We mean it when we say, “Everyone is Welcome here!”

July 1 – 9, 2026

This Week @ First Church

Wednesday July 1

Mindful Meditation – 6 p.m.

Come every Wednesday evening and leave the troubles of the world outside as you spend an hour in meditation. Enter the church through the Delaware Street entrance.

Sunday July 5

Worship Service – 10 a.m.

Worship Service In-Person and on Facebook

SERMON: “Tug of War”” by Kathy Rogers

Based on Romans 7:15-25a and Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Notes for Romans 7:15-25a

This passage captures the universal struggle humans have with sin dwelling within us.

Romans 7:15-25a

(New Living Translation version)                                                                                                                                                         I don’t really understand I myself. I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very things I hate. But since I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am actually agreeing that the good things are right.

It is no longer really me doing the wrong things, but the sin living inside me. I know that nothing truly good lives in this human nature. I have the desire to do what is good, but I can’t actually carry it out. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

It’s a painful reality of life that when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. Inside, I genuinely delight in God’s law, but I see a completely different force inside me fighting against my mind. It makes me a prisoner to the sin that is still a part of me.

Notes for Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

In our Gospel reading today Jesus compares the stubbornness of his critics with the refreshing rest he offers to humble believers.

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

(New Living Translation)                                                                                                                              To what can I compare this generation? It is like children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends, ‘We played wedding songs, and you didn’t dance, so we played funeral songs, and you didn’t mourn.’ John the Baptist didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.

²⁵ At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. ²⁶ Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!

²⁷ “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

²⁸ Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”