Covenant Update
Dear Covenant Family:
Today was a great day at Covenant with 30 people in attendance. Please remember that this month’s ministry is the Bread of the Mighty Food Bank, who directly feeds hungry people in our community. Attached is today’s bulletin for your information, hope you enjoy the Wordsearch Tina included for you!!
We hadn’t done Prayer Requests for a few weeks so we made it a focus in church today. We had a number of people raised up for the onset of serious dementia in their lives. Maurita McKee raised up her sister and asked for prayers for herself and her sister, and Larry Noegel also raised up two elderly good friends of his and Helen Ann’s who also have dementia, and Pastor Carl Romey raised a good Pastor friend of his, Ken Babin, who previously served at the First Lutheran Church in Gainesville and who recently died of Alzheimer’s at the age of 51 years in New Orleans. Bill Mercado asked for prayers for the people in Puerto Rico as an approaching hurricane was threatening power loss across the country [NOTE: Late Sunday afternoon they did lose power]. Larry and Helen Ann also raised up a local friend of theirs who is currently dealing with cancer. Carol Parker raised up a friend of hers who is currently in the hospital in Gainesville with COVID. Edwina asked for prayers for traveling mercy for her daughter Donna and husband Stu who are currently traveling in Europe. Finally, Diane Mauldin asked for prayers for missionary friends of her family who are currently serving in a very unsafe part of the world right now.
Pastor Don’s sermon today was titled The Price of Impatience and his scripture was
Exodus 32:19-35 – And it came about, as soon as Moses approached the camp, that he saw the calf and the people dancing; and Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 20 Then he took the calf which they had made and completely burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it.
21 Then Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” 22 And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. 23 For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we do not know what happened to him.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ Then they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
25 Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control—for Aaron had let them get out of control to the point of being an object of ridicule among their enemies— 26 Moses then stood at the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. 27 And he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Every man of you put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’” 28 So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. 29 Then Moses said, “Dedicate yourselves today to the Lord—for every man has been against his son and against his brother—in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today.”
30 And on the next day Moses said to the people, “You yourselves have committed a great sin; and now I am going up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves! 32 But now, if You will forgive their sin, very well; but if not, please wipe me out from Your book which You have written!” 33 However, the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will wipe him out of My book. 34 But go now, lead the people where I told you. Behold, My angel shall go before you; nevertheless on the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.” 35 Then the Lord struck the people with a plague, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.
Pastor Don started by saying we are often impatient in our lives today, and we need to be more patient, that we need to wait on God for His timing! Verses 19-20 in this chapter of Exodus document Moses’ anger with the Israelites for their sinning while he was on the mountaintop with God. Verses 21-24 explain the sin that occurred and verse 23 states that the Israelites did not know what happened to Moses – they grew impatient waiting for him! Aaron’s explanation for what happened in verse 24 seemed like a small child trying to explain a lie; as Pastor Don stated, “If your conscience convicts you, it is probably sin”. Verses 25-28 document God’s response to this sin, and we see the high cost to the Israelites for their impatience. Just as the people suffered because of their impatience for Moses to return from the mountain top, impatient decisions can cost us a lot also. Pastor Don concluded “If it’s not God’s time, it’s not the right time. Waiting can enhance God’s blessing”.
Have a very blessed week!
Ron
