[0:00] Good morning everybody. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. If any kids would like to come up and sing, we'd love to have them join us.
[0:16] This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice 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 that the Lord has made.
[0:53] Welcome to Pendleton Center United Methodist Church. I'm Scott Dabb. If you are new to our church, please pick up a gift at the connection site in the back of the sanctuary after worship.
[1:05] And please fill out your friendship card to get on the mailing list, sign up for activities, and for prayers and concerns or notes for the staff. Enjoy the service.
[1:16] Well, it's good to have you here this morning. Somewhere along the line, there will be a clipboard going around about our chicken barbecue coming up. If you can help with that, we'd appreciate it.
[1:26] I'd love to have you participate in that. They will be selling tickets for that. They will not be having a car wash, however, today. Because God has already rinsed your car, so we're going to schedule that a different day.
[1:39] But we do appreciate your support in those efforts. We also wanted to mention that in your bulletin, there's a little card. If you have somebody who's graduating this year, it could be college, it could be high school.
[1:51] It looks like this. Whatever it might be, we'd like to know about it so we can acknowledge them and show them on the days we acknowledge our graduates.
[2:02] Also, there's a membership class if you're interested in learning more about the church or joining the church. And that's next week at 1245. This afternoon at 3 o'clock, there's a surprise party for me.
[2:15] In case you haven't heard, I'm not surprised. I found out. But I do have a weird announce of your own party. But we would love to have you come back and join us at 3 o'clock.
[2:26] Now, what's a surprise is I have no idea what you're doing at 3 o'clock. So I'm just going to show up and you'll figure out. I'll figure out. Whatever it might be. But we'd love to have you join us this evening or this afternoon.
[2:38] You also should be aware I've been at annual conference now for four days of meetings from morning to night. And I don't have a lot of sleep. And I'm not very coherent. So we'll see how we get through this worship experience.
[2:49] But we're going to have fun. One way or the other. Amen? All right. Let's pray, shall we? Dear God, we pray your blessings upon us. We pray that you'll enter into this room with your presence and your power and your grace.
[2:59] And that your spirit would fill us with all the wonder that you can share. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. If you're able, I'm going to invite you to stand as we sing together. Take my life and let it be consecrated.
[3:11] Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.
[3:33] Take my moments and my days. Let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love.
[3:51] Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice and let it sing.
[4:05] Always only for my king. Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from thee.
[4:19] Take my silver and my gold. Not of my foot I withhold. Take my intellect and use every power as thou shalt choose.
[4:38] Dedic my will and make it thine. It shall be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is thine own.
[4:51] It shall be thy royal throne. Take my love, my Lord, I pour at thy feet its treasure store.
[5:05] Take myself and I will be ever only all for thee. The Lord be with you.
[5:16] With us with you. Take a moment if you will and greet your neighbor with the peace of the Spirit. I'd like to invite the kids to come up.
[5:36] Does any kids want to come up and join me? Any kids want to come join me?
[5:50] Come a couple. Good morning, guys. Got to give them a little bit of time.
[6:03] All right. Very nice to see you all. Do you know what this is? Money. It's money. That's what it is. It's actually money, right? Have you ever had money?
[6:14] Yeah? Do you like money? Yeah, I like money, too. Money's pretty cool. You can do some really cool stuff, can't it? What if your parents said that if you were to, like, clean your room and do the dishes, they would give you a $10 bill?
[6:32] Right? Right? You'd do it? What if they said they would give you a $10 bill if you cleaned your room and you did the dishes and you didn't do it?
[6:43] You think that they should give you the $10 bill? Of course not. Because they said they'd give it to you if you did it, right? Yeah. You know, it's an interesting thing because some people think that they should just get it anyways.
[6:56] But, you know, if you make a deal to do something, then you should do it, right? People want God to bless them. And God can bless us with stuff much more important than money. You know, this is just paper.
[7:07] God can make this stuff anytime he wants to. All right? He can make even more important things in our lives. But if he tells us to do something and we don't do it, do you think then God would bless us?
[7:21] Probably not, right? So if we want to be blessed by God, what should we do? The things that God wants us to do, right? That make sense?
[7:32] Yeah. That's pretty simple. We want to be blessed by our parents. We should do the things that they want us to do, right? That's pretty simple stuff. Okay. You guys are smart, man. I wish those people out there were that smart.
[7:44] We wouldn't have as many problems in our world. Yeah. I'm glad. All right. What are you guys thankful for this morning? You want to share something? Raise your hand. I have a grandma, my grandma, my family.
[7:57] My mom and dad. Friends and family. Friends and family. All right. Lord, we do thank you this morning for our parents, our family, our friends, all the good things you put in our lives.
[8:12] Bless us today. Bless us always to be who you want us to be. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay. You guys go to church school. All the kids are welcome to go out to church school. Amen. Good morning.
[8:36] Good morning. I am so grateful to be back from a wonderful time at annual conference and just able to bring you God's blessings from all of the time that we had prayed.
[8:48] I prayed for this church and for all of the other churches. And it's also a blessing to hear, you know, God has blessed us with so many things in this church, so many opportunities to gather together. Not only to gather in worship, which is hugely important, but also to gather together for times of study and for times of having good fun.
