Hello Everyone!!

 

As you end your week and start preparing your hearts to come together for worship this Sunday, it is good to reflect on last week's service.  It is always a blessing to worship together and re-connect with people as well as see new faces.  I want to say to all of those in the congregation who continue to invite people that you are a great Christian witness not only to those you invite, but also to us in the church.  May it inspire us all to reach out to those around us.

 

Our praise time was uplifting as all of our songs exalted the Lord.  However, I especially enjoy singing "Praise Adonai".  Adonai means master in Hebrew.  Throughout scripture, God revealed Himself in different ways to His people and they exalted Him by the various names that focused on His attributes.  El Shaddai means The Almighty.  El Elyon means the Most High.  So as we worship, let's pay special attention to the names for God and how His glory is displayed through those attributes.

 

During the service we were blessed to hear from several people in the congregation.  Brian, Krista and Oak Fischer were back with us for the weekend.  They now live outside of Raleigh where they are originally from.  Mark asked Brian to say a few words.  He spoke of how much he missed us and how much everyone had meant to him and the family.  I hope we don't take for granted what a special church family the Lord has assembled in our midst.  Listening to Brian as well as David ter Kuile really brought that to the forefront.  David, Liza and the family will be moving shortly to the Winston-Salem/High Point area for his new job.  He spoke of their trials years ago when they experienced a nasty church split that really hurt them.  While they had gone to church, they had not joined a church since.  However, when they came to GCC, they knew this was home.  David especially thanked Mark for his wonderful shepherding of his family and the entire church body.  Andrew Koehler then briefly spoke.  As a Young Life leader, he had recently taken three youth to a Young Life camp.  It had made a great impact on them and Andrew was thankful to the Lord for all He had done.  

 

Mark then preached, focusing on John the Baptist.  His sermon, "Clearing the Way for People to Find Jesus", had as its theme that God is still using people to prepare the way for the Lord.  His scripture texts were Luke 3:3-6 and Isaiah 40:3-5.  John was called to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.  It had been prophesied for thousands of years that Jesus would come and deliver His people.  The Lord commissioned John to be "the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight."  John was actually in the wilderness when the Word of God came to him.  Mark pointed out that we miss God many times because we don't spend much time in the wilderness.  Wilderness time, time alone with God and apart from the busyness of this world, prepared John for ministry and it is how God prepares many of His disciples for ministry even now. 

 

The message of John was one of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Even Jesus as He preached proclaimed, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand".  The gospel message calls us to turn from our sins and believe the good news that Jesus died for our sins.  There is first truth preached - we are sinners and deserve eternal judgment.  Then there is grace - the price has been paid for your sins - turn from your sinful life and receive the new life that Jesus has bought for you.  It is a glorious life that Jesus gives us for all of eternity.  However, it is not a pain free life.  Sometimes in our troubles our view is clouded from understanding God's work in our lives, some of which we won't see until we get to heaven.  This happened to John the Baptist as well.  He was in prison after a relatively short ministry.  It was probably not how he had pictured things would turn out - so he questioned Jesus.  Jesus' response to John is the same way He will respond to us as well if we come to Him in faith.  Jesus simply reminded John that He was the Messiah who made the lame walk and the blind see.

 

Do you need these reassuring words from the Lord?  Then prepare your own way for the Lord.  Repent and seek the Lord.  Wait on Him in the wilderness until His Word comes to you.  Then "waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.  The scorched land will become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water."  (Isaiah 35:6-7)  As we cease desiring the waters of this world, He becomes to us an ocean of delights.  Good news indeed.

 

Your brother in Christ,

 

Deric Smyre