[0:00] Good morning, everybody. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. If any of the kids would like to come up and sing, come up and join us. This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made.
[0:22] The Lord has made. Let us rejoice. Let us rejoice. And be glad in it. And be glad in it.
[0:35] This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made.
[0:55] Good morning. Welcome to Pendleton Church. Fill out your friendship card so we can get to know you. We have a gift for our visitors here at the Connection site.
[1:06] I hope you guys have a great day. Enjoy the service. We do welcome you to Pendleton Center United Methodist Church this morning. We have a couple of clipboards we're going to be passing around.
[1:17] The first one is for the 24-hour prayer vigil that is coming up this coming weekend. We'd like for you to take a moment and look at that and possibly sign up for one of the one-hour slots for that.
[1:28] Also, in the pews are cards. If you have a prayer you'd like to have lifted up over that prayer vigil, put that in there, and then we will collect those up and pray for those. The other one is for the 30-hour famine.
[1:40] That is a youth event that's also coming up this weekend. And the youth are going to be fasting for 30 hours in order to raise funds to support World Vision, which feeds hungry children around the world.
[1:52] What we're looking for, though, is at the very end of that 30 hours, we have a feast, a spaghetti dinner to celebrate. And we could use some donations of food. And we could also use some help in preparing all the food, because having a group of hungry teenagers trying to cook them, it would be not good.
[2:10] So if you're willing and able to help, that'd be wonderful. Thanks. And we also have another mission opportunity next week. People have asked me about the earthquake in Nepal. We're going to take up an offering to help with that effort next week.
[2:22] So you can write something today if you want to. But if you want to become prepared next week, we will have an offering for that. Also, if you happen to be a teenager or parent or sponsor of one of our comprimands, there is a rehearsal dinner two weeks from last Friday or a week from this Friday, however you want to call that.
[2:42] And they are looking to have those reservations in this week. So if you could write down on your friendship card your reservations and let us know you're coming, we'd appreciate that. Shall we turn to the Lord in prayer?
[2:54] Dear God, we thank you for this morning, and we thank you for the blessings you share with us. We thank you for this beautiful day and the opportunity to come and worship you in this place. Bless us today and always in Jesus' name.
[3:05] Amen. I'd like to invite you to stand if you're able as we sing together for the beauty of the earth. For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, For the love which from our birth, over and around us lies, Lord, above to thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise.
[4:01] For the joy of human love, brother, sister, parent, child, Friends on earth and friends above, for all gentle thoughts and mild, Lord, above to thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise.
[4:29] For thy church that evermore lifted holy hands above, Offering up on every shore, offering up on every shore, The pure sacrifice of love, Lord, above to thee we raise, This our hymn of grateful praise.
[4:56] For thy self-best gift divine, to the world so freely given, For that great, great love, for that great, great love of thine, Peace on earth and joy in heaven, Lord, above to thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise.
[5:26] The Lord be with you. And also with you. Take a moment if you will and greet your neighbor with the peace of the spirit. I'd like to invite the children to come up and join us now if they would.
[5:49] You know what Pastor Lisa brought for me this morning?
[6:06] Donuts. A box of Paula's donuts. They're giant donuts. Oh, they look so good. You think I should eat this whole box of donuts?
[6:17] No? Wouldn't that be good for me? You don't think it'd be good for me to eat all these donuts? No, it wouldn't, would it? No. Because there's just too many of them.
[6:29] They'll make me sick. Wouldn't be a good thing. What should I do when I have too much of something? Share it. Yeah, and I'd share it with you, but there's too many of you. So I'm going to have to find a different crowd to share it.
[6:41] But I should look for somebody who needs something. We could cut them up, you think? Yeah, yeah. Then I won't have any for the next service. Oh, I don't know. It's scary. Maybe we could take a couple out and share them with you guys.
[6:54] We'll have to see, okay? But anyways, if we have something that we have too much of, especially something that's really not even that good for us, we should always share it, right? Because God didn't give us extra so that we could have it all for ourselves.
[7:07] He gave it to us so that we could have something to share with people who don't. All right? What are you guys thankful for this morning? You want to raise your hand? My mom and dad. My mom and dad.
[7:19] My family. My mom and dad. My nana. That my grandma came to church with me. My sisters. My dad.
[7:31] My mom and dad. My mom and dad. My grandma. Friends and family. Mama and daddy.
[7:43] All right. You got it, everybody? All right, Lord, we do thank you for all the great blessings we have, our friends, our family, and even the good things you give to us. Help us always to be a blessing for you. In Jesus' name we pray.
[7:55] Amen. Okay, you guys can all go out to church school now. And share with us about our mission ministry in Nicaragua.
[8:14] Good morning.
[8:26] Yes. First of all, I have to, I don't know if you know me, I'm Anne-Marie Zahn from the Nicaragua missions. I spend seven, eight months out of the year there, and I come home to here, to East Amherst.
[8:39] And we send both containers of supplies, which you are very much a part of. All those buckets that you filled for ages, our families enjoy and they receive. I have to thank you.
[8:50] I have to thank you for being part of our mission. The wonderful Eric and Linda who collect all the buckets to begin with so you can fill them. The wonderful ladies who've sewn, I think we just received 400 diapers so they can fill the children's baby bags to give to mothers who have newborn children.
[9:08] You've done a lot. You've given funds that we put up a water tank. This year we used your funds in the school for the death. They have a wonderful nursery, so to speak, plants, flowers, trees, and they raise them.
[9:23] They cultivate them. They care for them. And then in the end they sell them so they can maintain their work at the school for the death. So you're very much a part of that, something that goes on. So I appreciate that.
[9:35] And I just want to leave you with the thought that I read once after World War II, some soldiers were in Berlin or in Germany, I should say, and they went into a church that was bombed out.
