May 24 – Via Zoom
Opening Thoughts for Sunday School – Leland Litzenberger
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26
Faith in Christ – that is how each of us become children of God.
God is in control of our interruptions.
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Sunday School – Adoption video by Joel and Christi Stoner and Family
Joel introduced their video. He and Christi have two birth sons and four adopted children.
These three (adopted) talked about what adoption means.
Christi introduced several children in the Bible who were adopted while the children gave us hints of who they were: Joseph, Esther, Moses, Jesus. I missed getting a picture of some.
Joel gave a few comments before the video: “I’m Adopted”
In this series of pictures they quickly told the story of their family – from the time they began dating.
Engagement
Two birth sons
Learned they could no longer have birth children.
Added an adopted son.
Added a foster girl
Foster girl had to leave
Added another son
Girl returned
A fifth son joined their family
Who needs to be adopted?
Children whose parents cannot take care of them.
Adopted means those children have the same rights as their birth children.
Are there orphanages today?
No, because fostering has replaced them.
There are group homes for children who have no one to foster them.
Christi read the story – Little Polar Bear Finds a Friend.
Little polar bear got “trapped” with a lot of other animals to go to a zoo.
During the story he made friends with a brown bear who eventually joined his polar bear family.
Christi showed us some of their chickens who are all different – but they are each chickens.
Welcome to our family
Lots of photos of our church family who are all adopted into the family of God.
Photos of our international church family.
If you would like to see the entire video, you can see it on this Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CAoLIyOgxy6/
Opening thoughts and devotions before worship – Ron Copenhaver
Thanks Joel and Christi for the good reminder that we are adopted into God’s family.
Memorial Day is a good reminder that we need to be grateful for our freedom and those who sacrificed for our country – but even more important is remembering what Jesus has done for us.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Psalm 116:15
Thank you, God, for our heritage and the example that Jesus gave us.
Scripture reading – John Diffenderfer – John 14:1-31
Verse 1– Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me…
Sermon by Merv Groff
As I was preparing this sermon for Zoom, I was reminded of my freshman year in high school when I heard my recorded voice for the first time and thinking that it didn’t sound like me.
It is good to read the words of Jesus in the beginning of today’s scripture – “Let not your heart be troubled” because there are a lot of troubled hearts around us.
Heaven is:
An inheritance, a home, a city, a place of many mansions, our Father’s house, a real place, a place of love and joy.
Not everyone will go to heaven – only those who believe in Jesus.
We have a great opportunity to share the works of Christ and share about the great God we serve – who does great works.
The real test of our love for God is:
Obedience to God
Obedience to Jesus
Obedience to our parents
Do we love the Lord Jesus Christ?
Closing – Jim Myer
Sunday school lesson by the Stoners and the sermon were a great reminder that we are all adopted into God’s family.
In verse 18 of today’s sermon scripture from John 14 Jesus says: I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
Grateful that when Jesus left earth he sent the Holy Spirit and that it is still available while we are practicing social distancing.