[9:06] And I understand that our softball team had a really, really good time yesterday. And it was a 13-4 win. Yay.
[9:17] So there's info in the little good news about when the next couple of games are coming up. And there will be more information in your newsletter coming up. So head out.
[9:27] Head out and support the team and just have some great fun. It's one of those things. Not about whether you win or lose. It's about getting together for some good fun and fellowship with other Christians in the body of Christ.
[9:38] As we are so grateful for all of God's blessings that God pours out into our lives so abundantly. Let's continue to worship God and give him all of our tithes and offerings this morning.
[10:08] Let's pray.
[10:38] Let's pray.
[11:08] Let's pray.
[11:38] Let's pray.
[12:08] Let's pray.
[12:38] Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.
[13:08] and glory comes. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise.
[13:21] You pour out gifts into our lives of all kinds. Spiritual gifts and financial gifts and the gifts of love of family and friends. All these things, Lord God, we offer up to you this morning. We ask that you would bless them all as we offer them up.
[13:41] Give us the wisdom we need to know how to best serve your kingdom. To use these gifts. To use these offerings. To use these things that you've blessed us with.
[13:54] We just want to bless you, Lord. We ask that you would help us to know how to draw many to salvation in Jesus Christ. Through all of the gifts that you've given us.
[14:06] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. We do have a couple of things to bring before the Lord this morning that I'm aware of.
[14:19] And I know that you have many things in your hearts as well. We have Randy Hasley who is in need of healing. And we're going to continue to keep him and his family in our prayers for that.
[14:30] Ron Elman is continuing to recover from surgery. And we want to keep him lifted up. And Kathleen Maud who is not with us today because she is suffering from shingles.
[14:41] And we need to keep her in our prayers. I saw her last week and she's in good spirits. But still in need of some time to recover and some time to heal. So with these concerns and those concerns that are on your hearts as well.
[14:54] Let's turn to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we are humbled and in awe that we can be in your presence.
[15:11] that you come to us, that you come into us by your Holy Spirit. That you want us to join together in bringing you our concerns and celebrating our joys.
[15:32] What a blessing to have such a God. The God of all the universe. The God of all creation. He seeks to be with us.
[15:46] Lord God, we know that you are the one who gives all good gifts. We pray, Father, that you would touch us.
[15:59] Touch your people. All of us who are in need of healing, Lord God. Whether it's in spirit, in soul, or in body, or any kind of a combination, that you would bring forth your healing power, pour it out into those in need, that they would be whole from the tops of their heads to the soles of their feet.
[16:24] Pray in Jesus' name for those who are nearing the end of life, whose families are struggling, with these situations that arise because of it.
[16:43] We pray for your peace, for your comfort, and also, Lord God, for all those who are grieving the loss of loved ones, other significant losses in this life, leaves a sense of emptiness and a sense of not sure where to go from here.
[17:07] Lord, we pray in Jesus' name that you would touch them, encourage them, send your grace and mercy that they would be comforted and at peace.
[17:22] Father, we pray in Jesus' name for this world we live in and for all of your people as we walk through this place.
[17:39] It seems sometimes to be so unsafe, not just because of things that happen in the natural world, but because of people's disregard for one another, people who are more interested in getting where they need to be or having what they think they want and no concern for others.
[18:06] Father, we lift up especially that family. Yesterday in Delaware Park where the little girl was killed and the older child seriously injured.
[18:22] We pray for healing. We pray for wholeness for that family and for peace. We also pray for the driver of the car, Lord God. What a terrible burden to bear.
[18:37] We pray for similar situations that have happened in our own lives and in the lives of those we know. We pray that you would give us peace, Lord God.
[18:51] Help us to trust in the peace and safety that comes with knowing you. We pray for all of those who don't know you, Lord God.
[19:05] That by your grace you would continue to draw them that by your empowerment, the empowerment of your Holy Spirit would lead each of us to reach out and touch lives, the lives of those who need to know you.
[19:22] We pray that as we hear your word, Lord God, that it would wash over us and cleanse us and renew and refresh and transform us and transform us. Help us to know you better and to know how to reach others better.
[19:42] Be with Pastor Tom as he delivers the message you've given him. Anoint him. Give him the words. Let the message be a blessing to him and to us.
[19:54] And Lord, let all of our worship be a blessing to you that we might be refreshed and be able to go out into this world knowing you better and serving you better.
[20:10] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Shall we hear from the word of the Lord? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[20:21] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[20:54] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Our reading this morning is from James, chapter 5, verses 1 through 11.
[21:08] Now listen, you rich people. Weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten your clothes.
[21:23] Your gold and silver are corroded. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire.
[21:34] You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you fail to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
[21:48] You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men who are not opposing you.
[22:01] You have had a good time. Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains?
[22:17] You too be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near. Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged.
[22:29] The judge is standing at the door. Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
[22:42] As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about.
[22:55] The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. This is the word of the Lord. Thank you, Julianne.
[23:10] Money is going to make us miserable. No, I don't think so. I don't know about you, but I like money.
[23:21] Money has got some real good things it can do, right? With money, I can get food. I can put a roof over my head. I can help people out. I can go out to dinner with my friends.
