 不要停止聚会，像那些停止惯了的人，要互相鼓励，特别是你们知道主再来的日子近了
(page 1951)

John 13:34,35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
约翰福音 13:35: 你们如果彼此相爱，世人就会认出你们是我的门徒。(page 1747)

Eph 3:20: Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power at work within us;
以弗所书 3:20: 上帝的能力运行在我们里面，能够丰丰富富地成就一切，超过我们所求所想的。(page 1897)






 

 

 

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视频脚本 Script

LOVE is Not Passive
Hebrews 10:19-25
Maurice “Moe” Sill – he liked to call himself an “old hillbilly” but his life and legacy proved him to be an amazing man. A philanthropist. He served in the Peace Corps in India and Pakistan. He was an amateur pilot. He taught Rural Sociology at Marshall University.
He married the daughter of a Russian Orthodox priest. He took her faith and made it his own. He and his wife settled into an Appalachian farm and on their farm built the first Orthodox church in Wayne County. Moe was a visionary, and wanted to build a community of faith right there in the middle of West Virginia coal country.
In the late 1990s he donated his farmland to a group of Orthodox monks so they could build a monastery there (they had been displaced from their land in Missouri.)
Moe lived to see the monastery grow and flourish.
He witnessed the founding of a parish church in Wayne to help care for the families drawn to the area by the monastery.
By the time he passed away in 2019, he could behold the fruit of his labors—the vibrant Appalachian Orthodoxy he envisioned all those years before.
He was faithful, he persevered, and through his patience and foresight, and he left a legacy for his entire community.

For some of you church members, this probably sounds a lot like the earlier generations of your family who helped establish this church.
from the video, it describes a man named Charley Bradshaw, who lived on the farm decades before Mo and his wife. He built the log cabin that they first lived in when they bought the farm:
“And when you live with hope for the future, you build things to last. That’s why Charles Golden Bradshaw’s chestnut log cabin still stands to this day, over 120 years since he built it back in the 1890s.
It’s the oldest building on the grounds of our monastery.
Charley Bradshaw lived here, he labored here, and he died here.
They buried him at the top of the ridge.
Like so many West Virginians before him, he left a legacy to his family by the sweat of his brow and the work of his hands.”

…and now, here WE are.
We’re laying a spiritual foundation for all future generations to experience the fullness of our Biblical Christian faith

We serve God’s people with purpose – with Love – and Love is not passive.
Mo Sill had what we have referred to before as a “Magnificent Obsession”
Living and serving from a higher purpose – motivated by Love for God and Love for his fellow man.
Gal 6:10 - Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.
Our love for God and for our brothers and sisters in Christ should cause love to empower us, by God’s grace (KEY) to serve and become more.
To strive for excellence in all we commit our hands to .
To raise the bar of possibility in 2024
To become more.
John 13:34,35: (Jesus said) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
This passage may be one of the most famous in the New Testament, and one of the most challenging. Love is the nature of God. By looking at Jesus and what he does, how he treats and responds to people, how, in the end, he sacrifices everything in order to save us from the slavery of sin and death, you get a real sense of what love is, and what it is that he is asking us to do with our lives.
Jesus shows us what real love is about. It is about being attentive to the suffering and the needs of the other. It is about being willing to sacrifice your desires, even your needs, when you are confronted by the greater needs of another. This is true for our personal relationships, in our marriages, in our parenting, in our dealings with our neighbors, our co-workers, even those we do not know, who we encounter in various situations during our day, and, yes, even our enemies.
The love that Jesus models is unconditional and merciful. At the same time, it is challenging and encouraging. It hates the sin, but loves the sinner.
Romans 5:8: But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.
This love is active, not passive.
This morning’s scripture speaks to us directly in the 21st century church
First of all, it reminds we have been made righteous because of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross for us.
And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

…and then, because of this, it tells us how we should step forward in faith now
(second portion of today’s scripture) “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”
In our human thinking we don’t always feel worthy or qualified, but we must remind ourselves that He is the Vine – and we are the branches.
We must move forward in faith.
“Forward is not a place you are, it is a direction you go.”
Accept the freedom that comes from Christ to live out that which has been placed inside of you.
Remember – the anointing on your life is not for you – it for the people God has called you to serve.
Love compels us to strive for excellence.
“Early to bed and early to rise” has been a phrase I have heard my whole life.
…but now it a reality.
But it comes from desire – a magnificent obsession – to make a bigger impact.
To become more. To serve more effectively.
“They who have no central purpose in life fall an easy prey to petty worries.”
I once heard a coworker humorously state, “Every day it’s the same thing – breathe , breathe, breathe.”
We owe it to ourselves and everyone we are partnered with to become more than that.
To have a magnificent obsession. To live from purpose and passion.
It’s been said, “Love is not a passive state. It is an active force. It is the force of the soul.”
Love is not passive. Kindness is not silence, and compassion is not quiet.
Sometimes it means we raise our voices…
The apostles gave all for the sake of the gospel.
Paul said, (Phil 2:17 ) My life is being poured out as a part of the sacrifice and service I offer to God for your faith. Yet, I am filled with joy, and I share that joy with all of you.

We can do this.
He is the Vine - We are the branches

1 John 4:9: 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.

Strive for progress – not perfection

He is the Vine - We are the branches
Eph 3:20: Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power at work within us;

Hillside United Methodist Church
3739 US 80
Phenix City  AL  36870
United States
Pastor: Mike J Koger

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