Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian Church
     
 
Pastor Steve Aguzzi   
"Worship and Thanksgiving: Two Pillars of the Christian Life"

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Messages of Grace

(Past Recorded Sermons) 





















 
This Sunday
Nov. 26, 2017




Sermon Title:  
"Clean, Seen,  
and Pristine"
 
 


Scripture:  
Luke 17:11-20  
 















































































CHRISTMAS
CANTATA

































November 22, 2017

Dear MLEPC Members and Friends,

"You shall rejoice in the presence of the LORD, your God..." Deuteronomy 16:11

"For we must make an offering to God, and show ourselves in every way grateful to him who made us - in purity of thought, in sincerity of faith, in fervent hope and burning love - as we offer the first fruits of the things he has created and that are his. This offering the church makes alone to her creator, making it with gratitude from his creation."
~St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies (Lib. 4, 18, 1-2, 4, 5: SC 100, 596-598, 606, 610-612).

This week we celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday filled with turkey, pumpkin pie, and football. All those things are great things, and we are blessed to have them and share them. But the mode of thanksgiving in the Christian life consists of various forms of thanksgiving that occur on a daily basis, and it starts with the spiritual disciplines of response. God has acted, and continues to act, for He is Sovereign, and He is in the business of extending His grace to us on a daily basis. If the Bible is viewed as a drama, simplistically speaking, God's first major act was creation, His second major act was the establishment of the covenant with Abraham, His third major act was the incarnation, His forth major act was the death of Jesus Christ for the redemption of humankind, his fifth major act was the resurrection of Jesus Christ in victory over sin and death, his sixth major act was the establishment of His church along with its mission to reveal the gospel and make disciples, and God's seventh and final act hasn't happened yet even though the Bible describes it: the consummation of the cosmos under the dominion of the Trinity. As God reveals His actions in history to us--through the Word of God (John 1:14), through the preaching of that Word (2 Tim 4:2), through the grace that is mysteriously mediated by the sacraments (EPC BOO 3.2.d), and by His communication to us through prayer--particularly the prayers of those who have repented and are now in right relationship with Christ (EPC BOO 11.2), we respond in kind as lepers who have been cleansed, sick who have been healed, prisoners who have been freed, and dead who have been raised.

The very first act of gratitude that we enact is not in response to God's gifts but to God Himself. We long for the presence of God in our lives, thus this is an act of worship. We seek the Giver first, and the gift second, except where the Giver and the Gift are the same, that is, God Himself (the Father giving the Son who in turn gives the Holy Spirit). Thus, the primary and most appropriate act of thanksgiving is worship, as our passage above from Deuteronomy tells us. Then, from a life of worship flows every other form of gratitude. In our tradition, this is typically described in the trifecta of precious things to offer God: time, talent, and treasure. Along with St. Irenaeus, we too offer God the new condition of our hearts, which God Himself has created by His grace. First, we thank God with our minds because God has transformed us in Christ by the renewing of our minds which results in pure speech and action. Second, we thank God in faith because faith is the instrument that God has provided so that we might be saved--by His grace in Christ. Third, we thank God through our hope because hope, which does not disappoint, is the final result of the spiritually disciplined life: suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope (Romans 5:3-4). Last but not least, we offer back to God the greatest of all the Christian virtues--a burning love that is in complete submission to God's will and impassioned by the God who first loved us (I John 4:19), and did not spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all (Rom 8:32).

As we take time this week and beyond to thank God, first in worship, and then through offering, and then through a pure and obedient life, we do so because our desire is to be in the Presence of God. Please join us this Sunday as we celebrate God's Presence in worship. At the contemporary service, the youth worship team will be leading musically. The theme and message will be from Luke 17, in which only one leper out of ten returns to Jesus' feet in order to give thanks for being cleansed. May we be like that one leper--filled with passionate thanksgiving and praise. God bless you, and see you on Sunday!

Pastor Steve

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You won't want to miss MLEPC's 10th annual Christmas Cantata, next Sunday, December 3, 2017 at 3:30 PM. Bring your friends and family to this free concert presented by the Cantata Choir of 71 singers with a 42 piece orchestra. The overriding theme of this inspiring Christmas work by Lloyd Larson is JOY; celebrating the promise of joy which comes to those who have waited through the long dark night for the fulfillment of God's promise. The music in "Sing Joy to All the World!" incorporates original melodies with familiar carols in a work ranging from contemplative to celebratory and is narrated by Pastor Carolyn Poteet and Mr. Rob Anderson. The concert is followed by a dessert reception.

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