[23:35] I can do things around the church. Money, money's a pretty cool thing. I mean, I don't know how you feel about it, but I like having a lot of it. It makes me feel better when I have a lot of it.
[23:47] Amen? I know you feel like you're not supposed to say amen to that, right? You see, the thing is, is money is not really the problem. Money in and of itself is not evil.
[23:59] First Timothy says the love of money is the root of all evil, not money. You know, in the Bible, there were a lot of rich people. Solomon was wealthy. David was wealthy.
[24:10] Abraham was wealthy. Job, who they talk about in this passage is wealthy. Luke was a doctor. He was wealthy. Matthew was a tax collector.
[24:20] He had a lot of money. Paul seemed to have enough money that he could just go around the world and not have to work most of the time. So being wealthy was not exactly necessarily considered evil.
[24:32] It's not money. It's one of the seven deadly sins. We've been looking at the seven deadly sins as we look at this book of James, and this is the last of the seven deadly sins we're going to talk about.
[24:45] And it's the sin of greed. Greed. As Luke says in chapter 12, Watch out. Be on guard against all kinds of greed.
[24:57] A person's life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions. Greed is his desire to have more and more and more and more.
[25:10] In Gilligan's Island, we had seven characters. We've talked about six. The last one is the one that represents greed. Anybody want to guess who they think it might be? There's the now that he found a gold mine.
[25:27] Mr. Howell, how do we know it's gold? Don't you have to make a test to be sure? I already have, Gilligan. It's the best test in the world. You're shaking like a leaf. My doctors call it my gold syndrome. Syndrome? Yes, it's an allergy.
[25:38] Oh, allergy? Yes, allergy. You see, any time I get near anything over 24 carats, I say, Great. Boy, I can't wait to tell the professor about this and the skipper and the girls.
[25:48] We'll all be rich. Oh? Sure, Mr. Howell. Don't you remember? We all made an agreement to share everything on the island. Yes, yes. I do recall making that agreement. But of course, then we didn't expect to find a gold mine. Understand?
[25:59] Don't you know what gold does to people, Gilligan? Uh-huh. Makes them rich. Great. Great. Great. What can we do, Mr. Howell? Well, we're going to keep this gold mine our secret.
[26:11] Scout's honor, Mr. Howell. I won't be the word to anybody. We'll just leave this filthy gold where it is. Yeah. No, no, no, no. We can't take that chance. You see, one of the others might fall in the hole like you and I'll be that.
[26:22] Gosh, Mr. Howell, you're always thinking of the other fellow, aren't you? Well, I'm a multimillionaire. My life is ruined already. We have to protect our poor friends. How, Mr. Howell? I'm going to hire you to mine the gold, you see.
[26:33] I won't pay enough to cause you any trouble. I'll hide it so no one will ever be able to find it. How's that? Promise you'll tell me. I've already ruined. Just a multimillionaire.
[26:46] Multibillionaire actually is what Thurston Howell III was. He had oil. He had coconut plantations. He had owned part of downtown Denver.
[26:58] You may not have realized that. And what he said is that getting wealthy ruins a person. So he's trying to be charitable to everybody by making sure that they don't have to share in this terrible affliction he has of being wealthy.
[27:16] Even Gilligan, he'll make sure he doesn't pay him enough of a decent wage that he would feel like he's got money, right? Greed. See, greed creates dissatisfaction.
[27:28] It creates a dissatisfaction, believe it or not, for those who have wealth and for those who don't. We understand that if you're poor and you're going without, you can understand how people would feel a dissatisfaction if they have no food to eat or they don't have a place to lay their head at night or they're feeling somehow that they just don't measure up.
[27:48] But the odd part is that wealth can create a problem, a dissatisfaction, a hunger that never goes away for those who are even wealthy.
[28:00] Ecclesiastes chapter 5, Solomon says, whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.
[28:11] This is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast their eyes on them? The sleep of the laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much.
[28:24] But the abundance of a rich man doesn't let him go to sleep at all. Because you see, wealthy people are the ones who have to have alarms on their house. They have to have locks on their doors.
[28:34] If you're poor, who cares? Somebody comes in and takes what's nothing. Greed creates a dissatisfaction. Greed creates a dissatisfaction. But we're never, ever satisfied.
[28:49] So in verse 4, it talks about cheating people out of their wages. In verse 6, it says about how we murder innocents. How would we be doing anything like that?
[29:02] We live in the wealthiest culture that has ever existed on the face of the earth. Ever. Not just the wealthiest in this age, the wealthiest ever.
[29:14] Solomon, in all his wealth and glory, has never lived as comfortable as the poorest members of our culture today. We have comfort. We have luxury.
[29:25] We have toys. Oh my gosh, do we have toys. We even carry them in our pockets now. I went to conference and I saw the band was waiting to play most of the time.
[29:37] And all they did was sit there and it was like this. Entertained for hours. Amazing. And we feel so now we don't have enough.
[29:49] We don't have enough. God was looking around for a place to put his extra blessings. He had blessed the world's nation with all sorts of blessings.
[29:59] And he had some left over. So he backed up the dump truck and he put it on North America. And we say, but I don't have enough. In verse 5, James describes us as fatted cows.
[30:15] Being prepared for the slaughter. Anybody think so? That's what we're like. We stuff so much in that we have ruined our health.
