[0:00] .
[0:22] Good morning everybody. Let's try that again. Good morning everybody. Good morning. Such a beautiful day. We should be alive in the wake. Good morning, everybody. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad.
[0:37] Any kids who want to come up and sing, they're welcome to join us. This is the day This is the day That the Lord has made The Lord has made Let us rejoice And be glad in it And be glad in it 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 We're the fish fry salad crew A welcome gift is available for new visitors And can be picked up at the connection site in the back of the sanctuary family worship Fill out your friendship card too Get on the mailing list Sign up for activities
[1:37] List any prayer of concern And any notes for the staff Welcome to the Baptist Sanger Church We are glad to have you at church this morning and welcome to you There are two opportunities for ministry going around The one clipboard is for the fish fries If you want to help out with some part of it or can We do appreciate it It takes quite a lot of people to make it work We served 702 dinners last week Which was a great amount Only second in the last few years For the week before So it was a good turnout We're glad for that Also There's another clipboard going around About the dinners up in Niagara Falls If you can help Or like to be a part of that We appreciate your support One last thing is Out in the back of the sanctuary You'll see some baskets Filled with Easter egg stuff We have an Easter egg hunt coming up In a couple of weeks And they got us stuff All sorts of things Into all sorts of things I don't know what that means That's about as far as it goes for me So if you're the kind of person
[2:37] Who wants something to do While you're watching TV at night Or whatever Take a basket home for us And we'd appreciate that Let's turn our hearts to the Lord in prayer Shall we? Dear God We thank you For the blessings that you give to us For just the opportunity To be gathered here For the beautiful sunshine of this day For the blessing of your sunshine In our hearts Touch us Move us Fill us And help us to be focused Heart, mind, soul And strength on you In Jesus' name we pray Amen If you're able I'm going to invite you to stand As we're going to sing together When morning gilts the skies When morning gilts the skies
[3:37] My heart awake in cries May Jesus Christ be praised A life that work and pray To Jesus I repay May Jesus Christ be praised The night becomes as day And from the heart we say May Jesus Christ be praised The hours of darkness be When this sweet chant they hear May Jesus Christ be praised Let all the earth around May joyous winds of sound May Jesus Christ be praised
[4:38] In heaven's eternal bliss In heaven's eternal bliss The longliest strain is this May Jesus Christ be praised May Jesus Christ be praised May this my life is mine My cataculted birth May Jesus Christ be praised May this eternal song Through all the ages long May Jesus Christ be praised May Jesus Christ be praised
[5:42] May Jesus Christ be praised Join me now.
[5:55] Any kids want to come on up? So anybody know what today is?
[6:18] What day of the week? Sunday. Sunday means that I go out to dinner with my family. What's tomorrow? Monday means I go out to dinner with my wife.
[6:30] Or eat at home with my wife. Tuesday, that's next, right? That's dinner with my grandson, Landis. Okay, what's the next day? Wednesday I eat dinner here at church.
[6:43] What's the next day? Thursday I eat at Niagara Falls Church. What's next? Friday I eat here for a fish fry. Saturday, I take my wife out to dinner.
[6:59] That's my week. And then I'm back to Sunday. Can you believe it? Every single day has some place for me to eat, something for me to do. I can remember them all by the days of the week. Isn't that pretty cool?
[7:10] Yeah, different meals, different people all the time. You know what? I'm glad to have the days of the week. They help me remember things. Like on Sunday, I go to church.
[7:22] Of course. That's what we do on Sunday, right? Monday we go to school, right? Yeah. Saturday we get up and watch cartoons, right?
[7:33] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And sleep in, right? You know, there's lots of things that the days of the week help us with. Sunday is important because we remember God.
[7:44] One day of the week, we've got to remember Him, right? We should remember Him every day, but we want to make sure we don't forget Him. Because if I didn't have all those days of the week, I might not eat dinner with all the people I care about in the world, and that would be bad, right?
[7:57] So we need one day of the week that we remember God and remember all the people we love. What do you guys thank Him for this morning? Raise your hand if you want to share something. My mom and my family. Friends and family.
[8:09] Family. The world of my family. My friends and my cat. Mommy.
[8:22] My dad. My animals. My mom and dad. Friends and family.
[8:33] Friends and family. My sister. My family and cats.
[8:44] My family and friends. Friends and family. My sisters. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the many wonderful things in our lives.
[8:55] Our family, our friends, our pets. Bless us today. Bless us always. Remember them and remember you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You guys go out to church school now. All the kids that go out to church school would like to.
[9:17] Good morning. Good morning. What a blessing to be here. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. This morning we have a mission moment and you'll find a special envelope in your offering, in your bulletin for the offering.
[9:35] Gee. This is for one great hour of sharing to benefit the United Methodist Committee on Relief, UMCOR. And it's a time when we gather together with all of the other United Methodist churches, like everywhere, and we support that part of our church that meets the needs of all kinds of people in emergency situations.
[9:57] Hurricanes, floods, fires, disasters of all kinds, and times when people are in serious, immediate need. UMCOR is the kind of organization that when something really, really bad happens, they are the first people on the scene.
[10:13] They get there, they can provide all kinds of help and support to the people who are in need. They don't need, because we prepare them through stuff like this, we prepare them ahead of time.
[10:24] So they don't have to wait two weeks, three weeks, or whatnot to get to the scene of that kind of a disaster and begin to help people. They can get going right away because they're ready to go right away.
[10:38] I know folks who have gone off on UMCOR trips. They go like that. Twelve hours notice, they're on the plane and they're out, so that they can help whoever is in need.
[10:51] Please prayerfully consider how you would support the United Methodist Committee on Relief and bring all of the gifts, tithes, and offerings that the Lord has called you to bring as an act of worship to God.
