Order, Words, & Voices
07.21.24, Faces – Luke 2:21-38, Anna, Guest Preacher Jaimie Mercer
Order
Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close
Songs All Hail The Power of Jesus Name Susan/Brianna Wareen
Fairest Lord Jesus
Passage/Prayer Luke 2:21-38 Isaiah
Songs Jesus Faith of Our Mothers Susan/Brianna
In Christ There is No East or West
Message Anna Jaimie Mercer
Backpack Prayers Linda
Community/Benediction Rick
Hope Moment & Closing Peace Rick
Closing Music Sweet Sweet, Spirit Susan/Brianna
Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close
- Please record message on camera memory card.
- On the message Video Leave Room above Speaker’s head for the instagram post.
- Screen Share for entire message -TODAY-TITLE SLIDE only
Music (Slides) Susan/Brianna
All Hail The Power Of Jesus’ Name Song # 25400
Verse 1
All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ name
Let angels prostrate fall
Bring forth the royal diadem
And crown Him Lord of all
Bring forth the royal diadem
And crown Him Lord of all
Verse 2
Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race
Ye ransomed from the fall
Hail Him who saves you by His grace
And crown Him Lord of all
Hail Him who saves you by His grace
And crown Him Lord of all
Verse 4
Let ev’ry kindred ev’ry tribe
On this terrestrial ball
To Him all majesty ascribe
And crown Him Lord of all
To Him all majesty ascribe
And crown Him Lord of all
Verse 5
O that with yonder sacred throng
We at His feet may fall
We’ll join the everlasting song
And crown Him Lord of all
We’ll join the everlasting song
And crown Him Lord of all
Fairest Lord Jesus CCLI Song # 27800
Verse 1
Fairest Lord Jesus Ruler of all nature
O Thou of God and man the Son
Thee will I cherish Thee will I honor
Thou my soul’s glory joy and crown
Verse 2
Fair are the meadows fairer still the woodlands
Robed in the blooming garb of spring
Jesus is fairer Jesus is purer
Who makes the woeful heart to sing
Verse 3
Fair is the sunshine fairer still the moonlight
And all the twinkling starry host
Jesus shines brighter Jesus shines purer
Than all the angels heav’n can boast
Verse 4
Beautiful Saviour Lord of all the nations
Son of God and Son of Man
Glory and honor praise adoration
Now and forevermore be Thine
Passage (Slides) Isaiah Luke 2:21-38
When eight days after Jesus’ birth were completed it was time for His circumcision. There, the child was officially named Jesus, the name that had been given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.
When forty days after Jesus’ birth were completed, his parents took him to the temple for purification according to the Law of Moses. There, Mary and Joseph presented Jesus to the Lord and to offer the proper sacrifice.
It is written in the Law of the Lord that ‘Every firstborn male shall be called holy to the Lord’, and that the parents are ‘to offer a sacrifice according to what has been stated in the Law of the Lord.’
There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. Simeon was righteous and devout and looking forward to the consolation of Israel.
The Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would not die before seeing the Lord’s Christ. The Spirit led Simeon into the temple as the parents brought in Jesus. Simeon took the child in his arms, and blessed God, and said,
Now, Lord, You are letting Your bond-servant depart in peace, according to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all the peoples: A light for revelation for the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”
Jesus’ father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about their son. Then Simeon blessed them and said specifically to Mary, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and as a sign to be opposed— and a sword will pierce your own soul to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
Also, there was a prophetess named Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four.
Anna did not leave the temple grounds, serving night and day with fasts and prayers. And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak about Him to all those who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
Join me in the prayer of Jesus,
‘Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be your 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.
Music (Slides) Susan/Brianna
Faith of Our Mothers
Faith of our mothers, living still
In cradle song and bedtime prayer;
In nursery lore and fireside love,
Thy presence still pervades the air:
Faith of our mothers, living faith!
We will be true to thee to death.
Faith of our mothers, loving faith,
Fount of our childhood’s trust and grace,
Oh, may thy consecration prove
Source of a finer, nobler race:
Faith of our mothers, loving faith,
We will be true to thee till death.
Faith of our mothers, guiding faith,
For youthful longing, youthful doubt,
How blurred our vision, blind our way,
Thy providential care without:
Faith of our mothers, guiding faith,
We will be true to thee till death.
