✝ Daily Encouragement (4/3/24) "Jesus' Resurrection, The Foundation Of Our Faith"
Published: Wed, 04/03/24
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Wednesday, April 3, 2024
 "Jesus'
Resurrection,
The Foundation Of Our
Faith"
Message
summary:
Let us place our faith in the truth of the resurrection, the foundation of our faith!
Listen
to our message on your audio player.
"Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 1:1-4).
Over the last few days I inquired with several whether they were in church
this last Sunday morning and then asked them, "What did your pastor preach on?" (I of course had a pretty good idea of what it would be.)
One response was from Brian, a man who has been attending a church I had
recommended several years ago. He has become a steady attender and Christ-follower. His response to my question was, "He preached about Jesus raising from the dead!" Which of course is the answer I had expected. It's hard to imagine any church not proclaiming that bedrock truth on Easter Sunday! But sadly it does
happen.
Bob, a longtime friend of ours, shared about his first Easter service. He was responding to a point I had made in Monday's message about having a "bad" Easter service. Here was his
email:"'YES,' we DID have a
"BAD" Easter Service! At Easter 1970 in Monroe, Connecticut, 54 years ago! Linda (my wife) had been saved in High Point, NC in 1969. We moved to CT in 1970, and the girls and I were still not saved!
Easter Sunday, she suggested we go to a church
(evangelical in name)
"for the girls' sake!"
The only thing I remember about the service
was that the Pastor "preached" (spoke) about the ROAD CONSTRUCTION to be coming soon in front of the church!
Linda was distraught as she was expecting her family to hear the Gospel and
get saved, too!"
Well five years later Bob got saved when he was 34 years old listening to a sermon by Billy Graham. He and Linda have been our friends now for some 40 years.
This last Sunday our pastor, like most, preached on the resurrection using
Romans 1:1-4 as his main text. His main point was thetruth of the resurrection as a literal historical event that is foundational to the Christian faith.
He stressed that the vital decision we all must make is whether we believe
this truth or not. Perhaps knowing many visitors were present as a means of honoring their parents rather than by conviction, inevitably there would be some who've been deeply hurt in the past by a church member(s) or a bad experience with a church. Pastor made his appeal to this unnamed group of visitors to consider the truth of the message rather than the deficiencies of the messengers using in our view a very effective
illustration.
On March 1st he rented a cello and set out to learn a short piece from acomposition by the famous German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). He surprised the congregation (and even his own family who were unaware of his
venture which involved a lot of time and discipline). Pastor Beau has an athletic background and is not musical. But he proceeded to play a portion of the composition (video below). He did a pretty good job for only a month of practice and we sure admired his monumental effort. However his point was this: it would be wrong to blame the composer or his original composition for any deficiencies in the way he played Bach's composition to the
cellos.
Likewise how many focus on the deficiencies of the church and Christ's
followers (which we all have) when our focus should be on the foundational truth of the Gospel, the resurrection of Jesus Christ!
All of us have been hurt in one way or another and probably more than a few
of us have hurt others as a deficient witness for Christ. Pastor's sermon reminds us as believers that we should always seek to "be an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity" (I Timothy 4:12b).
Let us place our faith in the truth of the resurrection, the foundation of
our faith!
Be encouraged
today,
Hebrews
3:13
Stephen & Brooksyne
Weber
Daily
prayer:
Father, how grateful we are that Your provision of salvation is powerful, life changing, gives us abundant life here and now, and also eternal benefits for all who come by faith. We thank You for the messenger who brought the salvation message to our attention. Tragically, some of those very messengers have stumbled along the way and brought reproach on the name of Christ and His church. Their ungodly behavior has
influenced others who have also stumbled and lost their way, no longer desiring to follow after You. We pray for these whom we know, some who are are even family members, that they would look past the imperfect messenger and remember the message of salvation, that Christ came to save us from our sins and rose from the dead. Help us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God, so that we remain faithful to You. It isn't the messenger that changes our lives and destiny, but it is the
message presented by You - our gift of salvation. "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit" (I Peter 3:18).
Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental
Resources
 Here is the part of the service this last Sunday cued to where our pastor plays the cello as an illustration. Watch on YouTube
It includes the portion of the message needed to introduce the purpose of the
illustration."The Old Violin"
Watch on YouTube E
dward Menaldino This song is not related to the message but this song came to mind since Edward Menaldino, who is now with the Lord, spoke a very encouraging word to me as a young pastor when I was being interviewed for ordination in 1979.
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58). Now that's a truth I also like to encourage others with!
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Scripture references are from The Holy Bible: New International Version. © 1984 by International Bible Society; NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. and the King James Version.
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Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
717-823-0592
Daily Encouragement Net
https://www.dailyencouragement.net
Mail service provider is aweber.com
495 Kraybill Church Rd
Mount Joy PA 17552
USA
Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options