[11:08] Thank you very much.
[11:38] Everyone needs compassion Love that's never failing Let mercy fall on me Everyone needs forgiveness It's the kindness of a Savior The hope of nations The hope of nations Savior, keep and move the mountains My God is mighty to save He is mighty to save Forever, author of salvation He rose and conquered the grave
[12:40] Jesus conquered the grave So take me as you find me All my fears and failures Fill my life again I give my life to follow Everything I believe in Now I surrender All to Jesus I surrender All to Him I freely give I will ever love and trust
[13:41] I will ever love and trust In His presence daily live I give my all to follow Jesus I surrender all Now I surrender Now I surrender Shine your light And let the whole world sing I'm singing for the glory Of the risen King Savior, Savior, he can't do the mountains My God is mighty to save He is mighty to save Forever, He can't do the mountains My God is mighty to save.
[14:44] He is mighty to save. Forever honor of salvation. Heroes have conquered the grave.
[14:57] Jesus conquered the grave. He is mighty. To save.
[15:24] To save. loot.
[15:40] He want us to be strong. Praise Him, Lord, Jesus, He re-enosed. Praise Him, our God, we have been lost.
[15:56] Praise Father, His Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we do give You thanks and praise for this day, for the opportunity to gather and worship and to honor You with our gifts, our tithes, and our offerings.
[16:18] We pray that You would give us wisdom to know how to best use them to further Your kingdom, that many would be drawn to faith in Jesus Christ. And we pray especially this day, Lord, for the offerings for UMCOR.
[16:31] We pray that all of the people who work with that organization would be blessed if they do Your work and that we would be supporting them well in the mission that they have been called to.
[16:43] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. And we'd like to call forward those who are candidates for membership this morning and their sponsors.
[16:54] Brothers and sisters in Christ, through the sacrament of baptism, we are initiated into Christ's holy church.
[17:08] We are incorporated by God's mighty acts of salvation and given new birth through water and the Spirit. All this is God's gift offered to us without Christ.
[17:20] As a representative of our congregation, I present Gail Parker, Louise Mangan, and Richard Fisher for membership, and also Raymond Diebel for baptism and membership.
[17:37] As our new members take their vows, we invite our existing members to reaffirm their vows with them, as you'll see presented before you.
[17:59] At least I believe you will. You acknowledge your need for grace and Jesus Christ as your Savior. I acknowledge that I am a sinner and in need of God's grace.
[18:12] I reject the power of the evil. Repent and accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. Will you serve Jesus Christ as your Lord? I will serve Jesus Christ as my Lord through the ministries of the United Methodist Church.
[18:28] I will attend worship weekly, if I will ask possible. I will be part of the group for fellowship and nurture. I will pray for our church and her people.
[18:40] I will support the church financially, with a goal towards fighting. Will you serve Jesus Christ by serving others? I will use my God through the gifts to serve the church and others in at least one ministry this year.
[18:54] I will care for others and do what I can to bring others to Jesus Christ. Shall we pray?
[19:16] Lord, bless this water as a symbol of your sanctifying and renewing grace. As you have used water to bless the saints of history, let it now bless your child.
[19:28] Pour out your Holy Spirit on this gift of water to bless this child of God with your grace that leads to eternal life. Help us to know that as we die to this world, we become alive to Christ and share in his final victory over sin and death.
[19:48] Raymond Diebel, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[20:00] God work in you. Praise God. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[20:10] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Richard Fisher, may the Holy Spirit work within you, that having been born by the water and the spirit, you may remain a member of God's holy church now and forever.
[20:28] In Jesus' name, amen. Louise Mangin, may the Holy Spirit work within you, that having been born by the water and the spirit, you might remain a faithful member of Christ's Holy Church, now and forever, in Jesus' name. Amen.
[20:54] Great evil, may the Holy Spirit work within you, that having been born by the water and the Spirit, you may remain a faithful member of God's Holy Church, now and forever. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Gail Parker, may the Holy Spirit work within you, that having been born by the water and the Spirit, you'll remain a faithful member of Christ's Holy Church, now and forever. In Jesus' name we pray.
[21:19] Shall we welcome our newest members into the family of Christ? And after service, we do have a reception with a cake, so greet them a little bit more personally after church.
[21:33] What a blessing. What a blessing to welcome new folks into the body of Christ, and into the body of our fellowship here at Pendleton Center Church.
[21:47] Amen? Amen. What a blessing. What a blessing. And I am absolutely going to have cake after worship. And, you know, with this wonderful, wonderful joy, and the joy of having so many folks coming out to worship today, we gather together and come to the Lord in prayer.
[22:08] There are many needs in our congregation, as well as those joys that we have in our hearts. And among those needs this morning, Jean McMorris suffered a mild stroke.
[22:19] She's away in Florida, and she's recovering well. She's hanging in there, and things are going okay. But we need to keep her in our prayers. Jim Schlemmer had surgery on Thursday.
[22:30] I'll be going up to see him. He's still in ICU, Dottie says, but he's hanging in there and doing better, and we'll report back next week about how he's doing. Renee Beiter, who usually attends our 815 service, found out on Wednesday that her father has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and he will be beginning chemo on Wednesday.
[22:53] Yeah, and she has another family member that she's caring for, as well, who's just recently had back surgery. So she's really needing prayer. She's needing our prayers. We need to keep in prayer.
[23:04] Shirley Ducharer, as well. Connie just told me that she is back in the hospital and is in need of our prayers. So we want to make sure to keep her lifted up. And one more.
[23:15] We need to keep the family of Carol Hoffmeyer in our prayers. Carol is Becky Heideman's sister, and she died on Monday. So we'll keep them all in our prayers. And with these concerns that we've voiced, and those concerns that are on your hearts as well, let's turn to the Lord in prayer.