[30:27] Our bodies are breaking. We have diseases that poor people don't even think about. We're ruining ourselves and killing ourselves with our abundance.
[30:43] And of course, there's people who don't have any and go without. And they die because we can't get enough. Do you know, I read a statistic yesterday that one third of all the food produced in the world is never eaten.
[31:04] One third is never eaten. I know you're saying, how could that possibly be? Some of it never gets picked. Some of it, they pick it and they look at it and they go, we can't put this in the grocery market.
[31:15] Because, you know, a tomato that's oblong, nobody will buy. Only those little plump round ones. So the rest of them, they toss. Who wants a crooked carrot? We had a lady that was actually going up to the farm and getting all these goofy, weird looking vegetables.
[31:29] Taking them down to Seneca Street people and putting them out for free. And these people were like, seriously? Free vegetables? They didn't care what they looked like, but we knew we're not going to eat by that cucumber unless it's perfect.
[31:42] And if there's a spot on my apple, I'm complaining. Unless I'm in Florida. Don't ever eat the apples in Florida. They're awful. And then we do buy the food and we take it home with absolute expectation.
[31:57] We're going to cook it that week. And we get to garbage day and we open up the refrigerator. Tell me that you don't do this. You open up the refrigerator and you pull something out. Right?
[32:09] Oh, this expired can of food. I'll give that to the poor people at the food pantry. They should eat expired food. You see how it works?
[32:21] One third of the food that is generated, we throw away. And by the way, worst about that is not even that it doesn't go to the people that are hungry, but we're also pumping all kinds of chemicals and work and effort and all kinds of stuff into the environment we live in to create that one third of the food that we throw away.
[32:41] It's a pretty bad situation. And don't get me started on the meals at restaurants. How many of you walk in and order one meal and they give you two? Even though they call it one.
[32:55] Right? These massive size meals that, you know, if you ever ate one, have you done that? You know what my grandson wants? He eats this massive hamburger just because it's the biggest one they have.
[33:07] I'm thinking, seriously, dude. That'll kill you. That'll kill you. We need more. However, Thurston Howell III was one of the wealthiest men that ever lived in Fantasyland.
[33:24] Now, what I mean by that is of all the fictional characters that have ever existed, they did a study and they came up with the estimated wealth of them. And aside from two comic book heroes and Donald, who is that duck that's worth McScrooge, right?
[33:39] A duck and a dragon and a vampire. There's only one real human being that was actually wealthier than Thurston.
[33:51] And that citizen came. Anybody remember this guy? That's a long ways back, isn't it? Thurston Howell III was a multi-billionaire. And he found a gold mine.
[34:04] And what did he have to do? Keep it for himself. Because the problem with greed is it doesn't matter how much you get. There's never, ever, ever, ever, ever enough.
[34:16] And by the way, greed creates a problem for people that don't have enough either. See, the problem with greed is greed makes us believe that we really should have more than we even need.
[34:27] And so when we see other people who are living somehow with conspicuous consumption beyond imagination, we think, it's not fair. I need to be able to live a wasteful, crazy life with too much stuff, too.
[34:39] I need to have closets full of clothes that I'll never wear. I need to have cars that don't drive. I need to have a garage full of toys. I need to have stuff to take care of so that I'm so busy I don't have any time for anything real in life.
[34:50] Am I right? Barbara's trying to collect shoes out there. I don't want to even get into how many shoes are in your closet that you'll never wear. Give them to her.
[35:01] She'll find something to do with them. It's just what we are. And so what happens then is people who go without, they find themselves with this envy thing.
[35:12] My mother used to call it reverse snobbery. When poor people would look down on the rich people. Oh, they think they're so great because they hear that stuff well. And it's the grumbling they were talking about in verse 9.
[35:26] It's easy to grumble because we don't have. And then we create more negative, hurtful, painful relationships. The answer is to learn how to be content.
[35:38] Greed is a measure of discontent whether you have or you don't have. Philippians chapter 4, Paul says this. I know what it is to be in need. And I know what it is to have plenty.
[35:49] I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. Whether well fed or hungry. Whether living in plenty or in want. Here's the secret. I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.
[36:01] Say that with me. I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. You see, our problem is we have the wrong life goal. We really do.
[36:11] What does it profit a person if they gain the whole world and they lose their soul? And yet, the first lesson we teach our children is you need to get a good education so you can get a good, so you can make a lot of, because that will make you.
[36:28] Does it thirst and look happy to you? You see, the problem is there's never satisfaction because there's never enough.
[36:40] The purpose of this life is not to get as much money as you can. The purpose of this life is get to the next one. And by the way, to live in this one in such a way that somehow we honor God.
[36:54] The problem with wealth is it can. It can push us away from God. Verse 11 tells us, this was the last thing it said, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
[37:05] And it's his mercy and compassion that we should live for and live into, not the riches of this world. Wealth and possessions, it says, will fail us. In fact, we could even end up, as verse 3 says, in a lake of fire.
[37:24] What good will our money do us to that? Jesus told a parable about a man who was wealthy and he had a bumper crop of food.
[37:36] So he said, what am I going to do with all this extra food? I know. I'll tear down my old barns and I'll build bigger ones. And then I'll store all my food in those barns and I won't have to work for the rest of my life. I can just sit back and relax and enjoy life.
