NEW HOPE

“And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it.
(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)” (Numbers 12:1-3)

I am so privileged and blessed today! This morning, I was guest speaker at New Hope Community Church (Assemblies of God) in nearby Marlboro, Mass. The pastor, Rob Woods, is a good friend and a great guy. Over the past couple of years, he’s lost fifty pounds and he looks great. I think I GAINED some of those pounds! I don’t wear suits so much anymore. I had a tough time getting into my gray suit pants today! (At least I didn’t split ‘em in the pulpit! I’ve been known to do that sort of thing in the past!!)

Rob’s been at New Hope for about 12 years. When he came, the church was down to a handful of people. For the first years he was in Marlboro, the church really struggled. When he introduced me today, he recounted that about 11 years ago, as a show of support to them, we canceled church at our Framingham church and all came over to Marlboro. Our worship team led the music, I preached, and I insisted we all write our offering checks to the Marlboro church. Rob remembered that in those days the Framingham church had over 50 people and the Marlboro was barely running 20. We packed out their church that day and gave them a great encouragement.

Today, I felt like they returned the favor in so many ways! Now, THEIR church runs around 60 or more in attendance. Their worship team did a great job. As the old chorus says, there was “a sweet, sweet spirit” in that place. There was a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. There was an utterance in Tongues and Interpretation and a couple of Prophecies. That stuff used to be commonplace in Assemblies of God churches. Today, it’s getting pretty rare and uncommon. Rob opened up the altars in the middle of the service and called people in the congregation to move around and begin praying for one another. There were at least 9 people in the service who at one time or another were active attenders at First Assembly of God of Framingham. For us, it was like a reunion, and, well, more than that, it was like when you’re a kid and you’re invited over to see your Uncle, Aunt, and cousins, and they make you feel SO loved and welcome. There were beloved friends from the Framingham era crying tears of joy during this special altar part of the service.

When it came time for the sermon, I almost felt unworthy to get up there. God had moved SO powerfully. What could I possibly add to the service? Well, of course, I could add very little, BUT God anointed the words. I took my sermon from Numbers 12...about when Miriam and Aaron murmured against Moses because he’d married a black woman. (That fits really well on a Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend.) But I didn’t just preach against racism...although I DID that. I preached about the importance of the Order of God as taught in the Bible and the importance of not violating the order (principles/standards) of God’s Word. Have I ever done that? Oh HAVE I?? And the consequences are always bad. I urged these folks to NOT make a lot of the stupid mistakes of getting out of the will and plan of God that many (including me at times) have made. As always, there was a lot of humor and a lot of laughing during the sermon, but there were also some very hard hitting points. I honestly wondered if I was too hard on this congregation.

But Pastor Woods later said, “no”. The church has a theme for the year 2011 and Pastor Woods told me this sermon was right in line with their theme. He told me the sermon was NOT too hard...that it was exactly what the church needed. Several other church folks also told me the same thing.

I was excited to talk to a guy at the coffee and fellowship time after the service. Bald, and probably in his late 30s, he looked SO familiar. I figured I must know him from some church or Bible study. When I approached him, (“Jason” is his name) he told me, “I’ve been in your home before!” Then he reminded me, he’d done several plumbing jobs at our residence. I laughed and remembered him replacing an outdoor shutoff valve one winter. Jason told he he was NOT a born-again believer then...he was a secular Jew. He came to the Marlboro church and to faith in Christ through his wife, a Brazilian evangelical Christian woman. He was working for a big plumbing company when he did that work at our residence; now he’s opened his own plumbing company. Jason was excited to tell me, “I’m a MESSIANIC BELIEVER!!” To see a “regular” blue-collar guy give his heart to Jesus and be SO excited about it- wow- that just does your heart so good!

Eleven years ago, our congregation came over to Marlboro to give that small struggling church hope. Today, to use an old expression, they “blessed my socks off” and gave ME hope. So the name is very appropriate: “NEW HOPE CHURCH”!