It has been said that we all like change, but only on our own terms. We have experienced many changes in our lives due to the coronavirus pandemic. The changes faced have altered our schedules, restructured our family life, and reorganized our priorities. When the pandemic restrictions were foisted upon us, we made transitions to cope and comply with those demands. When changes are imposed on us, how we deal with them has major implications on our faith-walk with God. We need God to grant us courage as we go through the transitions of life.

Bill Teate has been in full-time ministry for almost 50 years and he’s been a Christian longer than that. During that time God has worked in his life in some amazing ways! He has a good perspective from which to view life as we live it. Today, it is his goal to look back and see what God has done. There are lessons God has taught Bill. Some were hard lessons; all were good lessons. His desire is for his retrospective purview to help us in our endeavor to follow God’s will for our lives. This will be a good day to gain some perspective as he shares some thoughts with us.

Three weeks ago we considered how so-called Home Improvement shows on TV are not reality shows about “homes” at all. They are about houses. A house is not a home. We don’t need houses so much as we need homes. Women and men have specific roles to fulfill in homes being homes as intended by God. We’ve learned some of the strategic advice the Bible gives to women about their roles. This week we will scan some pertinent biblical passages to hear what the Lord might have for men. As we’ll see and hear, God speaks clearly and straightforwardly to men.

From the time of the Fall, mankind has sought to cast God in the image of man. Our culture today teems with obvious evidences of that fact. The rebellious spirit of our day is a direct result. We’re not the first generation or the first culture to battle against the Living God. The Philistines walked that road and it began to consume them. The Bible teaches us that God is a living and active God, not an idol conceived in the mind of man. Man – male and female – is made in the image of God and must turn from idols to serve and follow the living and true God.

Life is replete with tests. The tests we encounter in the course of our lives are the means used in the development of our mental intelligence, our physical coordination, and our moral behavior. We can recall how we went through tests either with joy or sadness based on the outcome. The outcomes may carry a heavy price, for success or failure of tests determines the course of our lives. When it comes to our relationship with God, how we stand up to tests of faith impacts us for eternity. Let us be examined by the testing of faith claims.

People love to be heroes. Young kids all over the country may be found counting down the seconds to recreate a last-second, game-winning shot. I’ve known an adult or two to do the same thing! That’s just one proof of the fact people love to be heroes. Often when we are watching a movie or reading a book we are tempted to identify with the star of the story and put ourselves into the starring role. Christians may even be tempted to do this when studying the Bible. We must recognize that God has chosen a Redeemer of His own choosing. (Hint: it is not any of us.)

Leidy’s Church is currently involved in Gospel Gleanings, a Dollar-A-Day Project to reach the Erukula and Mucherukala Unreached People Group in Andhra Pradesh, India with the Gospel. This is a strategic outreach to the most populous country in the world. India has more unreached people groups than any other country or region of the globe. Today we will consider some pressing reasons why we should be motivated to reach the unreached. We know people without Christ are lost. We know being lost has bad, far-reaching, disastrous ramifications. Things need to change.

We celebrate July 4th, Independence Day, to remember how the members of the thirteen colonies of the United States Congress unanimously signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Originally, this document declared the independence of United States of America from the tyrannical rule of Great Britain, who violated the colonists’ God-given “unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It employed the Bible’s liberating truth to real life matters. We too should live by these biblical precepts by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Can you believe it? On this Sunday we’ll be done. It will all be in the rearview mirror. Hard to believe, Harry. It was way back on September 22nd that we began walking through Revelation. We should feel just a little bit like John when he reached this point: he wanted to worship. But he had to be corrected; he was falling down at the feet of a created being. He was rebuked and told what to do: Worship God. That’s been a theme throughout Revelation. John is reminded of what he’s heard and seen, all wrapped up in that command. That command should wrap it up for us too.

This week's sermon title is "A River to Drown In." God gave Ezekiel a vision of a river flowing from the temple of God. First it was ankle deep, then hip deep, then chest deep, and finally so deep it required swimming. It went out from the temple to the sea and made the salt water fresh water. Wherever the river went everything lived; but there were swamps and marshy areas where it didn’t reach. They weren’t healed. John receives a vision in Revelation 22 of a remarkably similar river. It flows from the throne of God; it has the tree of time on either side. One big difference: in this case there is no longer any curse! Jump in!