[9:48] And when they went into the church, all that was standing was a statue of Christ, but his hands were knocked off. And one of the soldiers made a sign and put it on his stump of the Lord's hands and said, the sign said, the only hands I have now are yours.
[10:08] And how true that is. We are on earth to be our Lord's hands, our Lord's feet, our Lord's eyes, his ears, and especially his heart.
[10:24] We cannot touch hundreds of people in our goodness. You cannot feed hundreds of elderly. You cannot send hundreds of children to school.
[10:35] You cannot help for those who are afflicted hundreds. But you can do one. We can touch one person, whether that one person is as far as Nicaragua, that one person is in our neighborhood, that one person is in our church community, or in our family.
[10:55] What we have to do is do our best, do our good, be our Lord's hands, and do whatever we can, as long as we can, to as many as we can, in any place that we can, in any way that we can.
[11:11] I thank you for being part of our missions, and I ask that our Lord continue to fill your hearts with the love you have already shown to others. God love you. Thank you.
[11:23] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Give our tithes and offerings and our gifts to the Lord.
[11:34] I ask that you would remember that there is an envelope in your bulletin, specially designated for the Nicaragua missions that this church supports, that so many of our people are involved with, it is something that the Lord has put on our hearts as a church, as members of the body of Christ.
[11:52] This church is a blessing, and we're a blessing because we've been blessed by the great God who has stuff and all the wealth that there could possibly be, and God pours it out into us.
[12:05] And we just remember when we give our tithes and offerings that it is an act of worship for our Lord. Is there, yeah? Yeah. Just make it out to the church and it goes into, yeah, you just, yeah, that's a good question.
[12:22] All the stuff that we, you know, that we take up offerings for in different collections for, if you just make a check out to PCUMC, which is Pendleton Center United Methodist Church, it goes into the fund, and if it's in that envelope or if you designate on the memo line what you want it designated for, our financial team takes care of making sure everything goes where it belongs, okay, so you don't have to worry about that.
[12:45] Let's give as the Lord has called us to give, in the measure God has called us to give, as God has blessed us so generously that we can be generous to others. Let's give as the Lord has called us.
[12:56] Let's give as the Lord has called us. Let's give as the Lord has called us. Let's give as the Lord has called us.
[13:13] Let's give as the Lord has called us. Let's give as the Lord has called us. Let's give as the Lord has called us.
[13:31] Let's give as the Lord has called us. Let's give as the Lord has called us. Let's give as the Lord has called us.
[13:54] Let's give as the Lord has called us. Let's give as the Lord has called us.
[14:19] Let's give as the Lord has called us.
[14:38] Let's give as the Lord has called us. Let's give as the Lord has called us.
[15:12] Thank you.
[15:42] Heavenly Father, we do give you thanks and praise for this day.
[16:01] What a wonderful time to gather together and worship you. We are so grateful for the opportunity that we can freely come and worship. And we ask that you would bless the offering that we've brought before you, Lord God.
[16:14] Bless it and give us wisdom to know how to best use it for the furtherance of your kingdom, that many would come to salvation in Jesus Christ. And especially, Lord God, bless the offering that we've brought forth for Nicaragua, for all of the mission and the ministries that take place there, that these funds support.
[16:33] We pray that many hearts would be touched for Christ. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please be seated.
[16:43] I do have a prayer concern to bring before you.
[16:54] Shirley Darnell had emergency surgery on Tuesday. She's doing well. Everything's okay. It was kind of a serious thing, but she came through it okay. And she's on the mend now.
[17:05] So we're going to be keeping her in our prayers. But also in her family, we've got quite a blessing. Anna Ward and Tucker Smith welcomed new daughter Alana Taylor Smith into the world on Thursday.
[17:19] And she is blessing, let's see, her brothers Vinny and Lucas. And she is blessing Grandma Barb Jeffords and Cindy Ward and great-grandparents Shirley Darnell and Ron and Jean McMorris.
[17:31] And she has aunts in the church too, Luann Bannis and Julie Beck. There's a whole bunch of folks in family who are blessed by this baby's arrival. And we are, as a church body, blessed as well.
[17:43] Amen? Amen. And so with the concern of the healings that are needed and whatnot, and also the joys of new life in our midst and other joys that you have on your hearts, let's turn to the Lord in prayer.
[17:57] Amen. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you.
[18:13] What a wonderful thing to hear of new life. New life in our midst and, Lord God, it is such a blessing. There are so many little ones in our church now.
[18:25] There are so many little ones in our communities and in our families. We are grateful for the opportunity to nurture new life. Father, we are grateful to nurture all life.
[18:39] We pray that you would give us the strength and endurance and wisdom we need to care not only for all of the new little ones, but also we pray, Lord God, for those who are caring for those who are elderly.
[18:54] We pray for those who are caring for anyone who is in need of love and care. Lord, I guess that includes all of us.
[19:10] We pray that we would be gifted to nurture and love and care for all those you have put in our lives, but especially right now, Lord, for those in need, for those who have special circumstances.
[19:28] We thank you for your loving grace and mercy, Lord God. We thank you that you have come into our lives, that you have never left us, that you draw us to yourself so that we can know your love.
[19:40] Lord, we ask that you put the love in our hearts that we need to care for one another. Father, we pray in Jesus' name for all of those who are sick and infirm, that they would be touched, whether they need a touch in their spirits, their souls, or their bodies, Lord, that they would be touched by your healing power, that wisdom would be given to their caregivers, and as well, patience and compassion.
[20:11] We pray, Lord God, for all of those who are grieving losses. Bring comfort, Lord God. Bring peace. Let them know that they have been touched by your Holy Spirit and draw them into your presence.
[20:27] help them to realize how necessary it is to draw their strength from you, not to try to do it themselves.
[20:41] Father, we pray for our communities, Lord God. We pray for our schools. We pray for the nation. We pray for our world. For all of those who don't know you, we pray that they will come to know you.
