Order, Words, & Voices

Order, Words, & Voices Luke 1:26-55

Order, Words, & Voices – 12.01.24, Luke 1:26-55 You Have Been Found

Pre/Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Lighting of Advent Hope Candle (Christ Candle Already Lit) Cricklins

Songs Joy To The World (Jernigan) # 1333696 Billy/Linda

Passage/Prayer Luke 1:26-55 Beth

Special What Child Is This CCLI Song #30983 Billy/Linda

Impact/Message You Have Been Found Rick

Song Holy Is The Lord CCLI Song # 14497 Billy/Linda

Community/Closing Peace Rick

Closing Music O Come All Ye Faithful CCLI Song # 31054 Billy/Linda

Record message on memory card – leave Room above Speaker’s head

Christ Candle (Slides) (Music softly begins to play near end)

Leader: And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant.

Response: Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name;

Leader: His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

Response: He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

Leader: He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.

Response: He has come to the aid of his child Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors.”

Luke 1:46-55

Music (Slides) Billy/Linda

Joy To The World (Jernigan) # 1333696

Verse 1

Joy to the world

For the Babe that was born

Didn’t stay in the manger

On that blessed morn

Chorus

Hallelujah sing hallelujah to the King

Joy to the world let the nations all sing

Hallelujah sing glory let hosannas ring

Joy to the world He is Jesus the King

Verse 2

Joy to the world

For the Son came to save

Overcoming to free us

From sin and the grave

Verse 3

Joy to the world

For the Lamb Who was slain

On the cross He bore all of our

Sin and our shame

Joy to the world

For His love still abides

Yes the grave could not hold Him

Our Lord is alive

Verse 4

Joy to the world

For His love without end

For we were not abandoned to die in our sin

Joy to the world

For His mercy and grace

God has sent a Redeemer to die in our place

Passage (Slides) Luke 1:26-38 ?

In the sixth month God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

Gabriel said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But Mary was perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

The angel said, “Do not be afraid for you have found favor with God. You will conceive and bear a son, who you will name Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom.”

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be since I am a virgin?”

The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.

And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Join me in the prayer of Jesus,

Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be your name.

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

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.

And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Music (Slides) Billy/Linda

What Child Is This CCLI Song #30983

Verse 1

What Child is this who laid to rest

On Mary’s lap is sleeping

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet

While shepherds watch are keeping

This this is Christ the King

Whom shepherds guard and angels sing

Haste haste to bring Him laud

The Babe the Son of Mary

Verse 2

Why lies He in such mean estate

Where ox and ass are feeding

Good Christian fear for sinners here

The silent Word is pleading

Nails spear shall pierce Him through

The cross be borne for me for you

Hail hail the Word made flesh

The Babe the Son of Mary

Verse 3

So bring Him incense gold and myrrh

Come peasant king to own Him

The King of kings salvation brings

Let loving hearts enthrone Him

Raise raise the song on high

The Virgin sings her lullaby

Joy joy for Christ is born

The Babe the Son of Mary

Message Rick [mother/baby title slide up for entire message]

Open with last year’s theme “How Does a Weary World Rejoice?” and the Wearness/Rejoice ornaments we placed on the trees.

We have arrived at the birth narrative landing us at a point in history when the Isrealites have been freed from Slavery in Babylon and are now oppressed by the Romans.

We are at year zero as a world wide seismic shift was taking place. The very terms of tracking time and words for naming years was about to change. God’s voice, after 400 years of silence, was once again about to be heard. Human participation in God’s plan was once again taking place. For God, reminiscent of the calling of the OT prophets, was about to call a human once again to join in the plan of God. This time it would not be a weathered man, this time it would be a teenage girl, who God would call to be apart of the impossible, an outlandish human endeavor involving God and human, orchestrated and conducted by God. For now God’s plan to redeem the world, to save humanity, to give life in the midst of death was quietly taking place.

Like most other times, it was a time when humanity was messy. The oppressors of Israeli had been many, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, the Greeks, and now, the Romans. Many of the Isrealites were still scattered and their absence was noticed by the people. A time, like our time, when political leaders and religious leaders had forged an unholy peace with insecure and paranoid leaders on both sides. They walked a delicate path of hatred, distrust, resentment, threats, control, and a resented mutual dependency. It was a time when human arrogance and insecurity was in abundance and human compassion was at an all time low. It was a time when peace was unreal and hope was unseen.

It was a time, a moment, when everything was about to change.
It was a time, a moment, when most would not even notice.
It was a time when a young teenage girl would hear God’s call, and step directly onto God’s path.

In the Magnificat, which we recited in our opening, we hear Mary magnify the Lord, proclaiming God’s greatness and rejoicing in God as Savior. Mary details God’s actions in her own life, and rejoices that God has called her to be the mother of the Messiah while saying God has “done great things for” me. Mary begins to recognize with awe that all generations would call her blessed.

In our culture, ‘blessed’ has become a meme, and “feeling blessed” makes regular appearances in social media posts. We post images and pictures of ourselves enjoying a delicious meal, an exotic vacation, or a fruitful shopping spree to serve as evidence of our Blessedness. “Blessed” has come to mean living a life of privilege and comfort. Using the term has become a way of celebrating those moments when everything is going well and all seems right with the world — or at least one’s own little corner of it.

Recently, as I exited the Post Office, I held the door open for an elderly woman asking her how she was doing. A simple question expecting no real response, but not on this morning. “I’m blessed,” she proclaimed. I thought that was surely the end of our engagement and turned a bit to walk to my car as I realized that our discussion was not complete just yet. “I’m blessed,” she said again. “My car made it here. The sun is shining and I no longer have a cough.” She was not finished proving her blessedness. As she wrapped up the evidences of her Blessedness, she said, “I may not be blessed but tomorrow, in this moment on this day, I am blessed.”

While I wanted to critique her shallow use of the term ‘Blessed’, I could not help but recognized that this moment of happiness held the potential to carry her through a possibly difficult day, at this moment she was on the top of the world and I was not about to push her off the peak. I got back into my car that also had miraculously made it to the Post Office thinking through the human experiences that served to open my eyes to my own blessedness. Whether that proved to be a solid theological experience or not, in this moment as the engine of my Camry made the sounds of a car that was about to successfully carry me home I knew I was ‘blessed.’

The blessedness that Mary celebrates stands in stark contrast to our culture’s attitude. By our standards Mary does not look at all blessed, the evidences she proclaims seemed to be full of holes. God has chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah, our deliverer, but in practical terms what did that mean for her? She was not from a family that could afford expensive food or clothing. She was a nobody, a peasant girl from a small village. Her friends and neighbors would soon see her as a disgrace because she was unmarried and pregnant. She would soon be fodder for religious and political leaders.

On top of that, she would soon hear from Simeon in the Temple, that being the mother of the Messiah scarcely lives up to the human definition of being ‘blessed. She would bear the unspeakable grief of watching as her son would be rejected, shamed, and crucified: “This child was destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel … and a sword would pierce Mary’s own soul too.” Despite all this, Mary praised God for honoring her, for finding her, for inviting her to be a part of this journey.

Mary recalled Hannah, who, like Mary, experienced a miraculous pregnancy. Like Mary’s son, Hannah’s son Samuel would speak God’s word. Mary joined in Hannah’s praise to God for overturning society’s structures by bringing down the powerful and lifting up the powerless. Mary’s song however, did not reference the makers of war, but, instead, the peacemakers – and we know that making peace is much more difficult and costly than making war.

Mary, a marginalized person, sang the words of the God who is not just about saving souls, but an embodiment and empowerment of people. The God Mary celebrates is not content merely to point people toward heaven; no, this God’s redemptive work begins here on earth. God fills the hungry not only with hope, but with food. Rather than being satisfied with comforting the lowly, Mary’s Lord lifts them up, granting them dignity and honor, a seat at the table and a voice in the conversation.

Mary’s God shows strength by disrupting the world’s power structures, dethroning rulers, and humbling the mighty.

Mary’s song is also an offer of blessedness for the wealthy and the powerful. Those who stand in awe only of themselves and their own power will be judged, yet if the wealthy and powerful can only see it, by bringing them down — by emptying and humbling them — God is saving them as well. They too will be invited to turn their gaze from self and their own accomplishments to God — there is mercy waiting for them as well.

In Mary’s song, and in Jesus’ ministry, we can see the God who loves us as we are does not leave us where we were.

When God empties the rich of their excess and fills the hungry with good things, the result is not social reversal — with a powerless and a powerful changing places — it is social leveling. The rich and powerful are stripped of their arrogance and taught to love their neighbors as they love themselves. Thus God provides for the poor and honors the humiliated. When the arrogant are scattered and the powerful brought down, then every person has access to enough of the world’s resources, and no one has too much. Every person is treated with dignity and respect, and no one uses power to harm or gain position.

Mary’s song magnifies the Savior who loves the whole world with a love that makes creation whole. The mother of the Messiah experienced God’s blessing. Her blessing, like ours, is a cross-shaped blessing, “a condition of complete simplicity that costs nothing less than everything”.

Judith Jones, Vicar,St. Stephen & St. Luke by the Sea Episcopal Churches, Waldport, Ore., United States

Mary chooses to not focus on the burdens ahead but on the opportunity that are waiting.

This is hope. This is intentional mindfulness. This is the beginning of seeing Hope rather than burdens and hopelessness. This is the life that God calls us all to live. Hope opens the way for us to step onto God’s path of true blessedness.

May we begin by letting the choice of Mary be our example as we, also, step again on the path of God.

Let us Pray…

Music Slides Billy/Linda

Holy Is The Lord CCLI Song # 14497

Verse 1

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord

And my spirit exalts in God my Savior

For He has looked with mercy on my lowliness

And my name will be forever exalted

For the mighty God has done great things for me

And His mercy will reach from age to age

Chorus

And holy holy

Holy is His name

Verse 2

He has mercy in ev’ry generation

He has revealed His power and His glory

He has cast down the mighty in their arrogance

And has lifted up the meek and the lowly

He has come to help His servant Israel

He remembers His promise to our fathers

Chorus

And holy holy

Holy is His name

Community (Slides) Rick

Next Sunday, 12.08.24, Luke 2:1-14 (15-20); Advent Two – Peace.

Advent Luncheon/Budget Vote, December 8 following worship & Advent Christmas Eve Candlelight Worship, December 24 (time?)
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Closing Peace (Slides) Rick (Slides)

Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.

Response: And also with you.

Closing Music Billy/Linda

O Come All Ye Faithful CCLI Song # 31054

Verse 1

O come all ye faithful

Joyful and triumphant

O come ye O come ye to Bethlehem

Come and behold Him

Born the King of angels

Chorus

O come let us adore Him

Christ the Lord

Verse 2

Sing choirs of angels

Sing in exultation

O sing all ye bright

Hosts of heav’n above

Glory to God allGlory in the highest

Chorus

O come let us adore Him

Christ the Lord

Verse 3

Yea Lord we greet Thee

Born this happy morning

Jesus to Thee be all glory giv’n

Word of the Father

Now in flesh appearing

Chorus

O come let us adore Him

Christ the Lord

Order, Words, & Voices 11.24.24

Order, Words, & Voices – 11.24.24, Jeremiah 36 & 31, Indestructible

Pre/Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Lighting of Christ Candle Mitch

Songs Come Christians Join To Sing Song # 83253 Lynn/Linda

Passage/Prayer Jeremiah 36:1-8 Isaiah

Song You Are My King (Amazing Love) #2456623 Lynn/Linda

Impact/Message Indestructible Rick

Song All My Hope CCLI Song # 7068805 Lynn/Linda

Community/Closing Peace Rick

Closing Music Glorify Thy Name CCLI Song # 1383 Lynn/Linda

Record message on memory card – leave Room above Speaker’s head

Christ Candle (Slides) (Lynn softly plays near end)

Lord, you have revealed to us, and to our world, the division in our nation.

May we, in this faith gathering place show the world our unity.

A unity centered on You God. A unity dependent on You God. A unity that endures for You God are our core.

