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The Gospel of Matthew Bible Studies
The Gospel of Mark Bible Studies
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007 Ordination of Louise Christensen
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
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5th Sunday after the Epiphany TOPIC: "Faith Comes By Hearing" Grace, mercy, and peace be with you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. As we heard in today’s gospel reading: “When (Jesus) had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.” “Put out into the deep water…” One of my early childhood memories was during one summer before I had learned to swim. My family was spending a week at a cabin on a lake in Michigan. During that week, one of the things I tried to do was to see how far out from the shore I could go. I would wade out into the lake – and the water would get deeper and deeper and deeper with every step I took. Up to my knees…up to my waist… up to my chest… up to my neck… and up to my nose! Each day I would try to go a little farther into deeper water – even if just one more step. Until finally – one day – I discovered that the water would actually support me! At that moment, I suddenly began to learn to SWIM – and a whole new world of possibilities opened up to me! That is what Jesus was inviting Simon Peter to do when he told him to “put out into the deep water.” He was inviting him to step out beyond his normal comfort zone – to go out further than he usually did. And when Simon took Jesus at his word and did this, he received a blessing that was far greater than anything he could have ever anticipated! He caught so many fish that the nets were beginning to break! In the same way, as we respond to our Lord’s invitation to stretch out and grow in our faith, we too will receive a blessing in our lives – just like Simon Peter, and James, and John did. Maybe not by literally catching fish, but we will certainly be blessed in knowing Jesus and experiencing his love more and more. Today, I want to talk to you about a very special program – a way for us to “go deeper” in our life with Jesus and grow in our faith. In introducing this program, let me first begin by asking some questions for us to consider. How many of us have read the entire Bible from start to finish? How many of us have read the entire New Testament? How many of us read the scriptures on a regular basis? Let me give you some statistics that I think you may find interesting. According to a Gallup poll survey taken about ten years ago, only 40% of Americans know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount – and fewer than half of American adults can name all four Gospels. In that same survey, 65% of adults who identified themselves as Bible readers have never read the entire New Testament. The plain and sad truth is that most people, including most Christians, are Biblically illiterate. And finally, a major reason why more Christians don’t read the Bible is “lack of time”. If we were to spend more time in encountering God’s word, do you think that this would help us to grow in our faith? I certainly think that it would! But how can we find the time to do that? Here is something to consider. Many Americans spend a lot of time listening to music and news while doing other things. Recent studies show that the average American spends 45 minutes a day in the car. Many of us will turn on the radio to listen to it while driving. I also have observed that when I go to exercise at Healthworks, most people there have an ipod or other mp3 player so that they can listen to music as they work out. We spend a LOT of time listening to things even as we do other activities in our lives. What if people spent some of that time in listening to the Bible? Today I want to introduce to you a ministry called “Faith Comes By Hearing.” This ministry is partnered with the American Bible Society – but it specifically emphasizes the medium of AUDIO SCRIPTURE – in hearing it read out loud. When we listen to scripture instead of just reading it, we can do so even while doing other things such as driving, walking, exercising, doing chores in the home, or during family time, or whatever. And also, as we listen to scripture – it may impact us in a way that reading alone can’t do. Let me give you an example – listen to our gospel for today as presented by “Faith Comes By Hearing”‘s dramatized NIV version… (play Luke 5:1-11) That was a powerful way of hearing that story, wasn’t it?! The program that I am introducing today is a challenge for us to listen to the entire New Testament during the forty days in Lent – which starts in two and a half weeks from now on Ash Wednesday, February 21st. That may sound like a huge challenge. But if we spend just 28 minutes a day during those forty days in Lent, we can listen to the entire New Testament – from Matthew through Revelation. I have a vision of ALL of us growing in our faith and in our love for the Lord as we participate in this program during the upcoming forty days of Lent. I see us as a congregation being enriched beyond measure as we participate in this emphasis together – as we support each