New Community Church

Scripture Reading: Luke 10:25-37

The parable of the “Good Samaritan” is one of the better-known parables of Jesus. It’s one of those stories that speak to the listener on a number of levels. Some people read this parable and think about racism. This parable certainly does provide us with good reason to conclude that racism is not what God wills for us. Others read the parable and see a call to action against abortion or other social justice issues. Those who are able to care for the helpless who cannot care for themselves must do so. The most obvious interpretation of this parable is that we should follow the greatest commandment: Love God with everything we have, and love our neighbor as we love ourselves – our neighbor being the one who needs the love of God.

Jesus tells us, not who are neighbor is, but how we should be a neighbor to others. This story is a story about incarnational love – being Jesus Christ to others. Incarnational love requires sacrifice. Not empty sacrifice. Not simple ceremonial sacrifice. It requires sacrifice that hurts. Sacrifice is an essential component of this parable. Love in a fallen world almost always comes with sacrifice. Are we willing to sacrifice for (or love) those we don’t know? Scripture calls us to die and rise with Jesus daily. Dying isn’t easy.

New Community Church of Newaygo seeks, by the grace of God, to be Jesus Christ to the people of Newaygo. We hope to die more to ourselves and be alive in Christ every day. By God’s grace, we hope to reach out to the city of Newaygo and call the community to die to itself, but be alive in Jesus Christ. Come, die and rise in Christ with us this Sunday.

Jesus is known for his parables. They come in all shapes and sizes, but even the smallest of them communicate something extraordinary. They all communicate God’s activity in his creation. This week we will look at what some people classify as parables, but which are really just similes. Jesus is comparing the kingdom of God to some a mustard seed, and leavening for bread. What do these two things have in common? They are both small things that have a huge impact. A mustard seed is extremely small, but grows into a tree that provides shade and shelter for animals. A small bit of yeast effects a tremendous amount of bread. So, if nothing else, we know that the kingdom of God starts out small and will become have a large impact. But, what is the kingdom of God? What does it look like? And what does Jesus’ parable tell us about God? Is this the way God does things? Does he work through the little things?

New Community Church is a place for new beginnings. It is a place where a small word, or a few minutes of fellowship, can blossom into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a place where God does extraordinary things through ordinary and broken people. We are not perfect, but we serve a perfect God who is willing and able to change the world through us. Come worship with us Sunday, and see what God can do through you.

Luke 16:1-15

               We all try to be shrewd about the important things in our life. Things that are important to us, we try to keep. If our family is important to us, then we work to maintain relationships between us and our parents or our children, etc. If money is important to us, we try to invest it wisely. We do research on companies, commodities, real estate, or whatever we are interested in investing in before we put any of our hard earned money on the line. We take the time to sit down, explore our options, and look for the best solution. We work hard to maintain what we have, and, if we’re really shrewd, increase the happiness within our families, or our wealth, or whatever else is really important to us.

Some of us are shrewd in unhealthy ways. We’re “smart as a fox” in that we plot and plan, in very clever ways, to get what is not ours. We call those people con artists.  We don’t have to look far to find people who are unbelievably intelligent in the ways that they steal from people. Complicated schemes go on for years, and smart people steal millions of dollars using their God-given intelligence for evil purposes. This week, we will be looking at one such person. He is the shrewd manager. Jesus tells us that this man used his intelligence in a dishonest way, and that in the end, he was rewarded for his intelligence. Wait, did you just read that right? Jesus said that a man is rewarded for his intelligence, even though he used it for purely selfish reasons and in a dishonest way? Yep, that’s what I said.

This particular parable, often named the parable of the Shrewd Manager, is one of the more difficult parables to understand. But, a careful reading shows us what Jesus was getting at. In a nutshell, make the kingdom of God that thing that is the most important thing in your life, and be shrewd about how you manage it. How did we get from Jesus commending the actions of a dishonest man to saying that what Jesus is really telling us to do is put God first in our lives? Come see us at New Community Church on Sunday morning, June 27,  at 11:00 AM to find out.

Matthew 18:21-35

How many times should I forgive someone? Isn’t there some point where people don’t deserve my forgiveness? Isn’t there a point when enough is enough? Aren’t there certain behaviors that are so wicked that they shouldn’t be forgiven? Peter asked Jesus a similar question. If my brother or sister sins against me, should I forgive him or her up to seven times? Jesus answered Peter by telling him the parable of the ungrateful servant. It’s a story in which a king chooses to forgive a huge debt owed to him by one of his servants. That same servant then goes on to persecute another servant who does not owe nearly as much as the ungrateful servant owed the king. When the king finds out about his ungrateful servant, he has a change of heart. He decides to hold the ungrateful servant accountable for the debt he owed.

What does this parable tell us about forgiveness? Is God’s forgiveness a forgiveness that can be removed because we do something really bad? Or is it, as our Christian tradition holds, a forgiveness that is everlasting and irrevocable? What does it say about how we should forgive? What does Christian forgiveness look like in the real world? Why should we forgive anyway?

This Sunday we will be confronting these questions head-on. Please join us as we encounter God’s Word and seek His will.  Our worship service begins at 11:00 a.m.

