There are thousands of intersections in Cape May. What intersections are the most remarkable to you? Which is closest to where you live? Closest to where you work or go to school. What is your impression of your intersection? Is it busy with traffic? Do kids wait there for their school bus? Consider the corner of Seashore and Academy Roads, for example. For hundreds of years, our intersection has been a gathering place, a sending place, a safe place for neighbors to worship Christ, pray, and serve the community together. Intersections are crossroads of activity. This Good News message from Luke 18 about a widow and a judge. Why did she go to the judge at night? What does Jesus want us to learn from the judge’s action even though he hated God and others!? Join us at corner of Faith Avenue and Justice Street where Jesus is looking for faith in action. Invest a few minutes to listen to Pastor Kevin’s message and meet Jesus at the corner of Faith Avenue and Justice Street. What will you find there?
You being here today is an amazing thing. You have created an intersection, a meeting, and opportunity between you and Cold Spring Church. We are better because you’re here. You’re better because you’re here. You and us go together like, peanut butter and jelly. God’s love for us goes together with us perfectly too, like peanut butter and jelly. God’s love for us. Our love for others. It just goes together! Enjoy the peanut butter and jelly I have for you… and remember, God’s love for us, and our love for others goes together like… Yep. You got it!
This week, Pastor Kevin’s message starts with the disciples asking for more faith to meet a particularly thorny problem about forgiveness. But in response, Jesus says they had all the faith required, it just needed to get in motion! So its like riding a bike, because there’s a huge difference in outcomes between riding a stationary bike and a moving bicycle. We’ll learn about a Scientific American study that Steve Jobs shared many years ago. The research evaluated which species on the planet was the most efficient in locomotion. While the mighty condor was above any other species, beating even a human in an automobile, it was a human riding a bike that blew the condor away from its top spot! We will learn we don’t need more faith, in a message titled, Faith: Bicycle For the Spirit.
We also gather for Global Peace and Witness- World Communion Sunday with an opportunity to receive a special offering to help put our faith into action locally and around the world. You’re invited to join us for inspiring worship as as we gather around the Lord’s Table. All this and more this week at Cold Spring Church, your neighborhood stop for moving faith.
What do you do when you get some money? What are your options? Well, you could spend, save, or give it away.
Doing good in my family, school, & community makes me happy Our brain is “hard-wired” to feel happy when we do good. You can increase your feelings of happiness by giving service and doing good to others. Directions: Make a list below of things you can do in your family, school, and community to make them better and happier.
“When we have the opportunity to help anyone,
we should do it” (Galatians 6:10a).
“Each one should give, then, what one has decided in your heart to give.
You should not give if it makes you sad.
And you should not give if you think you are being forced to give.
God loves the person who gives happily”
(2Corinthians 9:7).
God wants us to use our time, energy, attention, talents, and even our money wisely because God loves a cheerful giver. A cheerful saver. A cheerful spender. Being cheerful is remembering that God loves us and wants us to be loving towards others, too! You have the power to do Good!
A 69-year-old Spanish man was fined after officials discovered he hadn’t shown up to work for at least six years. Ironically, the civil servant was discovered only when the deputy mayor attempted to give him an award for 20 years of “loyal and dedicated” service. He finally surfaced and was fined for abandonment of his employment. But, really, how could someone not notice he was missing?
Being a good neighbor is about closing the gaps. Building bridges. Making connections. Amazing things can result when we improve our noticinga and interacting with our neighbors. According to a U.S. survey (safehome.org), there are generational, gender, religious, and political differences as to who makes the best neighbor. Fun Fact: Baby Boomers (born 1946 – 1964) appear to be the nicest neighbors of any generation, but every generation can improve because 1/3 of Americans have never met their neighbors! The apostle Paul wrote, “When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it” (Galatians 6:10a).
