Order, Words, & Voices
07.02.23, Nahum 1:1-8, Good Good
Order
Pre Worship Music
Opening Songs Billy/Linda
Lord Reign In Me
Your Lovingkindness
Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick
Reading Nahum 1:1-8 Segun
Songs Billy/Linda
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Be The Center
Message Good God Rick
Music Be The Center Billy/Linda
Community/Peace Rick
Benediction/Closing Peace Rick
Post Worship Music
Slides Note: There is a blank title slide between each Section – except for message/sermon slides.
Music (slides) – Billy/Linda
Lord Reign In Me
Verse 1
Over all the earth You reign on high
Every mountain stream every sunset sky
But my one request Lord my only aim
Is that You’d reign in me again
Chorus
Lord reign in me reign in Your pow’r
Over all my dreams in my darkest hour
You are the Lord of all I am
So won’t You reign in me again
Verse 2
Over every thought over every word
May my life reflect the beauty of my Lord
‘Cause You mean more to me
Than any earthly thing
So won’t You reign in me again
Chorus
Lord reign in me reign in Your pow’r
Over all my dreams in my darkest hour
You are the Lord of all I am
So won’t You reign in me again
Your lovingkindness
Chorus
Your lovingkindness
Is good to all
Your wings of mercy
Lift me when I fall
Your lovingkindness
Meets my ev’ry need
You cleanse me from unrighteousness
And You give new life to me
Verse
Father of love
Lord of all creation
I will bless Your name
Forever and ever
I will declare
Your grace and Your mercy
And tell of Your unfailing love
Call to Worship (Slides) – Rick
Leader: We ponder the reality that there is still fault in humanity. We ask ‘who is able to resist God and God’s will?’
Response: How can we argue with God?
Leader: Who has the power, the potter or the clay? If the clay were to rebel against the potter would the potter not crush the clay and create something new?
Response: God is the potter, we are the clay.
Leader: How is it unknown to us that our patient God is also a God of wrath and power against the enemy and enemies? How can we be resistant to the reality that God is indeed God?
Response: How can we not acknowledge God?
Leader: We strive to grasp the reality that this same God desires to make known the riches of his glory in the overflowing distribution of mercy, which was intentionally prepared even before our own creation.
Response: All of creation lives in God’s grace and generosity.
Leader: Those who were not God’s people, God calls ‘my people,’ those who were not God’s beloved, God calls ‘my beloved.’
Response: We are God’s people, we are God’s beloved.
Leader: We who cannot attain the law are not judged by our own works, but instead by the life, works, and sacrifice of the Son.
Response: We live by faith in the righteousness of Jesus.
(Romans 9:19-30)
Lord’s Prayer (Slides) ‘Join me in the prayer of Jesus’ – Rick
Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, On Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us. And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Reading (Slides) – Segun
An oracle about Nineveh: the scroll containing the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. The Lord is a jealous and vengeful God; the Lord is vengeful and strong in wrath. The Lord is vengeful against his foes; he rages against his enemies.
The Lord is very patient but great in power; the Lord punishes. His way is in whirlwind and storm; clouds are the dust of his feet. He can blast the sea and make it dry up; he can dry up all the rivers.
Bashan and Carmel wither; the bud of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake because of him; the hills melt away. The earth heaves before him— the world and all who dwell in it.
Who can stand before his indignation? Who can confront the heat of his fury? His wrath pours out like fire; the rocks are shattered because of him.
The Lord is good, a haven in a day of distress. He acknowledges those who take refuge in him. With a rushing flood, he will utterly destroy her place and pursue his enemies into darkness.
