Order, Words, & Voices

Order, Words, & Voices 07.02.23

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

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

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

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

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 06.25.23

Order, Words, & Voices

06.25.23, Micah 6:6-8, Real Good

Order

Pre Worship Music

Opening Song That’s Why We Praise Him Lynn

Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick

Reading Micah 6:6-8 Cricklins

Songs Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly Lynn

Just a Closer Walk with Thee

Message Real Good Rick

Music Lord, I Need You Lynn

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) – Lynn

He came to live live a perfect life
He came to be the living word our light
He came to die so we’d be reconciled
He came to rise to show His pow’r and might

That’s why we praise Him that’s why we sing
That’s why we offer Him our ev’rything
That’s why we bow down and worship this King
‘Cause He gave His ev’rything

He came to live live again in us
He came to be our conquering King and friend
He came to heal and show the lost ones His love
He came to go prepare a place for us

That’s why we praise Him that’s why we sing
That’s why we offer Him our ev’rything
That’s why we bow down and worship this King
‘Cause He gave His ev’rything

Halle hallelujah
Halle hallelujah

That’s why we praise Him that’s why we sing
That’s why we offer Him our ev’rything
That’s why we bow down and worship this King
‘Cause He gave His ev’rything
‘Cause He gave His ev’rything

Call to Worship (Slides) – Rick

Leader: Listen to what the Lord is saying

Response: God, may we know your thoughts towards us

Leader: Listen as God addresses the mountains and the foundations of the earth

Response: God tell us our offense, tell us the actions of our repentance

Leader: Listen as God asks how he has offended us

Response: God, such a question should be ours to ask of you

Leader: Listen as God reminds us of his deeds bringing the slaves out of Egypt, redeeming them from slavery

Response: God we remember your work though Miriam, Moses, and Aaron

Leader: Listen for the mighty works of God against the plans of Balaam, and all that was done from Shittim to Glial

Response: God, may we learn to recognize your righteous acts

Leader: Listen as God responds to our question asking ‘how should we approach the Lord, how do we bow down before God on high?’

Response: God, you respond, ‘do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God’

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.

Reading (Slides) – Cricklins

With what should I approach the Lord and bow down before God on high? Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings, with year-old calves?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with many torrents of oil? Should I give my oldest child for my crime; the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?

He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God. (MIcah 6:6-8)

Music (Slides) Lynn

It all comes down to this
What you require of me
Love my neighbor as myself
And You above all things

Chorus

Act justly love mercy walk humbly
With You God
In all things in all ways walk humbly
With You God

Verse 2

It all comes down to this
To be Your hands and feet
Good news to all the world
The truth will set us free

Chorus

Act justly love mercy walk humbly
With You God
In all things in all ways walk humbly
With You God

Bridge

It’s beauty for ashes
It’s mourning to dancing
It’s closer and closer
The Kingdom of heaven

Years from now we’ll see
The fruit our hands have sown
Faith just like a seed
The only way it grows

Chorus

Act justly love mercy walk humbly
With You God
In all things in all ways walk humbly
With You God

Verse 1

I am weak but Thou art strong

Jesus keep me from all wrong

I’ll be satisfied as long

As I walk let me walk close to Thee

Chorus

Just a closer walk with thee

Grant it Jesus is my plea

Daily walking close to Thee

Let it be dear Lord let it be

Verse 3

When my feeble life is o’er

Time for me will be no more

Guide me gently safely o’er

To Thy kingdom shore to Thy shore

Chorus

Just a closer walk with thee

Grant it Jesus is my plea

Daily walking close to Thee

Let it be dear Lord let it be

Message – Real Good (Slides)

In the spring of my first year of seminary as summer was about to hit I was working as a bank teller, a job I had also done while in college. Shortly after arriving for a shift I was summoned to go from the drive through bank to the main bank to see the supervisor of tellers. When I arrived I found that my supervisor was sitting in her office with two scary looking men, really scary looking. It was obvious that I was in trouble. I was told, in a very unfriendly tone, that I had cashed a bad check from a bad person. This bad person was not unknown to me, his picture, along with the bold printed message ‘DO NOT CASH A CHECK FOR THIS MAN’, had been taped onto my computer screen since I had been working at the bank nine months before. The scary looking men, as it turned out, were FBI agents with many questions for me about the bad man, and my choice to cash his check, none of which I was able to answer. The FBI guys finally realized I had no helpful information, they gave me their card in case I did remember any details, and left – at which time my supervisor slid a piece of paper for me to sign regarding my new probationary status which detailed my new training. This entire situation did not really surprise me, at my other banks I was known for speed and efficiency but not so much for my attention to details such as ‘DO NOT CASH A CHECK FOR THIS MAN’. I think at this point I arrived at a moment of truth – something clicked and I suddenly arrived at an understanding of the need for careful attention. I signed the paper and began to stand to leave when my supervisor told me she had one more thing to speak with me about. Then she began to explain to me that the bank would like for me to take on more hours, plus full time during the summer, and more pay. As an employee recently placed on probation and carrying a new found understanding of adulthood and responsibility, I was a bit confused. This confusion must have shown on my face as my supervisor said “I know, this is strange but your fellow employees like you, we have never received a customer complaint about you, and, we know we can trust you not to steal,” she continued, “none of these traits are always found in our other employees.” So, there I sat, I had just arrived at a turning point in the road after realizing that I needed to do my job better, not cashing checks for bad people, and now they were lowering the bar to just be nice and don’t steal the money.

It was a mixed message, we humans are not really built to operate on mixed messages from those over us. I am not built for mixed messages from those over me. It is our natural inclination to need to have an overriding expectation, a clear understanding of what is expected of us. When we have to choose we often go all or nothing – ‘Do I diligently adhere the expectation of not cashing checks for bad men’, or do I ‘Be nice to work with, not steal money that is not mine, and, at all the while, be the teller that every customer wants taking their deposits?’

Prophets Background Information

The Old Testament prophets had a tough, difficult, and often seemingly impossible job. They were sent to a people with a message that was not wanted. Either the people felt that they did not need the message or the people did not want to hear the message. Most of the times that we hear the journeys of the prophets they are proclaiming God’s warning of impending doom and disaster. A warning to turn back to God now before it is too late. The impending doom is, for the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the invading army of Assyria and the ultimate destruction of Samaria, their holy city. For the Southern Kingdom, Judah, the doom would be from Babylon, with destruction of their holy city of Jerusalem. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many of the minor prophets were included in giving this warning to one or the other of these nations. Micah, a minor prophet, however, proclaimed a message to both Kingdoms

Possibly what made the message of the prophets most difficult for those receiving the message was that they felt they were already doing everything God expected of them. They were religious, they could talk holy, the did the things God’s law and ordinances said to do and did not do those things they were told not to do. The problem with the message of the prophets, however, was that their messages were seldom directed at actions, instead, their messages were directed at the hearts and minds of the listeners. It would then be from the hearts and minds of the listeners that actions would surface. It was an internal change, an internal state of being, an internal repentance and return to God, that God called for.

The message of the prophets often sounded like a contradiction to the previous messages from God. They were told to make literal sacrifices, now God called them to love others. Previously, they were told how to punish and discipline wrong doers, now they were told to love justice. To make provision for the poor and needy as they plowed their fields had been the standard, now they were called to kindness.

They had finally figured out how to obey God in the specifics and now they were being told to love God in the everything of life. In other words, they were told to be diligent in doing what they were told to do, and now, they were told to be nice and nice to be with.

God’s Call to Us All

God’s message through the prophet Micah begins with a message of the reality, the reality of their comfort and complacency. A message of the truth that their religion was not the truth of their faith. A message that they had turned away from God and were now just pretending to be followers of God. A message of the uncomfortable and unwanted truth, shining a revealing light on their hypocrisy and arrogance.

[Slide] Micah begins God’s message with blunt words,

‘Listen, all you peoples! Pay attention, earth, and all that fills it! May the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. Look! The Lord is coming out from his place; he will go down and tread on the shrines of the earth’. (Micah1:2-3 CEB)

Then, after Micah tells of what the anger of God is going to look like, he asks the question of blame, and, at the same time, he mimics the foolishness of the answers that he knows are in the minds of the people.

[Slide] ‘The Israelites of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, are thinking, “Isn’t it Samaria and Judah of the Northern Kingdom’s fault?” and “Isn’t the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom, thinking it is Israel and Jerusalem’s fault?’ (Micah 1:5b)

[Slide] These accusations against the others, as Micah has already explained, is a theory full of holes, for God has already said, ‘This is for the crimes against God carried out by the house of Jacob’ (Micah 1:5a) All are guilty of these sins.

[End Screen Share]

You may remember our look at another prophet, the prophet Isaiah, from last Sunday. Isaiah was about to be called to be a prophet, but before Isaiah was ready to hear God’s calling, Isaiah had to first recognize his participation, or complacency in the sins of this people. It wasn’t until he recognized and repented his own fault that he was then ready to hear and respond to God’s call. It is impossible to come to repentance when we are looking to cast blame on another.

The message of Micah is not a call of naming your sins and the sins of others, the message of Micah is much more invasive than just vowing to not do something ever again. God’s message calls us to a deeper calling than just to quit a destructive action, or to begin a productive step.

So, now as we continue in Micah’s message from God, we see that God has gotten the attention of the people, and he has crushed their false practice of blaming the other. Now, it is time for a concrete display of hearts and minds that are changed and lives that are authentic.

The response of the people is a cry of guilt and repentance along with a question asking what they need to do next.

[Slide] “With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the Lord take pleasure in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give Him my firstborn for my wrongdoings, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:6-7)

[Slide] Notice the pronoun is not ‘WE’, but instead it is personal, first person, “What do I need to do?” Also note the offering of their own sons, taking us forward to when the sacrifice of a son can only be completed through God’s son. Basically, none of the actions are what God us calling for and expecting. God is calling for something else, something deep and personal, something that serves as the inner push to the external actions that please God. It is a call for an inner change within each person that changes the actions of that person.

Micah begins this calling with a reminder to the people that they already have heard this, this is not new.

[Slide] ‘He has told you, mortal one, what is good; so, what does the Lord require of you? Is it not to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?’

Amy G. Oden of Paul School of Theology sums up God’s call to us through Micah’s words superbly, while also addressing the seemingly contradictions between the Law and Ordinances with this calling of God,

[Slide] “To enact justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God, are not single acts that can be checked off the list and left behind. On an individual and social scale, in ways large and small, this is a way of life. Periodic nods to equity do not constitute a faithful life, Micah tells us.

[Slide] We cannot only observe racial membership quotas on committees in place of seeking racial justice. We cannot send checks for disaster relief and avoid examining our lifestyles that contribute, at least in part, to some natural disasters.

[Slide] We cannot do hunger walks and refuse to change our consumerist lifestyles. We cannot confess with our lips on Sunday morning and hold grudges at work on Monday.

[Slide] Rather than offer God thousands of rams, Micah calls us to offer a thousand daily acts of love for each other and the world God loves. “Walking humbly with God” means knowing our bent to self-righteousness.

[Slide] We cannot ‘play church’ or frame our religious life as a game where we keep God in check by performing prescribed duties. The life of faith is indeed a walk that reorients heart and life. Nowhere does Micah tell people to stop observing ritual practices or to stop being religious.

[Slide] The problem is not religion in itself. The problem is using ritual practice to excuse ourselves from the divine demands of justice and mercy.”

(Amy G. Oden, Visiting Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality, Saint Paul School of Theology, Oklahoma City, Okla.).

[End Screen Share]

So the challenge of Micah’s words, ‘Do we throw out our religious/faith elements of our faith? Do we quit the DO things such as ‘DO not sin, DO follow Jesus?” No, we do not, but it is a call to understand that the DOs and the DON’T are all symptoms our our need to take Micah’s words to heart. Micah is not talking about actions, Mical is talking abut heart, having the heart of God and revealed in the person of Jesus. It is about having the “BEs’ that then produce the DOs and the DON’Ts.

Think for a moment of what the world thinks of when we, along with institutional religion, speak about God. Do they think of grace, do they think of justice and kindness, do they see humility, do they grasp love? – Or, do they think of judgment and condemnation, do they think of hatred and hostility, do they think of discrimination, dismissal, and rejection of certain people groups?

“God has already told me, God has already told us, what is good. So, what does the Lord require of you, and of us? Isn’t it to do justice, isn’t it to love kindness, and isn’t it to walk humbly with your God?”

Music (Slides) Lynn

Lord I come I confess

Bowing here I find my rest

And without You I fall apart

You’re the one that guides my heart

Lord I need You oh I need You
Ev’ry hour I need You
My one defense my righteousness
Oh God how I need You

Where sin runs deep Your grace is more
Where grace is found is where You are

And where You are Lord I am free
Holiness is Christ in me
Where You are Lord I am free
Holiness is Christ in me

Lord I need You oh I need You
Ev’ry hour I need You
My one defense my righteousness
Oh God how I need You

So teach my song to rise to You
When temptation comes my way
And when I cannot stand I’ll fall on You
Jesus You’re my hope and stay

And when I cannot stand I’ll fall on You
Jesus You’re my hope and stay

Lord I need You oh I need You
Ev’ry hour I need You
My one defense my righteousness
Oh God how I need You

My one defense my righteousness
Oh God how I need You

Community (Slides) Rick

Next Sunday, July 2, Rick, ‘Good God’, Nahum 1:1-8
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.

Benediction (Slides) Rick

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 06.18.23

Order, Words, & Voices

06.18.23, Psalm 37:1-8, Differentiating Good

Order

Pre Worship Music

Opening Song Billy/Linda

Hallelujah He Reigns

Give Thanks

Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick

Reading Isaiah 5:18-20 Renee

Songs Billy/Linda

Faithful One

Show Me Your Ways

Message Differentiating Good Rick

Music Show Your Ways 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

Hallelujah He Reigns

Verse

Show me Your ways

That I may walk with You

Show me Your ways

I put my hope in You

Chorus

The cry of my heart

Is to love You more

To live with the touch

Of Your hand

Stronger each day

Show me Your ways

Give Thanks

Chorus

Give thanks with a grateful heart

Give thanks to the Holy One

Give thanks because He’s given

Jesus Christ His Son

Verse

And now let the weak say I am strong

Let the poor say I am rich

Because of what the Lord has done for us

Call to Worship (Slides) – Rick

Leader: To establish a vineyard on a fertile hillside, the ground had to be dug, the stones had to be cleared away, excellent vines had to be planted.