[20:57] as you continue to draw them by your grace. We pray that you would give us a voice, a desire in our hearts to share your love wherever we go.
[21:13] That wherever it is that we are, by our witness, by our words, we would be Jesus to them, Lord, that when they see us, they would see our Lord.
[21:27] Father, we pray for those concerns, those needs that have not been lifted up out loud.
[21:38] We have those that are in our hearts, and we just lift them up to you now. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[21:49] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord, that you are the one who hears and answers prayer.
[22:02] We ask now, Lord God, as we hear your word, that it would wash over us, that it would transform us, that it would renew us in our faith and our commitment to serving you, to being your hands and your feet in this world.
[22:20] Amen. Amen. Amen. what you've given him for us and let it be a blessing to him and let it be a blessing to us.
[22:33] Lord God, make all of our worship to be a blessing to you this day. And make us able to go out and share your love wherever we go. In Jesus' name we pray.
[22:46] Amen. Shall we hear from the word of the Lord? Amen.
[23:24] Good morning. The scripture this morning is 2 James, verses 1 through 9. My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism.
[23:40] Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, here's a good seat for you, but say to the poor man, you stand there, or sit on the floor by my feet, have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
[24:06] Listen, my dear brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor.
[24:19] Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing right.
[24:36] But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Thank you, Amy.
[24:49] In the book of Proverbs, it tells us, put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Well, that's not a pleasant thought, is it? Gluttony is seen by most people as a tendency to eat too much.
[25:05] We're looking at the seven deadly sins and gluttony is listed amongst them as we're also looking at a study from the book of James. We're kind of walking our way through the book. And as our illustration, we're using the seven characters from Gilligan's Island who are based on the seven deadly sins.
[25:23] Now, what did they eat on the island? Well, most everything came from a coconut, it seemed, didn't it? Gilligan was always climbing a tree and getting a coconut for coconut milk, coconut cream pies, things like that.
[25:36] Basically coconuts, fish, berries, an occasional crab or a turtle egg, something called breadfruit, which is a fruit that you can sort of make into bread, crummy bread, and seaweed.
[25:51] Now, if you think about what it would take to actually find that food, process that food, collect all that food, and how much you would actually have at the end of the day, these people would be working all day long just to get enough food to survive.
[26:08] So how is it that if they worked that hard eating nutritional food all day long, Skipper stayed like this? Have you ever wondered that? I mean, that Skipper, he held that girth without any trouble, didn't he?
[26:24] Oh, but Skipper's not the example for gluttony. Skipper's not really the one. He's for a different one down the road. The one who's the example of gluttony is Mrs. Howell.
[26:41] Mrs. Thurston Howell III, or you might know her as Eunice Wentworth Howell, her actual given name, Lovey sometimes, her husband would call her.
[26:57] How could she be the one who's the example of gluttony? Because gluttony isn't just about food. Gluttony is really our desire to have more than we ever need to have. And not only to have so much more, but to have it in relation to other people.
[27:12] And you see, the reason why gluttony was listed amongst one of the deadly sins was not because it's talked about so much in the Bible, but because at the time they were figuring this out, there was not enough food for people to live.
[27:23] There were people dying from starvation, while other people were eating way more than they ever needed. And so they decided gluttony was a deadly, evil sin.
[27:34] to watch somebody starve to death while you put in a little more food that you don't need. So gluttony really is just taking more than we need, far more than we need, living an excessive life where we seem to think it's all about us, and particularly taking it away from somebody who desperately needs it.
[27:55] Kind of like when Lovey did this. In the harbor, I see a ship. What is this hurry, dear?
[28:14] I'll bring you... No, go get it! Go get it, baby. I'll bring you...
[28:25] I'll bring you... Nectar, my queen! Lovey, my dear, you mustn't cross in front of a big star! Oh?
[28:36] Try it again! I'll bring you Nectar, my queen! Thank you! No, Ginger! Ginger, you mustn't say thank you. See, that's a servant, that's a non-entity, a very lowly person, you understand?
[28:50] And incidentally, you look every inch a queen, proud, beautiful, accustomed to the adoration of the world. Thurston! You're beautiful. Thurston!
[29:01] Oh, yes! Yes, yes! What is it, dear? I'd like a word with you, a love. Oh, yes! Yes, of course! Maintain that mood! Yes! Yes, my dear, what is it?
[29:18] Thurston, do you remember the day we got married? Indeed I do! That was the day Consolidated General jumped 17 points. You still love me? Of course I do, darling!
[29:30] I adore you! You're, well, you're Mrs. Thurston Howell III. Well, doesn't it bother you that Mrs. Thurston Howell III should have such a teensy-weensy part in her husband's play?
[29:42] I never thought of it that way. A Howell playing a maid! Well, it isn't exactly typecasting, is it? The only parts left are, let's see, the high priestess, slave girl, lady-in-waiting.
[29:59] Well, the only part left is Cleopatra. All right, on stage, everyone!
[30:10] Everyone on stage! That's it, on the double! Now, I have an announcement to make. I've decided on a slight cost change. Mrs. Howell will play the part of Cleopatra, and Ginger will play the part of the maid.
[30:24] Howell! But, Mr. Howell? Hmm. You see, in life, it isn't always about what you can do or what you know or what your abilities are.
[30:36] It's who you know. Who's got the power? Who's got the ability to make things happen? Mr. Howell could do it. Suppose a person comes into your meeting, James says, wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor person comes in in filthy old clothes.
[30:55] If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, here's a good seat for you, but say to the poor man, you stand there or sit at the floor by my feet, haven't you discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
[31:12] Gluttony is not just about eating too much food. It's about having to take whatever you can get to make sure that you have the most. There's a parable, or it's actually a story, in the Bible when the prophet Nathan came in to King David.
