Sunday_Service

Sunday Service Assembly September 10th, 2006

The Church Ministries

Bible Truth Christian Church

Good morning everyone to our 143rd Assembly for The Church Ministries, from this little office in the middle of the Pacific on the big Island of Hawaii, where there is still left the original heritage of the true Hawaiian culture, We are here today to praise the Lord, so let us all stand and shout and say we

Praise You Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. So let us all give God and Jesus a big, “I love you” and let us not forget the Holy Spirit, We love You Holy Spirit, This church is all about love, and that is our major meaning of The Church Ministries, is love , if we have love we can do almost anything, and we don’t try to hurt anyone or try to throw any judgment calls on anyone, we love and gather together each week, 1000’s of miles away from each other and at all different times and all different parts of the world but we all have one thing in common we are Christians, and we Love the Lord, and we love people and we are all trying to help each other and that is our focus just to help one another and love one another so basically that is how we stand, still, even today , everyone knows my story and maybe some new members don’t but we will summarize what has been going on later. We are a church that wanted a mission somewhat what I worked in the 70’s and then again in the 80’s so I have a few hours of experience the thing is you have to know people and you need to have good discernment, some just have it as a gift and some have it through practice and some are being a self continuous teaching. All we would like to say today is welcome, we are the only Bible Truth Christian Church that is here to help one another, pray for one another, and heal one another, so some day we will combine with all the other churches and ministries that keep asking us to join in with them or be a part off, we have not decided we kind of like things the way they are if we could only get some help if not this 170 page church might have to, just work a little harder..

Dear Heavenly Father, We come upon Your throne of grace to receive mercy this week and find grace and help for all our needs. You are our light and salvation; You are our strength and redeemer. Please cast away all our fears and doubts and help us to focus on Your love and truth. Your Word sets us free from all the trials and tests of this broken world. We were all bought with a price, and we are all here to glorify You, in spirit and in truth deep from within ourselves. We know that the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives and reigns within us all, so Lord please deliver us from this present evil world, and the darkness. Please hold us in your loving arms and have your Spirit come upon us and guide us to be over comers. Grant us the blessed anointing to give us encouragement and peace through this day. We gather before You in the Name of Jesus to fill us with the Holy Spirit so our minds can be open to the Word and Your quiet voice and teachings. Father we submit to You our bodies and minds as an act of worship and praise. We stand before You as one body, the Body of Christ and ask forgiveness and confess all of our sins. We all want to be cleansed and bear good fruit. Please Father, plant us near the river of living water so we can constantly bear the fruits of love, joy, peace, and goodness. We are all here to honor You and to be filled with Your knowledge, wisdom, and Your will. Guide us all to the light of your righteousness so we can bring You the glory. Purify us all as one body this day and all of our days. Teach us the act of direct togetherness as we group and rejoice in Your majesty. ++++In Jesus Name, Amen

Please open your bibles to the book of John Chapter 3

Jesus and Nicodemus

1After dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, 2 came to speak with Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are proof enough that God is with you."

3Jesus replied, "I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God."

4"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. "How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?"

5Jesus replied, "The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. 7So don't be surprised at my statement that you must be born again. 8Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."

9"What do you mean?" Nicodemus asked.

10Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things? 11I assure you, I am telling you what we know and have seen, and yet you won't believe us. 12But if you don't even believe me when I tell you about things that happen here on earth, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven? 13For only I, the Son of Man, have come to earth and will return to heaven again. 14And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so I, the Son of Man, must be lifted up on a pole, 15so that everyone who believes in me will have eternal life.

16"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

18"There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. 19Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. 21But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants."

John the Baptist Exalts Jesus

22Afterward Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem, but they stayed in Judea for a while and baptized there.

23At this time John the Baptist was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there and people kept coming to him for baptism. 24This was before John was put into prison. 25At that time a certain Jew began an argument with John's disciples over ceremonial cleansing. 26John's disciples came to him and said, "Teacher, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you said was the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going over there instead of coming here to us."

