Mount Olivet UMC

Our guest preacher this week is Rev. Dr. Michelle Holmes Chaney, Church Development Coordinator for the United Methodist Church in Northern Virginia Arlington District. We hope you'll join us in giving her a warm welcome!

You have heard it said that we should “Preach the gospel at all times, when necessary use words.” So, what does it mean to evangelize more than offering an invitation to Christ? And one does not even need to use words to do so, but instead can lead an evangelical life by letting your life reflect your faith and being a Christian out loud.

"This is the real world: Christ's reign. Healing, empathy, truth, love, and prayer. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed. Church, at it's best, is a time to renew our minds once a week."

"How many problems in your life stem from an inability to sit with yourself? The need to run and run and run because you know if you stop you may not get back up. So I encourage you to take this strange opportunity that quarantine provides to speak truth to ourselves, to choose honesty."

"What saves us from living a life of fear is keeping our eyes upon Jesus. In the midst of fear and the uncontrollable, keep your eyes on the one who by mercy and grace takes your hand and walks you through the chaos."

"Before I can remove this prejudice, this judgement, this hypocrisy, I need to comprehend it. I need to do the work to understand how I see the world, how I see you, how I see God before I can remove the log from my eye. I need to grasp reality."

The beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News for those who gather to worship and those who have not been in quite some time, if ever, is that the love of God in Christ is ours. There is nothing we can do to earn this love and better yet, there is nothing we or anyone or anything can do to separate us from this amazing love.

Good things can come out of the weeds because God is here among them, his kingdom everywhere.

We are free, in Jesus Christ, to go beyond our limitations and to live fully in this world, working as we are moved by the Spirit of Christ to share that freedom in a world that is better positioned to condemn and convict. In Jesus Christ, in the power of his resurrection, and by the power of the Spirit of God we have been made free, no longer condemned, no longer guilty, and now invited, all of us, to live according to God’s Grace.

"The Christian Gospel is a paradox- only as our lives are linked to Christ and God's will, are we truly free. It is a great freedom to bear a burden other than our own selfish desires. Free to be who God created us to be."