If you would like to send your offering through the mail, our mailing address is:
CrossPointe Community Church P O Box 126 Chippewa Lake, OH 44215
CALL TO WORSHIP
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins. He has showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
God has now revealed to us His mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan. God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.
Ephesians 1:3-14
SCRIPTURE
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” Then He asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.
If you would like to send your offering through the mail, our mailing address is:
CrossPointe Community Church P O Box 126 Chippewa Lake, OH 44215
In a Christianity Today article, Daniel Darling, (By the way, how would you like to have the last name ‘Darling?’ Randy Darling?) anyway Daniel Darling writes:
Like any long relationship, there can be seasons of great enthusiasm and seasons of drought in church life. There will be times when participating in a local body is fun, exciting, and full of energy and hope. There will also be times when church, and all that goes with it will be hard, stressful, annoying, or boring. It is important to remember that even those times can, and often do, bear fruit. I also believe that in some ways the church does—or did—save me. It didn’t save me in the ways you might expect: a spectacular Sunday service, a homerun sermon, or a gripping worship set. God’s primary tool to transform my heart was not the conference speaker or the travelling revivalist or the worship concert. Those events were important, but now I realize that, more often, God changed my life using routine worship services in which I sang hymns I didn’t quite understand and heard messages I didn’t quite grasp. 1
I’m so glad we don’t have to produce a “gripping music set” or “homerun sermon” in order to accomplish the will of our heavenly Father in a church worship service. We don’t have to be perfect, or even close to it; because Jesus is among us and He’s all we really need, you see. Jesus takes the paltry five loaves and two fish that we have to offer and He multiplies them into a service of worship that can minister to our needs, but more importantly glorifies Him!
We are far from perfectly understanding that which I am about to read; however, what I am about to read WILL have an impact on our souls.
If you would like to send your offering through the mail, our mailing address is:
CrossPointe Community Church P O Box 126 Chippewa Lake, OH 44215
There’s a story told, probably a lie, about two friendly little microbes swimming merrily along in the bloodstream of a horse. As these two microbes are doing the backstroke, one of them becomes discontented and he tells his friend, “I’m getting tired of living life in this vein.” And so he shakes hands with his little friend and they have sort of a tearful parting, and this little microbe moves over to a neighboring artery. At this precise moment, a veterinarian is giving this horse a huge shot of penicillin, (the plot thickens at this point). The penicillin runs directly up the artery and kills our little microbe friend. The moral of the story then, is, don’t change streams in the middle of a horse.
Or more appropriate to series on the subject of the church, no matter how discontented we may become with the church, and there will be times of discontentment, it is the Lord’s will that we not give up on His Church.
This is why I have been preaching about not only believing in but also, loving the Church. Last week, I believe in and love the church because the head of the church invites each and every one of us to participate in the most vital aspect of His Church: Reaching people for Christ! Prior to that, I believe in and love the church of Jesus Christ because it was designed by Jesus to be the primo place where people find community, healing, and love. And prior to that, I believe in and love the church of Jesus Christ because it is the place where you and I as followers of Jesus have a great opportunity to grow into Christlikeness.
Today, I believe in and love the church of Jesus Christ because it is the only institution in society that provides perspective to convey dignity to all human beings. For Biblical evidence of that premise, I turn to:
When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come.
But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.
And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.
Romans 5:12-19
SERMON
Dignity For All!
Randy K’Meyer
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because it had crippling depression, by being constantly reminded that its life was worthless to those who looked down on it as a mere piece of meat, not a living, breathing creature, worthy of respect and dignity. It didn’t want to live in a constant state of worthlessness, fear, and insignificance, knowing that its only purpose in life would be death. So it escaped the farm and took off to the highway, and though the creature still feared its ultimate demise, it was relieved to be free from an impending doom.
So in short… to get to the other side.
According to Merriman’s online dictionary, the definition of ‘dignity’ is “the quality or state of being worthy, honored, or esteemed.” 1
We can consider dignity in two dimensions: (1) our own sense of dignity, and, (2) the dignity we convey to others.
