Avalon Church

Discover how joy in the Lord can be experienced regardless of the circumstances.

Last week, we began a series called Staycation.

It’s about living in the present.

Appreciating this moment;

Not allowing our obsession with past or the future,

... Right here, right now.

Last week we looked at Ecclesiastes chapter 8

To enjoy good meals

Because there will always be enough work.

Taking a break and enjoying the moment

Living this way takes intentionality.

...That I can pray with someone on their deathbed,

...to pour out of them

...in that hospital room?

Yet, I can sit with a couple

...in their beautiful, spacious living room

...They appear to have everything necessary to be happy,

...yet they are filled with anxiety,

Or jealousy,

Why don’t they experience joy?

How is it that immense joy

...Yet be noticeably absent

...And his teaching the persecuted Christians

that they can experience joy

Paul knew what he was talking about.

Paul was suffering in prison,

Nero was the emperor,

And he was a tyrant.

Like all Emperors,

“Nero is Lord.”

He was not a fan of this new religion,

...That usurped his title

Nero eventually killed Paul.

And the Christians in Philippi were facing a similar fate.

And in the midst of this impossible situation,

That will lead into our passage today.

4 Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, -- Phil 1:4 (NLT)

17 But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. 18 Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy. –Phil 2:17-18 (NLT)

You can experience joy,

Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. –Phil 3:1 (NLT)

You see, Paul knew something we often miss.

So let’s listen in on his conversation

With these Philippian believers

...Right here, right now,

...Paul’s deepest concern in most of his letters,

Unity is proof of Christ’s love.

As Jesus offered his life for us,

We give up our rights for their benefit.

And when we love others as Christ loved us,

And so, in the final chapter of Philippians,

...Paul cuts to the chase

...between two specific people in the church.

He says, [You-O’-dia and Sin’-ti-key]

2 Now I appeal to Euodia and Syntyche. Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement. 3 And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News. They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life. –Phil 4 (NLT)

These two women are family.

They are leaders in the church,

Yeah, we don’t know what that’s like, right?

Pastor Jim Groves leads us in our midweek study of the Book of James. This week the study is on James 3:14-4:10, discussing Wisdom and Wars. The study was held & recorded on Zoom.

Sometimes we just need permission to enjoy life! Join us as we look at Ecclesiastes 8:14-17.

As I’ve mentioned before,

Our family struggled to make ends meet,

He wasn’t around much,

We weren’t a religious family,

…my Dad thought I had joined a cult.

I still laugh at that picture

Which looks more like a Ponce de Leon from Spain

Dad and I were never very close.

Then, in my 30’s,

Rae Lynn and I invited dad and his wife

It was the best week ever as we really connected

My dad loves jokes,

I got a lot of flack my first Sunday here when I told the joke,

That was 20 years ago.

But it was a moment I’ll never forget.

And when I laugh,

A Dad’s influence is so powerful.

A series about enjoying life

2020 is the perfect time for this series,

After 3 months of shutting down,

…Only to see the number of COVID cases rising

Then, with recent abuses of power,

…resulting in murder,

With the heaviness that we are all experiencing,

…God’s gift of Joy.

…In the mountains of Jamaica,

The smiles on those children,

…Is a reminder that JOY is independent of circumstance.

God

Now, Ecclesiastes does NOT tell stories from history,

And it’s not about judgment or the future hope,

Ecclesiastes is about right now,

The author asks a lot of questions,

…And points out a lot of inconsistency in life.

That’s what happens in 8:14.

After frustration over injustice in the world,

14 And this is not all that is meaningless in our world. In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless! –Ecc 8 (NLT)

How is it that a drunk driver kills some young mother,

Why do good people sometimes get cancer,

It’s so frustrating.

So what do we do?

15 So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world than to eat, drink, and enjoy life. That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun. –Ecc 8 (NLT)

Isn’t that great!?

Don’t spend all your time worrying

Don’t miss out on what’s in front of you

…about what happened in the past,

Let God worry about these.

Live where you are,

Have fun sharing meals with those close to you.

Don’t get so caught up,

Pastor Jim Groves leads us in our midweek study of the Book of James. This week the study is on James 3:1-12. The study was held & recorded on Zoom.

