WEST LIBERTY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

“I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.”  Philippians 3:10

April 21, 2024

THE GOD WE WORSHIP

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

 

Message and Scriptures

Revelation 4:1-11

Worship In Heaven

 

 

WLCF VISION STATEMENT – To be a God centered, God loving, Holy Spirit filled, led and empowered Church, having Christ as the Head and we, as His Body, being used to make disciples of Jesus to build His Kingdom.

CHURCH COVENANT:

We covenant together with God and with one another in an ever-increasing relationship with God as follows: Lord God-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit we covenant with you and with each other… That we will make our goal the making of disciples, mature in Jesus Christ.

BARUCH ATA YHWH SEBAOTH – Bless You. Praise You. Thank You Beloved LORD GOD.  We are thankful for our Worship Team and the freedom we have to worship God at any time and in any place.

Weekly Dawn Prayer – Wednesday mornings at 7:00am both in person and via Zoom

Daily Time Alone with God – for a daily devotion please follow “Time Alone With God”, found on the website. Please pray TAG every day.

 

Prayer Chain – Call or email Lynne Zeman  319-627-4858 or westlibertychristianfellowship@gmail.com

 

 

TODAY AT WLCF (On Site and Zoom)

Worship Service

9:00 a.m. Adult Sunday school         10:00 a.m. Prayer        10:30 a.m. Worship Service

 

 

THIS WEEK AT WLCF –  

 

Bible Studies/Sunday School/Worship           

Monday                 5:30 p.m.                              Youth Bible Study – Luke

6:00 p.m.                               Getting to Know the Bible

Tuesday                                   7:00 p.m.                             Spanish Bible Study – Lucas Holy Spirit

Wednesday             7:00 a.m.                             Dawn Prayer – Prayer for the World/Nation/Community/WLCF

Saturday                  7:30 a.m.                             Men’s Bible Study - Revelation

Sunday                     9:00 a.m                              Adult Sunday School

10:00 a.m.                             Prayer (Sanctuary) Social (Foyer)

                                 10:30 a.m.                            Worship Service

                               

 

Birthday(s)

                Monday, April 22  - Scott Harmon

                Wednesday, April 24 – Will McKillip

               

Anniversary(ies)  

                Friday, April 26 – Dan & Cindy Ruess              

 

Meeting(s)

 

 

 

MASKS: Everyone is now welcome to make their own decision regarding wearing masks. There will still be a supply by the entry door, but it is your choice whether you wear a mask.

 

Zoom –You will need to download the app on your phone or computer. The code for ALL videos is 228 893 6865.  The password is 416991. Join us!

 

UPCOMING EVENTS, SERVICES, AND ACTIVITIES

 

New Bible Study: Getting to Know the Bible –Mondays at 6:00 pm.  Please bring your own Bible.

 

National Day of Prayer Community Prayer Gathering,  Thursday May 2, 11am Ron-de-Voo Park

 

Vacation Bible School    June 17-21  SCUBA : Diving into Friendship with God  

 

 

ONGOING EVENTS, SERVICES, AND ACTIVITIES

 

 

Baptism – If you are interested in following Jesus in the Waters of Believer’s Baptism please see Pastor Mario.

 

West Liberty Food Pantry – Is open at FCU Saturdays 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. and Thursdays 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Thanks to the men who deliver these items to FCU.  Julie McKillip is our coordinator.

 

Church library – You are invited to check out the books from the library downstairs.

 

Copy of the Message or Bulletin – Visit our website: www.wlcf.org  (an audio version is included) or contact Brad Jenkins.

 

Stephen’s Ministry – is available for anyone needing someone to walk beside them or pray with them.  Please contact Kelsey Jenkins 319-936-4891 or Cindy Mays 319-330-4620 for more information.

 

Child Care: Child care is available in the Nursery during worship service.

 

Children’s Sunday school – during the sermon at the 10:30 a.m. worship service.

