First Christian Church of Rushville, Illinois

First Christian Church of Rushville, Illinois Welcome to First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)of Rushville, IL. We challenge our members to Praise God, Love All, Serve All.

Worship Services: Sundays 10AM Traditional; Tuesday 6PM Contemporary
Children and Youth Program: Wednesday 3PM-5:45PM

09/14/2026

Monday Devotional
Scripture: John 3:13-17

As many who have heard any of my sermons may have guessed, John 3:16 is a favorite of mine. The no caveats, no exceptions declaration of love of God for humanity is an important statement for understanding God and the reason for the Incarnation of Christ. In this passage we see what Christ has done, the one who came from Heaven in order to be risen up on the Cross and in the Resurrection so that we may believe in him and have eternal life.

One who descended from Heaven, Christ did not stay in comfort but chose to enter a place of pain and sorrow out of love for us. Simply by choosing the word to be made flesh represents an act of love, sacrificial love, far beyond what we can imagine. And Christ did that while we are still sinners, before we are made worthy, before we had done anything to deserve it, Christ came because he loves us while we are sinners. Can you imagine such an awe inspiring love and grace? But that is what we have in Christ.

And then Christ was lifted up, brought forward where all can see Christ. This verse references the story of Moses and the Bronze Serpent where all who saw the serpent were cured of poison. And in this verse it describes not only the cross, not only the resurrection of Christ when he was lifted up, but the action of the Church in showing Christ so those who see him may be cured on sin.

All of this done so those who believe in Christ gain eternal life. The word believe here is not a passive belief, not just an intellectual assent, but rather the call to active and full faith. Just knowing it is the faith that saves and never a result of our own abilities.

And then we get the famous John 3:16, but I spent the opening talking on that. So let us move to John 3:17, the fact Christ came to save and not condemn the world. We sometimes get the image of God as almost a traffic cop just waiting for us to speed so God can pull us over. That God is watching and waiting for us to sin, and only the Jesus the defense attorney can save us. But the Gospel is clear, that salvation is the project of the entire Trinity, not placing the Father against the Son but the Son with the Father. In this we can see God for whom God is, the loving perfect Father who desires us to be in relationship and saved by Jesus Christ. Saved not from God, but from the chains and bonds of sin.

Questions to meditate on:

1) When did you first hear John 3:16 and what stood out for you?

2) What is your view on active vs passive faith?

3) How has your view of God changed as you study and pray?

09/14/2026

Tuesday Evening Worship Information

Scripture: Matthew 6:19-24
Sermon: Which Master Do You Serve?

Songs:

Behold Our God
As For Me and My House
Speak O Lord
At The Cross
Hope has a Name

Come join us for this contemporary worship service.

09/10/2026

Thursday Devotional
Scripture: Psalm 103:1-13

"Bless the Lord, O My Soul" are the words that start this Psalm, and feature in the choruses and bridges of worship music even this day. I think it is more than just a few pretty words, but a call for us to remember the goodness of God and the glory of God. To continually call upon our inner selves to take time to remember the good God has done. To remember foremost among this good is the mercy and grace given onto us by God. This rest of the passage focuses on this unbelievable mercy from God that has allowed our sins to be forgiven, giving us hope that transcends all barriers and attempts to overshadow it.

Remembering the awesome forgiveness of God is essential to living a life in discipleship. For it is too easy to follow into the pathways of judgement and pride where we begin to trust in our own righteousness. When we start to believe we are righteous all on our own, we start forgetting we need God. We stop focusing on our love of God, and our utter reliance on God's grace, and now our faith becomes self-centered. Pride allows us to no longer focus love on God, but rather on self. In order to prevent faith in self from replacing faith in God we must take time to remember that God and God's grace is what gives us hope not ourselves. Simultaneously that realization also prevents us from judging others, as we realize that we also need God and God's grace, so we have no room to put others down. Whenever we feel the need to judge, we must hope that we are reminded that God has given his grace to us and thus we must give grace to others.

Understanding and taking time to remember the boundless nature of God's grace also helps when encouraging others. There are many struggling with guilt and pain, that lack hope that they will become, or be seen, as anybody than who they have previously been. We should take time to remind them that God's grace and mercy are beyond anything we can ever hope to understand. That whatever guilt is controlling us and bringing us down can be subject to the grace of God and overcome. That we are never so far from God that God's grace is not able to save. Through God there is hope for everyone, so one who is controlled and dominated by guilt can be liberated to walk in Christ and a new way. Someone who feels that they can never be a "good" person can be given hope that change is possible and there is a way forward. Remembering the grace of God is a rememberance of hope and liberation.