[31:30] And he said, I have a story to tell you, King. He said there was a man with thousands of sheep. He had herds of sheep. And then there was another poor man that lived next to him who only had one little sheep.
[31:41] He treated him like his pet. He took care of him and loved him and nurtured that little sheep. It was his whole life. One day the rich man was giving a party for all his friends and family, and so he went next door to the poor man's house and he seized his little sheep and he served it for the dinner that night.
[31:58] And the king said, this man deserves to die. This is evil. This is immoral. How could he do such a thing? How could he do such a thing? We do this sort of a thing without even thinking about it.
[32:10] We don't even consider sometimes our actions and what the implications might be. We become a society that values things that are not necessarily the things that God would have.
[32:24] Money becomes a driver of our society because money can make so many things happen. And sometimes we'll sacrifice the very principles and our ideas of what's right and wrong or what we should do or the people we love because of money.
[32:41] There's a story of a pastor who got a phone call from a fellow who said, I'd like to have my dog baptized. The pastor said, well, we don't baptize dogs. There's a lot of theological reasons and such, but we just, you don't baptize animals.
[32:55] We can bless the dog, but we don't baptize dogs. And the man says, this dog means so much to me. He's like my child and I'd really like to have my dog baptized. And the pastor said, well, I do understand.
[33:06] I can understand your feelings, but we just, we really don't. It's a matter of principle. We don't baptize dogs. And the man said, oh, and I was going to give the church a $50,000 donation if you baptize a dog.
[33:18] The pastor said, well, why didn't you tell me it was a Methodist dog? That makes all the difference in the world. Don't get any ideas. I'm not baptizing any dogs. I'm not baptizing any dogs. But how far do we go?
[33:34] When a wealthy person comes into the place and they look great and they're all sharp and dressed nice, do we give them the seed of honor and put the poor people somewhere else? Do you know where the pews came from in churches?
[33:48] They came from rich people. That's where they came from. Basically, back in the day, everybody stood and the wealthy people said, well, this is foolish. Let's just buy some chairs for the church.
[33:59] We're looking at buying chairs for the church too. They're in the back of the sanctuary if you want to look at it. But see, back then, they bought their own chairs and they sat them in the church and basically, they were the only ones who could sit them.
[34:11] In fact, it was only 100 years ago that even in the Methodist church, they rented the pews. So if you wanted to sit in a comfortable chair, you had to pay rent. And when somebody said, get out of my seat, they meant get out of my seat.
[34:22] They even had little doors and locks on some of these pews years ago. In the back of the church, they'd have these beautiful, crummy benches that the poor people could sit on. And for years, they called them the sinner's benches.
[34:36] Because, of course, poor people are sinners simply because they're poor. That was at least the implication. It's not true. But you see, the truth is, we do have a way of treating people different based on how they appear, what they seem to have, whether they have wealth or whether they look poor.
[34:54] When somebody comes in and they have poor personal hygiene and they're not dressed right and they're not really so clean, you know what I'm talking about. Do we really want to sit with them? If a man comes into our sanctuary dressed like this, we'd probably listen to what they say and even probably put them up in front of the church and call them pastor.
[35:13] But if they came in a little while later dressed like this, we'd probably start talking about them and wonder, are they terrorists? Or should we keep an eye on them? Or maybe we better watch out because we're going to have to have them arrested as a troublemaker.
[35:28] For those of you who don't know, that was me at Easter. Both of those were me at Easter. You see, we really do judge people by how they dress and how they act and what they look like.
[35:39] Young people recognize that that's true. But should we? Should we be so caught up in this that we lose our sense of what's right and what's wrong? We've gotten to the point where we've made sensual pleasure into our idea of what's right and wrong.
[35:59] We even define the good life. The good life is if you have a big home with comfortable furniture and a large TV and a nice car to drive. Good clothes to wear.
[36:11] And you can go every day if you want to to Paula's Donuts and eat as many of these suckers as you want. How did Skipper say that without Paula's Donuts?
[36:22] What is it about us and Donuts? Have you noticed these Donut shops are everywhere now? We've got a Donut shop like every two blocks. What is it about people in this area and Donuts? They look good.
[36:38] You see the problem is even our idea of what's good and what's bad is based on what makes us feel good physically.
[36:51] What makes us feel happy. Paul wrote about it in the book of Philippians. He said in chapter 3 as I've often told you before and now say again even with tears many live as enemies of the cross.
[37:05] Their destiny is destruction. Their God is their stomach and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. Their God is in their stomach their pleasure.
[37:17] We've lost even our sense of what's right and wrong and who God is. In verse 5 of this passage from James it says listen my dear brothers and sisters has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and inherit the kingdom he promised to those who love him.
[37:38] Did you know that God favors the poor? Did you know that God gives an extra measure an extra blessing to the poor an extra measure of faith in fact even an extra opportunity for eternity?
[37:53] Remember the parable Jesus told of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man had all sorts of money and wealth and he would every day have these great banquet feasts where he invited his friends and his family to come and eat at his table.
[38:08] He was generous to all those he knew and he liked and they came and they ate with him regularly. Lazarus was a poor man sitting at the gate and he just hoped that maybe possibly there'd be a scrap that would fall from the table that he could eat so he'd have something to sustain himself but usually the dogs got to it too soon.
[38:27] He was covered in sores and pain and physical problems and the dogs would come and lick his wounds. Jesus continues the parable and says the rich man died and went to hell and Lazarus died and went to glory.
[38:43] They don't really say Lazarus did much of anything except for supper and God gave him an extra blessing. Now I'm not saying just being poor will get you into heaven but God certainly favors the poor.
[38:56] God certainly favors those who've been oppressed or hurt in this world and God has a problem with those who are wealthy and don't even see the poor.
[39:07] I don't want you to misunderstand God doesn't hate rich people. In fact there's good blessed rich people in the Bible. God just doesn't like when we get so caught up in this that it becomes so obsessive we think it's all about us.
