New Community Church

A Good Woman, Worth More Than Rubies.
I Samuel 1 :10-11,21-28

Mother’s Day is about moms. But it begins with good women. “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies” (Prov. 31:10). Women have an honored role in God’s order of things. Often they are the stability in families, having great influence on the children. I don’t intend here to minimize the role Men, we will talk about fathers and men next month, but this morning we honor our mothers. This morning we look to Hannah’s story. Let me tell you the beginning. Hannah’s is in a polygamous marriage and she is barren, year after year. Infertility is a difficult thing for men and women today as well. But in Hannah’s day it was thought to be a curse from God. Her co-wife persecuted her, her husband did not understand, when she wept he said: “I am not worth more ten sons to you?” Well no, not really. Children are from God. We tend to think that we can plan our children but the truth is that God blesses us with them. When we do have children than mothers are a blessing to the family; we may have natural children, adopted children or spiritual children they all are a gift from God and they belong to God. Hannah was a good woman before she was a good mother; our society as we know it depends on good women and on good men. Our families and our churches depend on moral and loving women; those who trust God, those who are dedicated to family, those willing to submit to God’s will, those who are good examples and those who put others first. Let us give thanks for good Christian women; forever beautiful because they fear and serve the Lord.

05/11/08, NCCN, 11:00 AM, I Samuel 1: 10-12, 21-28 (281)

God Speaks to us:

INTRODUCTION: Mother’s Day is about moms. But it begins with good women. “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies (Prov. 31: 10)”. Women have an honored role in God’s order of things. Often, they are the stability in families, besides bearing children they have a great influence on spouses and children. I don’t intend here to minimize the role men, we will talk about fathers and men next month, but this morning we honor our mothers. This morning we look to Hannah’s story. We read the middle of the story, this section is preceded with conflict, and it is followed by Hannah’s prayer of thanks giving but what we concentrate on this morning is Hannah’s request and God’s answer. This is the center of the story because motherhood and fatherhood both are important to God, and are important to us. Children are important to God, and are important to us, so important that from their very conception children belong to the Lord. That is what Hannah’s story is all about. Let me tell you the beginning of the story. Hannah is in a polygamous marriage and she is barren. Year after year. her co-wife persecutes her, minimizing Hannah, her husband does not understand her and when she weeps he says: “Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” Well no, not really.

I. Children are from God
A. God has his own time
1. Infertility is a difficult thing for men and women today as well. But in Hannah’s day it was thought to be a curse from God. It is healthy and natural to want to have children but as we see from this passage, God has his own time. Couples may think that they have control over conception, but they don’t, God has his time for children.

2. Maybe you are still single; God has his time for marriage and for family. Some men and women never get married and some couples do not have children, God will provide a way for you. There may be the opportunity to adopt; maybe God will give you spiritual children, either way, natural children, adopted children, or spiritual children they are a blessing from God.

B.Children are a blessing
1. Motherhood in all three categories is a privilege. Natural birth is a privilege because God gives you a soul to form and to shape
Adoption is a privilege because God gives you a soul to form and to shape for him, but without the pain of birth. Spiritual Children are a privilege because God gives us a soul to form and to shape.

2. In God’s covenantal arrangement these three categories are blended together. As part of the family of God we all have natural children, adopted children, and spiritual children. We are responsible for them all.

3. Hannah did not have children of her own, God had closed her womb, her co-wife drove here away from her children, and her husband, like most of us men, had a hard time understanding the struggle. Hannah turns to God

II. Children, Mothers and Prayer
A. The attitude of prayer
1. Hannah wept much as she prayed. She was distraught as she brought her problems to God. She did not ask for anything unusual, having children is an everyday thing, she understood her own need and she was willing to go to God with it. Her attitude was one of humility.

B. The way of prayer
1. Hannah rededicated herself to God, she calls out: “O lord Almighty” (first time used in Scripture) she recognizes God’s power, he is the one who is almighty, and he is the one who is able help her. Amen!

2. As part of her dedication she makes a vow (typical in those days). It was a rededication but also a promise to commit her child to God. She asks God to remember her, to share in her misery. “If only you will remember me and not forget me” she pleads.

3. It is the kind of prayer we need to pray today, whether you are praying for a child, for a spouse, for guidance, a job, whatever it is you are praying for today, glorify God and then boldly ask him to remember you and not to forget his promises to you.

C. The result of prayer
1. Eli the High Priest saw her praying, mouthing the words but not saying them; he rebuked her, thinking that she had been drinking. After he understood her anguish he blessed her and sent her on her way. The result was that she was no longer depressed. She had not received an answer yet, but she had prayed to God knowing that he would do what he would; she was no longer going to worry about it. Over the course of time God did give her children four sons and two daughters.