And do you suppose that there is a relationship between to two? Of course, our own sense of dignity, or lack thereof, will have a direct impact on whether or not, and to what degree, we treat others with dignity.
I would say that the 15 year old freshman in Georgia who drug his female teachers to the floor and wailed on her this past week doesn’t carry very much of his own dignity. I would say that the parents who started a brawl resulting in the death of a 60 year old man at a high school basketball game in New Jersey this past week didn’t have very much self-worth. And what can we say about the five police officers in Memphis?
He or she who pays attention to what’s going on in this world know that human dignity is in short supply. Too many people feel like our chicken friend; no dignity.
In an article in the Guardian, titled, Human Dignity in Danger, the author states, “When we abandon efforts to uphold human dignity, we forfeit the essential meaning of being human, … and what follows is duplicity and folly, corruption and tyranny, and the endless stream of humanitarian crises that we see in the world today.” 2
So my premise is that the world, and maybe some of us, are in desperate need of a renewed sense of dignity for ourselves and for all human beings. And I believe in and love the church because the church of Jesus Christ is the one institution in society that provides the perspective to convey that dignity to all human beings.
Why do I say that?
Because we honor and revere a book that champions human dignity; that conveys meaning and significance and value and worth to every human being who has ever lived.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in Our image, to be like Us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’ So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:26-27).
In the very act of creation, God imputed dignity to all of His creation, because He loves that which He created.
And when Adam and Eve did their best to squander that which God had given, the Creator went to extreme measures to restore dignity to fallen humankind.
“Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone” (5:18).
C. S. Lewis helps us get a handle on this idea of imputed dignity. He says, take a fraction and let the numerator be 100 and let 100 represent the man who beats the numbers; he doesn’t live to three score and ten, he lives to be 100 years. And in the denominator, put the combined dynasties of China, 5,000 years. The man lives 100 years, society lives 5,000 years. Therefore, society must be 50 times more important than man. Therefore, if society is more important than a man, then a man is just the raw material that you feed into the sausage grinder of society to produce the sausages of societal accomplishment.
In the words of the 1960’s Russian dictator, Nakita Kruschev, when confronted by an American journalist who asked about the terrible lack of human dignity inside Russian prisons housing political dissidents, “you have to break eggs to make an omelet.” Therefore; human beings have become a means to an end in modern society.
But C. S. Lewis says, suppose that isn’t the way it works. Supposing that man doesn’t live 100 years and then turn toes up. Supposing man is, as the Bible says, eternal. Now it’s a little hard to write eternity in a number. We could set every computer printer in the world to printing out zeros and let them go at it for as long as you wish and they will still never come close to writing eternity.
So we have to scale it back to get our brains around it, so let’s take a billion. If you took a billion dollar bills and sewed then end to end, they would go around the equator 2 ½ times. So now we take the man we talked about earlier and in his place we put a billion! Put below the line the combined dynasties of China, 5,000 years and what happens? Suddenly man is infinitely more important than society.
This is the essential Christian message! In his letter to his pastor-friend, Titus 2:11, the Apostle Paul wrote: “For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people.”
Everything around us that seems so solid and natural is an illusion. It will be at some point in history be folded up as an old garment and disappear. But every person that God created in His image will be alive somewhere a billion years from now.
Practically speaking, what do we, as the church, and as individual Christians, do with that truth?
In seminary, I learned about a man who went to Ecuador 25 working for Wickliffe Bible Translators. He walked into a village of the Cofan Indians, only 600 on the face of the earth. The Cofan Indians had no written language. So he points to his nose and says, “nose.” And when they catch on, they said their word for nose and he took their word and with the phonetic language, he wrote their word. Similarly, he said, “eye, ear, hair,” they all had hair. And over the course of 24 years, he reduced their sounds to a written language and then taught them to read their own language.
Then he took the New Testament and translated it into the Cofan language. Then he taught them to read their NT and he told them about Jesus Christ. Now, why didn’t somebody take those 600 Cofan Indians and put them on a cattle truck and take them to Quito, teach them pigeon Spanish and how to drive a taxicab? Why do you bother with a group of 600 Cofan Indians? Why does a man with 6 years of graduate education in Biblical studies, go down to Ecuador to work with a group of people who are never going to contribute in any way to the American church scene?
