Morning Hour Chapel

Endings and Beginnings: The Beginning of Unity in the Church, Part 1

When you pray, do you make time to listen for God to respond? We spend a lot of time asking God for things, including asking Him His will, but how often do we spend prayer time listening for His voice?

Pastor Joe introduces us to Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and a God-fearing man who was known to follow the Jewish beliefs. He was visited by an angel of God and instructed to send for Simon Peter, the apostle. The next day, God visited Peter as he was praying and did something drastic – He told Peter to kill and eat animals that were against the law for Jews to eat. When Peter balked, God said “What I have called clean, do not call unclean.”

Two separate encounters over 30 miles apart. Two men, a Gentile and a Jew. What could God have in mind by bringing these two together? 

Endings and Beginnings: The Ending of Saul / The Beginning of Paul

When we confess Christ as our Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit enters into us and does some stuff! He may give us new gifts, talents, and experiences, or He may use our existing gifts, talents, and experiences (or both!) so that we might do the work of building the kingdom of God.

In this message, Pastor Joe shares the story of Saul, who later became Paul. He speaks from Acts 9 about the ways in which Jesus Christ worked through Saul, blinding him and making him utterly helpless. Jesus also worked through Ananias, a disciple who feared arrest and death at the hands of Saul but who did God’s will and went to Saul, prayed for him, and watched him accept Christ, be baptized, and begin preaching boldly the gospel of Christ. We see how God used the disciples in Damascus to help Saul escape people who were wanting to kill him and how God used Barnabas to tell the disciples in Jerusalem that Jesus had done a mighty work and had brought Saul to Himself.

After Saul came to Jerusalem, we see that the church multiplied and grew in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Joe asked us to stand up and to fear God and not men, and he asked us to take comfort from the Holy Spirit when men would try to silence us from sharing our witness of Jesus Christ’s work in our lives.

Endings and Beginnings

We are all about beginnings and endings. We celebrate beginnings like births and marriages with annual birthday and anniversary celebrations. Often we mourn endings like death and divorce.

 In this message, Pastor Joe speaks of Stephen, one of the first deacons of the church, and his message to the religious leaders of his time. He had experienced the beginning of the church, and he experienced the seeming end of his life at the hands of those same religious leaders. But Stephen knew that his end was only the beginning, as he asked Jesus to bring him home to Him. Stephen’s death was the beginning of severe persecution for these new Christians, particularly at the hands of a young man named Saul.

 

1st Century Church/21st Century World: What the Church Gets Right and Wrong

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

Abortion is a hot-button topic in the political arena. People, including many Christians, get into shouting matches about abortion, and we often end up shouting past each other, with no Christian love on display.

For Sanctity of Life Sunday. Pastor Joe shares some stark statistics about abortion, but the real message has to do with how we, as Christians, deal with not just the subject of abortion, but the PEOPLE affected by abortion. He urged us to remember that abortion isn’t just about the unborn child, but it’s about the mother and the father too.

When the church sees pregnant couples considering abortion, our political shouts go unheard and we only succeed in pushing that couple further from the cross of Jesus Christ. But if we, the church, started really listening to these couples, getting to know the reasons behind their choice to abort, we may be able to help them to see their worth as image-bearers of a God Who wants to be reconciled with them. And in seeing their own worth, perhaps they will see, too, the worth of the unborn child they have created.

1st Century Church/21st Century World: Work, Then Words

The first century church we read about in Acts relied on prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit to share the gospel with the people in Jerusalem.

They shared the gospel by first doing. They met a need of the people - speaking their languages so they could understand the gospel; physically healing people so they could better hear the gospel unencumbered by their suffering.

Pastor Joe poses this question: what would happen if the 21st-Century church relied on prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit to share the gospel? What could Morning Hour Chapel accomplish in our community when we rely on prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit?

Advent is Absurd: Finding God in Our Uncertainty

In an age of growing uncertainty about…well…almost everything, the idea of an Everlasting God can seem absurd.

In this podcast, Pastor Joe continues looking at the description of Messiah in Isaiah 9:6. He talks about the uncertainty that abounds and seems to be more keenly felt during Advent. The uncertainty of homelessness. The uncertainty of joblessness. The uncertainty that comes when we feel ourselves to be worthless.

As we continue to strive to love our neighbor as ourselves, it is so important that we are light to the world in their uncertainty. It is crucial that we light the path of those who are wandering and those who are lost.

And it’s important to remember that, in this world of uncertainty, we serve an Everlasting Father who remains constant through all of our inconstancy.

Advent is Absurd: Finding God in Our Weakness

Messiah is referred to in Isaiah 9:6 as "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

In this podcast, Pastor Joe shares a message entitled "Finding Christ in Our Weakness."

He reminds us that Jesus didn't come to establish an earthly government. He came to battle the powers of darkness and evil, and as Christians, we are doing the same. But God gives us the power of the Holy Spirit, which raised Christ from the dead, to make us mighty in our weakness. To help us to fight the power of sin and darkness.

First Things First: Love Your Neighbor

Imagine the person or people group who we despise the most—that person or that people group is also our neighbor. And we're supposed to love them as we love ourselves.

One of the most well-known phrases in the Bible, whether you're a Christian or not, is "Love your neighbor." In fact, one of the primary criticisms of modern Christianity is that Christians are hateful, particularly when it comes to certain people or people groups. When I look at this criticism objectively, I wonder if the critics are right?

Pastor Joe shares the final sermon in a six-week series called "First Things First." Over the last five sermons, he's talked about the absolute most-important commandment. The commandment on which every other word of scripture depends.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and...love your neighbor as yourself."

First Things First: I Got the Power

There is a Sunday School song that goes, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, they are week but He is strong.”

 Pastor Joe preaches on loving God with all our strength. He demonstrates different ways we think about strength – strongman competitors, superheroes, and ants! Did you know that an ant can lift and carry 10x to 50x its own body weight?? Loving with our strength takes practice, and it takes sacrifice. Sometimes the sacrifice is relatively painless – like giving up a couple of hours of TV a day. Sometimes the sacrifice can be ultimate – like being persecuted, imprisoned, or killed for our faith. The source of our strength is the Lord God.