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This is the audio from the November 15, 2020 sermon, “Finding HOPE In the Midst of Chaos”, shared by Tom Lemler at the Goshen Christian Church.

Text:  Psalm 42

Have you experienced any CHAOS (Confusion, Hunger, Anger, Opposition, or Suffering) in your life this past year?  This past month?  This past week?  Today?  Does it ever feel like one or more of those elements of chaos dominate your thoughts and how you live?  If so, I want to share some good news! 

In the midst of life’s chaos, God offers . . . 

• Healing: While we are often quick to desire physical healing for all of life’s ailments, how much do we pay attention to the spiritual and emotional healing that we need in even greater measure?  As we face the chaos of life, God offers a healing that will carry us into eternity with Him.  While the physical healing of a body is good and something to pray for, it is really only a temporary healing as we all will face a death of this body we live in.  When the Good Shepherd anoints our head with oil, He not only sets us apart as His but He brings healing to the hurts we experienced while we had gone astray.  We find healing in the midst of chaos when we turn to God in faith and ask draw near to Him.
• Opportunity:  When confusion is a part of the chaos of life, it is easy to become distracted by what we can’t do to such an extent that we miss what we can do.  It is in spending time with God in His Word and prayer that we are able to notice more clearly the opportunities that are present in the surrounding chaos.  When chaos makes it difficult for people to know what to do and where to turn, we who are children of God have a unique opportunity to provide an answer.  We find opportunity in the midst of chaos when we notice the needs of others and can see how God has prepared us to meet those needs.
• Protection:  Much like our need to gain a new perspective regarding God’s desire to heal much more than our physical bodies, it is easy to question God’s protection when chaos hits and we suffer.  The protection we want is usually an ability to avoid all types of loss and hurt.  The protection God offers is the ability to be a peace even in the presence of our enemies.  The things that need protected the most in the midst of any chaos is our spirit and our relationship with Jesus.  We find protection in the midst of chaos when we hold fast to the Word of God and allow His Spirit to direct each aspect of how we live.
• Encouragement:  While our ability to handle chaos on our own varies from person to person, nearly all of us reach a point that the chaos is too much and we feel discouraged.  It is in the midst of that discouragement that God calls us to comfort one another with the same comfort we have received from Him.  Many times it is the things which seem small to us that provide the greatest encouragement to others, just as their small acts of kindness lift our spirits.  We find encouragement in the midst of chaos when we keep a firm grasp on the knowledge that God’s goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life.

So, when your soul is downcast within you and the chaos of life seems to be winning, what will you do?  Will you take the advice of the Psalmist and “put your hope in God”?  I pray that you would gaze deeply into the Word of God and find Healing, Opportunity, Protection, and Encouragement from the One who has called you to Himself because of His great love! 

In prayer,
Tom

This is the audio from the November 8, 2020 sermon, “ARMS Of Love”, shared by Tom Lemler at the Deer Run Church of Christ.

Text:  Mark 10:13-16

While the disciples tried to keep the children at arms length away from Jesus, He called them to himself and wrapped them in arms of love.  As we seek to be like Jesus, it is important to consider who we have pushed away so that we can repent and wrap them in our ARMS of love.

Today, how will you express God’s love through your . . . 

• Attitudes: Our actions and our character begin with our thoughts and attitudes.  To embrace others with God’s love will require us to fully examine our attitudes toward God, toward them, and toward our self.
  • Philippians 2:5=8 — Taking on the attitude of Jesus means that we will humble our self and embrace others with a sacrificial love.
• Responses:  How we respond to people goes a long way toward making them feel like they have been embraced with God’s love or not.  Knowing how to speak truth and speak love at the same time is a lesson we need to learn from Jesus as we allow His Spirit to guide our responses to people.
  • 1 Peter 3:15-16 — God tells us to be ready, or be prepared, to respond with gentleness and respect to all who would ask about our hope in Christ.  This command seems to assume that we are living in such a way that people will see God at work in us and want to know more about what they see.
• Motives:  God is one who looks at the heart and judges us accordingly, so it is important that we examine our motives as we reach out to embrace people with the love of God.  People will often see through our motives of selfishness and in so doing they will reject the embrace of God’s love.  Our goal shouldn’t be to make them be like us, rather it should be to help them become more like Christ.
  • 1 Thessalonians 2:3-6 — In a world full of people trying to please, promote, and advance themselves, we are called to purify our motives and seek the good of others above that of our self.  When we represent Jesus with pure motives, He is seen more clearly and our embrace of people helps them to know God’s love more fully.
• Service:  Changing our attitudes, responses, and motives to be like that of Christ is not only a good thing, but it ought to lead us to serve one another in love.  In a time when the physical embrace is discouraged, we can still embrace one another in the way we serve..
  • Galatians 5:13-15 — All those in Christ have been set free — not so that we can more fully pursue our selfish endeavors, but so that we can serve all people.
  • 2 Corinthians 9:12 — As we serve people and wrap them in our ARMS of love, the result is that there will be an outpouring of thanksgiving unto God for His glorious work.