What will our new normal look like? No one knows. But like he did with the Samaritan woman, Jesus invites us to walk with him into the unknown… together.

Series: A New Normal,

Notes:

For those of you who are still at home,

…We miss you!

And we can’t wait for you to join us soon.

Like every crisis before us,

Crisis is part of living in a fallen world.

Because more than any other time in our lives,

…That we are more open to a change in our perspective,

That’s been true to my experience.

And through this COVID crisis,

…Buildings are not a necessity,

COVID has opened our eyes

…To our being defined as a family and community,

…That GOES TOGETHER

…To love and serve and meet needs in Jesus name,

…A family that GROWS TOGETHER,

Strengthening each other’s faith,

COVID has reminded us,

…That when we keep our light in the building,

So once again,

Our lives have changed.

The way we work, and shop, and go to school has changed.

The future is unknown.

Because one thing we do know,

We can’t do this alone.

And when we recognize our need for God,

It’s a long story, so I have to skip some of the details.

But I think it will help bring some perspective

Because John wrote his Gospel,

With you in mind.

And John wanted to make sure you knew

And today’s story comes right after

16 For God so loved the WORLD that he gave his one and only Son, that WHOEVER believes in him shall not perish but have eternal LIFE. –Jn 3:16-17 (NIV)

Today’s story is about the “Whoever.”

Those willing to be open to something new.

Today’s story is about accepting God’s offer of life

… God becoming a man.

Samaritan Woman

So Jesus left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. –Jn 4:3-4 (NIV)

There were 2 ways to go.

…The quick way was straight through

The long way avoided Samaria and went up the Jordan River.

Very few Jewish people went the short way,

Over the centuries,

the Jewish people oppressed the Samaritans,

Hostility always boiled just below the surface.

John tells us

Jacob was the grandson of Abraham,

The famous Abraham… the Father of the Jews.

Pastor Jim Groves leads us in our midweek study of the Book of James. This week we studied James 2:14-26. Study was held & recorded on Zoom.

The human situation is way worse than we thought. But there’s hope in Jesus - if we’ll “glue” ourselves to Him.

This message with be a bit like the Today show

Ephesians 2:1-3

Paul, writing to the Christian believers in Ephesus, holds nothing back – you were dead!

Not physically dead – soul separated from body

Dead people have no relation to God

And what killed them – sin

The sin that permeated and controlled their lives when they:

Followed their sinful nature that leaves God out of the picture

And without God, desires are the lord in control

Followed the ways of the world which are bodies of belief, cultures, patterns of influence (like advertising, media and social media), organizations, and world-wide systems

Which either leave God out of the picture or are openly hostile to him

Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18)

Followed the Ruler of the kingdom of the air – the heavenly places – the very real spiritual world

And Paul says it’s not just the folks in Ephesus – it’s All of us – We all – also lived among them

Paul’s concern is not that Christians once lived among the disobedient, but that they also lived like them

All people are headed for an encounter with God’s wrath – God’s constant displeasure and reaction against sin

Both his present wrath (John 3:36; Romans 1:18)

Dead – Disobedient – Destined for Wrath

The picture the text paints is bleak.

Because of sins, humans are the living dead.

Okay, so here’s the problem. We don’t take this passage seriously.

For the most part, we do not believe the picture of ourselves is as bad as Paul says.

At first glance Paul’s description of life without Christ appears too harsh.

Is everyone as degraded as he suggests?

Unfortunately, Paul’s estimate of humanity without God is NOT unduly harsh—we just tend to see it through a different lens.

Our lens is typically very microscopic on our 32828 zipcode experience, rather than the more full and complete view of Paul (or things occurring 10 miles away)

To grasp Paul’s perspective, we need only reflect on the evil in our own society,

our suicide rate, our divorce rate, human trafficking

But it’s not just “out there” or “those people.”

I have spent years working with couples who argue, demean and mistreat one another and literally fight each other.

From the seeds of two people who oppress one another sprout entire world systems of injustice

Not just isolated, contemporary moments but decades, even centuries of oppression and violence – because prejudice, racism and marginalizing are ingrained in humanity

Sometime we are truly ignorant about such things; if so, God demands we get smart.

