Lakeside Community Presbyterian Church

^“23 Then He said to them all: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me. 

²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will save it.”

Luke 9:23-24

This week we continue our sermon series on Biblical nuggets, but we also will be partaking in communion, since it is the first Sunday of the month.

Our “nugget” from the Bible this week is about “bearing a cross” and it intersects with the meaning of communion.

I hope that you can attend this Sunday, in person or online. (If you are watching on-line be sure and make preparations for your own at home communion participation by getting some bread and “fruit of the vine.”

Then during the service, while you are watching, you can partake of the elements.)

Have a great rest of the week and a relaxing Labor Day Weekend.

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.

“Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” He replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and,

‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said . . .

This Sunday, we are continuing our series on “Biblical Nuggets,” looking at words or phrases from the Bible that are a part of our everyday language.

Some of these have been surprising like “Am I my brother’s keeper?” from Genesis 4 where Cain responds to God about the whereabouts of his brother or from the mouth of Job, we hear the phrase “By the skin of my teeth” in Job 19.

This week we hear the story of the Good Samaritan and the first question that the expert in the law asks of Jesus was “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” I think that is a question that we all ask sometimes, “What must we do to inherit eternal life?”

Doing something to inherit eternal life is wired into us. We think that we have to “do” something to earn God’s favor and to be allowed into His kingdom. That is especially true for us here in the United States. The amazing thing is that we don’t have to “do” anything, we only have to accept the gift of what Jesus did on the cross. Our response to this gift is what the story of the Good Samaritan is about.

So, I hope that you can worship with us this weekend, whether in person or online, and find out more about the Samaritan who was good.

If you attend church this Sunday, I am hoping that you will experience better sound coming from our audio system. This past week, installation took place of some new speakers, a new audio board and an amplifier. This new equipment should also enhance the audio on our streaming system so if you are unable to attend a worship service, this experience should be improved. We also installed a new audio-enhancement system that will be helpful for those that attend our services that have a hard time hearing. These devices will help you to hear things more clearly. Special thanks go out to the Sound Image team, Bill Hultman and the LCPC sound team of Evan Hilley, Colin Hagan, and Mark Vettel. They still have more to learn about the new system and how it will best work in our setting but we have taken a great step in making improvements by the installation of the new audio equipment.

We also are grateful to everyone who has helped to improve our Community Garden on our church property (especially Edgar and Jessica Fernandez and Joe Conard). The rains from last season caused a lot of growth of the weeds on that portion of our property which became a hazard for those driving at Lakeside Gardens. It took a big effort to clear and remove the weeds and debris.

This is all part of the long on-going process of improving our church campus. Now we don’t want to improve things just to improve things, but we spend precious time and financial resources to help us to better communicate the message of Jesus. As we take steps to fix and update our buildings it is all done to be good stewards of what God has given us so that we can play a role in the task of expanding His kingdom here in Lakeside, East County and around the world.