Help us to choose faith over fear just as you hold us through the darkest days and the most difficult of circumstances.

The world tells us that we live in chaos, may we instead look for peace.

The world tells us that we are hopeless, may we instead hold to our hope.

The world tells us to hate, may we instead love.

May we recognize your breath in every human being.

May the world recognize the breath that gives them life.

May we fill our treasure chest with all that is You,

Hope, Peace, Mercy, Compassion, Direction, Worth, Purpose, Place, and Sacrifice.

Amen.

Music (Slides) Lynn/Linda

Come Christians Join To Sing CCLI Song # 83253

Verse 1

Come Christians join to sing

Alleluia amen

Loud praise to Christ our King

Alleluia amen

Let all with heart and voice

Before His throne rejoice

Praise is His gracious choice

Alleluia amen

Verse 2

Come lift your hearts on high

Alleluia amen

Let praises fill the sky

Alleluia amen

He is our Guide and Friend

To us He’ll condescend

His love shall never end

Alleluia amen

Verse 3

Praise yet our Christ again

Alleluia amen

Life shall not end the strain

Alleluia amen

On heaven’s blissful shore

His goodness we’ll adore

Singing forevermore

Alleluia amen

Passage (Slides) Jeremiah 36:1-8 Isaiah

In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

‘Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. It may be that, when the house of Judah hears of all the disasters that I intend to do to them, all of them may turn from their evil ways, so that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.’

Then Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words that the Lord had spoken to him. And Jeremiah ordered Baruch, saying,

“I am prevented from entering the house of the Lord, so you go, and on a fast day in the hearing of the people in the Lord’s house you shall read the words of the Lord from the scroll that you have written at my dictation. You shall read them also in the hearing of all the people of Judah who come up from their towns.

It may be that their plea will come before the Lord and that all of them will turn from their evil ways, for great is the anger and wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.”

And Baruch son of Neriah did all that the prophet Jeremiah ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.

Join me in the prayer of Jesus,

Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be your name.

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

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.

And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Music (Slides) Lynn/Linda

You Are My King (Amazing Love) CCLI Song # 2456623

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

Message Rick [Leave Screen Share up for entire message]

[Title Slide]

Prophets were communicators of Truth and spiritual evaluators of people, peoples, and leaders – evaluating how hearts, minds and behaviors matched up against God’s law and covenants. They warned the people of unfaithful hearts, and served as the harbingers of God’s coming correction. In other words, it was their job to say the things that no one wanted to hear.

[Slide]

“To understand the messages of the prophets, it is necessary to understand their contexts as best we can.”

Steven L. McKenzie, How to Read the Bible: History, Prophecy, Literature

Prophets knew that truth can be difficult to hear and receive, and therefore knew that people would refuse to listen and to hear.

[Title Slide]

In our passages today we see God’s ‘unwanted’, and ‘unwelcome’ truth. Jeremiah bears the task of speaking these words to the people and to their King. No one wanted to hear these words. The King so despised the truth that he had banned Jeremiah from his presence.

Important context:

[Slide] At this point of this story, the King over Judah (Southern Kingdom) was Jehoiakim, the son of the previous King, Josiah. Josiah was obedient to God, he heard the words of God and led the people to receive the truth. However, Josiah’s son, Jehoiakim, the current King, did not share his father’s faithfulness to God. Jehoiakim hated God’s words, he hated God’s prophet Jeremiah, and he refused to hear or heed truth.
[Slide] Isaiah was an 8th century prophet, while Jeremiah was a 6th century prophet
[Slide] Both were prophets to the Southern Kingdom – Judah. Now, 150-200 years after the fall of the Northern Kingdom, Jeremiah spoke to the Judah encouraging them to learn from the conquest of Northern Kingdom and their exile.
[Slide] Both prophets shared the same message from God, ‘Turn back to God before it is too late’.
[Slide] Both prophets were dismissed and their words of truth were ignored.
[Slide] When Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom – Israel, soon after the Assyrians conquered Judah. At first, the Southern Kingdom was allowed to continue to govern themselves with little interference, except their taxes went to the Assyrians.
[Slide] The Israelites made several ill-fated efforts to rebel and break free of the Assyrians, and later against the Babylonians who had conquered Assyria and taken over Judah. Jeremiah had warned the Israelites to not rebel, that they would fail, but these words were ignored and ultimately these rebellions led the Israelites of Judah to be exiled to Babylon where they were enslaved, just as the Israelites of Northern Kingdom (Israel) had been enslaved in Assyria.
[Slide] Jeremiah knew that the Isrealites were not ready to trust God enough to be free or to rebel. Like the Ninevites, their repentance was shallow and did not lead to a full heart and mind faith.
[Slide] Jeremiah 36, takes place as Judah was under the rule of Babylonia and exile and enslavement had begun. So, Jeremiah is speaking to a puppet King who possibly hoped for rescue, but did not want the agonizing truth Jeremiah had to give.

[Slide] God’s call to Jeremiah was to, ‘pluck up and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.’

[Slide] God’s call was not only aimed at the enemies of Judah. Actually it was a message of pain and loss, to his own people. Still, Jeremiah held tightly to a vision of a hope-filled future for God’s people. These are the two conflicting passions of Jeremiah – and it is these two seemingly contradictory truths that God embedded in the heart of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah juxtaposed judgment and hope, which tells that God’s “anger and wrath” do not mean that God is in the business of punishment and retribution. Instead, we see that God’s will is for things to be set right, for restoration and redemption to take place.

[Slide] God’s actions are always motivated by love. Misery is never what God wants to do or what God wills to happen. Rather, God’s corrective misery is what results when God’s protective will is ignored.

[Slide] God’s will is set on saving us from that which harms us.

[Slide] This is a radial perspective, a radical clarification of our usual perspective of God. In our self-centeredness, we often unconsciously paint God as being a God only of fire and pain, of a desire to make us live a life of continual regret, but, God is actually our loving father who does everything possible to woo us back before the need to correct and redirect is the only option. God continually seeks to rescue us. Simply put, 7 decades of slavery in Babylon is acceptable if it means the Israelites will come out with eyes to see and ears to hear, empowering an eternal trust in God.

[Title Slide]

So, the people and their King, in this time of hopelessness as they were in the process of being exiled and enslaved, were fed up with the prophet Jeremiah who was relentless in his words of ‘repent’ and ‘turn back to God.’ From the King to the commoner, no one wanted to hear the truth. After all, in their minds, ‘God just didn’t understand how difficult being human can be’.

So, Jeremiah made one last effort to convince them to hear truth. He dictated to his secretary Baruch the words of God to take to the people and then to the King. The people, and the King’s, hardened and closed hearts rendered them unable to see or hear the truth. When Baruch finished, the King, in his arrogance, took the scroll and a penknife and began to cut out every section and every word that he did not like, burning the rejected pieces leaving almost nothing of Jeremiah’s message.

[Slide] Jeremiah and Baruch knew the truth by heart, because truth is Indestructible, it was emblazoned on their mind. That is where truth is kept when it is received. They rewrote the words and attempted to speak them to the King again, but again, the King & people were unhearing.

The inevitable happened – final destruction, final defeat, final exile, and final slavery.

[Slide] Truth can be perverted, twisted, abused, hidden, and even diluted in the mess of the world, but, in the end, truth will eventually rise above all the mess and be found. And, there will always be someone, like Jehoakim’s father Josaiah, who with an open heart is ready to see, hear, and receive truth.

The problem for the Isrealites was the same problem for all of humanity. The problem of eyes and ears, minds and hearts, that had no trust. They allowed others, rulers and even religious leaders, to guide them down paths of deceit. God gave them opportunities but the people were unwilling to make the sacrifice to do the work. So, now, in slavery, it would take some time, it would take humility and repentance to finally see that there was still hope to be seen and experienced.

[Slide] The prophets spoke a risky truth not only of misery ahead but, even more, of the hope ahead, and if there is hope ahead there is hope now.

Hear Jeremiah’s words that came 7 chapters earlier…

[Slide] “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.

[Slide] Seek the welfare of the city Babylon where I have sent you into exile, pray on Babylon’s behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. Do not let the Israelite false prophets among you deceive you, for they are not prophesying in my name; I did not send them.

When Babylon’s seventy years are completed I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back home. For I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

Because then, when you finally call upon me, you will come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

When you finally search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

Jeremiah 29:4-14

Let us Pray

Music Slides Lynn/Linda (slides 2nd half only)

(First time through no slides/Lynn & Linda only, then Lynn will invite congregation to join in and will sing with slides – No Bridge on 2nd time through)

All My Hope CCLI Song # 7068805

Verse 1

I’ve been held by the Savior

I’ve felt fire from above

I’ve been down to the river

I ain’t the same a prodigal returned

Chorus

All my hope is in Jesus

Thank God that yesterday’s gone

(Yes) All my sins are forgiven

(Oh I’ve) I’ve been washed by the blood

Verse 2

I’m no stranger to prison

I’ve worn shackles and chains

But I’ve been freed and forgiven

And I’m not going back I’ll never be the same

That’s why I sing

Bridge

There’s a kind of thing that just breaks a man

Break him down to his knees

God I’ve been broken more than a time or two

Yes Lord then He picked me up and showed me

What it means to be a man

Come on and sing

Chorus

All my hope is in Jesus

Thank God that yesterday’s gone

(Yes) All my sins are forgiven

(Oh I’ve) I’ve been washed by the blood

Community (Slides) Rick

Next Sunday, 12:01.24, We Need a Little Christmas…Right This Very Minute, Simple Advent, ‘You Have Been Found”, Next Sunday – Luke 1:26-55

We Need A Little Christmas, Simple Advent. December 1
Advent Luncheon/Budget Vote, December 8 following worship
Advent Christmas Eve Candlelight Worship, December 24 (time?)

Closing Peace (Slides) Rick (Slides)

Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.

Response: And also with you.

Closing Music Lynn/Linda

Glorify Thy Name CCLI Song # 1383

Verse 1

Father we love You

We worship and adore You

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Glorify Thy name

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Verse 2

Jesus we love You

We worship and adore You

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Glorify Thy name Glorify Thy name

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Verse 3

Spirit we love You

We worship and adore You

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Glorify Thy name

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Order, Words, & Voices 11.17.14

Order, Words, & Voices – 11.17.24, Isaiah 5-6, Woe

Pre/Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Lighting of Christ Candle Cricklins

Songs King of My Heart CCLI Song # 7046145 Billy/Linda

Passage/Prayer Isaiah 5:1-7 Isaiah

Song Goodness of God CCLI Song # 7117726 Billy/Linda

Impact/Message Woe Rick

Song How Great Thou Art CCLI Song # 4768151 Billy/Linda

Community/Closing Peace Rick

Closing Music Glorify Thy Name CCLI Song # 1383 Billy/Linda

Record message on memory card. – leave Room above Speaker’s head

Christ Candle (Slides) (Billy softly plays during final line) Cricklins

– Peace is not found in institutions, peace is found in God.

-Hope does not come from governments, hope comes from God.

-Grace does not lie in the hands of kings, queens, dictators, presidents, or any person of power, grace lies in the hand of God.

-Love is not controlled or hoarded by the powerful, love is freely given from God.

-Mercy and compassion cannot be denied, both are found in the humble life of Jesus.

-While kindness and caring are not a human guarantee, they are a constant in the life of Jesus.

-Power, influence, arrogance, entitlement, manipulation, physical strength, and deceit, are not voices of truth, truth comes from the Spirit.

-Direction is not found in agendas, direction comes from the Spirit.

-We do not worship the creation or the created, we worship the God of creation.

-Our hope is not in the promises of this world, hope is in the God of eternity.

-Amen.

Music (Slides) Billy/Linda

King of My Heart CCLI Song # 7046145

Verse 1

Let the King of my heart

Be the mountain where I run

The fountain I drink from

Oh He is my song

Let the King of my heart

Be the shadow where I hide

The ransom for my life

Oh He is my song

Chorus

You are good good oh

Verse 2

Let the King of my heart

Be the wind inside my sails

The anchor in the waves

Oh He is my song

Let the King of my heart

Be the fire inside my veins

The echo of my days

Oh He is my song

Bridge (X4)

You’re never gonna let

Never gonna let me down

Ending

When the night is holding on to me

God is holding on

When the night is holding on to me

God is holding on

Passage (Slides) Isaiah 5:1-7 Isaiah

I will sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines;

he built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it;

he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded rotten grapes.

