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Our transformation pastor, the Rev. Dr. Kevin Yoho, shares an energizing and interactive message from the Bible each week. Hear and share the Good News!

Sep 01
Love0

2019-09-01 Message- Stacking-Up Mission Hospitality

By Sermons

We sometimes overlook, or misunderstand, the revolutionary character of Jesus’ message. This week’s text from Luke 14:1, 7-14, is worth taking a closer look. Jesus’ advice was to, “not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors to your luncheons, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.” Instead Jesus declares that his followers (that’s us!) should invite those who have no hope of ever repaying their host— those he so-called “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” In other words, those so-called outcasts who can never promote their hosts’ status, and whose presence at table will most likely pull down their host’s standing in the community social structure. Wow. Hospitality occurs when the stranger and neighbor and the excluded are intentionally invited and included! All are welcome means, well, ALL are welcomed (and intentionally invited, sought out, and brought!).

Jesus is describing a whole new model of hospitality. How could our worship, concerts, dinners, bazaars, and all other community-facing events become more seed-planting, farming-style, and hospitality-driven? Let’s consider our amazing events to be interconnected… and stack them up, one on top of the other, each connected to the other, so that together they become cascading opportunities to welcome the stranger, reach out to neighbors, and in the end, embrace God’s own love for us all. Let’s not overlook God’s seeking out of us, welcoming us into the abundant life through Christ!This Fall, let’s stack-up our events in authentic and humble hospitality. God’s love… for all! (Who will you invite?!)

Aug 25
Love1

2019-08-25 Message- I Love You. I See You. I Will Make You New.

By Sermons

Every felt bent-over from your burdens, weights of life, besetting ailments, persistent distractions? Sure! We all have. This week we meet a woman who entered the synagogue and heard Jesus say, “I love you!” But that’s not all. In front of the whole assembly of neighbors, Jesus said, “I see you!” But wait, there’s more! Jesus also said, “I will make you new!” And he did. We notice people just like that woman in our sanctuary every week. Have you ever noticed:

  • The elderly woman dismissed due to her age and creeping memory loss.
  • The young person tolerated for their energy
  • The visitor who entered the service late, sat in the back row, and left before the benediction.
  • The young mother nodding off in the third pew, exhausted from working two minimum wage jobs while raising her children.
  • The long-time member with stories too painful to voice.
  • The vacationer who is over-burdened with life experiences
  • The neighbor who struggles with addiction that takes its toll of their family

The miracle of this story is not only physical healing, it is community seeing. Jesus sees the woman, calls her, frees her of her heavy burdens and, the entire community noticed her, too. The leader of the synagogue, incensed at Jesus’ action on the Sabbath, calls to the crowd, repeatedly, “There are six days on which work ought be done; come on those days to be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.” Wow. Let’s love, see, and with God’s empowerment, make all things new for everyone! Now we see those previously disregarded and stooped-over. They (and us) will no longer be ignored. Who do you notice?!

Aug 25
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2019-08-25 Message for Kids- Jumping Into God’s Story Every Day

By Sermons

A Bible I misplaced in Newark about six years ago was returned to me this week. I was really happy about that. Take a look at the date inside the front cover of this New Testament, the love story about Jesus… 1975. That’s right. I remember the day and the place I purchased this when I was in my college bookstore. We date special items to help us remember the connection, and I have a Bible to give you today! I’ll write your name and today’s date in it to help you remember this special day. Cold Spring Church wants to help you jump into God’s story every day! Amazing days are ahead. Let’s get started!

Aug 04
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2019-08-04 Message- Your Life Storage Locker

By Sermons

Look around you and you’ll notice that one of the fastest growing, most profitable businesses involves renting out storage units. The storage industry is bigger and more profitable than the entertainment industry in Hollywood. People spend more money on storage than on movies or entertainment.

Few people stay in one place anymore. It seems like 1 out of every 4 people you meet were born outside of Cape May. On average, people in the United States move at least eleven times during their lifetime. Sometimes the spaces are bigger; sometimes the spaces are smaller. We get new jobs, we get married, we have families, we get divorced, we become “empty nests,” we move across the country. All of these changes in lifestyle and location can involve a pressing need for storage. We just love or must store “stuff.” If we have access to “bigger barns,” we are liberated and uninhibited about amassing more stuff to fill those empty spaces. We think more “stuff” will make us feel more situated, safe, and secure. While authentic emotional attachments can be a positive influence in our lives, its just a likely that emotional attachments to things can diminish our lives, too. What to do?