So let us Bless the Lord O our souls so that we avoid pride and judgement and can encourage others towards hope and liberation.

Questions to meditate on:

1) Have you ever felt a time where pride seemed to be leading you? Did remembering the grace of God help you move away from the pride?

2) In what ways do you intentionally remember the blessings and gifts of God?

3) How can we encourage those trapped by guilt into liberation through the grace of God?

09/09/2026

Wednesday Devotional
Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35
This story is an important reminder of our need to show mercy and grace to one another, not only because it is the right thing to do but because Christ has forgiven us so much. Jesus first introduced the slave (called slave A) owing 10,000 talents to the King. Quick research shows this to be about the equivalent to $6 Billion. This means this act of forgiveness wasn't some small act to the king but represents a significant act of mercy and grace that is beyond imagination and a debt that slave A could never pay off. In the same way, Christ's grace and mercy to us goes beyond imagination, forgiving us for the many things we go wrong and many ways we do not act according to God's will. God has forgiven a debt we could never pay off, and for that we should be grateful.

Then slave A then goes and demands that another slave (slave B) pay off the debt slave B owns slave A. This debt is 100 Denari, which would be about $16,000 today, not an insignificant amount. We sometimes don't do justice to the parable when we trivialize the amount slave B owes slave A. However, this debt is far far less than slave A owed the king who forgave him. And slave A's actions towards slave B shows that slave A did not follow the king's example of forgiveness and instead denied slave B the mercy slave A received. While forgiving the debt of slave B would have been difficult for slave A, if slave A understood and followed the king he should have forgiven slave B despite the difficulty and sacrifice. In the same way we do not trivialize the amount of pain that others cause when they sin against us. We don't pretend the pain doesn't exist, or that forgiving them will require sacrifice, but we accept all this because we honor the one who forgave us.

The story ends when the king hears about slave A's misconduct and reverses his forgiveness. For God forgave us, we must do the same for others if we wish to be children of God.

Questions to meditate on:

1) Do you ever stop to think of how much God forgave you? Does that impact on how you forgive others?

2) Has technology improved or hurt your ability to build community in your spaces?

3) How can we learn to practice mercy and grace in our communities?

09/08/2026

Tuesday Devotional
Scripture: Exodus 14:19-31

The crossing of the Red Sea is heavily referenced in the Old Testament as a fundamental miracle of God for the Hebrew People. In a manner it is the miracle that represents the transition of the Hebrew people from slave to free and represents the culmination of the act of Grace that saw God rescue the Hebrew people from Pharoah, even though most of the Hebrew people did not know God yet. Beyond the extent of the miracle of creating a dry path in the Red Sea and the movement through water from slavery to freedom, we see symbolism of the path of salvation of people and of baptism in general.

While I do not hold baptism as a salvific action, it does represent a significant milestone in the movement of the believer to commit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The crossing of the Red Sea demonstrates this in a significant manner. First, it led from the bo***ge of slavery to the freedom under God by moving them from the land of slavery to the land of freedom. In baptism we enact our movement from the bo***ge of sin to the freedom under Christ. Second, the works of crossing the Red Sea was not done through the power of Moses, but through God working thru Moses. In the same way it is not the baptizer that makes a baptism work, but the God who is working through the process. Third, crossing the Red Sea represented a deliberate and important decision to leave the land of Egypt to begin a new life. Similarly in Baptism we take the extremely difficult and import decision to follow after Christ. And finally, crossing the Red Sea was only the beginning of the journey of the Hebrew people, and baptism is only the beginning of the journey with God.

So as we all read the story of crossing the Red Sea in the future, let it be a time when you consider your baptism and what it means.

Questions to meditate on:

1) What were your initial thoughts when you read this story?

2) Think back to your baptism, what strength can you draw from that?

3) Have you ever participated in someone else's baptism? What were your emotions and feeling during the baptism?

09/06/2026

Tuesday Evening Service Information

Scripture: Matthew 6:5-18
Sermon: Focusing Faith on God

Songs:

The Lord's Prayer
Blessed be your Name
Ancient Words
Graves in Gardens
Never Lost

09/06/2026

The Church Office will be closed for Labor Day on Monday, September 7th.

09/03/2026

Sunday, Sept. 6
9a Adult Sunday Class
9:30a Coffee Fellowship
10a Worship
Scripture: Micah 6:6-8
The Message: "Three Things are Required - Pastor Jerry Marzolf
COME JOIN US!

Address

390 N Liberty PO Box 294
Rushville, IL
62681

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 4pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 6pm
Thursday 8:30am - 4pm
Friday 8:30am - 12pm
Sunday 9am - 11:30am

Telephone

+12173223363

Website

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