[0:00] Good morning everybody.
[0:21] Good morning. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. If any kids would like to sing, they're welcome to come on up and join us. Good morning.
[1:00] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made.
[1:13] Very good. Hi, welcome to our church. I'm Mike Maciejewski. And I'm Julie. Please fill out your friendship card to get on the mailing list, to sign up for any activities, any prayers or concerns, and any notes you want to send for the staff.
[1:27] And if you're new to our church, please be sure and pick up a gift that we have for you in the back of the church at the Connection site after worship. Thank you for coming today, and welcome to Pendleton Center Church.
[1:39] Hey, for the announcements, I have no clipboards. How cool is that for one Sunday? Isn't that great? And we do have a picnic after church, so we hope that you'll join us with that. Let's take a moment, shall we, and turn our hearts to the Lord in prayer.
[1:50] Dear God, we do ask that you just come into this place with the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit to touch us, to move us, to make us into what you want us to be.
[2:00] Lord, we offer our prayers in Jesus' name. Amen. I'd like to invite you, if you're able, to stand as we sing together, Heralds of Christ. Heralds of Christ, who bear the King's command.
[2:19] Immortal tidings in your mortal hands. And the solid care is sweet, the news you bring.
[2:39] Make straight, make straight, the high record, the King. Through desert waves, dark fen and deep morass.
[3:01] Through jungle sluggish, seas and mountain pass. Build now the road, and plow the not nor stay.
[3:21] Prepare across the earth the King's high way. Lord, give us faith and strength, the road to build.
[3:42] To see the promise of the day fulfilled. When war shall be, no more and strife shall cease.
[4:01] Don't you think it would be cool if our brass people would do that thing?
[4:15] You know, that would be really cool. We've got to get that in sometime. The Lord be with you. Take a moment, if you will, and greet your neighbor with the peace of the Spirit. You're going to eat those.
[4:34] Going to invite the kids to come up and join us. Any kids want to join me today? Any other kids want to come on up?
[4:44] Come on up. Come on up. Come on up. Come on up. Come on up. Come on up.
[5:24] I don't care about you. No, I wouldn't either. Not at all. It would be if I gave you all of this, right? Which I give you right now, but I know what you'll do. You'll make a mess. We're going to have to wait on those. Yeah. You know, it's the same thing when we say we love our parents, but when they ask us to clean our rooms, we don't do it.
[5:41] Right? Or when we say that we love our brothers or sisters, but then we don't let them play with our toys at all. Right? Or we say that we love our grandparents, but we don't call them and tell them or anything.
[5:54] Right? Or when we say we love God, but we don't do anything for God. Right? How do we prove that we love people? By what we share with them and what we do for them.
[6:07] Right? Yeah. So remember that. That's important. That way we can say we love someone, but what really matters is when we show we love someone because then they know it's real.
[6:18] Okay? What are you thankful for? You want to share something? Raise your hand. My friends and family. The man outside named Pete who's keeping watch over all the animals.
[6:33] Mom and Dad. What's the family? My mom. God. My mom and dad. My mom.
[6:48] I just like to go on my floor. All right. Lord, we are thankful for all these great blessings that we've mentioned.
[6:59] Our family, our lives, even the man outside named Pete watching the animals. Bless us. Bless us all, Lord, to show our love in what we do and what we are. In Jesus' name we pray.
[7:10] Amen. Okay, you guys can all go out to church school. All the kids are welcome to go out to church school. And speaking of Pete watching the animals outside, we do have a mission moment that you'll notice. And we do invite you and encourage you to take a look at that.
[7:22] If you'd like to support the Lakeview Animal Shelter, which even though the name doesn't suggest it, is located here in Pendleton. Or if you'd even like to just talk to them. They are outside with a bunch of animals.
[7:33] And we do call that to your attention. I think we have a thankful moment this morning, don't we? This morning, for our thankful moment, I'd like to invite Linda Barzakowski, who's one of our CLMs, that certified lay minister, for those of you who don't know, and all of those who participated in the Disciple 1 class.
[7:50] Would you come on up? We have a pin for you. We want to recognize these folks who have spent an entire year, pretty much an entire year, working toward this goal. So Disciple 1 folks, would you please come on up?