[23:45] Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise that you are always with us, that you are God. And we would bless you for just that, Lord, because it's a wonder that you are our God and that you love us.
[24:05] But you bless us, too. You walk with us, and you care for us, and you see to it that we have those things that we need in this world.
[24:18] And you call us to salvation and offer us eternal life, the greatest gift that there could possibly be. Thank you, Lord.
[24:29] Thank you that you hear and answer our prayers, that you rejoice with us as we rejoice, and you sorrow with us when we are in sorrow.
[24:44] And sometimes, Lord, both of those things are happening at the same time. Lord, we offer up to you now all of those who are sick and infirm, those who are in our hearts, and those who we've mentioned out loud.
[25:02] We pray that you touch them with your healing power. We pray that you grant them peace and make them whole from the tops of their heads to the soles of their feet, in their spirits, in their souls, and in their bodies, Lord.
[25:17] Give wisdom to their caregivers, those who are professionals and those who are friends and family. Help them to know how to best care for these folks who are in need.
[25:35] Give them compassion, Lord. Father, we pray for those who are grieving losses. Oh, Lord, we just ask in Jesus' name that you come alongside them by your Holy Spirit.
[25:50] Let them feel your presence, Lord, and grant them comfort, comfort and peace in this time of need. We pray also, Lord, for our community and for the wider world.
[26:05] Lord, we are your people, and we know the joy of serving you. We know the joy of gathering together in your name. We know the joy of having such a wonderful God, Savior and Lord as you.
[26:21] We pray that you would give us everything that we need to reach out, to touch our community, to touch those people who don't know you, those people who live in strife and confusion and discord.
[26:40] Help us to be instruments of your peace. Help us to bring your love into the situations we face. Help us to bring love that comes from you into your world.
[26:58] As we hear your word this morning, let it wash over us and transform us, giving us words to speak, giving us compassion to share.
[27:09] He was Pastor Thomas. He delivers the word that you have given him for us this day. Bless him and make this message to be a blessing to us, Lord.
[27:24] Most of all, Lord, make all of our worship to be a blessing to you. That is why we came to honor you and glorify you, to praise your holy name.
[27:40] It is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Shall we hear from the word of the Lord? Good morning.
[28:16] Good morning. Good morning. Today's scripture lesson is from Exodus chapter 31 verses 12 through 17. Then the Lord said to Moses, say to the Israelites, you must observe my Sabbaths.
[28:30] This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord who makes you holy. Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you.
[28:42] Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death. Those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of Sabbath rest, holy to the Lord.
[28:57] Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death. The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for generations to come as a lasting covenant.
[29:07] It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and he was refreshed.
[29:19] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks, Jeff. Have you ever heard the expression, less is more?
[29:32] We do fish fries once a week, if you haven't figured that out. And they take quite a bit of help. And if I were trying to recruit people to help with the fish fries, I could do this. Or I could do this.
[29:51] Which do you think would be more effective? Less sometimes is more. We get caught up in the busyness of life, and sometimes we don't know that slowing down can actually speed us up.
[30:07] And God wants us to slow down. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Six days you work, the seventh day is holy to you. And you're to not do any work and remember God.
[30:22] And if not, we're supposed to kill you. Did you pick that part up? We're supposed to kill you. Now, I wonder how that would affect things. You know, we'd probably have a little drop off at the beginning.
[30:36] But after that, I suspect people would be here every week. It sounds funny, but the truth is we are killing ourselves.
[30:51] With this obsessive culture, this 24-7 world we're living in, this anxiety-driven society, we're destroying our health.
[31:02] We're destroying our relationships. We're destroying each other. And we're forgetting God. We're looking at lessons from the desert.
[31:13] I've been doing this now for a couple of months. The children of Israel were taken out into the desert because they had forgotten God. And this passage talks about one of the more important lessons when we forget God, and that is remembering the Sabbath.
[31:28] Sabbath is actually mentioned in the Bible in quite a few places, but there's some places where it's clustered as it's talked about. One is right here, where the people of Israel had forgotten their God, and they were taken out into the desert.
[31:41] Another time is at the return from Persia, where they had lived in the Persian culture in exile, and they'd forgotten God, and so they had to emphasize the idea of the Sabbath. A third time it happened was when the prophets were preaching to Israel and saying, guys, you're forgetting God.
[31:59] You need to get back to God. You need a Sabbath. Because otherwise, we forget God. There's so many things going on, and we forget what makes us healthy.
[32:15] Remember the Sabbath. Work six days and rest on the seventh day, because believe it or not, we need the rest. I was sick Tuesday and Wednesday.
[32:26] I mean, I was really sick. I haven't been sick like that in I don't know how long. I was so bad that I was sitting in my family room, and when my glass of water got empty, I'd be like, how am I going to get the water?
[32:38] It's out in the kitchen. I don't think I can make it all the way back again. It was brutal. I've never had the energy just sucked out of me like that for two days.
[32:49] I slept like 20 hours a day. It was awful. And in the midst of it, I'm thinking, all right, Lord, I'll take a day off and rest. Right? Do you remember that passage from that Psalm 23 where it says, He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
[33:06] He suggests it or advises it or makes an opportunity. He makes us lay down. If we're not smart enough to do it, the anxiety, distress, the chronic busyness will make us sick.
[33:24] I had a friend of mine who was a pastor. He used to work about 80 hours a week, every week. And he would do that for about two years, two and a half years, and then he'd have a heart attack and end up in the hospital for like six weeks.
[33:35] He did this for years. And I'd be like, Cal, why don't you just take off three or four weeks a year and, you know, ease up on this, and then you could enjoy this time off instead of spending all your time off in a hospital bed.