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah,

judge between me and my vineyard.

What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?

When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield rotten grapes?

And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.

I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured;

I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

I will make it a wasteland; it shall not be pruned or hoed,

and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;

I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,

and the people of Judah are his cherished garden;

he expected justice but saw bloodshed;

Righteousness but heard a cry!

Join me in the prayer of Jesus,

Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be your name.

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

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.

And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Music (Slides) Billy/Linda

Goodness Of God CCLI Song # 7117726

Verse 1

I love You Lord

Oh Your mercy never fails me

All my days

I’ve been held in Your hands

From the moment that I wake up

Until I lay my head

I will sing of the goodness of God

Chorus

All my life You have been faithful

All my life You have been so so good

With every breath that I am able

I will sing of the goodness of God

Verse 2

I love Your voice

You have led me through the fire

In darkest night

You are close like no other

I’ve known You as a father

I’ve known You as a friend

I have lived in the goodness of God

Message Rick [Leave Screen Share up for entire message]

[Title Slide]

The first 5 chapters of Isaiah, assuming we accept the chronological placement of these chapters in our Bibles, tell us, actually they tell Isaiah, about the people of Judah, the Southern Kingdom. Remember, though, the Israelite tribes split after the reign of King Solomon due to a dispute over who should be the next king. So, even though the united Kingdom of Israel was no more, they are unified in the sameness of their reality. The harsh reality was that these same 5 chapters were also about the people of the southern Kingdom, Israel.

In reality, the dismal news that came to Isaiah about Judah, which was also true for Israel. They were important words to all of the Isrealites… and, are actually words to us in the year 2024 – which is how the words of prophets usually work, they are usually for more people and more time periods than claimed. However, this time around it seems more than ever that these words must have our attention. Now, as we add on chapter 6 we come to a very important moment in Biblical history in our history. Listen to Isaiah’s words about this pivotal moment.

[Slides for each section of passage]

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

And the seraphim were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

And I cried, “Woe to me!”. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

The Lord said, “Go and tell this people: “They are ever hearing, but never understanding; they are ever seeing, but never perceiving.

I will make their heart calloused; I will make their ears dull and close their eyes.

Otherwise, it is possible they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and then turn and be healed, which they are not yet ready for.”

Then I asked the Lord, “For how long, Lord?”

And the Lord answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitants, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until I, the Lord, have sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.”

Isaiah 6:1-13

[Title Slide]

Context

Judah’s King Uzziah and his father Amaziah were considered good kings except for the fact that they did not destroy the idols of the false gods – which was a common negative trait of Kings up to this point, and back to the first King.

However, in Israel, whether Uzziah and his father had been good Kings, Uzziah, a relative of Isaiah, began to become a bad king as he became more powerful. His arrogance came to a climax when he attempted to absorb the, take over, the power and practice of the Priests. The politicians, starting with the king, were attempting to destroy the line between the secular government and the religion of the people.

This was common, this is still common, and, usually the religious institutions would see this as a power building hope for religion but it never ended up that way. When faith and politics were intertwined, politicians always come out on top, and religion suffered, it was diluded and diminished. Religion was/is an avenue for the politicians and rulers to accomplish their agendas, at which time their power is formidable and religion is then given a seat far in the back of the bus.

We see this today in the USA, and, probably more than anywhere else in this country, Oklahoma politicians are attempting to make Oklahoma the center of this effort. Ten Commandments in Jail cells, Bible, purchased with money from taxpayers’ of all faith as well as taxpayers’ are demanded in public school classrooms, taxpayer money given to religious schools, and this past week our secretary of Education made a with him talking about prayer with the order that it be shown to all NPS students and their parents. And, in doing these things, politicians are already taking over the role of the church in order to train up our children in the politicians limited perspective of faith, scripture, and even truth.

[Slides for each section of passage]

But when Uzziah had become strong he also grew proud, to his destruction. For he acted unfaithfully toward the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to make offering on the altar of incense.

But the priest Azariah went in after the King, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor; they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to make offering to the Lord,

but for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who are consecrated to make offering. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.”

Then Uzziah was enraged. Now he had a censer in his hand to make offering, and when he became enraged with the priests a defiling disease broke out on his forehead, in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense.

When the chief priest Azariah, and all the priests, looked at him, he was diseased on his forehead. They hurried him out, and he himself hurried to get out, because the Lord had struck him.

King Uzziah had a defiling disease to the day of his death, and being diseased lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. His son Jotham was in charge of the palace of the king, governing the people of the land.

II Chronicles 26:16-21

[Slide]

Where are our voices as the temple is blatantly defiled? Where are our voices as our political leaders cozy up to faith leaders, all the while destroying our faith institutions? Where are our voices when religious celebrities guide us, and the politicians, down this destructed path.

Isaiah asked these questions, we need to ask these questions.

[Title Slide]

So, the people had disregarded God, just as their political rulers were destroying the religious institution. For the people, religion had become an external activity, it had no heart and no soul. They still put on their religious looking costumes and spoke the holy sounding language but their hearts were unholy.

In this moment, as Isaiah stood inside the temple before God who was sitting on the throne, this burden of the people weighed heavy on Isaiah’s mind.

And, unbeknown by the people or Isaiah, in this moment of Isaiah’s face to face with God, he and the people of Israel were just 1-2 decades away from Assyria’s invasion and conquering of Judah, and just 140 years before Babylonia would conquer Judah. Regardless of how much time they had, Isaiah knew that, in the minds of people this was forever and no need for urgency, if it did happen their descendants would face it. It would not be their problem. But, God was preparing the people for their time in exile/slavery so he dulled their minds and hearts until they were ready. Mentally and spiritually, they were not to their ‘Woe’ moment yet, and, their ‘Woe’ moment was going to be crucial to the survival for the all the Israelites

[Slides for each section of passage]

This was Isaiah’s ‘Woe Moment’, His calling from God Moment
Elijah surrendered to God’s call on a mountain, with fear and timidity.
Jonah surrendered to God’s call inside of a huge fish, with arrogance and bitter resentment.
Isaiah surrendered to God’s call in his ‘Woe’ moment, with sorry, devastation, and open hands.

[Slide]

Woe moment, He had recognized the state of the people but in this moment he recognized his own unholiness. Open Hands to release those things (list of Jonah’s things he grasped) that he held to that could have kept him from receiving his call.

[Slide]

Elijah had sweaty hands

Jonah had clinched fists

Isaiah had open hands

[Slide]

Regardless, God called them all…inviting each of them this opportunity to be a part of what God was doing.

[Slide]

And, to be a part…all they had to do was to recognize their Woe Moment.

[Slide]

And to say…”Here Am I, Send Me”

[Leave Slide up until Song]

(Slides) Billy/Linda

How Great Thou Art CCLI Song # 4768151

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 4

When Christ shall come

With shout of acclamation

And take me home

What joy shall fill my heart

Then I shall bow

In humble adoration

And there proclaim

My God how great Thou art

Community (Slides) Rick

Fall-Advent Sermon Series, ‘My Eyes Have Seen”, Next Sunday –

11.24.24, ‘Indestructible’, Jeremiah 36:1-8, 21-23, 27-28, 31:31-34; Jeremiah & Josiah

We Need A Little Christmas, Simple Advent. December 1
Advent Luncheon/Budget Vote, December 8 following worship

Closing Peace (Slides) Rick (Slides)

Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.

Response: And also with you.

Closing Music Billy/Linda

Glorify Thy Name CCLI Song # 1383

Verse 1

Father we love You

We worship and adore You

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Glorify Thy name

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Verse 2

Jesus we love You

We worship and adore You

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Glorify Thy name Glorify Thy name

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Verse 3

Spirit we love You

We worship and adore You

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Glorify Thy name

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Order, Words & Voices 11.10.24

Order, Words, & Voices – 11.10.24, Jonah & Luke 18:9-14, ‘Inescapable’

Pre/Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Lighting of Christ Candle Segun

Songs The Solid Rock CCLI Song # 25417 Lynn/Linda

Passage/Prayer Jonah & Luke 18:9-14 Isaiah

Lord’s Supper Rick

Song Living Hope CCLI Song #7106807 Lynn/Linda

Impact/Message Inescapable Rick

Song Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) # 4768151 Lynn/Linda

Community/Closing Peace Rick

Closing Music Glorify Thy Name CCLI Song # 1383 Lynn/Linda

Record message on memory card. – leave Room above Speaker’s head

Christ Candle (Slides) (Lynn softly plays ‘Solid R’ during final line) Segun

Our God is the God of Hope even when No Hope can be Seen.

Our God is the God that is Present even when no Presence can be Felt.

Our God is the God of Eve, of the Widow, of Mary and Martha.

Our God is the God of Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Elijah, Peter, Judas, Paul, and Jesus on the cross, in the Grave, and all over the Resurrection.

Our God is the God of the Promised Land, of Sodom, of Babylon, of Rome, Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, and the United States.

Our God is present on the continents and to all of the people of Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

May we remember the deceit behind Jesus’ arrest, the brutality of the cross, the exhilaration of the empty grave, the Hope at the ascension, the Joy of the spirit.

May we hold tight to God’s words, ‘Peace’ and ‘Do not Fear’.

May our guide be Light that pierces the darkness, May our Hope be in God.

May we know that God is Near, and that God is here today and tomorrow

Music (Slides) Lynn/Linda

The Solid Rock CCLI Song # 25417

Verse 1

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name

Chorus

On Christ the solid Rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand

Verse 2

When darkness veils His lovely face

I rest on His unchanging grace

In ev’ry high and stormy gale

My anchor holds within the veil

Chorus

On Christ the solid Rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand

Verse 4

When He shall come with trumpet sound

O may I then in Him be found

Dressed in His righteousness alone

Faultless to stand before the throne

Chorus

On Christ the solid Rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand

Passage (Slides) Jonah 3 Isaiah

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”

So, this time, Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across.

Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water.

Humans and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands.

Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.

Join me in the prayer of Jesus,

Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be your name.

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

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.

And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen

Lord’s Supper Slide Rick (Lynn gently play at post communion prayer)

The Anglican church of St. James Anglican Church,1793/1853

Guided to box, door open and Communion Offered

Hands opened and turn upward, Bread and Wine offered and taken

Hands Open…Open to release barrier to clear Remembrance

Significance of doing it with community of faith

Jesus sitting at table with one that had already betrayed him, one that would soon betray him repeatedly, and all but one would be absent from the crowd as Jesus hung on the cross.

After Judas had betrayed Jesus, and before Peter would deny Jesus three times, all the disciples, including Peter and Judas, sat at the table with Jesus, Jesus broke the bread and gave thanks to God. As he broke the bread he said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Then, in similar fashion, Jesus took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” I Corinthians 11:24-26

Partake – May we remember… Close with PRAYER

Music (Slides) Lynn/Linda

Living Hope CCLI Song #7106807

Verse 1

How great the chasm that lay between us

How high the mountain I could not climb

In desperation I turned to heaven

And spoke Your name into the night

Then through the darkness Your loving-kindness

Tore through the shadows of my soul

The work is finished the end is written

Jesus Christ my living hope

Verse 2

Who could imagine so great a mercy

What heart could fathom such boundless grace

The God of ages stepped down from glory

To wear my sin and bear my shame

The cross has spoken I am forgiven

The King of kings calls me His own

Beautiful Savior I’m Yours forever

Jesus Christ my living hope

Chorus

Hallelujah praise the One who set me free

Hallelujah death has lost its grip on me

You have broken every chain

There’s salvation in Your name

Jesus Christ my living hope

Verse 3

Then came the morning that sealed the promise

Your buried body began to breathe

Out of the silence the Roaring Lion

Declared the grave has no claim on me

Chorus

Hallelujah praise the One who set me free

Hallelujah death has lost its grip on me

You have broken every chain

There’s salvation in Your name

Jesus Christ my living hope

Message Rick (Leave Title Slide up for entire message)

[Title slide for entire message]

I attempted to find out this week the number of children’s books that have been written about Jonah. I quickly found that it is an impossible feat. Even AI admitted that she, or he, or them, could not begin to tell me how many Jonah related books have been written about the character Jonah in the Bible. AI did, however, offer to tell me the story of Jonah. Even when you just do a search of Children’s Bible Stories the majority of those found are about Jonah. My attempt at a count on Amazon revealed that there are hundreds, which are mostly recent publications.