Response: When harvest came only rotten grapes were found.

Leader: God compared the vineyard to himself to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah. The vineyard was good, yet it grew only rotten grapes.

Response: God warned that the vineyard would be torn down and destroyed.

Leader: The vineyard would be ruined, it would not be pruned or hoed, thorns and thistles would grow up.

Response: There would be no rain to water the vines.

Leader: God created and it was good. God expected justice and righteousness.

Response: But there was only bloodshed and cries of distress.

Leader: The prophet Isaiah cried out, “I am doomed! I’m a man of sin, and I live among a people of sin.”

Response: God asked “Who should I send?” Isaiah said, “Send me.”

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.

Reading (Slides) – Renee

Doom to those who drag guilt along with cords of fraud, and haul sin as if with cart ropes, while saying, “God should hurry and work faster so we can see; let the plan of Israel’s holy one come quickly, so we can understand it.”

Doom to those who call evil good and good evil, who present darkness as light and light as darkness, who make bitterness sweet and sweetness bitter.

(Isaiah 5:18-20, CEB)

Music (Slides) Billy/Linda

Faithful One

Verse

Faithful One so unchanging

Ageless One You’re my Rock of peace

Lord of all I depend on You

I call out to You again and again

Chorus

You are my Rock in times of trouble

You lift me up when I fall down

All through the storm

Your love is the anchor

My hope is in You alone

Ending

My hope is in You, My hope is in You

Our hope is in You alone

Show Me Your Ways

Verse

Show me Your ways

That I may walk with You

Show me Your ways

I put my hope in You

Chorus

The cry of my heart

Is to love You more

To live with the touch

Of Your hand

Stronger each day

Show me Your ways

Message – Differentiating Good (Slides)

Introduction – 2 stories of the need to break free

We were at my mothers house recently and my sister Anita was there with her with her son Brian and her dog Lyle who had a leash on him as he would walk around the house (Lyle not Brian). Years ago the dog trainer told us to do this to keep the dogs calm and to keep them from jumping off of high places – dachshunds and can hurt their back very easy from jumping down from even short heights. So Lyle is walking around the house dragging this leash and and every time he would be on a wood floor or a tile floor you could hear him from anywhere in the house where he was. He would walk along sometimes around corners or up against furniture and the leash would get stuck so Lyle would stand there, very patiently, waiting for someone to rescue him. But there were other times that he would just stop for no reason and he would look up at us with an expression on his face that said “Really? This is what my life has come to?! “You could tell just wanted to be free, he just needed a break.

When all five of the kids were in elementary school, I was volunteering one day when the principal contacted me and asking for help in finding Ezra. I knew Ezra, he was a little kindergarten guy, I knew his parents, and I knew his family, they lived just around the corner from us. I enjoyed watching the antics of Ezra. Ezra had disappeared and couldn’t be found in the school so the principal was asking me to assist as the search was moving the surrounding neighborhood, my neighborhood. If I remember correctly, this was not Ezra’s first escape. I can’t remember but I have a feeling this was not the first time. Since I knew where he lived I headed in the direction of his house. The principal went down a different street looking around and checking in to see if she could find him while I walked towards his house. As I approached the house I could see through the front windows and quickly recognized that Ezra was sitting relaxed in the reclining chair with the television remote control in his hand. I called the principal and remained in the street until the principal arrived. She was able to coax him outside and convinced him to return to school with her. I walked at a distance from behind but close enough so I could hear, I couldn’t wait to hear Ezra’s conversation with the principal. She was very comforting and affirming to Ezra and very nicely expressed to him that she had to be an extremely worried about him. Walking behind him I could see his slumped shoulders and could hear his sigh as in his disillusion kicked in over his total dissolution of his current life situation. And then she asked him “Ezra, why did you did you run away from school? “I really strained to hear, this was what I was looking forward to as he said, “You know I just needed to go home and watch cartoons, I needed a break.” He needed to get away and he knew exactly how to do that! It was really quite amazing.

As I’ve gotten some distance from the story I’ve wondered if Ezra actually was thinking “Why doesn’t everyone do this when we get tired of being at the school?“ Sometimes we have a leash on us, sometimes we’re confined in a building, sometimes we just recognize it is time for a break.

Isaiah Background

Reading for this week is in the book of Isaiah, a prophet called my God however in our passage for today, if the chronology of the book is correct, Isaiah was not yet a prophet of God. At this point in the story, it is around 800 to700 years before the birth of Christ, and 100-125 years before the Babylonian invasion. The people have once again turned away from God. Isaiah knows these people he’s one of these people. He probably came from a fairly affluent if not at least a very comfortable family. He has sufficient money to live on, holds an important place socially, and is probably privileged and possibly entitled.

As we arrive at chapter 5, up to his point it has largely been God talking to Isaiah, not through him to others. That will soon change as God will initiate the call to Isaiah to be a prophet and Isaiah will accept. This makes the things God says in chapter 5 all the more intriguing. God has been describing the people to Isaiah, particularly the fact that this is a messed up bunch of people who will not listen to God. This will be the people that, in chapter 6, Isaiah will be sent to speak to for God. At this point, however, that we must recognize the reality of the mission to come, a mission that Isaiah is unaware of, and a mission that God is being totally honest about.

Dooms/Woes

[Slide] As God nears the end of prepping Isaiah for the reality of the calling Isaiah is about to receive, God names six ‘Dooms’ or ‘Woes” that describe the affluent, entitled, and privileged contemporaries of Isaiah. These are six ‘dooms’ or ‘woes’, a warning to the entitled, wealthy, and powerful, of how their actions will ultimately lead to their own demise.

[Slide] Doom to those who are taking all the property but not leaving space for the regular, marginalized and poverty stricken persons.
[Slide] Doom to those who have so much wealth that they do nothing all day but consume wine, meaning that the grapes, raisins, honey and barley crops are decimated before the regular, marginalized and poverty stricken persons are given an opportunity to share in these items for their most basic needs.
[Slide] Doom to those who don’t merely reside in sin, but have attached themselves to the foundational ingrained stuckness that results in sin.
[Slide] Doom to those who have not only rejected truth but who blatantly have accepted lies and deceit as the alternative, a new false truth.
[Slide] Doom to those who have made themselves their own god.
[Slide] Doom to those who judge and condemn the true righteousness of the regular, marginalized and poverty stricken persons.

Then, just to help understand the impact of this information on Isaiah, we look ahead to chapter 6 where Isaiah finds himself standing in the presence of God. It is in this moment that the statement of ‘Doom’ is voiced, not by God, but by Isaiah, and it is not about the other people, it is about Isaiah as we gets a full view of himself, taking in the first 6 ‘Dooms’ and recognizes that he shares in their arrogance and entitlement.

In this moment of self reflection, Isaiah screams out, “My doom is sealed, for I am a foul-mouthed sinner, a member of a sinful, foul-mouthed race; and I have looked upon the King, the Lord of heaven’s armies.” (Isaiah 6:5)

God’s response to Isaiah’s acceptance of the fact that he too had turned from God is to accept Isaiah’s repentance and to cleanse Isaiah of his sin. Then, Isaiah is quick to accept God’s call to proclaim God’s unwanted message of ‘repent, turn back to God.’

But none of this happened until God opened Isaiah’s eyes to the truth of the people he was being sent to as well as the truth about Isaiah himself.

Today’s Doom Focus

Today, we are going to focus on 1 of those ‘Dooms’.

[Slide] Doom to those who don’t merely reside in sin, but have attached themselves to the foundational ingrained stuckness that results in sin.

The verse reads…

[Slide] ‘Doom to those who drag guilt along with cords of fraud, deceit, and falsehood, and they haul sin around as if the ropes made from the cord can withstand such a heavy load, all while they are arrogantly saying, “God should hurry up, he should work faster! God needs to tell us the plan for his promised fulfillment, so we can know and understand it.”’

God’s message is directed at an affluent and entitled people who consider themselves righteous and holy. Their mindset is that “God needs to tell us the plan so that we can understand.” The arrogance reveals their unholy state, God is a servant at their beck and call. “God needs to hurry up and tell us what we want to know.” However, they are not strangers to the truth from God. They have probably already heard that the Northern Kingdom, Israel, to whom a imminent defeat by the Assyrians is within, at best, a couple of decades – they have also already had the opportunity to understand that this was because they had not turned back to God.

The truth is that they have been unable to receive the truth because they have been distracted, not just by their own entitled arrogance, but also by their baggage. They are distracted by their sin, but oddly, it is not really the confrontation is not really about their sinful actions. Instead, their distraction is caused by the manner in which they carrying around their sins, mostly to hide them. God’s focus is on the metaphoric cords and ropes with which they pull the metaphoric wagon that carries the guilt of their sinful actions.

Cords and ropes which are defined as fraud, deceit, and falsehood.

Cords and ropes. Cord is lengths of fibers twisted together to create its shape, while rope is usually thick cords twisted or braided together to create its shape. In simple terms, rope is usually made up of multiple cords. Cord is the base element of rope.

The cords are significant, not only because they are what make up the ropes, but more so because every fiber of the cord is a damming element of their deafness and their blindness. Each fiber, a string like substance, intertwines with the other like minded fibers, to make a cord. Every cord then is braided together with other cords to make a rope. The rope then is used to haul the guilt and sins around constantly with the person, as it becomes heavier it also become more difficult to disguise. The entitled hide their heavy load with a false righteousness, a deceitful arrogance, and a fraudulent faith, all which share nothing in common with the character of God or his love for the creation and those created.

Let’s understand the point God was making.

[Slide] I went to look for a picture like this. The problem was that in this picture, the person was not dragging the cart, and the person was not using rope to pull the cart.

[Slide] As I continued to look for the perfect illustrative picture, I ended up with this pic. This pic was totally wrong. The person did not look desperate or downtrodden, he looks happy…and the cart was full of gift wrapped sins which didn’t seem to fit God’s intention.

[Slide] I attempted some other pics but always ended up back at happy guy lugging gift wrapped sins around. The guy in the picture looks happy and carefree and so does his basket of sins, neatly wrapped and presenting as good and exciting. Which is exactly the look and reality of the people that God was speaking about – the people that Isaiah would soon be addressing.

But the odd thing about God’s point is that he is not speaking about these imperfect people who strive to look perfect, nor is he speaking to their sin – God is speaking to the Cords and Rope which attaches them to the sin but also which is how they drag their sin around.

Cords, the fibers that hold us to the sin, the things that get us stuck. Stronger the cords and rope get, the more stuck we are.

Illustration of cords and Rope

Misogyny

Racism

Hostility/Anger

Politics

Pride

Insecurity

Ancestry

Family/Friends

Hope – British influential preacher of the late 1800s, Charles Spurgeon, said, “God’s woes are better than the devil’s welcomes. When we get a woe in this book of blessings it is sent as a warning, that we may escape from woe.”

Hope in Isaiah’s recognition and cleansing of his sin and complacency

(Lady on plane, depressed/oppressed) – Fruits of life with/without ropes/cords

Jesus words point to the opposite of pulling/hiding our sin while nurturing our ties that bind us to those sins. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.”

(Matthew 11:28-30)

Music (Slides) Bill/Linda

Show Me Your Way

Verse

Show me Your ways

That I may walk with You

Show me Your ways

I put my hope in You

Chorus

The cry of my heart

Is to love You more

To live with the touch

Of Your hand

Stronger each day

Show me Your ways

Community (Slides) Rick

Next Sunday, June 25, Rick, ‘Real Good’, Micah 6:6-8
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.

Benediction (Slides) Rick

So, we too are called to be pastors to our world and in our world with the same message of hope told through our lives, and then, when called upon, through our words.

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 06.11.23

Order, Words, & Voices

06.11.23, Psalm 37:1-8, Good Everlasting

Order

Pre Worship Music

Opening Song Everlasting God Lynn

God is so Good

Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick

Reading Psalm 37:1-8 Martha

Songs He Leadeth Me Lynn

Breathe On Me

Message Good Everlasting Rick

Music I Will Trust in You Lynn

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) – Lynn

Strength will rise as we wait

upon the Lord

We will wait upon the Lord

Strength will rise as we wait

upon the Lord

We will wait upon the Lord

Pre-Chorus

Our God You reign forever

Our Hope our strong Deliv’rer

Chorus

You are the everlasting God

The everlasting God

You do not faint

You won’t grow weary

You’re the defender of the weak

You comfort those in need

You lift us up on wings like eagles

God is so good,

He’s so good to me.

He answers prayers,

He’s so good to me.

I love Him so

He’s so good to me

God is so good,

He’s so good to me.

Call to Worship (Slides) – Rick

Leader: Do not fret because of the wicked, or be envious of wrongdoers. Trust in the everlasting goodness of God

Response: Let us trust in the Lord and do good

Leader: Take delight in the Lord, commit your way to God

Response: Let us trust in the Lord and do good

Leader: Be still before the Lord, wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in evil

Response: Let us trust in the Lord and do good

Leader: Refrain from anger and forsake wrath

Response: Let us trust in the Lord and do good

Leader: See God in action through the his words of truth

Response: Witness God’s presence in the world around

Leader: When your faith is challenged do not settle, do not give up, do not give in

Response: When your faith leads to tension seek truth more

Leader: May tension in our faith push us to a life of seeking truth

Response: Let us trust in the Lord and do good

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.

Reading (Slides) – Martha

Don’t get upset over evildoers; don’t be jealous of those who do wrong, because they will fade fast, like grass; they will wither like green vegetables.

Trust the Lord and do good; live in the land, and farm faithfulness. Enjoy the Lord, and he will give what your heart asks.

Commit your way to the Lord! Trust him! He will act and will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like high noon.

Be still before the Lord, and wait for him. Don’t get upset when someone gets ahead — someone who invents evil schemes.

Let go of anger and leave rage behind! Don’t get upset—it will only lead to evil.

