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Sunday Morning Message, April 5th:

Jesus, the Suffering Servant

Isaiah 42:1-7

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Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Things continue to cause struggles in the lives of many in our world. From the teachers to the parents to the clerks to the owners of businesses things just seem to be getting more difficult as the days go by.

For me one of my struggles is not being able to be with my church family on Sunday’s and Wednesday’s. I just miss seeing them and being able to listen how things are going in their lives. I talk with them on the phone but that’s just not the same.

This time seems to have pulled the joy out of many things. Yet not for all. Sunday when I got home from the church Vicki, Joshua, Danielle, Harper and Sutton were sitting at the table. As I slipped back to the bedroom for a moment I heard Sutton talking.

It wasn’t that he was talking it was what he was saying. He was making sure that everyone was sitting where they needed to be and then MeMaw asked him to pray. I heard most of it from the bedroom, but when I walked into the kitchen, he had to tell me all that he prayed for. It was really cute -- Sutton style!

For whatever reason he ate very quickly, then put his silverware in the sink and plate in the trash. Then he slipped into the living room. The next thing I know he is making all these goofy sounds and then stops. Then he came into the kitchen and showed us what he had been doing.

He had been using snapchat on Joshua’s phone and putting some goofy face with the goofy sounds he had been making. One face had thick eyebrows and a mustache. On another one there was a large forehead, some crazy looking eyes and a really weird mouth.

Through it all he was just laughing and having the best of times. You would never know there was anything going on in our world by how he was acting. For a 5 year old he was coming up with some pretty funny stuff.

As I was thinking about all that is going on and the struggles people are faced with around the world, I thought it might be nice if more of us reacted just a little like Sutton. I mean we can surely use a little joy in the midst of the things that are going on.

Then I thought about what James says in James 1:2-4 -- ² Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴ And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

It isn’t easy to look at some of the things that are happening and ‘consider it all joy’. To see the struggles that the doctors and nurses are going through as they provide care for those who are sick makes it difficult to ‘consider it all joy’.

Then you look at those who have loved ones who have died or are near death and the struggle gets more difficult. Of course, there are those who are walking through this time of sickness who are finding it difficult to breathe let alone have joy in the midst of it all.

James calls us to have joy when we face various trials. He didn’t say the joy was going to be easy. He didn’t say that there weren’t going to be moments where we questioned. He called us to have faith that produces endurance.

13031. thing that we need to hold to in this time is a joy that carries us to where God desires us to be – walking in His will and in accordance with the way He is leading. I know it can be tough, but try to live with a little joy in your life as you face the coming days. It will surely make the difference. And remember ----

JESUS, JESUS, JESUS, there IS something about that name!!

Christ only, always,

Bro. Paul

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If we as Christians are going to accomplish the tasks for which we have been called, we must lay hold of the power of God.  One person shared how we must do that --

The church’s greatest deficiency today is in power – not in programs, strategies, materials, or ideas. Power for ministry can be released only through prayer.”

Anonymous