Welcome to Gratia Community Church
Gratia Church offers an online Sunday service through zoom. Members were able to be connected and received grace and be strengthened through the powerful message. After the service, members remained in the chatting shared each other and it became the great time to be united even in this time of social distance. We pray that all members can be stay healthy and looking forward to meet in person one day sooner.
Join our Sunday service at 10:40 am.
Zoom Meeting ID: 724 761 2612/ Password: 108468
Genesis 3:20-21
The sermon focused on God’s love in his salvation, giving a garment of skin to Adam and Eve. Here is a summary of the sermon: Genesis 3:20-21 are important verses with great depth about God’s love and salvation. We’ll look in three parts: Big picture framework of judgment, interpreting garments skin, and insight to salvation and God’s grace.
First, judgment happens to everyone as Hebrews says, we all die and face judgment. Besides Christianity, two other views on afterlife include the physical view where there is nothing afterlife and also reincarnation where life repeats in a different form. Both are miserable views with not eternal meaning. Christianity’s worldview is beautiful, it’s that our time on earth is temporary, before going to our Father in heaven. The Bible also teaches us that the day we die will come like a thief, therefore the time we live on earth should be used preciously and to live properly. This time of virus is a time of judgment and especially now, we should live properly. Our spirit knows if we’ve lived improperly, so that is why non-believers have a face of horror being dragged to death, with the Spirit knowing where they will go. As Christians, we have the assurance of Jesus Christ, so we can die peacefully, this is God’s love for us, even covering our sins.
Next, we see what the garments of skin are used to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve. Nakedness is a feeling only humans can have, it is fear and shame, just like Adam and Eve had when they sinned. The truth is, we can’t cover our sins and we also can’t go to heaven with sin, since heaven is a place without sin. The commentator Matthew Henry said that since Adam and Eve’s fig-leave covering made by themselves were too narrow, so God gave us garments of skin, which took shed blood in order to create. As Christians, we believe in Jesus Christ who shed his blood for our sins so that we have the confidence to enter the holy place in eternity. Jesus gave us the clean white robes to go to heaven. For believers, we need to constantly wash our robes in wine. Furthermore, we must gain the fine linens, this is becoming fruitful. God guides this in our life and we gain the fine linens by following God’s will for us in working for the Kingdom of God here on earth.
Finally, Genesis teaches us deep insight into salvation and God’s love and grace which is prevalent throughout the Bible. The naming of Eve, which means “life”, is an act of faith for Adam. Previously, we saw his pride, disobedience, and disbelief. But after God passes judgment and hope of salvation, Adam trusts the enmity God puts with the serpent and that out of the Seed of the Woman, the savior will come. It’s that even in judgment, God uses judgment as a medium for salvation to come. The judgment doesn’t end at the judgment, but through he wishes to restore a loving relationship, which requires our faith that God saves us. God is love and he wishes to save us. The truth is that sin must be judged and the punishment for sin cannot be ignored. But the garment of skin that God gave us to cover our sins was made by Jesus Christ who shed blood and paid the punishment for us.
Today’s verse is a continuation of the protoevangelium, the first glimmer of the Gospel in Genesis. Jesus Christ came and crushed the head of the serpent and was the garment of skin, his cross which bore our sin and shame. Let us always remember God’s love and grace which saves us.
Genesis 3:14-24
So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,“Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!.You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman,and between your offspring[a] and hers;he will crush your head,and you will strike his heel.”
To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children.Your desire will be for your husband,and he will rule over you.”
Genesis 3:4-15
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Gratia members had a wonderful and warm lunch fellowship at brother Issac’s house. He prepared a dish full of heart and served members and it was a delightful time of fellowship.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Gratia church is opening a new chapter at the University of San Francisco(USF) and Gratia ministers had a graceful time of evangelism on campus on March 5. The USF is founded by the Jesuits in 1855 and the campus is surrounded by the Catholic church and statues of the Jesuit missionaries. There is a big Catholic church in the middle of the campus and students come to pray even for a short time.
Pastor Julia, Nancy, and Eunice spent about an hour for evangelism and met 4 students who showed interest in the bible study. They found a suitable place for next week’s bible study and excited to see the students are nice and respond to their invitation with a gentle heart. Ministers felt that there are lots of prayers piled up on the campus and pray that the great mission rival came alive once again.
Gratia church will begin an Art outreach program as a community service to the public. They invite a prominent award winning artist and professor, Zimou Tan, will be offering a community art class starting March 14.
This program is a total of 5 sessions for each ongoing worshops and the topic will be included still life drawing, freehand portrait drawing, oil painting(basic black and white), and oil painting with 4 color palette, advanced level: Narrative composition with drawing or painting, and clothed figure drawing, each Saturday from 3-5 pm.
We pray that this would be a good way to open the church to get in touch with the community and a way to gather artistic talents to help grow the church.
Matthew 25:31-46
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Judges 7:1-8
Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.