This text says we live in keeping with the world and its “ruler,” but we are deluded and deceived into believing that’s not true

We tell ourselves we are not susceptible to peer pressure, that we do what we want, without ever asking what or who determines our wants.

However, a third century theologian wrote that “he who does not get angry does not care.”

Christianity was birthed in an environment of racial tension that was even more complex than our own. If unity in Jesus was possible in the first century, there’s still hope for the Church today!

But before I jump in today,

I grew up in a police officer’s family.

My Dad was a cop in Miami for 9 years,

My grandfather was the police chief in Miramar Florida.

I love police men and women.

I respect them.

I don’t worry about my daughter’s safety

Any conversation about it would likely begin

Maybe, “Smile. Be nice.”

The expectation is,

That’s the experience I grew up with.

In college, a group of his friends,

The white friend was driving.

The driver respectfully challenged

The exchange was brief… and cordial.

For the black pastor,

He was shocked at the freedom white people felt

As a black man, he never felt that freedom.

In fact, he was taught never to reach for his wallet.

…To always ask for permission first,

He was taught to look down,

Years later, he was pulled over  for speeding in a white neighborhood.

He knew he was doing 27 in a 30,

He explained this,

…Because he looked drunk.

He got out and quietly explained he was a pastor

A Bible was on the front seat.

After a very long minute of looking him over,

This pastor was scared.

There was a story of a black man who, while birdwatching,

…Which was the law.

And she called 911 saying her life was threatened.

And then, that picture of George Floyd

…for 9 minutes.

I first saw the picture next to Colin Kapernaek’s

It said that if Kapernaek’s non-violent protest gets you more upset than a cuffed man with another man’s knee on his neck.

…There is a problem.

I saw that picture before I knew Mr. Floyd had died.

I was wrecked.

This is not just a race issue.

There was Simon the Zealot

There was Matthew the tax-collecting traitor

Both invited to follow Jesus as one family.

After the resurrection, when Christianity was born,

Wealthy Pharisees joined the poor Jews they used to oppress,

And as the story of Jesus’ resurrection

…the racial and cultural division was off the charts.

The Jews believed they were chosen by God,

The Gentiles hated the Jews

And there were slaves

A Midweek Bible Study with the Staff of Avalon Church. In part 6 we look at James 2:1-13.

One of God’s primary ministries in our life is our vocation. This message in 2 Corinthians 5:15-21 demonstrates how to live our everyday lives for Jesus and his kingdom.

I hope you’ve heard.

On Sunday, June 14,

I also want to invite you

…It will be a Zoom meeting

It’s a free class.

AvalonChurch.org/DiscoverAvalon

So we only have a few weeks left in our Uncertain series:

And thank you, Pastor John,

…For last week’s powerful message

We had moved to Wisconsin a couple of years earlier

Within quickly realized we moved there

So, I suddenly found myself a doctoral student out of a job.

So, I became a substitute teacher.

After a while I was paired with a Spanish intern, Seniora Hernandez, who had permanently been hired while she finished her certification.

She was a really good teacher,

but the law required a certified teacher, or substitute,

And for a whole semester, I was

And that semester,

We had some of the best conversations about life and God

It completely changed my view

Where do you spend most of your Christian life?

The church?

Is there any difference between your Christian life

There shouldn’t be.

he is involved in every aspect of our lives.

And where do we spend most of our lives?

I believe that the primary ministry of Jesus’ followers

…but happens where you live and work.

See, I believe that

…if it’s not illegal or immoral,

I believe that your job,

…Whether you love or hate it,

Is the opportunity to use your abilities

That’s part of God’s original plan for us.

…To be stewards of his Creation

…to bring his kingdom to the world

Obviously, this is easy to forget.

But I think God has imparted to each of us

…through which we demonstrate

Let me show you what I mean…

…Investing in the community,

As a result, many chose to follow Jesus

When Paul finally left

the church in Corinth kept growing.

And like so many now,

…They started separating their

And their regular life just began

The church was becoming known

And the church was losing its influence

Sounds kinda familiar, doesn’t it?

When Paul heard how quickly