What makes the abundance of Jonah books written for children is that the story is definitely not a children’s story. The main figure is definitely a racist, possibly would be considered a nationalist, He attempts to disobey God’s calling, which is a not a good trait for a prophet of the true God, and he tries to run away from God and from God’s presence. He is a self centered person who carries a great deal of resentment and hatred. He is entitled in regard to his religion and his faith seems to show no heart, and, in the end, he seems to have no trust in God. He is a horrible life witness of his faith, and it would seem that his life witness would have done more to discourage people from believing in God. He is not the example of a solid prophet.

On the other hand, Jonah definitely has the unmatched best conversion record of anyone in in history. His heartless verbal negative witness did more to win more people over than anyone or anything else. The fact that he is able to do this while just being a horrible nasty person is bizarre.

Commentator Christopher B. Hays describes the story of Jonah as “a prophetic tale with many paradigmatic elements, and can be understood to bring into focus important theological questions: What is the nature of prophetic calling? Are humans free to resist the will of God? Does God change God’s mind? What is the role of human repentance? And how do foreign nations figure in God’s plans?”

Christopher B. Hays, Fuller Seminary

Is the storu about Ninevah and their acts of repentance or about Jonah and his messy heart and mind? Is it a clarification to entitled humans who forget that the transformation it not about us, it is about the work of the Spirit that graciously invites us into the process?

Jonah, a man we know very little about, who possibly had a file sitting in the human relations office filled with complaints, nevertheless was called by God. The universal call to love God and to love others. But in today’s passage, we see God giving him a specific calling, a calling to go to Nineveah.

Jonah tried to run away from God and God’s calling, fleeing in the opposite direction. Still, even though he was in full on disobedience of God, the Spirit still used him to lead a group of gentile sailors to a worship and praise of the unknown God. The story of Jonah is a bizarre story a work done by the Spirit in spite of the prophet calling to that very work.

Nineveah was not a pleasant place. Around fifty years later we know that the Ninevites, many of whom were probably there in Jonah’s day, were much of the power for the Assyrian military forces when they attacked and conquered the Northern Kingdom of Isreal – enslaving most of the Isrealites.

But it is in this moment of history, as Jonah finally begrudgingly and heartlessly runs through the city screaming we see a moment of amazing repentance took place. The repentance is an odd story in itself. They removed their nice fancy clothing and replaced it with feed sacks, and they even dressed their animals in the feed sacks. And then their ruler joined them in this heart filled act.

The only person who did not recognize the moment was the prophet called to this very moment. While he sat outside the city, Jonah pouted outside the gates. A miracle he missed, a monumental moment in God’s relationship with a people and Jonah failed to experience awe at God’s miracle.

You have to wonder if the ultimate story of Nineveh would have been different if Jonah had stuck around and led the people to recognize what the moment meant. If he had led the people, even days, weeks, and months later to move to a deeper understanding of God’s mercy and love.

How different would history have looked? How different would the ultimate path of the Ninevites been if they had allowed their transformation to flourish and grow? What would our world look like today?

What if Jonah had actually cared?

Yes, God ultimately used the Ninevites along with the Assyrians to confront and correct the Israelites, but what if God’s path to correcting the Israelites could have been through the lasting and ongoing transformation of the Ninevites?

What if believers around the world actually cared?

What if we were to truly accept the same calling that God gives to all humanity – the calling to recognize the life giving breath of God that exists in all of humanity – God’s created?

The Ninevites were undoubtedly guilty of many horrible things. It is likely that Jonah had personally experienced the evilness of the Ninevites himself. His hatred is probably justified. God thought so, otherwise why would God have planned to destroy the Ninevites and their city?

The problem was that in Jonah’s refusal to care, his inability to care because of his own justified and hateful resentment, the only person who ended up in a negative space was Jonah himself. While the Ninevites were praising God following their repentance, Jonah sat outside of the city angry and his hatred had only grown.

The fact is Jonah was unable to care, not because he had a hardened heart but because he had a bruised mind. The pain of his past, or the pain of his loved ones, had consumed him, it had blinded him so that he could not see the breath of God in the people of Nineveh.

He was unable to follow God’s most basic of calling, a calling on all people regardless of their faith, or lack of faith, to a calling to recognize, respect, and even love all of God’s creatures to who carry the breath of God which gave them life.

Maybe, just maybe, the primary takeaway from the story of Jonah is not the mass repentance of the Ninevites, nor is it the fact that the powerful ruler of Nineveh took a stance of repentance. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll be so bold as to say probably, the main takeaway for us is that take account of those things that keep us from recognizing God’s breath of life in others is the resentments, hatreds, racism, condemnation and Judgment, that we carry in our minds and in our hearts.

When we lessen a person’s status or possibilities because they have offended us, or have belittled us, or someone we love, or because they are a different color and religion than us, or because they carry a label we are uncomfortable with or that we cannot understand… or have we mistakenly classified them as being bigger and more unworthy sinners than we are, or any other reason, we are then, because of what we carry, what we cannot release and are therefore unable to notice that the breath of God they carry.

Remember that Jesus expanded our understanding of the act of murder which included our minds and hearts of hate someone we are guilty of murder. Think about it, when we murder someone we render their breath useless and frail, until it negated – when we hate someone we do the same to them, when we hate someone we, in the end, hurt ourself.

Jonah failed to see the glory of his calling, the possibilities for his future, he failed to recognize the enormity of God’s road map. Jonah failed to honor God’s breath, he missed the opportunity to experience the greatest experience possible – God’s work of transformation, not just in an individual, but in an entire people group.

13th Century Persian Poet – Rumi, said.

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

It comes back to those open hands. The open hands that can receive communion are the same open hands that can release those things that keep us from following God’s calling. The open hands that can release that which hinders us from seeing God’s breath in other. The same open hands that can empower us to step onto the path of God’s calling – the path to be able to be a part of God’s wondrous work all around us.

(Slides) Lynn/Linda

Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) CCLI Song # 4768151

Verse 1

Amazing grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost but now I’m found

Was blind but now I see

Verse 2

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear

And grace my fears relieved

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed

Chorus

My chains are gone I’ve been set free

My God my Savior has ransomed me

And like a flood His mercy rains

Unending love amazing grace

Verse 3

The Lord has promised good to me

His word my hope secures

He will my shield and portion be

As long as life endures

Verse 4

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow

The sun forbear to shine

But God who called me here below

Will be forever mine

You are forever mine

Chorus

My chains are gone I’ve been set free

My God my Savior has ransomed me

And like a flood His mercy rains

Unending love amazing grace

Community (Slides) Rick

Fall-Advent Sermon Series, ‘My Eyes Have Seen”, Next Sunday –

11.17.24, ‘Woe Is Me’, Isaiah 5:1-8, Luke 5:8-10

Leadership Meeting Today
Jack’s BDay

Closing Peace (Slides) Rick (Slide)

Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.

Response: And also with you.

Closing Music Lynn/Linda

Glorify Thy Name CCLI Song # 1383

Verse 1

Father we love You

We worship and adore You

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Glorify Thy name

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Verse 2

Jesus we love You

We worship and adore You

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Glorify Thy name Glorify Thy name

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Verse 3

Spirit we love You

We worship and adore You

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Glorify Thy name

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Order, Words, & Voices 11.03.24

Order, Words, & Voices – 11.03.24, I Kings 17, ‘The Audacity of God’

Pre/Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Lighting of Christ Candle Rick

Songs Here I Am To Worship CCLI Song # 3266032 Billy/Linda

Passage/Prayer I Kings 17:8-16 Isaiah

Song Living Hope CCLI Song #7106807 Billy/Linda

Impact/Message The Audacity of God Rick

Song 10,000 Reasons 6016351 Billy/Linda

Community/Closing Peace/Introduce November song Rick

Closing Music Glorify Thy Name CCLI Song # 1383 Billy/Linda

Record message on memory card. – leave Room above Speaker’s head

Christ Candle (Slides) (Lynn playing/team ready) Rick

You, Lord, are my shepherd; I shall not want.

You, Lord, make me lie down in green pastures; You lead me beside still waters; You restore my soul.

You lead me in right paths for Your name sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for You, God, are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You, Lord, prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You, Lord, anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in Your house, O Lord, my whole life long.

Amen.

Music (Slides) Billy/Linda

Here I Am To Worship CCLI Song # 3266032

Verse 1

Light of the world

You stepped down into darkness

Opened my eyes let me see

Beauty that made

This heart adore You

Hope of a life spent with You

Chorus

So here I am to worship

Here I am to bow down

Here I am to say that You’re my God

And You’re altogether lovely

Altogether worthy

Altogether wonderful to me

Verse 2

King of all days

Oh so highly exalted

Glorious in heaven above

Humbly You came

To the earth You created

All for love’s sake became poor

Bridge

And I’ll never know how much it cost

To see my sin upon that cross

And I’ll never know how much it cost

To see my sin upon that cross

Chorus

So here I am to worship

Here I am to bow down

Here I am to say that You’re my God

And You’re altogether lovely

Altogether worthy

Altogether wonderful to me

Passage (Slides) I Kings 17:8-16 Isaiah

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there, for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”

So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.”

As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.”

Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son.

For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.”

She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

Join me in the prayer of Jesus,

Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be your name.

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

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.

And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen

Music (Slides) Billy/Linda

Living Hope CCLI Song #7106807

Verse 1

How great the chasm that lay between us

How high the mountain I could not climb

In desperation I turned to heaven

And spoke Your name into the night

Then through the darkness Your loving-kindness

Tore through the shadows of my soul

The work is finished the end is written

Jesus Christ my living hope

Verse 2

Who could imagine so great a mercy

What heart could fathom such boundless grace

The God of ages stepped down from glory

To wear my sin and bear my shame

The cross has spoken I am forgiven

The King of kings calls me His own

Beautiful Savior I’m Yours forever

Jesus Christ my living hope

Chorus

Hallelujah praise the One who set me free

Hallelujah death has lost its grip on me

You have broken every chain

There’s salvation in Your name

Jesus Christ my living hope

Verse 3

Then came the morning that sealed the promise

Your buried body began to breathe

Out of the silence the Roaring Lion

Declared the grave has no claim on me

Chorus

Hallelujah praise the One who set me free

Hallelujah death has lost its grip on me

You have broken every chain

There’s salvation in Your name

Jesus Christ my living hope

Message Rick (Leave Title Slideup for entire message)

[Title slide for entire message]

Our passage today acquaints us with an array of characters, emotions, places, and problems. A wicked king and an even more wicked queen, a loved son, a coming drought accompanied by a sense of doom and hopelessness, a desperate and suicidal widow, and a prophet living a nightmare version of the Bill Murray’s ‘Groundhog Day’ scenario minus any redemption.

Today, we focus on the widow and the prophet.

A widow whose inner mental state is filled with darkness and a hopelessness that goes to bed with her every night and waits for her to wake up every morning. Her only real light is her son, but even his existence serves as a constant reminder of her inability to provide for him or to rescue him from inheriting her darkness. The widow is not a Jew, she is a gentile living just outside of the northern kingdom of Israel, in a city of Zarephath. A city which leans into the practices, cultural mindsets, and even religion, of the Israelites. She is a widow, poor, and female, add to that the adopted judgments and condemnation of the Jews, makes her an outcast even among her own people. None of her peers will be coming to her rescue.