(Nahum 1:1-8)
Music (Slides) Billy/Linda
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Chorus
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning
New mercies I see
All I have needed
Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness
Lord unto me
Verse 1
Great is Thy faithfulness
O God my Father
There is no shadow
Of turning with Thee
Thou changest not
Thy compassions they fail not
As Thou hast been
Thou forever wilt be
Chorus
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning
New mercies I see
All I have needed
Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness
Lord unto me
Verse 2
Summer and winter
And springtime and harvest
Sun moon and stars
In their courses above
Join with all nature
In manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness
Mercy and love
Chorus
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning
New mercies I see
All I have needed
Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness
Lord unto me
Verse 3
Pardon for sin
And a peace that endureth
Thy own dear presence
To cheer and to guide
Strength for today
And bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine
With ten thousand beside
Chorus
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning
New mercies I see
All I have needed
Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness
Lord unto me
Be The Center
Verse 1
Jesus be the center
Be my source be my light
Jesus
Verse 2
Jesus be the center
Be my hope be my song
Jesus
Chorus
Be the fire in my heart
Be the wind in these sails
Be the reason that I live
Jesus Jesus
Verse 3
Jesus be my vision
Be my path be my guide
Jesus
Message (Slides) ‘Good God’ Rick
One of our neighbors was, until recently, an international visiting professor at the University. He would frequently ask me questions of religion, not really deep questions about faith but even deeper sociological questions about Americans’ image of faith and our practice of church. A while back he shared his own understanding of ‘church’ in the USA as opposed to his home country where church attendance and affiliation has sunk to even lower levels than here in America. “It’s social isn’t it?” he questioned rhetorically. ‘Social’. I wanted to argue his findings, I wanted to explain that it is a community of faith, but I really couldn’t, first of all because this was his finding but also because his conclusion was not totally wrong.
Our image of another person or group of people is unique to us but usually contains some elements of truth, and, if not truth, it reveals some element of truth about ourself.
This brings us to the question for today, ‘What do we do with God’, particularly, ‘what do we do with the image of God?’ Even more accurately, ‘What do we do when Nahum’s scriptural image of God which is not what we want God to look like?’ Those who subconsciously favor judgment and condemnation on others often hold an image of God which reflects a God who is rigid and stearn. Politicians often use a false and self-serving, and even detrimental, view of God to get votes; religious leaders often use a manipulative, oppressive, and discriminating view of God to keep control, and those who have suffered abuse live fear of a God image who is merciless and deadly.
Understandably, sometimes people who live in a state of defeat by their image of God find it easier to just give up on faith, to say goodbye to God forever.
The prophet Nahum painted a hard to accept image of God using these words,
[Slide] ‘jealous and avenging, filled with wrath, God may be slow to anger but will not let the guilty go unpunished. God rebukes the sea and dries it, and the rivers up, God withers the forests and pastures and lets the blossoms fade. God causes the mountains to quake, the hills to melt, and the earth, and all who live in it, to tremble. No person can withstand God’s fierce anger or wrath poured out like fire as the rocks are shattered before him.’ (Nahum 1:1-8)
Intense and scary stuff. However, tucked into these adjectives we find the words, [Slide] “God is good. God is a refuge in times of trouble. God cares for those who trust in him,”
Not long after the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt and then chose to return to the idol worship adopted while in slavery, their despondent, aggravated and confused leader Moses was having a difficult time understanding the adjectives of God – so God described himself,
[Slide]“I am the God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient— I am overflowing with love, so deeply true— lovingly loyal for a thousand generations, I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. – Still, I do not ignore sin. God holds sons and grandsons responsible for a father’s sins to the third and even fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7, the Message)
Jealous and avenging yet merciful and graceful. Vengeful and filled with wrath yet Endlessly patient. God will not let the guilty go unpunished yet God is persistently loving.
[End Screen Share]
To understand the context of Nahum’s agonizing illustration of God, it is imperative that we understand the context of Nahum’s words. It all begins with Jonah and Nineveh. Jonah entered the city of Nineveh kicking and screaming, determined to stop God’s work of grace toward the Nineveites. However, God’s mercy and compassion would not be withheld, the people of the city repented, and Jonah sat outside of the city wallowing in his judgment and condemnation, angry that the wrathful and vengeful God had not shown up instead of the loving God.