(Psalm 37:1-8, CEV)

Music (Slides) Lynn

He leadeth me O blessed thought

O words with heavenly comfort fraught

Whate’er I do where’er I be

Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me

He leadeth me He leadeth me

By His own hand He leadeth me

His faithful follower I would be

For by His hand He leadeth me

Lord I would clasp Thy hand in mine

Nor ever murmur nor repine

Content whatever lot I see

Since ’tis my God that leadeth me

He leadeth me He leadeth me

By His own hand He leadeth me

His faithful follower I would be

For by His hand He leadeth me

Breathe on me, breath of God

Love and life that makes me free

Breathe on me, breath of God

Fan the flame within me

Teach my heart, heal my soul

Speak the mind that in Christ we know

Take me to Your sanctuary

Breathe on me

Speak to me, voice of God

Soft and still, inside my heart

Speak to me, word of God

Comfort, heal, restore with light

Teach my heart and heal my soul

Speak the mind that in Christ we know

Take me to Your sanctuary

Breathe on me

Message – Good Everlasting (Slides)

Stanley Rother, who is the focus of the shrine north of here, after five years serving as a priest in Oklahoma, felt a calling to minister to the descendants of the Mayan people in Guatemala. Rother followed God ministering to this people who lived in extreme poverty. He ate in their homes, visited the sick, addressed their medical issues, and built an irrigation system. In addition he learned the various languages of the people and translated the New Testament for them. While serving, a civil war raged through which he continued to serve causing his name to be added to a ‘Kill list.’ For a short while, the church convinced Rother to return to his home and to safety. It wasn’t long before his calling won out over his safety. Just a few months after returning to Guatemala, Rother was assassinated.

How do we make sense of this? Christians like to find the holy nobility in moments like this. Evangelicals, who like to have quick and easy answers to everything, even if the answers are wrong, compare someone like Rother to others who have died in their calling. Someone like Rother makes the sacrifice to a holy calling that is killed by those who seem, not only hostile to God, but also seem to live in comfort and riches. In reality we have to question why God would call someone to a noble task and then, shortly after, permit tragedy. A quandry to which our answers sound hollow.

One of the tough things about striving to live out your faith is the reality that those who don’t make that same faith commitment seem to be the ones that succeed when you fail. You look at those throughout history, including those in scripture, who gave their lives in service to God, who fashioned their lives after Jesus, who are killed, or brutally persecuted, by those who do not fear or revere God.

How do we live a life where our holy teachings seem to be in constant conflict with the reality in which we live? How do we live in peace and holiness when the supposed antagonist of our peace and holiness continually succeed and flourish?

A few years ago, a young man was campaigning for his father who was a powerful politician. The son was speaking to an audience of young adults, mostly male and predominantly white evangelical. The politician’s son knew that those in attendance were in agreement with him that those who did not support his father’s agenda were their enemies, and, therefore, that they were evil and wicked. The politicians son said,

[Slide] “…we better be playing the same game as our enemies are playing. Okay? We’ve been playing T-ball for half a century while they’re playing hardball and cheating. Right?

[Slide] “We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing.”

(Donald Trump Jr., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ7VDJdFmQU&t=3s)

While this young man was himself probably very marginal or at best immature in his faith – the amazing thing was that there was no public correction from the numerous evangelical leaders who were supporters of his father. Nothing was heard from those who should have been concerned at the message that ‘followers of Christ need to quit living like Jesus because it is getting them nowhere.’

[Slide] Esau McCaulley, Author of the book ‘Reading While Black’, observes: “we are often presented with two alternatives, neither of which is very appealing: deny the failings we observe within the church or contend that Christianity is not up to the challenges posed by our age.” (Esau McCaulley, Assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, the author of Reading While Black, and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times)

Much like the politician’s son, it is not uncommon for us to find that our reality does not match up with our spirituality, the question then is ‘do we give up?, Do we give in?’, ‘Do we attempt to isolate ourselves from seeing and knowing a reality that does not match up with our version of Holy Truth?’, ‘Do we isolate ourselves from reality so we do not have to live in the tension between our perceived truth and our reality?’ This is the dilemma the Psalmist is facing in Psalm 37 to which he offers the words…

[Slide – leave up until not to close screen Share] “Trust in the Lord and do good; live in the land and enjoy security. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:3-4)

Probably, you, or someone you know, has felt they trusted God and have done good yet they still find themselves facing struggles, turmoil, chaos, and heartbreak. We have all served as first hand witnesses as loved ones fell ill or died, watched as tragedy has struck, or moments when those closest to us have experienced mistreatment and pain. We have seen pictures and videos of injustice, abuse, oppression – We have asked ‘where are you God?’ We have wondered if truth is even really truth when it is ignored and heckled by those who do not share our faith and yet flourish.

This is exactly the tension going on with the Psalmist as he struggled with the reality of the wicked and the wrongdoers, those who prosper in their evil ways. In this tension, the Psalmist shares his own experience with this tension of the promise of comfort and peace being shattered by the reality of chaos and trauma.

[End Screen Share]

Three times in these eight verses the Psalmist encourages us to: “Don’t get upset (don’t fret).” Then twice he encourages us to trust in the Lord.

The Psalmist, as he speaks of not getting upset (don’t fret), is speaking not to the emotion of being upset, but instead to the real danger of allowing ourselves to get intensely worked up or even consumed by the problem of the apparent prospering of the wicked.

Also, the Psalmist’ encourages us to “Be still”. To stand in awe of God, speechless in the face of the breadth of God’s power and dominion. The implication is that God is in control and doing something in the world even though we think we are seeing the opposite. It is a calling to wait when we cannot see or understand.

The writings in Psalms, including Psalm 37, are largely the words of a believer who has has figured it out. They have grasped the practice of ‘fearing no evil when we walk through the shadow of death.’ They do not write the Psalms to tell give us the definitive guide to removing our own tension between faith and reality, just to let us know their path. So, we use the Psalms as a template for our journey in the midst of the tension.

[Slide – Screen Share – the coming slides will move quickly] The Psalmist shares his own experience of living in the tension…

[Slides] So, as the Psalmist says to *trust God; to *know that God is not absent in our world; to *do good; to *delight in the Lord; to *commit your ways to God; to *stay true to who and whose you are; to *believe that God’s light will, in God’s time, shine on the deeds of the wicked; to *hold to the promise of God; and *shine the light of justice; – the Psalmist is not saying these words with the expectation that we can change our hearts and our minds, our emotions and reactions to evil, our behaviors, compassion, and mercy. These are not things that we can make a lasting definitive decision – this is why we pray, *‘God, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ – because such a change on earth is only possible through the eternal work of the Holy Spirit in collaboration with our own will.

These are all ‘Do’ things that can only happen once we have arrived at the ‘Be’ – which is only begins to happen when we permit the Spirit to do this work.

*“Be still before the Lord, and wait for God.”

What does it take to Be Still and to Wait for God? What does it take in times of tension between our assumed faith and our reality?

Let’s be honest, if someone hurts or harms my loved ones, which ‘loved ones’ includes all of you, in those times I am going to find myself angry and vengeful. In those moments we can understand the thought of leaving aside the heart of Jesus as was suggested by the politician’s son. In those moments, peace, compassion, and mercy do not come easily. Our human nature is to give space to the wicked in our hearts and minds – to give them power. We focus on those we have labled ‘Wicked’ and ‘Enemies’ and then that gives them power and consumes us. Their continued ability to succeed crushes our will. The problem it that it is our will that allows us to wait on God, it is our will that allows us to be silent in God’s presence. It is this standing and waiting that allows us to fully collaborate with the Spirit.

It is here that the Psalmist presents a key suggestion,

“Let go of anger and leave rage behind.”

And, this is the challenge – to let go of the things that keep our will at a distance from the Holy Spirit.

It all comes down to this – ‘Quit making enemies.’ or better put, ‘Quit identifying those who do not agree with us as enemies’.

This is not a plan, it is not an automatic, it is an act of clearing the way so the spirit is free to work with our. Think about it, how many times do you put someone in the category of wicked or evil. How many times do you become angry or fearful, how many times is peace impossible. What do you need to do? Do you need to turn off the constant news cycle, do you need to recognize the hurt in others when they respond negative or hostile towards you, do you need to have mercy and compassion towards those who make mistakes, do you need to listen rather than judge, what is the reason your roadblocks are so effective?

Maybe, we need to begin to look for hope instead of enemies.

Erin Albin Hill, who works with churches to address the reality of trauma caused by churches and ministry organizations, after watching recent documentaries about multiple churches and other ministries and the abuse that took place within those institutions as well as the ripples of that abuse, writes,

“It should be no surprise that I’m sitting here thinking all churches are terrible and I’m confused why we’re even trying to make things better anymore.

Yet here we are. We are still trying. We’re still hoping. We’re still somehow believing in what the local church should be and could be. I wish I could explain why so many people do terrible things in the name of Christ. People are dying from guns every single day. People are taking their lives because their identities are not accepted and welcomed. People are treated terribly because of the color of their skin. And often, those things are done by people of faith and in the name of God. So, why is there still a small flame of hope lightly flickering? I know some churches that aren’t actively harming people by their theology and practices — which gives me hope. Those in my section at my local church light up when they hear my 1-year-old squeal during the church service, and that gives me hope. I hear of people continuing to believe in the divine after being harmed so deeply by the church, and that gives me hope. But it’s getting tiring, friends. It feels like every day, the American church gives us more of a reason not to have hope in the local church. I don’t know why I keep believing in the local church, but I’m going to keep listening to that small part of me that won’t allow me to let it go. Hopefully it teaches me something. I have hope the church will one day be what it is called to be — a radically inclusive place where all are welcome, all are sacred beings, all are safe. What a day that will be.”

(Erin Albin Hill serves as coordinator of research projects at The Center for Church and Community Impact (C3I) at the Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University)

Music (Slides) Lynn

Letting go of every single dream

I lay each one down at Your feet

Every moment of my wondering

Never changes what You see

Verse 2

I’ve tried to win this war I confess

My hands are weary I need Your rest

Mighty warrior King of the fight

No matter what I face You’re by my side

Chorus

When You don’t move the mountains

I’m needing You to move

When You don’t part the waters

I wish I could walk through

When You don’t give the answers

As I cry out to You

I will trust I will trust

I will trust in You

Verse 3

Truth is You know what tomorrow brings

There’s not a day ahead You have not seen

So in all things be my life and breath

I want what You want Lord and nothing less

When You don’t move the mountains

I’m needing You to move

When You don’t part the waters

I wish I could walk through

When You don’t give the answers

As I cry out to You

I will trust I will trust

I will trust in You

Bridge

You are my strength and comfort

You are my steady hand

You are my firm foundation

The Rock on which I stand

Your ways are always higher

Your plans are always good

There’s not a place where I’ll go

You’ve not already stood

When You don’t move the mountains

I’m needing You to move

When You don’t part the waters

I wish I could walk through

When You don’t give the answers

As I cry out to You

I will trust I will trust

I will trust in You

Community (Slides) Rick

Next Sunday, June 18, Rick, ‘Differentiating Good’, Isaiah 5:18-20
Summer Bible Study – James, Still gauging interest for a July study, Lunch time or Evenings for four weeks
Armageddon Summer Book Discussion Dinner coming late July, order and read your copy of the book soon

Benediction (Slides) Rick

As we go forth from this place and enter a new week, may we each experience God’s presence. May the wind of the Spirit startle our senses and blow through our lives; may the fire of the Spirit scorch our complacency and light our way. And may the blessing of the Holy One – the Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, rest with us now and forever more.

May the Spirit immerse our heads, hands, and feet, our thoughts, hearts, feelings and emotions, resulting in compassion for all others and ourselves. May the Spirit give us the voice to live and communicate our unique stories of hope and life. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be with each of us; Amen. (Borrowed and adapted from CMB, & Joanna Harader)

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 06.04.23

Order, Words, & Voices

06.04.23, Genesis 1:31

Order

Pre Worship Music

Opening Song Billy/Linda

Lord I Lift Your Name on High

Morning Has Broken

Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick

Songs Billy/Linda

God Will Make a Way

Change My Heart O God

Message Everything is Good Rick

Music Billy

Change My Heart O God

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 I Lift Your Name On High

Verse

Lord I lift Your name on high

Lord I love to sing Your praises

I’m so glad You’re in my life

I’m so glad You came to save us

Chorus

You came from heaven to earth

To show the way

From the earth to the cross

My debt to pay

From the cross to the grave

From the grave to the sky

Lord I lift Your name on high

Morning Has Broken

Verse 1

Morning has broken

Like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken

Like the first bird

Praise for the singing

Praise for the morning

Praise for them springing

Fresh from the Word

Verse 2

Sweet the rain’s new fall

Sunlit from heaven

Like the first dew fall

On the first grass

Praise for the sweetness

Of the wet garden

Sprung in completeness

Where His feet pass

Verse 3

Mine is the sunlight

Mine is the morning

Born of the one light

Eden saw play

Praise with elation

Praise ev’ry morning

God’s recreation

Of the new day

Call to Worship (Slides) – Rick

Leader: Today is the day that the Lord has made.

Response: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Leader: The heavens declare the glory of God in a glorious technicolor light show.

Response: They shout in a wordless language declaring that the Almighty God, created all.

Leader: “Morning has broken, like the first morning, blackbird has spoken, like the first bird. Praise for the singing, praise for the morning, praise for them springing, fresh from above.” (Eleanor Farjeon)

Response: May the melody of both be heard around the globe.

Leader: Look at how God cares for the birds of the heaven, may we take a lesson from their message of life.

Response: The ostrich spreads her feathers to laugh at the horse and rider.

Leader: “The universe lies before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are letters addressed to us to make us ponder the invisible things of God.” (Belgic Confession)

Response: May the lilies reveal God’s providential care and love for all creation.

Leader: When Jesus walked the earth, his feet were dirty with the dust and His sermon illustrations were about flowers and trees and seeds and vineyards and birds and fish and sheep and goats and pigs.

Response: May we lie down in green pastures beside still waters and find peace.

Leader: We are gathered this morning to worship the creator of the universe. Response: God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was good.

Leader: God sees all of creation and declares, ‘It is good.”

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.