Jesus’ parable in this week’s lesson from Luke 12:13-21 reminds us that the best “storage” we can have is not in storage lockers but in the hearts of those we love, the minds of our communities and our neighbors, and those in need. Who did God prioritize to be recipients of our accumulated “stuff” and “treasures”? Those who are treated unjustly, the strangers, visitors, women, children, the sick and injured, the cast-out and the left-out are the real “storage units” for any leftovers and surplus in our lives.

You may want to invite someone with you to worship this week as we talk about life’s storage lockers. (Then get ready for the new!)

Pastor Kevin

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being” (Matthew 6:19-21).

Aug 02
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2019-07-28 Persistence Is Never Futile

By Sermons

Last week we revisited the first moon landing on July 20, 1969. Wow. (You may listen to the message, Mary, Martha, and the Moon, just below on this page.) This week, we hear Jesus teach his followers a prayer. We refer to it as The Lord’s Prayer, but is it the “Lord’s” prayer”? Maybe it should have been called the Disciple’s Prayer, but the Prayer, whatever its title, is a common-sounding prayer. What made the Prayer unique was not it content, but to whom it was addressed. No rabbi in Jesus time, or before or since, would have started any prayer referring to God as “Daddy”! That’s right. “Our Father…” is the term “Daddy” and Jesus shocked his listeners who were not used to having such a personal relationship with the Creator! What’s more, after Jesus’ outrageous prayer lesson, he tells a few stories that encouraged the disciples to even be persistent in prayer, courageous in prayer, with God. Now that’s shocking!

Become a part of Jesus’ prayer lesson and learn about why Persistence Is Never Futile when we are connected to the Jesus Force this week the Red Brick Church. You’ll want to bring along a few friends to worship with you, too! Everyone’s welcome!

Jul 21
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2019-07-21 Message- Mary, Martha, and the Moon

By Sermons

This week, we will revisit the first moon landing on July 20, 1969, when an estimated 650 million people watched in amazement as Neil Armstrong descended a ladder towards the surface of the Moon. Do you remember where you were that Sunday? What was going on in the world? The Astronaut’s words spoken that day, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” will help us understand the Apostle’s words from Colossians 1 that the earthly Jesus has a cosmic role, too!

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers–all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:15-17).

When we think of Jesus’ ministry we may ask, is Jesus really the One? From time to time, all of us can want some reassurance. So its not surprising that Jesus’ good friends, Mary and Martha, wondered the same thing. Jesus reminded everyone to look around at what you hear and see, “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Matthew 11:2-6). In our message this week, Mary’s devotion to Jesus is praised, compared to Martha who was preoccupied with other things (Luke 10:38-42). We may mistakenly think of Jesus as only earthly, and our daily attention is limited to our needs alone. But Jesus’ role is far larger!

Become a part of Jesus’ cosmic story this week the Red Brick Church which will enlarge our spiritual world and equip us to better understand God’s earthly and cosmic mission that includes you and me!. You’ll want to bring along a few traveling companions to worship with you.

Jul 14
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2019-07-14 Message- Who The Good Samaritan REALLY Is

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When Jesus’ advance team returned, it was a celebration like no other! Last week I sent the kids on their own “You Go First!” Journey to the balcony to retrieve a hidden treasure and bring it back. remember what they discovered in the yellow bag?! Amazing things happen when Jesus asks us to go first! (You may want to listen to the message, “You Go First!”, here!)

Immediately after those good news reports, a lawyer who wanted to prove himself stood in the front of the group and asked Jesus who his neighbor was. NOBODY ever asked that question! Why would they? But Jesus answered the lawyer’s question with a story about a Samaritan (i.e., bad guy in the story) who was good (not the fairy tale ending the lawyer was expecting!).

One take-away as we hear this story is to be inspired to be a better neighbor as we identify with the Good Samaritan and be more like him. Good. But could we identify not with the Good Samaritan, but with the Good Traveler who was left for dead along the road, the one whom the Good Samaritan generously assisted? Umm.

Do you ever feel like you’ve fallen in a ditch? Lost your way? Maybe felt like someone or some thing left you for dead? Maybe you’re run out of resources when you thought that would never happen to you! Feels bad, sure. We all have felt like that from time to time. But the Good News twist we’ll discover is that we’ve got a lot in common with that Traveler on the road and we will take a few steps in the Traveler’s shoes to prove it. But if we are the Traveler in the story, who is the Good Samaritan representing? Find out this and much more on Sunday, July 14th!

Become a part of Jesus’ story this week the Red Brick Church where travelers from Mayflower descendants to presidents have found hope for the journey. You’ll want to bring along a few traveling companions to worship with you, too. We’re ready for a road trip at Cold Spring Church!

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