Welcome to Worship at Pathways:
We are thankful that you have chosen to worship with us this morning. Rev. Jonathan Der is our Lead Pastor at Pathways. We hope that you will feel the vibrant joy of worship throughout the service. We'd like to hear from you. Please use the link to our Connection Card found at the end of today's service.
May God Bless you as you walk with Him and grow in your faith journey with Christ.

NEXT STEPS

What is your next real life practical action step of faith and commitment? Consider one of these:

1. Help Feed the Homeless
Pathways will host a volunteer effort to prepare a meal for the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless (MCCH) men's shelter. Join us this Wednesday, February 19, from 5pm - 9pm in our Grand Hall kitchen. We have several volunteers helping this Wednesday, but we can always use a few more. In the months to come, we will give you advance notice to sign up. This project is in its beginning stages. We hope to not only benefit the homeless men we will be cooking for but also the volunteers enlisted by the board of MCCH who will be visitors in our building. They work selflessly to prepare one night's worth of meals for the entire homeless shelter.
So drop by on Wednesday night and let's get "Up to Something Good" together! We will have a sign-up link available soon.


2.Game Night at Pathways
Don't let the cold weather keep you hibernating! All adults are invited to an evening of games, fun, and fellowship at Pathways on Saturday, February 22,at 7p. Bring a game to play with 3-4 people (optional). Please bring a finger food or a dessert to share. RSVP to Judy Buschman (judy@buschmans.com) and let her know how many people will be attending and what game you will be bringing.

3. Save the Date and Sign Up to Attend
A Prayer Vigil will be held at Pathways on Saturday, March 1, from 12 Noon - 5p for the church family. Prayer is active and powerful in the lives of God’s faithful followers. Plan now to attend this time of prayer with the Lord.
The sign-up sheets are available outside the chapel before and after service each Sunday in February. You can sign up for one or more one-hour time slots. Index cards are available to write personal prayer requests. During each hour of the vigil, a facilitator will guide the group through silent prayer, prayers for church member requests, prayers for our church, and prayers for our nation and world. Thanks be to you for your prayers and thanks be to God who hears and answers the prayers of His people.

4. Got a Personal Evangelism Story
Have you ever wondered, “Can I really make a difference?” Someone’s life-change story could start with you.
God has gifted you in a special way when you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord of all and your personal Savior, the Holy Spirit then gifted you with extraordinary giftedness to bless you and your local church family.
If you have a personal evangelism story that comes from a personal relationship with Christ, please send your story to Pastor Jonathan. (jder@pathwaysbc.org)

*Join a Group! This new year, 2025 at Pathways is an exciting time of new beginnings and new opportunities. Get to know others and enjoy the fellowship as you grow in faith and serving others. There's a place for everyone to plug-in. Use the link below to Join a Group!

Musical Offertory: I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR
Wynne Roos, Harp and Mark Deuser, Violin

In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was served him, I carried the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had never been sad in his presence before. So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This can only be sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my ancestors’ graves, lies waste, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ graves, so that I may rebuild it.”

So, the holy city, Jerusalem, needed walls to keep the bad guys away from the good guys.

And those walls are in ruins. The whole city is in ruins.

What does Nehemiah want to do? He wants to go back. Even though he had never been there. Jerusalem wasn’t home. He’d never been there. He’d only heard stories. That’s all that Jerusalem was to Nehemiah—a story.

Still, he wanted to go to Jerusalem and rebuild. Rebuild the city. Rebuild the walls. Rebuild its glory!

But let’s be clear: Jerusalem was never great again. It was never that great to begin with. Strategic, maybe, overlooking the major trade route between Egypt and Asia. But great? Great? I mean, it was never like the great cities in Egypt—Memphis, Cairo and Giza on the great river Nile. It was never like Ninevah on the Tigris or the city of Babylon with its magnificent gardens on the Euphrates.

As part of the Persian Empire Jerusalem didn’t need a wall.

But Nehemiah wanted to build a wall around Jerusalem, because that’s what they did in the good ol’ days.

Now, this brings me to the place where I think Nehemiah missed the boat. See, he and the priest Ezra were very intentional about making sure that there were insiders and outsiders and that the insiders didn’t mix with the outsiders because the insiders—those of Israelite descent—the insiders were to keep themselves clean and pure, which meant keeping away from the outsiders—the non-Israelites, or so-called Israelites who were a mixture of Israelite and non-Israelite blood—because these non-Israelites were an unclean people who did unclean things and everything they touched became unclean and impure.

So he and Ezra made the people separate from non-Israelites. From their wives, and from their children from those wives.

All the families of the earth shall be blessed.” This covenant excluded no one. There were no outsiders, only insiders. All were welcome.

By the time we get to Ezra and Nehemiah, the insiders are few, and the outsiders were many, and only the insiders we blessed. God’s blessing was just for Israelites. Only Israelites were chosen. Everybody else was an Unchosen.

Just imagine what might have happened had Ezra and Nehemiah embraced this original vision of Israel’s covenant with God, one that didn’t single them out for exclusivity but for inclusivity?

Isn’t that the vision that Jesus had? That Paul embraced when he wrote,

“There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:28

What’s the one thing a church can’t be without? By definition, if it doesn’t have this, it can’t exist. Its people. A church is defined and delineated by its people.

Find out what keeps driving the people in your church, makes them feel alive. Find out what they would love to do for Christ and his kingdom.

Don’t be a wall-builder. Be a wall demolisher.

Don’t build a wall. Build a home with open doors.

Benediction:

"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith... "

Ephesians 4:11-13a emphasizes the importance of equipping people for service, highlighting that Christ gave gifts to build up the body of Christ. This can be applied to the idea of recruiting others to participate in rebuilding efforts, whether it's a community, a church, or a personal life.