[8:02] Thank you. Good morning. I had the blessing of being able to lead an awesome group through the Disciple 1 Bible study.
[8:14] There were 12 of us all together, 12 people studying to be disciples. It was a 34-week study. It took us from Genesis to Revelation and learning how to become better disciples for Christ.
[8:29] We shared joys, we shared sorrows, we shared tears and laughter, and sometimes we even got on each other's nerves. But all the while, we were studying the Scripture and finding comfort during our difficult times in God's Word.
[8:44] There was a lot of reading, a lot of prayer, but they did it, and I'm so proud of them. What a blessing. We also have pins for them.
[8:54] Just so you know also, if you'd like to take part in this awesome study, it is going to be starting again in the fall. I believe Julaine's going to be leading it. We're not sure the exact details yet.
[9:05] And if you've already taken Disciple 1 and would like to join us for Disciple 2, that will also be starting. What a thankful opportunity this was.
[9:18] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, and now if you would bring your gifts, tithes, and offerings before the Lord as an offering of worship to our God, as the Lord would lead you.
[9:34] Thank you.
[10:04] Thank you.
[10:34] Thank you.
[11:04] Thank you.
[11:34] Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
[11:54] Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts.
[12:07] Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
[12:21] Dear Heavenly Father, we do give you thanks and praise for this day, for the opportunity to gather and worship you. Lord God, we thank you for the opportunity to teach people more about who you are as they study your word, whether it be the young children or all the way up to our oldest adults.
[12:40] We are grateful that you want us to know you better. We ask you to bless that ministry, Lord God, and all those who offer their time and talents and efforts toward that end.
[12:52] We also lift up this offering, Lord, and we ask that you would bless it, especially those offerings for the work of the Lakeview Animal Sanctuary. We ask that you bless their work as well.
[13:05] We ask that you take all of our gifts and offerings. Give us wisdom to know how to best use them. And help us to further your kingdom as we spread the gospel.
[13:16] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Please be seated with the exception of the folks who are coming up to take their membership vows, and their sponsors.
[13:27] If you would come up, come up forward. And I'm going to invite our lay leader, Jan Hodge, also, to come on up. And you all can just come on up over here and stand up this way.
[13:40] Brothers and sisters in Christ, through the sacrament of baptism, we are initiated into Christ's holy church. We are incorporated into God's mighty acts of salvation and given new birth through water and the Spirit.
[13:56] All this is God's gift offered to us without Christ. As a representative of this congregation, I present Kelly Grimmer, Mary Rosen, Tom Grimmer, and Jennifer Grimmer for baptism or membership.
[14:22] Questions are for our candidates for membership. They're also your questions. And so I invite you to repeat the vows of your membership along with our newer members as we reaffirm our vows before God.
[14:35] Will you serve Jesus Christ as your Lord? No, that's not right. That's not right. That's not right. Do you acknowledge your need for grace?
[14:48] Do I acknowledge my need for grace? Absolutely. Do you acknowledge your need for grace and Jesus Christ as your Savior? I acknowledge my need for grace and Jesus Christ as your Savior?
[15:05] Will you serve Jesus Christ as your Lord? I will serve Jesus Christ as my Lord. In the ministry of the Trinity, the Trinity, the Trinity, the Trinity, the Trinity.
[15:16] I will attend worship to you, and at all times. I will be part of the peace of the Trinity. I will praise for our church. I will support the church by my name, and to the old Lord at the time.
[15:31] Will you serve Jesus Christ by serving others? Will you serve Jesus Christ by serving others? I will be part of the church in the ministry. I will serve Jesus Christ as your Lord. I will serve Jesus Christ as your Savior. And at least one means to be the Lord.
[15:43] I will serve God as your Savior. I will serve God as your Savior. I will serve Jesus Christ as your Savior. I was talking to somebody the other night, by the way, and I said we were talking about, you know, how our church is made up of people that make mistakes.