[39:21] See gluttony blinds us. It causes us to believe that we deserve more and we look for more even beyond what could possibly possibly be required.
[39:36] Verse 4 says that you discriminate amongst yourself and become judges with evil thoughts. We do sometimes. We see people and we start to treat them in the perspective of what can they do for us.
[39:52] I like these people when I'm around them I feel better. I don't like those people. They bug me for some reason. I want to be around this person because I think they could help me in my business. That person's not going to be of any advantage to me.
[40:04] This person might be able to move me ahead here. I think I could be friends with that one. I don't want anything to do with those people. We treat people as if they're objects for our use instead of real people discriminating based on how they look or how they act or what traits we see.
[40:25] We don't even realize when we're doing them. If you've ever come to church here during the week you'll see something you usually don't see on Sunday morning. But today you will.
[40:37] Pastor Tom wears white socks with a suit. Now that bugs a lot of you. I know it does. So once a week on Sundays I put on colored socks. You know, black or brown socks.
[40:49] Now there's a reason for that. It's because I'm allergic to the dyes in socks. Twice in my lifetime I've gotten such a problem that my feet blow up to three times their size. I get enormous incredible pain and I can't walk on them for an entire week at least and it takes something called potassium permagnate which rips a layer of skin off my feet to cure this.
[41:11] So guess what? I'm wearing white socks. I don't wear white socks because it's some statement. I wear white socks because it's good for me. But it makes a statement.
[41:23] Even when I don't think it makes a statement people walk in and they go really? Dude's got white socks on with a suit. What's that all about? I mean really this is like kind of weird.
[41:35] You know? I went to seminary and I gotta tell you they saw the white socks. They instantly decided I was from some backwoods church and I didn't know anything about fashion or about any sense of anything.
[41:48] I was completely unsophisticated because I had white socks. You don't think we don't judge people just by what we see? I'm not gonna ask how many of you have wondered about the weird white socks thing.
[42:04] Imagine if people judged you just by a pair of socks. How they treat you if you don't look right in the way you dress. If you come from some other cultural norm or if your skin is the wrong color.
[42:20] We've heard about it lately. Can you imagine that you go into a store and the security people follow you for no other reason than just the way you look? And I can tell you at work store security we did follow people based on what they looked like.
[42:36] You wonder why we've had all this anger in our African American community recently. How would you like it if just walking down the street would cause the patrol cars to follow you?
[42:51] You haven't done a thing except be the wrong color in the wrong place. And I don't know how it's the wrong place. So last week we saw the anger that came out of that the frustration that came out of that boil up into violence and destruction in Baltimore which wasn't right I'm not saying that was good I'm saying we don't even understand the fact that we discriminate without even thinking about it.
[43:18] We discriminate on the basis of how old people are. Have you ever noticed once you get past 65 everybody yells at you. They assume that you're deaf just because you're 65.
[43:31] What? Do I need to talk louder? No. Geez what's the matter with you? If you're a young person they don't think you're responsible they don't trust you.
[43:43] We do this automatically. And it's hard it's difficult and it's based on the idea that we discriminate because somehow we've come to make our decisions of what's right and wrong based on all the wrong things.
[44:03] The hollows had money. I always thought on the island that the richest guy would be Gilligan. He could climb a tree and get as many coconuts as he wanted. This guy could have a hut full of coconuts.
[44:14] He'd be like the coconut king. Wouldn't that make him the boss of the island? I always thought it was a little mixed up. The truth is whoever's got the most is the one who makes the rules.
[44:28] In verse 6 of this passage it says you've dishonored the poor. Isn't it the rich who are exploiting you? Aren't they the ones who are dragging you off the court? I know sometimes we feel that there's people who don't deserve what little they get to survive on but I have to tell you I don't believe that God is upset about people getting enough to eat.
[44:50] I think God is a little more concerned when people seem to think that they have to have so much that they can use it and completely conspicuous consumption is what they call it.
[45:02] Don't they? Who needs a gold toilet? Seriously. I can't even imagine every time you flush it you're pumping money down the drain. Literally. I can't even imagine such a thing.
[45:14] Sometimes we've come to applaud things that are just not right and the wealthy take more and more and more and more. Nathan told that story to David and David was ready to kill the guy until Nathan looked at him and said your majesty you're the man.
[45:37] You had multiple wives already and you could have had any single woman in the entire kingdom just for the asking but you had to go over to Uriah the Hittite's house and take his wife and then have him killed so that you could steal his wife.
[45:52] You weren't satisfied with everything. You had to have the little bit someone else had. David just hung his head because he knew it was true. We like to scream and yell about the one percenters don't we in our culture because that makes the rest of us 99 percenters not feel so bad.
[46:09] The truth is the rest of the world looks at all of you and I and sees the rich man. They don't see Lazarus. They see the people who seem to be so comfortable that they can not only afford food they can eat Paula's donuts whenever they want to.
[46:26] But we don't see it. We don't feel it. We don't hear it. And so we consume more than we ever need and gluttony is not about overeating.
[46:36] Gluttony is about over consuming and thinking it's right. the answer to this is in the royal law.
[46:48] Did you hear the royal law in there? We have it written on our wall back there. The greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. The second, the royal law is love your neighbor as yourself.
[47:06] But that's not always as easy as it looks. See, even when I was disguised as a bum on Easter, I knew who I was. I don't know if any of you remember, but I didn't hesitate when I walked up.
[47:19] I just walked up like I was a pastor of the church, man. I'm not worried about anybody stopping me. I can come up here and say and do whatever I want. Some people are going, what does he think he's doing?
[47:31] I'm the pastor. All I got to do is pull this wig off and everybody's going, oh, oh, oh, that's funny, Pastor Todd. And then listen to me. I knew who I was.