This widow is in desperate need of a rescue, or a rescuer. We are first meeting the widow as she enters the town square where she is gathering sticks to go home to make a fire in order to use the sparse remaining bit of oil and the final serving of flour she has to make a meal before she and her son will die by starvation. A story similar to that of Hagar we heard last Sunday.

The widow collects enough sticks for her fire as the Prophet named Elijah enters the city square.

While the job of a prophet often focuses on the future, the most difficult aspect of his work is addressing the present. For hundreds of years prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah would preach of an oncoming devastation but they would do so by addressing the present manner of the society, a populous that is rejecting God through their selfish actions and hollow hearts, acting out a pretentious holiness that was anything but holy.

For a prophet, speaking to the present was a dangerous job. Evil leaders, political and religious, did not like to have prophets like Elijah confronting their evil agendas. Evil kings had come one after another, each worse than the last all pretending to be faithful followers of God, reinforced by their chosen false prophets. Elijah, however, saw that none were faithful or holy. Ahab, the latest King, is the worst so far.

While God does permit, or appoint, certain individuals to be in leadership positions, both political and religious, many or most those chosen are not endorsed, blessed, or faithful. Instead, they are allowed to lead because God intends to use them to correct and then redeem the people. Many leaders that are heralded to be ‘godly’ and seldom following God’s calling. They are only using the pretense of Godliness to wins the affirmation of the people in order to stay in power..

Currently, Elijah had just given the new King Ahab the bad news that a drought of correction was headed their way. This was not news the King would like to hear, it was even more unwelcome to the King’s wife Jezebel – who would push her husband, King Ahab to be an even worse King than ever before.

Let’s take a moment to settle into the lives of the widow and the prophet. Each hopeless, each filled with anxiety, seeing no sign of hope, at a point of ‘giving up’. Can you identify or empathize? Does the current state of our world, our nation, our lives cause us to feel the same as these two?

As the story unfolds we find out that God has already audaciously instructed the widow to take the prophet in and to feed him – even though at this point this audacious God had not provided the essentials for her to obey God’s instruction. God had also led Elijah, the prophet, to venture out of his land and live in the house of this widow audaciously expecting to be given food and water by her.

First, before we continue, we must recognize the first and original calling to all of God’s created, an expectation under which all of later given law falls under. It is a calling on all humans regardless of religious belief.

Genesis 2:7, “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

God breathed life, life can only come from God. Even if we reject God we cannot reject His breath. Satan cannot breathe life into humans. God is the creator of life, it is His breath that inhabits each of us. It is his breath that encompasses our very being, everything about us. It is the presence of God in all of us, it is the constant among all peoples. Some people may harden themselves to the impact of that breath, they may constantly deny that the breath exists, but, the breath, and all the elements of the breath come from God.

Why can we not escape the presence of God? Because we carry God within our very being.

That breath lays out the way we exist, the way we interact. That breath calls us to a life of recognizing that breath in others, all others. All others that, just as in our lives, we live because we were given life that could only be from the breath of God.

Look throughout the history of the Old Testament, when there was a devastation, a full on destruction of a people, or a city, or a nation, or a temple, or anything else that was permanent and final – it is because a people hardened their hearts to God’s breath withing that led them to live without any recognition of God’s breath, life, in the lives of others. Think of the people in the time of Noah, or the city of Sodom. They were a people who had no sense of God because they had hardened their hearts in a way that there was no return. They will abuse, they will disrespect, they will reject, they will misdirect, they will they will harm, they will dismiss, they forget that life is precious to all peoples because the breath of God is precious in all peoples.

Eventually this became a cultural custom that still exists, a custom a custom sometimes called hospitality. Eventually the term Hospitality lost its force and stronger words spoken by the prophets and then Jesus were spoken, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

This was the understanding that even the non Jewish widow understood. It was a calling from God that she followed. So, the call out from Elijah to the woman to give him water and food was not really that audacious in a human sense. It was this gentile woman, considered unclean to the Jews, act of following God, the God that she did not know but still she lived out of the breath God through which she had life even though it was currently a really, really, miserable life.

And, as she hesitantly followed, unbeknown to her, God had just introduced her to Himself. Her trust in the calling of this unknown God had just brought her, and this audacious prophet, home to what would soon be life.

This part of the story ends with hope. The woman not only feeds and houses Elijah, she ends up with a life supply of oil and flour. The widow and her son survive but that is not the end of their story. Fresh on the heels of this answer to the prayer they are both hit in the face with another crisis.

The son dies, he has no more breath, and Elijah is expected to raise him from the dead. The widow and Elijah are aggravated with God. The widow blames Elijah and Elijah blames God. The widow screams out at Elijah, “What have you against me?” Elijah screams out at God, “You brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”

Both had forgotten the actions of God earlier. Their trust is still shallow. They had just rejoiced in the Oil and Flour, but they still were weak in their trust of God. God was now growing them. Allowing them to see God’s hand when life had once again become dark and hopeless. The widow saw her son die, no breath, and Elijah was now expected to do something he had never had to do before – raise a breathless lifeless body back to life. They both needed hope, they both needed to see God, they both needed God’s breath to return.

Elijah did the only thing he knew to do, because Elijah knew that he was not able to give breath. Elijah cried out, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.”

And, God once again breathed the breath of life. Letting trust grow and life to return.

Rest of story…

Elijah and the Widow trusted God more with each moment of trusting God and watching and waiting for his answer. That growth become better sight on our part because we begin to more and more trust God with HOW He answers. As We trust God, As we trust His answer, we are more and more ready to trust God again and again.

Ill – Toronto Tower

Application

Continue God’s Universal Calling.

Strive to respect and love.

See God in the Answers, Allow Those Moments to Build Your Trust.

(Slides) Billy/Linda

10,000 Reasons CCLI Song # 6016351

Chorus

Bless the Lord O my soul O my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before O my soul

I’ll worship Your holy name

Verse 1

The sun comes up it’s a new day dawning

It’s time to sing Your song again

Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me

Let me be singing when the evening comes

Verse 2

You’re rich in love and You’re slow to anger

Your name is great and Your heart is kind

For all Your goodness I will keep on singing

Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

Verse 3

And on that day when my strength is failing

The end draws near and my time has come

Still my soul will sing Your praise unending

Ten thousand years and then forevermore

Tag

Worship Your holy name

Lord I’ll worship Your holy name

Ending

Sing like never before O my soul

I’ll worship Your holy name

Worship Your holy name

Community (Slides) Rick

Fall-Advent Sermon Series, ‘My Eyes Have Seen”, Next Sunday –

11.10.24 Inescapable, Jonah & Luke 18:9-14

Jonah’s attempts to escape from God Calling

Closing Peace (Slides) Rick (Slide)

Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.

Response: And also with you.

Intro to November closing song. Rick (Billy Playing)

‘Glory’- ‘representing’. Moses reflecting God, Us reflecting Jesus, ‘as we go we represent (glorify) God – Father, Son, Spirit. Reminder as we leave.

Closing Music Billy/Linda

Glorify Thy Name CCLI Song # 1383

Verse 1

Father we love You

We worship and adore You

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Glorify Thy name

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Verse 2

Jesus we love You

We worship and adore You

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Glorify Thy name Glorify Thy name

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Verse 3

Spirit we love You

We worship and adore You

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Glorify Thy name

Glorify Thy name in all the earth

Order, Words, & Voices 10.27.24

Order, Words, & Voices

10.27.24, Kevin Driskill, Genesis 21:8-21 Deliverance and Hope

Order

Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Lighting of Christ Candle/Responsive Reading Mitch

Songs Build My Life CCLI Song # 7070345 Lynn/Pato

Passage/Prayer Genesis 21:16-18 Lars

Song Great Is Thy Faithfulness 18723 Lynn/Pato

Speaker Introduction Grace

Impact/Message Hope and Deliverance Kevin Driskill

Music 10,000 Reasons 6016351 Lynn/Pato

Community Mitch

Closing Peace Mitch

Closing Music Thank You Lord # 577439 Lynn/Pato

Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Please record message on camera memory card.
On the message Video Leave Room above Speaker’s head for the instagram post.
Screen Share for entire message

Christ Candle (Slides) (Lynn playing/team ready) Mitch

[Slides] [Light Christ Candle]

Leader: We give thanks for the light of hope, unrelenting and inexplicable.

Response: Our hope in Christ shines on and on.

Leader: We give thanks for the light of peace, strong and unafraid.

Response: The peace of Christ lights our way.

Leader: We give thanks for the light of joy, persistent and unpredictable.

Response: The joy of Christ brightens our lives.

Leader: We give thanks for the light of love — fierce and holy.

Response: The love of Christ challenges and comforts.

Leader: We give thanks for the light of Christ that shines despite the unholy agendas of unholy humans.

Response: Thank you, God, for your light in this world through Jesus Christ.

Leader: The light shines in the darkness.

Response: And the darkness has not, and will not, overcome it.

Leader: May our focus today be solely on the light that is Christ.

Response: Amen.

Music (Slides) Lynn/Pato

Build My Life CCLI Song # 7070345

Verse 1

Worthy of ev’ry song we could ever sing

Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring

Worthy of ev’ry breath we could ever breathe

We live for You

Verse 2

Jesus the name above ev’ry other name

Jesus the only one who could ever save

Worthy of ev’ry breath we could ever breathe

We live for You

Chorus

Holy there is no one like You

There is none beside You

Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are

And fill me with Your heart

And lead me in Your love to those around me

Bridge

I will build my life upon Your love

It is a firm foundation

I will put my trust in You alone

And I will not be shaken

Verse 1

Worthy of ev’ry song we could ever sing

Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring

Worthy of ev’ry breath we could ever breathe

We live for You

Verse 2

Jesus the name above ev’ry other name

Jesus the only one who could ever save

Worthy of ev’ry breath we could ever breathe

We live for You

Passage (Slides) Genesis 21:16-18 Lars

Then Hagar went and sat down a good way off, opposite her son Ishmael. She was about the distance of a bowshot when she said, “Do not let me look on the death of my son.”

And as Hagar sat opposite Ishmael, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her,

“What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of your son Ishmael where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.”

Join me in the prayer of Jesus,

Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be your name.

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

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.

And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen

Music (Slides) Lynn/Pato

Great Is Thy Faithfulness 18723

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

Speaker Introduction Grace

(Title slide)

Kyle Tubbs, CBF OK Coordinator, was our scheduled speaker for this morning, however, Kyle ended up in the hospital and so is unable to join us. However, Sarah Stewart, pastor of FBC OKC, came to our rescue suggesting that we reach out to Kevin Driskill who she strongly recommended and who is a faithful member of her church, OKC FBC. Kevin currently lives in Pauls Valley with his childhood sweetheart Lisa, Driskill. They have six kids and five grandkids all of which are in the Pauls Valley area except for one who is in Georgia. Keven served as pastor here in Oklahoma at Byars Baptist Church for 17 years. He currently teaches Graphic Design at Mid America Tech Center. Dad wanted me to make sure to say that he is very excited about the passage that Kevin has chosen for this morning as it fills an important hole between the promise to Abraham and the birth of Samuel in the narrative story we have been looking at. He also says that he wished he had included this story in our summer series about untold Biblical characters and seldom recognized stories in scripture – therefore he is very glad that Kevin is sharing what the Spirit has led him to see in the life of Hagar. Welcome Kevin.

Message Kyle (Leave Title Slide up))

[Title slide for all of the sermon}

No Transcript Available for this morning.

(Slides) Lynn /Pato

10,000 Reasons CCLI Song # 6016351

Chorus

Bless the Lord O my soul O my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before O my soul

I’ll worship Your holy name

Verse 1

The sun comes up it’s a new day dawning

It’s time to sing Your song again

Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me

Let me be singing when the evening comes

Verse 2

You’re rich in love and You’re slow to anger

Your name is great and Your heart is kind

For all Your goodness I will keep on singing

Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

Verse 3

And on that day when my strength is failing

The end draws near and my time has come

Still my soul will sing Your praise unending

Ten thousand years and then forevermore

Tag

Worship Your holy name

Lord I’ll worship Your holy name

Ending

Sing like never before O my soul

I’ll worship Your holy name

Worship Your holy name

Community (Slides) Rick

Fall-Advent Sermon Series, ‘My Eyes Have Seen”, Next Sunday –

I Kings 17, ‘The Audacity of God’

Time Change Next Saturday night before going to bed turn clock back an hour.