27John replied, "God in heaven appoints each person's work. 28You yourselves know how plainly I told you that I am not the Messiah. I am here to prepare the way for him--that is all. 29The bride will go where the bridegroom is. A bridegroom's friend rejoices with him. I am the bridegroom's friend, and I am filled with joy at his success. 30He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

31"He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. I am of the earth, and my understanding is limited to the things of earth, but he has come from heaven. 32He tells what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! 33Those who believe him discover that God is true. 34For he is sent by God. He speaks God's words, for God's Spirit is upon him without measure or limit. 35The Father loves his Son, and he has given him authority over everything. 36And all who believe in God's Son have eternal life. Those who don't obey the Son will never experience eternal life, but the wrath of God remains upon them."

John 4

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

1Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, "Jesus is baptizing and making more disciples than John" 2(though Jesus himself didn't baptize them--his disciples did). 3So he left Judea to return to Galilee.

4He had to go through Samaria on the way. 5Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. 7Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Please give me a drink." 8He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.

9The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, "You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?"

10Jesus replied, "If you only knew the gift God has for you and who I am, you would ask me, and I would give you living water."

11"But sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket," she said, "and this is a very deep well. Where would you get this living water? 12And besides, are you greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his cattle enjoyed?"

13Jesus replied, "People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. 14But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life."

15"Please, sir," the woman said, "give me some of that water! Then I'll never be thirsty again, and I won't have to come here to haul water."

16"Go and get your husband," Jesus told her.

17"I don't have a husband," the woman replied.

Jesus said, "You're right! You don't have a husband-- 18for you have had five husbands, and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now."

19"Sir," the woman said, "you must be a prophet. 20So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?"

21Jesus replied, "Believe me, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father here or in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans know so little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23But the time is coming and is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for anyone who will worship him that way. 24For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth."

25The woman said, "I know the Messiah will come--the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

26Then Jesus told her, "I am the Messiah!"

27Just then his disciples arrived. They were astonished to find him talking to a woman, but none of them asked him why he was doing it or what they had been discussing. 28The woman left her water jar beside the well and went back to the village and told everyone, 29"Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did! Can this be the Messiah?" 30So the people came streaming from the village to see him.

31Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus to eat. 32"No," he said, "I have food you don't know about."

33"Who brought it to him?" the disciples asked each other.

34Then Jesus explained: "My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest. 36The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37You know the saying, `One person plants and someone else harvests.' And it's true. 38I sent you to harvest where you didn't plant; others had already done the work, and you will gather the harvest."

Many Samaritans Believe

39Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, "He told me everything I ever did!" 40When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay at their village. So he stayed for two days, 41long enough for many of them to hear his message and believe. 42Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe because we have heard him ourselves, not just because of what you told us. He is indeed the Savior of the world."

Jesus Heals an Officials Son

43At the end of the two days' stay, Jesus went on into Galilee. 44He had previously said, "A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own country." 45The Galileans welcomed him, for they had been in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration and had seen all his miraculous signs.

46In the course of his journey through Galilee, he arrived at the town of Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in the city of Capernaum whose son was very sick. 47When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea and was traveling in Galilee, he went over to Cana. He found Jesus and begged him to come to Capernaum with him to heal his son, who was about to die.

48Jesus asked, "Must I do miraculous signs and wonders before you people will believe in me?"

49The official pleaded, "Lord, please come now before my little boy dies."

50Then Jesus told him, "Go back home. Your son will live!" And the man believed Jesus' word and started home.

51While he was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well. 52He asked them when the boy had begun to feel better, and they replied, "Yesterday afternoon at one o'clock his fever suddenly disappeared!" 53Then the father realized it was the same time that Jesus had told him, "Your son will live." And the officer and his entire household believed in Jesus. 54This was Jesus' second miraculous sign in Galilee after coming from Judea.

Are you good at remembering names and faces?

- I’m not, especially men with beards and Asians

- I meet a lot of people from Korea, China, Malasia etc

- but I’m never sure whether they are Ping Pong Poo or Gung Ho Goo

- (those are made up names, by the way, in case you were wondering)

- and sheep? can you recognise individuals? They all have different faces

- and swans all have different markings on their beaks. Have you noticed?

