Point of Grace Online Worship - January 12, 2025

Point of Grace Worship 1.12.25 – Sermon Notes – The Baptism of Jesus

Matthew 3 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

It is helpful to remember the context, “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

What is being communicated to us and Jesus?

At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said,

“This is my Son, (identity)

whom I love; (love)

with him I am well pleased.” (approval)

What does this mean for us?

Galatians 3 26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

“I will never get tired of hearing the Father’s words at Jesus baptism. They are words of identity, affection and approval. They reveal Jesus as the True Son and the Beloved. LOVE is the essence of God’s character and the fragrance of the Trinitarian community. When we are baptized into the Trinitarian name we are enfolded in this community of love. Love is the greatest need of our beings and LOVE is what we get from the Father in our baptism. The identity of the “Beloved Son in whom the Father is well-pleased” is the approval we get in our baptism. We are clothed with Christ in Baptism. This is the gift we are given. God is revealing all of this to us so we will look nowhere else for identity, love and approval. Jesus is where we get all this. WOW! Daily renewal in this IDENTITY as “Beloved Son/Daughter” is a non-negotiable priority for the life of the Jesus follower because Jesus following is living the “life of the Beloved.” So let me say it again, “We look nowhere else for identity, love and approval….. Jesus is where we get all this. WOW!“ No wonder we need ample time in His presence everyday.”

In baptism I am “clothed with Christ” so that “in Christ” these same declarations are over me.

We get identity as forgiven, loved, approved and Spirit-filled children of God.

It is all a gift because of Jesus!

This all sounds nice but …….. we daily wake up in a world at war. What is being attacked?

Matthew 4: 1-3 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God….”

Our identity in Christ is always under attack from the devil, the world and our sinful nature.

“Daily renewal in this IDENTITY as “Beloved Son/Daughter” is a non-negotiable priority for the life of the Jesus follower because Jesus following is living the “life of the Beloved.” So let me say it again, “We look nowhere else for identity, love and approval….. Jesus is where we get all this. WOW!“ No wonder we need ample time in His presence everyday.”

Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me and choosing me from before you made the world. You are my true Father— I love you, I trust you, I worship you. I give myself over to you, Father, to be one with you as Jesus is one with you. Thank you for proving your love for me by sending Jesus. I receive him and all his life and all his work which you ordained for me. Thank you for forgiving me my sins, granting me his righteousness, making me complete in him. Thank you for making me alive with Christ, raising me with him, and anointing me with your love and your Spirit and your favor. I receive it all with thanks and give it total claim to my life I now proclaim this truth, “I am a lavishly Loved child of my Father in heaven.”

So today I get to live the Life of the Beloved. Amen

Point of Grace Online Worship - December 22, 2024

Point of Grace – 12.22.24  -  Advent 4 -  “Love”   Sermon Notes

Love

Luke 1:57-80
57 When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, 60 but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”
61 They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”
62 Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. 63 He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. 65 All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. 66 Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.

67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,  because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us  in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—
72 to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant,  73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear
75     in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.

Why?
LOVE

John 3:16 “God so love the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

1 John 3:1

See what great love 
the Father has lavished on us,
that we should be called children of God!
And that is what we are!

Love:   https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/agape-love/

Luke 1:67-69
His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,  
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David

God’s Love is a Love that …

            … Comes
           … Redeems
           … is Mighty to Save

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

1 John 4:9-119 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 

1 John 3:1

See what great love 
the Father has lavished on us,
that we should be called children of God!
And that is what we are! 

Point of Grace Online Worship - June 18, 2023

Point of Grace Worship 6.18.23 Sermon Notes – “Overflow”

Overflow – the Jesus way of impacting the world!

John 7 “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

Acts 4 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him…..

17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

B.L.E.S.S. – 5 Everyday ways to overflow with love for our neighbors and change the world!

B-egin with Prayer

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Love Prays

9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”

Love Listens

James 119 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

“Seek to understand before you seek to be understood”

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

Stephen R. Covey,

Love Eats

Matthew 9 9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Love Serves

James 2 14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

Love has a Story to Share

1 Peter 3 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”

It is amazing to see how our stories humbly told, help others hope in Jesus!

Point of Grace Online Worship - June 11, 2023

Point of Grace Worship 6.11.23 Sermon Notes – “Overflow”

John 7 37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Healthy “Overflow” depends on healthy “Inflow”!

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” - Inflow

“Rivers of living water will flow from within them” – Overflow

“Overflow” that changes the world depends on “Inflow” that is changing me!

Ezekiel 47 The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side. 3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. 4 He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. 5 He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. 6 He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 7 When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. 8 He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. 9 Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.

Jesus connects the dots.

Standing in the old Temple meant for God’s Presence Jesus says

“Come to me and drink”

(because He is the new Temple of God’s Presence)

“And I will make you Temples of God’s presence

overflowing with rivers of Living Water

transforming the world”

Overflow with B.L.E.S.S – 5 everyday practices to overflow with love for our neighbors and change the world

B-egin with Prayer

L-isten

E-at

S-erve

S-tory to Share