Hello Ren Family!
I am at my office and just finished the final piece for this Sunday’s service. Filming has been fun but is quite exhausting. We shot the worship Monday night. My sermon was Thursday and today I did the opening and closing pieces. I really hope everyone is encouraged by the service. I’m praying much that God would really move upon hearts as they watch.
The online video stream is Sunday at 11am. You can access the link on our homepage Sunday morning. We also send out an email with the link a few minutes before service. If for whatever reason you cannot watch at 11am you can still access the service later in the day on YouTube. Again, you’ll find the link posted on the homepage of our website www.renchurchri.org.
I’ve been trying to keep services on the shorter side. I think my Easter sermon was 27 minutes. Some might call that an Easter miracle, ha! This Sunday my sermon is 34 minutes. I do want to let you know that there is a longer closing piece this week (18 minutes) because there are several very important things I needed to share about our response to the pandemic and practical matters related to the church.
I have some exciting ideas for services in the coming weeks to showcase the faces of Ren. I’ve been feeling like the weekly services have too much “Scott” in them. This is partly because we are making every effort to limit the numbers of people involved in the service production for safety reasons. That’s why you’ll even see me in the band this Sunday playing electric guitar—like the old days when I’d play guitar and then preach. But get ready to see many of the familiar faces of Ren sharing stories of grace from their living rooms and backyards in the weeks to come.
The last thing I want to share is essentially what I talk about in the extra 18 minutes at the end of the service this Sunday. It’s about our response to the pandemic. I don’t mean just trusting God and not being fearful, as we often talk about. But how should we respond to all this sickness and death? The governor shared that 2000-4000 people are expected to die in Rhode Island. She is hopeful it will be on the lower side of that estimate but I was really burdened by this prediction. There are hundreds of people struggling for their lives. The peak is predicted to be May 3rd and hospitals are dreading an overwhelming surge. What can we do?
Pray.
I’m not talking about sending our thoughts and prayers to the sick in some empty fashion. I’m talking about real prayer. Intercession. The wrestling prayer we read about in Scripture (Col 4). In the book of James we are told what to do when confronted with sickness. It doesn’t tell us that we should just passively accept it as the will of God. It urges us to pray. It says the prayer of faith will heal the sick!
Again, this is what I talk about at the end of service this week but I want to just plant the seed now in your mind to be thinking about. I believe that our collective prayer and fasting and crying for people who are staggering toward death in our Rhode Island hospitals can make a huge difference (James 5). This isn’t a time for us to passively sit back and do nothing. God has given us the weapon of prayer to put to use in praying for the many dear souls who are fighting for their lives. If they are fighting for their lives I want to be fighting with them on their behalf with prayers and supplications—for the healing of body and spirit.
I’ll leave you with one verse from Lamentations to ponder. The context is a little different but the urgency is the same. The pandemic, thankfully, is not affecting children much but it is affecting the elderly. May God move us with compassion to pray mightily on their behalf! May we think of them as our grandmothers and grandfathers. May we weep for them.
O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite! "Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street." - Lamentations 2:18-19
Thanks for reading. Respond back if you want to share something or have a question. Know that I am covering you with many prayers during this difficult season. I love you all.
Pastor Scott