[37:49] Now, there's a few things wrong with that. First of all, you do realize it's dumb to tear down perfectly good barns to build bigger ones. You could just build a bigger one next to the other ones, right? So this guy's already wasteful.
[38:00] But second of all, you know you can't store up grain for a lifetime. What happens to it? It rots. And rats and bugs and all kinds of stuff get into it.
[38:12] If you don't spread that grain around somehow, it goes bad. But third of all, God appeared to him that night and said, you're a fool.
[38:23] You're dead. Now what's going to happen to all your stuff that you worried so much about? That's why would God leave us in this world to take up resources in a foolish way?
[38:35] We don't live for what we can accumulate. We live for how we can honor God, how we can live into his compassion and his mercy.
[38:48] Money. It's just a tool. And if we try to gather it and hold on to it, it will destroy us. The others did find out about the gold mine, by the way, just so you know.
[39:00] They did. Now, somehow Thurston seemed to feel that he could claim ownership of the gold mine. And for some odd reason, I've not quite understood. They respected that ownership of him having the gold mine.
[39:11] However, they knew that Thurston didn't do anything. I don't know if you ever noticed. He never did anything on the island, ever at all. He didn't make any meals. He didn't do anything. And so what they found out was that they could charge Thurston if he was hungry.
[39:26] So if he wanted to eat, that was going to cost him a few thousand dollars. If he wanted a bed to sleep in, well, that was going to cost him a few thousand dollars. If he wanted water, he was going to cost him some thousands of dollars. Everything he wanted, he had to pay for it.
[39:38] So eventually, the money started moving from Thurston's pocket into everybody's pocket. And everybody had a bag of gold. Interestingly, in the midst of this, they actually found a rat to the minimum.
[39:51] They found a way off the island. So now they have bags of gold and they have a raft to get off the island. What a wonderful day. That raft is in perfect shape.
[40:05] We can float for days until we're spotted by a ship or a plane. I hope that provisions have been made for my bag of gold aboard your raft. Nothing doing. The professor here knows exactly how much weight that raft will support. That's right.
[40:16] With our combined weight and the weight of the provisions, we can't take a chance. Gold is very heavy. My bag isn't heavy. Mine's as light as a feather. Can't I take a teensy-weensy little bag of gold?
[40:28] How teensy-weensy a bag? This teensy-weensy. No. There will be no gold aboard the raft and that goes for you too, Gilligan. Me? I don't have any gold.
[40:38] Well, you had $3,000 worth last night. I know. I never sure order that coconut cream pie. All right, everybody. Get on board. I want to take these golf sticks back and show to the boys at the club.
[40:51] A million luck. Now. Step. Now. That's all right. I made his handbag while I was here and I think it's so clean. I want to take it home to show every night. Watch your step now. Watch your step. This is my homemade guava jelly.
[41:04] Can't have too much of this around. That's right. Yeah. Watch your step. I've got a complete diary of every damn spantum, Skipper. Should make a great movie, huh? I should say something. These botanical specimens should be of special interest back at the school.
[41:20] Don't fall over there, Professor. All right, Gilligan. Cast off. I show up this boat. You know how deep the lagoon is. I know how deep the lagoon is. Now, cast off.
[41:34] Here we go, folks. Head in for the keeping of the ends of the rescue. Yeah. All right. All right. All right.
[41:59] What sank anyway? You moved out the gold. I'm afraid this is all my fault, folks. I didn't think one bag of gold would sink us. Two bags. Three bags.
[42:09] Five bags. Six bags. That's a switch. Usually I'm the one left holding a bag. See, the problem is, money is not even.
[42:29] But greed and a desire for more than we ever could possibly use or need can destroy us. Money is a tool. That's all it is.
[42:40] It's paper, you know. It actually has no value. This has no value. I know if I threw it on the floor, you'd come running to pick it up. I saw that at conference. People are throwing money on the floor.
[42:52] People are running around to pick it up. Paper. We give it its value. But its real value is in putting it to the use that God intended for it. You know, tools, if you don't use them, corrode.
[43:04] Just like it talks about in verse 3, how it can corrode and fall apart if you don't use it. But if you put them to use, they stay good. Money is like that. It's meant to be used.
[43:16] In the book of Luke, in chapter 16, it says to us, I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it's gone you'll be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
[43:27] Whoever can be trusted with the very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. God takes money and spreads it around to see what we'll do with that.
[43:44] And whether we'll use it in a responsible way or we'll use it somehow in a destructive way. If we use it to help people, we've used it to help God because after all, people are made in the image of God.
[43:58] You know, we get tested all the time. I happened to be in the city a couple times in the last two or three weeks. This last time I was in Syracuse.
[44:11] And as I was going into the convention center for our annual conference meeting, a guy come up to me and says, hey, can you give me 50 cents and eat some money to get to work? I just felt wrong. Have you ever had that feeling?
[44:23] You know, when people ask you for money and it just feels wrong? I hate to give people money in some ways because I'm afraid it's going to go to the wrong cause. So I kind of, I didn't have change. I told him I didn't have any change.
[44:34] And I also had to get in for a meeting. So I went in, I got myself registered, I went back to check. He was not only there for 15, 20 minutes, he was there for hours.
