Never Always – 23 February 2020
Dave Catanzaro fills in for Pastor Matt this week and encourages us to never, never, never give into your feelings and to always, always always turn to your faith in Christ.
Be encouraged in your walk with this message.
Dave Catanzaro preaching on Psalm 141.
You can listen here or “Right-Click” and “Save-as” to download the sermon:
Lanse Free Church
255 Cotohisc Road
Lanse, PA 16849
Phone: 814.345.6500
Sunday School: 9:00am
Worship: 10:00am
Prayer Meeting: Wednesday, 7:00pm
Pastor Matt’s Blog
- The Golgotha Experience - Prepare Your Heart for Holy Week April 2, 2020
- “If You Are The Son of God” [Matt's Messages] March 28, 2020
- "Don’t Be Anxious… Pray" by Ed Welch March 24, 2020
- "I Always Pray with Joy" [Matt's Messages] March 21, 2020
- “The End of All Things Is Near” [Matt's Messages] March 15, 2020
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A call to concerted prayer from President Kevin Kompelien of the Evangelical Free Church of America.
Dear Church Family,
In 586BC, the city of Jerusalem was attacked and overrun by the Babylonians, who then also destroyed the beloved temple of the LORD. And when that happened, the weeping prophet Jeremiah composed the long poem that we call “Lamentations.”
Lamentations is a sad but beautiful poem filled with sorrow over the good things that the people of God had had ripped away from them.
I love it that there is a whole book of the Bible dedicated to sadness–because grief and sadness and loss and sorrow are a normal part of life in our broken world. Good things get taken away from us, and when that happens, it is right to be sad.
And the Bible provides a God-authorized way of expressing our sadness to the Lord in prayers of lament. They’re not just in Lamentations, but all through the Bible, especially the Psalms.
I’m thankful that in these days of the Coronavirus where so many things we love are being taken away from us, that God has given us good ways to talk to Him about our sadness. To take our sorrow to Him.
In light of the expanded social distancing guidelines and the current statewide stay at home order, our church will not be gathering for in-person corporate worship for at least the month of April.
We will continue to provide a weekly Guide to Worship at Home and a recorded video message from me.
I think the experiment we tried last week with a Family Fellowship Meeting on Zoom went really well, so we’re going try it again this Sunday at 11am. This week, Matt Cox is planning to visit with us during that time and give us a little update on things up at Miracle Mountain Ranch. Check your email from the church office for information about how to connect. Let us know if you need any technical help started.
We are also going to postpone and reschedule the April Church Family meeting as there is nothing that the congregation needs to decide together at this time. We are asking all of our ministries and ministry teams to only meet in-person if it is necessary. See your ministry team or Link Group leader for further plans.
It is going to be really hard for us to not be together for a whole other month. Not sharing the Lord's Supper will be hard this coming Sunday, but how sweet will it be when we can do it again?! And Resurrection Sunday next weekend will be especially painful.
It’s right for us to be sad about these losses. It’s right for us to cry and to express our grief to the Lord.
And you might wonder how we will we ever get through this extended time of trial?
Right in the middle of the saddest poem in the Bible are these words:
“Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23, NIV).
Yes, we get the lyrics to that precious hymn from one of the saddest parts of the Bible!
No matter how bad it gets we know that God is faithful and that every single morning, He serves up new mercies for that day.
Every single day.
His compassions are every morning without fail. With the dawn comes a new wave of God’s mercy.
Remember, Jesus doesn’t want us to worry about tomorrow. Each day has a enough trouble of its own. But each day also has all of the grace we need to trust and follow Him.
"Strength for today
and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside
Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord Unto Me."
In His Grip,
- Pastor Matt Mitchell
The new directories are printed and in your mailboxes! Be sure to pay attention to what box you are pulling from as many have shifted to add our new families.
LEFC Guide for Worship at Home:
lansefree.org/resources/this-weeks-lanse-link/
Message on YouTube:
youtu.be/2_5_54eVEqA
Message on Facebook: “If You Are The Son of God” -- Matthew 27:38-50
A recorded video message (during a thunderstorm!) for the LEFC Church Family from Pastor Matt Mitchell for use in Worship at Home from Matthew 27:38-50.