And the answer is that one little Cofan Indian is worth more than everything traded on Wall Street from now until the kingdom comes!
Why do Christian people answer God’s call to go into the Ghettos of Chicago and work with black children who are never going to have any clout in this world, who will probably struggle for mere existence? Why would they go to Chicago or Nairobi, Indonesia, or wherever the Lord leads them to go to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Because the church of Jesus Christ understands that human beings have dignity and value and worth imputed to them by God Himself.
I believe in and love the church of Jesus Christ because it is the one institution that stands in the midst of our fallen world and reminds that world that the dignity of the world lies in the human being himself, not in the world that is around him. Not in the baubles and trinkets of society, people are where it’s at baby!
How do we know? Because the Bible says, “See how very much our Father loves us, for He calls us His children, and that is what we are” (I John 3:1).
Dennis Farthing, a missionary translating the Bible into an African Tribe’s language talks about a way he came to communicate the fullness of God’s love. He notes the verbs for this language consistently end with 1 of 3 vowels depending upon the usage . . . ‘a,’ ‘i,’ or ‘u.’ But the word for love ‘dv’ was only found with an ‘a’ and ‘i’ . . . why no ‘u’?”
In an effort to truly understand the concept of love in this African language, the missionary began to question a group of the tribe’s elders. “Can you dva your wife?” “Yes, that kind of love depends on the wife’s actions; she would be loved as long as she remained faithful and took good care of her husband.” “Could you dvi your wife?” “Yes, that would mean that the wife had been loved, but the love was gone.” “Well then, could you dvu your wife?” Everyone in the room laughed; “Of course not!” they replied. “If you said that, you would have to keep loving your wife no matter what she did, even if she never got you water and never cooked a meal and even committed adultery; you would have to keep on loving her. No, we would never say you could dvu your wife.”
The missionary sat quietly for a while, thinking about the love of God and then he said, “My friends, I am here to tell you that God dvus you.”
This missionary says there was complete silence for about five minutes. Then tears started to trickle down faces of the elderly men of the tribe. Finally, they responded, “Do you know what this would mean? This would mean that God kept loving us over and over and over, while at the same time we rejected His great love. He would be compelled to love us, even if we did wrong in His eyes.”
Have you embraced the fact that God dvu’s you? He loves you because of Who HE is and not because of who you are or what you have done! You are known and loved by Him Who loves you just because of Who He is.
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
“Now I’ve found the greatest love of all, since You laid down Your life, the greatest sacrifice.”
There once was a man named George Thomas, a pastor in a small New England town. One Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a rusty, bent, old birdcage, and set it on the Communion Table alongside the body and blood of Christ. Eyebrows were raised, and, as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak.
“I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me swinging this birdcage. On the bottom of the cage were three little birds, shivering with cold and fright. I stopped the lad and asked, ‘What you got there, son?’ ‘Just some old birds,’ came the reply. ‘What are you gonna do with them?’ I asked. ‘I got some cats at home,’ he smiled a devilish smile, ‘and they like birds.’
The pastor was silent for a moment. ‘How much do you want for those birds, son?’ ‘Why, you don’t want these birds, mister; they’re just plain old field birds, they don’t sing, they ain’t pretty, they aren’t worth anything but to be eaten.’ ‘How much?’ the pastor asked again. The boy sized up the pastor as if he were crazy and said, ‘$ 10?’ The pastor reached into his pocket and took out a ten-dollar bill. He placed it in the boy’s hand and in a flash, the boy was gone. The pastor picked up the cage, opened the door, and by softly tapping the bars, persuaded the birds out, setting them free.” Well, that explained the empty birdcage sitting next to the holy sacrament. And then the pastor began to tell another story.