Closing Peace (Slides) Rick

Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.

Response: And also with you.

Let’s stand as we sing our October closing song.

Closing Music Lynn/Linda/Pato

Thank You Lord CCLI Song # 577439

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

Order, Words, & Voices 10.20.24

Order, Words, & Voices

10.20.24, Being Noticed/Being Heard, I Samuel 1:1-20

Order

Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Lighting of Christ Candle/ Rick

Songs Lord I Need You 5925687 Lynn/Linda

Passage/Prayer I Samuel 1:1-20 Lars

Song Because He Lives (Amen) 7027887 Lynn/Linda

Impact Rick

Impact/Message Being Noticed/Being Heard Rick

Music Gratitude 7158417 Lynn/Linda

Community Rick

Closing Peace Rick

Closing Music Thank You Lord # 577439 Lynn/Linda

Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Please record message on camera memory card.
On the message Video Leave Room above Speaker’s head for the instagram post.
Screen Share for entire message

Christ Candle (Slides) (Lynn playing/team ready) ?

[Slide] [Light Christ Candle]

Leader: Today we seek truth.

Response: Today we seek a recognition of the power of truth.

Leader: Today we accept the reality of lies and deceit that have become casually acceptable by those who influence and lead us.

Response: Today we accept our obligation to do the work of separating lies and truth.

Leader: Today we seek to love God, our God, the God who is love.

Response: Today we strive to love all peoples not just those who agree with us.

Leader: Today we choose to follow God.

Response: Today we choose to worship God.

Leader: May our worship be guided by a focus on God and not humans.

Response: May our focus be steadfast and visible in our lives when we leave this place.

Leader: Let this be our prayer.

Response: Amen.

Music (Slides) Lynn/Linda

Lord I Need You 5925687

Verse 1

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

Chorus 1

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

Verse 2

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

Bridge

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

Chorus 2

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

Passage (Slides) I Samuel 1:1-20 Lars

A man named Elkanah had two wives; one was Hannah, and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

Every year Elkanah would go up and sacrifice to the Lord at Shiloh. Every time that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave portions to his Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters, but to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, even though the Lord had closed her womb.

Peninnah would bully Hannah severely, to irritate her, because she had no children. Every year when they went up to the house of the Lord. Hannah would weep and not eat.

Elkanah said to Hannah, “Why do you weep and not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”

On one occasion, after they had eaten, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Eli the priest was sitting beside the temple doorpost. Hannah was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.

Hannah made this vow: “O Lord, please look on my misery and remember me and do not forget me but give to me, your servant, a male child, then, I will set him before you as a nazirite until he dies He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.”

Eli observed Hannah as she prayed before the Lord. She was praying silently; with only her lips moving; Eli thought she was drunk. So he said to her, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.”

Hannah answered, “No, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have no drunk wine or strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard me as a worthless woman, I have been speaking out of my great pain.”

Eli answered, “Go in peace; may the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.” Hannah went her way and was sad no longer. In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son named Samuel who she had asked for from the Lord.

Join me in the prayer of Jesus,

Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be your name.

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

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.

And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen

Music (Slides) Lynn/Linda

Because He Lives (Amen) 7027887

Verse 1

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

Chorus 1

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

Verse 2

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

Bridge

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

Chorus 2

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

Impact Prayer (Slide) – Rick

Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, BJC upholds the historic Baptist principle of religious liberty: defending the free exercise of religion and protecting against its establishment by government. BJC is a collective of attorneys, Capitol Hill insiders, ministers and scholars who work in the courts, with Congress and in the community to defend the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom for every person, including those who don’t claim a faith tradition. As the only national faith-based group solely focused on protecting religious freedom for all, BJC file briefs in pivotal Supreme Court cases, advocates for and against legislation, testifies in Congress and unites with others across faiths to ensure that every American has — and always will have — the right to follow spiritual beliefs.

Message Rick (Slides)

[Screen share for all of the sermon]

[Slide – leave slide up until next slide] ‘A man named Elkanah had two wives; one was Hannah, and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.’

I Samuel 1:1

We begin this story viewing it from a human perspective, a stuck, imperfect, and sometimes brutal earthly perspective.

Ill: Fuge ‘See you on the other side.’ We will see you without all your crud.

We humans get stuck on the human perspective, the earthly perspective, the one sided perspective, which is where we begin this story of Peninnah, Elkanah, Eli, and Hannah. All are victims of being seen through with a deceitful earthly perspective, a faulty filter – they are also all blinded by this same haze as they victimize others…the same as us.

In this first sentence we are given the foundation, the context, and the why of this story, all of which are human filters. We experience the pain, the heartbreak, the disappointment, the selfishness and the selflessness, the insecurity, the jealousy, and the vengefulness that rises out of all of these human emotions and wounded hearts. We see hopes and dreams shattered, competitive relationships ruptured, envied love, unconditional love, sacrificial love, encouraging love, safe love, and even a measure of withheld love.

We see a man named Elkanah, a woman named Hannah, another woman named Peninnah, a priest named Eli, and the God that these very, very, human humans all served. And, at the surface we see the unholy use of children as pawns in a brutal game of “I’m better than you”, and finally, we see a grieved woman, a victim of society and society’s rules and expectations, who has no children at a time when having children was the peak obligatory purpose for a woman.

A man named Elkanah had two wives; one was Hannah, and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

I Samuel 1:1

[Title Slide – leave up until page 11]

Elkanah was a man of faith, every year he would travel to the temple to observe the practices of his faith. With him on this yearly journey would be both wives and the children of his wife Peninah as well as his wife Hannah who had no children – not by any choice she had made but because she, so far, had proven unable to have children.

Having children was important. It was especially important for a father to have a son as a source of pride, as an heir, a son to carry on the work of the father, a son that would take care of his parents in their old age.

A son was a retirement policy, an income guarantor, a protector, and hope for the continuation of the family name. A son, from an unholy human perspective, was the marker of manhood and success for a father.

Hannah did not have a son, or any children, she had not met the expectation of society and of the religious system. She was worthless and she saw herself as worthless. Instead of children, Hannah had a nemesis – her fellow wife, Peninnah. Peninnah taunted Hannah, she dismissed Hannah, she intentionally did all she could do to make Hannah’s life a nightmare. Peninah used the advantage she had, which Hannah did not have, to torture Hannah.

Peninnah used the fact that she was able to conceive and give birth, in a time when giving birth was what society used to measure a woman’s worth. A reality that was not a choice, a reality that Hannah could do nothing about, a reality that was miserable, a reality that, for Hannah, was in her face every day.

Peninnah was also a victim. Her husband saw her as the ‘second wife’. Not second because of an order, but second because was less loved by her husband. Having these children was not, and could not be, a joy. They were her only hope of holding on to Elkanah. While society in its unholy filter, largely created by their own religion as well as the expectations of society, actually all societies, to have a son, to have children – she had the approval of others but she did not have her own approval, she saw herself as useless, just as Hannah saw herself as useless. The two women could have been a support to each others, they could be allies but they were not. Peninnah could not see rejoice in the gift of the children while her only desire was the love of her husband – so she became resentful of Hannah because she didn’t have what Hannah had – Love

Two women, miserable because they both wanted what the other had but neither had the ability to change the situation. They could have been sisters and allies, praying together but instead they were living, in the same house, apart.

Ironic – Thousands of years ago and today. VP Candidate demeaning women without children (regretted how he said it but not what he said), while evangelical Christians and politicians demean women using alternative methods of conception. Abraham, Jesus…

We still live with an unholy measure of worth of ourselves and others. We still judge others according to that unholy measurement.

? Lord of the Flies ?

Peninnah noticed the cries of Hannah but chose to use society’s unholy measurements of Hannah’s worth against her. The insecurity that Peninnah carried caused her to use her own pain to inflict pain upon Hannah, much like we see take place with Abraham’s wife Sarah against Hagar. Peninnah noticed Hannah’s pain but never truly heard Hannah’s cries, she hardened her heart upon noticing Hannah’s misery and saw it as a selfish opportunity.

Elkanah noticed and heard Hannah’s pain and did what he knew to do. There was no enlightenment of what he could do in regard to Peninnah’s bullying but still he empowered Hannah to do what she knew to do. He gave her more money for more prayers before God. And, he reassured Hannah that he did not see her through the human unholy measuring standard of childbearing. Elkanah also did not hold to the unholy measuring standard of humanity – he empowered Hannah to make her own sacrifice above and beyond what he had done in giving her the money. He did not argue at her decision to make her son, when he would eventually be born to be literally given to God, to serve God in the temple even as a child.

Eli, the priest, noticed Hannah’s desperation, at first he stuck to a human perspective doubting her pain, but he soon revealed a willingness to hear Hannah’s pain. In that, he too did what he was empowered to do, he made a prophetic promise to Hannah that she would have a child. Eli also accepted Hannah’s sacrifice of giving her so to God, all the while Eli knew that he was a failed father and raising a sacrificial son would have even more expectation of fathering in the eyes of God that he had accepted with his own sons.

‘Hannah, following the promise from Eli, went her way and was no longer. She had already chosen to do the only thing she knew to do, to trust God. Now she have a verification that God had not only noticed her pain but that God had also heard her pain. In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son named Samuel who she had asked for from the Lord.’

Hannah…

From a Human perspective…

Childless, Victim, Bullied, Miserable, Unworthy, Unheard

Yet, she was persistent, she prayed, she sacrificed

She was Determined, She was Blessed, She was Loved, She was still Trusting of God

Now, Hannah saw God’s perspective of who she was from a holy perspective. Now she knew that God was there, now she knew the peace and hope that comes from knowing God is present regardless of what we can see and regardless of the pain we face. She left Eli still without a child but now she was no longer sad … now she trusted.

us always.

[Slide] Challenge to us.

[Slide] Rest in God’s Arms. Trust God’s Embrace.

[Slide] Don’t allow our earthly perspectives to govern how we perceive others.

[Slide] Don’t allow our earthly perspectives to govern how we perceive ourselves.

[Slide] Always Remember – We are loved, we are blessed, we have hope, we are noticed, we are heard, we are loved.

This does not mean we will not be miserable or in pain, there may still be suffering, all because of the actions of others or even our own actions, but still, we are loved, noticed, heard.

[Slide] Always Understand – when our religious or political norms, or beliefs, cause us to be hateful or judgmental toward ourselves or others, those beliefs or norms are unholy and must to be reconsidered.

[Slide] Always Understand – From God’s perspective, we are always noticed, we are always heard, we are always loved. And, we are always called to notice and hear others. We are always called to love others.

Music (Slides) Lynn /Linda

Gratitude CCLI Song # 7158417

Verse 1

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

Community (Slides) Rick

Fall-Advent Sermon Series, ‘My Eyes Have Seen”, – Next Sunday- Special Speaker Kyle Tubbs, Coordinator of CBF OK.
CC Crop Walk, Today, 2:00pm, Ruby Grant Park (register for team Grace Fellowship on Web page or register at the walk – no cost to walk)
Instagram, GF link on website (follow @gracefellowshipnorman)
CBFOK Celebrating Excellence Banquet Dinner, Sunday, November 3 at 6pm at the Sam Noble Museum, GF has a table so there will no be no cost for attendees. 6 spaces open.

Speaker – Amanda Tyler , Executive Director, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC). Tyler is also the lead organizer of BJC’s Christians Against Christian Nationalism. Tyler is the author of How to End Christian Nationalism, which will comes out this Tuesday. Tyler has served as a constitutional law analyst and an advocate for faith freedom on most major US news outlets. Religion News Service named Tyler one of “2022’s rising stars in religion. She testified before Congress in 2023 on the threats of Christian nationalism to religious liberty, and her 2022 testimony before Congress highlighted the ways Christian nationalism proves cover for white supremacy. In 2018, she appeared before a U.S. Senate Committee to testify about threats to religious liberty around the world.

