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

Oct 27, 2024

THE GOD WE WORSHIP

The Revelation of Jesus Christ


Message and Scriptures

Babylon The Great

Revelation 17:1-8



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 otherThat we will seek to live by the Spirit of the Law and by the Spirit of Grace in all things

BARUCH ATA YHWH SEBAOTHBless You. Praise You. Thank You Beloved LORD GOD. We are thankful for our Servant team as they tend to the physical needs of our building so we have a safe, warm, and welcoming place to worship.

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 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

6:00 p.m. Youth Bible Study – Luke / Psalms

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)

Wednesday Oct 30 – Cindy Mills

Thursday Oct 31 – Dan Driscoll

Sunday Nov 3 – Jason Cassady

Anniversary(ies)


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


Winter Coat Drive: The West Liberty Voluntary Action Council is collecting winter coats, hats, gloves, and scarves as well as underwear and socks for all ages for distribution in November. You can bring them to the church.


Harvest Soup Supper Oct 30 4-7 pm at Cedar Valley Methodist. Lyle Beaver will be playing.


WLCF Women’s Retreat Saturday, Nov 16 at 9:15am – noon at Mary Mason’s home (1274 Elder Ridge Road). Breakfasty items will be served. Questions? Contact Mary (319-541-1450) or Kelsey (319-936-4891)


Christmas Program and Candlelight Service will be Sunday Morning, Dec 15. We’ll also have our Christmas pot luck meal together after the service. If anyone is interested in participating in the service, contact Cindy Padilla. Children will begin practicing for the program Sunday, Nov 3 during the church service.

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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 October: $1630, $1025, $3001. We are behind budget $2910.78. 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: Wednesdays at 6pm: resumes Sept 4 – Luke& Psalms
(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.

Oct 27 Hayrack Ride and Bonfire 6pm WLCF

Nov 3 Regular CYG 6pm FCU

Nov 10 Take Away Hunger Project 6pm FCU

Nov 17 Toby Mac, Mercy Me, Zach Williams Concert 4:30 pm FCU ?



TIME ALONE WITH GOD (TAG)

Sunday, Oct 20, 2024



Fourth, and finally, John uses the image of whoredom as an appropriate metaphor for Babylon's oppression because there is something uncannily like prostitution going or when the rich empire lures others into its den. Here, says the great empire, is luxury beyond your wildest dreams! Here all your fantasies can be fulfilled! You don't have to work hard for them, you don't have to organize your own country wisely, justly or humanely to achieve them; all you have to do is to come to me, and I'll share them with you. Oh, yes, of course, there's a price, but you won't mind paying that, will you?

This terrifying, multi-layered denunciation of the outwardly delightful and inwardly deceitful city ought to give pause for serious thought to all those of us who live within today's glossy Western culture - and all others who look on and see our glitzy world from afar. Where are we in this picture?

N.T. Wright. Revelation For Everyone, pp. 152f (2011).


Thus Babylon is Rome here, but especially "as a corrupting influence on the peoples of the empire"; its economic and political power made Rome a vehicle of propagating international idolatry and immorality. This portrait of Rome would have been familiar to much of John's audience, thus some Jewish Sibylline Oracles complain about Rome's drunken weddings with her many suitors, probably the kings of the East she was seducing (Sib. Or. 3.356-59).

There are lessons for everyone seduced by the grandeur of the world, whether theologically or in our lifestyles. From my observations, this includes a warning for many modern North American evangelicals as well as other people.

As noted in our introduction, we should examine the Bible on its own terms and not read modern events into it. We should apply it to the events of our day, but-unless we have clear biblical indication that our time is somehow special (which usually comes only in retrospect)--we should apply it as we would to the events of every generation and to our own lives.

Craigs. Keener, The NIV Application Commentary. Revelation, pp. 406, 414f (2000).