[16:00] And if you're not comfortable with that, you shouldn't come here, because that's who we are. Just do this. I'm going to invite Kelly to come up. Kelly Grimmer, may the Holy Spirit work within you. That I have been born by the water and the Spirit, you may live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
[16:15] Amen. And Mary. Mary Rosen, may the Holy Spirit work within you. That I have been born by the water and the Spirit, you may live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
[16:27] Amen. And Tom and Jennifer. Tom Grimmer, may the Holy Spirit work within you. That I have been born by the water and the Spirit, you may live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
[16:42] Amen. And Jennifer Grimmer, may the Holy Spirit work within you. That I have been born by the water and the Spirit, you may live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. Amen. And shall we welcome our newest members into the family of God?
[16:56] And take a moment at our picnic after church, which you're all invited to, to greet our newest members.
[17:07] There's going to be a cake there to celebrate. And so we do look forward and encourage you to come and join us for that. And I should sneak in real quick. The youth are doing a car wash.
[17:19] So if your car is messy and dirty, take it out front while you're eating and they'll clean it for you. I think it's kind of cool. Praise God. Isn't it a joy to welcome new members into the body of Christ, into this fellowship of the body of Christ.
[17:34] Amen? Amen. We do have some concerns that we want to bring before you. And of course, you have those concerns that are on your heart. Jim Accord is going in for heart surgery this Wednesday.
[17:45] We want to keep him in our prayers. And Richard Waring is hospitalized right now with a severe infection. Nancy Dimick is suffering from some health issues. We want to keep her in our prayers as well.
[17:56] And Larry Salino has kidney cancer. He will be having surgery in July. We want to keep him and his family in our prayers. And Carolyn Patterson's three-year-old grandson, Grant, is having some respiratory problems that are rather severe.
[18:13] We want to keep all those folks in our prayers. And with these that we have mentioned and those who are in your hearts, let's turn to the Lord in prayer. Our Lord God, Heavenly Father, what a blessing it is to come into your presence, to know that you are the God who hears and answers prayer, and that you care deeply for all of us.
[18:44] Be with us now as we lift up our concerns before you. Hear and answer our prayers as you have promised in your word.
[18:56] Lord, we lift up those who are sick and infirm, those in need of care and medication and surgeries. We pray that you will give their doctors and medical professionals wisdom that comes from you as they care for your people.
[19:14] We pray for patience and compassion for all of those who are in the process of caring for loved ones who are in need.
[19:26] We pray for patience and compassion for those who are in need. We pray for the comfort of your Holy Spirit to envelop them, draw them closer to you, Lord God.
[19:47] And in all these cases, whether in sickness or in grief, in spirit, in soul or in body, Lord, we pray that you bring healing. Use us, Lord.
[20:02] Work through each and every one of us who call ourselves your children. Let us be your hands and feet. Let us be your words of comfort and grace.
[20:13] Help us to bless those most in need of blessing at this time. Teach us, Lord, how to share your wisdom and your grace wherever we go in this world.
[20:30] Teach us to share your word. Teach us to share the salvation of Christ wherever we go. We pray, Lord God, as we hear your word that it will wash over us and transform us into the image of Jesus.
[20:47] Change us as we need to be changed, Lord. Be with Pastor Tom and bless his word. Anoint him to deliver all that you have called him to speak to us this day.
[21:00] And may all of our worship be pleasing in your sight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Shall we hear from the word of the Lord? the Lord?
[21:13] See you soon. If everyone fakies, you will dont want any body soft for us. If you're a Good morning. Today's scripture reading comes from Matthew chapter 16 verses 13 through 28.
[21:50] When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is? They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
[22:10] But what about you? he asked. What do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
[22:30] And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
[22:45] Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
[22:57] From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, that he must be killed, and on the third day he will be raised to life.
[23:16] Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord, he said. This shall never happen to you. Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You are the stumbling block to me.
[23:31] You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. Then Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
[23:46] For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
[24:01] Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
[24:15] Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. This is the word of our Lord.
[24:27] Be to God. Thank you, Paul. I had the pleasure of being at the graduation for Star Point Friday night, including Paul's daughter was graduating that night, and several others.
[24:40] Anybody here graduated this year? High school, college, anything? Yeah, good, good. Let's congratulate him. It was quite a long time ago.
[24:52] It was a second grade class. It might even have been this group. I'm not sure, that they asked me to read over at Star Point for the kids. So I walked in the room, and the teacher asked, does anybody know who this is? And the kids all said, it's Pastor Tom.