- when it comes to lesser animals it gets harder

- can you tell one frog from another? Actually, I think even frogs can’t

- the only way to tell a male from a female frog is to press its back gently

- a male frog will think it is being mounted, and will squeak a warning

- I guess this is needed by frogs because even they can’t tell who is male

- now think about ants, scurrying over a pavement

- do you think that you would EVER get to know any individually

- even if you kept just two of them as pets, would you even bother naming them?

- ants are so small, so different from us, so insignificant, so uninteresting

Now think about God and his creatures. We are far more tiny and insignificant

- and yet one of the first things God did when he made us was give us names

- and Jesus says God is concerned even when a bird falls to the ground

- and God is even interested in our hair loss. He knows how many we have in each of our heads.

John knows he can’t record in his Gospel every personal encounter Jesus had

- so he picked a few people Jesus met, and dealt with those in some detail

- he starts in chap 3 & 4 not with miracles, but simple conversations

- in both of these, Jesus is presenting ‘the Gospel’, but they are very different

- we will see that each presentation is suited to the individual

In Chap.3 Jesus tells Nicodemus to be ‘born again’ to get into the Kingdom

- and in chap.4 he tells the woman to ‘ask for living water’ to get eternal life

- we are very used to the first, and even ask people ‘Are you born again’?

- but we don’t go round asking “Have you drunk the living water?”

- perhaps because we think they won’t understand what “living water” is

Pepsi found that problem when they translated their slogan into Chinese

- “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” in Chinese means something like

“Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead”

So we tend to talk about being “born again”, thinking they will understand this

- even though Nicodemus didn’t understand it, and I don't think people do today

- if someone asks “Are you born again”, most people will assume you mean, “Are you a fanatical Christian, with nothing in your life except religion?"

- I can live with that, but they misunderstand what Jesus meant.

If Jesus met Jo Blogs or John Doe he wouldn’t give either of these messages

- he would talk with them first and find out about them, and then talk to them

- and the message would be tailored to their needs, in real language

Let me show you what I mean – look at these two individuals

- they are a bundle of contrasts, as if John has picked out two extremes for us

- let me point out a couple of contrasts, then I’ll let you do the rest

- first an easy one: one is a man and one is a woman

- not such a contrast nowadays, but in Jesus’ day they were very different

- and one which isn’t so obvious (and is a little conjectural):

- one is from a good family and the other is from a bad family background

- Nicodemus was from a family rich enough to pay for a very good education

The woman was most probably a sort of a cripple – that is from illegitimate birth

- I’m guessing from the fact that she was the unmarried mistress to five men

- she lived in shame, avoiding other women who would scorn her company

- so she fetched water when they were at home hiding from the midday sun

- when you are born as sort of a cripple, there is little you can do to avoid shame

- you can only marry another illegitimate and your children would carry the stigma of illegitimacy down to the tenth generation

- so they were likely to remain single, and become the prey of dissatisfied husbands, - at least that brings a little income, but it is a shameful position

- we aren’t talking about a high class prostitute as in ‘Pretty Woman’

- we are talking about a worn down outcast whose life is a constant struggle.

ACTIVITY for the congregation, Now over to you: I want as many contrasts as possible between them

as you read John 2.23 (‘Jesus was in Jerusalem’), 3.1-3, 10; 4.3-9, 16-18, 27-29

23Because of the miraculous signs he did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many people were convinced that he was indeed the Messiah.

3Jesus replied, "I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God."

10Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things?

3So he left Judea to return to Galilee.

9The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, "You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?"

16"Go and get your husband," Jesus told her.

17"I don't have a husband," the woman replied.

Jesus said, "You're right! You don't have a husband-- 18for you have had five husbands, and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now."

[Possible answers]

Man woman

Good family shamed family

now a “ruler” now the local corrupt woman

Jew Samaritan

Came at night met at midday

didn’t want to be seen with Jesus didn’t want to meet anyone

already knew and respected Jesus didn’t know him from Adam

kept quiet till Jesus was dead went and told everyone about him

OK, what would you say to these two very different people

When we think of telling someone the ‘Gospel’ we think: 4 Spiritual Laws

(or some similar type of presentation), that is

1) God loves you, 2) You are sinful,

3) Jesus dealt with your sin, 4) Receive him as savior

(to my shame,

- this is a good presentation of the Gospel, but you won't find it in the Gospels

- it looks like Jesus never stated it quite like this, or even close to it

- in fact he rarely stated the ‘gospel’ in the same way twice

Let’s look at the way he presented the gospel to these two people:

3Jesus replied, "I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God."

