Sermon Series: Windows in the Gospel: The Denominations of Christianity Sermon Title: “The Baptist Churches: Baptism, Conversion & Scripture” John 3:16; Romans 6:23 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Things I’d like to remember from today’s sermon: ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Meditation Moments This week we will continue in our practice of praying and reading the Psalms during three of the traditional “offices” of prayer – Morning (laud), Mid-day (sext) and Bed-time (compline). This pattern comes from the Anglican rather than the Baptist tradition but Baptists would appreciate the emphasis on prayer and scripture reading! We’ll read and pray through the longest Psalm in the Bible this week: Psalm 119; it contains 22 stanzas named for the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet; each is eight verses long. Its focus is on pursuing God’s Word and commands – an important theme to Baptists and to all. Enjoy Monday, September 17-Lauds (morning): Begin with a prayer of thanksgiving for the day, read Psalm 119:1-8 and lift up a prayer based upon them, asking God to help you today to walk in his ways throughout the day. Lift up your needs to the Lord, and then pray the Lord’s Prayer. Sext (mid-day): Give thanks for your meal and for the morning that has passed. Read Psalm 119:9-16 aloud as a prayer. Compline (bed-time): Thank God for the day – for the blessings. Pause to consider anything in (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – September 15-16, 2012 – page 1) the day you need God’s forgiveness for, or help in order to learn from your experiences and live differently tomorrow. Read Psalm 119:17-32 aloud. Choose two verses to focus on and recite them once again in prayer. Tuesday, September 18- Lauds (morning): Begin with a prayer of thanksgiving for the day, then read Psalm 119:33-48 aloud. Focus on two verses and pray them once more as you commit our ways to the Lord today. Sext (mid-day): Give thanks for your meal and for the morning that has passed. Read Psalm 119:49-56 aloud. Note the Psalmists steadfastness even during times of trouble. Commit the remainder of the day to the Lord. Compline (bed-time): Thank God for the day – for the blessings. Pause to consider anything in the day you need God’s forgiveness for, or help in order to learn from your experiences and live differently tomorrow. Read Psalm 119:57-72 as a prayer. Choose two verses to focus on and use them in your prayer time. Lift up your concerns before the Lord. Wednesday, September 19– Lauds (morning): Begin with a prayer of thanksgiving for the day and for God’s goodness, read Psalm 119:73-88 aloud. Lift up your concerns to God. Sext (mid-day): Give thanks for your meal and for the morning that has passed. Read Psalm 119:89-96 as a prayer. Invite God to lead you throughout the remainder of the day. Compline (bed-time): Thank God for the day – for the blessings. Pause to consider anything in the day you need God’s forgiveness for, or help in order to learn from your experiences and live differently tomorrow. Read Psalm 119:97-112 as a prayer. Commit to the Lord your concerns. Thursday, September 20– Lauds (morning): Begin with a prayer of thanksgiving for the day and for God’s goodness, then read Psalm 119:113-128. Pray that you can live this way. Lift up your concerns to the Lord. Sext (mid-day): Give thanks for your meal and for the morning that has passed. Read Psalm 119:129-136. Invite God to guide you in his truth and to direct your path the rest of the day. Compline (bed-time): Thank God for the day – for the blessings. Pause to consider anything in the day you need God’s forgiveness for, or help in order to learn from your experiences and live differently tomorrow. Read Psalm 119:129-144 aloud. Friday, September 21 -Lauds (morning): Begin with a prayer of thanksgiving for the day and for God’s goodness, then read Psalm 119:145-160 as a prayer. Lift up your concerns to the Lord ending with the Lord’s Prayer. Sext (mid-day): Give thanks for your meal and for the morning that has passed. Read Psalm (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – September 15-16, 2012 – page 2) 119:161-168 forming your prayer from the verses you’ve read. Compline (bed-time): Thank God for the day – for the blessings. Pause to consider anything in the day you need God’s forgiveness for, or help in order to learn from your experiences and live differently tomorrow. Read Psalm 119:169-176 aloud. Which of these verses speaks most clearly to you tonight as you pray? Saturday, September 22– worth repeating last week’s… Lauds (morning): Begin with a prayer of thanksgiving and for the day and for God’s goodness. Read Psalm 118: 1 and 24. What comes to your mind today as you think about God making this day? What is there for you to rejoice about in this moment? Focus your mind on that as you close in prayer, repeating verse 24 as you end. Sext (mid-day): Read Psalm 118: 24-28. Give thanks for your meal and the morning that has passed. What is one way you can praise or exalt God this afternoon? Pray that you might do that as you end your time of prayer Compline (bed-time): Thank God for the day and for its blessings. Pause to consider anything in the day for which you need God’s forgiveness or help in order to learn from your experiences and live differently tomorrow. Read Psalm 118: 22-29. Read verse 29 again aloud and may that be your prayer as you fall asleep tonight. Theme: Windows in the Gospel – The Denominations of Christianity “The Baptist Churches: Baptism, Conversion and Scripture” Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – based on a sermon series by Adam Hamilton September 15-16, 2012 at First United Methodist Church, Durango John 3:16; Romans 6:23 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. VIDEO Baptist Church Sermon Starter SLIDE The Baptist Churches (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – September 15-16, 2012 – page 3) I invite you to take out of your bulletin your Message Notes and your Meditation Moments. You have our Scripture passages for the day at the top and a space for you to write things down that you want to remember from today's message. I promise that you will learn something new today that you didn't know before. You may hear God's voice prodding you and I hope you will write those things down so you can reflect upon them in the week ahead. Your Meditation Moments continue on the back side with a daily devotion urging you to practice what you hear in the message today. We are going to be looking at the simple gospel today and what is at the heart of following Jesus, and continuing this week in the tradition that we learned from the Anglicans and before that the Catholics on praying at different times during the day using the Psalms. I hope you will enjoy the chance to allow your prayers to be shaped by the Psalms and stop at midday as well as that morning and night to spend some time in prayer. This week you will study Psalm 119 which is the longest chapter in the entire Bible. We broke it down into several parts so you can spend all week looking at this text. Psalm 119 focuses on God's commandments and God decrees for our lives and you will have a chance to read and study that and reflect upon it since it is a major theme within the Baptist tradition. Today we continue in our series of sermons on the denominations of Christianity. We are trying to understand in this series more about our brothers and sisters in Christ in the various Christian faith traditions. Our aim has been to help us discover more about ourselves and where we have come from. We also are listening carefully for what each tradition might teach us about what it means to be an authentic followers of Jesus today. We are not trying to prove to you that United Methodists are better than any other faith tradition, but instead we are humbly listening and learning from those who are our friends in other faith traditions. We started this series by looking at the early church and understanding that in the beginning there were no denominations. People who followed Christ were simply called, "followers of the way." SLIDE Followers of the Way Over the last few weeks we have learned that the church divided about 1000 years into its history and in 1054 the Orthodox Church split off from the Roman Catholic Church. We then learned about the Reformation which happened on mainland Europe and was begun by Martin Luther and then Calvin.