 

 

OUR GIVING TO THE LORD’S WORK: Offering Box – back table

Giving in April: $1985.  We are behind budget $521.81.  We need a monthly offering of $8968.02 and a weekly offering of $2069.54 to match our budget. BARUCH ATA YHWH SEBAOTH for the giving of YOUR people through the years. God loves a cheerful giver. Checks can be mailed to the church or dropped off at the church, in the mailbox at the end of the lane. You are also invited to sign up for Electronic Funds Transfer (ETF). Please see Lynne for details.

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WLCF YOUTH MINISTRY

WLCF Youth Group for young people in 6th – 12th grades

Ministries

Worship Service:                                 Sundays at 10:30 a.m.  

Youth Night:                          Mondays at 5:30 p.m. – Luke (Please bring your Bibles).   

 

 

Activities and Events          

 

COMMUNITY YOUTH GROUP (CYG)

 

If you are interested in serving this ministry in any way, let Pastor Mario know. They need one board member and several cube leaders. The group meets at First Church United (FCU) on Sunday evenings.

               

                July 28-Aug 2        Mission trip to Nashville, TN

 

 

Pine Lake Camps

Registration for all events is open at PineLakeCamps.org

 

April 26 – 27         Marriage Camp 20’s & 30’s               

May 3 – 5              Español Family Camp                           Spring Retreats

May 17-19             Work Weekend                                  

June 16 - 21          Elementary (Grades 2-5)                   

July 14 – 19           Elementary (Grades 2-5)    Summer Camps

June 23 – 28         Jr High Week (Grades 6-8)

July 2 – 5               Family Camp

July 7 - 12              Sr. High Week (Grades 9-12)

July 14 – 16           Primary Camp (Grades 1-4)

 

 

 

 

TIME ALONE WITH GOD (TAG)

Sunday, Apr 21, 2024

 

     So with Revelation 4 we turn abruptly from the church on earth to the church in heaven, from Christ among the flickering lampstands to Christ in the very centre of the unchangeable throne of God. It is the same Christ, but from an entirely different perspective. It was the open door of revelation, and as John looked through the door what he saw developed in three stages: first, a throne, from which God rules over the universe; secondly, a scroll, the book of history, closed, sealed, and held in God’s right hand; and finally, a lamb as slain, who alone is worthy to open the scroll, to interpret and control history.

     The churches of Asia were small and struggling; the might of Rome seemed invincible. What could a few defenseless Christians do if an imperial edict were to banish them from the face of the earth? Already the powers of darkness seemed to be closing in upon them. Yet they need have no fear, for at the centre of the universe stands a throne. From it the wheeling planets receive their orders. To it gigantic galaxies give their allegiance. In it the tiniest living organism finds its life.

     Everything John saw in his vision was related to the throne. He uses seven prepositions to indicate the centrality of the throne of God.

John Stott, The Incomparable Christ, p. 182f (2001).

 

 

   This scene remains the foundation for everything that follows in the rest of this powerful and disturbing book. All that is to come flows from the fact that the whole creation is called to worship the one true God as its creator. The profound problems within that creation mean that the creator must act decisively to put things right, not because creation is bad and he’s angry with it but because it’s good and he’s angry with the forces that have corrupted and defaced it, and which threaten to destroy it (11.18)…the logic of John’s vision is not that what he sees in the heavenly dimension is merely reflecting what is going on in the life of the church, but rather that what he sees in heaven is what ought to be going on here on earth. Heaven is in charge; heaven gives the lead. It isn’t simply ‘the spiritual dimension’ of what we happen to choose to do.

     Revelation sets out the delicate but decisive balance. All creation worships God; we humans are called to worship him with mind as well as heart, recognizing that he is worthy of all praise as the creator of all things.

N.T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, pp.49f (2011)

 

 

     Here begins the main part of the Apocalypse. Up to this point the materials presented have been preparatory. John is about to witness the “Drama of Redemption.” The way is prepared by the vison of the living, victorious Christ in chapter 1. The audience for whose benefit the drama is produced is presented with its vices and virtues in chapters 2-3. Now it is time to draw the curtain and reveal the stage set for the drama. From here forward, in rapid sequence, will be presented scenes to assure the persecuted Christians that the cause of Christ is not a lost cause.

