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VISALIA CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING OF AUGUST 21, 2011
Rev. George G. Vink
Farewell Service
Call to Worship-Psalm 150
· “Praise the Lord with the Sound of Trumpet” PH 569
· God’s Greeting & Words of Welcome
· “Let All Things Now Living” PH 453
· Call to Confession-I John 1: 5-10-
· Songs of Response- “God Be Merciful to Me” PH 255:1
& “Lord Listen To Your Children” PH 625 acapella
God’s Rule for Living- Decalogue
· Songs of Response Led by Choir-“He Leadeth Me” PH 452:1,4
& “Lead Me, Guide Me” PH 544: 1,3
Congregational Prayer
Moment with the Children-G.R.A.C .E.
· “In Christ Alone”
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 13 Text: vs 14
Sermon: A PARTING PRAYER FOR GRACE!
Dear Followers of Jesus Christ,
I did not choose the 2 Corinthians passage because I saw a strong identification or correlation between the Corinth Community Church and Visalia CRC. Corinth had an infiltration of false teachers who were challenging Paul’s authority and integrity. Therefore he wrote to explain a few matters as well as sharing personal experiences. He began with the comfort passage of chapter 1, praising God as “The God of All Comfort.” In Chapter 4 Paul explains, “…this treasure (of the gospel) is in jars of clay” to show that the power is from God, not from us! He concludes with a wise warning to “examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.” Then follow the greetings, the “good-by” and a Trinitarian benediction.
How should a pastor say farewell? Having worked together, having lived and loved together, and having struggled to be faithful, I believe it has to be a “God Bless You, God Keep You, and God Make His Face to Smile Upon You!” It’s all about Him and His Kingdom and our being obedient to His calling upon our lives. No parting shots, no final warning words! I would like believe that I’ve honored my calling to proclaim “the full counsel of God.” In doing so, I trust I did how it’s been described, “I’ve comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable.”
After being your pastor, your preacher, for eighteen years, I’d like to go to God’s Word through Paul to the Corinthian Church. It’s a brief and beautiful benediction that’s my parting prayer for you as God’s people. This benediction, a prayer for blessing, comes at the close of an extensive letter and is filled with Paul’s personal experiences. It’s a letter full of direct instructions, and very little “beating around bush.” Paul, God’s chosen instrument, was an earthen vessel. So was your pastor! Yet, in the words of St. Francis, I prayed, “Make me an instrument,” or in Mother Teresa’s words, “Let me be a pencil in the hands of God.”
No pastor can do what he’s called to do on his own. Along with parents whose vows we’ve heard regularly, a pastor vows, “I do, God helping me.” And, if he’s honest, he’ll smile at a comparison with the mouse walking across the swinging rope bridge with an elephant, saying, “WE sure made that bridge swing, didn’t we?” Whatever’s accomplished, God must get the credit. We do what we do as those who know what Paul wrote to the Philippians, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
The goal has been what Paul told the church at Colosse. “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we present everyone perfect in Christ.” (1:28) Perfection is defined knowing the joy of salvation and the forgiveness of sins that comes by being “in Christ.” I trust that you’ve heard that message and believe it! Having tried to proclaim good news and the resulting life of “Seeking the kingdom,” I will leave it to God to bless and judge my efforts. He knows my heart, my love for Him and my love for His family—His church! Now I have this prayer, which was Paul’s prayer for those at Corinth:
“May the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with you all.”
(I Cor. 13:14)
It’s a beautiful benediction closing a book that has had its ups and downs. It was customary for Paul to end his letters and take the time to do so, but this is the most complete commendation. It’s Trinitarian in content. Similar to I Corinthians “faith, hope and love,” we now hear “grace, love and fellowship.” Let’s look at them briefly….
GRACE- You’ve heard me speak about it often, and the more so as I got older. I like to think that I’ve grown more graceful, even in my time here. It’s my desire to see you live out of that grace, the amazing grace that’s God’s gift. “Xaris” is a gift, and if not, we’ve distorted it and it’s not God’s grace. The grace in this benediction was earned by Jesus Christ and is ours by faith, and only by faith! It’s a gift!
Experiencing grace, we show grace because we know grace. We show it by accepting the responsibility of leadership as well as by serving and following. We show grace to those whose lives seem so grace-less and by forgiving because we’ve been forgiven. It’s an ability to suffer injury and be the bigger person. It’s the grace to be humble even though you’re better qualified. It’s letting God be God and you be you!
When we forget what’s at the heart of grace, bring to mind these words, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Look at Him, learn from Him, and then live like Him! You can’t go wrong! May you know that grace!
LOVE- What can be said in a few minutes about the “Love of God”? Can we talk about it at all without thinking John 3:16? “God so loved….” Love gives and love accepts. Love forgives and love understands. Allowing that love to penetrate into our lives, things change! When others see that love in you, then God is delighted and neighbors rejoice. When in a world of hate and hurt, Christ’s Church demonstrates God’s love for the sinner, then healing takes place and loving brings change! May you live that love!
FELLOWSHIP- Not just any, but “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit!” That’s a sense of koinenia, a sense of community spirit, that’s unique to those “in Christ” and Him alone! It’s ours in the power Peter promised as he preached at Pentecost! It’s not limited to certain groups or to a certain time in history. It’s needed now even more than ever in an age of individualism, an age of—“It’s all about me and my stuff!”
Congregational life, church life, cannot be what God intended without it. It’s experienced in the caring for the sick and the straggler. It’s seen in the encouraging of the weak and the lonely. It’s patience with youth and understanding of those “just beginning.” It’s including the single as well as the married, those who come in a Lexus as well as those who walk. It’s making room for the traditional as well as those “let’s get moving!” It means accepting the wayward and affirming the faithful.
It’s also inclusive! Hear it, “…be with you all!” Not just a select few or those deemed worthy by some, or by themselves. The benediction is for all who confess, “My only comfort in life and in death is that I belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ…..” We haven’t earned our membership in God’s family; it’s by grace. My sins have not been forgiven because my hands, my efforts have done it! It’s by grace. And because it is, and now because I belong to Him, “I live because He lives,” and “I love because He first loved me.” Hear it again; it’s a parting prayer of grace:
“May the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with you all. Shalom!
Amen!
· Song of Response-“Not What My Hands Have Done”-PH 260
Offerings- 1. Budget 2. Bible League
Offertory- Singing by Dawn & Terri Vink-“Great Is Thy Faithfulness”
Council Appreciation-PG & BL
· Concluding Song- “Father We Love You” PH 634
· Parting Blessing
· BENEDICTION:
THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST,
THE LOVE OF GOD THE FATHER &
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BE WITH YOU ALL.
GO IN HIS PEACE, NOW & ALWAYS.
***SHALOM!****
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Postlude by Organ On- “Our God Reigns”-PH 195
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