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ST. MATTHEW LUTHERAN CHURCH11213 Highway 49, Gulfport, MS 39503228-864-6264E-Mail Address: m1919@bellsouth.netWeb Page: stmatthewgulfport.tripod.comSunday School 9:30 a.m.Worship 10:45 a.m.PASTORRev. Dr. Jeffrey Dukeman, Ph.D.Phone: 228-967-2820E-Mail Address:jeffreydukeman@gmail.comCHURCH OFFICE HOURS*Monday – Wednesday9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.Thursday 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.Closed on Friday*or by appointment1

In this month’s article I’ll briefly discuss some aspects of Christian anthropology.There is ambiguity in our world. In all things we both see God’s design as well as the effects of sin. We cansense this ambiguity in Acts 10 where Peter receives a vision of animals on a sheet and refuses to eat them becausehe’s never eaten anything unclean; God responds, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” The creaturelinessof all things is good. This is especially true of human beings, who have been made in God’s image. The form of thehuman body is good, and the fact that humans can have deliberate fellowship with each other is good. But the Fall intosin also means that human beings by nature have impaired abilities; they cannot by nature truly love God.Romans 3:23–24 captures both humanity’s fallenness as well as God’s remedy:For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through theredemption that is in Christ Jesus.Human beings can only be restored by God’s grace and gift, which means that they can’t do it by themselves. Jesushas taken our human form and has cleansed it through his blood. And because of this, from his cross he has sent us theHoly Spirit to be with us. Although we continue to have fallen flesh, the Spirit also helps renew us. Jesus was the newman, the new Adam (Romans 5:12–18), and he has sent his Spirit to renew us. Thus Romans 7:18 points to a conflictwithin a Christian between the flesh (the old Adam) and the work of the Spirit in us:For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not theability to carry it out.Colossians 3:9–10 makes a similar contrast:Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self,which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.I’ve recently finished listening to the audiobook version of John Bradshaw’s Healing the Shame That BindsYou. One of the things that struck me about this book was Bradshaw’s discussion of our capacity to have a false selfor false selves. We Lutherans with our view of human depravity probably don’t always think about such things, butwe should. Yes, we are by nature incapable of having faith in God. And yet each of us by nature is a unique individualcreated by God. And when God creates faith in us, he uses each of our unique bodies for his purposes. Each of us is aunique Christian with unique minds, unique wills, and unique gifts. And in a fallen world there will be various instancesof others trying to manipulate us for their own purposes. Sometimes others will try to make us be a certain type ofperson or act a certain way, even if it is not in line with our own unique gifts or is even quite immoral. Here others candraw us away from being the unique creatures God has made and created faith in. They can make us have a partialfalse self or selves in conflict with our true self. In response to this, we as Christians should be diligent to be aware ofthe Holy Spirit’s renewing work within us. We should try to identify those parts of ourselves that are not where theyshould be, including due to bad influences in our lives. By recognizing these unrenewed parts of ourselves we canbetter work on ourselves and grow. This has a much better chance for success than just being unaware of our problemsor ignoring them. Ignoring problems doesn’t work in our daily experience, and it doesn’t work in our own spiritualgrowth either. But as we’ve seen, Jesus has died to forgive all of our sins and sent us his Spirit to help us try to followJesus’ example and grow as Christians. This is a core aspect of Christian anthropology.Pastor Dukeman2

Stewardship“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke ofslavery” (Galatians 5:1).We celebrate this month because of the freedoms and liberties our country has afforded us. We areright to do this. We should be thankful for these liberties – the freedom to gather together to worshipand to live out what we believe in our daily lives.But freedom and liberty in our age have devolved. It has become a freedom from duty instead of afreedom for it. Indeed, freedom and liberty in our age has turned into licentiousness – a license to dowhat we want, when we want. This license is a submission again to a yoke of slavery. For freedom aslicense to do what we desire when we desire it means we are slaves to our desires and slaves to ourpassions.Christ died to set us free from our desires. In Holy Baptism, our Old Adam is drowned and put todeath along with all sin and evil desires so that a new man may arise and live before God inrighteousness and purity. In Christ, we are a new creation. We are set free from the passions of theflesh so that we are free to do our duty and bear fruits of the Spirit.Our duty is what God calls us to do as members of a family, society, and the Church. God calls us tobelieve in His Word and gladly hear and learn it. He calls us to pray for all people. He calls us to livein faith toward Him and in fervent love for our neighbor. He calls us to put the gifts He gives to us inHis service. God calls parents provide for their children and raise them in the fear and admonition ofthe Lord.And God calls children to honor their parents and provide and care for them when they are no longerable to do so themselves. God calls the government to punish those who do evil and to reward thosewho do good. He calls citizens to pay their taxes and honor the governing officials as God’s servants.He calls pastors to preach and teach the Gospel, repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And He callshearers to support those who teach them with every good thing.Christ died to set us free from the works of our selfish flesh, giving us the freedom and liberty to doour duty. Stand firm, then, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.Don ShotzbergerStewardship Chair3

