Mt. Pleasant Church of God - Dillsburg Tyler Schouppe

This week we are gathering back together for a "soft opening" if you will, before relaunching a service on Sunday 7/5. When we gather together on Sunday morning at 10:30 it will be for a time of prayer and refocusing on seeking the Lord corporately. Our desire is that we would experience what the disciples experience in verse 31 of Acts 4- "After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." Join us for this sermon podcast as we wrap up our series on the Church- belonging to Jesus, being built by Jesus and promised to prevail against the gates of Hell.

Stepping away from our Gatecrashers series this week to dial in on an important message for Father's Day, certainly not that this message is only for men or Dad's, but the instruction Moses gives the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6 is to Love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength- something you've probably heard here or from Jesus in the New Testament. Around this command though is instruction on the importance of impressing this on their children and to have it be a part of everything they are and do. What are we passing down to those coming behind us? It's great to share skills and hobbies, passions and experiences with our children and those coming along behind us, but the most important thing we can pass on to them is a wholehearted love for the Lord!

As we continue in our sermon series Gatecrashers- we've so far talked about the Church belonging to and being built by Christ, the Church's role in the ministry of reconciliation and healing and the Church's role as a family doing good to all. This week we look at another description of the Church- as a dwelling place. Paul describes the Church being built up together with Christ as the cornerstone binding the whole building together. He reminds us that we are "becoming a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." While describing the same structure, the words house and home, mean two very different things. If the Lord is dwelling inside us through his Spirit that's going to look a certain way.

As we continue to look at the role of the church as we crash into the gates of Hades and overcome the powers of sin and darkness we're reminded that the church is in this together as a family. In the middle of chapter 6, Paul is reminding the people of the Galatian church to "do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." We know that doing good is important and can have a tremendous impact on those both in and out of the church, but we also know that gate-crashing can be exhausting. Just prior to this encouragement Paul has another word for them- "Don't become weary in doing good..." How can the church effectively handle the command to do good to all people, while also avoid the burnout that can come with it?

Welcome to this week’s podcast, where Zack will dig into what it means to crash into the gates of hades, as a collective people seeking to reconcile those who don’t know Jesus. Join us as we dig into what it means to invite people into reconciliation alongside of us, as we seek to become a little more like Jesus.

Gates take a defensive posture. Gates guard what is inside, keep out what shouldn’t be let in. In Hell, the gates are trying to keep out the love and grace of Jesus Christ. This week, prepare to go on the offensive. Prepare to bring that love of Jesus into the world, and step out of the nature of being on the defensive.