[47:42] Deep down, I had a sense of confidence. I felt good about who I was. But imagine if you were the person who came into the congregation as they're describing in here, and you really are too poor to have good clothes, and you really can't afford to be clean, and you really have nothing, and you come in to sit down, and I'd imagine you'd sit down in a pew, and people would walk in and they'd say, I'm going to go sit with my friends over there.
[48:05] I know you'd say that wouldn't happen, but I've seen it happen. Pastor Suzanne once a time, you remember Pastor Suzanne? She dressed up like a bag lady one time and came into church here.
[48:18] Nobody sat with her. She tried it out in a new congregation she went to, by the way, and they called the police to have her arrested. You see, it's a little different when it's really true.
[48:32] When you're in disguise and you're just pretending to do it, that's one thing. What if you really were that person? When I was young, I didn't have enough money to pay my bills.
[48:43] I didn't have enough money to buy clothes. That was just out of the question. We never bought new clothes. We wore whatever we had. We went to church in a wealthy church, a wealthy community where everybody seemed to have a lot more than we did.
[48:58] They all seemed to be so well off and so comfortable, and we'd slip into the church, and we'd just kind of hide and hope that nobody noticed that we didn't have as much as they did to give or to do or anything else.
[49:14] I didn't have enough money to support my daughter and my wife and make my life work. I was terrified of my future because all I knew is that I faced uncertainty where it was just going to get worse.
[49:32] You know what it's like to feel like you have no way out and you're desperately feeling like a loser in this world, and you sit in amongst a group of people who seem to have everything.
[49:49] You don't feel good about yourself. That's how it feels. You feel awful. So when the commandment says love your neighbor as yourself, how does that work when you don't even feel good about yourself?
[50:03] You know how overeating begins. We eat because we feel crummy, and food makes us feel good.
[50:16] I'm going to tell you, man, just sniffing that box makes me feel good. If I were to eat one of these suckers right now, I would get a sugar bust. I would just feel good.
[50:30] Have you ever done that? Just punch down a bag of potato chips, man. Afterwards, you're like, food is my friend. Right? And if you're feeling a little down, just go to Timmy Ho-Ho's, man.
[50:42] Pop down some of that caffeine. Bam, bam, bam. And ladies, don't even get me started on your thing about chocolate. I don't know what it is about women and chocolate. We like chocolate, but you ladies, it's beyond liking chocolate.
[50:56] So we overconsume because that sugar high, that little caffeine rush, that extra carbs, it makes us feel good for a short time. We actually feel a little better and we feel picked up until, of course, it destroys our health because it's not our friend.
[51:14] It's not good for us, but for that short period of time, it makes us feel all right about the world because we don't really feel good. Not deep down.
[51:26] Answer to feeling better is not a bag of chips or a whole thing of ice cream. The answer is in recognizing whose we are. Jesus in chapter 6 of Matthew said, don't worry about your life, what you're going to eat or drink or about your body, what you'll wear.
[51:43] Isn't life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? He says, God knows what you need. Stop being so anxious and worried about it. Do you know that in the beginning of the Bible, it says, God made you in His image.
[51:58] Man and woman, male and female, you are made in the very image of God. And when He was done with that work He had done on the sixth day, He looked around at every one of you He made and said, you are very good.
[52:14] My gosh, the Lord of the universe thinks you're okay. Why would you care what people say? Why would you care what broken, messed up, confused, obsessive people would say, especially people who seem to think that the only way they can feel good about themselves is by consuming more than they need and showing it off to the world that they can do such a thing.
[52:36] Broken people that don't even love themselves. How many of you know who Tina Louise was? About three or four hands.
[52:47] Most of you know her by her other name. Ginger. Everybody knows who Ginger is. My gosh, red-headed women are now called Ginger because of Ginger. Did you know that?
[53:00] Ginger is considered to be one of, if not the most beautiful woman who was ever on television because of Gilligan's Island.
[53:12] You know, Tina Louise would never go back and do anything related to Gilligan's Island after the show ended because she felt it ruined her career and she was destroyed because of the very thing that makes her more famous than anybody else most of us will ever know.
[53:29] Isn't that amazing? You see, self-confidence isn't what comes from the outside. It's what comes from the inside. Overindulging isn't going to really make us feel good. Mrs. Howell, she had everything.
[53:42] She had minks. What's she doing with minks on a three-hour tour anyways? She had five million dollars in pocket money. Pocket money.
[53:53] Carrying around money. Five million carrying around. Who could possibly imagine carrying around five million dollars? And even more important, you realize, maybe you've not thought about this.
[54:09] Thurston and Lovey were the only ones who had somebody to love. There was no romance between any of the characters. There were no boyfriends, girlfriends, no other marriages. So for all those years they were on the island, the only two people who had somebody to be with was Lovey and Thurston.
[54:26] and yet she needed to take the little bit that Ginger had. That's why Lovey is a symbol of gluttony.
[54:37] But just like David learned when Nathan confronted him, if somebody will be a Nathan and point it out to us, we all can change. The rehearsal, my dear, was simply marvelous.
[54:52] With my directing and my producing, this play could be a big Broadway hit. Thurston, you haven't said a word about my performance. No, I haven't, have I? Well, it's an oversight on my part.
[55:04] May I say, my dear, that you are simply splendid. Oh, thank you, Thurston. Even Ginger, whom I replaced in the part, paid me a compliment. She compared me to a famous television personality.
[55:16] Oh, good. By the way, who is Mr. Ed? I wonder why she didn't compare you to Mrs. Ed. I'm going to wait for tomorrow night, opening night.
[55:27] A lot of details to attend to, my dear. See you later. Hello, Gilligan, my boy. Hi, Mr. Howell. Can I talk to Mrs. Howell? There she is. Cleopatra. See you later.