2. Praying should give us peace, and assurance knowing that God hears us and that he stands ready to give us all we ask (John 14:14). But God works on his schedule and timing and we need to trust him as Hannah did that day.

III. Children belong to the Lord
A. Hannah gives Samuel to the Lord
1. God gave Hannah a son and she had promised that no razor will be used on his head that meant that Samuel was to be a Nazirite (Nazirites do not to drink, shave, or touch a dead body) Samuel is one of only three perpetual Nazirites, along with Samson, and John the Baptist.

2. Samuel was young, only four or five, when Hannah brings him to the tabernacle. Since at the Passover it was a requirement that all first born males were given to God but animal sacrifice was required to redeem the son.

3. Today in this New Testament time all of our children belong to the Lord. We all have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ.
Infant Baptism therefore takes on an important meaning for confirming God’s choosing and confirms the work of the Holy Spirit in the children of God.

B. Hannah, is a good woman
1. Hannah was a good mom, she trusted God she prayed to God to become a mother, she put aside her depression in anticipation of an answer from God. She fulfilled all what she promised to do and she raised her children to fear the Lord.

2. Before she was a good mom she was a good woman. Our society as we know it depends on good women and men. Do we see how important good people are to the world, to this country, to our society and to this church?

3. The whole idea of the family of God depends on good young girls and good teenage girls, on good brides, on faithful wives, and on good mothers. Amen!God’s women are those who are willing to trust Jesus for their salvation and for the future, women who are dedicated to family or to their jobs or to both, woman who are willing to submit to God’s will like Hannah. Amen!

CONCLUSION: In today’s culture being a godly woman is difficult. We are assaulted daily with the world’s preoccupation with looks, with body weight, with shapeliness. God tells us and we all know it: “Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (Prov. 31:30). Today let’s honor our mothers and lets honor women. They are a gift from God.

Mother’s Day: May 11, 08

Grocery Shower: May 11, for Jason and Katie, after the church service

Pentecost: May 18

Family Night: May 21, Wednesday 6:30 PM food, 7:00 -8:00 PM, Adult Bible Study, Unitarianism, Cadets, Gems.
We will conclude Family Night on May 21 and begin again in Sept. 08

Church Sale: May 24-25, 9:00 AM- 5:PM, hold onto and store your items until the 23d, See Carol Meeuwenberg for details and for volunteering.

Council Meeting: June 01, 9:00 AM

Church Service: 11:00 AM Sunday, Phone 231-652-9900, msgs. checked periodically.

Acts 1:1-11 Why do you stand here looking up?

During these summer months we continue with the book of Acts. Next week we begin where we left off on Nov. 11 of last year, Acts 15:1-21. Today however we begin with Jesus’ ascension. So why is Jesus ascension so important? Well, his ascension is as important as his conception and birth; it is the end of his walk on earth as the God man and as Immanuel; God with us actually, now continued Spiritually in our hearts. His ascension is the completion of his work on earth but continues in heaven as the great interceder for us his people. At his ascension Jesus takes up his crown again and all the power and glory that he laid aside to obey his Father to be the Savior of the world. Now as the Savior of the world exalted by God the father, given a name above every name “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2: 9-11) Amen. But Jesus does not leave his Disciples or us today without the means to be his witness. You will receive power Jesus tells them and we know that the power promised is available today; power to be Jesus’ witnesses at home in the surrounding area, in our own country and even unto the ends of the world. At Jesus’ ascension Jesus gives us the great commission he commands us to continue on with what he came to do and for what he gave us his Spirit; go and make Disciples, baptize, and teach them all I have taught you (Matt. 28: 16-20). The Disciples continued to stare after Jesus, he was long gone but here they are staring up. Angels comes down to wake them out of their trance and they wake us up as well. Get down to work; don’t have your thoughts on heaven but on the needs of the people around you. Go to work because Jesus will return in the same way he ascended. Let us keep on making Disciples, Jesus is on the way!

05/04/08, 11:00 AM, NCCN, Acts1:1-11

God speaks to us:

INTRODUCTION: May 01, 08 are Ascension Day as well as the National Day of Prayer. Today we celebrate Ascension Sunday. In the past many churches held services during the week, some churches still do. So why is Jesus’ ascension so important? Well, his ascension is as important as his conception and birth; it is the end of his walk on earth as the God man and his ascension will bring the Counselor, the Holy Spirit (John 14: 15-21). His ascension is the completion of his work on earth but continues in heaven as the great intercessor for us his people. At his ascension Jesus takes up his crown again and all the power and glory that he laid aside to obey his Father to be the Savior of the world. Now as the Savior of the world exalted by God the Father, given a name above every name “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2: 9-11). But Jesus does not leave us without help.