[25:05] A lot of them knew me. BBS, I don't know where they all knew me from, church. And they said, very good. She said, and what's his last name? And they said, Tom. Duh.
[25:16] Didn't we just tell you this? So that would be my first name is Pastor. Some people actually call me Pastor, which is fine. Is that who I am, though? Is that who I am?
[25:30] Who are we? What defines us? What describes what we're all about? Jesus said to his disciples, who do people say I am?
[25:43] What's your purpose? Why do you exist? What do people say about you? We start with a very me-centered focus in life.
[25:55] And we need to turn to a we-centered focus. Let's start with the nursery. We'll be right back.
[26:29] We are men. The first sound that we learn is, which means I want something.
[26:40] Give me a bottle. Change my diaper. We even set these things up in their cribs so that we can monitor them. We have to teach them somehow to understand that the whole world doesn't revolve around them, and sometimes mom and dad need a break from them.
[26:58] And sometimes they need a break from mom and dad. We start out in a life where it's all focused around who we are. Even the baptism that we do for our children is based on the idea that the parents will make a vow, a commitment to the children.
[27:14] So we baptize or dedicate our children to God, making a faith commitment on behalf of them. They haven't done anything yet. It's a very me-centered world in many ways.
[27:29] Who do people say that I am? At some point, we need to learn how to relate to others. Who we are are the people that matter to us. So Jesus turned to his disciples and said, Who do you say that I am?
[27:43] It got personal. It's not, What does the world say about me? What about the people that are closest to me? We need to learn and develop those relationships. And Jesus used the word I am very carefully.
[27:56] The first time we see that phrase is when Moses asked God, What's your name? And God said, quoting Popeye, I am what I am, and that's all that I am. He didn't quote Popeye.
[28:08] Please don't quote that. Popeye quoted him, right? I am. Jesus isn't using that phrase haphazardly. He means that I am.
[28:19] Or in other words, he is God. Peter said, you're the Messiah, the Savior. The Son of the living God. You know, when we talk about the Father and Son in God, we're not trying to point to God's maleness, because in the Bible it says he created us male and female in his image.
[28:36] God has all of that aspect. We're trying to point to how close the relationship is that's as close as a family relationship. And we have to teach our children that it's not all about us.
[28:47] It's about who we belong to. My father-in-law grew up in a family down by Elmira. And they were a family that got along well.
[29:00] He loved his brother Bob and his mom and his dad. But somewhere around the age of 13 or 14, his father died. And it had a disturbingly huge effect on the family.
[29:11] Mom went into depression and struggled even to be a mother. Bob didn't know what to do. He was the youngest boy. He just kind of floundered along and followed his older brother, Russ.
[29:24] And Russ had to become less of a child and more of the man of the house. What would you do if you lost your life, partner? You know, I deal with this all the time.
[29:36] But to think about it personally, 40 years I've been married to the same woman. My life is in sync with that. What would I do if that changed? The first thing we have to realize is we have to realize we're part of a community.
[29:51] We're part of something more than who and what we are. And so we show them pictures of the family, right? Even the ones who aren't around. Even the ones who have passed on.
[30:03] This, by the way, is a picture of my father-in-law, Russ. We still keep them, even where the people have never met them. Because they need to know whose they are and where they come from.
[30:14] We take them to church where they can meet the family. Jesus talks about the church. And hear what he said. On this rock, I'll build my church, my ecclesia, my community, my called-out group of people that have something special about them.
[30:28] By the way, when I asked the children what this was one time in the children's message, they said a birdhouse. I had several different churches, and they said they were all birdhouses. Because it doesn't look like our church, does it?
[30:41] We're working on that. We're going to try and get a steeple on our church. The thing is, is at some point we have to start teaching our children that they're a part of something more than who they are. That they belong to something else.
[30:52] And then we start talking to them about what do they know. We get them books. We teach them things from picture books and children's books.
[31:02] Eventually, we give them more sophisticated books. And eventually, we'll show them the Bible and try to teach them the words of God. As we try to teach them about all the things that are important in life.
[31:14] Jesus, in this whole passage, is teaching people, trying to tell them what they need to be. Do you understand what I need to do in Jerusalem? Do you know who I am?
