Purchased. Converted. Spiritual. Furnished. Freed.

August 24, 2025
Purchased. Converted. Spiritual. Furnished. Freed.
Sermon Audio

CENTRAL TEXT: Acts 20:17-32

17 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. 18 And when they came to him, he said to them:

 “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 25 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. 32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 

CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 68: 4-5, 19, 26

LEADER: Sing to God, sing praises to his name;
lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts;
his name is the LORD;
exult before him!

ALL: Father of the fatherless and protector of widows
is God in his holy habitation.

LEADER: Blessed be the Lord,
who daily bears us up;
God is our salvation

ALL: “Bless God in the great congregation,
the LORD, O you who are of Israel’s fountain!”

PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH: John 10:7-18

LEADER: The entire bible is One story; all pointing to the beauty and finished work of Jesus. 

And so each week we have additional readings that connect to the central text and themes to illustrate this continuity. Our central text for today is found in Acts 20, and so we offer a related text found in John 10.So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father

The Word of the Lord

ALL: Thanks be to God

Celebration of the Lord's Supper: 

CONFESSION OF SIN:

LEADER: Let us confess our sin to God.

ALL: Father who sees all, we confess we see too poorly, too superficially. We see each other as far less than they are. We see our sin as far less foolish than it is. We see your grace as far less valuable than we can know. Pardon our blindness, and the way it makes us stumble–and bring us sight into the nature of things and the nature of your love. Help us to find that sight and refuge in the company of your people.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON: 1 Peter 2:22-25 

LEADER: He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

ALL: Thanks be to God.

Illustrations

August 24, 2025

Quotes

I experience a certain vague ‘spiritualness’ within the world’s chaos, an approximate understanding that God is implicit in some latent, metaphysical way, yet it is only really in church – that profoundly fallible human institution – that I become truly spiritually liberated. I am swept up in a poetic story that is both true and imaginative and fully participatory, where my spiritual imagination can be both contained and free. The church may appear to some as small, even stifling, its congregation herdlike, yet within its architecture, music, litanies, and stories, I find a place of immense spiritual recognition and liberation . . .It is order itself that allows us to be free. 
- Nick Cave
One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic building. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided. 
- “Wormwood” in Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters (HT: Tish Harrison Warren)
“He came to a little low door in the hedge, and beside the door sat a woman in a blue robe. She was grave but not sad, and her robe was plain but her veil was glistening and white. ‘What is this?’ said John. ‘This is the House of Mother Kirk,’ said she, ‘and you must enter here.’”.....“You cannot get to the Landlord’s country except by this little low door. You must go in on your knees and you must be stripped and washed.” 
- from Lewis's A Pilgrim's Regress 

BOOKS / DOCS

“The Church is your Mom,” Tish Harrison Warren
Devoted to the Church, Sinclair Ferguson
Contesting the Body of Christ, Myles Werntz
Church: A Guide to the People of God, Brad East
C.S. Lewis and the Church, eds. Judith and Brendan Wolfe
The Church and its Vocation, Michael W. Goheen
“What is Church?” Jason Micheli
Life Together, Dietrich Bønhoeffer (tl;dr: start here)
Resident Aliens, Stanley Hauerwas
From Isolation to Community, Myles Werntz