So, when you consider your family members, your church family, your coworkers, your classmates, your friends, your enemies, and all other people who may be like you or very different from you, will you choose today to wrap them in the ARMS of your love as you express God’s love to the? 

In prayer,
Tom

This is the audio from the November 1, 2020 sermon, “What Kind of KING?”, shared by Tom Lemler at the North Wayne Mennonite Church.

Text:  Joshua 24:14-15, 1 Samuel 12:12-25

When it comes to choosing a leader we will follow, the Bible has many examples of what goes wrong when we choose a king other than God.  In the midst of an election season, it is good to pause and consider what kind of KING you are seeking.

What kind of . . . 

• Knowledge: Many choose knowledge as their king while failing to live for the One who can provide the only knowledge that matters.  What kind of knowledge you seek will make all the difference when it comes to living for the real King.
  • 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 — When knowledge becomes your king, it puffs up the person claiming to have it while putting down those deemed “unknowing”.  Pursuing this kind of knowledge harms not only the person pursuing it, but everyone around them.
  • Proverbs 1:7 — The kind of knowledge we ought to be seeking is the knowledge that begins with a fear of the Lord.  This is a knowledge that produces love and compassion for one another.
• Individual:  Being drawn to an individual’s personality, charisma, power, or any other trait is not a new thing.  What kind of individual you follow will greatly influence what kind of individual you become.
  • 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 — Setting up yourself or any other individual as your king will always lead to division rather than unity.  Choosing the kind of individual that lifts themselves up will always lead us to separating by who we claim our leader to be.
  • 1 Timothy 2:5-6 — The kind of individual we ought to be seeking is Jesus.  He is the only One capable of being the mediator we need between us and God.  The only kind of individual that we ought to seek as our King is the One who made the way for us to approach the living God with confidence.
• Nature:  While there are those who choose nature itself as their king, this point is more about the kind of nature we live by — the nature of the flesh or the nature of the Spirit.  What kind of nature you feed will be the nature that prevails in your words and actions.
  • 2 Peter 2:9-11 — The nature of the flesh is a sinful nature that seeks to please self above all else.  When we pursue a nature that puts us first, we reap the results of a selfish society.  Choosing the kind of nature that excuses and celebrates sin will lead us down a path of destruction.
  • Philippians 2:5-7 — Walking by the nature of the Spirit will produce in us a nature that was exemplified by Jesus.  Choosing the kind of nature that Jesus did will lead us to a life of humility that seeks to serve others as we consider them and their needs to be more important than our own.
• God:  What kind of god you seek will determine what kind of god you will find.  Choosing knowledge, individuals, or nature as your king will lead you to a god of your own making.  There is only one God who is real and deserves to be king of your life.
  • Philippians 3:18-19 — While it may seem strange to ask what kind of god you are seeking, the truth is that mankind is very good at creating their own gods in their own image.  Choosing the kind of god that is all about satisfying our own lusts and desires will leave us unsatisfied in the long run because those gods are really no god at all.
  • Mark 12:29-30 — Choosing wisely says that we will choose the one God who is both real and deserves to be our King.  Choosing this kind of God requires that we are devoted to Him with our entire heart, mind, soul, and strength.

So, what kind of KING are you seeking? 

In prayer,
Tom

This is the audio from the October 4, 2020 sermon, “The ACT of Faith”, shared by Tom Lemler at the North Wayne Mennonite Church.

Text:  Matthew 25:34-40, James 2:14-26

When it comes to faith, there are only two real options:  Faith In Action or Faith Inaction.  A living faith requires that we do something with it.  After growing a living faith, it is to to act.

God says that faith requires action.  If we’re truly going to live out our faith, we must practice the . . . 

