August 20, 2016 - Church at Worship

Sermon: “When the Bridegroom’s Late"  - by Randy Roberts

Pastoral Welcome: Mendez Family

Scripture Reading: Matthew 25:1-13 read by Dan and Betsy Matthews and Joelle Reuer

Sermon Notes: What does it mean to know Jesus as a personal Savior and friend? What does it mean to have a personal walk with him? What does it mean to develop a relationship of intimacy with him? And just how important is that relationship? If we were to ask such a question of Ellen White, her answer would be clear. Consider her words: All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us (Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages, 668, Italics mine). As Morris Venden once said: “That statement places knowing God as the cause, and obeying him as the result,” which would argue that knowing Jesus as my personal Savior and friend is of utmost importance. Today, in the parable of the ten virgins, we will discover just how that reality—the reality of knowing Jesus—correlates with living EverReady lives as we await his coming. Randy Roberts, Senior Pastor