[33:51] We just get obsessed with it. God knows we need a day off. Six days, plenty enough time to work. He says, we don't need any more.
[34:03] God himself took a day off. Now, Jesus was the last place that the Sabbath is mentioned a lot. He talked about it in a different way because people had started to misunderstand the point of the Sabbath.
[34:16] They were thinking the Sabbath was some sort of ritual or some sort of a thing that if you did it, it was going to earn you salvation or something like that. And so he had to say, as he did in Mark, the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.
[34:32] This is designed for our health, not for God. In fact, it says in here that the Sabbath is holy to us.
[34:45] Do you note the difference? It could have said the Sabbath is holy to God. It said the Sabbath is holy to you. We need a day for ourselves because we can get so wound up and so busy that we actually become ineffective.
[35:01] They say that there's a place where if you work too much, and for most people it's somewhere between 45 and 50 hours a week, if you work too much, too constantly at that level, you become less productive than if you just worked the 40.
[35:16] It doesn't do any good anymore. You don't get extra. You actually, at some point, you start to get a deteriorating amount of work so badly that it ruins the first 40 as well.
[35:28] I used to like a chem lawn to concentrate my efforts at my prime time. You know, we all have a prime time. For most of us, it's when the coffee kicks in, right? So we were required to be out on the lawns taking care of people's property.
[35:44] We had to leave the shop by 8 o'clock, and we weren't allowed to come in off the lawns until 3. With the idea that some guys would come as early as 6 and work until 3, and others would come as late as 8 and work until 5. Well, my friend Greg and I, we'd come in at 5 to 8, get in the truck, drive down the road to the coffee shop, and have breakfast.
[36:00] I don't think that's what they had in mind. And we'd go through our paperwork and, you know, get ready for the day. Because, you see, we had been doing this for a while, and what we discovered is if you start wandering around in people's yards at 6, 6.30 in the morning, they take guns out and, you know, start shooting at you.
[36:16] This is crazy. Nobody wants somebody wandering around their backyard at 6 in the morning. Creepy. We also discovered that around 3 o'clock, 3.30 in the afternoon, it's hot out.
[36:29] You don't want to be out there anymore. So we decided we could do more work if we just concentrated at our best hours. We were sharper with the customers. We were more effective in getting our work done.
[36:40] We knew what we were doing. We did it. Got it done. Do you think the boss ever complained to us? Boston complained, because we did one and a half times the amount of work that any of the other guys did, usually finished two weeks early and went and helped them get their work done.
[36:57] You see, less sometimes is more. God can renew us and give us the ability to be sharper, to be better, if we take the time we need to renew ourselves.
[37:12] So just simply taking a day of rest is good, but that's not the whole purpose of that. It's just a very small piece of the Sabbath. Keep it holy. We need a day to remember God.
[37:24] Because I'll be real honest with you, if you don't remember God at least once a week in a significant way, you will forget God. God will little by little start to disappear from your mind and from your thought and consciousness.
[37:37] Tuesday is Landist Day. Every Tuesday, I take my grandson to go do something for a couple hours. You know, I've got to tell you, I work on Tuesday. It's not my day off or something, so I have to actually leave work and schedule a time to kind of find something to do and go and do that with him.
[37:55] We usually have dinner and talk and catch up for the week. And if I don't do it Tuesday, I feel guilty like I've neglected my grandfatherly duties and so I make sure it happens another day.
[38:09] Now, I could just make it whatever day is open, right? Whenever I seem to have time in the week, you know what would really happen? I'd do it no days. No days.
[38:21] I have to have a ritual that says every Tuesday no matter what, I'm going to stand with my grandson or I would forget. After the first week, it won't matter.
[38:32] Second or third week, it might not matter, but pretty soon, you think that he'll think his grandfather cares? See how that works? It's the same with God. We need a time every week.
[38:44] Today is Sunday. It's God Day. You see how that works? And we take a little time with God. God. The Sabbath is the sign, as it says in here, of the holy agreement, the covenant between us and God.
[38:59] God has made a covenant to be with you, to bless you, to be a part of your life with the understanding that you'll keep your side and keep him a part of yours. But we have to do it intentionally.
[39:11] My wife is in South Carolina. Some of you may have seen on Facebook, she's doing rope stuff and things like that in the woods of South Carolina. I don't know why my grandma would want to be down there doing that, but you know, there we go.
[39:25] Off we go into the wild blue yonder. So she's been gone for now about a week and a half. When she left, she gave me this devotion book. It's like Upper Room or Guidepost or something like that.
[39:35] You know those ones that have just like a little devotion a day? And she said, I want you to do this devotion every day in the morning. Now, she didn't do that because I don't know how to do devotion.
[39:46] I learned that a while back and I'm a bastard. I know how to keep my faith life where it's supposed to be. She did that because she's doing the same devotion in the morning. So even if we can't be together, we can be in the same place.
[40:01] You see what I mean? So when I pick up that little book, it's got some nice little stories. It's kind of fun. It's good. It doesn't take me very long. But I don't really, I do think about God, but that's not what I mainly think about.
[40:11] I pick it up and I go, Jackie, good morning, honey. That's what I do. I actually say to the book, good morning, Angel. And I start reading the book because it reminds me of her.
[40:24] You see, Sabbath is meant to remind us of what really matters in our lives. It shows us, ourselves, our families, that we're people of God, that we're Christian.
[40:39] Anybody here remember Billy Sunday? And you're old. I'm kidding. Billy Sunday was a great evangelist in the last century. Great evangelist.
