Hi GV Family,
I hope this week has been one of expectant joy for you- it certainly has been for me as I was able to take up my part in Grace Van’s Eastertide Joy Challenge a little over a week ago by assisting my parents for ten days on a trip to Florida to visit their friends. The many unexpected joys of serving my dad in particular who is nearly in a wheelchair put a jump in my step this week, made me smile a lot in the ordinary rhythms of my week and gave me sweet, focused times of fellowship with the Lord in my daily times of prayer and reading. How has or is God stretching and growing you?
While we have a stat holiday (Victoria Day) this weekend, the church calendar recognizes an even greater event that the world is yet to fully see. This Sunday is the final day in our Eastertide season, Pentecost Sunday! Pentecostos means “fiftieth” and represents that moment when fifty days following Jesus’ resurrection on Easter, the Holy Spirit was poured out in power onto God’s Beloved who had gathered from among the nations of the Mediterranean basin. Come hear about the wonder of this day in history when God’s people experienced a remarkable miracle and having received the Holy Spirit were filled with joy to the point of being thought by some to be drunk! We plan to celebrate the close of the Easter season with ICE CREAM SUNDAES!!! Also, please reflect on where God has met you with joy this season and write a one-sentence testimonial and place on our GV apple tree- the tree will be up for one more week after this Sunday!
We will enjoy the Lord’s Supper together this Sunday. John Chan will be offering his Concepts of Financial Stewardship Class from 12:15-2:15p for those who are interested in talking through some of the practical side of managing resources. During the service, Christine Huh will be giving a short testimonial regarding her experience with our church retreat in Mt. Baker, WA which is coming up the first weekend of June,… so we have a lot of great things planned. You won’t want to miss it!
Blessings and see you Sunday!
Mike
Bulletin Quotations:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” -Acts 1:8
“Ever since the early church fathers, commentators have seen the blessing of Pentecost as a deliberate and dramatic reversal of the curse of Babel. . . . at Babel earth proudly tried to ascend to heaven, whereas here in Jerusalem heaven humbly descended to earth.” -John R.W. Stott
“And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.” -Acts 2:17,18
“She had often such views of the glory of the Divine perfections, and of Christ’s excellencies,… that she was overwhelmed, and as it were swallowed up, in the light and joy of the love of God.” -Description of Sarah Edwards during The First Great Awakening
“All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” -Julian of Norwich
Sermon Title: The Gift of the Holy Spirit
Sermon Text: Acts 2:1-21
Sermon Outline:
1. The Miracle of the Moment
2. The Reversal of the Curse
3. The Muting of Distinctions
4. The Joy of the Spirit
5. Still Needing to Be Saved
Benediction: Romans 15:13
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