[31:24] He asks them questions. Don't we ask those questions that children ask us all the time? Why? Why? Why? Why? Because I said so. But we answer.
[31:36] We answer. Why is the sky blue? We try to explain that. Usually much too sophisticated an answer for a child. We talk about reflecting light. But eventually, we teach them and they learn.
[31:49] But the most important learning, Jesus says, is the revelation we receive from God. So we teach children to pray. We teach them how to relate to their God in heaven. It's one of the very first things we teach them to do, don't we?
[32:02] At night, as they're in their little beds, we teach them, now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And we teach them this because we know that in that revealed knowledge is the real power of God.
[32:19] I am proud of our young people who have graduated from schools. And even our older people who have graduated from schools. Because nowadays, every age goes. I have degrees.
[32:29] I think they're very important. It's good to learn from each other. But the greatest knowledge for our lives comes from God. Our flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, Peter. But God himself poured it into your mind to know the things of God.
[32:43] We teach people to love God with their heart. We teach them to love God with their mind. My father-in-law went to school. He couldn't go to school very much because he had to work, too.
[32:57] But he went to school. It was important for him to get his high school degree. And so he went in and he took the test and he went to work. They let him do that back then. I think they understood the family situation and how hard he was trying.
[33:10] And he was a smart man. So he passed the test and he got his degree. He was a smart man, so he always was trying to impart knowledge to me. Which, when I first met Russ, I was about 19 or 20, and I knew everything there was to know.
[33:25] And this old man wasn't going to teach me anything. I've got to tell you that. Not a thing. I resented him trying to tell me what he knew all the time, and he resented me for not listening.
[33:36] I've got to tell you, the first 20 years of my marriage, my mother and father-in-law didn't like me. I was introduced by my father-in-law as Phyllis' son-in-law. He would even claim me.
[33:51] I was sort of distant. We had our disagreements and our arguments and our differences as we were trying really to figure out how to share our knowledge with each other rather than listening to what each other were actually saying.
[34:04] At some point in time, we have to determine who we are. We are the relationships we keep. We are the knowledge that we develop and what we learn and what we put into our mind.
[34:17] But we're more than that. There's a story Jesus tells about a man who had a fig tree, and he went to the garden and saw the fig tree and said, why do we have this fig tree?
[34:27] It doesn't produce any figs. Cut it down. Why should it take up the ground? And the man who took care of the garden said to the owner, just give me a year.
[34:39] I'll dig around it. I'll fertilize it. I'll water it. And if after a year it doesn't produce anything, then I'll cut it down. The story actually is about God and how he sees us as oftentimes useless.
[34:52] Useless. Because we're still focused on that me, and we haven't moved on to we. All we see is us and what's in it for us and what can we gain for us and what is it about for us, producing lots and lots of leaves but no fruit.
[35:09] Fortunately, the story is also about God's patience to work with us because sometimes we need to learn how to grow up, even when we're grown up. Who am I? First Corinthians says to us, when I was a child, I talked like a child.
[35:23] I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things. When I was growing up, being a man was an interesting concept because we knew that no matter what, when we got to be adults, we had to work.
[35:42] There was no options. We had possibly the option of where we had worked, but we would work. And we would find a nice young woman, and we would have children, and we would get a home.
[35:55] This was just understood. It wasn't an option. It wasn't a possibility. Nowadays, people have many more options. We didn't have those options. It was very clear right from the very beginning what we would do.
[36:06] We would be useful. I think that we can have all sorts of ways of being useful. Back in the day growing up, we may have had women staying home and men going to work, and nowadays we may have men staying home and women going to work, but don't tell me the women that stayed home didn't work.
[36:26] Amen? Because they did work. They were raising those children. They were teaching those children. They were guiding those children. They were providing a home. They were doing all the cleaning, a lot of the work. Believe me, we men sincerely appreciated it.
[36:41] It's different, but it's still the same thing. So many times we're defined by what we do. The second question after what's your name is, what do you do?
[36:54] In fact, that's why unemployment is so difficult for people because they struggle with the idea of who am I if I don't do anything. So we teach our children what to do.
[37:05] We give them tools so that they can do chores. How many of you have ever done chores? We've all done chores, haven't we? Yeah. How many of you like doing chores?