And now we pass to the period of destruction and condemnation in chapters 17 and 18. But we observe that all this refers to the Great Prostitute, to Babylon, the great city.

We find then three principal themes on the subject of this Woman: she is first of all the great prostitute (Rome, to be sure, for the given historical moment; but not she alone: in reality the summation of all that which is prostitution, as Babylon in her time, who became the symbol of it). Prostitution that is not of the moral and sexual order. It is the being in communication (by sacred prostitution) with the religious and spiritual powers, with the satanic sources, and esoterism (but this also implies the immoralities, which are completely secondary).

Jacques Ellul, Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation, pp. 187,190(1977).


In OT prophetc discourse the imagery of the harlot is commonly used to denote religious apostasy… The harlot is Rome. Adorned in luxury and intoxicated with the blood of the saints, she stands for a dominant world system based on seduction for personal gain over against the righteous demands of a persecuted minority. John's images are timeless in that they portray the essential conflicts of mankind from the beginning of time.

The harlot is Babylon the Great, that great system of godlessness which leads men away from the worship of God and to their own destruction. Specifically she is Rome, who, like Babylon of old, has gained a worldwide reputation for luxury, corruption, and power.

Robert H. Mounce. The Book of Revelation, pp. 307, 310 (1977).


The fierce rhetoric of John's vision is directed not against the woman's wealth, laziness, or luxurious living, nor against her drunkenness or prostitution. These characteristics are noted, but the vision's real target is the woman's deception of the earth (v. 2), and above all her violence against the people of God (v. 6). In this sense her crimes match those of the dragon (12:9, 17) and the beast (13:7-9).

Why are you astonished?...

Pippin is correct that John is being seduced here, yet John's language suggests that he sees Babylon first of all not as a seductive woman, but as a city, "the great city" of 16:19... John is taken in by the beast as much as by the woman. It is not "erotic power" that momentarily beguiles him but the power and wealth and magnificence that led the world which he lived. Seductive? Yes. Erotic? No.

J. Ramsey Michaels. Revelation, pp.193-195 (1997).


John now gives himself over to a wholehearted description of the mighty triumph won by God over all His enemies. Hitherto his book has put a good deal of emphasis on God's sovereignty. He has tried to hearten his trembling fellow-believers by showing as plainly as he can that God is not mocked. Again and again he has brought out the point that in the end evil will be completely overthrown. But up till this point his concern has been basically with the here and now. He has shown his readers that, while evil may appear to be strong and they themselves may be helpless before it, in reality evil can do no more than operate within the sphere of God's permissiveness. It exercises only the power that God allows it to exercise. John has been concerned with the paradox implied in the two thoughts that God is almighty and that the people of God are oppressed. The solution he has offered in a variety of ways is that the wicked do and can do no more than God allows them to do.

Now John fixes his eyes firmly on the end-time. He concerns himself not with the apparent triumph of the evil, but with their final and complete overthrow. He sees God as casting down every stronghold and hurling His judgments against the wicked. No might of theirs avails. God is completely triumphant.

Leon Morris. The Revelation of St. John, p. 202 (1980).


The woman he saw was sitting on a scarlet beast (readily recognizable as the beast from the sea). He was sitting on her because Rome the persecutor and Rome the prostitute (violence and vice) were closely associated with one another. Indeed, 'Roman civilization, as a corrupting influence, rides on the back of Roman military power. '

John Stott, The Incomparable Christ, p.212(2001).


Here the harlot is Babylon, the symbol of human civilization with all its pomp and circumstance organized in opposition to God - “"the city which has dominion over the kings of the earth" (vs. 18).

Georg Eldon Ladd, A Commentary on Revelation, p.221 (1972).


Notes, Thoughts, Prayers:




VOLUNTEER ASIGNMENTS

Church Cleaning Schedule

Nov 3 & 10 Mary Maxson

Nov 17 & 24 Mike & Lynne Zeman

Dec 1 & 8 Hugo Ramos