Blog Posts - Sumas A.C. Church

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.”

Gen. 37:5-36 ~ Overcoming Jealousy (or any Destructive Emotions) ~ Carl Crouse

7/3/2019

DEFINE: Jealousy: True or False: More decisions are made on emotions than any other force on earth! I think it’s true! If you can keep your emotions in check, you will make better decisions. This message is about overcoming destructive emotions. In today’s scripture the key word is in Gen. 37:11: “jealous” the brothers were jealous of Joseph. Jealousy explains their wild decisions. What are some other emotions that might cause us to make really bad decisions when those emotions become overwhelming? [Anger, Depression, Fear, hate]

Destructive emotions can build up to an explosion … in today’s scripture, the brothers hated Joseph because he was their fathers favorite, Gen. 37:4, then Gen. 37:5 says Joseph told them a dream, “and they hated him all the more.” Another dream and the same thing in Gen. 37:8, “they hated him all the more.” Finally in Gen. 37:11 ~~ they were JEALOUS. A spiral…

Gen. 37:1-4 ~ Lessons in Overcoming from the Life of Joseph ~ Overcoming a Dysfunctional Family ~ Carl Crouse

6/25/2019

Invite the Lord to overcome your flaws and create in you a person of beauty.// Today is the first of a summer series of messages from the life of Joseph. Gen. 37-50. God used Joseph in spite of his flaws. Joseph is a model of what it means to overcome… from the outside delayed dreams, sexual temptation, abuse, unjust prison… from within he overcame arrogance, grief, pain. Some of the people I most admire are those that have risen above their family craziness….

I love the pottery on the screen… it is a wonderful image of how God can restore the broken, creating something even more beautiful. This pottery is an example of a Japanese art form. I heard about this probably 15 years ago but had to look up a description (website: www.mymodernmet.com):

Luke 20:27-41 ~ Choose Life ~ Chad Hammond

6/9/2019

Luke 20:20-26 ~ Kingdom Living ~ Carl Crouse

6/5/2019

I’m a rule follower….a few years ago when Jim and Jan were living across from Killams on corner of Telegraph and Morgan, I could not believe how often people would blast through the stop sign on the Morgan without slowing down. If I did that, I’d lose a week of sleep from the guilt, the “what if’s.…

I’m a rule follower… student… rules of road... taxes… it’s my personality. Some of you are more rebellious by nature… make your own rules, challenge authorities… we start with a basic character traits, molded by experiences… Maybe the perfect person finds a balance between selectively challenging the rules but following the norms of society when possible. There are times I should get more angry/pro-active at injustices…

Luke 20:9-19 ~ It’s All About the Kingdom ~ Carl Crouse

5/31/2019

Intro to scripture: “rent” was not money in those days, it was a set amount of produce or a percentage of the produce of the land. The owner of the vineyard sends servants/son to collect a portion of the crop, i.e. the rent. Suppose Marcy rents land from Killams and grows corn… if she dumps a truck of corn in Killams front yard, she’s just paying her rent…READ SCRIPTURE.

“He went on to tell the people this parable…” this is a continuation of last week’s message: Jesus is the ultimate authority…a parable is a story with a common setting that has a deeper meaning intended for the hearers to ponder… this is a story of the owner of a vineyard that rents the land ~ when he sends servants/son, they refuse to pay what is owed the owner… they kill the son. Why? Because they want it all, the harvest and the land itself: “Let’s kill [the son] and the inheritance will be ours.”

Luke 20:1-8 ~ A Question of Authority ~ Carl Crouse

5/21/2019

AUTHORITY! Do you bristle at the word? a feeling of Constraint? Many people don’t like being told what to do or how to live! Isn’t that a major criticism of Christianity, too many rules! Everyone must come to grips with the idea of authority! It doesn’t work to try and live your life without authority because that always ends in confusion or rebellion/ fleeing like Jonah who ran from the call of God. Run from authority, and the fish will swallow you too…. It may feel good to rebel against authority, but you will crash….I like this classic story told by Max Lucado, the Laws of the Lighthouse (found in In U.S. Navel Institute Proceedings by Frank Koch.)

Acts 16:9-15 ~ Lydia: A Link in a Chain ~ Pastor Carl

5/14/2019

Lydia is a strong women! Admirable. Open. Hospitable. As we consider the story of Lydia, lessons from her life/character emerge: she listens for God’s voice, she does it with a spirit of Joy, and her goal is to be a servant.

Ray Deck III, Director of Skookum Kids, "Forgiveness" Matt. 18:21-35 ~ begins with update of Skookum Kids

5/8/2019

So good to have guest speaker Ray Deck III. May is Mission month at SACC. One of the local missions we support is Skookum Kids, a ministry to Foster Kids in Whatcom County. The message begins with an overview of Skookum Kids, and then Ray speaks on forgiveness from Matt. 18.

Acts 1:1-11 ~ The Ascension of Jesus: What Comes Down Must Go Up ~ Carl Crouse

5/1/2019

Blood, Sweat and Tears sang the song, Spinning Wheel. It starts, “what goes up must come down.” In the world of Jesus Christ, as is often the case, the opposite is the more profound truth, “What comes down must go up…” Jesus came down to earth as a man, he died for our sins, he was resurrected to life, and then he ascended to God the Father ……

The Ascension of Jesus Christ is a key truth to unlocking what it means to be a Christian today/ live and love as a Christian. Jesus Christ is ascended on high. He is not walking on this earth but he is reigning above… He lived, he died, he was resurrected and he ascended to heaven…

Romans 6:4 ~ Easter Sunday Message ~ Overcoming Shame ~ Pastor Chad Hammond

4/24/2019

Jesus' Final Week: Friday, the meaning of the Cross ~ Mark 15:21-39 ~ Carl Crouse

4/10/2019

Riddle: I am weak with no power, yet everyday millions listen to me and obey. What am I? [a stop sign].

The shape, color and word “STOP” of a stop sign tell you that you must stop, but the stop sign itself has no power to make you stop, its what the symbol represents that gives it the power…The cross is a symbol... a symbol with multiple meanings. The cross on our wall is wood, made by Andy Anderson out of the posts of an old sign outside…

The Christian cross has always been controversial. In the wreckage of the World Trade Center of 911 a worker found two intersecting beams…. The Ground Zero Cross, as it became known, was erected on a mound of rubble and sprinkled with holy water by a Catholic priest. The cross attracted devout pilgrims and curious tourists without controversy. Only when it was brought into the National Sept. 11 Museum the lawsuits began. It was argued the cross was a slap at the non-Christian victims of 9/11 and had no place in a publicly funded institution. The museum prevailed in court on the grounds its exhibit had already made the transition from religious symbol to historical artifact.

1 Cor. 1:18 says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”