[37:17] Nobody wants to do chores. Chores aren't for us. Chores aren't things that we do to please ourselves. Chores are things we do for the family, for the people, for the group, for the ones that we belong to.
[37:29] And so we do our chores. Sometimes we get a little allowance or something like that to reward us. And it's all based on what we've done.
[37:41] In verse 27, it actually says in this passage that the Son of Man is going to come with His Father's glory and with His angels and then He will reward each person according to what they have done.
[37:56] We'll be judged by what we do. I know that doesn't go along with a lot of people's theology, but really God does care about what we do. On this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
[38:11] Jesus said to Peter, What is God building on our lives? What is God doing through us? What do we do that push back the gates of hell?
[38:29] Jesus was the Messiah. You know, His name, Christ, is not His name. It's His title. He's Jesus, the Christ, the Christos, the Messiah, the Savior.
[38:39] It's what He does. It's what He does. It would be like saying, I'm Pastor Tom, right? In reverse. Tom, the pastor. Who are we?
[38:53] Sometimes it's defined by what we do and we teach our children that what they do matters. My father-in-law Russell went to work driving a bread truck. Interestingly, he drove the bread truck that his father died in in an accident on the road.
[39:08] He drove a bread truck to try and take care of the family and look after them and provide for them. He had two little girls at home and a wife and a family.
[39:19] And in those days, you needed to work in a partnership in such a way that somebody had to go out and work. And so they did. He did. From the time he was about 14 or 15, he worked full-time.
[39:34] Not so he could have money to go and play. Not so he could have money to go and do the fun things of life. But just to pay the bills. To buy those diapers and those bottles and those books and those clothes and all those things that we need in life.
[39:48] At some point, we become a part, in a part way, who we are. This is all about going from me to we. Somewhere we also have to go from our plan to God's plan.
[40:02] And that's a part of growing up, too. Back to the nursery. Back to the nursery. Will I love my wife, did you hear it?
[40:37] For the rest of my life. I think that's one of the most powerful lines in the whole song. Probably the most powerful. Will I care about people so much that I have a plan to make something happen?
[40:53] And will I realize my life is an offering, not just to other people, but also to God? So we still teach them. We teach them about prayer, as I talked about.
[41:04] We also teach them about service. These things. I didn't pass one around this morning. But why do we pass around clipboards? To give you an opportunity for ministry. You should sign up for everything.
[41:15] To give you a possibility of understanding where you could serve God. How could you help out God? Maybe you already know. That's fine. Maybe you do it somewhere else. That's good. But we need to learn how to have a plan for God.
[41:29] How to live in the God's plan. Heck, we even teach our children to put some of this stuff in an offering plate, don't we? Why? Why?
[41:40] Because it teaches us that it's not all about us. I remember my daughter one time when she was very little and she put in like a quarter or something. And her friend sitting next to her said, is that all you're putting in?
[41:53] And my daughter at the astute age of like eight said to the friend, well, where did you get your money from? And the friend said, well, I got it from my parents. She said, well, this is my money.
[42:06] Do we give of what we are? It's not about the money, folks. It's about saying nothing matters more than God. Our plan does not exceed God's plan because we need to learn to live in the God's plan.
[42:20] He had a plan for you from before you were born. While you were still in the womb, Jeremiah says, he called you and designed a purpose for your life to relive into that. Jesus said, I must go up to Jerusalem and be crucified and die.
[42:37] Peter says to him, this is not going to happen to you, dude. Now, Peter got in trouble for that, but do you understand why? It's very simple.
[42:49] Peter had made his entire life plan around this Jesus guy because with Jesus, they were going to conquer the world. I want you to picture this.
[43:02] You've got an army marching. Most of the time when the army marches, it has to have a supply line all the way back from where they come. Not with Jesus, give them a couple loads of bread and he feeds thousands of people wherever he goes.
[43:14] Just feed them out. And if the soldiers get hurt on the battlefield, just walk them by General Jesus. He'll just heal the blind, make the lame walk. He could even raise the dead. We cannot lose with this guy.
[43:27] We are going to be princes. We are going to rule. That's what Peter thought. That's why Jesus said, you don't have the things of God in mind. You're working on your plan.