Music (Slides) Billy/Linda

God Will Make A Way

Chorus

God will make a way

Where there seems to be no way

He works in ways we cannot see

He will make a way for me

He will be my guide

Hold me closely to His side

With love and strength

For each new day

He will make a way

Verse

By a roadway in the wilderness

He’ll lead me

And rivers in the desert will I see

Heaven and earth will fade

But His Word will still remain

He will do something new today

Change My Heart Oh God

Chorus

Change my heart oh God

Make it ever true

Change my heart oh God

May I be like You

Verse

You are the potter

I am the clay

Mold me and make me

This is what I pray

Message – Everything is Good (Slides)

I stood in our front yard recently looking over at my neighbor’s truck sitting in his driveway. I thought how, to most that drove by, it must appear to be junkie and even trashy. In the bed of the truck there was a large piece of tin, the type that was probably the covering of someone’s patio or carport, folded and cut up but still too big for the bed of the truck. To me, however, it was evidence and proof of the good person that lived in the house attached to the unruly looking truck. I thought this for many reason, but at that moment, my reason was that the trashy piece of tin was officially my trash. That tin had landed in my front yard a couple of nights earlier as my family, neighbors, along with myself, sat in our tornado shelter while hearing the loud winds and nearby tornados, and in the midst of all of that, we heard a loud bang which we would later be the tin crashing on the street and our front yard. The next day it was obvious that the tin did not come from any house on our street so it became my responsibility. I was a bit overwhelmed. I asked Dave, my neighbor with the truck, if he had any ideas of someone who could deal with the tin and before I knew it, he had his adult son over and the two of them were folding and cutting it up and eventually squeezing in the truck. The son also felt that my Berkenstocks were probably not the appropriate attire for folding and cutting tin so I stood back grateful for people who had the appropriate shoes. Good people.

It got me thinking about the good people on my street. Our Jewish neighbors up the street, son of a rabbi, who, in our first year on the street, brought us Christmas cookies during the holiday season. Or another elderly neighbor who attempted to join me on our ice covered roof when I needed to cover up holes created by a falling tree. In addition there is Tom, the banker, who went out of his way to help Grace Fellowship find the best return on our investment when the church sold the 60th Avenue building…even when his findings was that his back could not help us as much as another bank, also there is Jim, who helps me with, or honestly takes care of, any snakes I find in my yard – another task I don’t have the appropriate shoes to deal with. He says they are all fun to let wind in and out of your fingers, I say they are all Rattlesnakes. Good people.

I look at the fruit growing on our apple trees which will eventually be lunch and dinner for the squirrels, the pollinators beginning to attract the Monarchs and Humming Birds, and see the intricate threads throughout God’s good creation enable it to function.

As God, at the end of the sixth day of creation, looked over all of creation, everything that had taken place throughout the full six days, he took a careful look, evaluating every element, then God, with a confident and satisfied look on his face, said, “this is good.”

This word ‘Good’ is a lukewarm type of word. “How was your day?” “Oh, it was good.” How is the food?” “Oh, it is good enough.”

At the close of my first day of Seminary, I sat down at a cafeteria table filled with a group of students. We were mostly all strangers and were quick to introduce ourselves and asked questions seeking to know the other students. When I said I was from Oklahoma, two students, from Arkansas chimed in “Oklahoma is Okay.” I knew that they were talking about our Liscence Tags, which, at that time, had the slogan ‘Oklahoma is OK’ – I also knew that, by the tone of their voices that they were belittling our state. Obviously they had never heard that slogan when proclaimed by an orchestrated and choreographed groups of cowboys and cowgirls on near a train depot in the middle of a wide and dangerous terrain. I smiled at the sacrcastic comment all the while telling myself, “They are from Arkansas, what are you going to do?”

And God looked at the whole of his creative work he said, “This is good.”

[Slide – Leave Screen Share until note to end]

This word, ‘towb’, translated in Genesis 1 as ‘Good’, is translated elsewhere as:

[Slide] Pleasant – as in ‘God, the grand architect and the builder of creation says to the others, “Every detail of what I we have created pleases me.”
[Slide] Agreeable – as in, ‘God, the grand architect and the builder of creation looks at the blueprints and engineering specs of creation and says, “Every detail of what we have built agrees completely with the specific details, demands, and looks of the approved blueprints.”
[Slide] Good – as in, ‘God, the grand architect and the builder of creation looks at the blueprints and engineering specs of creation and says, “This is exactly what I envisioned creation to be.”
[Slide] Finished – as in Jesus hanging on the cross and saying, “Into your hands I commit my Spirit because I have completed the plans, I have done what was required of my life, there is no more for me to do in regard to this part of my Journey.”

[Slide] “This Looks right, this Feels right, this Is right, this is Complete, it is Finished – let’s rest.”

[End Screen Share]

It is vital that we, as believers, understand the work of creation. Not to prove it as a science book or to persuade our version, for that causes us to miss the mystery. Not as a fairy tale, because that causes us to miss the majesty. But, to recognize all of creation was, and is, good. Every aspect, every creature, every provision, every surprise – it is all to point us to the creator. It is the stories told to allow us to see God’s compassion and mercy played out from the beginning of our story.

Now, lest we consider ‘good’ to be a naive fairy tale, let’s look as reality collides with this ‘good story’.

[Slide] ‘The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

[Slide] Then the Lord God said, “it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

[Slide] The man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every animal of the field, but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept;’ – and as the man slept, God created a partner for the man. (Genesis 2:15-21)

[End Screen Share]

So, God gave creation to the man, Adam, was given the guidelines to take care of the earth, to take and use God’s provisions, and to always allow God to provide wisdom and insight (‘do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil – do not look for and find what is counter to holy).

Man begins on a good path, he names the animals – a monumental task. Then God gives man a partner, and then, we see man disobey God. The first act we see of man is obedience – he takes care of creation. The second act of the man is to disobey God.

God, then confronts the serpent, Adam, and Eve. To the serpent there is a pronouncement of enmity and strive. To the woman there is the pronouncement of the pain of bearing and caring for children in a world of disobedience and the effects of disobedience. And, to the man, God says,

[Slide]

“cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

(Genesis 3:17-19)

[End Screen Share]

Cursed. This is not an action of God toward the ‘good’ creation he has just made. This is not a fairly tale antagonist. This is a pronouncement of fact of what the impact will be on the earth because man is no longer listening and following God’s instruction on how to care for creation. This is what happens when we do not do what the creator says about caring for creation.

However, none of this annuls God’s pronouncement that the creation is ‘Good”. In fact it is just the opposite, paves the way for us to see God’s character. Even though man himself has cursed the earth, God continues to provide good to good. God has given the seed, now God will continue to to leave the sun in the sky, the water above and below. In a way, even the eventual great flood is a continual display of God’s provision and water is allowed to come down on the earth.

[Slide] What does Creation, and ‘It is Good’, teach us?

[Slide] God sees us as good even though we bear the brokenness of our struggles and pain – Jesus came to heal us.
[Slide] God sees us as good even though we are battered and bruised as a result of living in a tarnished world – Jesus came to give us hope.
[Slide] God sees all of creation as good even though it has been neglected and abused – Jesus came to call us back to our opportunities to till the soil and to respect the gift.
[Slide] God sees all of creation as good even though it has been scarred and dismissed by our egos and entitlement – Jesus calls us to pray “God, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
[Slides] God calls us to see that all of creation is good, everything from day one through day six.

[End Screen Share]

God still sees creation, including us, as good – which is why “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life beginning now.”

Order, Words, & Voices 05.28.23

Order, Words, & Voices

05.28.23, Acts 2:1-24

Order

Pre Worship Music

Opening Song Billy/Linda

Thank You Lord

Jesus Lover of My Soul

Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick

Reading Acts 2:1-24 OnLine – Peyton

Songs Billy

How Great Thou Art/Your Love is Deep

Message The Voice Rick

Music Billy

How Great Thou Art

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

Thank You Lord

Verse

For all that You’ve done

I will thank You

For all that You’re going to do

For all that You’ve promised

And all that You are

Is all that has carried me through

Jesus I thank You

Pre-Chorus

And I thank You thank You Lord

(And I thank You thank You Lord)

Thank You thank You Lord

(Thank You thank You)

Chorus

Thank You for loving

and setting me free

Thank You for giving

Your life just for me

How I thank You Jesus I thank You

Gratefully thank You thank You

Jesus Lover Of My Soul

Verse

Jesus lover of my soul

Jesus I will never let You go

You’ve taken me from the miry clay

You’ve set my feet upon the rock

And now I know

Chorus

I love You I need You

Though my world may fall

I’ll never let You go

My Savior my closest Friend

I will worship You until the very end

Call to Worship (Slides) – Rick

Leader: From the opening movement of creation, God’s Holy Spirit moved on the waters, bringing to life the creative love that is God.
Response: As the people forgot God, the Spirit called them back.

Leader: In times of fear and tumult, the Spirit sang the song of hope through the prophets, calling the people back to God with melodies of redemption and forgiveness.
Response: The Spirit sang the song of hope at the birth of Jesus.

Leader: The Spirit called to the regular people, starting with some fishermen, a call to come and follow God. These witnessed God’s miracles of merciful compassion.
Response: Hanging on the cross, Jesus forgave those who crucified Him.

Leader: Early in the morning, the women were startled by the news of Jesus’ resurrection. They were called to be the first preachers of the hope of the resurrection.
Response: While hiding in fear, the disciples were astounded by Jesus’ presence.

Leader: The Spirit gave hearing, understanding, and even a voice to those witnesses of the empty tomb.

Response: The Spirit opened their hearts to the hope in emptiness.

Leader: May we listen for the voice that crosses lines of division, speaks hope in the midst of hopelessness, unites in midst of division – may we know the voice that speaks Peace.

Response: May our voices communicate love, may our lives speak joy, may our walk reveal mercy and justice.

Leader: Amen.

Response: Amen

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.

Reading (No Slides) Peyton – Online

When Pentecost Day arrived, the disciples were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house. Individual flames of fire landed on each one of the disciples. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

On that day, there were pious Jews from every nation in Jerusalem. The crowds were mystified when they all heard the disciples speaking in their native languages. They were surprised and amazed, saying, “Aren’t these who are speaking all Galileans? Yet, we all hear them declaring the mighty works of God in our own languages!”

Peter and the other eleven apostles stood before the crowd of foreign speakers. He raised his voice and declared, “Judeans and everyone currently in Jerusalem! This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:”

“God says, ‘In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young will see visions. Your elders will dream dreams. Even upon my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit and they will prophesy. I will cause wonders to occur in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and a cloud of smoke. The sun will be changed into darkness, and the moon will be changed into blood, before the great and spectacular day of the Lord comes. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

“Fellow Israelites, listen to these words! Jesus the Nazarene was a man whose credentials God proved to you through miracles, wonders, and signs – which were all performed through Jesus while he was among you. You yourselves know this. In accordance with God’s established plan and foreknowledge, Jesus was betrayed. You, with the help of wicked men, had Jesus killed by nailing him to a cross. God raised him up! God freed him from death’s final grip, since it was impossible for death to hang on to him.

Acts 2:1-24 (CEB)

Music (Slides) Billy/Linda

How Great Thou Art/Your Love Is Deep

Verse 1

O Lord my God

When I in awesome wonder

Consider all the worlds

Thy hands have made

I see the stars

I hear the rolling thunder

Thy pow’r thru’out

The universe displayed

Chorus

Then sings my soul

My Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art

Then sings my soul

My Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art

Verse 3

And when I think

That God His Son not sparing

Sent Him to die

I scarce can take it in

That on the cross

My burden gladly bearing

He bled and died

To take away my sin

Verse

Your love is deep Your love is high

Your love is long Your love is wide

Your love is deep Your love is high

Your love is long Your love is wide

Chorus

Your love is deeper

than my view of grace

Higher than this worldly place

Longer than this road I travel

Wider than the gap You filled

Deeper than my view of grace

Higher than this worldly place

Longer than this road I travel

Wider than the gap You filled

Bridge

So who shall separate us

Who shall separate us from Your love

Nothing can separate us

Nothing can separate us from Your love

Chorus

Then sings my soul

My Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art

Then sings my soul

My Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art

Message – The Voice (Slides)

Growing up, I can remember that there was always a blue vase sitting on my grandmother’s table, and most of the year, that vase was filled with stems of wheat. Eventually, as the wheat became brittle, the stems would disappear until the next harvest when new fresh stems would fill the vase. I never really gave it much thought, and, as I got older, I remember looking at a top shelf in a closet and finding many of these crisp and fragile wheat stems. I thought of that wheat as I was preparing for today, Pentecost Sunday, I was reminded of those wheat stems and my grandmother’s tradition of cutting a small bundle to sit on her table as a reminder of another successful harvest.

[Slide – Screen Share – leave up until note to close]

Three times a year, the Israelites, would also recognize and remember God’s provision at their Harvest Festivals. Even though we non-Jews know little of these holidays, they were, nonetheless among the most important Holy moments. one following the fall harvest called Pesach (pay-saak), the second following the winter harvest called Shavuot (shuh-voo-owt), and the third, following the summer harvest called Sukkot (soo-koat). First born males, fifty days after the planting of their fields, would travel to Jerusalem, bringing the first fruits of their harvest to the temple as offerings of recognition of God’s provision of the seeds, sun, and water – elements that only God could providee.

[Slide] This second harvest festival, Shavuot, after the destruction of the second temple, would carry the added emphasis of remembering God’s provision of the Guiding Law to the Israelites. This holiday, Shavuot, the holy moment of remembrance of God’s provision of sustaining harvest and the guiding Law, is the setting for us today.

[Slide] Shavuot in the greek language is the familiar word Pentecost. Today, 50 days after our recognition of Jesus’ resurrection we recognize God’s provision of the Spirit.

[Slide] Today, 50 days after our own holiday remembering God’s provision of the resurrected Jesus (Easter), we remember the day the Jewish followers of Jesus were given the Spirit. The day the waiting disciples of Jesus were pushed out of their hiding places and into the streets where Jewish foreigners from over fifteen countries, speaking over fifteen different languages, were walking the streets of Jerusalem remembering God for holy provision. This was a group that probably, due to language and geographical differences, had not heard of Jesus.

[End Screen Share]

I have to wonder what went on in the minds of the disciples who, at Jesus instruction, were confined to a room while they waited for the arrival of the Spirit. They had seen the resurrected Jesus. While almost everyone else assumed Jesus was still dead, these waiting and silenced disciples knew Jesus was alive, they had walked, talked, and continued to learn from Jesus. Yet, here they sat, stuck together, having to learn how to live out what they exclusively knew – while being confined to these others who had the same experience and insight. It must have been comparable to being forced to be silent, not telling the outcome of an athletic event, or the end of a Netfix show, because someone had not seen it yet, because others were not yet ready to hear it. Maybe this was their time to live out Mercy, Compassion, Justice, Selflessness, Hope, and Peace.

All the wild, just outside the door where these men hid, thousands walked the street who did not know what the disciples knew, thousands who needed to hear the stories of the followers of Jesus. But, Jesus had told them to wait.

