OPENING PRAYER

God, thank you for the arrival of Spring and the promise of warmer, longer, and brighter days.

Thank you for the growth, life, and birth that come with it.

We are grateful that the world is awakening during this time.

While our calendar marks the arrival of spring, we still struggle with the remnants of winter. We pray that you bring forth all that is meant for this season in our lives.

Your word promises us provision, hope, joy, health, and loving relationships in this life. We ask for these blessings to become a reality in our practical lives during this season.

We put our trust in you, and your promises, and we eagerly anticipate the gift of Spring.
Amen.

SERMON

POINT: There is a sense of anxiety and fear when it comes to being incorrect about matters of faith.

*Matthew 12:36-37 NRSV *
I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Romans 3:28 NRSV
For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.

Luke 18:18-22 NRSV
A certain ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother.’” He replied, “I have kept all these since my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

1 Timothy 2:13-15 NRSV
For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.

Matthew 6:14-15 NRSV
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

POINT: Jesus was passionate about not placing obstacles in the way of people experiencing faith.

John 2:13-22 NRSV
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”

His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

The Jewish leaders then asked him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?”

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.”

The Jewish leaders then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

HUMILITY: “We are committed to seeking Christ as the ultimate truth and reality. We are not afraid of uncertainty or tension in this pursuit. As we continue to discover the ultimate mystery of Christ’s love together, we strive to embody a humble orthodoxy that learns from other Christian expressions and movements throughout the history of the Church.”

POINT: A deep and meaningful faith is fostered best with humility and patience.

Romans 14 NRSV
Welcome those who are weak in faith (or conviction), but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. 2 Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. 3 Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

5 Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. 6 Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.

7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.”

12 So then, each of us will be accountable to God. Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.

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