• Attitude of Faith: This is the Secret of our hope.
  • Philippians 2:5 — Just as a living faith requires a foundational attitude of humility, the act of faith only happens when we serve others in humble obedience to the will of God.  Taking on the attitude of Christ Jesus should open up within us a willingness to serve others according to their need.
• Content of Faith:  This is the Substance of our hope.
  • Hebrews 11:1 — Rather than viewing faith as simply a collection of beliefs, the act of faith requires that we recognize the tangible substance that is produced when our belief is put into practice.  Our hope in Christ is made more real to us, and to others, when it makes a real difference in everyday life.
• Transformation of Faith:  This is the Salvation of our hope.
  • Matthew 25:34, James 2:22 — A saving faith produces a transformation within us that is visible in what we do.  Jesus welcomes the “righteous” into His presence with the distinguishing characteristic that makes them known being the acts of service done “for the least of these”.  Abrahams faith was credited to him as righteousness because of his willingness to do what God had asked.  The world needs to see a transformed life so that they would know what faith in action can do to transform them.

So, what do you have and what are you doing with it?  What will your ACT of faith lead you to do today? 

In prayer,
Tom

This is the audio from the September 27, 2020 sermon, “A Living FAITH”, shared by Tom Lemler at the Deer Run Church of Christ.

Text: James 2:14-26, Matthew 25:34-40

When it comes to faith, there are only two real options:  Faith In Action or Faith Inaction.  A living faith requires that we do something with it.  Today’s message will consider how to grow a faith that is alive and well.

A living faith grows when you have a living:

• Foundation:
  • Matthew 7:24 — We build our faith on a solid foundation when we both hear and put into practice the Word of God.  Knowing God’s Word is great, but it is in the doing of His Word that our faith has a foundation that can be built upon.  Our foundation is not of stone or sand, but it is the living Son of God, Jesus Christ.
• Attitude: 
  • Philippians 2:5 — When we built a living faith on the foundation of Jesus, we must take on the very attitude of Christ.  Having an active and living faith will only come about when we humble ourselves and are willing to serve for the good of others.
• Inclusion:
  • 1 John 3:17 — Having a living faith will require that we have a living and active inclusion of anyone that God calls to Himself — which is everyone!  The activity of our faith can have no exclusions of people when we have the ability and resources to help.  Not only is the living inclusion applied to those our living faith would serve, it is an inclusion that doesn’t leave anyone out when it comes to the responsibility of serving.
• Trust: 
  • 2 Corinthians 9:10 — Having an active and living faith requires that we have a living trust in the living God.  Putting our faith into action will often test our trust as we begin to question if we have enough of whatever is needed.  Our trust must rise about our ability, bank account, and other resources and rely solely on the One who provides seed to the sower.
• Help:
  • Psalm 121:1-2 — Growing a living faith that is actively serving others should cause you to look to God as the source of the help which is needed.  You have a living help because it comes from a living God.  The help you give others becomes a “cup of cold water” that blesses both you and the recipient when given in the name of Jesus.

So, what do you have and what are you doing with it?  What will your living  FAITH do today? 

In prayer,
Tom

This is the audio from the September 6, 2020 sermon, “WORK, For the Night is Coming”, shared by Tom Lemler at the North Wayne Mennonite Church.

Text: John 9:1-12, 35-41

Jesus teaches that we must work while it is still day, for a time is coming when night falls and our work will be over.

As the night approaches, how will you:

• Witness:
  • John 9:1-5, Acts 1:8 — We are called to be God’s witnesses wherever we are.  Even when things happen which are beyond our understanding, God can use the circumstances to bear testimony to His great name.
• Obey: 
  • John 9:6-12, John 14:15 — The work of obedience doesn’t earn our salvation, but it does show our allegiance to the One who saved us. Obedience is where we put our faith into practice.
• Repent:
  • John 9:39-41, Revelation 2 & 3 — When we claim to be without sin, the truth is not in us.  God calls each of us to admit our blindness and turn from it to seek Him fully.
• Know:
  • John 9:35-38, Luke 1:1-4 — God has given us His Word and the examples of faithful Christians so that we may know Him.  Knowing Jesus ought to fill us with a desire to help others know Him more fully.

As you celebrate Labor Day, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus with an awareness that night may be closer than you realize.  As you live each day, be sure to Witness, Obey, Repent, and Know for the night really is coming! 

In prayer,
Tom