Faith of our mothers, Christian faith,
Is truth beyond our stumbling creeds,
Still serve the home and save the Church,
And breathe thy spirit through our deeds:
Faith of our mothers, Christian faith!
We will be true to thee till death.
In Christ There Is No East Or West
CCLI Song # 5775686
Verse 1
In Christ there is no east or west
In Him no south or north
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide earth
Verse 2
Join hands then children of faith
What e’er your race may be
Who serves my Father as a child
Is surely kin to me
Verse 3
In Christ now meet both east and west
In Him meet south and north
All Christly souls are one in Him
Throughout the whole wide earth
Message Jaimie (Slides)
[S] Title Slide through entire message
Lessons from Anna
Our story of Anna only occupies 3 verses from this passage. But
there are some pearls of wisdom that we can glean from her story. From
our scripture we know that she was married, probably very young, as was
the custom of the time. Her husband had died 7 years into their marriage,
probably while she was still in her early 20s. Some translations make it
sound like she was a widow until she was 84 years of age, others more
imply that she was a widow for 84 years after her husband had passed
away. Either way, we know Anna lost her husband very young and has
lived most of her life as a widow.
Our passage also describes Anna as a prophetess. As a kid, I
always thought that was a little more mystical than it actually was. It
sounds like she is some kind of fortune teller or seer. But the word refers
more to a teacher, someone who was teaching God’s truth. She may have
taught the Old Testament, probably to other women, but she was
essentially a speaker and teacher. There are not many prophetesses
mentioned in scripture. Before Anna, we have Miriam, Moses’ sister,
Deborah, Huldah, and Isaiah’s wife. So up until now, she is only the 5th
prophetess to be mentioned in the Bible. This seems significant, so even
though she only gets a few verses, I believe there are important lessons we
can learn.
This brings us to our first lesson from Anna. Anna turned to her faith
in her despair.
In this time period, women were considered to be little more than
property. In the view of society at the time, she would have been
considered to have little value. If you remember back to the story of Naomi and Ruth, Naomi urged Ruth to go and find another husband since she was still young. She knew that Ruth had a better shot at having a good life if she could remarry. Similarly, it would have been unexpected for Anna to remarry for stability.
But Anna chose to devote herself to the Lord. Our passage tells us
that Anna had not left the temple, but had been faithful in purity and in
fasting and prayer. I recently preached on the passage about Paul’s thorn and we examined how whether it was a physical ailment or emotional
aspect of his life, what we do know was that it made his life harder. We
also looked at where the thorn came from. While I do not believe that God
causes bad things to happen, I do believe He is present in everything we
go through, ready to comfort, to guide us, and to pull us closer to Himself.
The trials we go through in life, like losing a husband at a young age like
Anna, are the result of a fallen world. So when we know that our Loving
God is not causing the pain, it reminds us that we can trust Him and lean
on him.
Our second lesson from Anna is how we choose to react to the trials
of life are up to us.
This January was the one year anniversary of my dad’s passing. It
happened to hit at the same time that an ice storm hit Mississippi. We live
in the county, so we weren’t able to leave our neighborhood. In fact,
Andrew had tried to go for a walk a few times, but the roads were so slick,
he didn’t make it far. Right before the ice storm hit, I developed my first
infection from dialysis in 4 years. It felt like someone was setting my
insides on fire. Even worse, the antibiotics they put me on caused and
allergic reaction. I was in terrible pain, I was stuck at home and couldn’t
see my friends or go anywhere, I was missing my dad, so I spent the whole
week sitting at our kitchen table doing puzzles and listening to Mumford
and Sons and crying. It was a weepy, painful, itchy, stir crazy week.
One day, in a moment where I wasn’t crying, Andrew was sitting at
the table doing some school work and I was working on a puzzle and it
seemed like such a nice moment, I asked him if he was going to miss this.
He looked at me with the expression I have gotten quite familiarly with over the last couple of decades and deadpanned, “yeah, all the Mumford and sons and crying has been great!”
We all go through rough times where it seems everything seems to
compound and rain down all at once. And it is okay to wallow, to cry, to
feel all the feelings. In fact, it is super important for our mental health that
we don’t stuff our emotions. And I figure if God already knows how we are
feeling, why not be honest and vulnerable with Him? Beth Moore once said something along the lines of “when you’re going through a hard time, go ahead and throw yourself a pity party. But once you are there, invite God to join you.”