I. Jesus’ work on earth
A. God with us
1. Jesus came to earth to be the Savior, he is God, perfect and sinless, he is a man the only sinless human being who could represent us and stand in for us. Jesus ushers in the Kingdom of God and the New Covenant of God in a different way than it was practiced by Noah, Moses, Abraham, David and all of God’s people up to the time of Jesus. John the Baptist is the last Old Testament prophet who prepared the way for Jesus’ coming and the way in which God was going to deal with his people from now on; God with us; Immanuel.

2. Jesus had fulfilled that mission, he had trained those who were to carry on this new way with God, he died to pay the debt of our sin and the sin of the world, he rose again defeating death, our last enemy and now returns to heaven to rule as the glorified God man the first born of the dead.

B. Jesus as intercessor
1. But Jesus’ work for us does not end at his ascension. He is now seated at the right hand of God the Father as the great intercessor for his brothers and sisters; for all those who call upon his name.

2. When we approach God for forgiveness, when we approach God for help, for healing, for blessings, Jesus is right there. He says to his Father don’t look at this or that person, not what they have done but look at me and my work. Don’t look at Pastor Case or at the people of New Community Church, no, look at me on the cross, I’ve paid the price, I’ve given them my holiness, they are my brothers and sisters, fellow heirs’ of the Kingdom with me.

3. That is an amazing concept, that the God of the universe is our advocate, it is past our understanding but we accept it as undeserved grace from God. We accept it, God’s grace as we accept others and as we accept God’s call to us; not always understanding but following Jesus where he leads us.

II. Jesus’ Last Instructions
A. Don’t speculate
1. The disciples did not understand either, they asked Jesus whether God would restore the Kingdom to Israel. They were still thinking Old Testament. Jesus did not answer their question, he said that is not the issue, it is not for you to know what God has planned.

2. I think God is speaking to us as well; we are not to worry or speculate as to what will happen in this world or when Jesus comes again, no, do what Jesus commands us to do

B. You shall be my witnesses
1.You shall be my witnesses; all you do, all you say, how you live is to be a witness about Jesus Christ. If people are to see Jesus on earth they must see him in us as individuals and as a church because we are the body of Christ, we now are the physical presence of Jesus in the world.
In Matt 28: 16-20 Jesus tells us to make disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them as Jesus teaches us. The church is the instrument for baptisms and instruction. The church is important but not more important than the individual members because together we make up the body of Christ.

2. The other place people may find Jesus is in the Word of God; the Scriptures are the source, it is our source, we know how to be like Jesus because we hear his Word and we apply it to our lives.

C. You shall be empowered
Jesus expects a lot from us but he empowers us to follow him.
The Holy Spirit comes to live in our hearts; God with us in a very intimate way, guiding us, and encouraging us. Without the Spirit working in us not a one of us would be here today. It is the Holy Spirit that brings us here, he is the one who enlightens us to understand God’s Word, he is the one who shows us how to apply God’s Word to our lives, and he shows us how to live for him; in the Word he teaches us to be Jesus’ witnesses.

III. Jesus’ Commission is on going
A. Angels confirm Jesus’ instruction
1. After Jesus ascended the disciples seemed reluctant to leave the place; they continue to stare up into heaven. Two angels appeared to them and said: Why do you stand here looking up? They wake up the disciples and they wake us up as well. Get down to work; don’t have your thoughts on heaven but on the needs of the people around you. Go to work because Jesus will return in the same way he ascended!

2. Jesus does not want us to have our heads in the clouds with some unrealistic notion about heaven and about earth. Jesus needs people who are down to earth, understanding the needs of this world and who are willing to witness to any and all Jesus places in our path. We are to do that as individuals but also as a church, the church of Jesus Christ.

B. Angels confirm Jesus’ return
The angels also tell us that Jesus is coming back in the same way he went up. There is all this speculation as to where Jesus will descend and as to when. We only know what Scriptures tells us that he comes as lighting on the clouds of heaven in great glory and that every person will see him at the same time and there will be signs in the sky (Matt. 24: 27-30).

CONCLUSION: Jesus is on the way but it is not for us to know the time or to speculate. We have received power, we experience it in our lives and we are to be Jesus’ witnesses; making disciples, baptizing and teaching all that Jesus teaches us. Get your head out of the clouds and go and make disciples.