[40:49] He brought Billy Graham to the Lord. Anybody remember Billy Graham? A few more of you. Okay. Pretty soon that'll be a name they won't remember. But you know, powerful people of faith. Billy Sunday once said, putting a bicycle in a garage doesn't make it in an automobile any more than putting a person in the church makes them a Christian.
[41:05] All right? The idea of Sabbath is not if you go to church and simply go to church it will somehow magically transform you into a person of God.
[41:16] To become people of God we have to make a relationship, a decision that we're going to follow God. God's going to be a part of our lives. He's our Lord. He's our Savior. We make that decision and God becomes a part of who and what we are.
[41:29] We can do that in church. We can do that someplace else. We can do that driving down the car down the road. But when we come to church we remember God. We remember God.
[41:42] There's some churches that have something called a sanctanasium. It's a combination of a sanctuary and a gymnasium. They do everything in that room. So like, you know, we'd have the fish fries on Friday.
[41:54] We'd have the teenagers playing basketball on Wednesdays. We'd have the line dancers on Tuesdays and we'd do church on Sunday. It's okay. It's good use of space, right?
[42:06] Rather than taking a room and leaving it simply for a purpose like worship. But you know what the difference is? When you walk into our fellowship hall oftentimes you think fish.
[42:17] Or you think basketball. Or you might think all sorts of things. When you walk into this room you think God. Right? You just go God.
[42:28] It's like an automatic switch in our mind. especially when you walk in and you look up here and you go God. Good morning God. It reminds us. That's why we have gone to the expense of having a place set aside.
[42:43] A sanctuary for our faith. Not because God is only here or because it's the only place you can be with God. Because we need something to remind us so that we remember who God is.
[42:55] That's what the Sabbath is about. Remember who God is. Remember who we are with God. If you were to list the top five or six or seven things in importance in your life what do you think they might be?
[43:14] Maybe family health that sound about right? Some would say joy love God maybe getting to the next life I mean some might even say that.
[43:35] And yet we don't live that way. We live worried about the stuff and worried about how much money we can stick in a bank account and whether people will call us successful and whether we've gotten the best grades or not.
[43:53] Whether we have a nice house to live in. all that kind of thing. It's all good by the way. I want all you young people to get good grades.
[44:05] It's good for you for your education. By the way nobody knows what my GPA was in college, high school, or seminary and nobody's ever cared. All right? I just want to let you know that too.
[44:15] There are important pieces of our lives like work and like having some nice things and I hope you all have that but they don't supersede these kind of things.
[44:31] Here's an American blasphemy. It comes from the Bible. Jesus said watch out. Be on guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in the abundance of stuff.
[44:43] Right? How many of you make it your life's priority to get as much stuff as you can? And yet somehow it seems that we have become a culture that works so hard for stuff.
[45:00] We've got bigger closets to store stuff, garages to store stuff, basements, attics, storage units down the road. Stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff. And it's killing us.
[45:15] God is trying to remind us of what really matters. That we need to take a break from it up. And focus on the important things of life sometimes.
[45:26] And if we don't, God is going to cause all signs of storms that will make us slow down. Just see what Bob's letter. I know it's still winter. It's been windy, cold, and dark.
[45:38] It is blowing, but I can weather the storm. What do I care how much it may storm?
[45:54] I've got my love to keep me warm. I know it's still winter. It's been windy, cold, and dark. For some, they may even start to get a little gloomy.
[46:06] But not me. I've learned to look at it as an opportunity. It's me again, Bob Sud, here with a snugly warm lesson for you. Now, we can all look at the winter weather and feel like we need something more to go away, do something to make ourselves feel better.
[46:22] But the lesson I've learned over the years is that you don't have to go anywhere. We can look out and say, it's blustery, and we're stuck inside. Or we can look out and say, it's blustery, we get to stay inside.
[46:33] How is that possible, you say? Think about it. What can be a greater thing to do than to stay inside with those you love? It warms the heart and soul and makes winter something to be treasured. Remember what we used to do before we used to go off to do other things separately, running around chasing who knows what?
[46:51] Now's your chance to do what really matters. Connect with your family. You could play a board game. Except Monopoly. Don't play Monopoly. Even with those new fangled video games, like Pong. You could play it together.
[47:02] You could pop some popcorn and watch a movie. Together. You could throw out some music and dance around the kitchen. Together. Just have a good time. Together. Singing, laughing, telling jokes with the people that matter to you most.
[47:16] It's a great lesson I've learned. Winter is a time where we can be together with the ones we love. Why do I care how much it's done? I've got my love to keep me warm.
[47:35] Yeah, I know. I'm no Dino. I got that. What is so important? What is so urgent that we let it destroy our love, our joy, our faith in God?
[47:54] The Sabbath was designed for these people who were slaves to keep them getting enslaved again. See, when they were in Egypt, the boss made them work all the time.
[48:08] He didn't have the kind of boss I was fortunate to have. If they got more work done, he'd take away their straw. If they were getting stuff done early, they'd find more work to do.
[48:21] Because they wanted these people to think about nothing but work, work, work, work, work. Because people who are working can't cause trouble. Slaves who are busy won't be a problem.
[48:37] God knew they needed something different. He knew that they were becoming enslaved to this, that they were stuck in this, and that the important things of life they were losing. You see, it's Satan's deception.
[48:49] Satan has got this idea that he's planted in our head that if we work hard enough, we'll get everything done. Does it work? No.
[49:03] You know, I love to work on remodeling houses. I kind of enjoy it. Because when I work on things like that, they don't yell at me or complain or say I went through long or anything like that.
[49:14] They just go along with me. I love working with construction. All the construction stuff just goes along with whatever I decide to do. And one thing I learned about remodeling houses is they're never done.
