Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)
Every knee and every tongue bowing and confessing means that He is Lord over all. Perhaps another way to say this is to shout, “EVERYTHING BELONGS TO JESUS.”
Or…
I could have quoted: 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:15,16.) All things are created BY Him, through Him, and for Him.
It's all about Jesus.
Everything that happens to us, around us, by us, or near us happens to bring attention to HIM. Because He is worthy. He is the KING. He is God Himself.
If we believe that, it is obvious that we can turn every situation into a situation about, towards, for, and under Jesus.
Today, in the light of our community’s fear, fears, sickness, contagions, economic woes, relational woes, loneliness, and attention to odd details…
… let’s remember that it ALL is happening to direct us to King Christ.
… let’s remember that it ALL is happening so that every knee will bow.
… let’s remember that it ALL is happening so that every tongue will confess His name.
Starting with our tongues.
What if we combated the under or over exaggerating media by speaking God’s truth.
Examples:
When someone mentions the expected mortality rate, express joint concern, but note that death for us believers is a thing of (painful) joy. We are heading to heaven!?!?!? What do we fear?
When someone complains about the fear-mongering of the media, express dissatisfaction, but note that fear in this world inexorably leads to faith in King Jesus.
When someone express fear… of financial trouble, occupational upheaval, educational disasters, government bailouts and takeovers, illness, disease, plague, or (and) disaster, express acknowledgement that those things are GIANTS, but that we have HOPE in the Giant-Killer. And I don’t mean little David. I mean the one David trusted!
Remember these words this week, and SPEAK them:
Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)
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Yesterday, in the sermon handout were some suggestions. Here are some of them, with explanations.
Dominion Streaming Site
http://www.dominioncovenantchurch.com/stream
We are planning to have corporate worship this Sunday at Jubilee. 11:00 am, like usual. If you are sick, or unable to worship with us, I recommend the above streaming site. It is Dominion Covenant Church, in Omaha, NE.
We might decide to return to worshipping in the Pennings’ livingroom to facilitate offering streaming of the worship service.
Prudence and compliance (not fear!) might cause us to limit our other public gatherings. So we’ll be making a decision soon regarding JubiWednesday and the like. I’ll keep you posted.
Lunch Distribution for Valley Center School District
We have been asked to serve as a distribution site for Valley Center Public School lunches, if they cancel school (which is likely) and still need to provide lunches for schoolchildren. The school would provide the food, we would simply provide a location (one of five or six around the Valley Center area) for pickup. And maybe some people to help pass out the lunches to cars.
Wash, wash wash
Not because of fear, but because of reasonable precaution:
- Wash your hands as if you just picked someone else’s nose.
- Wash your hands as if you shook hands with someone from KSU or KU (whichever side you don’t like.)
- Wash your hands like you just accidentally used your fingers to mash Hot, Hot, Hot Peppers.
- Wash your hands like there might be Covid-19 cells on them…