To those celebratingwe wish you aBlessed and Happy BirthdayLET US PRAY. . .Julyfor those on theSt. Matthew prayer list,61016182629for our members who are confined to their homesand, if possible, go by to visit them:Doris Ishee,Donna Johnston,Rosa O’BannonAdam Alvin CooperGloria BradleyBeth KernionElizabeth RehmannRev. Adam CooperMaegan CooperAnniversariesand for thosein theArmed Forces,Fire and Police DepartmentsJuly13 Don and Maureen Newcomb29 Keith and Debbie EastO Father, whose care reaches all parts of the earth,we humbly ask you graciously to beholdand bless those in the military: RobbieBurnaman, Jonathan Byrd, Sayo Byrd,Herman Cheatham, Tito Galindo,Lauralie Gutschmidt, Jason Johnson,Andrew Ribar, Wesley Smith; those whofight fires: Jason Edwards; those whoserve in law enforcement: Adam Cooper. Defendthem from all dangers of soul and body and grant thatboth they and we, drawing nearer to you, may bebound to your love. In Jesus’ name. Amen(If your birthday or anniversary date does not appearabove or is incorrect, please e-mail the church or callthe church office, 864-6264, and give us the informationso our files can be updated.)CHECK OUTST. MATTHEW’S WEB PAGESTMATTHEWGULFPORT.TRIPOD.COM4

For Your InformationCHRISTMAS FOOD BASKETS: The item for July is canned fruit. Your donations are appreciated and may beplaced in the first hall pass the foyer.COMMUNITY GROUP will meet at Pastor Dukeman’s house every other Wednesday. We’ll have a potluckdinner at 6:00 p.m. and meeting from 6:30 until 7:30. All are welcome.COUNSELING: If you are interested in counseling with Pastor Dukeman, please contact him to make anappointment.SPREADING THE WORD: Please consider taking church trifolds or business cards to a local business if youhave a contact or if you just want to do a cold call. Please also consider taking some of these resources orsome church devotionals with you to give to a friend.WANT TO HELP MAKE A DIFFERENCE while you shop in the Amazon app, at no extra cost to you? Simplyfollow the instructions below to select "Saint Matthew Lutheran Church" as your charity and activateAmazonSmile in the app. They'll donate a portion of your eligible mobile app purchases to us.How it works:1. Open the Amazon app on your phone2. Select the main menu ( ) & tap on "AmazonSmile" within Programs & Features3. Select "Saint Matthew Lutheran Church" as your charity4. Follow the on-screen instructions to activate AmazonSmile in the mobile appThe CONTAINERS for medicine bottles, eyeglasses, and Mardi Gras beads are on the table in the first hallpass the foyer. Also, the new bulletin board is on the wall.The SIGN-UP SHEET FOR REFRESHMENTS will be on the table in the foyer. Please sign up. Therefreshments will be served on a table in the fellowship hall.BETHEL FREE CLINIC collects Mardi Gras beads all year as fundraiser for the clinic. If you have beads thatyou are ready to part, please put in the Eye Glass container by the church door. Cynthia will take to the Clinic.LAWN CARE FUND We will be taken donations to help cover the cost of lawn care. Donations should bemarked as such and placed in the collection plate.CLEAN, EMPTY PERSCRIPTION BOTTLES will be collected by Joan Farris and then delivered to the HumaneSociety of South Mississippi located in Gulfport. Your donations will be appreciated. There is a box in theback of the church to deposit the empty bottles. Thank you.5

July urday1235678910121314151617Sixth Sunday after Pentecost(Green)11Seventh Sunday after Pentecost(Green)Community GroupPotluck 6:00 p.m.Meeting 7:00 p.m.Council MeetingNoon18192021222324262728293031Eighth Sunday after Pentecost(Green)25Ninth Sunday after Pentecost(Green)Community GroupPotluck 6:00 p.m.Meeting 7:00 p.m.Sunday School 9:30 a.m.Worship 10:45 a.m.

I've recently finished listening to the audiobook version of John Bradshaw's Healing the Shame That Binds You. One of the things that struck me about this book was Bradshaw's discussion of our capacity to have a false self or false selves. We Lutherans with our view of human depravity probably don't always think about such things, but