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Ephesians 2:14-22 ~ A Fresh Start: The Big 'C' Church ~ Carl Crouse

10/15/2019

When we preach about the cross of Christ we normally focus on Jesus paying the price for our sins. If I ask “why did Jesus die?” most people, including me, will describe salvation through the forgiveness of sins. Today’s scripture describes another purpose ~ Reconciliation!!!!! Togetherness… This is a BIG PICTURE SCRIPTURE and the importance of seeing ourselves in unity with the World wide Church… This Big C Church is what motivates me as a pastor… often when I am critical of myself I think maybe I haven’t spent enough time on our local church… but that isn’t how I am wired, that isn’t what I saw in my father…But I know I’m right that if more pastors/churches looked beyond the local church and how to build our little Kingdom and see the Bigger Kingdom…

Today’s scripture: the Big C Church ~ all Christians present, past and future are members… As today’s scripture begins, the word PEACE speaks of oneness/togetherness … The purpose of Jesus death is to bring literal peace between people that are so different from one another …the 1st part of today’s Bible reading is to bring peace … the 2nd part is the result: Oneness. Unity. READ EPH. 2:14-22.

Ephesians 2:11-13 ~ A Fresh Start: Re-Member ~ Carl Crouse

10/8/2019

There are some things God wants us to forget: past offenses from others... turn the other cheek… life is much easier when we let God be the judge and not be vengeful… Some of you are experts on forgetting!... anyone have that spiritual gift?

Some things the Lord wants us to forget! But others he wants us to NEVER FORGET. In today’s scripture Paul twice uses the word, REMEMBER (Eph. 2:1 and 2). REMEMBER is Paul’s swift kick in the pants ~ don’t forget the appointment, it’s important! .

Paul kicks us in the pants to remember our past so that we will always thankfully rejoice for our salvation. “Therefore” in Eph. 2:11 refers to Eph. 2:1-10: you have been saved by grace therefore remember what you were like. God wants us to have awareness of the great contrast of before and after. One person noted the new identity that Ephesians describes ~ He compared it to a kitten looking in a mirror and seeing the reflection of a lion….I get it… but for me, the mirror needs to be like those old triple panel department store mirrors that I used to play in as a kid when I was shopping with my mother ~ three angles….the lion is definitely reflected in one of the panels, but in the other is still a kitten. Never forget you were once a weak, helpless, dependent kitten.

Ephesians 2:1-10 ~ A Fresh Start: Four Worldview Questions ~ Carl Crouse

10/2/2019

If I had to choose one paragraph from the Bible to explain Christianity to a non-believer today’s scripture is it. This scripture explains basics of how a Christian sees the world.… The great contrast of the old life apart from Christ and new life with Christ.

You want a fresh start of faith in Christ Jesus? Reaffirm the foundational truths of what it means to be a Christian… EMTs often go over basic first aid practices… Mountain Rescue experts hold drills of rescue and safety techniques to stay fresh and current… as Christians in a hostile world, it is refreshing to return to the simple gospel of who we are and what Christ has done. Eph. 2:1-10 outlines the fundamental truth of what it means to be a Christian. These verses fit well into the long recognized World View questions which one way or another every thinking person has to answer:

Who am I? (where’d I come from? How’d I get here?)
What’s the problem?
What’s the solution?
Where am I going?

Eph. 1:15-23 ~ A Prayer to Thrive ~ Carl Crouse

9/24/2019

Survival is not enough. The Lord Jesus Christ wants you to thrive… to flourish…

The past ten years in Sumas I’ve told hundreds of people I’m proud they are survivors. The situations people make it through are astounding, sometime their own bad decisions, sometimes situations thrust upon them out of their control. I don’t know how I would make it through some of the living hell people are given…

The Lord Jesus Christ wants us to thrive… I first climbed Mt. Baker when I was 12. I wanted to say I did it. On one of the early climbs I put on sunscreen unevenly so I would have burn marks on my face so people would ask…. 2-3 trips a Summer. 4-5 years later I can still picture the aha moment when I realized what a privilege it was to be in such an amazing place. I found JOY in climbing Mt. Baker.