Move ahead over a century, 3-4 generations after their ancestors had repented we find that the great and great great grandchildren of the Ninevites who are now the powerful capital city of the brutal nation of Assyria. Not only have they turned away from God, they have instead turned to a god of nationalism ready and willing to stand against any nation that stood in Assyria’s path to world domination. Even in the midst of this, even as they have destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Judah, the God of mercy and grace has still given them the opportunity to repent – all the while sending prophets such as Nahum to remind them of the approaching wrath of the all powerful God.
Three – Four generations, probably even less, was all it took for a nation and a people to turn from God to hatefulness, hostility to blind and ignorant self centered allegiance – as opposed to taking responsibility for the sins of their forefathers who repented at God’s call.
[Slide] Nahum teaches us two major points,
- God’s love is never ending and God’s wrath is without end. We can walk away from God’s love but that does not negate the reality of a patient God who is love. However, we cannot escape the message of Nahum directed at nations and leaders who have carried out violent oppression and human suffering throughout history and in our present. God is grieved by the death, persecution, and dismissal of the innocent, God’s goodness and justice compel him to orchestrate the downfall of oppressive nations and leaders. God’s judgment on evil is good news…unless you happen to be the oppressive nation and their supporters. What we may see as an eternal wait for justice is actually God’s patience powered by love as nations and their supporters are given the opportunity to return to God and away from their pride, arrogance, and pursuit of economic and physical power.
- [Slide] Only we can separate ourselves from God’s love and only we can ignore the historical lessons to be learned from God’s wrath. The city of Nineveh did turn to God and therefore averted death and destruction, yet, in the message of Nahum, it took less than 2-4 generations for this same city, and its influential control of the country Assyria, to take an extreme turn away from God. Just as the city and country turned away from God, we, the descendants also are given the opportunity to make the decision to turn toward God.
[End Screen Share]
We can look back through history and see hundreds of instances of brutality of oppression, and then, if we are honest enough to continue looking, we see the perpetual generational tragedy of those moments present in our history 2-3 generations later. Out of the many brutality and oppressive moments in history such as the Crusades, and Colonization – we, often fall at the moment of Hitler and the Nazi’s brutal pursuit of white racial purity slaughtering 6 million Jews, 250,00 disabled humans, 500, Romas, 2,000 Jeshoah’s Witnesses, 70,000-100,00 homosexuals. All of this evil & brutal oppression was supported or condoned of by the Christians and the Church.
Looking closer to home, we know that countless humans were ripped from their family and their homes – loaded on boats, or forced on a deadly path, leading to slavery or onto a trail of death. The social, political, economic, academic, and other visible forms of the oppression of our ancestors 2-4 generations ago is once again visible and as acceptable as it was in the times of our ancestors.
[Slide] This is where we must begin to see the application of Nahum’s ancient words to us and to our lives.
- God hates brutality and oppression; God despises actions which incorporate the use of power of humans against humans.
- [Slide] In our nation, a nation we continually say is ‘blessed by God’, we must recognize the sinful, yet historical, context of the past and current existence of the realities of brutality and oppression.
- [Slide] We must remember and apply God’s words to Moses, “the tragic impact of the sins of the ancestors will fall upon the children and the children’s children to the second, third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:7b-8). We, those of us in this room, hold the responsibility of purposely revisiting the sins of our ancestors and not permit those travesties to take place again. When we do not take this seriously, when we choose to disregard or deny the horrors of our own ancestral history, the cycle of those brutalities will resurface again. Look at how current accepted racial prejudice has risen again, groups like the KKK have reappeared now with sanitized labels usually using the word ‘Christian’ in their titles. Look at how the lessons have not been passed on to our sons and daughters – instead, our leaders have made teaching the impact of this painful history illegal. Our educators are forbidden to speak of the brutal sins inflicted by our ancestors, and especially denied the freedom to point out the horrific impacts that could lead us to steps to right the wrongs of those before us – to accept the responsibility God gives us to address oppression and brutality. Instead, we glorify political pundits who tell church members to find a different church if their pastor speaks of Micah’s words of ‘Kindness, Justice, and Humility.’ Think of how we are just now hearing of the unreported abuse and deaths in boarding schools in our own states where native Americans were forced to send their children. Or, how many of us had heard of the brutality that took place on Black Wall Street in our state. Both of these are ancestral realities took place in our own state. Instead of doing as God instructs us, followers of Jesus continue to have give power to leaders who attempt to destroy tribal pacts and to keep marginalized people groups oppressed and dismissed.
