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Village SDA Church

Ron Kelly

How Important is Your Church, Your School, Your Life?

Thank you for technology, those that are worshiping with us in different places.

I'm praying that your spirit would move on all of us according to our roles.

Right now, Lord, you've put me in the role of prompter and teacher, but I am to be prompted and taught myself.

I'm praying, Lord, for those that have gathered here to worship, and I'm praying for those that are watching from somewhere else.

And I'm asking, Lord, wherever this message goes, may it do what it's supposed to do.

Show them that You're God and that I'm moving according to Your Word, so save me, Lord, from saying anything I shouldn't and empower me to say everything I should.

Last week's sermon generated an awful lot of conversation, and I had those conversations throughout the week, some of them long, some of them short, but quite a few.

I want to state again that last week's message was a message to encourage you to move according to the dictates of your own conscience as you understand how you're to relate to that which is Caesar's and that which is not.

I had at least feedback from 2 people that they thought my message was if you wear a mask, you don't have faith.

I have no idea why you're wearing a mask.

I keep them in my pocket, I keep them in my car.

My message last week was know where you stand with God and know where you stand with the government and move according to faith.

So let this be the most noble congregation there is who respects all people across all spectrums with all kinds of conditions and all kinds of private elements to their life that nobody needs to know about or does know about.

Live according to the dictates of your conscience.

Otherwise, you're living as a weak-conscience person.

And this is a heavy burden to bear up underneath.

So pray your way into the position you're in.

I believe the church's job is to protect the vulnerable and challenge the strong.

So, my hope is, is that I do my part as a 1 of the mouthpieces of this institution to encourage you to be prudent and wise and thoughtful.

It is also my job to challenge you to let the Word of God separate down to the marrow So that if there is a root of fear that's feeding the natural impulses of the soul to self-preservation, that you say, Lord, take the sword of the Spirit and cut it.

Put some promises in my head so I'm not afraid.

God's people have always been known for great love and no fear.

We live in an age of such casual Christianity that the sloganism is painful.

What we really need is a depth of person.

I'll be talking about that again here today.

It's absolutely imperative that we are the most broad-minded, noble-hearted, intelligent people.

We aren't plagued in the context of the modern media forum where nobody can say anything without being canceled out or pigeonholed.

Stand up for what you believe in a respectful way.

And don't be badgered into a position by anybody, whether it's the bully of modern media or the bully down the corner or the bully at work.

I can remember those days I had my back against the chain link fence and I'm surrounded by all these kids.

You know, I repeat stories, but I can remember once she told the neighbors, you can all fight him, you can all beat him up, but you have to do it 1 at a time.

And That's what Paul says in Romans, not to be.

Now my wife asked me this morning if this is part 2 of last week.

Well, I didn't really plan on it being, but it will be.

You say, Pastor, who makes you such an expert about what's going on?

I don't claim to be an expert about anything.

The only thing I might be an expert on over anybody else is me.

But I do know this, and we're gonna see it in the message this morning, that as soon as fear takes over, I know something's wrong.

And while I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, I know there's a problem.

As I mentioned last week, the great disease we're battling right now, greater than even the coronavirus, is the spiritual sickness of a fearful heart.

I was walking around the parking lot, as I often do here, thinking and praying, and I looked over and I saw something.

It was the same thing I had seen the day before when I was with all the tradesmen that were forming up the new driveway for the church school, they looked over at it too.

It's the Bering Springs football team and some guys said I don't think they're social distancing.

But then as I was walking around the parking lot here yesterday thinking and praying, I looked over and saw them again.

And I thought to myself, they come every day to do this.

They're just playing football, but I'm playing for the game of life.

And I need to be more committed to what I'm doing than they are to what they're doing.

On Wednesday, I was gathering up some of the materials for that new driveway in front of our school.

I'd loaded all of my 16, 16-foot boards in the back of my truck, and they were sticking out.

I needed a red flag to go on the back of them.

So I saw this young man walk out of Home Depot.

He's parked right next to me, and I thought I'll ask him if they have him.

Because you know you're responsible, friends, when you've got something sticking out the back of your vehicle.

You need to put a red flag on it so people can see it.

I said, no, no, no, no, no, don't go get me 1, I'll go get it myself.

I wanna tell you, this young man named Willie was a huge help to me, and by the way, when it was all said and done, he was joined by a young man named Aaron, and it took me a whole lot longer to do what I was doing because after they got my flag, I needed some string, and it was out of string, and they had to go all over the store looking for it.

Those guys were exceptional, and I hung around long enough to tell 1 of the managers, because these were both young men, very young men, what an excellent job they had done in customer service.

If they had not had the challenge they had had, I wouldn't have had the encounter I had, because as I'm walking across the parking lot, I did happen to have my mask on.

I usually wait to put it on until I'm in the store, but as I'm walking across the parking lot, someone says to me, Pastor Kelly, is that you?

That's what you have to do when you have a mask on.

So I walk over to his, it's like a Dodge Sprinter, 1 of these nice vans, he's a contractor in the area.

He doesn't attend a church in Berrien Springs.

And he tried to watch his church last Sabbath, but he couldn't, he ended up watching ours, and he wanted to talk about the message.

We stood there for a while talking, and then we turned to talking about the church school, and he said, I've got some ideas.

He says, you know, there's some research that suggests that you can filter the air and knock down a lot of that coronavirus with a certain kind of filter.

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How Important is Your Church, Your School, Your Life?

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