“Satan had just come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting and said to Jesus, ‘Yes, sir, I just caught the world full of people down there. Set me a trap, used bait I knew they couldn’t resist; got ’em all!’ ‘What are you going to do with them?’ Jesus asked. Satan replied, ‘Oh, I’m gonna have fun! I’m gonna teach them how to disrespect and hate and abuse and even kill each other.’ ‘And what will you do when you get done with them?’ Jesus asked. ‘Oh, I’ll kill them forever,’ Satan glared proudly. ‘How much do you want for them?’ Jesus asked. ‘Oh, you don’t want those people; they ain’t no good, they don’t have any value. Why, you’ll take them and they’ll just hate you. They’ll spit on you, curse you and kill you. You don’t want those people!!” ‘How much?’ Jesus asked again. Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, ‘Your very life.’ Jesus said, ‘DONE!’ then He paid the price.
The pastor picked up the cage, opened the door and he walked from the pulpit as the congregation stood to sing, “Amazing Grace.”
If you would like to send your offering through the mail, our mailing address is:
CrossPointe Community Church P O Box 126 Chippewa Lake, OH 44215
SCRIPTURE
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
“Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
Then He asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because My Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build My church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” Then He sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Messiah.
If you would like to send your offering through the mail, our mailing address is:
CrossPointe Community Church P O Box 126 Chippewa Lake, OH 44215
SCRIPTURE
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” Then He asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because My Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build My church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” Then He sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Messiah.
If you would like to send your offering through the mail, our mailing address is:
CrossPointe Community Church P O Box 126 Chippewa Lake, OH 44215
On my flight back from Florida Thursday afternoon, I sat next to an Amish woman who was returning from Sarasota to her home halfway between Berlin and Mount Hope. And I asked her about the church she attends. And she was telling me that everyone in the community attends worship. “Everybody?” “Unless they are too sick to come or are away traveling like I was this past week, yes, everyone attends every Sunday.” And I asked, “Are you folks required to attend worship and if you miss are there any consequences?” And she said, “No we are not required to attend. Why would we be required? Being able to gather with my brothers and sisters in Christ to worship the Lord is very precious to me.” And I said, “Can I quote you on that?” And she looked a little confused and asked why I would want to do that. And I said, “Because I know there are some folks who attend CrossPointe Community Church in Chippewa Lake who feel the same way.”
SCRIPTURE
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” Then He asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because My Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build My church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” Then He sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Messiah.
If you would like to send your offering through the mail, our mailing address is:
CrossPointe Community Church P O Box 126 Chippewa Lake, OH 44215
SCRIPTURE
“So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”
Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.”
Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”
Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.
If you would like to send your offering through the mail, our mailing address is:
CrossPointe Community Church P O Box 126 Chippewa Lake, OH 44215
A CHRISTMAS PRAYER
Alan Robbins
Please join me in prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
On a stary night and when I look up at the expanse of our universe…I think back some 2000 years ago. Within the Galaxy of Milky Way, Our Solar System 3rd planet from the Sun… planet Earth, Northern and Eastern Hemisphere, Continent of Asia, Western area of Asia known as the Middle East, The Biblical Country of Judea, Town of Bethlehem, An out-building of an “Inn” …that was full, Baby Jesus Christ, the son of God, was born to Mary & Joseph.
Now I think some 2000 years later, on this Planet Earth, Northern Hemisphere, Continent of North America, Country of United States of America, State of Ohio, County of Medina, Township of Lafayette, Village of Chippewa Lake at 7230 Lake Road, Cross Pointe Community Church is located on this Christmas Day, a group of believers in Jesus Christ meet to celebrate his Birth, his love and look forward to an everlasting life in Heaven.
In these things I pray…Amen
SCRIPTURE
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him. But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. So the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
If you would like to send your offering through the mail, our mailing address is:
CrossPointe Community Church P O Box 126 Chippewa Lake, OH 44215
SCRIPTURE
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name Him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of His ancestor David. And He will reign over Israel forever; His Kingdom will never end!”
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and He will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For the word of God will never fail.”
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
If you would like to send your offering through the mail, our mailing address is:
CrossPointe Community Church P O Box 126 Chippewa Lake, OH 44215
SCRIPTURE
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:14
Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory.
The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. You will enlarge the nation of Israel, and its people will rejoice. They will rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest and like warriors dividing the plunder. For you will break the yoke of their slavery and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders. You will break the oppressor’s rod, just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian. The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire.
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!