Generational, gender, religious, income, and political differences created divisions between individuals and communities in Jesus’ day, too. This week, Pastor Kevin’s message, “The Case of the Man Who Never Noticed,” concerns a rich man who neglected his neighbor. More than a morality tale, we will consider the radical nature of Jesus’ mission and the equally radical call to address the chasms of life. Let’s close the gaps!
All this and more this week at Cold Spring Church. (And remember, following worship, we will enjoy our Annual Fall Picnic! See you Sunday!
Have you ever joined a group? A club? Sure! Well, did you know you are part of a very cool group called the church!? I have a passport here for you to fill out. God has invited you to experience belonging, a tru part of our congregation. You are unique and we are so glad you as a part of us! Jesus invited us together to serve each other and others . A passport for a faith adventure that never ends!!Have you ever joined a group? A club? Sure! Well, did you know you are part of a very cool group called the church!? I have a passport here for you to fill out. God has invited you to experience belonging, a tru part of our congregation. You are unique and we are so glad you as a part of us! Jesus invited us together to serve each other and others . A passport for a faith adventure that never ends!!
Taking care of ourself is good advice! Cold Spring Presbyterian Church provides resources for you to experience the abundant life through Christ, and all of us invest a great deal of our time, energy, and attention in accomplishing our whole-life wellness, which we can call our standard of living. We pay attention to all aspects of our life, our mind, body, and spirit, too, because our time, energy, and talents are exchangeable for the resources we need to maintain or 
improve our standard of living. The Bible speaks a lot about our standard of living, the standards we adhere to that show our love for God and others, and how we measure the standard of living we achieve.
This week, we will consider an often overlooked and misunderstood parable of Jesus about a business manager and how he traded his time, energy, and attention to achieve his standard of living, but forgetting its relationship to his standard of giving. (Fun Fact: Did you know that 38 parables deal directly with money? Yes! And in the Bible, more than 2,000 verses are about money and possessions!)
Pastor Kevin’s message, Standard of Giving, Standard of Living about a dishonest manager will help us all learn how to make the best, even shrewd, decisions, and teach our families to do the same, as we spend, save, and give, each according to our own unique life experience.
Hear the word. Internalize the word. Share the word! Catch up on recent messages at www.coldspringchurch.com/sermons.
You may use it to give you peace of mind, and to locate a missing item. There are several companies like TrackR that offer a super tiny electronic tracking device you register to your smart phone and attach to a item of value, like your key ring. Should you misplace your keys, “Beep. Beep. Beep.” You not only hear the signal, but you can open your smart phone and locate the missing item on a map. TrackR’s tagline: Find more. Search less.
Finding what’s lost is not a new idea. This week, we will hear Jesus’ story of the lost sheep which begins with a highly questionable assumption: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” If that crowd around Jesus included 100 shepherds, it is more likely that ninety-nine of them would be thinking—
“Are you kidding me, Jesus? I’m staying with my ninety-nine secure sheep and doing everything I can to make sure I don’t lose any more of them. Wow. Why would I leave what I already have to head into the wild, unknown places, to look for just one lost sheep—who is not worth it and is probably already dead or injured? That’s crazy!”
But Jesus insists that a truly GOOD shepherd would immediately go looking, not stopping his search until the animal is located. The GOOD shepherd listens for the “Bleep. Bleep. Bleep.” Then, when that one sheep returns on the loving shoulders of the GOOD shepherd, he will triumphantly and joyously parade back to his friends and neighbors calling them to “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Every One matters to Jesus. How about you?
What are you searching for? Maybe you feel a bit lost? We put Jesus’ priority of searching and finding the one’s who are not here (instead of being content with those we already have). One is worth everything to the GOOD shepherd who invests in those who Are at risk and most deserve attention and compassion.
“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:10).
This week, Pastor Kevin’s message is titled, “Who Is Your One?” from Luke 15:1-10. Get resources to help search for the One’s and the None’s all around us. Jesus’ tagline: “Find one. Rejoice. Search more. ” One’s matter to Jesus.