Closing Peace (Slides) Rick

Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.

Response: And also with you.

Closing Music Lynn/Linda

Thank You Lord CCLI Song # 577439

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

Order, Words, & Voices 10.13.24

Order, Words, & Voices

10.13.24, Who Wants to Be Respectable Anyway, Mark 7:1-23

Order

Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Lighting of Christ Candle/Responsive Reading Segun

Songs Who You Say I Am 7102401 Billy/Linda

Passage/Prayer Mark 7:1-23 Lars

Song Lord I Need You 5925687 Billy/Linda

Impact/Speaker Introduction Renee

Impact/Message Who Wants to Be Respectable Anyway Randy

Music Goodness of God 7117726 Billy/Linda

Community Renee

Closing Peace Renee

Closing Music Thank You Lord # 577439 Billy/Linda

Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Please record message on camera memory card.
On the message Video Leave Room above Speaker’s head for the instagram post.
Screen Share for entire message

Christ Candle (Slides) (Billy playing/team ready) Segun

[Slide] [Light Christ Candle] As we gather with a shared focus, a shared core, we take a moment to remember that we our center is God, not politics not political beliefs or agenda, our Hope is not in any human being but in the sacrifices and living son, and our Peace comes from the guidance of the Spirit. Please join me in our responsive prayer.

[Slide] Leader: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:, where there is hatred, let me sow love;, where there is injury, pardon, where there is doubt, faith;

[Slide] Response: Where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

[Slide] Leader: God, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.

[Slide] Response: For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

[Slide] All: Amen.

Music (Slides) Billy/Linda

Who You Say I Am 7102401

Verse 1

Who am I that the highest King

Would welcome me

I was lost but He brought me in

Oh His love for me

Chorus 1

Who the Son sets free

Oh is free indeed

I’m a child of God

Yes I am

Verse 2

Free at last

He has ransomed me

His grace runs deep

While I was a slave to sin

Jesus died for me

Yes He died for me

Chorus 2

In my Father’s house

There’s a place for me

I’m a child of God

Yes I am

Bridge

I am chosen not forsaken

I am who You say I am

You are for me not against me

I am who You say I am

Tag

(Oh) (Yes) I am who You say I am

Passage (Slides) Mark 7:1-23, Lars

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.

For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders, and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash, and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.

So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?” Jesus said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines’. – You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

“You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’

But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus nullifying the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”

Then Jesus called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and goes out into the sewer?”

Thus Jesus declared all foods clean. And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Join me in the prayer of Jesus,

Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be your name.

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

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.

And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen

Music (Slides) Billy/Linda

Lord I Need You 5925687

Verse 1

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

Chorus 1

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

Verse 2

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

Bridge

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

Chorus 2

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

Impact Prayer (Slide) – Renee

Our Impact Emphasis today is on All Tribes Church in Geary, Ok and their pastor, Wayon Upchego. In addition to pastoring All Tribes Church, Waylon was previously the county police chief, and now is Mayor of Geary which means he is also the CEO of the various Geary utility companies. He is the first native American Mayor in the history of Geary. Waylon began the pastorate at All Tribes in 2017 where, shortly after his arrival, he led the church from being for a specific tribe and instead to welcome all tribes and all peoples whether native or not. Geary is in one of the poorest counties in the United States. They are plagued with poverty and high Fentanyl deaths, and childhood hunger. All Tribes serves meals to all of the city of Geary 2-3 times a week, and, at the dinners, the church always have supplies Fentanyl tests and Naloxone/Narcan for the community. These are usually taken by grandmothers who wish to have them ready if needed for their grandchildren. Waylon, on average performs an overdose funeral once every 1-2 months. The church is currently experiencing an increase in children’s attendance on Sunday morning, largely due to the fact that breakfast is served as part of the Sunday School program – The children are usually taught and led by Waylon’s wife Nikole who is with Geary Public Schools. In addition to their own children, Waylon and Nikola have raised several foster children who are all still active members of the family.

Introduction of Speaker (Message Title slide) Randy Ridenour, – Renee

Our guest speaker is probably not a stranger to many of you. We have been blessed to have Dr. Ridenour, Randy, with us several times. Randy is currently a Professor of Philosophy at Oklahoma Baptist University. He also serves as a guest preacher to churches around the state as needed. Randy is an Oklahoma native, he has served as an infantry soldier, chaplains’ assistant and was commissioned as a chaplain with the Army Reserve. He served in active duty in 2003 and 2004, stationed at Fort Hood in Texas, supporting the soldiers and families of the 4th Infantry Division during their deployment to Iraq. Welcome Randy.

Message Randy (Slides)

[Title Slide]

No Script available

Music (Slides) Billy /Linda

Goodness of God CCLI Song # 7117726

Verse 1

I love You Lord

Oh Your mercy never fails me

All my days

I’ve been held in Your hands

From the moment that I wake up

Until I lay my head

I will sing of the goodness of God

Chorus

All my life You have been faithful

All my life You have been so so good

With every breath that I am able

I will sing of the goodness of God

Verse 2

I love Your voice

You have led me through the fire

In darkest night

You are close like no other

I’ve known You as a father

I’ve known You as a friend

I have lived in the goodness of God

Chorus

All my life You have been faithful

All my life You have been so so good

With every breath that I am able

I will sing of the goodness of God

Community (Slides) Rick

Fall-Advent Sermon Series, ‘My Eyes Have Seen”, – Next Sunday- Being Noticed/Being Heard, 1 Samuel 1:9-11, 19-20, 2:1-10
CC Crop Walk, Next Sunday, October 20, 2:00pm, Ruby Grant Park (register for team Grace Fellowship on Web page)
Instagram, GF link on website (follow @gracefellowshipnorman)
CBFOK Celebrating Excellence Banquet Dinner, Sunday, November 3 at 6pm at the Sam Noble Museum, GF has a table so there will no be no cost for attendees. 6 spaces open.

Closing Peace (Slides) Rick

Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.

Response: And also with you.

Closing Music Billy/Pato

Thank You Lord CCLI Song # 577439

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

Order, Words, & Voices. 10.06.24

Order, Words, & Voices

10.06.24, Remembering Love, Exodus 32:1-14

Order

Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Lighting of Christ Candle/Prayer Rick

Songs He Walks With Me, Song # 7068848 Billy/Pato

Passage/Prayer Exodus 32:1-14 Cricklins

Song In the Garden # 7102401 Billy/Pato

Impact/Message Remembering Love Rick

Music Goodness of God Billy/Pato

Community Rick

Closing Peace Rick

Closing Music Thank You Lord # 577439 Billy/Pato

Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Please record message on camera memory card.
On the message Video Leave Room above Speaker’s head for the instagram post.
Screen Share for entire message

Christ Candle (No Slide) (Billy playing/team ready) Rick

Prayer

God, thank you for the opportunity, this morning, to gather together entering into a mutual holy focus on You. We ask that you guide us through an inventory of those things that distract us from You. May we recognize those things that steal our attention and steal our hearts. May we be aware of those moments when our human filters are permitted full reign in our minds and hearts. May we guard against those allegiances and agendas, political and even religious institutions, those that often hijack our faith and steal our hearts. God, we ask that you immerse us in truth and guide our steps on Your path. Amen.

Music (Slides) Billy/Pato

He Walks With Me (1 Peter) CCLI Song # 7068848

Verse 1

Though now we have trials

We wait for salvation

Though tested by fire

We suffer with joy

Verse 2

By His great mercy

Our hope has been born again

Faithful as the morning

We’re raised up with Christ

Chorus

And I cannot see Him

But oh how I love Him

I cannot see Him

But I believe I know He walks with me

I believe that He walks with me

Verse 3

Raised up with the priesthood

To witness His wondrous works

Called out from the darkness

To shimmering light

Chorus

And I cannot see Him

But oh how I love Him

I cannot see Him

But I believe I know He walks with me

I believe that He walks with me

Passage (Slides) Exodus 32:7-1, Cricklins

God said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them;

They have cast for themselves an image of a calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’

”The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen how stiff-necked the people are. Let me alone so that my wrath may burn against them and I may consume them, and then, out of you, Moses, I will make a great nation.”

Moses implored the Lord saying, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that their God brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”

And the Lord altered his decision about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

Join me in the prayer of Jesus,

Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be your name.

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

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.

And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen

Music (Slides) Billy/Pato

In the Garden # 7102401

Verse 1

I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses

And the voice I hear falling on my ear

The Son of God discloses

Chorus

And He walks with me

And He talks with me

And He tells me I am His own

And the joy we share as we tarry there

None other has ever known

Chorus

And He walks with me

And He talks with me

And He tells me I am His own

And the joy we share as we tarry there

None other has ever known

Verse 2

He speaks and the sound of His voice

Is so sweet the birds hush their singing

And the melody that He gave to me

Within my heart is ringing

And He walks with me

And He talks with me

And He tells me I am His own

And the joy we share as we tarry there

None other has ever known

Verse 3

I’d stay in the garden with Him

Tho’ the night around me be falling

But He bids me go thro’ the voice of woe

His voice to me is calling

Chorus (X2)

And I cannot see Him

But oh how I love Him

I cannot see Him

But I believe I know He walks with me

I believe that He walks with me

Impact Prayer (No Slides)

Prayer for our world during our current manmade and natural crisis. No Slides, let this prayer wash over you as we prepared to look at God’s word. Prayer for our world, Prayer for our impact on/in our world. Let us pray…

God Almighty and our all-merciful God, through Christ Jesus you have taught us to love one another, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and even to love our enemies.

In times of violence and fear, may the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, so that we may not be overcome with evil but, instead, evil will be overcome with good.

Help us to see each person in light of the love and grace you have shown us in Christ.

Wipe away our nightmares of terror and awaken us to the dawning of your new creation. Establish among us a future where peace reigns, justice is done with mercy, and all are reconciled.

We ask these things in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Message Rick (Slides)

[Title Slide]

Let’s just start with this troubling segment of our passage, this uncomfortable portrayal of God’s character.

[Slide – Your people] God angrily tells Moses to go down the mountain because the Isrealites are worshipping the golden calf. God says “Go down to YOUR people, whom YOU brought out of Egypt!”

God is done! [Story of Caleb as toddler- ‘YOUR son’].

In this same anger and angst, note that the people, who were too impatient to wait for Moses to return from talking to God, had previously said to Aaron, “Get up, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

[Slide – Leave me alone] Then, God still immersed in his anger, still speaking to Moses, says, “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a different great nation of you instead.”

It is an oncoming bloodbath, God is considering throwing the people under the bus and, at the same time, the people have set themselves to reject God and return to the false gods of the Egyptians – they, in turn, are throwing Moses and even God under the bus.

Remember, God had called the Israelites “My People,’ AND it was GOD, not Moses, who had “brought the Isrealites out of the land of Egypt. The people have rejected God and Moses and now it appears that God is rejecting the people and placing the responsibility for the people fully on the shoulders of Moses.

God is saying, “I’m considering consuming them…”, and “Let’s start over and Moses can lead an obedient people, not THESE Israelites.”

This split of God and Israel from one another seems mutual angry and impatient decision. A red line has been crossed for both.

Dismal

[Slide – 400 years] Now, to better understand how things between God and the HIS people got to this point, let’s look again at some background. The Israelites, over the course 400 plus years gradually had become unwanted but essential, while invisible but all too noticeable, marginalized but feared. Just as God had explained to Abraham, his descendants would be oppressed and enslaved for 400 plus years.

The question is, ‘How did this happen?’ ‘How did the Hebrews/Israelites, over the centuries of generations’ not recognize what they had settled into?’

