Riley urges believers to embrace suffering
By Richard Willowby
The closing service of the North American Convention began with musical celebration, including an enthusiastic children’s choir from Kid’s Place and a moving offertory via video by the East African Radio Choir. Ronald V. Duncan, general director of Church of God Ministries, announced record offerings, including more than $31,000 given by the General Assembly. Women of the Church of God were also honored for the more then $50 million dollars raised by Christ’s Birthday Offerings since it began in 1950.
Pastor Don Riley confronted worshipers, directly challenging them. To become fit for God’s service requires “hard work up front,” a new kind of honesty, he explained: “more honest with God, more honest with ourselves, and more honest with each other.”
Riley challenged the idea that serving God is comfortable. Instead, he insisted, “serving God requires suffering.” Noting the lives of the disciples and their embrace of suffering and death for the sake of the gospel, he pointed to them as the models we should follow instead of following a life of ease.
Sin is not something to be eased around. It must be confronted, confessed, and brought into the light. Secret sins lead the would-be-disciple to hide from himself or herself, to hide from God, and to hide from others. When pain exceeds the fear of discovery, then repentance is possible, and what is brought into the light loses its power and renewal takes over.
Riley built his sermon around three questions: Who am I? Who is in charge? What’s next? He urged worshipers to “decide to choose truth.” He warned that fear, finances, peer pressure, and other forces vie to take charge of lives. They, he said, “are from the enemy.” Put God in charge, he pleaded. “Allow God to reorder my life around this truth I have discovered.”
“Lean into the cross,” he urged in closing. “Be willing to suffer. Give it all away every time…Don’t worry God will fill you up again so that you may keep on giving.”
A version of this article appears in the Thursday, July 2, 2009, edition of the NAC roundup/09 newsletter. To view the newsletter in its entirety, click here (1.24 MB). The document is in PDF format and requires Adobe Acrobat in order to read and/or print it. If you do not have Acrobat installed on your computer, you can download a free copy of Acrobat Reader here.