Announcements:
Tuesdays 9:30 Bible Study
Sunday School 9:00
July 31-Aug 4 6:00 – 8:30 pm VBS at Methodist Church
Aug 5 2:00-4:00 pm, Born Park, CUIC ice cream social
Our Upper Room subscription was inadvertently canceled.
Please tell Nancy Born Martin if you would like to receive it
again. We will resume the subscription if enough want this
devotional. The Daily Bread devotional is in the back of the sanctuary.
Needed: Children’s message volunteers. Sign up in back.
Donation Box: AC bills
First Sundays: food donations for food banks
Pastor Larry Traxler- (217) 454-2362
Keep in Your Prayers
Pam and Tom; Carolyn Fansler; Iva Traughber Brunner; Nora
Hanaver; Todd Henricks; Jonah Martina; Jan Bower; Larry
Traxler; Michelle West; Michelle’s mom; Carolyn Hirsch; Eli
Brunner; Nancy Fansler; Joe Waltz; Doug Larrick; Ron &
Kathleen Petersen; Debbie Leibrock; Dorthea Wood; Tina
Wilhelm; Mindy Sawyer; Carl and Wilma Cable; Mike and Carol
Seidenstricker; Adiline Young; Kim Lehmann; Doug Fansler;
Shawn Cain; Robert Cripe; Mayo & Darlene Hanaver; Patty
Cripe; Stacie Warren; Nancy Gorrell; many unspoken requests;
healthcare workers and first responders; victims of disasters;
victims of shootings; shut-ins; the Nigerian church; Haitian
Brethren; Ukraine
Military and Other Services and their families
Brethren Volunteer Service workers; Disaster project workers
District Prayer Calendar: Pray for the Champaign congregation.
Sermon:
CERRO GORDO CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN
July 30, 2023
No Excuses!
Jude 17-25
We are going to take a look at what God expects of His
people this morning. This can take at least a couple of
different turns. I shared with you a few of the issues the
church and society are dealing with at this time a couple
weeks ago. We could expand that in more detail and in
many other directions but we are not going to do that
today.
As we begin today, I would like to share with you one of
the dominant themes God has established for His people
beginning in Genesis and going consistently all the way
through to the last verses of Revelation. It may not be
what you would immediately think. For one thing as we
have looked at the Ten Commandments as well as a
couple of the other rules or laws given to Moses found in
either Genesis or Leviticus, we see God establishing a
stand to live by for His people. Jesus made it clear what
should motivate us to do our best to obey those laws.
Love. In fact, as we look at the laws given to mankind
through Moses by God when Jesus was asked what is the
greatest commandment this was his answer. We see this
answer:
Matthew 22:36-40 NIV
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first
and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love
your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang
on these two commandments.”
So, one can truly and accurately say love is the most
dominant theme in scripture. However, this is not the only
dominant theme God gave us throughout His word. There
is one more. Personal responsibility, no excuses. In the
beginning after God created man and woman, what
happened? There were lots of trees in the Garden of
Eden. They could eat from every tree or of any plant they
wanted except one. God commanded that they do not eat
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And what
happened? Eve allowed herself to be deceived by Satan
and at of that tree. She hadn’t anymore than finished
eating when Adam came along and she convinced him to
eat as well. When it became apparent to God what they
had done, what did they do? Eve made excuses, “Well the
serpent tricked me!” and what did Adam do, “Well the
woman you gave me talked me into eating of the tree!” In
both cases, “It is not my fault” was their excuse.
The next major event in scripture happened with Cain and
Abel. One offered the best he had to God; the other did
not. When God questioned Cain about his mediocre
sacrifice, how did Cain react? He refused to recognize his
error and drew Abel out to a field and killed him. When
God asked Cain where his brother was, he said he did not
know. Again, refusing to take responsibility for his own
actions.
From that point on God’s relationship with His people
would go back and forth as people would sometimes
admit to their sins and at other times try to pretend, they
were doing nothing wrong and make excuses.
In the New Testament Paul went as far as to say this.
2 Thessalonians 3:10 NIV
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The
one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
In verses 6-9 Paul goes into detail about what lead him to
share that warning. Once again, no excuses. It is up to
you to do the right thing in the eyes of God and as an
example to others around you. With all this being said,
what does the Lord expect of the church today? Are we to
honor and value the commandments God gave to Moses
all these thousands of years ago still today? Did Moses
make them up because those are what he thought were
the right way to honor God? Did they apply to God’s
people thousands of years ago, but it is a different world
today? We know so much more than they did back then,
after all.
In biblical times it was often thought that every bad thing
that happened to a believer happened because they or
their parent or family or village committed sin. Jesus
dismissed this belief to a degree when he was asked
about a man who was born blind. In John Chapter 9 we
see this situation. Jesus’ answer was this.
John 9:3 (NIV)
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this
happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
I cite this example because in reality the majority of
things that happen to us in life is a direct result of the
choices we make but not every one of them. When we see
bad things happening in our lives more times than not,
we can look at a choice we made that brought it on. One
pastor once said this very simple statement, “Choose to
sin, choose to suffer.” Yes, it is true. Some things happen
we just do not understand and may never understand in
this life. However, let’s get back to the title of today’s
message, No Excuses.
If we believe God gave Moses those very detailed rules or
laws, why did He do it? There are a couple of reasons but
the main one was because God created us and know
what is best for us. If we were capable of obeying all of
them, we would live an incredibly happy, healthy life. But
because sin entered the world with Adam and Eve, it is
simply impossible to obey them all. Satan is alive and
well and still tricking and deceiving even the godliest men
and women. That is why our salvation, our victory is in
what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.
I had hoped to wrap up our look at the church and society
and what we as God’s people are to do in this modern
world today, but I apologize, it is going to take one more
Sunday. We are going to stop here this morning and look
next Sunday at what it all means to you me and God’s
church in today’s world. Can we live a “no excuses life”?
When we look at God’s word and how we are to apply it to
our lives, what does that really mean? I pray the Holy
Spirit will give us those answers as we seek to serve God
and be His arms, feet, hands, ears, voice and heart to a
world he wants to have fellowship with.
Pastor Larry