[55:38] Hi, Mrs. Howell. I hope you're not going to get mad at me for what I'm going to say. It's got nothing to do with your acting. I think that's real good.
[55:48] Maybe even better than Mr. Ed's. You see, the reason we put this play on in the first place was because Ginger was feeling so terrible about Broadway. And you're a very important woman, Mrs. Howell, and you got everything you want.
[56:02] But this play is the only thing Ginger's got. And I hope you're not getting mad at me. You see, Ginger's getting real desperate, and I thought that maybe if you'd, uh, I guess you're getting mad at me.
[56:16] You haven't said a single word. What? What's the matter, Mrs. Howell? Mr. Howell?
[56:27] Mr. Howell? What is it, Gilligan? She's talking, but nothing's coming out. Lovely, my dear. What is it? By George, she's got laryngitis.
[56:38] Yes, she lost her voice too. A star with laryngitis. Oh, it's a scourge of every producer. What are you going to do, Mr. Howell? I'll have to call off the show. I'm an angel with my wings, Cliff. Why don't you use Ginger?
[56:49] She knows all of them. Why don't you use Ginger? Ah, Lovey came around. You see, the truth is, if we come to an awareness of what God wants in our lives, we can transform the world.
[57:03] First, learn to love yourself and accept that God loves you and then take that love and head into the streets to change something. I watched those riots in Baltimore Monday night and, you know, I really, I really was worried for that city.
[57:16] I thought Tuesday, that place was going to blow apart. Maybe some of you felt the same way and I was watching. The police were ready. They weren't going to, they weren't going to do this again. Not a second night.
[57:27] They were going to walk, march step, they had pepper spray, they had tear gas, they had guns, they were ready to go and they were looking towards the rioters. Slowly, but gonna take back the neighborhood.
[57:39] On the other side were the rioters. They had the bottles, the rocks, whatever they were carrying with them. They probably had guns too. There was going to be a war and some people were going to get hurt. But what you may not have noticed is there was a group of people standing in the middle of them.
[57:53] You know who they were? They were the church people. The church people of Baltimore got together and decided to stand in the middle. Most of them were mothers and preachers who said to the police, just slow down your pace a little bit.
[58:07] Give us a minute. You boys go home. Enough of this. You put your rocks down, the bottles down, and go home. We're not rioting tonight. Took them a few minutes.
[58:18] They stood between, between the people that wanted to kill each other. And there was no violence in Baltimore that night.
[58:30] They shut it down with love. You see, God gives us the opportunity to change the world. My gosh, I don't know if I've ever been prouder of the church than that night.
[58:44] To know that people of faith did what they were supposed to do. And we think, okay, but maybe I never have an opportunity to do that. You know, this passage says, don't show favoritism.
[58:57] Don't show favoritism. Showing favoritism is not the same as feeling it. Of course you're going to feel things. Of course you're going to find people that don't look like you or don't seem like you or that make you even cringe whenever you're near them.
[59:12] But there's a difference between feeling that and showing that. Love is not a feeling, it's an action. We can be loving in what we do even when we don't feel like it.
[59:24] Up at our Niagara Falls church, we have a gathering on Thursday night of folks that come to be the church. And what we do is we eat dinner. And there's one young girl there who has taken it upon herself to be the dessert girl.
[59:38] She's been given instructions that people get one dessert. That's it. One dessert. All right? And she's serious about it because I've gone over and taken a second one. She's only about 11 or 12 years old and she looks at me and she says, it's one dessert.
[59:55] Now I don't want you doing this a second time. I've told you, one dessert. Now you know what I want to say. Do you know who I am? I'm the best or I could eat a second dessert if I want to.
[60:11] I know who I am. She knows who I am too. And she's the lady in charge of the desserts. When we start treating people with respect, just because everybody deserves it, start loving people because God loved us in spite of who we are.
[60:29] Start reaching out for people who we might think aren't quite exactly what we are. Well, God did that for us because none of us measure up to his standards. We become hungry for the love of God.
[60:43] We'll learn how to show the love of God that was just right. hungry I come to you for I know you satisfy I am empty but I know your love does not run dry So I'll wait for you So I'll wait for you I'm falling on my knees Offering all of me Jesus, you're all
[61:44] His heart His living flow broken I run to you for your arms are open wide I am weary but I come Your touch restores my life So I'll wait for you So I'll wait for you I'm falling on my knees Offering all of me Jesus, you're all
[62:44] His heart His living flow I'm falling on my knees Offering all of me Jesus, you're all His heart His living flow He became sin Who knew no sin That we might become His righteousness He humbled himself And carried the cross
[63:46] Love so amazing Love so amazing Jesus, Messiah Jesus, Messiah Name above all names The Raster, Redeemer Emmanuel The rescue of sinners The rescue of sinners The ransom from heaven The ransom from heaven Jesus, Messiah Lord of all Lord of all Lord of all His body of bread His blood of wine Broken and poured out
[64:47] For the love For the love of all For the love of all Of all of trampled And the veil was born And the veil was born Love so amazing Love so amazing Love so amazing Love so amazing Love so amazing Jesus, Messiah Jesus, Messiah Name above all names Name above all names Blessed Redeemer Redeemer Emmanuel Emmanuel A rescue for sinners A ransom from heaven A ransom from heaven A ransom from heaven Jesus, Messiah Lord of all Jesus, Messiah Lord of all Messiah Lord of all Lord of all All my hope is in you
[65:50] All my hope is in you All my hope is in you All my hope is in you All my glory to you come The light of the world The light of the world Jesus, Messiah Name above all names Blessed Redeemer Emmanuel The rescue for sinners The ransom from heaven The ransom from heaven Jesus, Messiah Lord of all Jesus, Messiah Lord of all
[66:52] Jesus, Messiah Lord of all Lord of all Lord of all Lord of all Lord of all Lord of all There is a candle In every soul Some brightly burning Some dark and cold There is a spirit
[67:55] Who brings a fire Ignites a candle And makes his home Carry your candle Run to the darkness Seek out the hopeless Confused and taught Hold out your candle For all to see it Take your candle Go light your world Take your candle Go light your world Frustrated brother See how he's trying to Light his own candle Some other way
[68:57] See now your sister She's been robbed and blind too Still holds a candle Without a flame Carry your candle Run to the darkness Seek out the lonely Not time and war Oh, out your candle Oh, out your candle For all to see it Take your candle Go light your world Take your candle Go light your world We are a family Whose hearts are blazing So let's raise our candles
[69:58] Light up the sky Pray to our Father In the name of Jesus Make us a beacon In the darkness In the darkest hour Carry your candle In the darkest hour Carry your candle Run to the darkness In the darkest hour Carry a candle God bless, deceived and poor.
