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A WORD FROM OUR PASTOR…
Hello beautiful people! A wonderful weekend is ahead of us. Remember the City of Clinton’s annual fall Citywide Cleanup starts this Saturday, October 11th, and runs through the 18th. It is a great opportunity to dispose of your rubbish free of charge. Your neighbors will thank you!
Here is your weekend update.
1. Have you prayed lately? I want to encourage you to spend time with Jesus in private prayer. Our Rooted groups took over our campus this past Sunday night spreading out in rooms all around and spent 45 minutes in individual prayer. The reports came back that folks really felt the presence of the Lord and heard God speak. Many want us to continue making times like this available to people on an ongoing basis. The Bible says, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:20).
2. Serve Sunday is this weekend. This is the last one of the year so let’s make it the best one. I know it is the end of fall break and some of you may think about taking the day off. I want to ask you to be here. I promise you won’t regret it and your soul will thank you. Lauren and her team have put a lot of effort into planning our serve projects. Many of you have already signed up, but if you are one of the ones who hasn’t, I want to encourage you do so right now. You can click the link below to sign up.
Serve Sunday Sign-ups
Let me tell you why these Sundays are so important. The heartbeat of the Methodist people is loving and serving our neighbor. This is who we are and what makes our church unique in our community. We believe in the call of Jesus who said, “When you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it to me” (Matthew 25:40). When we serve others, we serve Jesus! Serving Jesus, the one who gave his life for us and saves us, should be easy, right? Who wouldn’t want to serve Jesus? But it’s not. Why? Serving requires humility (Philippians 4:3-7). This is why serving is so close to worship. It is hard to tell the difference between the two. When I serve, I bow my soul and body to God. The Hebrew word for worship is to “bow down.”
There is more to worship than sitting in a room for an hour on Sunday morning. Worship is life. It’s about living with an orientation toward loving and glorifying God with our whole being in everything we do. Paul says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23-24). Serve Sunday is the most worshipful Sunday of the entire year according to the Scripture, because everyone who is there is participating with their entire body and soul in an act of worship! Wow!
Let this mind be in you that was in Christ, for He said, “I did not come to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45).
3. Our pilgrimage to Wesley’s World in the UK was amazing! Debbie and I appreciate all your prayers while we were traveling the past couple of weeks. We had a memorable time tracing the footsteps of John and Charles Wesley and early Methodists. More to come this fall from this trip. Here is a picture of me standing where Wesley preached in the New Room Chapel in Bristol. This is the same room where Francis Asbury heard the call to come to America as a missionary. Wonderful history.
See you Sunday!
Jimmy