But at some point, we get to choose how to carry on. We can throw
ourselves into new hobbies or into friendships. We can choose to reframe
things so somehow they make sense and fit into how we understand life to
go. We can do puzzles and cry listening to Mumford and Sons.
The main problems come when we remain stagnant, because it leads
to misery and bitterness. I imagine we all know someone who has been so
beaten down by life or experienced something so devastating that they
have not been able to work through what it made them miserable to be
around. One of my grandmothers lost a child as an infant. She had 6 other
children, but never worked through the pain of losing her son. She had a
hard time even appreciating the children she did have and became such a
bitter woman.
Now my other grandmother lost her last remaining sibling within a
week of losing her youngest son to cancer. The next year she lost her
husband. Then about 10 years later, she lost my uncle, and six months
after that my dad passed away. Despite all of the loss, my Mammaw is still
living life, loving the family she has, enjoying the time she has with her
great grandchildren.
We don’t choose the storms that come through life, but how we
choose to go forward is up to us. Anna could have withdrawn from her
faith. She could have looked at God with hurt and disappointment, and
perhaps she did at times, but she didn’t let that have the last word. She
chose to keep living, she devoted herself to the church, to fasting, to
prayer. She practiced resilience and we will see that it was rewarding for
her in the long run.
When we go through rough times-job loss, grief, heartache, divorce,
illness, empty nests-it is important, that first we feel all the feelings, but that we process it and continue moving forward. If we believe God is our
strength, if we know he is our Hope, and we know He is our comforter, then let us turn to Him to minister to our spirits. It doesn’t erase the pain. It
doesn’t assure that everything will be happily ever after from that point. It
may not even change the circumstances that we find ourselves in, but
keeps us from giving up. It keeps us from becoming bitter. It helps us to discover the resilience that God has given us to continue on, even when
the road is winding and bumpy and exhausting.
Another lesson from Anna is that our life is going to look different
from others and that is okay.
There are those in the Biblical time who would have looked at Anna’s life as a life wasted. For one, she didn’t even have children, she had no family, no husband. And instead of remarrying and fulfilling what would have been expected of her, she devoted herself to her faith and remained in the temple.
Her encounter with Jesus and her word to Mary show that it was her
faithfulness that lead to that moment. There will always be those who
believe we should be doing something different with our lives. Whether it is pursuing a higher position, or more money, or more esteem. But we
cannot be swayed by what others think is best for us. And we can’t let fear
dictate what we do with our one precious life. Instead, let us follow the
fruits of the spirit when we forging our path. May we ask ourselves if what
we are doing brings us joy and brings us peace. If we are growing fruit,
then perhaps we are right where we need to be.
Our final lesson we can learn from Anna is that God will never waste
our pain.
I have found this to be true walking through multiple health
journeys and also walking through the foster adoption process, and walking through Suzie’s mental health journey, it is that God will never waste the pain we experience in life. Now to be clear, I do not believe God causes the pain to teach us a lesson, but I do believe he will use it so that we can find peace in Him and so that we can share our hope with others.
Parenting Suzie has been one of the best and hardest journeys of my
adult life. In case you do not know, our youngest daughter Suzie, has
Bipolar 1, along with an intellectual disability. For the past 7 years, she
has been in and out of treatment facilities. A year ago she ran away and
we had to go through the court committal process. We have finally found
an incredible facility that has been working with her since last October, and
while she is currently not doing well, she is surrounded by an amazing staff
that work hard to keep her as stable as possible and communicate with us
regularly.
It’s not a journey that I imagined when we adopted, but it is single
handedly the one that has transformed me the most. There is a lot of pain watching someone you love battle a mental illness, especially a child. But
Andrew and I have found ourselves in a lot of waiting rooms and I have
seen God use the experiences that we have gone through to encourage
other parents. Some who are going through an intake for the first time and
scared and wondering if they are doing the right thing. Being able to speak to another foster family who just had their first ER visit and let them know they are not alone.
Your life is your ministry. The things you go through in life, give you
experience to share hope and encouragement with those you come in
contact with. It doesn’t have to be fostering kids, or mental health. It can
be grief. It can be illness. It can be having been bullied. People need to
know they are not alone. They need to know that other people have been
through what they are going through and are still standing.
I doubt Anna had planned to spend her whole life in the temple. I
imagine when she got married she pictured a lifetime with her husband.