The Prodigal Son, Rembrandt

06/06/10 Luke 15:1-2, 11-32; The Home Coming

God speaks to us: Coming Home  

INTRODUCTION: We need to keep in mind that while the parable of the Prodigal Son is about God’s grace as well as repentance and salvation, Jesus tells this parable and the two before it; The lost sheep, and the Lost coin in reaction to the criticism by the Pharisees. It is a familiar criticism “this man welcomes sinners and eats with them” The issue is that Jesus’ acceptance of the lost and down and outers is interpreted as accepting sin and tolerating decadent behavior. Some people interpret our church that way not only this church but church plants in general because we reach out to the hurting, to the broken, to the sinner, and it is seen as tolerating brokenness and sinfulness. I go on record today to say that we are against sin, sin is awful  as we will find out in this parable but the church is not only against sin the church needs to help the sinner, and that is all of us, to move closer to Jesus so that sin can be overcome in our lives. Amen.  It is for that perception of tolerating sin that Jesus tells these parables. The parable we read this morning is the most extensive of the three. God’s grace, man’s repentance, and God’s forgiveness is included as well as self righteousness, condemnations and lack of forgiveness. The highlight of the parable is the Father’s love; God’s grace, forgiveness, and God’s sacrifice in Jesus to bring us back to him. That sacrifice is what we celebrate every time we have communion.

I.  The son that went missing.

 A. Impatient, Temptation

We see that the younger son is impatient, he knows it all and he wants out of his father’s household. He thinks he is entitled o his inheritance early. Right now the freedom he wants is only a temptation it is not yet sin .

B. Impulsive, Giving in to temptation

Why didn’t the father refuse to give the money to him? God created us with freewill, he does not force his love on us, we can choose to love Jesus or not. The father gives him the money. The son impulsively moves far away to be free from the restraints of his family. He is not sinning yet but he has set himself up to fall. What you think about a lot is where you go. I think of the social media, and Video games people participate in; while some of it is good, much is not and to be thinking about those inappropriate things means:  garbage in and  garbage out.

C. Inappropriate, sin takes over

Sin began as a seed in his mind, he did nothing to move it out of his mind and it grew until he is in a position to fall The results are predictable. You separate yourself from the people who love you. You refuse to take advice, you think you know better than everyone around you and Satan has set you up to fail.

II. Falling and repenting.

 A. Sin comes full circle

That is what happens, sin comes full circle now, it is not a temptation any longer; he gives in and he starts to live a wicked life, and foolishly wastes his money until he is broke. Sin does that, it takes over the decision making process and people start to make bad decisions. When sin takes over we are not able to make spiritually beneficial decisions.

B. God intervenes; He comes to his senses

As he is running out of money God intervenes and sends a famine into this area. Now he is broke and he is hungry, even if he had money food was not available. He starts to herd pigs, an awful thing for Jews and would never do if not for his need. Sin does that – people do things they would never do. He is at his wits end and turns to God; I have sinned against God and my father. Sometimes we have to come to a low spot in our lives before we allow God to take over again. The son now is able to make a responsible decision; he decides to go home, back to his father.

III. The Father

A. Looking for signs of his son, his children.

The father for his part walks out to the hill every day to see if his son is coming home. God is like that, he is patiently waiting for the people of the world to return to him. They are his people. Yet it is not a passive waiting, the Holy Spirit works in people’s lives, God intervenes into our lives, sometimes with difficult situations so that we turn our attention to him. Further, God gave himself in Jesus Christ so that we have a basis for returning to him. We cannot repent on our own we need to invite the Holy Spirit into our lives.

B. He is ready to forgive, and rejoice.

When we come back to God or come to him for the first time the father is ready to forgive. It does not depend on our efforts. Before the son was able to say a word the Father had him in an embrace that he was never going to release again. The father accepts him back with no questions about his sin; the son had repented in his heart. God knows our hearts and forgives, never bringing up sins we committed again. They are gone, we are washed clean. The Father says restore my son to our household, “He was lost and now is found, he was dead and now is alive” All we need to do is turn back to God with a contrite and broken heart, have the desire to depend on him and to be close to him. That is enough! Praise the Lord!  Are you living a lost life, pretending to be close to God but far away from him in your heart? Turn to him today! He accepts all who turn to him.

The older son is someone we Christians, easily identify with. We stayed close to God; we did not leave his people for the world. We did not live a lost lifestyle that jeopardized our health, our souls and our minds. We should be upset with those who leave the church for the world and with those who refuse to go to church and serve God in their lives but that is not what we are talking about. Jesus told this parable because he was criticized for acting like the father in this parable; the father has the attitude of Jesus.

IV. The older son.

1. A. Anger, lack of forgiveness

So what is the problem with the older son that seemed to have done everything right?

1. He was angry not so much at his brother but at the father for taking his younger brother back.  He lacked forgiveness; he was not willing to forgive his brother even though his father had forgiven him.

2. He was jealous, “you never gave me a party like this and I’ve been faithful to you”, he tells his father. “But you are always with me and everything I have is yours” His father responds. Your brother is found, and is alive, we have to celebrate.

B. Refused to enter the feast

The older son refuses to participate in the joyous reunion of father and son. He is suffering from selfish righteousness.  The parable does not tell us the older brother repented and went into the feast. We are left with the impression that he did not. What Jesus is doing is equating the attitude of the older brother with the Pharisees and comparing that with the attitude of the father.

C. The attitude of the father

The attitude of non condemnation, a high concern for the lost and willing to associate with them in order to bring them closer to God and away from sin is the attitude of Jesus.  And the purpose of this parable is for us to choose between the father and the older son. How are you going to live your Christian life? I encourage you as your former pastor, take on the attitude of Jesus, and do it on Sundays and every day of your lives.

There is great rejoicing in heaven when only one person is brought back from being lost and from being spiritually dead. Take on the attitude of Jesus and you will have life.