We would like to share with you, the Sermon we had on August 2nd, 2020. The reading for this day was: Philippians 2:6 Though he was God,[a] he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. The Call to Worship God of the prophets, call to us today, Call us into…
In a world that is full of anger and frustration, it’s easy to allow our resentments to simmer. Nonetheless, Jesus reminds us that we are called to be peacemakers.
We are asked to love all neighbors, irrespective of their race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, height, weight, physical or mental ability, and marital status.
Until we have taken the sty from our own eye, we cannot say that we will make peace for others in our neighborhood or community.
So, consider for a moment: what triggers you?
What makes you angry when you read the news? Who do you feel threatened by? Which neighbors are you struggling to love?
What resentment or anger am I feeling today towards another that I have not forgiven and dealt with?
This is our starting point! Feeling angry or fearful does not feel spiritual. You may be tempted to ignore it. Perhaps you tell yourself “I shouldn’t feel this way” – but failing to deal with the truth of your emotions leads to living a lie. ]When we ignore what we are truly experiencing and fail to do the inner work, there will be no fruit.
When we feel anger – or a certain person or situation triggers us – we have an opportunity to do the inner work of forgiveness and letting go. The first step in healing is to acknowledge the truth of what we feel. Then, we can ask for forgiveness.
We are promised that all this will be taken from us and we will be renewed! But in order for healing to take place, we have to be willing to let it go.
If we say that we love God, and we fail to love our neighbor, we lie to ourselves!
Loving God is seeing everyone else around us through the eyes of God. Because when we love God with heart and soul and mind – our heart connects to another through God’s heart. When we love Gop with all our minds – our mind thinks about others as God does. When we love with all our soul – we see their soul as God does.
If you have time, sit down and journal these questions and answers for yourself.
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Jesus – was he “just a carpenter”. How do you allow others to define you?
How many of you today have felt that you have just received a huge new learning, something that has truly transformed your life, and you share it at home — and no one is listening?
Or maybe you have started a new diet and it is really working for you… you are excited about it, and share it with those who know you best… and they just don’t get how important this discovery is for you? You may choose to allow yourself to be defined by what you do. You may choose to be defined by the expectations others have of you.
Welcome to Trinity Sunday, where we celebrate the Oneness of the Three: Father, Son & Holy Spirit Creator, Word & Breath of Life Creator, Redeemer & Sustainer Invisible God, Firstborn of all Creation, & Comforter Omnipotence, Omniscience, & Omnipresence God with us, revealed in us: alive within us. This morning we read from Genesis 1:1-3:…
Readings: John 3: 16-21 Ephesians 2: 4-10 For God so loved the world… that over two thousand years ago, Jesus came to this earth in human form to show us what this love truly means. Through his life, his teachings and his example, we find a new way, a better way. He gave what we…
Readings: Isaiah 40: 21- 31 Mark 1: 29-39 Isaiah 40:21-31 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants…
Readings: 1 Samuel 3: 1-20 1 Corinthians 6: 12-20 John 1: 43-51 Follow Me! Leave everything that you have and that you are doing, and follow me. I want you to imagine, for just a minute, that instead of Philip & Nathanael, that Jesus had called you that day in Galilee. What would you be…
This sermon is available on video on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/balboaunion/videos/1613268202050982/ Church Divas and Doers Jesus, who certainly was a Doer, not a Diva, had this simple rule for church-building: follow the Gospel: [easy-image-collage id=4561] The Wise and Foolish Builders “Cualquiera pues que me oye estas palabras, y las hace, le compararé á un hombre prudente,…
When you say “I’m going to trust God and I’m not going to worry about ‘this'”, guess what your mind thinks about? Usually not about trusting God: in fact, it starts worrying about ‘THIS’! It’s especially the same thing when you are upset about something that someone else said or did, you mind just plays it over, time and time again. You try to focus on something else, and it the anger or frustration or hurt bubbles back up to the surface and you replay once again the whole scenario!
“Well, I’m just not going to think about that right now!”
How’s that workin’ for you?
The mind can be so fickle – it has to be trained to focus!
Is you mind set on Christ and God within? Have you set your mind on the Spirit, which is life and peace?
Our challenge, as Christians, is to have the discipline to set our minds on “things of the Spirit”, as expressed in Romans 8.
Readings: Psalm 145: 8-14 Romans 7: 15-25a Matthew 11: 25-30 Slow to anger and Abounding in Steadfast Love I titled this sermon “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” as a reminder of the nature of Christ and the ideal version of every Christian. What would this world look like today, if that were…