[49:31] People will come up to me and they say, when are you going to be finished with your house? You know what the answer is? When I sell it. When I sell it, I'll be done. Up until the day I sell it, it will never be done.
[49:44] You can't get done. You can't get done in life. You can't do all the things there are to do. You can't do all the things that could entertain you. You can't do all the things that you're supposed to do.
[49:55] I live in a world where I have to make decisions often between what must be and is urgent to do and what I should do. Every once in a while, I try to do something I'd like to do because I think it'll be enjoyable and maybe a blessing to someone.
[50:11] Like last night, I decided to go to the middle school play over at Star Point. Those of you who know anything about it realize there was no middle school play at Star Point last night.
[50:21] Pastor Sherry and I pulled in the parking lot all excited about seeing the kids in their plan. Soot! Why? Because we get so busy. We don't even have the time to check to see if this is the right night.
[50:35] Anybody else ever do this? Sorry, everybody. I tried. Not well, but I tried. My fault. You see, Satan knows that if you keep us distracted, we'll forget the things that really matter.
[50:52] We'll mess up all the time. So he took them out to the desert like a retreat. You know, like going to the beach for a week or taking some time out at the lake or maybe like, you know, going on a church retreat even.
[51:06] Just to get away from the day to day, step back for a little bit and say, what really makes a difference? Now, I'm not against success. I'm not against entertainment.
[51:16] I'm not against you doing well. I hope you are all wonderful successes. I hope all our kids get the best grades in school. And I hope all you people make tons of money and live wonderful, happy, easy lives.
[51:28] I do. That'll just make everything easier for everybody. It really will. But the truth is, we will never get everything we will see that we think we need.
[51:42] All we will do is keep coming up short and doing what Solomon said, chasing after the wind. We can never, never get it. There's always something more. And so this 24-7 world we've moved into, it's destroying us.
[52:01] I get this question all the time. It's really buggy. You know, I guess it's the gray hair, which is from the driveway, by the way. I got a fish fry.
[52:15] Four people said to me, so when are you going to retire? But I said, they're going to keep asking me when I'm going to retire. Whenever I feel like it, I don't know. It'll be several years.
[52:26] Get off of me. So you know what they'll say? Don't wait too long. What? Too long for what? Too long for what? What do they mean by that? You know, we've got it all screwy.
[52:39] I want you to think about it. Here's what we've decided as a culture should be the plan. We work all the time and focus on nothing but making money and our employment.
[52:50] 24-7, we exclude love. We exclude joy. We exclude taking any time to enjoy life at all along the journey so that we can get to this point in our life where we can say, I do nothing.
[53:05] That doesn't sound good to me. I actually like work. You know that God said, did you hear this in here? Six days you're supposed to work.
[53:16] See, we all hear about the seventh day. He also said, it's six days. Not, you know, work three and take four off. He says you should work six. You know God thinks you should work.
[53:26] God not only thinks you should work here, his plan is you're going to work in eternity. Just so you got that in your head. You're not going to be sitting around the cloud playing a little, that's not going to happen. You're going to be doing stuff.
[53:38] Thank God, because otherwise it would be boring to do that for all eternity. You know, once in a while, man, I don't want to do that all day long. Come on. God plans, we're going to work.
[53:49] We're going to have stuff to do because work is great. I enjoy work. I don't want to just stop and then turn around and look at all the things that I was supposed to be doing with my whole life, the people I'm supposed to love, the joy I was supposed to have, the God I'm supposed to spend time with and get to know with and go, what is that?
[54:15] I don't even recognize it. Spend the rest of my time doing remedial work? That sounds crazy. All that God is trying to say is have a balanced life.
[54:30] Do all of it. It even diminishes the value of work the way we do it, like it's something we need to get out of the way when it should be something we feel called about and love to do.
[54:43] God said six days. And on the seventh, take a day of rest for God and for yourself.
[54:58] Make it holy to you. And Jesus said the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. It's not a legalistic rule. It's not some ritual.
[55:11] It's a balanced way of life. I told you I like to do construction. Some of you know I've got a summer home out at Silver Lake. I bought it for $10,000. That tells you it was a pretty run down shack, you know, two and a half story Victorian for $10,000.
[55:26] It was in pretty bad shape. Okay? So we've been working on it now for over 30 years. The first 20 years or so, my father and I worked on it together. It was such a cool partnership.
[55:37] I'm left-handed, he was right-handed. You know, we would literally hand the hammer to each other and off it would go the other direction. We could do stuff together so well and it was a lot of fun to work together with my father and I just enjoy construction itself.
[55:52] So, you know, it was something I didn't do simply to get something done. I did it because I liked it. But we had a couple of rules. The first was we didn't start work until 10 in the morning.
[56:02] After all, this is a summer home. You don't start working until 10 in the morning. There's other people sleeping nearby, you know. And at 4 o'clock, one of us would see the clock and go, happy hour!
[56:15] We'd drop the tool boats and go sit on the front porch and have a drink. Visit with each other and watch my mother and wife work. No, I didn't say that. Sometimes what we did. Until we could convince them to come and have a drink with us.
[56:28] And there was an exception to that rule, by the way. And that was if my friend Doug, who had a sailboat, came walking down the street any time during the day and said, hey Tom, you want to go sailing? I was allowed to drop my tool belt even at one in the afternoon and just go sailing.
[56:46] You see, we got a lot of work done. We've transformed that into a beautiful home. We got what needed to happen, happen.
[56:57] We also enjoyed the journey as we went. The Sabbath is designed to remind us what really matters.
[57:10] We need a day off for ourselves, for our God, and for each other. It's not just a personal thing. It's a community thing.
[57:23] Some of you are old enough to remember when stores weren't open on Sunday. Remember that? They weren't even open. Now, this is going to freak some of you out. They weren't even open except one evening a week.