Roy Summers, Worthy Is The Lamb, p.129 (1951)

 

 

     This may give us the clue. As Swete puts it: ‘the four forms suggest whatever is noblest, strongest, wisest, and swiftest in animate Nature. Nature, including Man, is represented before the Throne, taking its part in the fulfilment of the Divine Will, and the worship of the Divine Majesty.’

Lean Morris, The Revelation of St. John, p.91 (1980)

 

 

     These chapters, moreover, do not give us a picture of heaven. They describe the entire universe from the aspect of heaven. The purpose of this vision is to show us, in beautiful symbolism, that all things are governed by the Lord on the throne. ‘All things’ must include our trials and tribulations. That is the point. That is why the description of the throne precedes the symbolic prediction of the trials and tribulations which the Church must experience here on earth.

     With the aid of our diagram let us now study this vision.

     ‘Behold a throne!’ The throne is the very centre of the universe, not the physiographical but the spiritual center. Here is the true foundation for astronomy. The universe of the Bible is neither geocentric nor heliocentric nor sagittariocentric but coelocentric, that is, theocentric. See the diagram. Here, too, is the true philosophy of history. The newspapers and radio announcements give out the headlines and new-flashes. The magazines add the explanations. But these explanations are, after all in terms of secondary causes. The real mind, the real will which-while fully maintaining the responsibility and freedom of the individual instruments-controls this universe is the mind, the will of the Almighty God! Nothing is excluded from His dominion.

William Hendrickson, More Than Conquerors, p. 84 (1940).

 

     The broader perspective of their function - to reveal the greatness of God’s court, hence, his own greatness. Thus they also reveal a striking contrast with the pretense of the earthly ruler’s arrogant pomp. The text invites us to worship, today no less than at its first reading in Ephesus. It also invites us to relinquish our fear of human grandeur, which pales before the majesty of the eternal God, with whom we have become intimate.
    Humility is not simply humiliation. It is recognizing who God is and who we are, and the consequent vast difference between God and ourselves…Nothing banishes pride of mortal flesh or human competition and agendas better than a taste of God’s infinite greatness.
     Only in the depths of worship, as we stand in awe of God’s majestic glory, do all other competing claims for affection and attention recede into their rightful place. God alone is God, and he alone merits first place-beyond every other love, every other anxiety, every other fear that consumes us.
     If God’s grandeur dwarfs the emperor’s majesty, it also challenges in a different way the numbing triteness of modern Western culture. God’s greatness summons our attention: Who are we to be overwhelmed by the mortal emperor or our present trials? That God is Lord of history and has everything under control helps us view everything else in life the way we should. Praise puts persecution, poverty, and plagues into perspective; God is sovereignly bringing about his purposes, and this world’s pains are merely the birth pangs of a new world (Rev. 21-22).
Craig S. Keener, The NIV Application Commentary: Revelation, p. 177, 180, 182 (2000).

 

          He heard, “Come up here , and I will show you what must take place after this” (Rev 4:1). Then he saw the timeless worship of God in his throne room. The same pattern si repeated ten times throughout Revelation  (Rev 1:10-12; 4:1-2; 5:5-6: 7:4,9; 9:13-16; 14:13-16; 16:15-16; 17:1-6; 19:9, 17-18; 21:9-14). The seer hears one thing before he sees something else. Hearing and seeing are ironically linked in the Apocalypse, giving the unmistakable impression that one cannot make sense of what is seen until one hears. In fact, it takes an insider, one who understand the irony, to see why hearing is seeing and how seeing is believing.

 David B. Capes, Rodney Reeves and E. Randolph Richards, Rediscovering Jesus, p. 144 (2015).

Devotion and Commitment Prayer Thought (from the message), write below:

 

 

 

 

 

VOLUNTEER ASIGNMENTS

Church Cleaning Schedule                 

April 21 & 28                        Hugo Ramos

May 5 & 12                           Sandy Green & Geri Owen

May 19 & 26                         Berta Esquivel & Enedelia Gamon