[43:40] But I have God's plan here that I'm working on, Peter. God's plan. You've got to turn this around. You're letting Satan get in the way of what God intends for you.
[43:53] Are you willing to die to your plans? Be crucified? The crucifixion wasn't a pretty cross in the sanctuary. It was an instrument of death. It was like the electric chair. Are you willing to go to the electric chair for God?
[44:06] Are you willing to die to who and what you are and what all your plans were, what all your dreams were? I hear from people who graduate from high school and college.
[44:18] They all have a plan. And we have a plan. What we think we're going to be, what we dream to be. Russell's dream was that he was going to raise his family, he was going to work on the bread trucks like his father did, and that he would make a decent income and he'd live a regular life and he'd be okay.
[44:38] It wasn't a big dream, but it was his dream. Until one day, he was driving that same bread truck that his father died in and he was fooling around with it.
[44:49] Now, I don't know if you know about these trucks. They have these sliding doors on them. Back then, they weren't built really well. And he's monkeying around and his leg went out the door and the door, bang, sliced off his leg.
[45:03] You can't drive a truck with one leg. You can't make deliveries with one leg. He only pictured himself as being on a corner somewhere selling pencils.
[45:18] What was he going to do? And pretty much wanted to give up. His wife took hold of him and said, you're not leaving me with two little kids. You get your act together, mister, and get out there and work.
[45:31] That's why they say behind every successful man is a, there's a reason for that. Okay, I know, I'm talking in a very past generation world, but there was a reason for that in that generation.
[45:46] And he got up. And he actually, he went to college. And he became a life insurance salesman. I suspect from my father-in-law, selling life insurance sounded about as appealing as it does to you and me.
[46:03] It's like saying, I want to be a used car salesman. Or saying, I want to work for Congress. No, I'm sorry. That was just... There's nothing wrong with being a used car salesman. There's nothing wrong with selling insurance, but it's not what most of us aspire to, is it?
[46:18] It's not what most of us sit down when we're about six years old and say, Daddy, I want to grow up and be an insurance man. Right? But Russ needed to make a living.
[46:30] And his life had been shot in a transformational way. Sometimes we need to be shot. Sometimes what we think is a tragedy that sets us back really could be the springboard to move us forward.
[46:46] Sometimes we are so in focus on where we want to go that God has to slap us upside the head for us to recognize where we need to go. Does that mean that God took off my father-in-law's leg?
[46:57] No. But God took that tragedy to change man around. As God sometimes takes pain and tragedy and hurt to shift us as well.
[47:14] Peter, unless you die to your stuff, you're never going to live to God's plan for you. you're a stumbling block.
[47:27] You're even causing me to doubt what I was made for. You're talking to me about plans that aren't God's plans and messing with my mind. We do this to our children all the time.
[47:40] We tell them our plans for them. We don't talk to them about what God plans for them. We don't pray with them about what God wants to do with their lives. We teach them what we've decided that they need to be and then wonder why they grow up neurotic and obsessed with crazy stuff that we put there.
[48:03] Satan wants us to abandon God's plan and live to our plans. It's what he does. God has a calling for you. Who am I?
[48:15] I am a man called by God to do something I never imagined would happen to me. Before I was a pastor I sprayed people's lawns with chemicals to make them green.
[48:29] Alright? I can guarantee you when I was seven years old I never said I want to be that guy out of the Lord's Prayer of the Grand. We didn't even have that guy. But I needed a job. Anybody here ever work a job?
[48:41] You know what a job is? The definition of a job is what you do so that you can make money. And if somebody gave you a couple million dollars you know what you would do with that job? Take this job. You know what you would do with that job?
[48:53] It'd be God. A career is something that we do because we enjoy it. And if somebody gave us the money we'd change our hours and adjust what we do. A vocation is a calling from God to do what we were created to do and we would do it for nothing.
[49:11] People ask me what I get paid to do this job. I don't get paid anything. I get paid not to do a different one. So I have more time to do this one. Because I do this one for nothing.
[49:21] But I need to pay my bills so thank you for helping me pay my bills so I can do more of this. Because I don't do this because I want the money. I do this because it's what God put in my life.
[49:34] It's who I am. Our calling. And when anything gets in the way of that, we lose ourselves. one day I asked my father in law why he sold life insurance.