[44:45] Now, first of all, he could have walked wherever this work was in the time he stood outside that convention center. And I have to believe there was at least one person who gave him a buck out of the thousands that went into that building.
[44:58] But he didn't want that. You don't want it. And we're just feeling we're going to get taken advantage of. So we turn our backs on that. And we do have to be careful. The Bible says, wise as serpents, gentle as dust.
[45:10] But sometimes you get the other way. I was walking in downtown Buffalo and a guy came up to me and said, hey, can I have some money for food? My first reaction is, yeah, yeah, you want my food.
[45:22] He says, no, no. He says, Chinese restaurant right there. For $7 I can get chicken and rice and some other stuff. He says, right there, right there. You don't have to go very far.
[45:33] You want lunch? Okay. So we went in. I gave the lady $7. I found out it was $7.03. I didn't have $0.03. She put in the three. And the guy ate his lunch.
[45:44] He's hungry. I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was sick and you took care of me. I think somebody named Jesus said that, right?
[45:56] We're tested by how we react to this. What do we do with it? Our wealth is a tool. It's a tool for good or it's a tool for evil. Money is not the problem. The problem is our faith.
[46:08] We trust too much in this. And it's important. I'll give you the three rules. You've heard them before from me. Pay your bills. Pay your future.
[46:19] And pay God. Pay your bills or they'll take your stuff. Simple, right? Pay your future. And just because of the process of investment, you will end up with money in the end if you invest in the future.
[46:34] And pay your God. And you'll be blessed by God. But we don't do that. Because that requires patience. It requires waiting. It takes time. If you invest money when you're young, I tell people who are young, just put a little money away.
[46:48] A little money away each week. You'll be amazed how much you'll have when you're older. But it takes years. I'm talking decades for that to work. We don't have patience. We just get discouraged.
[47:00] In verse 7, it talks about having patience. I hate waiting. I find myself having to wait for my wife. Now, I don't want to pick on my wife. I'll get in trouble here, right? But you know when a guy gets out of the shower, we basically go, pfft, I'm done.
[47:14] And that's it, right? A woman gets out, and there's some work that needs to be done. Okay? Not because my wife needs work, but because women believe they need to do this stuff, right?
[47:25] Okay? Guys, we just go, done. And that's what we do. Okay? So we find ourselves waiting. But it's worth the wait. Amen, gentlemen? It's worth the wait.
[47:36] It really is. For lots of reasons, it's worth the wait. And I'll wait for my wife any time. Okay? God had something great for us.
[47:49] But we don't want to wait. Verse 7 tells us we have to have patience. Verse 8 says it again. You too, be patient. Stand firm. Because the Lord's coming is near.
[48:00] Don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you'll be judged. The judge is standing at the door. It's coming. Just hang in there a little longer.
[48:11] Don't lose hope. Don't lose hope. Patience is the key to long-term investments, both financially and in life. People, it's fascinating.
[48:23] Some of them actually get this. Especially when I talk to young people. They'll get it. And you'll see this light bulb go on. Really? Like nobody ever told them this. You've got to tell your kids this.
[48:34] That this is a secret. It's not a big secret. Invest. And you'll have something later in life. But then I tell them the third one. And give to God.
[48:47] God. And people go, seriously? What's that going to get me? You follow? I'll give the money to a banker.
[48:59] And say, here, take my money. I trust you with it. God, who can create the entire universe. And you know what bankers do. God, who creates the entire universe and can make something out of nothing.
[49:14] And can bless you beyond your imagination. We say, eh, I don't think so. Now, by the way, this isn't like I'm trying to get money for the church. I don't care if you give it to the poor somewhere.
[49:25] I'm talking about taking care of your obligation to God. So that God will bless you. Just like we talked about with the kids, right? We need to get away from this or it will kill us.
[49:41] It will kill us. Proverbs chapter 19, verse 17 says, Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and he will reward them for what they have done.
[49:55] God will bless us. Job, he had to go through some suffering for a while, but in the end he had to be wealthy again. Whoever can be trusted with the little can be trusted with even more.
[50:10] Thurston could have simply shared. He had billions. Who needs billions? He had billions.
[50:22] And if he shared, he would have built relationships. Instead, he built brokenness. And it brought him down. We have a world right now that is struggling and in pain.
[50:35] And it doesn't have to be. We can live for kingdom values. Or we can live for our own selfishness. We can live for our own selfishness.
[50:46] And he's mentally, sick. So I would. I'm a little bitDetour. I was talking to a businessman, and he said that he found out that it was, it was cheaper to automate a part of his business and put 40 some people out of work than to keep them working.
[50:58] He had to call these workers and he had to tell him, I'm sorry, but your jobs have been eliminated. I'm sorry, but your job's been eliminated. Could you imagine me and the boss having to do that? He said, but then I created another job for him and put him back to work.
[51:14] I thought, who are you? Who does this? And I saw Jesus. When I see somebody help the poor, I see Jesus. When I see somebody lift up a person who's struggling, I see Jesus.
[51:28] Because, you see, we're counting on the grace of God, aren't we? I mean, every one of us needs God's grace, amen? All the other world religions, they're counting on being good enough.