other and celebrate that we are journeying through the New Testament TOGETHER! Here is how we can do this. Starting today, we will distribute a CD containing the entire audio New Testament in MP3 format to each household that desires one. In fact, I would like to ask our ushers to pass them out now. “Faith Comes By Hearing” is providing these CDs free of charge. Please raise your hands – one per household – and as they distribute them, let me explain a few things about them. First of all, these CDs are in MP3 format – they are not audio CDs. The MP3 format can be played on almost all home computers with a CD drive – or the contents of these CDs can be downloaded into a file on your computers and then played. If you have an ipod or other mp3 player, you can then download the contents of this CD into them and listen to the New Testament from them. This MP3 format CD can also be played on most home DVD players – so if you have a DVD player connected to your TV, you can play this CD on them. Some CD players are also “MP3 compatible” – meaning that they can play MP3 format as well as audio CDs. If you do not have access to a home computer, DVD player, MP3 player or MP3 compatible CD player – you may consider purchasing one (many of them cost less than $40) or you can order an audio New Testament MP3 player for $29 (order forms for this are at each entrance). About the “Faith Comes By Hearing” program itself, the CDs we are passing out have the 40 day listening schedule printed on them. If you follow this schedule beginning on Ash Wednesday, you will complete listening to the entire New Testament by Easter Sunday on April 8th. Here at Pella, starting on Ash Wednesday we are also going to have a plywood TREE here in the sanctuary to show the progress of this program as we do it together. We will have leaves for each one of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. When you have finished listening to a book, you are invited to write your name on a leaf for that book and then tape it to the tree. For example, after you have finished Matthew - you will then write your name on a "Matthew" leaf and tape it to the tree - and the same after listening to Mark, and so on for all twenty-seven books of the New Testament. If one hundred people participate in this program, by Easter we will have at least 2,700 leaves on that tree! (Actually, I hope that more than one hundred people will participate – because I invite all of our people – children and teens as well as adults – to do this!) I believe that the tree will be an awesome illustration of what is happening in our congregation as we journey through the New Testament together! There is one more thing that I wish to mention about this program. “Faith Comes By Hearing” has a goal of translating the Bible into every known language by the year 2016 – and we have an opportunity to be a part of this project. It costs $25,596 to translate the New Testament into a language – since there are 27 books that comes to down to $948 per book. I invite you to consider helping out with this ministry during Lent – a suggested goal might be contributing $1 for each book you listen to ($27 in all). Specifically, we are being invited to help out in a project of translating the New Testament into the native language of the Quechua Indian people in Bolivia, South America. A description of this project was handed out to you along with your MP3 CD. Many of these people are not functionally literate in being able to read – so an audio translation of the Bible into their language is especially important. I want to emphasize that contributing to this is totally voluntary – no one is under any obligation to do this. But think about what could be accomplished – 35 of us who contribute $27 will fund the translation of one New Testament book. I hope that we at Pella can fund the translation of at least two books – and possibly even three or four! If we do this, we will not only be blessed by this program of listening to the entire New Testament – but we will also be a blessing for others! The “Faith Comes By Hearing” program is a way for us to “put out into deep water” – to do something that we may not done have before in our life with God. I pray that as we participate in listening to the New Testament during Lent that we may grow in our faith and understanding of God’s love for us through Jesus Christ. And I also pray that we may also become a blessing to others as we help fund a new translation of the Bible into the language of the Quechua Indian people in Bolivia. As we heard in today’s gospel: “When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break…and they filled both boats, so that they began to sink.” After they had put out into the deep water, they were then overwhelmed with blessings upon blessings! During this coming season of Lent, may we put out into the deep water of listening to the entire New Testament. As we do, I know that we will be blessed beyond measure! And then may God also work through us to bless others as well. In Jesus’ name. Amen! -------------------- George R. Karres, Pella Lutheran Church 418 W. Main Street Sidney, MT 59270
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