A Fresh Start: The Longest Sentence ~ Ephesians 1:3-14 ~ Pastor Carl Crouse

9/17/2019

True or false? “Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life…” ___ The full quotation by Henri Nowen: “Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the ‘Beloved.’ Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.”

The most important way to think of ourselves is that I am loved by God. God is crazy about you. He thinks you are awesome.

A common way of thinking: “If people really knew me, they wouldn’t like me.” There are a 100 variations: nobody cares… God uses other Christians in ways that are more important than me… I’m boring… I’m selfish… I’m inferior… /we mask our true feelings by acting self-confident, or withdraw and hope nobody notices…

A Fresh Start ~ Ephesians 1:1-3 ~ Carl Crouse

9/10/2019

I used to enjoy listening to the stories of Herschel Wiley, long time elder/teacher here. I can hear him describing winter time back in Missouri, probably in 1930’s before they moved to Whatcom County as a teenager, cars had narrow tires, and not a lot of them in those days. In winter ruts would be formed in the snow forming a single file trek into town. Once you got settle in the ruts you barely even needed to steer… all well and good, until you met another car…

We get stuck in ruts… some of the patterns aren’t even that great, the way we treat others, they things we put up with… go through the motions with very little steering even needed, but then crisis comes and you’re rattled…

Overcoming the Fear of Change (and Creating a New Normal ~ Gen. 50 ~ Carl Crouse

9/3/2019

Why do we fight change? Change is the one constant of life. That’s why the wedding vows account for the unknown ~ for better for worse. People come and go. Jobs change. Loss. Gain. The children grow. The older you get the faster time marches. Today we finish story/testimony of Joseph. Genesis 50, a transition chapter. The family of Jacob, Joseph’s father, is entrenched in Egypt. I included a timeline in the hand-out today which shows the major events of Joseph’s life and how old he was [placed at very end of these notes].

Overcoming Disappointment ~ Gen. 48 ~ Carl Crouse

8/28/2019

A day or two before H.S. graduation I was called into the counselors office, Jim Noteboom. I was a pretty good student in high school … There was kind of an unspoken assumption I’d win a few scholarship/ recognition… Mr. Noteboom looked me in the eye and said, “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but you didn’t win a single scholarship.” Jim told me ahead of time so I could face my disappointment early. In those days, scholarship awards were part of the graduation ceremony. “If it helps at all,” Jim said, “as long as I’ve been a counselor nobody has ever received more 2nd place finishes than you.” // The script was switched. This was not what I imagined…. my script was switched.

Disappointments are a part of the human condition. We imagine our lives unfolding in an orderly way, making progress towards our goals /stability… then come the disappointments, our visions are halted…. You thought for sure you’d get that job and go down a certain career path, but then a door is close. Nobody ever imagines their children being ill, losing a job, divorce, pain. A phrase so many dozen times over the years it’s become a proverbial saying: “Children are not supposed to die before their parents.” The script is switched. Disappointments are always your story unfolding in an unexpected way that is less than what you imagine.

Overcoming Famine ~ Gen. 47:13-31 ~ Carl Crouse

8/20/2019

READ Gen. 47:27. Feast or famine. Nobody likes times of famine, yet that is when we grow… Ecc. 7:3 a crazy word of wisdom, “Sorrow is better than laughter…”/// Today’s scripture is about famine….

I can’t say famine is good… but in keeping with the caption of the Joseph stories found in Gen. 50:20, good does come out of famine…. Times of famine contains lessons of rigid disciplines, causing a person to sift priorities… 18 years ago Ken R. was dying…., I often visited him. In life he’d always been a huge fan of the Mariners. It was 2001 the year the Mariners won 116 games…an exciting time as the season progressed. How far could they go in the play-offs? Could they win the world series? As Ken’s death looked imminent people though how fitting if he could just hang on to see his beloved Mariners in the World Series. When it looked like he could not last that long the thought was how that was too bad… I talked to Ken about many things including the Mariners. Ken was changing. He still cared about the Mariners, but not really. Talk of the Mariners was a bit hollow. The things of this world began to take on less importance. Ken could talk about the Mariners, but more often , he’d turn the conversation to the things of God. He wanted to talk about the second coming of Jesus Christ. He became animated about thoughts of immortality, the hope of Christ…

Gen. 46:1-47:12 ~ Overcoming Broken Dreams ~ Carl Crouse

8/13/2019

Lou Holtz for a pessimistic view of life: “Never tell your problems to anyone...20% don't care and the other 80% are glad you have them.”