[57:36] Grocery stores closed at 6 o'clock. And there was no cable, and there was no internet, and there was no computers or cell phone. I know what you're thinking.
[57:47] What did you do? We played pong. With ping pong panels. We sat on the front porch and talked to each other.
[58:00] We played board games. We enjoyed life with each other. And on Sunday, we got together with our God.
[58:13] And then we went home with our family and ate dinner. Does that really sound so bad? So awful?
[58:24] Are we really so much better off with our 24-7 constant going connection where we can be working any moment of every day, and we will always have something to do so that we can...
[58:37] I go in the car with me. This is what drives me the craziest, because the car was my last refuge. You know, you get a person in the car, and that's it. There was no way to communicate.
[58:48] They couldn't, you know, there was nothing they could do until somebody came up with this crazy thing, right? Now, they get in the car, so here you are sitting with the person you care about the most in the world, right?
[59:01] You're sitting in the car, and all of a sudden... It's like, really? So I'm supposed to drive down the road like this. What is so important?
[59:13] Give me that! That's what I want to do. That's what I want to do. I want to take this fool thing and throw it out the window.
[59:25] Now the thing will play through the car radio, so I've got to listen to their nonsense conversation. I don't want to hear it. I can't even listen to the radio anymore. The dark thing is talking in front of me.
[59:36] Go away! See, we're talking about things that are destroying us. I don't know how to get rid of it all.
[59:48] And going back to the days when there is no cell phone, isn't going to work. I know that. And pretending we don't have the internet is not going to happen. But do we make a space in it?
[60:01] Somewhere. For our God. For our family. For our community. For our health. For ourselves. Less sometimes is more.
[60:15] more. For our family. For our family. You're sitting at home. On a cold winter day. And all of a sudden. The table connection goes out in your house.
[60:29] What happens? You're like free. No! You must get my table worthy that day.
[60:41] I was right in the middle of my game. I mean. Do you freak out? Or do you sit back and say. Oh cool.
[60:52] An opportunity to talk. With my family. We could play a card game. Maybe. Maybe we'll watch something. On whatever comes over the team. Oh it doesn't work.
[61:03] Oh well. We'll just have to enjoy each other's company. We'll play some music. Maybe we'll sing a song together. We'll be family.
[61:15] Do you remember what that great religious philosopher of the last century Jimmy Griffith once said? Remember that? If you get stuck in a snow storm.
[61:27] Grab a six pack. Watch a football game. And enjoy your family. Seriously. What is so important that you have to go out in a blizzard?
[61:38] I don't have a six pack. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. The Sabbath in the Bible shows up. The conversations around it when the people start forgetting God.
[61:53] When they start forgetting God. Here. When they're in Egypt. When they're coming back from Persia. When the prophets are trying to keep them from going in to the wilderness. Like we're talking about for us now.
[62:04] I'm not against all the modern world we live in. I live in it. Let's just remember that God gave us the Sabbath. Not to keep him holy. For our holiness.
[62:16] For our value. So we would be the people that God intended us to be. The most powerful word in the Bible is repent. You're going the wrong way. Be of mind.
[62:28] Turn around. And get back on track with God. With your family. With love. With joy. Enjoy your work. And make it a blessing.
[62:39] Have a great work day. And then stop. And spend some time on the other things that matter. Go ahead and work six days. Keep one day aside for rest and for God.
[62:52] Because we're not human doings. We're human beings. I still work on the college. I will until we sell it.
[63:04] There's projects. And I like doing them. I just enjoy the experience of getting something done. And my wife sees it. And she's happy. And just, you know, the feeling of accomplishment in it.
[63:16] I enjoy that. My father passed away. So I do it mostly myself. Once in a while, somebody helps me out with something. My friend Doug got neuropathy.
[63:26] So he sold the sailboat. So he doesn't come down the street very much anymore. At least not for that. But he does call around 4 o'clock. Say, dude, it's happy hour.
[63:41] And so now I sit on the front porch and have a drink with my friend Doug. And we watch the sailboats out on the lake. And remember the blessings of our lives as we've gone through life.
[63:52] Not the ones that I'm looking forward to whenever I decide to retire. Which is none of your business. Okay? Won't be soon. Relance. And remember, God is with you.
[64:05] Remember this. Keep it. When I come to you, all I know you're satisfied.
[64:25] I am empty, but I know your love is not gone dry.
[64:36] So I'll wait for you. So I'll wait for you.
[64:48] I'm falling on my knees. All glory, God, I'll be.
[65:00] Jesus, your all is hard. His living hope. Oh. Broken eye.
[65:19] Broken eye. Run to you, Lord. Your arms are broken wide. I am weary, but I know your touch.
[65:34] This holds my life. So I'll wait for you. So I'll wait for you.
[65:48] I'm falling on my knees. Offering all of me.
[65:59] Jesus, your all is hard. His living hope. His living hope. I'm falling on my knees.
[66:11] I'm falling on my knees. Offering all of me.
[66:21] Jesus, your all is hard. His living hope. for you is hard. His living hope? I'm falling on my knees.
[66:45] Snowčia. His living hope. The world is hard. You are my strength when I am weak. You are the treasure that I seek.
[67:01] You are my all in all. Seeking you as the precious rule.
[67:15] Lord, to give or abide, be a fool. You are my all in all.
[67:31] Taking thy sin, my cross, my shame. Rising again, I bless your name.
[67:41] You are my all in all. When I fall down, you pick me up.
[67:57] When I am dry, you fill my coat. You are my all in all.
[68:08] Jesus, Lamb of God.
[68:20] Worthy is your name. Jesus, Lamb of God.
