Sunday, March 10, 2019

Lent 1: Confide in God


• First Sunday of Lent.
with 1 John 1:5-9
www.FirstChurchBville.com    @FirstUMCBville   @kerrfunk
A video of the worship service was posted on Facebook 3/10/19 https://www.facebook.com/FUMCWV/videos/555412964979380/

• I’ve been listening to a lot of Billy Joel lately, and today’s reading reminded me of his 1977 song “The Stranger”
Well we all have a face that we hide away forever and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone… they’re the faces of the stranger but we love to try them on.
Billy Joel says our interactions with other people are based on different masks we wear. He sings about the surprise (and shock!) when we get a glimpse of someone’s hidden self, and confesses at the same time: have you ever let other see your stranger?
• Who does see, by the way? God does. God sees past all our masks. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. And something that can be seen in the light can be addressed. Mended, healed, made whole.
• When I was a kid, you coulda made me cry by sending me to the principal’s office.
Or by threatening to call my parents. Total and shameful fear of exposure.
I’m using Magrey deVega’s book One Faithful Promise for a Lenten sermon series. The author tells about one day in college when he returned to his dorm room and there was a message on his answering machine: “I saw what you did last night. Don’t think that nobody saw.” The message made him sweat quite a bit, but it turned out he was the innocent “victim” of a friendly prank. But it feels like when you’re driving and a police car pulls behind you – you review your actions to see if you’ve committed any infractions.
• When we are truly vulnerable, exposed, in the light, God can deal with our issues.
Something that can be seen in the light can be addressed. Mended, healed, made whole.
It happened with Adam and Eve in the garden. King David after Bathsheba, and the prophet Nathan (2 Sam 12). Even Jesus in Gethsemane. God is able to meet us in our vulnerability and work in us.
• What is God like? How would you describe God? How do your feelings about exposure line up with your descriptions about God?
God is good, God is just, God is loving and righteous.
God is able and desiring to forgive.
Forgiveness is good for us and even necessary.
God is the source of forgiveness.
Lent is period of self-examination and repentance and renewal.
John Wesley: It’s important to be deeply aware of own sin and guilt so to see the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
• Read from covenant prayer (p. 13 in book).
and this concluding paragraph from Step One (p. 21.)
Wesley’s first step is necessary: Confide in God and confess your sins. Take inventory of the ways that you’ve wronged God and others. Remember how helpless you are against the constant barrage of sinful influences around you, and your ongoing struggles within you. Admit that you can’t defeat these sins on your own. And prepare yourself for an adventure that will lead you to making and keeping a faithful promise in Christ.
And closing prayer p. 22:
Gracious God, thank you for seeing me for who I really am and knowing me better than I even know myself. Teach me to trust in you, that I might not fear the consequence of vulnerability and transparency before you. Forgive me of my sins, and show me the power of your redeeming love. Amen.

• 399 Take My Life and Let it Be

1 John 1:5-9 (HCSB)
5 Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him. 6 If we say, “We have fellowship with Him,” yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ò


Text Box: One
Faithful
Promise
The Wesleyan
Covenant
for Renewal

By Magrey R. deVega
Lent Sunday Sermon Series
                         based on the book
à

March 10     Confide in God - 1 John 1:5-9
March 17     Compose your Spirit - Romans 12:1-3
March 24     Claim the Covenant - Hebrews 9:11-15
March 31     Choose faithfulness - Matthew 7:13-14
April 7         Connect to God in Prayer - Luke 11:1-13

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