Okeechobee Presbyterian Church

05/31/2026

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH FOR TRINITY SUNDAY

Leader: People of God, what is God?
People: God is Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable; in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

Leader: Are there more Gods than one?
People: There is but one only, the living and true God.

Leader: How many Persons are there in the Godhead?
People: There are three Persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

Leader: How do we know God?
People: We know God through the Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. God for us in the flesh, he was sacrificed for our sins, crucified, dead, and buried, yet was raised up again and taken into glory.

Leader: How are we assured of knowledge of God?
People: We are assured of God through the power of the Holy Spirit, who is present now in the Church to complete God’s mission of reconciliation. His Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.

Leader: How are we enabled for life in God?
People: We are sealed through the Holy Spirit, and granted the fruits of salvation: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Leader: How do we live in the Spirit?
People: If we live in the Spirit we will walk in the Spirit and so fulfill the Law of Christ.

Amen.

05/23/2026

This year, Memorial Day Sunday is also Pentecost Sunday. And it is fitting: We celebrate Christ’s completed work of salvation, His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension to the right hand of the Father… and the gift of the Holy Spirit, regenerating us, renewing us, reviving us, leading us in Holy Love, and sealing us in salvation. This is the only hope for our Nation! Turning to Christ and receiving the Life of His Word in the power of the Holy Spirit. Only if Christ is confessed and received as King will the Holy Spirit revive us — individually and nationally.

05/04/2026

How could the burned remains of a dead heifer help people? Strange question, perhaps, but it takes us back to Numbers 19 and forward to the work of Christ. Here’s how.

Numbers 19:11 says, “Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days.” Direct contact with death made an Israelite ritually defiled. Like the smell of smoke that clings to your clothes or hair, death’s uncleanness “clung” to them.

Death is not natural. It is the rotten fruit of humanity’s rebellion, a misalignment of God’s created order. Because of this, death defiled those who came into contact with it. Before returning to the camp and the sacred presence of the Lord, the people needed cleansing.

So God provided an ashen, bovine solution.

An unblemished red heifer, one that had never been used for work, was slaughtered outside the camp. Its blood was sprinkled seven times toward the tabernacle, and the entire animal was burned, along with cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn (Numbers 19:6). The ashes were then mixed with water.

This grayish detergent was applied to those who were defiled, cleansing them so they could return to the camp and resume life and worship among God’s people. Hebrews refers to this as “the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer” (9:13).

The message of this unusual ritual is simple: death overcomes death. A sacrifice made outside the camp restores the unclean and opens the way back into God’s presence.

This ritual points forward to Christ. He, too, suffered “outside the gate” (Hebrews 13:12). If the ashes of a heifer purified outwardly, “how much more will the blood of Christ…purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14).

The ashes of a heifer cleansed the outside, but the blood of the Lamb cleanses within.

His death overcomes our death, our dead works, so that we may serve and worship the living God.

There is only one way to overcome death: by the death of a sacrificial victim. In Christ, given to us in the water of baptism, we are made clean, made alive, and restored to the presence of God.

04/28/2026

04/12/2026

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