So, what were they to do cooped up in this room together. No telling of stories because everyone else in the room had their own version of those same stories. They were aching to tell others, but, instead they had to wait.

I wonder if this excruciating wait was orchestrated by God. Jesus, earlier, had breathed the Spirit on these men, maybe that was to enable them to wait. Maybe, this time of waiting was their time of doing. To play out the life of Jesus in the midst of these possibly annoying associates. Maybe it was their time of immersion into reality so they were ready to speak with the perspective of God, with the eyes and heart of God, so that they could speak to these unknown others.

The disciples could not speak until they were given the voice to tell their story. A voice that would be uniquely given for the audience of each disciple. Words, cultural understanding, Empathy, and Love.

Mike Glenn, pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood, TN, shares a holy moment he experienced after he lost his voice and was ordered by his doctor to remain completely silent for six weeks, not even humming was aloud.

[Slide – Screen Share – leave up until note to close]

Glenn writes, I was scared out of my mind. What was I going to do if I couldn’t speak? What good is a preacher who can’t talk? The doctor said something I thought was curious. He said, ‘Speaking is a secondary function.’ That means that talking isn’t necessary to live. We have to breathe. Our hearts have to beat, but we don’t have to speak. That means if speaking gets in the way of living, your body will simply stop speaking. As you can imagine, I didn’t sleep well during that time. I got up at night a lot. I walked around the house and wondered how I would take care of my family. What would I do if I couldn’t speak? One night when I couldn’t sleep, I walked into my study and began to write in my journal. [Slide] The first sentence I wrote was, ‘What will I do for God if I can’t preach?’ [Slide] The next sentence I wrote was the answer. ‘Then, you’ll find another way to praise Me. God is still God.’‘ That doesn’t change with my circumstances or whatever situation I may be in. God is still God. Jesus is still our hope.

[End Screen Share]

The disciple asked themselves, how do we do the work of the apostles when we cannot speak?

So, on this particular day of Shavuot, or Pentecost, thousands of foreigners who did not speak the language of the Hebrews were in the streets of Jerusalem. They were all making their pilgrimage, which they did three times a year, to remember that God, once again, had provided the provision of the Harvest, and the guiding Law.

Then something unusual happened. A strong wind and a loud burst got the attention of those in the streets. But it was not just a wind in the streets, it was also a wind in the room where the disciples were hiding. Jesus had told them to wait now the Spirit pushed them out onto the street.

Flames of fire, the Spirit, landed on the head of each of the disciples who were now on the streets, the streets, immersed in the crowd of foreign pilgrims. The disciples began to speak, but this was a different voice. It was a voice aimed at each pilgrim that shared the cobblestone streets with the disciples. The voice the Spirit came was not a prerecorded message from God, it was truly the experience of the disciples who had witnessed the life, teachings, and death of Jesus – it was the voice from each of the disciples genuinely sharing their own experience of life as seen in the life and resurrection of Jesus. It was not a just the ability to translate but it was the ability to speak in an understandable way, to the hopes and cultures of the foreign listeners.

Then, Peter, spoke to the entire crowd. He did not speak about guilt, he did not really speak about death, he didn’t even really speak about heaven, he spoke about life. He spoke of the life of Jesus, he spoke of the resurrection, he spoke of the impact of Jesus on his life.

As the door swung open to my daughter’s preK classroom on the last day of school before Christmas break, Hannah was the first of the children that ran down the ramp to us, the parents. Hannah grabbed hold of me and began excitedly telling me about a visit of santa to their classroom that day. I was half listening while trying to finish an ongoing conversation with another parent. Hannah was undeterred by my conversation and began to speak louder and with a greater urgency. I was equally undeterred and continued my conversation, until the teacher’s assistant also became undeterred saying, “Rick, Dad, you need to listen to your daughter.” The aid spoke not just words I should have heard, but with an understanding of me and my distraction, I listened. Hannah, who now had my complete attention, began to enlighten me that Santa was tired of milk and cookies and would prefer to have a slice of pizza, he didn’t care which kind because he loves all pizza, and a glass of water, because mild does not go well with pizza and Mrs. Clause would not let him drink sugar cookies because his weight and cholesterol was too high. So, every day until Christmas Eve, our daughter spoke from a personal experience, that we had to have at least one piece of pizza left over for Santa to eat. Later she would learn that it was actually her dad who liked pizza and that, he too, needed to pay attention to his weight and cholesterol.

This was the experience of the disciples, they had a story they were aching to tell, but up until this day, their voices did not have the ability to be heard or understood. It was an urgent story of life, a story of hope, a story that would change their perspective, a story that would let them see through God’s eyes rather than their own self centered eyes.

This was not a voice of a preacher, it is the voices of those who have a story to tell, their own story to tell. A story told through how we live our lives, a story that tells of life, a story that explains our striving for peace through our reality of chaos, a story that explains why we hang on when all we want to do is give up. Our story reveals our imperfections and trials while at the same time sharing our hope and perseverance.

In Peter’s second moment of speaking he emphasizes that this same Spirit is ready to reside in the hearts of those who choose to follow Jesus, to let Jesus be their shepherd and Lord. Those who heard the voices given to the disciples, would eventually return to their homelands where they, too, would received their own understandable voice that would affirm the message of their lives.

In the book of Acts, we see the arrival of the Spirit, and then the Spirit taking up residence in the lives of those who choose to follow, have an immediate impact. There is an unquenchable hunger for truth, there is an undeniable unity, and, for those who continue to allow the Spirit to be their guide, there will be unhindered sacrificial lives lived.

[Slide – Screen Share until end of verse]

‘So now there isn’t any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

[Slide] God has done what was impossible for the Law, since it was weak because of selfishness.

[Slide] God condemned sin in the body by sending his own Son to deal with sin in the same body as humans, who are controlled by sin.

[Slide] He did this so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us. Now the way we live is based on the Spirit, not based on selfishness.

[Slide] People whose lives are based on selfishness think about selfish things, but people whose lives are based on the Spirit think about things that are related to the Spirit.

[Slide] The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death, but the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace. But you aren’t self-centered. Instead you are in the Spirit, if in fact God’s Spirit lives in you.

[Slide] If anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to him. If Christ is in you, the Spirit is your life because of God’s righteousness… (Romans 8:1- 6, 9–10a CEV)

[End Screen Share]

Music (Slides) Billy/Linda

Verse 1

O Lord my God

When I in awesome wonder

Consider all the worlds

Thy hands have made

I see the stars

I hear the rolling thunder

Thy pow’r thru’out

The universe displayed

Chorus

Then sings my soul

My Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art

Then sings my soul

My Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art

Community (Slides) Rick

Summer Series – ‘Good’ (Return to Narrative Lectionary looking at the OT September 11 through until Advent)
Next Sunday, June 4, Rick, ‘Everything is Good’, Genesis 1:31
Summer Bible Study – James, Let Rick know if June or July, and day of week, that best fits your summer calendar, Lunch time or Evenings for four weeks
Armageddon last chance (only 1 response) – possibly one session discussion?

Benediction (Slides) Rick

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

Order, Words, & Voices

05.07.23, Mutually Encouraged, Romans 1:1-17

Order

Pre Worship Music

Opening Song Billy/Linda

Father of Love

Faithful One

Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick

Reading Romans 1:1-17 Cricklins

Songs Billy/Linda

Be the Center

Jesus Lover of my soul

Message Mutually Encouraged Rick

Music Jesus, Lover of My Soul Billy/Linda

Community/Peace Rick

Benediction Rick

Post Worship Music

Slides Note: There is a blank title slide between each Section – except for message/sermon slides.

Music (slides)

Jesus Lover Of My Soul

Verse

Jesus lover of my soul

Jesus I will never let You go

You’ve taken me from the miry clay

You’ve set my feet upon the rock

And now I know

Chorus

I love You I need You

Though my world may fall

I’ll never let You go

My Savior my closest Friend

I will worship You until the very end

Faithful One

Verse

Faithful One so unchanging

Ageless One You’re my Rock of peace

Lord of all I depend on You

I call out to You again and again

Chorus

You are my Rock in times of trouble

You lift me up when I fall down

All through the storm

Your love is the anchor

My hope is in You alone

Ending

My hope is in You

Our hope is in You alone

Call to Worship (Slides)

Leader: The gospel is about God

Response: The gospel is about what God did in sending the Son

Leader: The gospel is proven in the resurrection of the crucified Son

Response: What God did in enthroning Jesus at His right hand

Leader: The gospel is mirrored in the human sphere

Response: May what is in heaven be also on earth

Leader: The gospel is the story of God’s faithfulness

Response: God was faithful to the faithful Christ

Leader: The gospel is the call to us to be faithful to the resurrected Messiah

Response: God was first faithful to us

Leader: May we be a reflection of God’s faithfulness

Response: May we be a reflection of Jesus’ faithfulness

Lord’s Prayer (Slides) ‘Join me in the prayer of Jesus’

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, On Earth as it is in Heaven.

Reading (Slides)

A letter from Paul to the believers in Rome – ‘I am a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for God’s good news. God promised this good news about his Son ahead of time through his prophets in the holy scriptures.

Jesus was a descendant from David. He was publicly identified as God’s Son with power through his resurrection. God’s Son is Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus’ descent from David roots him in history; his unique identity as Son of God was shown by the Spirit when Jesus was raised from the dead, which identified him as the Messiah.

Through him we received both the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it on to you, the gentiles, who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ!

First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you,everywhere I go people keep telling me about your lives of faith, and every time I hear them, I thank God.

And every time I think of you in my prayers, which is practically all the time, I ask God to clear the way for me to come and see you.

Please don’t misinterpret my failure to visit you, you have no idea how many times I’ve made plans for Rome but something always prevents my trip.

I am determined to get some personal enjoyment out of God’s work among you. I want to be with you so we can mutually encourage each other. We can be encouraged by the faithfulness we find in each other, both your faithfulness and mine.

That’s why I’m ready to preach the gospel to everyone. I’m not ashamed of the gospel: it is God’s own power for salvation to all who have faith in God, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

God’s righteousness is being revealed in the gospel, from faithfulness for faith, as it is written, The righteous person will live by faith.

Romans 1:1-17 (CEB & The Message)

Music (Slides)

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

Jesus Lover Of My Soul

Verse

Jesus lover of my soul

Jesus I will never let You go

You’ve taken me from the miry clay

You’ve set my feet upon the rock

And now I know

Chorus

I love You I need You

Though my world may fall

I’ll never let You go

My Savior my closest Friend

I will worship You until the very end

Message – Seeing Good (Slides)

About 2-3 years after the resurrection of Jesus, the Pharisee named Saul, met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. Saul was headed to Damascus as a passionate official of the Jewish institution on a mission to stop the rise of Jesus’ believers. As Saul met Jesus, Jesus redirected Saul’s passion and purpose from defeating a movement to being a leader of that very Jesus’ movement.

After this conversion, Saul became better known by his Roman name, Paul. Soon, he was a preacher of the resurrection, and of the life he himself had found in Jesus. For a decade Paul traveled to Jewish communities teaching of the resurrection, leading people to the hope and peace of Jesus Christ. In most of the places, as a group of Jesus followers coalesced, Paul would stay long enough to teach them the basics and prepping leadership for what would soon be known as churches. Then, Paul would leave to the next community, often writing letters to those followers in the places he had left – letters encouraging them and sometimes confronting them based on the news that had come to him.

As we saw last week, after that first decade, Paul and Barnabas were ‘set aside’ to begin preaching to the gentiles, mostly in gentile cities. This was quite a shift for this former passionate anti-Jesus Jewish official.

As Paul began his third decade he began hearing of a group of followers in the city of Rome. A group of Jesus believers that included Jewish believers and Gentile believers. Paul desperately wanted to go to Rome and meet this church for the first time. Especially after hearing about their growing gentile membership – Paul wanted to meet this church and these believers.

While Paul had heard of the successes of the church in Rome, he also had heard of their troubles. Years before, the Jews had been kicked out of Rome, this included the Jewish Jesus followers. During their five years in exile the church in Rome had continued to grow but now primarily with gentile believers and leaders. So, when the Jewish members were allowed back in Rome, the Roman church had lost its Jewishness and the practices the Jews expected. Naturally, there were tensions – the gentile believers had become the church leadership as well as the majority of membership.

It is important to also know that, while Paul had not met them, they too, had not met Paul. The church at Rome did not really know Paul or about Paul. This is Paul’s purpose in the first 17 verses of Romans as he seeks to introduce himself to these people. It is also key for us to understand the basics of Paul’s heart in approaching them.

The church at Rome was a surprising success yet also now a fragile mess, Paul wanted to be a part of strengthening these followers while at the same time growing from time spent with them.

As Paul begins with an introduction of himself, and then proceeding to the shared belief he has with the believers in Rome, he is faced with a quandary. First, which Saul/Paul do these people know? Did they know the fervent and passionate Jewish official set on protecting the sanctity and holiness of the Jewish institution no matter the cost – including the persecution of the Jews believers. Or, did they know of the Saul/Paul, still fervent and passionate protector of the sanctity and holiness of the God whose promise had now reached beyond the Jews to now include the gentiles?

(Slide – screen share through ‘end screen share’ note)Then, Paul closes out this opening introductory section of his letter with his famous line, “I am not ashamed of the gospel.” This is probably an intentional address to the different perspectives the believers had of Paul. Is he speaking to the changes in his own perspective where he was first trying to stop the Jesus’ movement but now he is advancing the Jesus’ narrative? Was he addressing his own Romaness, Hebrewness, and now his own Jesusness? Whatever their perspective of Paul was, he just wanted to get to Rome.

(Slide) ‘One of the first things we discover in Romans 1 is that the gospel Paul proclaims is part of a larger story. It is an act of God that God had previously promised in scripture. Before the gospel is about our faith toward God, it is about God first keeping faith with us.

(Slide) The inclusion of the Gentiles is a crucial component of Paul’s message. Human obedience to God must be as broad as Jesus’ lordship is to the world.

(Slide) It is not enough for God to save Israel, as fulfillment of God’s promise in scripture; instead, both Gentiles and Jews must live into the new reality that has begun with Jesus’ resurrection-enthronement.’ (J.R. Daniel Kirk)

(Slide) Paul says, ‘I’m always asking that somehow, by God’s will, I might succeed in visiting you at last. I really want to see you, to pass along some spiritual gift to you, so that you can be strengthened. What I mean is that WE can mutually encourage each other while I am with you. We can be encouraged by the faithfulness we find in each other, both your faithfulness and mine.’