4"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. "How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?"

- at first I sympathized with Nicodemus who was totally confused by this

- the meaning might be obvious to you, but I and Nicodemus hear it differently

- due to my studies, the first century has a big difference then the 21st century

- when I read the NT I try to ignore the last 20 centuries

- and when you ignore Christian preaching, ‘born again’ sounds very strange

- there isn’t any very clear clue in the OT to explain what Jesus meant

- and yet he clearly thought that Nicodemus should understand it:

- “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t understand these things?”

- I felt personally stung by Jesus’ words, so I tried to think harder.

- and then, with a real understanding, I remembered what Nicodemus had probably already thought of and was trying to avoid: a prayer he prayed every day

- this ancient prayer almost certainly dates back to the early first century

- every Jewish man says it every day:

I thank you God that I was not born a Gentile,

I thank you God that I was not born a slave

I thank you God that I was not born a woman

Now Jesus says to him: you’ve got to be born again

- your first birth didn’t count for anything

- but for Nicodemus, his birth was everything

- he was born as a ‘son of Abraham’ – that is as a Jew, so he inherits eternal life, so they believe.

- and he was born from a good family, brought up as a pious religious Jew

- and he was born a freeman, and a man, not as a woman or a slave

- virtually everything he had hinged on his birth, and Jesus says: forget it

- you have to start again, and become nothing again

- that’s like telling the rich young ruler to give everything to the poor

- or telling the tax-collector to give up his lucrative contract and follow Jesus

- or telling people to ignore what they've learned and become like little children.

When Jesus met people who had everything, he tried to persuade them to start over

- and I think I can understand that, when I look at the world we are in

- the more affluent and secure we become, the more worldly we become.

- Europe, with guaranteed food, clothing and healthcare, has forgotten God.

- the USA is somewhat better, perhaps because it isn’t a welfare state

- if you lose your job, you lose your income, healthcare and security

- and in most of the world, hunger and poverty may be round the next corner.

- so people still rely on God, and turn to him for help and worship.

We even have the luxury now of concentrating on personal improvement

- the hymn is “believe in yourself”, “you can do anything if you really want to”

What would Jesus say to us?

- You have too much for your eternal good

- don’t believe in yourself. Believe in me.

- you won’t get to heaven by being someone, but by being with me

Read this aloud to every one.

10Jesus replied, "If you only knew the gift God has for you and who I am, you would ask me, and I would give you living water."

15"Please, sir," the woman said, "give me some of that water! Then I'll never be thirsty again, and I won't have to come here to haul water." John 4:10-15

When he meets the woman at the well at midday, his message is different

- he doesn’t want to take anything away, because she has nothing

- he doesn’t try to put her down, because she is already rock-bottom

- and, to start with, he doesn’t talk about life in the Kingdom or eternity

- he wants to give her life here, because he knows her life is desperate

- and he talks in down to earth language directly into her situation now

- she has come to fetch water, so he says: Ask me for living water

Can you think of a better way of talking about a new life with zest?

- in the harsh frying noonday sun of the middle east, what do you crave?

- there is nothing more refreshing than cold water from a deep well

- and Jesus says he can be like a well of life-giving water inside her

- this will give her abundant life now and eternal life in the future

- actually, it sounds rather like both versions of the Pepsi slogan

- both “come alive” and also “bring the dead back to life”

This is like Jesus telling the beggar who was born blind: I have come to give you life, in all its abundance (Jn.10.10)

- he probably would have said something like that to the terrorist who was crucified with him, who asked: Remember me when you get to your kingdom

- but it was a little late to give him a purposeful life in this life

- so he simply says: Today you will be with me in Paradise

('Paradise' is an ancient Persian word for a well watered refreshing garden)

What about sin? Why doesn’t he tell them to repent?