[51:41] I know I'm not good enough. I don't know about you, but I just know I'm not good enough. We're counting on the grace of God. But if we're going to count on the grace of God, we need to live in the mercy and forgiveness and compassion of God that James is talking about.
[51:58] If we want God to be gracious to us, he expects us to be gracious. Remember that?
[52:08] Love the Lord your God. I think you've heard this. With all your... What's the second one? No. And love your...
[52:19] Ah. You like to put that one aside. I just want God to take care of me. God says, you take care of that one, you take care of me, and I'll take care of you.
[52:32] You see, greed is a hard thing. We think, by the way, it's all about money. It's not about money. It's about anything. It's about anything. Where we get this grumbling. We get this dissatisfaction. We get this feeling like somehow things aren't fair.
[52:44] Things aren't... And by the way, how many of you know God isn't fair? How many of you knew that? Just want to ask. God's not fair. I want to get that right in your head right now. God's not fair. Some people are born in this country.
[52:55] Some people are born in some other place. Some people are born with these gifts. Other people are born with those gifts. Some people have incredible opportunities. Some people have no opportunities.
[53:06] God's not fair. Get that out of your head. God isn't fair. He's just. He's merciful. He's righteous. He's not fair. That's just the way it is.
[53:18] I know. That probably ticks some of you off. Oh, well. He's God. He can be what He wants to be. All right? And sometimes He blesses us with more than we should even have.
[53:30] You know what the answer to that is? Praise God. Where can I spread it around? That's not how we feel. I went to annual conferences last week. It's a fascinating thing.
[53:42] It's my church. I go there. Once a year I go there and I spend four days going to church for four full days with my church. Imagine doing that. You know? I shouldn't do it once a year. It's kind of a strange experience, right?
[53:53] Exhausting in many ways. And they talk about all kinds of churches and all the good things they're doing in all these churches. And invariably I'll have someone from our congregation who's there. I'll say, why don't they ever talk about our church?
[54:06] You know why they don't talk about our church? It's not because they haven't heard of it. Somehow they figure out what's going on in this church. Do you realize this is the best church in upstate New York?
[54:17] I'm not talking about just because I'm your pastor. This isn't me patting you on the back. This is the best church that the Methodists have in all of upstate New York. We have 61 young people.
[54:29] We baptized and confirmed a couple weeks ago, right? You know most churches would love to have six teenagers and kids in their church. Just six, total. We have a phenomenal, amazing, incredible church.
[54:43] Do we need to have somebody brag about us? To feel like we're okay? No, we don't. They do. They do. They have nothing. They have nothing.
[54:54] They're struggling. They're hurting. They're afraid they're going to close. They feel like there's no hope. There's no possibility. Somebody needs to take them and lift them up and say, You are still okay. We're wealthy.
[55:06] You get it? You see, because greed is not about how much you have. Greed isn't even about money. It's about how you feel about you. God loves you.
[55:18] You're okay. Life's all right. Be happy. Learn to be content. Realize you have a lot more than most other people in this world. And most other people in history.
[55:31] And don't worry about what everybody else does. It doesn't make any difference. Because you might find that you're just worrying about the complete wrong thing. And you're the one who's sounding greedy.
[55:43] Let it go. And let God. That's where we come to worship. We don't come to worship, by the way, just to remember who God is, but to remember who we're not. We're not Jesus. God is God.
[55:54] And we're here to remember that. Amen. When the music plays, all is stripped away, and I simply come.
[56:22] Longing just to bring me something that's of worth that will bless your heart.
[56:34] I'll bring you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what you have required.
[56:47] You search my seeper within, than the way things appear, your love being into my heart.
[56:59] I'm coming back to the heart of worship, and it's all about you. All about you, Jesus.
[57:11] I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made. It's all about you. All about you, Jesus.
[57:23] I'm sorry, Lord.
[57:53] A song in itself is not what you have required. You search my seeper within, than the way things appear, your love being into my heart.