But after 7 short years, that dream was shattered. I have no doubt that
God used the pain Anna had been through when she was teaching and
speaking to connect with others.
So our main take aways from Anna are about hope. In our despair, we can
turn to our faith. How we move forward is up to us. We can move forward
by leaning on the fruits in the spirit instead of fear. And we can use the
pain we have experienced and turn it into hope for someone else.
There is a popular quote, attributed to Anne Frank and Cicero, “where there is hope there is life.” So let us hold onto our hope, let us pursue our hope, and let us share our hope.
Let’s pray.
Father God, there is not one of us here who will make it through life without going through pain and going through trials. Help us to lean on you when the storms come. May we feel our feelings, may we cry and scream, but ultimately, may we turn to you. Help us to continue to move forward. Build resilience in each life. May we move in the direction of hope, tuning out the noise from outside that tells us where we should be going and what we should be doing. Instead may we evaluate the evidence of your spirit as our guide. And finally, remind us that our pain is not wasted. Help us to be vulnerable with those whom we should share our stories with. May we point others to you, may we help carry the burdens of our friends and family. And may we share hope with all we meet.
Impact Backpacks SF Refugees and Norman PS (Title Slide) Linda
This morning we are hands on with our faith impact project of giving backpacks to students HERE attending Norman Public School, particularly Norman High and Norman North, and to the Afghan Refugee High School students THERE in San Francisco via the ministry of Rick and Lita Sample. We are handing each of you who are in person this morning 1 or 2 backpacks for you to hold as we pray today and for the student using this backpack for the next school year. While you will not know the name of the students who will be using the backpacks you are holding, we encourage you to give each student a name with which you will pray for this year. Following this service you can leave the backpacks you are holding at the exit doorways or bring them forward and place them in these boxes.
Please join me in prayer for our students.
God, we pray for the students Here in Norman and There in San Francisco who will be carrying these backpacks this school year. We pray for stable and supportive home lives, we pray for daily rest, adequate nutrition, as well as atmospheres of peace, compassion, mercy and love in their homes, their schools, their classrooms, and their activities. We pray peace.
God, we lift up the teachers, leaders, and school staffs who will touch the lives of these students. We pray for an intentionality in all local, state, and national elected leaders who share the responsibility to provide a just, equal, and fully supported education that is not part of an agenda but a desire to give all of these young people a fair chance in life. We pray peace.
We pray for strength and backbone for political leaders, along with the faith leaders at all levels to recognize, and take seriously, the weight of caring for these precious lives who God loves. A love, compassion, and mercy, that is regardless of color, presentation, nationality, religions or faith, politics. We pray peace.
God, we accept our calling to pray for each of these, to hope for each of these, to sacrifice for each of these, to love each of these. To consistently pray peace for each of these.
Amen
Community (Slides) Rick
- Next Sunday, Penitent, Luke 2:21-38, Online/Inperson, Anna
- Banner Help
Holding On To Hope (Slides) Rick
The Apostle Paul
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 22:35-40
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
“Everybody has it hard, but we can model what it means to find joy even in the midst of hardship. Even in the midst of despair, even in the midst of fear and anxiety. And we can create a different future. Joy is an act of spiritual and political resistance.”
Prayer of Saint Francis Of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope;, Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console, To be understood as to understand, To be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen
Closing Peace (Slides) Rick
Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.
Response: And also with you.
Closing Music Susan/Brianna
Sweet Sweet Spirit CCLI Song # 18204
Verse 1
There’s a sweet sweet Spirit
in this place
And I know that it’s the
Spirit of the Lord
There are sweet expressions
on each face
And I know they feel
the presence of the Lord
Chorus
Sweet Holy Spirit
Sweet heavenly Dove
Stay right here with us
Filling us with Your love
And for these blessings
We lift our hearts in praise
Without a doubt we’ll know
That we have been revived
When we shall leave this place
Verse 2
There are blessings
you cannot receive
Till you know Him
in His fullness and believe
You’re the one to profit when you say
I am going to walk
with Jesus all the way
Chorus
Sweet Holy Spirit
Sweet heavenly Dove
Stay right here with us
Filling us with Your love
And for these blessings
We lift our hearts in praise
Without a doubt we’ll know
That we have been revived
When we shall leave this place
Order, Words, & Voices 