2 Considerations as to why Hebrews were still in Egypt centuries later.

1. [Slide – comfortable] It could have been that they had become too settled, too comfortable, that they had settled along the way. Generation after generation subtly accepted their new status on the way to enslavement. With each opportunity to leave and return to the land of their ancestor Abraham and Sarah, and Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Rachel. But they had forgotten the promise. They had had become comfortable, they had settled on Egypt being home – even though they were oppressed, enslaved, and worse than marginalized in Egypt

2. [Slide – fulfill 1st 2 elements of promise] Or, could it be that God had left them there just as he had told Abraham he would. Could it be that the Hebrews needed to stay in Egypt in order to achieve the first two elements of the original promise – to become as numerous and the stars in the sky, and, to become a people, a community, chosen children of God. These two elements of the promise to Abraham had to be fulfilled before they could head toward the fulfillment of the third part of the promise that they would possess their land.

So, we return to God who, in anger, proclaims that

[Slide – Consume] God will now consume the Israelites.
[Slide – Weight on Moses] The people are now a weight only on Moses’ shoulders, no longer on God’s shoulders.
[Slide – Replacements] God is going to continue to use Moses but will start over with another/other people.

Before we speak ill of the Israelites, let’s try to understand them

[Slide – Low Trust] At this moment in the lives of the Isrealites they have a very low trust in this God, they had a very small treasure chest of memories and experiences of and with this God.
[Slide – Short time – 3 months] For all intent and purposes they only met this God in a first person manner three months before.
[Slide – Lack of knowledge of God] The only solid connections they had before this was their experience with the plagues, miracles of the exit, and the stories passed down from generation to generation of the promise God gave to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the stories of the their ancestor Joseph’s heroic saving of the Egyptians as well as the family of Jacob.

[Slide – impatience of humanity] However, there is also the reality of humanity’s inability to be patient and wait. This was a trait that God did not have and it was a reality that was unimaginable to the one true and Holy God.

[Title Slide]

Which leads us to an uncomfortable reevaluation of the character of God. We do not like to go outside our own one dimensional thinking of God.

God is God and must be interpreted through this divine and holy filter. God is the bar by which we judge holy and unholy. So, for God to have consumed the people would have made perfect sense and it would have been acceptable and just. Think of the sons of Aaron who desecrated the holy place and were consumed because it is impossible for evil and holy to coexist. However, the element of God’s love makes such an action, in our human thinking, unGodlike and unloving. This is where our one dimensional thinking is painfully and uncomfortably challenged.

We must understand…

[Slide – Fact] Fact. God is God we are not God.

[Slide – Fact] Fact. We were created in the image of God.

[Slide – Fact] Fact. God was not created in our image.

[Slide – Fact] Fact. We live in a fallen world, a world where sin reigns which creates a reality of negative influences and persistent struggles.

[Slide – Fact] Fact. God lives in Holiness and is not influenced by evil, nor is God persistently engaged in struggles such as our struggles. God, as proven in the earthly life of Jesus, does not succumb to evil.

[Slide – Fact] Fact. God is Love.

[Slide – Fact] Fact. We were given life through the breath of Love.

[Title Slide]

So, just as any parent, and most persons, will attest to, children change us. Our rock solid opinions, practices, beliefs, convictions, viewpoints, and even our faith is, and will be, questioned, confronted, evaluated, dismissed, turned over, criticized, and forgotten. We will be internally challenged and left with doubts that lead us to reshape our view of the world, God, and humanity.

This isn’t bad. It is growth and maturity for beings that are given free choice but who are not God. Growth and maturity breaks down and tears away the things that are not truth. It also lets us see that some things are more multi-dimensional than we ever thought. We will begin to see that there are other perspectives that are not wrong and sometimes they are even better than our one dimensional, black and white, thinking.

It all leads us to listen, consider, accept, tolerate, and, as we learn to see people without our human judgements we find ourselves more capable of life, more able to accept, more empowered by love.

So, we go back up the mountain where Moses has listened to God.

Moses reminds God of God’s love for, and His promise to, the people.

God’s intentional filter is not just righteousness, it is a righteousness immersed in and ultimately acted out through God’s character of love. It takes a human perspective for this love to be called out to God. This is why Jesus had to be in the flesh, not only to die for us but even more to live for us. To become the power of God’s love in the midst of God’s Holiness and perfection.

[Slide – God does not…] God did not, God does not, change His mind, rather, God allows love to reorient His chosen actions and responses. Sometimes in scripture we see that God uses humans, humans who understand what it is like to be human, and who are able to understand the human struggle. Moses reminded God of His promise to the people and well as his love for the people. And then for us and God, Jesus is the validation of that love, Jesus lived the struggle of love and ‘right’. Jesus paved the way for us to understand the power of God’s unharnessed love.

[Slide – Thy Kingdom Come] Think for a moment, when Jesus told His disciples and therefore tells us, to pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Jesus is praying for righteous and love to coexist, not just one or the other. He was not giving us a magic collection of words that will change the world, no, Jesus was naming God’s calling on all of us. To stand on the foundation of Love as we stand for a world so in need of God’s love. A world in need of each of us to live in the midst of hatred while shining love that pierces the darkness. This is what Moses was reminding God – God was to have a righteous mindset but he also was love, and, being both did not come automatically even for God.

[Slide – God invites] God invites us to join Him in His creative masterpiece, into His neverending work of mercy and compassion. God’s call to us is to live out God’s righteousness fully immersed in, and guided by, God’s Love.

Music (Slides) Billy /Pato

Goodness of God CCLI Song # 7117726

Verse 1

I love You Lord

Oh Your mercy never fails me

All my days

I’ve been held in Your hands

From the moment that I wake up

Until I lay my head

I will sing of the goodness of God

Chorus

All my life You have been faithful

All my life You have been so so good

With every breath that I am able

I will sing of the goodness of God

Verse 2

I love Your voice

You have led me through the fire

In darkest night

You are close like no other

I’ve known You as a father

I’ve known You as a friend

I have lived in the goodness of God

Chorus

All my life You have been faithful

All my life You have been so so good

With every breath that I am able

I will sing of the goodness of God

Community (Slides) Rick

Fall-Advent Sermon Series, ‘My Eyes Have Seen”, – Next Sunday- 10.13.24, Who Wants To Be Respectable Anyway’ Mark 7:1-23, Randy Ridenour
CC Crop Walk, Sunday, October 20, 2:00pm, Ruby Grant Park (register for team Grace Fellowship on Web page)
Instagram, GF link on website (follow @gracefellowshipnorman)

Closing Peace (Slides) Rick

Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.

Response: And also with you.

Closing Music Billy/Pato

Thank You Lord CCLI Song # 577439

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

Order, Words, & Voices 09.29.24

Order, Words, & Voices

09.29.24, Pass-Over, Exodus 12:1-13:8

Order

Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Lighting of Christ Candle/Communion Rick

Songs Build My Life CCLI Song # 7070345 Billy/Pato

Passage/Prayer Exodus 12:50-13:8 Renee

Song Who You Say I Am # 7102401 Billy/Pato

Impact/Message Rick

Music Lord I Need You # 5925687 Billy/Pato

Community Rick

Closing Peace Rick

Closing Music Thank You Lord # 577439 Billy/Pato

Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close

Please record message on camera memory card.
On the message Video Leave Room above Speaker’s head for the instagram post.
Screen Share for entire message

Christ Candle/Participatory Prayer: (Slides) (Billy playing/team ready)

Lord’s supper/Unity founded on Jesus

Music (Slides) Billy/Pato

Build My Life CCLI Song # 7070345

Verse 1

Worthy of ev’ry song we could ever sing

Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring

Worthy of ev’ry breath we could ever breathe

We live for You

Verse 2

Jesus the name above ev’ry other name

Jesus the only one who could ever save

Worthy of ev’ry breath we could ever breathe

We live for You

Chorus

Holy there is no one like You

There is none beside You

Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are

And fill me with Your heart

And lead me in Your love to those around me

Bridge

I will build my life upon Your love

It is a firm foundation

I will put my trust in You alone

And I will not be shaken

Passage (Slides) Exodus 12:50-13:8, Renee

All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.

The Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”

Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.

Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month.

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory.

You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

Join me in the prayer of Jesus,

Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be your name.

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

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.

And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen

Music (Slides) Billy/Pato

Who You Say I Am # 7102401

Verse 1

Who am I that the highest King

Would welcome me

I was lost but He brought me in

Oh His love for me

Chorus 1

Who the Son sets free

Oh is free indeed

I’m a child of God

Yes I am

Verse 2

Free at last

He has ransomed me

His grace runs deep

While I was a slave to sin

Jesus died for me

Yes He died for me

Chorus 2

In my Father’s house

There’s a place for me

I’m a child of God

Yes I am

Bridge

I am chosen not forsaken

I am who You say I am

You are for me not against me

I am who You say I am

Tag

(Oh) (Yes) I am who You say I am

Impact Celebration/Prayer Rick

[Slide] Grace Fellowship

Message Rick (Slides)

[Slide] Introduction Illustration – Patrick Hutchinson

On June 13, 2020, 50-year-old father and grandfather of three, Patrick Hutchinson, along with four friends specifically went to George Floyd protest in Trafalgar Square in central London “just in case”.
Hutchinson – “everyone asks if rescued man ever said ‘Thanks’”
Why do we expect thanks but often times forget to show thanks?
What does thanks do in regard to the actions that preciptated it?

[Slide – leave up til next slide]

Pass-over/Exodus Story

Basics of story

“For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.” (Exodus 12:23)

Questions about story

For every victory for Isrealites, the other side suffers.
Egyptian civilians had seen God’s power in very public display of plagues but still, along with Pharaoh, continued to reject God.
The Lord had given the Hebrews favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked for. It seems as though God had manipulated Pharaoh throughout their engagement. Was this to show the Egyptians the fickleness of human nature, that their leader was a failed human being? That the Egyptian God were false?
First Born. Isaac, Esau/Jacob, Ruben…then, in Egypt at time of Exodus we see the weight of the first born from all families – greater inheritance but also a much greater weight of responsibility. God delivers the first born from the wave of death. Jesus is the first born of humanity. We, through Jesus, THE first born, are delivered.

[Slide – leave up til next slide]

Response/Motivation/Life Purpose

Lives were saved before any personal commitments made other than painting the doorposts.
Lives lived were to be an act of gratitude, lived out in gratitude for undeserved gift of life given, commitment called for later, following golden calf and gift of the law.
Yearly Act of remembrance led by first born who were protected from death, personal in homes among loved ones, personal testimony and continued remembering of Pass-Over. This act of remembrance was personal, observed (still today) in their homes in the midst of their most raw and vulnerable relationships. They were instructed to observe this even before they had actually experienced their deliverance.

[Slide – leave up til next slide] Response

God saved the first born therefore the first born owe their life to God.
God saved you, and me, therefore we owe our life to God.
Our response is to remember this grace and live out our response to the world.

[Slide – leave up til next slide] Life Lived Out Witness/Experiential Story Teller

Theologian Nancy Guthrie, on raising and reminding children

Live as a grateful repentant sinner before our world rather than verbal models of perfection.
Pray for the world’s spiritual life rather than getting frustrated with or trying to micromanage the world’s morality.
This is also a call to the church in the presence of our world. Parent’s love, God’s love, is motivator of our response.
Live in a grateful state for God’s grace on you before the world instead of being a micromanager of the world.

[Slide – until music] Motivation for Life – Life was delivered by God. Not because anyone promised to faithfully serve but because God loved them. When we truly live out our lives in a response of gratitude for our deliverance that took place while we were still sinners, we will remember and the world will see truth in our lives. Life fulfilled is life lived with that grateful response.

Music (Slides) Lynn /Linda/Pato

Lord I Need You # 5925687

Verse 1

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

Chorus 1

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

Verse 2

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

Bridge

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

Chorus 2

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

Fall-Advent Sermon Series, ‘My Eyes Have Seen”, – Next Sunday- 10.06.24, Remembering Love, Exodus 32:1-14
CC Crop Walk, Sunday, October 20, 2:00pm, Ruby Grant Park (register for team Grace Fellowship on Web page)
Instagram, GF link on website (follow @gracefellowshipnorman)

Closing Peace (Slides) Rick

Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.

Response: And also with you.

Closing Music Lynn/Linda/Pato

Thank You Lord CCLI Song # 577439

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

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