[End Screen Share]
This week we remember the signing of the start of our nation, the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A document agreed upon and signed inside a building built by those who have been ripped from their families and homeland because they were humans relegated to the status of property – forced to work for their oppressors.
We also stand under the clouds of oppression which moved in over us less than a month ago. I’m sure you heard about the Southern Baptist Convention’s recent move to officially ban women from the title of ‘Pastor.’ Not just those who were in the roles of Senior or Lead Pastors, which was a theological misinterpretation on their part, but they also oppressed women who were titled Youth Pastor, or Children’s Pastor, and the list goes on – this was not a theological misinterpretation but it was a blatant display of semantic ignorance. Now, as horrible as this was, there were actions that were worse. Prior to the SBC meeting, a group of leaders sent out a list containing the names, addresses, and contact information of all women who fell into any of these categories. Many of these women had moved to non-SBC denominations but were still on this list. Then, when many of those with some type of title that included the word Pastor were discovered, a second list was sent out. Those women, their churches, and their families, faced an onslaught of hatefulness, threats, and brutality. Andrea and I sat in a meeting this past Thursday night as many of those women stood, women – each had painfully suffered the oppression and brutality of white males who I’m am sure have surely stirred up the anger of God. Yet, at their meeting, these same men were given more power, dominion, and ability to oppress and attack. Nahum’s message is not a message for the past – we must listen to it even more than ever.
However, there is a hopeful truth that we can take away from the truth proclaimed by Nahum – ‘God is good, God is patient’. He has not abandoned us yet, his anger and wrath against brutality and oppression has not yet been loosed on our nation. There is still time, we are less than 3-4 generations. We can still take an honest look at history and make a truthful assessment of its tragic impacts on our world. We can still ask God to give us a truthful look at the lies we continually accept and have accepted, the truths we have dismissed, the value of every person that we have ignored. We are not too old, we are not too powerless, we are not too small, we are not without a calling from God, a calling to Mercy, Justice, and Humility.
‘God is good, God is a refuge in times of trouble. God cares for those who trust in him, but with an overwhelming flood, God will make an end to his enemies; God will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.’ (Nahum 1:7-8)
Music (Slides) Billy/Linda
Be The Center
Verse 1
Jesus be the center
Be my source be my light
Jesus
Verse 2
Jesus be the center
Be my hope be my song
Jesus
Chorus
Be the fire in my heart
Be the wind in these sails
Be the reason that I live
Jesus Jesus
Verse 3
Jesus be my vision
Be my path be my guide
Jesus
Community (Slides) Rick
- Next Sunday, July 9, Rick, ‘Good Dirt, Matthew 13:3:3-9, 23
- Summer Bible Study – James, Wednesday Nights @ 6:30pm for 4 weeks. August 9-30.
- Armageddon Summer Book Discussion Dinner coming mid-late July, order and read your copy of the book soon. Amazon link on home page of gfnorman.com. One left in entry way.
Benediction (Slides) Rick
As we leave this place we walk in a world that is not perfect but nonetheless a world that God has proclaimed is good. We continue because the breath of God still inflates our lungs and because God’s life sustaining gift continues to course through our veins.
Regardless of our gender, or any other label we wear, we are all called to serve as pastors in the midst of God’s creation just as Mary was called to pastor the men who would soon be the apostles with the good news of the resurrection.
May we continually choose to grow in our own understanding of that proven hope which carries us in peace, giving us the mercy, compassion, and grace, to live confidently in God who loves us and calls us to life which, in turn, allows love to pour out for all of creation.
Closing Peace Rick
Leader: May the Peace and Hope of the Lord go with you.
Response: And also with you.
Leader: Go in the Peace and Hope of the Lord.
Order, Words, & Voices 