[68:39] Worthy is your name. Jesus, Lamb of God. You are my strength when I am weak.
[68:55] You are my strength when I am weak. You are the treasure that I seek. You are my all in all. Jesus known as theầy of God.
[69:10] If I'm oh. Jesus, Lamb of God. I will be upon you. Jesus, Lamb of God. I'm not saying to you, I'm not, you are my own, my own.
[69:29] I'm not, you are my own, my own.
[69:44] I'm not, you are my own, my own.
[70:14] I'm not, you are my own. I'm not, you are my own. I'm not, you are my own.
[70:27] The heavens return you on God and the mountains rejoice. The oceans cry hallelujah as we worship, dear Lord.
[70:44] The heavens return you on God and the mountains rejoice. You save my soul, I thank you forevermore.
[71:00] Jesus, the love of my life you are. The heavens return you on God and the mountains rejoice.
[71:18] The heavens return you on God and the mountains rejoice. The heavens return you on God and the mountains rejoice.
[71:38] The heavens return you on God and the mountains rejoice. The heavens return you on God and the mountains rejoice.
[71:59] The heavens return you on God and the mountains rejoice.
[72:21] The heavens return you on God and the mountains rejoice. The heavens return you on God and the mountains rejoice. The heavens return you on God and the mountains rejoice. I broke the string on my guitar. You might have wondered, you know. The last time I broke the string on this guitar like this, I stood back here doing this in the middle of the song. A couple of you might remember that. Just messing with it, fussing with it, worrying all about it and everything else, you know.
[72:40] And somebody wise said to me, why don't you just put it down and sing when that happens next time.
[72:51] Now it's pretty hard to sing about, you know. I tell you all this time about getting things in perspective and not being anxious about things that don't matter.
[73:02] And then they go nuts over a guitar string. We mess up. We go the wrong day to a play because we're so worried about trying to get everything else done and jammed into things.
[73:15] So we miss what matters. We miss our joy. We lose our love. We forget about God. And what have we accomplished that we're going to even remember in three years?
[73:27] That was so important, this tyranny of the immediate. That's ruining our lives and taking over our world and enslaving us again. Let's throw it aside.
[73:39] Give it up to God. We come back here once a week, you know. And for some of you, I don't know, for me, this is one of the best parts of it. We come back and we're messed up so that we can hear God say, it's okay.
[73:51] We repent, we confess, and then we hear those great words. So let's go ahead and do that, shall we? Dear God in heaven, I have sinned. I let the wrong things obsess me.
[74:03] I let the wrong things obsess me. Control me. Direct me. Forgive me, Lord. Help me to remember you. Help me to live in love and joy.
[74:17] Remember the people I love. And the ones that love me. Forgive my mistakes. Teach me to do what's right.
[74:31] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Are you ready for it? Are you ready for it? In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven.
[74:45] In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Glory to God. Amen. Hus aí 흠 Krish Generous I love thee, I know thou art mine.
[75:22] For thee all the valleys of sin I resign. My precious Redeemer, my Savior, art thou.
[75:41] If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, it is now.
[75:53] I love thee because thou hast first loveth me. And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree.
[76:13] I love thee for wearing the arms of thy brother. If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, it is now.
[76:34] Amen. You know, when Jesus' disciples came to the table to have supper with him, they didn't sit in chairs like we sit in chairs all straight up and down, you know, dining room chairs.
[76:54] They reclined at the table. You want to come and recline at the table this morning? Rest in the Lord. Receive the rest.
[77:08] That Sabbath rest that God has prepared for you. Come to the table this morning. Everyone is welcome. If you love God, repent of your sin and seek to live in peace as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
[77:25] You're welcome to come and receive the peace and the rest that God provides. The Lord be with you.
[77:36] And also with you. Lift up your hearts. Lift up your hearts. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. Let us 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.
[77:52] In love you made us for yourself. When we had fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death, your love remained set back.
[78:04] 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.
[78:19] 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, whom you sent in the fullness of time to redeem the world.
[78:33] He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in our likeness. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
[78:45] He took upon himself our sin and death and offered himself a perfect sacrifice for the sin of the whole world. 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.
[79:04] And on the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread and he gave thanks to you. He broke the bread and gave it to his disciples. He said, Take, eat. This is my body which is given for you.
[79:19] Do this in remembrance of me. And when the supper was over, he took the cup and he gave you thanks and praise. He gave it to his disciples.
[79:31] He said, Drink from this, all of you. This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new covenant, poured out. For you. Poured out for many.
[79:43] For the forgiveness of sin. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. 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.
[80:05] Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here. And on these gifts of bread and wine.
[80:17] 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. By your spirit, make us one with Christ, 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.
[80:39] Through your son, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever. Amen.
[80:51] So we pray together, as disciples of Christ, the prayer of Jesus Christ. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
[81:07] 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.
[81:21] For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Will those serving, please come forward. Amen.Salad be the Lord.
[82:21] Thank you.
[82:51] Thank you.
[83:21] Come join us at the table. At the rail for prayers for healing, to light a candle. Come and join us with the Lord. Remember the Lord. Come and hide my soul.
[83:34] Come and soilhe detector. jazz Gospel Thank you.
[84:20] Thank you.
[84:50] Thank you.
[85:20] Thank you.
[85:50] Thank you.
[86:20] Thank you.
[86:50] Thank you.
[87:20] Thank you.
[87:50] Thank you.
[88:20] Thank you.
[88:50] Thank you.
[89:20] Thank you.
[89:50] Thank you.
[90:20] Thank you.
[90:50] May God give you happy hours and may God give you snowstorms. May God give you the kind of things that will just open up your heart. And may God once in a while make your cell phones not work and you just don't care.
[91:02] Amen.