HOMECOMING 2021 - Part ThreeThrough the eyes of God.
Welcome To BARAH MINISTRIES a Christian Church Rory Clark Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…an intimate, local Christian Church with worldwide impact. My name is Pastor Rory Clark.
Who is Jesus Christ? At Barah Ministries we know this truth…that Jesus Christ is God! John, Chapter 1, Verse 14 says…
JOHN 1:14 And the Word (the Lord…God the Son…Deity) became flesh (Jesus…the Christ…True Humanity) and lived among us…and we saw His glory…glory as of the only begotten One from God the Father…full of grace and full of truth.
At Barah Ministries we study the Bible, the Word of God, and it describes Jesus in so many ways…Matthew, Chapter 16, Verses 13 to 17…
MATTHEW 16:13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
MATTHEW 16:14 And the disciples said, “Some say the Son of Man is John the Baptist…and others say Elijah…but still others say the Son of Man is Jeremiah…or one of the prophets.”
MATTHEW 16:15 Jesus said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
MATTHEW 16:16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ…the Son of the living God.”
MATTHEW 16:17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona (son of Jonah)…because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you…but My Father who is in heaven revealed this to you.”
Jesus is the Messiah…He is the Son of God…He is the Son of Man…and we’re happy to celebrate Him by learning His Word.
It’s Homecoming Weekend!
When Christians have “get-togethers” like this, I often hear them say, “There’s just something about face-to-face teaching!” Sorry folks…that’s not it. What we should be saying is that there is something about intimate relationships. What we should be saying is that it’s really something when gratitude floods our souls. What we should be saying is there is really something when we feel unconditional love instead of just talking about it or hearing about it. What we should be saying is there is something special about serving each other. And if we realized how vital this is to our souls…how much our souls absolutely CRAVE these things…we’d do it more often. Thank you for being here and for the difference you make to the souls in your periphery.
SONG INTRODUCTION
Does God know you? Ephesians, Chapter 3, Verses 14 and 15 say…
EPHESIANS 3:14 For this reason, I (Paul) bow my knees before God the Father…
EPHESIANS 3:15 …from whom every family in heaven (the angelic family)…and on earth (human families) derives its name…
Francesca Battistelli is right! HE KNOWS MY NAME!
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
HE KNOWS MY NAME Francesca Battistelli
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
HE KNOWS MY NAME Francesca Battistelli
OPENING PRAYER Let us pray...
We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…
Father, thank you for another chance to learn about you through the study of Your Word…make the things we hear today help us to get a clear erpicture of the things you have prepared for those who love You…
…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...Amen.
THE HOMECOMING LESSON Jesus: Son of Man and Son of God Pastor John Farley
LESSON INTRODUCTION
I love Pastor John Farley.
Since John likes the King James Version of the Bible, for his introduction I thought it wise to give ye a few thee’s and thou’s to invite him to the pulpit for his third lesson this weekend.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a celebrated poet of the Romantic Movement in Britain in the 19thcentury Victorian Era. I choose her words to celebrate my intimate friend.
HOW DO I LOVE THEE? (Sonnet 43) Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach…when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace.
HOW DO I LOVE THEE? (Sonnet 43) Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need…by sun and candlelight.
HOW DO I LOVE THEE? (Sonnet 43) Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I love thee freely…as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs…and with my childhood's faith.
HOW DO I LOVE THEE? (Sonnet 43) Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life…and, if God chooses, I shall but love thee better after death.
Let’s welcome up Pastor John Farley and let’s thank him for the phenomenal job he did in teaching us this weekend.
THE HOMECOMING LESSON Jesus: Son of Man and Son of God Pastor John Farley
PASTOR JOHN FARLEY LESSON
FIVE MINUTE BREAK NOBODY Casting Crowns
THE HOMECOMING LESSON Jesus: Son of Man and Son of God Pastor John Farley
Barah Ministries certainly exists because of the grace of our amazing God… yet Barah Ministries also exists because of your generosity. It’s a pleasure to thank you personally for investing your time and your talent and your treasure so this ministry can provide the gospel message and accurate biblical teaching to a lost and dying world. Please continue to let the financial blessing flow. We are good stewards of your trust. Let’s welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with one of his always inspiring offering messages.
THE OFFERING Deacon Denny Goodall
OFFERING VERSE
ROMANS 13:10 Unconditional love does not keep on doing wrong to a neighbor…therefore when we demonstrate unconditional love for others it is the fullness of the Mosaic Law.
OFFERING SONG THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU Don Moen THE HOMECOMING LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION At the Cross, the Lord Jesus Christ Inspired AWE in Us Pastor Rory Clark
Welcome to The Lord’s Supper Celebration! It’s a time when believers in Christ set aside time both to feel and to reflect on the deep, imitate and personal relationship we have with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we reflect, we look back to the Cross…an intimate moment in divine history… and we remember the Lord’s words in John, Chapter 15, Verses 13 and 14…
JOHN 15:13 Greater love has no one than this…that one lay down his life for his friends.
JOHN 15:14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.
The Lord laid down His life for us at the Cross…He was buried…and on the third day He was resurrected from the dead to prove that He is who He says He is…the Sovereign God of the Universe who holds all things together by the Word of His power.
Every month we obey the Lord’s command in First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verses 23 to 26…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:23 For I (Paul) received from the Lord (as the authoritative Source in this matter) that which I also delivered to you…that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed (by Judas…the night He was served up for slaughter)…Jesus took a loaf of bread…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:24 …and when Jesus had given thanks, He broke the bread and said, “This is My body, which is broken for you…keep on doing this sacrifice in remembrance of Me.”
FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:25 In the same way, Jesus also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant (a new testament) in My blood…keep on doing this…and as often as you drink it…do this in remembrance of Me…” FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:26a …for as often as you eat this bread (representing His body) …and as often as you drink this cup (representing His blood) …as part of The Lord’s Supper Celebration…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:26b …you proclaim as a reality and you announce the significance of the Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross…and His resurrection from the dead…until He comes again at the second coming.
In this sacred celebration, we commune with the Lord. We enjoy the elements…the bread and the wine…and as we do, we remember our dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ, both for our physical sustenance and for our spiritual sustenance.
The Cross reminds us just how BIG our God is. He is described with many words that cannot even begin to capture His essence… infinite…unlimited… imminent…transcendent…vast…gargantuan…unfathomable.
This God of ours parted the Red Sea to save the Jewish people…the battle was His as David slew Goliath…the promise He made to give the sexually dead Abraham and the barren Sarah a son was fulfilled…and their lineage from that son, The Jewish Race, numbers as the sand of the seashore. We can scarcely wrap our minds around a God so big and at the same time think that He is concerned with those as small as us. Yet He is concerned for us, and that concern is deep, and intimate, and personal.
Why do people fall on their faces before Him? He’ll tell us one day. My guess is our littleness can’t really take in His bigness. After all, how big is unconditional love, and forgiveness and grace? Surely it can’t be comprehended…surely it can’t be measured.
How does this God see you? We learned. How does His enemy see you? We learned. How does He expect us to handle the enemy? We learned.
We grow because of Him. We take in His soul-expanding love. Our lives are illuminated because of His love. Our privilege is to build our lives on Him. Matthew, Chapter 7, Verses 24 to 27…
MATTHEW 7:24 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
MATTHEW 7:25 “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house…and yet the house did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.”
MATTHEW 7:26 “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.”
MATTHEW 7:27 “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house…and it fell—and great was its fall.”
The life we have at our disposal is a life of AWE because we are in AWE of our AWEsome God who makes our lives possible. When we look back to the Cross, we can’t help but think about Luke, Chapter 1, Verse 37…
LUKE 1:37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
We can’t help but think about Philippians, Chapter 4, Verse 13…
PHILIPPIANS 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
As we take the next steps in our lives, we keep at the front of our minds, and not at the back of our minds, what this AWEsome God has planned for each of us…a life exceeding and abundantly beyond anything we could ask or think. I pray that we dare to accept the bigness of this life from the bigness of our God. I join the apostle Paul in wishing this for you the blessings of Ephesians, Chapter 1, Verses 18 and 19…
EPHESIANS 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened (your spiritual eyes)… so that you will know what is the hope of His calling…what are the glorious riches of His inheritance in the saints…
EPHESIANS 1:19 …and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
THE HOMECOMING LORD'S SUPPER CELEBRATION Enjoying the Lord's Supper Elements
Bread and wine. The Lord gave us these things to remember Him. We will enjoy the elements together in a few moments as we listen to The Lord’s Supper Song.
Obeying our Lord's command, we keep on celebrating Christ regularly…we eat bread to remember who He is as a PERSON...the One and ONLY Sovereign God of the Universe…we drink wine to remember His WORK on the Cross…the voluntary sacrifice He made to deliver us from sovereignty to sin. We remember with gratitude what God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ have done to save us. Luke, Chapter 22, Verses 14 to 16…
LUKE 22:14 When the hour came (and His crucifixion was set for the next day)…Jesus reclined at the table…and the apostles reclined with Him.
RECLINING AT THE TABLE SLIDE
LUKE 22:15 And Jesus said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer…”
LUKE 22:16 “…for I say to you, I shall not eat it again until all that it means is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."
Luke, Chapter 22, Verses 19 to 23…
LUKE 22:19 And when Jesus had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body, which is being broken for you… keep on doing this in remembrance of Me."
LUKE 22:20 And in the same way, Jesus took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in My blood."
Let's keep on eating this bread…let's keep on drinking this cup…and let's do both to REMEMBER with AWE our AWEsome Lord.
LORD’S SUPPER SONG ALL GOOD GIFTS Telly Leung
CLOSING SONG INTRODUCTION
John, Chapter 3, Verses 1 to 5…
JOHN 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews…
JOHN 3:2 ….this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher…for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
JOHN 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
JOHN 3:4 Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”
JOHN 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
Here’s June Murphy to remind us in song that when we choose to invest our gift of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are BORN AGAIN.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
BORN AGAIN June Murphy
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
BORN AGAIN June Murphy
CLOSING VERSES
A Doxology of Praise to Our God
Let’s close by praising our Almighty God. Romans, Chapter 8, Verses 37 to 39…
ROMANS 8:37 …in every situation imaginable, believers in Christ keep on overwhelmingly conquering through the Lord who loves us unconditionally.
ROMANS 8:38 For I (Paul) am convinced that neither death nor life...nor (elect) angels nor principalities (demons...fallen angels), nor things present nor things to come...nor powers...
ROMANS 8:39 ...nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to sever us from the unconditional love of God the Father, who is for us through our union with Christ Jesus our Lord.
CLOSING PRAYER Let us pray...
Thanks for coming! Thanks for watching! Thanks for listening!
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