(Romans 1:11-12)

(Slide) Listen again as Paul’s emotions almost fumble through his attempt to convey how much and why he wants to be with the believers in Rome, ‘Here is what I mean to say…I want to be with you so that we, you and I, can be mutually encouraged by each other. We can all be encouraged by the faithfulness we find in each other, me through your faithfulness and you through my faithfulness.’

(End Screen Share)

Although Paul places such an emphasis on his desire to be with them, he then writes them the letter we call the book of Romans. Romans is Paul’s presentation of the Good News, the gospel – written as evidence of the shared common ground of Paul with the church at Rome. It is also a reminder to this church experiencing division of their common ground, the core sameness, that these gentiles and Jews share with each other.

What is the Good News, the Gospel? Traditionally in the life of protestant evangelicals, the idea of sharing, spreading, the gospel has meant converting people to institutional Christianity centered on the concept of heaven – ‘Will you go to heaven when you die?’ The dynamic result of that has been a form of discipleship based on control, controlling behaviors of those converts while here on earth, oddly, through a focus on the OT law, primarily those areas of behaviors, morals, focus on the current things considered most evil. Then this control is the underlying foundation of all the human discipling efforts that take place.

This would not have been the definition of The Gospel expressed by Paul, nor would it have been the core of the life and teachings of Jesus.

The first question would not have been about death, but about life – primarily about life lived now as well as eternally.

For Paul, Good news is…

(Slide) Revelation of God’s Righteousness in Jesus/Proven in the Resurrection – through life. Testified in our lives.
(Slide) Creation of New Humanity out of Diversity – discipleship for all
(Slide) Fulfillment of God’s Promise to Israel (Paul’s personal pain)
(Slide) Unified Jesus believing Church

But, none of this is our primary emphasis for these first 17 verses in Paul’s letter to the church at Rome. The message of this introductory section is a message of connection. It was not so that he could build his ‘convert’ statistics – Paul wanted this true human connection. He had heard about their faith and wanted to experience their faith. Paul had heard of their increasing numbers of gentile believers and he wanted to learn from the testimonies the believers had established in their community. A testimony 95% accomplished through their lives and not with their voices. He wanted the Roman Jesus believer experience.

Paul understood that he was not an island. If you read his travel journals you will quickly notice that he is almost always accompanied by another apostle or church leader. Paul is a lifelong learner. Just because he has been commissioned by the Church, he is still in pursuit of more knowledge and in the journeys of other believers. He doesn’t go into a town to fix them but to know them, to learn from them, to help and assist them. He goes, as he defines in his introduction to the Romans, he goes to be encouraged by them and to be an encouragement to them – Mutually Encouraged.

Our human nature conditions us to aspire for an ultimate moment of no longer needing to learn, to a state of being – when we know it all and we only need others in order to teach and correct them while bossing them around. This is largely how religious institutions operate, ‘We Know, Stick With Us and Learn Everything From Us’ philosophy. We have seen this as churches get a new pastor or leader, the one who knows exactly how to fix everything. Policies and practices are altered and people are dismissed. Businesses and politicians do the same thing – I would say that they have learned from the church. Never listening to the people that are already there, or those who have done the work before, just coming in, building a bubble, and doing everything their way.

If there is anything to learn about Paul, anything that is a epiphany to those who have studied any of Paul’s writing, anything new in Paul’s opening is that we all need others.

(Slide – leave up until ‘exit screen share note’) Percival Lowell was an astronomer and mathematician in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. It was his work that theorized the existence of a ninth planet Pluto discovered after his passing. Lowell spent most of his career focused on Mars though. He moved to Flagstaff Arizona and built one of the premier observatories where he spent the next 25 years mapping the surface of Mars. Even with the best telescope, it was not an easy task so he developed techniques and a special lens that let him narrow the aperture of the telescope far more narrowly than previously possible allowing him to see the surface of Mars. His maps were accepted by some and not accepted by others, his analysis that martians did exist was the basis for many scifi books and movies including the classic ‘War of the Worlds’. When the Mariner orbiter was able to get close enough to Mars in 1964 it proved Lowell’s mapping and theories to be false. Researchers, later while trying to figure out why Lowell was so mistaken, discovered that when you narrow your lens as much as he did, to such an extreme, then the image actually reverses, meaning that Lowell spent 25 years mapping the inside surface of his own eyeball.

When our perspective is too narrow, our religion is too narrow, our worldview is too narrow, our experiences are too limited, then we don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. We map our own self onto the world. We think we’re looking at Mars, but we’re really mapping our own eyeballs unknowingly. We think we’re looking at society, but society is really just reflecting back to us what is already within us.

(Exit Screen Share)

The Gospel is about opening us up wider, to see more of the world as it is and not as we wish it were, and not as we already are. The Gospel teaches us how to live in reality, and it reminds us that our perspective with which we see is good but limited, and because it is so limited, there is reason to exercise grace and mercy gratuitously in life both with ourselves and others.

Music (Slides)

Jesus Lover Of My Soul

Verse

Jesus lover of my soul

Jesus I will never let You go

You’ve taken me from the miry clay

You’ve set my feet upon the rock

And now I know

Chorus

I love You I need You

Though my world may fall

I’ll never let You go

My Savior my closest Friend

I will worship You until the very end

Community (Slides)

Next Sunday, May 14, Guest Speaker – Kyle Tubbs, Matthew 9:27-31
Book Study Interest, Armageddon, Speak, email, or text Rick if interested.

Benediction (Blank Slide)

May we walk securely in the confidence of the defeat of death on the cross. May we release our burdens at the wonder of the empty grave. May we continue forward in our hope proven through the resurrection. May we meet our world understanding the blessedness and struggle of humanity. May we live in our reality with the challenge to be salt and light. May we show Jesus through our lives. May we see others with God’s eyes. May we glorify God in our lives.

Closing Peace

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 04.30.23

Order, Words, & Voices

04.30.23, Seeing Good, Acts 13:1-3; 14:8-18

Order

Pre Worship Music

Opening Song Lynn

Better Is One Day

Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick

Reading 2 Acts 13:1-3; 14:8-18 ?

Songs You’re the One Lynn

Gratitude

Message Seeing Good Rick

Music Rising (Hosanna) Lynn

Community/Peace Rick

Benediction Rick

Post Worship Music

Slides Note: There is a blank title slide between each Section – except for message/sermon slides.

Music (slides)

How lovely is Your dwelling place
O Lord almighty
For my soul longs and even faints for You
For here my heart is satisfied
Within Your presence
I sing beneath the shadow of Your wings

Chorus

Better is one day in Your courts
Better is one day in Your house
Better is one day in Your courts
Than thousands elsewhere
(Than thousands elsewhere)

Verse 2

One thing I ask and I would seek
To see Your beauty
To find You in the place
Your glory dwells
(REPEAT)

Bridge

My heart and flesh cry out
For You the living God
Your Spirit’s water to my soul
I’ve tasted and I’ve seen
Come once again to me
I will draw near to You
I will draw near to You to You

Bridge

Better is one day better is one day
Better is one day than thousands elsewhere
Better is one day better is one day
Better is one day than thousands elsewhere

Call to Worship (Slides)

Leader: It was in Jerusalem that the Holy Spirit spilled out from the disciples’ hiding place.

Response: It was on the streets that the resurrection was proclaimed.

Leader: It was on a roof that a hungry apostle learned that nothing, and no person, created by God is profane.

Response: It was in the home of Cornelius that the Spirit spilled out on the gentiles.

Leader: It was in the city of Lystra that a man lame from birth received the hopeful news of the resurrection.

Response: It was in the city square that a lame man arose and danced in the streets.

Leader: It was in there that a crowd was amazed by a miracle yet refused to hear the truth that was the foundation of the moment.

Response: It was there that few heard the good news of life.

Leader: May we be ready to see and to hear truth.

Response: May we be ready to believe.

Leader: May we have open ears, open eyes, open minds, open hearts, all ready to hear, see, and receive truth.

Response: May we be ready to recognize the truth given to us.

Lord’s Prayer (Slides) ‘Join me in the prayer of Jesus’

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, On Earth as it is in Heaven.

Reading (Slide)

In Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet and had never walked, for he had been lame from birth. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. And Paul, looking at him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And the man sprang up and began to walk.

When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifice.

When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, “People, why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

In past generations he allowed all peoples to follow their own ways, yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good, giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.” Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

Acts 14:8-18

Music (Slides)

Lord the people praise You
(Lord the people praise You)
Lift You up and raise You
(Lift You up and raise You)

Chorus

You are the Holy One
(You’re the Holy One)
You’re the One You’re the only One
(You’re the only One)

Bridge

Halle halle hallelu
(Halle halle hallelu)
All the glory is due You
(All the glory is due You)

Verse 2

Lord the people love You
(Lord the people love You)
Place nobody above You
(Place nobody above You)

Verse 3

Bless Your name Lord Jesus
(Bless Your name Lord Jesus)
Only name that frees us
(Only name that frees us)

Verse 4

We will praise You right here and now
(We will praise You right here and now)
Lest the hills and the rocks cry out
(Lest the hills and the rocks cry out)

All my words fall short
I got nothing new
How could I express
All my gratitude

Verse 2

I could sing these songs
As I often do
But every song must end
And You never do

Chorus

So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
‘Cause all that I have is a hallelujah hallelujah
And I know it’s not much
But I’ve nothing else fit for a king
Except for a heart singing hallelujah
Hallelujah

Verse 3

I’ve got one response
I’ve got just one move
With my arms stretched wide
I will worship You

Bridge

Come on my soul
Oh don’t you get shy on me
Lift up your song
‘Cause you’ve got a lion inside of those lungs
Get up and praise the Lord

Message – Seeing Good (Slides)

When I was a youth minister I found that there were certain Bible stories which immediately held the attention of my younger teen guys. One of those stories is the story of the death of Isrealite King Herod – killed, not by a warrior but by an angel of the Lord who struck him down after which he was subsequently eaten by worms dying a slow death. The telling of Herod’s death begins as the people of Tyre and Sidon recognized that King Herod was upset with them, which was concerning because Herod held the keys to much of their food supply. So, they came before Herod, treated him like a god, and in accepting their praise, Herod refused to give the real God the glory leading to his disgusting death.

So,when the apostle Paul healed a lame man and the people proclaimed them as gods, both apostles quickly attempted to quickly squash this misunderstanding. The apostles understood the enormity of being a false god. Even the priest of Zeus brought oxen and garlands to the gates to offer sacrifice before Paul and Barnabas.

(Slide – leave up until ‘Exit Screen Share’)

The quick reaction of the apostle’s response to the crowds rush to crown these 2 men is found in Paul’s articulate words

“In past generations, ‘Paul said, “God allowed all peoples to follow their own ways, yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good, giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.”

Paul told the people that up to the recent revelation of Jesus, God had blessed all people and peoples in a way which they could visualize. They could see the good of the rains and the sun that grew and nourished their crops. They could expect the different seasons of the year in which they would see the need to plant. The season during which they could see that they need to care for the sprouting plants. They could see the season of death when the fields needed to be tilled allowing them to once again enter the season in which they would plant. Each of these seasons, as well as the miracles of water, soil, seeds, and sun all reminded them of a God that cared.

However, even in seeing these consistent acts of goodness, those who were not Jews, only knew OF the true God. Only the Jews, up to the point of Jesus, had accepted and received the knowledge and explanation of the Law, the proclamation of the one true God. So, during those years of intellectual ignorance about God, God allowed the gentiles to respond to God/or gods in whatever way they developed – they created gods, heroes, images, practices and sacrifices.

Their lack of knowing the true God had not been unexpected in the past. The gentiles had rejected the gift of God’s law, they did not, and would not, and probably could not, hear from the prophets, and they did not know of the leading of the spirit, so correcting the gentiles prior to Jesus was, basically, a waste of time. But, now, it was different. Whereas before they were on their own, living a life apart from God, only to know of a very vague something or someone who provided the blessings of life. Now, after the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, after the resurrection and the empty tomb, after the proven aliveness of Jesus up to the ascension, after Cornelius and the gentile pentecost, after Paul and barnabas were sent to the gentiles, the gentiles stood in the shadow of the opportunity to live a life of hope, peace, and promise here on earth and for eternity. However, now, it was essential that all humanity understand the one true God – and that only through Jesus comes hope, peace, and promise.

(Exit Screen Share)

It is our human tendency to make gods out of those who are not God. We do it with politicians, with religious leaders and religious celebrities, we do it with those we respect and/or fear, and, possibly in our current times, we are most prone to make gods out of political pundits, religious doctrines, and even moral and political agendas. Just this week I heard it said that political talking heads, as well as our political agendas, have become the new disciplers who humanity has given god-like power and authority.

Ironically, in making these individuals, doctrines, and agendas into gods, we have lost our ability to see the true God as he blesses, moves, and acts all around us. I’m concerned humanity is losing the basic ability to see the true God in God’s most base provisions of water, sun, seeds and soil.

Knowing and following the true God, as opposed to human institutions, and mankind’s presentations of god/God, is the difference between a life of hope, peace, and love now as well as eternally – or a life much like that of the descendants of Noah who expected the mighty tower of Babel to provide them with life fulfilled.

Let’s refocus on this story of the events in Lystra. This is not really a story about the crowd. The crowd that was so amazed when Paul healed the lame man. This crowd that quickly declared Barnabas to be the greek god Zeus and Paul the greek god Hermes – which were probably the only gods they had ever heard of. This crowd that, after there were convinced not to make sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas, began listening to the enemies of Jesus, Paul, and Barnabas. This crowd, that quickly changed sides at the persuasion of those enemies and stoned Paul until they thought he was dead – this is not a story of a crowd that was not really looking to see truth.

This is a story about one man who was willing to believe and ready to trust. Not trust with wild abandonment of reason like the crowd did. This man was willing to trust truth, his eyes were looking for good which he believed would be revealed to him. This is the story of a man who was born unable to use his feet and his legs, a man who could not stand yet, even in adulthood, was still holding onto hope and looking for God.

