Port Orchard Church of the Nazarene

This week, Pastor Jerry spoke on the celebratory heart of the Father. Take, for example, the famous Parable Jesus told about the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. That is the perfect picture of how our True Father welcomes us home, even when we've blown it big time! Maybe, if we, the Christian Church, stopped shouting about what we're against and started throwing more parties, celebrating God, life, and people, and- like Jesus in Luke 7:34- were known as “the party throwing friend of the establishment and all other sinners” instead of their enemies, maybe more people would be interested in hanging with us and in what we have to say.

As Seen In Church: 'Tony Campolo - Party with Prostitutes' can be viewed at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRBM_YY_YX0

This week, we were joined again by guest speaker Harold Eberle. Using what he calls "The Gospel In Chairs," Harold debunked a few Christian myths on what God is really like using scripture throughout the New and Old Testaments.

The prophet Micah declares that God requires 3 things of us. He tells us to love mercy, act justly, and walk humbly with our God. Last week we focused on what it means to love mercy. The focus of this message is around what it means to “Do Justice”. The truth is that a person’s worth has nothing to do with any of the outward markers we normally associate with success. Every person has unsurpassable worth because Jesus thought they were worth dying for and paying an unsurpassable price. Our main task of discipleship and our most fundamental call is to agree with God about the worth of all people. To serve and regard all people from that point of view is the ultimate determiner of whether we are acting justly towards another person. On the other hand, to the degree that we define others by our judgments is the degree to which we are acting unjustly towards another.

The prophet Micah declares that God requires 3 things of us. He tells us to love mercy, act justly, and walk humbly with our God. Last week we focused on what it means to love mercy. The focus of this message is around what it means to “Do Justice”. The truth is that a person’s worth has nothing to do with any of the outward markers we normally associate with success. Every person has unsurpassable worth because Jesus thought they were worth dying for and paying an unsurpassable price. Our main task of discipleship and our most fundamental call is to agree with God about the worth of all people. To serve and regard all people from that point of view is the ultimate determiner of whether we are acting justly towards another person. On the other hand, to the degree that we define others by our judgments is the degree to which we are acting unjustly towards another.

In Loving Mercy we will tackle the prophet Micah’s depiction of what God requires of us. Loving mercy means loving it when people don’t get the negative consequences they deserve. If justice is about collecting a debt, then loving mercy is about cancelling debt. In this counter cultural Kingdom of God, we can’t truly love mercy until we realize the extent to which we depend on it.

In Loving Mercy we will tackle the prophet Micah’s depiction of what God requires of us. Loving mercy means loving it when people don’t get the negative consequences they deserve. If justice is about collecting a debt, then loving mercy is about cancelling debt. In this counter cultural Kingdom of God, we can’t truly love mercy until we realize the extent to which we depend on it.

Andre Rabe, speaking about the art of interpretation, points out that we are a story, and we all try to find meaning in the events that make up the story of our lives. He shared from Luke, where a specific story deals with the art of interpretation. He explains how scripture can help us interpret our own story, so that we can begin to understand the story that God wants us to be part of.

Pastor Jerry shared part 3 of his message on evangelism, stating that our call to share the good news starts with our experiencing the good news! He touched on these four things: Continuously receive God’s love, as revealed in Jesus; Look past whatever sin you see, to see the hungry heart that is driving it; LISTEN carefully to LEARN about the life and worldview of the other person; Evangelism must be the natural byproduct of loving people, not the other way around.

This week Pastor Jerry explored how being an ambassador is the best, most important and most rewarding job in the world. The primary role of being a priest is learning how to give and receive mercy, based on the good news of the Gospel. This week’s message revolves around the language in 1 Peter 2:9-10 where Peter tells the early church that they are a “royal priesthood” that live immersed in God’s mercies. The importance of sharing the good news in ways so they are actually experienced as good news, can’t be over stated. The Gospel is such incredibly good news!

Today Pastor Jerry looked at evangelism and the message itself. In the first of three messages, he discusses the most frequent (and often cringe-worthy) ways the “good news” is often presented, and then points out the really good news that we have to share.