October 17, 2015 - Church at Worship

Sermon: “The Ancient Mystery”  - by Randy Roberts

Pastoral Welcome: Roy Ice

Scripture Reading: TBD

Children's Feature: Doug Mace 

Sermon Notes:

  We all like to feel like we are part of a group. Kids want to be a part of the “in crowd” on the playground at school; teenagers want to be a part of the cool kids on campus; young adults want to belong to a movement—a sometimes semi-invisible group that is doing something important; and adults want to live in a neighborhood where others live with whom they fit in.

In other words, we want to belong. We want to belong to a beloved, to a family, to a friendship circle, to a team, to a country. And finally, many of us want to know that we belong to a God who cares about us. It’s at that point, surprisingly, that we encounter a real challenge (not that we don’t in other areas as well) because the history of religion has not been particularly positive in this regard. Religion has tended to draw lines that bring people in—“You can belong!”—but those lines, by their very nature, also keep people out.

Such was the nature of Israel’s history. Israel was God’s chosen; the other nations were on the outside looking in. And that’s the way we picture that it always was… But then we read the New Testament. Then we read Colossians. And there in Colossians we encounter what Paul calls the mystery. And contained in that word is something that shatters what we always believed…

Join me as we explore this mystery…

Randy Roberts

Senior Pastor