This was a man who listened to Paul’s words. And then Paul, looking at this man intently, saw that he had faith to be healed, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And the man sprang up and began to walk.’ (Acts 14:8-10)

(Slide – Leave up until ‘Exit Screen Share) Look at the elements of this story, it begins not with Paul or Barnabas but this man who was sitting in the city square seeing life all around him. As he sat there he watched, there he listened, there he didn’t give up on hope, whatever, at the end of the day, hope would look like. And as this stranger began to talk he looked at the man intently and saw that he had faith to be healed.’ Some translations say that ‘the man had belief that he could be healed.’ In his paraphrase The Message, Eugene Petersen, chose the words, the man was ‘was ripe for God’s work, ready to believe.’

‘Ready to believe,’ what a magnificent way to describe this moment – this man went to the city square every day for decades ready to believe. This was not a silly vulnerable readiness, this man was using the assets he had, he could hope, while at the same time, using his ability to rationally think on the words of this stranger – so he watched and he listened, and he considered. He had probably done this hundreds of times prior to this day. Each day considering, and each day recognizing that other words he had heard were hollow. But on this day, what he heard and what he saw, allowed him to Give into that Readiness To Believe.

(Slide) Even in his readiness, his hope, eyes, and ears were going to be needed. Paul looked at the man and without speaking to the man about his lifelong condition, Paul, instead said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.”

Let your mind place you in this position. Paul was putting himself out there trusting enough to do this in a loud voice for all to hear. Paul, himself, was ready to believe enough to let everyone in on his words. Words that would either prove God or make a mockery of God. With these words leaving his mouth, the listening man heard. He too, surely having lived a very guarded life, determined not to look like a fool, also knowing that his feet, nor his legs, had ever supported his body to stand. Still, in this moment, he did not stand, instead he sprung to his feet and successfully stood.

(Exit Share Screen)

Now this is not a story about ‘having enough faith’ as many false prophet preachers and religious celebrity evangelists have proclaimed over the centuries since Jesus’ accession. This was a moment when a man who had an inquisitive yet critical mind was sitting on the precipice of a rare moment of truth, ready to believe, in this moment he took the risk of standing. And the Spirit took him beyond standing, he jumped up.

All that the Spirit revealed to Paul was that this man was ready to believe. It was not that he was going to be healed, but that he was ready to believe. Paul did not make a promise of healing to the man, possibly because Paul had not been told, by the Spirit, that this would be a healing. All the Spirit had told Paul was that this man was ready to believe. I’m not sure that Paul had any expectations of the outcome of his command to the man to stand – Paul only expected the man to believe because the man was ready to believe.

There are so many questions such as ‘what was it like for the man the next day when his ordinary routine of sitting in the city square begging was no longer acceptable? ‘Was he then devastated by his fellow citizens’ stoning of Paul?’ How was he now perceived among his people?’ All we get to hear was that the man was ready to believe and when the time came he acted out of that readiness.

What keeps you and us from being ready to believe?

Music (Slides)

Praise is rising
Eyes are turning to You
We turn to You
Hope is stirring
Hearts are yearning for You
We long for You

Pre-Chorus

‘Cause when we see You
We find strength to face the day
In Your presence
All our fears are washed away
(Washed away)

Chorus

Hosanna hosanna
You are the God who saves us
Worthy of all our praises
Hosanna hosanna
Come have Your way among us
We welcome You here Lord Jesus

Verse 2

Hear the sound of
Hearts returning to You
We turn to You
In Your Kingdom
Broken lives are made new
You make us new

Community (Slides)

Next Sunday, May 7, Romans 1:1-17, ‘Mutually Encouraged’
Book Study Interest, Armageddon, Speak, email, or text Rick if interested.

Benediction (Blank Slide)

Closing Peace

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 04.23.23

Order, Words, & Voices

04.23.23, Prayers and Alms, Acts 10:1-17, 34-48

Order

Pre Worship Music

Opening Song Billy/Linda

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Amazing Love

Reading 1 Pettys

Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick

Reading 2 Acts 10:1-17, 34-48 Musgroves

Songs Billy/Linda

Draw Me Close

Eagles Wings

Message Prayers and Alms Rick

Music Draw Me Close Billy/Linda

Community/Peace Rick

Benediction Rick

Post Worship Music

Slides Note: There is a blank title slide between each Section – except for message/sermon slides.

Music (slides)

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Chorus

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

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

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

Morning by morning

New mercies I see

All I have needed

Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness

Lord unto me

You Are My King (Amazing Love)

Verse

I’m forgiven

Because You were forsaken

I’m accepted

You were condemned

I’m alive and well

Your Spirit is within me

Because You died

And rose again

Chorus

Amazing love

How can it be

That You my King

Would die for me

Amazing love

I know it’s true

It’s my joy to honor You

In all I do I honor You

Ending

You are my King

Jesus You are my King

Reading I (Slide) Acts 10:1-18

In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. One

afternoon he had a vision seeing an angel of God saying to him, “Cornelius.” He stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?”

The voice answered, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa for a Simon who is called Peter.” When the angel left, Cornelius called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, and after telling them everything he sent them to Joppa.

Acts 10:1-18

Call to Worship (Slides)

Leader: Jesus has commissioned each of us to live like him, actions lived out loud.

Response: To live the life he showed us how to live.

Leader: Jesus called us out of our religiosity and legalism to live freely in the same way he lived.

Response: The Spirit stretches us to love all, to welcome all, to accept all.

Leader: God presented an array of food for the hungry apostle Peter to eat.

Response: Peter refused, he said “the food is profane.”

Leader: God said again, and again, eat the food I have set before you.

Response: Peter continued to refuse.

Leader: God said, “That which I have created is not profane.”

Response: God said, “All that I have created is blessed.”

Leader: God created and then proclaimed that all of his creation is good.

Response: How can we then say anything, or anyone, is profane?

Leader: May we see those considered profane through the eyes of God.

Response: May we love those considered profane with the heart of God.

Lord’s Prayer (Slides) ‘Join me in the prayer of Jesus’

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, On Earth as it is in Heaven.

Reading II (Slide) Acts 10:34-48

Peter began to speak to Cornelius and his family: “God shows no partiality, but in every people anyone who fears God and practices righteousness is acceptable to God. God sent his message to the people of Israel, in the preaching of peace by Jesus Christ—the Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, the message told how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that Jesus did both in Judea and in Jerusalem.

They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses – we ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” As Peter was speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.

The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the gentiles. Peter said, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” So he ordered Cornelius and his household to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Acts 10:34-48

Music (Slides)

Draw Me Close (will probably repeat)

Verse

Draw me close to You never let me go

I lay it all down again

To hear You say that I’m Your friend

You are my desire no one else will do

‘Cause nothing else could take Your place

To feel the warmth of Your embrace

Help me find the way bring me back to You

Chorus

You’re all I want

You’re all I’ve ever needed

You’re all I want

Help me know You are near

Eagle’s Wings (will probably repeat)

Verse

Here I am waiting

Abide in me I pray

Here I am longing for You

Hide me in Your love

Bring me to my knees

May I know Jesus more and more

Chorus

Come live in me

All my life take over

Come breathe in me

And I will rise

On eagle’s wings

Message – Prayers and Alms ( Slides)

Chapter 10 of the book of Acts takes place around a decade, give or take a year or 2 – After the resurrection and the Ascension have taken place. During this time God has been busy among the believers – doing a work of which they did not fully comprehend.

The community of followers of Jesus were becoming a thing.

(Slide – Leave up screen share until notified to close it)

Organic community

Community of faith begin relating to each other daily and listening to the apostles’ teachings – Share Their Possessions. Barnabas Sells a Field and Contributes the Money. Devisiveness/Selfishness – – Ananias and Sapphira crave the attention Barnabas gets, so they too sell a field and then lie and subsequently die when they boast of giving all their earnings to the apostles

(Slide) Spirit Involvement

Pentecost, 3,000 new followers,
Healings and Miracles -Peter and John Heal a Lame Man
Philip Preaches to the unacceptable Samaritans and to the Ethiopian Eunuch/Transgender

(Slide) Becoming Noticeable

Peter and John Arrested, More believers join the community and more miracles take place. Apostles Arrested and then Freed by an Angel
Stephen Arrested and Stoned
Saul, soon to be called Paul, Persecutes the Believers
Saul, soon to be called Paul, joins the Believers
Saul, soon to be called Paul, Preaches everywhere

(Slide) Institutional Necessity

Matthias is chosen to replace Judas
Office of Deacons formed to take care of widows
Establishment of a governing type group

(Slide – ‘Acts 10 brings us face to face with the practice of exclusivity’)

In this passage we see a major moment which will be Peter’s greatest challenge, a moment that could probably be marked as the Pentecost for the Gentiles. We see the Jewish Jesus believers community now stretched in ways they did not expect. Diversity had arrived, it was an act of God, whether Peter and the Jewish believers were ready for it or not, the tent was about to be drastically enlarged, and the great commission to show Jesus through their lives was about to intersect with the discomfort of God’s greatest commandment to love God and everyone else. For the apostle Peter this would be scary, for Cornelius this would be encouraging, and for the community of faith, which would ultimately become the church, this would be a never ending challenge that is still a challenge today – possibly confronting the church today with the question, ‘have we gone backwards?’

The historical moment detailed in Acts 10 brings us face to face with the practice of exclusivity – restricting certain persons or communities from being a part of the followers of Jesus. Along with the question inclusivity – ‘will the church ever accept all peoples?’ Why was Peter, and the leaders, so steeped in the laws of separation and exclusivity?

(Slide) Pastor Jakob Topper is answering that question with his congregation this morning by explaining it like this: ‘[The law] set the people apart, preserved their heritage and identity when that was the highest goal. As they were prisoners in Babylon, and earlier in Egypt, Israel did not go quietly into the night, when they so easily could have.

(Slide) The law code was essential in that. But now, Jesus says that the law has served its purpose. The role of the law is complete. It did its job, and it did it well, but that stage is complete, and the next stage is going to be less exclusionary and more inclusive.

(Slide) It’s going to be less about purity and more about mercy. Less law and more love. That’s what Peter’s vision is all about this morning. No animal is unclean. That was for a specific time and place, but it wasn’t the animals themselves that were unclean.

(Slide ) It was the season of life that demanded those measures, but that season of life is over. Where you once needed to button down the hatches and huddle tightly to survive,

(Slide) now it’s time to throw wide the gates and announce from the rooftops that God shows no partiality and everyone, no matter who, no matter where, no matter when, everyone is welcome in the family of God.’ (Rev. Jakob Topper)

(End Screen Share)

With that in mind, let’s take a look at Cornelius. Cornelius was a centurion of the Italian Cohort, meaning that he was in charge of eighty soldiers. In particular, Cornelius was from Italy, the home base for the Roman Empire. This is probably an indication that Cornelius is a ‘somebody’ he is ‘going somewhere.’

While Roman Centurions play a significant role in the death of Christ, we also see a handful of Centurions who play a positive pivotal role in the identification of Jesus. In addition to Cornelius, one centurion caught Jesus’ attention verbalizing his understanding of Jesus’ authority, another centurion pronounced, at the cross, that Jesus was most definitely the Son of God.

Centurions were usually, at least publicly, gentiles although there was possibly a very small margin of those who believed in the God of the Jews – openly living out the ‘how to live’ belief, combined with not really knowing what to do with it, what direction to go, a faith that was a constant conundrum.

Two significant points we see about Cornelius.

He was a devout man who feared God with all his household.
He gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God.

While there were those Gentiles that were conditionally welcomed into the Jewish community, Cornelius was not of them by choice or invitation. He was not a Jew and therefore would not have been able to participate in the usual practices of Judaism, so he did what he could. He lived a life of witness in view of his family including all in his household, as well as to his community. Plus, he was a man of prayer. He is described as a Devout man. Basically, Cornelius may be one of the most significant examples of a follower’s grasp of Jesus’ command in the Great Commission – ‘Go and live out the life of Jesus for the world to see.’ A commandment that Cornelius probably had never heard.

Peter, on the other hand, was Jewish, steeped in the traditions and teachings of Judaism. As a Jewish follower of Jesus, Peter considered Jesus to be the fulfillment of the promised Messiah. For Peter, as a follower of Jesus, he was still a Jew, and therefore he was still confined by the law and practices of Judaism. As God began the process of expanding Peter’s understanding of faith and the practice of faith, Peter found this growth process to be a struggle.

“God, have you forgotten Leviticus 11?” Peter must have thought as God instructed him to kill and eat that which was considered to be unclean. Three times God told him to do this and three times Peter resisted on the grounds of adherence to his religion.

Peter was stuck in his literal interpretations of his religious obligations and the accepted legalistic paths. Cornelius, however, was free in his pursuit of a God he did not know, and along the way, his family, his servants and slaves, and even some of his employees/soldiers, joined him on this journey because of what they saw in his life.

Cornelius does as God directed him to do – he sends 2 of his slaves, plus a devout soldier, and shares with them everything the angel said. This fact is significant, none of these men needed to hear, it was their job to obey. However, the relationship they had with Cornelius reveals that they also were on this faith journey with him, knowing the details was essential as this was their path also.

Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen and especially confused by God’s words, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” As Peter questioned the answer began to unveil itself through a knock on his door.

Upon arrival at Cornelius’ home, Peter began to speak to Cornelius and his family and household: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every people anyone who fears him and practices righteousness is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.”

‘As Peter spoke truth, even he was shocked by the response of the people, ‘the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.’

This entire experience was huge. Not long after this, Peter would have to go before the governing council in Jerusalem to explain the baptism of gentiles and there, he will just recount the appearance of the Holy Spirit as a justification. Accepted by council. Gentiles, who just a short time before were unacceptable, were now a part, and essential part of the community of believers.

No one likes to have their basic faith thinking challenged, it is even more discomforting to have that thinking confronted by God. Peter, nor the Jerusalem council enjoyed that. However, once they heard of the arrival of the Spirit to the Gentiles they humbled themselves. It is not foundational doctrine that is being challenged, it is humanity’s interpretation of God’s truth that is ready to be considered.

Let’s now take a final look at the work of the Spirit by taking a couple of steps back in the story, even before we first meet Cornelius. The work of the Spirit witnessed by Peter was just a tip of the iceberg. God had been at work long before our telling of the story takes place. The Spirit had been doing a work in Cornelius, directing a faith journey, guiding his life. The Spirit had been doing a work in the household of Cornelius, opening the eyes of his family, his slaves, servants, and employees. The Spirit had been doing a work in Peter, challenging his exclusionary religious practices and beliefs, softening his heart, showing him what loving others really means (this will be a continual struggle for Peter). And the words on the pages of Acts 10 bring us, midway, into the story of this pivotal moment of the sharing of the good news of Jesus.