[58:10] I'm coming back to the heart of worship It's all about you It's all about you, Jesus I'm sorry for you to be that, baby It's all about you It's all about you, Jesus I'm coming back to the heart of worship It's all about you It's all about you, Jesus I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it It's all about you It's all about you, Jesus It's all about you
[59:36] When I surveyed the wondrous cross On which the Prince of Glory died My riches gained, I count but loss And pour contempt on all my pride Oh, the wonderful cross Oh, the wonderful cross Oh, the wonderful cross And find that I may truly live Oh, the wonderful cross Oh, the wonderful cross
[60:37] All who have the deal By grace from the end And bless your name See from His hand His hands, His feet Sorrow and love Blow me low down Dear, such love And sorrow meet For the Lord's cross Oh, the wonderful cross So rich a crown Oh, the wonderful cross Oh, the wonderful cross Oh, the wonderful cross Live to come and die And find that I may truly live
[61:39] Oh, the wonderful cross Oh, the wonderful cross Oh, the wonderful cross Oh, the wonderful cross Oh, the wonderful cross Oh, the wonderful cross What day Where the whole realm Of nature mine That were an offering Far too small Love so amazing, so divine Demands my soul, my life, my home Let it be your name in the land that is plentiful
[62:59] Where your streams of abundance flow Let it be your name Let it be your name when I'm found in the desert lake Still I walk through the wilderness Let it be your name Every blessing you pour out I turn back to praise When the darkness closes in law Still I will say Let it be the name of the Lord Let it be your name Bless me your name Bless me your name Bless me your glorious name What could be your name when the sun is shining down the beach When the world's all as it should be
[64:02] Blessed be your name Blessed be your name Blessed be your name Blessed be your name On the road not to his suffering When there's pain in the offering Blessed be your name Every blessing you pour out I turn back to praise When the darkness closes in law When the darkness closes in law Still I will say Let it be the name of the Lord Let it be your name Let it be the name of the Lord Let there be a foyer's sin Let it be the name of the Lord Let it be your name Let it be your name Let it be the name of the Lord Let it be your royal's name Give and take away Give and take away Give and take away Give and take away
[65:05] Give and take away Give and take away Give and take away My heart will choose to say Lord blessed be your name Give and take away Give and take away Give and take away My heart will choose to say Lord blessed be your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your royal's name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be the name of the Lord
[66:06] Blessed be your royal's name Amen Amen Amen Seek ye first the kingdom of God And His righteousness And all these things shall be added unto you Allelu, Allelu, Alleluia Ask and it shall be given unto you Seek and ye shall find Knock and the door shall be opened unto you
[67:08] Allelu, Alleluia Our God has given us the most valuable, the most precious, the most important gift there is The gift of His Son The gift of His Son So that we could have the most important thing A thing we can't earn A thing we can't achieve out of our own efforts God's love, God's healing, God's forgiveness, and eternal life And God invites us to share in that at the table To come and be blessed so that we can be a blessing Seems like there's nothing to it A little piece of bread, a little bit of grape juice
[68:10] What is it? It's everything It's everything So come to the table this morning Receive all that God has for you Meet with Christ at the table Allow God to pour His Spirit into you afresh And be blessed like you've never been blessed before Everyone is welcome It doesn't matter if you're a member of Pendleton Center Church Or a member of any church It only matters that you love God That you earnestly repent of your sin And that you seek to live in peace as a disciple of Jesus Christ You are welcome Come The Lord be with you Lift up your hearts Lift up your hearts Let us give thanks to the Lord our God
[69:12] We give thanks to the Lord our God It is right and a good and joyful thing Always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth In the beginning your spirit moved over the face of the waters You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life When we turned away and our love failed Your love remained steadfast Your spirit came upon prophets and teachers Anointing them to speak your word 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 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 At his baptism in the Jordan your spirit descended upon him
[70:14] And declared him your beloved son With your spirit upon him he turned away the temptations of sin Your spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor To proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind To set at liberty those who are oppressed And to announce that the time had come when you would save your people He healed the sick Fed the hungry And ate with sinners On that night in which he gave himself up for us he took bread He gave thanks to you He broke the bread and gave it to his disciples Saying take eat This is my body which is given For you Do this in remembrance of me And when the supper was over he took the cup and he gave you thanks and praise and gave it to his disciples And he said drink from this And he said drink from this All of you
[71:16] This is the cup of my blood The blood of the new covenant Poured out for you Poured out for many For the forgiveness of sin Do this as often as you drink it In remembrance of me And so in 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 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 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 And empowered by the gifts of the Spirit By your Spirit make us one with Christ
[72:20] One with each other and one in ministry to all the world Until Christ comes in final victory And we feast at his heavenly banquet Through your son Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit And your Holy Church all honor and glory is yours almighty God Now and forever Amen Shall we pray together with the confidence of children of God The prayer Jesus taught us Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses As 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 For ever and ever And the power and the glory
[73:22] I'd like to invite you all to stand if you're able as we sing together And can it be that I should gain And can it be that I should gain And can it be that I should gain And can it be that I should gain An interest in the Savior's blood And can it be that I should gain And can it be that I should gain And can it be that I should gain And can I believe that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood?
[74:00] Died he for me, who caused his pain? For me, who will do death pursuit?
[74:11] Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
[74:35] He left his Father's throne above to free so infinite his grace.
[74:48] Emptied himself of all but love and glad for Adam's helpless race.
[74:59] Tis mercy on him and set free, for all my God he bound out me.
[75:12] Tis mercy on him and set free, for all my God he bound out me.
[75:23] Tis mercy on him and set free, for all my God he bound out to be. And all in Him is mine.
[75:37] Alive in Him, my living head. And clothed in righteousness divine.
[75:48] Bold I approach, eternal throne. And lay the crown in Christ my own.
[76:01] Bold I approach, eternal throne. And claim the crown through Christ my own.
[76:15] It's a miracle. I got my voice back. There are people listening out in the other room. And they said, all of a sudden, you just disappeared. You weren't talking anymore. Technology.
[76:27] You know. Ultimately, there are so many things that we can worry about. There's only one thing that matters. So Jesus said to Martha, remember that?
[76:39] One thing that matters. Focus your life on that. And watch God for the blessings where you need Him. God will provide. God will take care of you.
[76:50] Trust in Him. And be happy. And be free. May God go with you. May He grant you grace and peace and wonder and life to stand forever. Amen.
[77:00] Amen. Amen.
[77:25] Amen. The Crestles of the Course by Noah great one