[70:30] Oh, add your candle for all to see it. Take your candle, your light, your world.
[70:43] Carry your candle, run to the darkness. Seek out the homeless, confused and torn.
[70:57] Hold out your candle for all to see it. Take your candle, your light, your world.
[71:10] Take your candle, your light, your world. Amen.
[71:24] Please be seated. It's not easy to live in a loving way where we see other people.
[71:35] Sometimes we just simply mess up and we don't get it right. But we can learn, we can grow and we can change. First we've got to admit that we need help. So let's pray to God, shall we?
[71:46] Dear God in heaven. Dear God in heaven. I have sinned. I have sinned. I get so focused on myself. My worries, my needs, my people.
[72:00] I don't see others. I don't see their pain. I don't see their hurt. And I don't see how I can help. Forgive me, Lord.
[72:11] Open up my eyes. Open up my life. Open up everything I do. Be your hands in this world.
[72:23] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. You know, before you came into this place, God had already decided to forgive you.
[72:35] I don't know if you knew that. He already wanted to. He was waiting to. He was hoping to. All he wanted you to do was say, would you forgive me? And so I can say to you, in the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven.
[72:50] In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Glory to God. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[73:01] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[73:39] Build it up and make me whole. In this life, more important to receive than to receive salvation in Jesus Christ, to receive the blessings that God has poured out into our lives.
[74:00] So many things distract us from that simple truth that God invites us to this table to remember him, to remember what Jesus has done for us, and to receive all of the blessings that God pours out into our lives.
[74:25] Everyone is welcome at the table. Whether it's your first time here or you've been coming all your life, whether you've never been to church or you've been coming to church, it doesn't matter.
[74:39] It doesn't matter if you're a United Methodist or not. Even though this is a United Methodist church, you can come to the table if you love God, if you earnestly repent of your sin, and seek to live your whole life out as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
[74:56] you are welcome at this table this morning. So come and receive all that God has for you. Greater riches and blessing than anything this earth has to offer.
[75:11] Come to the table. The Lord be with you. Lift up your hearts. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
[75:24] It is right and a good and a joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life.
[75:38] When we turned away and our love failed, your love remained steadfast. You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God, brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, and set before us the way of life.
[75:57] And so with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn. Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.
[76:12] Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Holy are you and blessed is your son Jesus Christ.
[76:23] By the baptism of his suffering, death and resurrection, you gave birth to your church. delivered us from slavery to sin and death and made with us a new covenant by water and the spirit.
[76:35] By your great mercy, we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of your son from the dead and to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.
[76:50] On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread and he gave thanks to you and he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples and he said, take and eat. This is my body which is given for you.
[77:05] Do this in remembrance of me. When the supper was over, he took the cup and gave you thanks and praise and gave it to his disciples and he said, drink from this, all of you.
[77:16] This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new covenant, poured out for you, poured out for me in the sickness of sin. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
[77:31] And so, in the remembrance of these, your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ's offering for us as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
[77:46] Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread and wine.
[78:00] Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ that we may be for the world the body of Christ redeemed by his blood, by your spirit. Make us one with Christ, one with each other and one in ministry to all the world until Christ comes and final victory.
[78:19] And we feast at his heavenly banquet. Through your son, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy church, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.
[78:31] Amen. Shall we pray with the confidence of disciples of Jesus Christ the prayer he taught us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
[78:43] Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
[78:58] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
[79:10] Amen. Now, if you're able, I'm going to invite you to stand as we sing together Here I Am. Here I Am. I am the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my people cry All who dwell in dark and still My hand will sing I who make the stars of night I will make their darkness bright Who will bear my light to them whom shall I send
[80:16] Here I am Lord Here I am Lord Is it I Lord I have heard you calling in the night I will hold I will hold O Lord If you lead me I will hold I will hold your people in my heart I will hold off wind and flame I will tend the poor and lame I will set I will set a feast for them My hand will sing Finest bread
[81:16] I will provide Till their hearts be satisfied I will give my life to them whom shall I send Here I am Lord Is it I Lord I have found you calling in the night I will go Lord If you lead me I will hold I will hold your people in my heart You know poverty can come in many different forms Natalie Schaefer was the woman who played
[82:18] Lovey Howell on Gilligan's Island She was in her 60s her mid 60s when she played that part and she lived into her 90s She had no children and she was a widow and she had no one really to take care of her so her friend Dawn took care of her nursed her watched over her fed her was with her when she needed someone to be there and take care of her You know who Dawn is by the way Dawn Wells Yeah it's Marianne Natalie Schaefer was a multi-millionaire not just on the TV show she had multiple multiple millions of dollars when she died she gave a fair amount of money to charity and she gave the rest to Marianne just in case you wonder because you see we think that sometimes we're the ones giving but life has a way of circling back around and we give what we can and someone else returns what they can and that's how we create a circle of blessing so may God go out and bless you and love you and be with you and care for you and cause you to see the people who need what you can get and make you to be the hands of Jesus so in his peace thank you so