But, some time before we were welcomed into the story, Cornelius gave an offering to God. It was a memorial offering. For those able to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to make offerings, they sometimes would make a memorial offering. This often would be done through a grain offering ultimately given for the priests, but this would be a small section of the grain offering, separated out as a set aside request that God would notice the person giving the offering, that God would remember them. This is not like our practice of making a memorial gift of memory of another person. It is an offering of a gift asking God to ‘remember me’, or ‘remember my love ones’ – for Cornelius it was a offering made asking God to remember that he believes even though he cannot go and make a gift in the temple, a gift asking for God to reveal himself, even though Cornelius in unable to take part in the moments of teaching and learning about God and about Jesus. It was an offering to God from Cornelius asking that God show himself more, to give Cornelius and his household more understanding, more knowledge, more God.

The angel told Cornelius his memorial offering was noticed and received – what took place with Peter, and for Peter as well, was a response from God to the truth seeking gentile named Cornelius.

Music (Slides) (will probably repeat)

Draw Me Close

Verse

Draw me close to You

never let me go

I lay it all down again

To hear You say that I’m Your friend

You are my desire no one else will do

‘Cause nothing else

could take Your place

To feel the warmth of Your embrace

Help me find the way

bring me back to You

Chorus

You’re all I want

You’re all I’ve ever needed

You’re all I want

Help me know You are near

Community (Slides)

Next Sunday, April 30, Acts 13:1-3; 14:8-18, ‘Seeing Good’

Benediction (Blank Slide)

Closing Peace

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 04.16.23

Order, Words, & Voices

04.16.23, Always, Matthew 28:16-20

Order

Pre Worship Music

Opening Song Billy/Linda

Thank You Lord

Hallelujah He Reigns

Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick

Reading Matthew 28:16-20 Andrea

Songs Billy/Linda

Revelation Song

I Will Never Be

Message Always Rick

Music I Will Never Be Billy/Linda

Community/Peace Rick

Benediction Rick

Post Worship Music

Music (slides)

(Be ready for some verses, etc. repeated)

Thank You Lord

Verse

For all that You’ve done

I will thank You

For all that You’re going to do

For all that You’ve promised

And all that You are

Is all that has carried me through

Jesus I thank You

Pre-Chorus

And I thank You thank You Lord

(And I thank You thank You Lord)

Thank You thank You Lord

(Thank You thank You)

Chorus

Thank You for loving

and setting me free

Thank You for giving Your life

just for me

How I thank You Jesus I thank You

Gratefully thank You thank You

Hallelujah He Reigns

Hallelujah

He reigns in majesty

Hallelujah

He reigns in glory

Hallelujah

He reigns in righteousness

Oh hallelujah hallelujah

Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah

Hallelujah

He reigns in righteousness

Oh hallelujah

Call to Worship (Slides)

Leader: The resurrection inaugurates the enhanced realization of Jesus’ mission.

Response: The cross and the empty tomb were not the end.

Leader: Even though his disciples failed Jesus their calling was not at an end.

Response: Their calling was now renewed and expanded.

Leader: Following the cross, the men went into hiding while the women ran to the tomb.

Response: All were filled with Joy and Fear.

Leader: Mary received the calling to go and preach to the men.

Response: Along the way, Jesus appeared and Mary worshiped.

Leader: The men heard and believed Mary’s message.

Response: The tomb was empty, Jesus was alive.

Leader: They had denied and abandoned Jesus, they had fallen asleep in his time of great need.

Response: Jesus was alive, they were free to release their shame.

Leader: All were now called, called to go and meet Jesus in Galilee.

Response: They were called to live all that they had learned.

Lord’s Prayer (Slides) ‘Join me in the prayer of Jesus’

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, On Earth as it is in Heaven.

Reading (Slide) Matthew 28:16-20

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16-20

Music (Slides)

Revelation Song

Verse 1

Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain

Holy holy is He

Sing a new song to Him Who sits on

Heaven’s mercy seat

Chorus

Holy holy holy

Is the Lord God Almighty

Who was and is and is to come

With all creation I sing

Praise to the King of kings

You are my ev’rything

And I will adore You

Verse 2

Clothed in rainbows of living color

Flashes of lightning rolls of thunder

Blessing and honor

strength and glory

And power be to You

the only wise King

Chorus

Holy holy holy

Is the Lord God Almighty

Who was and is and is to come

With all creation I sing

Praise to the King of kings

You are my ev’rything

And I will adore You

Verse 3

Filled with wonder awestruck wonder

At the mention of Your name

Jesus Your name is power

breath and living water

Such a marv’lous mystery

Chorus

Holy holy holy

Is the Lord God Almighty

Who was and is and is to come

With all creation I sing

Praise to the King of kings

You are my ev’rything

And I will adore You

I Will Never Be

Verse 1

I will never be the same again

I can never return

I’ve closed the door

I will walk the path

I will run the race

And I will never be the same again

Chorus

Fall like fire soak like rain

Flow like mighty waters

Again and again

Sweep away the darkness

Burn away the chaff

And let a flame burn

To glorify Your name

Verse 2

There are higher heights

There are deeper seas

Whatever You need to do

Lord do it in me

And the glory of God fills my life

And I will never be the same again (3X)

Message – Always (No Slides)

This may or may not be true for you as it is for me but I think since probably just a week or two before Covid there there were some elements of my brain that just disappeared. For instance, the piece that gives me perspective of time – as in how long ago something was or how soon it will happen, and there were definitely chunks of my memory that dropped out of my skull. But there’s one thing that I can definitely remember and that was just a few days before the world shut down, before businesses closed, before the campus became a desert, before we started doing church on a small screen, a time when hugs still existed and masks were not a reality. I was driving south on Lahoma Street between Boyd and Lindsay and looking at the street. I love that street I love to drive down it and I love to walk down it, all the trees lining both sides of the street, the leaf canopy the covers the street during every spring, summer, and early fall, flowers, and color, and no dead looking branches and no gloomy looking sky. On this day though I remember driving along, seeing no life, and just longing for the leaves, flowers, color, and life to return.

Then, when covid hit I think that I just settled into the world of gloominess. I moved my office to the house, specifically our back patio, my desk was the patio table – While it was still cold I dragged a small heater out, and when it got too hot I brought out a fan. One day I went out to my new office and began to clean off my new desk. Most of what I had to clean up was the seed helicopters that had fallen from our backyard trees. I had a fist full of the seed and as I clenched my fist they all crumbled, they were dead. Then it occurred to me that once the seeds fall the leaves show up. I looked around and they were already there, the trees were full, the color was back, I was even excited to see all the new weeds in the back yard flower beds. They had been there for weeks, maybe days, but I had not looked up, or even in front of my assumption of death.

For months, all I could see was what I thought was reality. I had watched as my nurse daughter, less that a year into nursing, carried on through an under resourced medical system navigating unchartered waters, she, and so many other medical professionals, surrounded by physical death and grief daily, as well as hostility and hatefulness, conspiracies and lies. It was as if God’s creation had joined humanity overwhelmed by pandemic and the accompanying politics of denial and blame. I could only see death so I assumed death had taken over, but I was wrong. Life was there, and life had been there. Life had been brewing under the exterior of death and misery, life was busting out and all I had to do was open my eyes.

Understandably, after the cross, the followers of Jesus could only see death – they had seen it on the cross, they felt it in their hearts, they experienced it in their minds. And, justifiably, fear consumed them. The eleven remaining disciples hid in their fear, holding onto the shame of failing to be there for Christ when he needed them most., Mary, and some of the women headed to the tomb as soon as possible expecting to only see a dead body. No one expected life to show back up, no one expected the resurrection, they had accepted that life was over.

However, God was not absent, life had continued even though everything looked like death, the unseen reality was that life was already spilling out from the tomb. Life looked different now and life was moving forward and the followers had to scramble to catch up. Jesus continued forward in very Jesus’ form, he chose a woman, in the middle of a misogynistic world to teach the men about the resurrection in order for them to be able to teach the world – the world has still not caught up, religiosity still resists believing God calls women to be called by God to preach.

Mary who had previously been defined by her past struggles was soon be the first commissioned to preach the message of the resurrection. Peter the disciple who had fallen asleep in the garden and then denied Jesus three times would soon find his testimony of Jesus to be the rock on which the church would be built. James and John who had hid behind their mother as she campaigned for them to have position and power would soon be known by their humility and their testimony of the resurrection. Life was moving forward, and sometimes forward is scary.

Jesus redefined each of them as he said, ‘You are an apostle, or, you are a preacher, or, you are to carry hope and peace, and to everyone Jesus said, you are to live like I lived in front of you, merciful, compassionate, truthful, graceful, vulnerable, full of life now and forever. Living on earth in the manner you will live in heaven. Others, all over the world, will gain voices as well, as they learn from your life of living like Christ. Words they see proven through your existence.’

And, even though the shame and fear would still be there to distract, they had all received forgiveness rather than rejection. They had all be given purpose instead of constant judgment. They would follow the love of God as commissioned witnesses of the compassion, mercy, and grace that falls and flows out of God’s love for all of humanity.

Our passage today takes place about 40 days after the resurrection. The passage itself is often called the Great Commission. Ministries and denominations have built entire evangelical strategies around these final words of Jesus.

“Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

(Matthew 18:20)

Let me first be honest with you about this passage – I think we have gotten it wrong. So be ready…

It is with an amazing concise, challenging, comforting, and with an intentional finality to Jesus’ human relationship with the eleven men to whom Jesus speaks. The words of Jesus reminded the men what is most important in their new role of apostles – to Make Disciples of all believers, to Baptize those who choose to follow Jesus, and to Teach those new baptized believers everything Jesus taught through his life. Oh, and to remember that even though they wouldl not be able to see Jesus anymore, he would still always with the/us.

Three simple instruction

Take those who choose to follow Jesus, based on the apostle’s testmony, and bring them into the faith community.
Symbolically embrace these new followers through a practice they would already understand – baptism for cleansing and repentance. Note: At this time they had no idea their audience would go beyond other Jews, it wouldn’t take long however for this group to grow in diversity – ie. Next week with a guy named Cornelius.
Teach them about the resurrection, teach them about Jesus.

One Promise

I am going to still be with you.

Here is the basic reality of Jesus’ command.

People will choose to be followers of Jesus. The command is to let them be a part of this faith community, which at the time, the apostles still thought this was going to still be a Jewish faith. It would be decades before the apostles would recognize that this was not really the Jewish faith any longer, and, around that same time they would receive a new name ‘little Jesuses” meant to be a insulting but instead it was a badge of honor that verified they understood the commission of Jesus.
Those individuals who choose to follow Jesus, were to be embraced through the ritual of baptism.
They were to learn about the life of Jesus so they could then live more and more like Jesus.

Simply put, the great commission is a call to live life like Jesus. Pure and Simple. Follow Jesus, his words, his actions, his life. Follow Jesus – Change the World. Let people learn how to live by us living like Jesus. A commitment for us that will change the way we relate at work, home and play, a calling that will change the way we handle our money, the way we vote, the way we relate to friends, acquaintances and even to enemies. It will change our willingness to allow others to see our flaws and our vulnerabilities. It will change us.

That is what attracted the early followers to Jesus. The apostles did not preach large evangelistic rallies, they used the lives of followers living like the one they followed, Jesus, to speak the news of Jesus, the news of life, life resurrected. In fact, apostle’s usual message were to the small communities of faith to whom they would teach the resurrection and how Jesus with love lived in an evil world.

About 250 years after the after the the final words of Jesus, Christianity became acceptable and powerful due to collusion with political powers. Evenutally, Jesus final commissioning to his apostles, became ‘evangelism’ focusing solely on the word ‘Teach’, while misinterpreting it to mean ‘Convert.’ Soon, this became a method of control by the government and the church. Crusades were fought with warriors sent to force entire cultures to ‘convert to Christianity’ to give up their own faith in exchange for our faith. In our own United States, slaves were not only forced from their homelands but also forced to convert to a God they did not know – forced by those who claimed to be of the Christian faith who diminished these humans’ dignity and humanity in order to hold control. The first Americans had their children taken by force, their native language taken away, traditional haircuts forbidden, all in order to be indoctrinated into the white man’s ugly version, and very unChristlike portrayal, of Christianity. Many of those children have recently been found in unmarked graves even here in our own state. Throughout the 20th century and marginally even into this century, we have staged mass rallies, children and youth camps, and human manipulated revivals, all using death and an emotional mix judgement and fear to aggressively persuade others to join our religiosity.

Jesus call is not one of aggressive persuasion, it is a call for us to all live lives of compassion, empathy, mercy, grace, respect, peace, vulnerability and honesty, lives marked by selflessness and humility, live from which love flows. That is our calling, that is our commission.

It is really pretty simple. Accept all people. Embrace all people. And Live out the life of Jesus in front of people. And, remember that Jesus is always with us even though we cannot see him.

Together for Hope, Jason Coker

Music (Slides)

I Will Never Be

Verse 1

I will never be the same again

I can never return

I’ve closed the door

I will walk the path

I will run the race

And I will never be the same again

Chorus

Fall like fire soak like rain

Flow like mighty waters

Again and again

Sweep away the darkness

Burn away the chaff

And let a flame burn

To glorify Your name

Verse 2

There are higher heights

There are deeper seas

Whatever You need to do

Lord do it in me

And the glory of God fills my life

And I will never be the same again (3X)

Community (Slides)

Next Sunday, April 23, Acts 10:1-17, 34-48, ‘Prayers and Alms’

Benediction (Blank Slide)

Closing Peace

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.

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He came to live live again in usHe came to be our conquering King and friendHe came to heal and show the lost ones His loveHe came to go prepare a place for us

That’s why we praise Him that’s why we singThat’s why we offer Him our ev’rythingThat’s why we bow down and worship this King‘Cause He gave His ev’rything

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Chorus

Verse 2

Bridge

Bridge

Chorus

Bridge

Verse 2

Verse 3

Verse 4

Verse 2

Chorus

Verse 3

Bridge

Pre-Chorus

Chorus

Verse 2

Share this:

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Share this:

He came to live live again in us
He came to be our conquering King and friend
He came to heal and show the lost ones His love
He came to go prepare a place for us

That’s why we praise Him that’s why we sing
That’s why we offer Him our ev’rything
That’s why we bow down and worship this King
‘Cause He gave His ev’rything