- we expect him to address Nicodemus’ hypocrisy and the woman’s lifestyle

- and where is the pep talk about commitment and change of lifestyle?

- he doesn’t even tell them to pray and read the Bible each day?

- this Jesus in the Gospels, we know that there is no other way into heaven then to believe in Him and other words that were written before as I read over this make no sense at all.

Sin isn’t the only thing missing: Jesus doesn’t talk about religion either

- in fact he seems rather uninterested in matters of religion

- when the Samaritan says (in 4.20): You Jews worship in Jerusalem but we worship at Mt. Gerazim” , Jesus couldn’t be less interested

- he says: “Soon it won’t make any difference where you worship” (v.21)

true worship is in the spirit (v.23f) – so the place makes no difference

- prayer and worship is important to Jesus, especially worship ‘in the spirit’

- and the Bible is important to him – he keeps quoting it.

- and he does tell people to repent – but this isn’t his central message

And he isn’t hot on doctrine and theology

- he is very keen on telling us what is the truth

- but he doesn’t say “You must believe this and that”

- he says: “Believe in me” – that is Trust in me

He does have some very strong messages about Hell and punishment

- but this is part of the message: Don’t go there; follow me instead

- ch.3 ends with “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life but the wrath of God remains on him”

His consistent message is: follow me, trust me, don’t trust in yourself

- when he meets people who do trust in their wealth, or knowledge or birth

- he tries to persuade them to put aside what he regards as a barrier to God

- and when he meets those who have nothing, he helps them where they are

- and then he tells them they have a hope for eternity, with God

- and he tells everyone, whatever they are and have, to follow him, and believe in him.

If I were super-simple, I could summarize the church’s message like this:

- the Catholic church says: Follow the rules, and you will be saved

- the Orthodox church says: Worship properly, and you will be saved

- the Protestant churches say: Believe the truth, and you will be saved

Jesus, in the Gospels, might say all these things to some people sometimes

- but his consistent message, which he tells everyone is found on the lips of the Terminator (who is now called the Govenator of California) :

He says: “Trust me”

and “I’ll be back”

- and, in Terminator 3, he says: “Judgement Day is inevitable”

Jesus tells both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman: I’m on your side

- he tells Nicodemus that he hasn’t come to judge but to rescue (3.17)

- he tells the Samaritan Woman: Just ask, and I’ll give you eternal life (4.10, 14)

- then he assumes they will live a completely different kind of life because they love him and want to live for him

- and the grace of God is proved by the fact that they do.

My beautiful back yard and I had many problems this week I shook for hours as I tried to put this sermon together, the devil would not let me finish this sermon for the first time in almost 3 years.

There is supposed to be a line through the center to give you the break down of answers of each side but even now as I am trying to correct this it will not let me do it. We know the darkness or Satan is still at it after all of this on Sunday, and this is Monday after I slept for a day and a half.

Does everyone understand our logo? Well this is only one of our logos until the hands got smashed into pieces, and I wonder why that happened? The Chains around the prayer hands represent all the people of the Christian faith of the world that are not permitted to pray, or they will be shot ,put in prison or beaten, or tortured.

The Church Ministries

Dear understanding Father. Thank You for another week, thank You for the strength to make it through and I wanted this day of worship to be a comfort to all the congregation, pastors, chaplains, ministers, members, staff, and visitors and friends plus all others that hear this message on Sunday and I wanted it to be a comfort to You and Your Son Jesus. All I ever wanted was to heal people and if this is the only way I can do it, please Lord, heal all those with the prayer requests and prayer responses and names of all the ones that need help that are listed on this church computer and in the candlelight prayer. Please Lord, heal all of them, forget about me, I just want to see them healed and all I need is a few answers telling me they made it through their struggle, or their cancer is in remission or the marriage is working, or for all the sons and daughters that broke away from the family unit at a young age and got into trouble, are safe at home now. Please Father I do not want to leave anyone out. I ask in the name of Jesus that all be healed and helped and educated for the whole realm of Christianity, In Jesus Name, Amen, and Amen.