Jacob, father of Joseph, is a complainer, a deceiver… In today’s Bible reading, arrangements are made for Joseph’s family to relocate to Egypt in Goshen, the lower part of the Nile… When Pharaoh first meets Jacob, he asks a simple question: “How old are you?” (Gen. 47:8). Jacob’s answer is a tad funny, Gen. 47:9 READ. The series is about Joseph, but Jacob, Joseph’s father, is an integral part of the story, so today we pause and look at Jacob…

I found a chart that does a marvelous job of summarizing Jacob’s life (back of handout). … his life is a rollercoaster…(anyone relate?)… The story begins Gen. 25, 27, he is born 2nd and spends much of his life aspiring to be #1… the first story about Jacob: he steels the birthright of his brother, deceives his father, and he runs away… descent…

Gen. 45 ~ Reconciliation ~ Pastor Chad

8/8/2019

Gen. 42-44 ~ Overcoming Personal Demons ~ Carl Crouse

7/31/2019

“Conscience is thus explained only as the voice of God in the soul.” ― Peter Kreeft

Question: How is your conscience a good thing? (indicates a desire to follow God and live according to his desires) How is it a bad thing? (It means we are sinners, have to live with yourself)

Freedom in Christ comes as we let go of the burden of our past guilt and reconcile with God and others. May we learn to overcome our personal demons of past sins, poor judgment, wrong behavior and accept the cleansing forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Amen!!!

Today we continue the story of Joseph. it’s been 20 years since Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers…. in today’s scripture the brothers unknowingly face Joseph. It is clear as the brothers face Joseph they have never forgotten the depth of their sin in selling Joseph into slavery. One of the great themes of Joseph is to show us how God takes a broken and fractured person and creates something even more beautiful.

Gen. 41 ~ A Blessing ~ Chad Hammond

7/27/2019

NOTE: The Video will turn vertical after a few minutes. FB keeps changing the details and sometime can't seem to catch up. Sigh.

Gen. 40 ~ Overcoming Impatience ~ Carl Crouse

7/16/2019

Waiting is the hardest…. Waiting for something… news… more income… an apology… the phone call that never comes… a response… for people of faith, nothing is more frustrating than waiting for God to act, to get us out of the mess of our lives, to restore justice, to provide needed relief. As Christians we know waiting is supposed to be good for us.…but waiting is still hard… Here’s a quote about the blessing of waiting:

“This is the most precious answer God can give us: wait. It makes us cling to him rather than to an outcome. God knows what I need; I do not. He sees the future; I cannot. His perspective is eternal; mine is not. He will give me what is best for me when it is best for me.” ~ Vaneetha Rendall Risner

As Christians add guilt when forced to wait, because we are supposed to delight in hardships! Gen 40 is about waiting… Joseph is in prison, he had done nothing wrong, waiting for who knows what…we know the end of the story but he doesn’t… at the end of the chapter he is still in prison. The last words are haunting: READ Gen. 40:23.

Gen. 39 ~ Overcoming Temptation ~ Carl Crouse

7/13/2019

The sermon in a sentence: Overcome Temptation by being a person of integrity!

“Ain’t I Beautiful!” I have a friend Rick Reynolds, several of you know him… cover of Fuller Seminary Mag… director of Operation Nightwatch… [READ story page 21….] A story of integrity…

“Ain’t I Beautiful!” Ask that question to the Lord and if in your heart you can hear him say YES, then you are a person of integrity. Is God’s grace on you?

I love the words of Danish Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, “Now, with God’s help, I will become myself.” I want to be so much like Christ that it doesn’t matter what I’m doing, how much power I have, my status, my situation, but I want to serve him out of a Christ like character ~That’s integrity! in order to live in God’s will, who I am, my integrity, is more important than what I do. Joseph, the man in the center of today’s scripture, is forged into the person God wants him to be while a slave, while being tempted, while in prison. In or out of prison, God’s will is to be a man or woman of high character…. That’s who Joseph is becoming… “Now, with God’s help, I will become myself.”