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A MESSAGE FROM PASTOR DAVID
Good afternoon, everyone,
I hope and pray that you’re doing well and staying dry!
I’m so glad that Nicole’s baptism happened the way it did last Sabbath! The weather was great, even though the water, in the shade, was freezing! I hadn’t planned my sermon on the four friends that brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus with Nicole’s baptism in mind, but not only is that what happened, but we also had four people carry Nicole in her wheelchair into the water, and lift her up again!
There are three things I’d like you to note:
a) I’m still planning and scheduling visits with our currently attending church members. If there are specific people you’d like me (or the elders and/or deacons, deaconesses) to visit please let us know!
b) The ORYA (Oregon Conference Youth Adults Department) is planning a workshop based on gaining a deeper understanding of today’s culture and being equipped with strategies for culture building. It’s open to parents, grandparents, and anyone planning to launch a Youth/YA Ministry. It will be presented by Zoom every Tuesday night starting Oct. 1, and if you think it would be worth a listen, please join me. [I’m planning to see which ideas they present, and which we would be able to work with in our local context].
c) I’m preaching an Evangelistic Series at the Lents Activity Center on Thursdays, Fridays and Sabbath mornings, starting Oct. 17 and finishing Nov. 9. The theme is on the poster below (and I’ll send the sermon titles in my next message).
Lastly, I started re-reading Acts of the Apostles for my devotional time, and a few key passages stand out from chapter 1. (Yes, I know that’s what we’re going through in Prayer Meeting, too! Come and join if you’re able, on Wednesday nights!)
Blessings!
David Kokiong
Pastor
Stone Tower SDA Church | Lents SDA Church
Cell: 503-567-9315 (Text pls)
Email: david.kokiong@gmail.com
God’s Purpose for His Church - Selected Passages
The church is God's appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. (AA. 9.1)
God chose Israel to reveal His character to men. He desired them to be as wells of salvation in the world. To them were committed the oracles of heaven, the revelation of God's will. (AA 14.1)
But the people of Israel lost sight of their high privileges as God's representatives. They forgot God and failed to fulfill their holy mission.
- The blessings they received brought no blessing to the world. All their advantages they appropriated for their own glorification.
- They shut themselves away from the world in order to escape temptation.
- The restrictions that God had placed upon their association with idolaters as a means of preventing them from conforming to the practices of the heathen, they used to build up a wall of separation between themselves and all other nations.
They robbed God of the service He required of them, and they robbed their fellow men of religious guidance and a holy example. (AA 14.3)
The Jewish leaders thought themselves too wise to need instruction, too righteous to need salvation, too highly honored to need the honor that comes from Christ.
The Saviour turned from them to entrust to others the privileges they had abused and the work they had slighted. God's glory must be revealed, His word established. Christ's kingdom must be set up in the world. The salvation of God must be made known in the cities of the wilderness; and the disciples were called to do the work that the Jewish leaders had failed to do. (AA 16.1)
Blessings!
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