[49:48] I expected him to say, well, that's where the money was. Or, well, it was the only thing I could do with one leg or whatever. And this is what he said to me. He said, you know, I sell life insurance because once in a while one of my clients dies.
[50:04] And they were usually mine. He says, then I go to the house and I find a widow whose whole world is destroyed. Their life partner, everything they ever counted on is no longer there.
[50:17] They are totally confused and distraught and don't know what to think and they feel abandoned. And he says, and I walk in with a check and I said, I know how much you're hurting. I know how you feel like your life is falling apart.
[50:31] But your husband loved you so much. He made sure you never have to worry about money again. And I'm going to work with you over the next few weeks to make sure that this money works for you and you won't ever have to think about money again because your husband loved you and he proved it with what he did.
[50:51] And I thought, wow, I want to sell life insurance, right? I got an insurance man out in the back room if anybody's, no, that's just a joke. Just fool around.
[51:03] But it's not fooling around with my father-in-law. My respect for that man went from here through the roof because I found out he wasn't working a job.
[51:15] He wasn't even working a career. He was working his calling from God who says in the book of James, religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless as this, to look after the orphans and the widows in their distress.
[51:32] But my father-in-law did. And if you think about it, he was that little orphan. He was that little boy watching his mother collapse, watching his home fall apart, watching his life go into ruin, finding himself having to work and go to school, not having a normal childhood, his white mother having all sorts of troubles, his brother struggling, and he didn't want to see that happen to any other family, and he lived his life to make sure it wouldn't.
[51:58] For hundreds of families, and that's a calling, amen? You see, the problem is, is we get our focus on the wrong thing. What will make a lot of money? Who cares what makes a lot of money?
[52:08] What will make your life sing? What will make you feel that you've done what God put you on this planet to do? What will give you the power that you can stand with the church and say the gates of hell will not stand against this?
[52:23] And when we do that, when we do that, we have the real power. Satan can't overcome it. Evil can't overcome it. Depression and pain and death itself cannot stand against it.
[52:43] Ultimately, the purpose of this life is to get to the next. There's a time when it says God will come to judge us. There's a time it says when the world will come.
[52:55] What will it profit a person if they gain the whole world and lose their soul? What would be the point if we win all the toys and we end right here?
[53:07] The purpose of this life is to get to the next, and we teach that even in the nursery. What will I be? Will I grow up to be a man?
[53:20] Everything will last forever. Let's go. It won't last forever. It won't last forever. It won't last forever.
[53:36] Won't last forever. The guy throwing the snowball reminded me of my father-in-law. That's why I'm talking about him. I know it's not Father's Day. That was last week. But after all, he's my father-in-law. How do we teach them the purpose of this life?
[53:51] How do we teach them that? Well, we show them the pictures of those who've gone on before, and we talk about them, and we talk about how they're still living. We teach them the lessons about how life really works.
[54:05] You know, I had a young man come to me in my office three, four weeks ago, and he said, my mother just died, and I don't know how to tell my three-year-old. Well, we tell them by telling them.
[54:20] Why do we have pets? Well, because they're fun and fuzzy and furry, and to be honest with you, because they teach us about life. In a short period of time, someone we loved and cared about isn't with us anymore, and our kids have to learn how to deal with that loss before they lose someone close to them.
[54:37] You know that prayer? You remember that prayer? Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.
[54:54] I know that's not how some of you have learned it. That's the original prayer. That's how I learned it. Do you know why we learned it that way? Because kids die. They die, and they still do.
[55:07] And we need to teach them before they could even barely speak that God will take them from this world to the next if they trust and love him.
[55:18] Don't hide death from your children. Don't tell them they're not allowed to go to a funeral if they want to go. Talk to them about it. You don't have to make it so sophisticated like you're trying to understand it yourself.
[55:32] Just talk to them. Because they need to know. Because everyone needs to know that finally in the end, we need to get from this life to the next.
[55:47] It's a funny thing that we start our life dependent completely. And we end up life dependent completely. I'm only a few years away from wearing diapers again.
[56:02] Am I right? I know nobody wants to admit it. We get stuck on our bottles. We cry out, Where's my pills? Who moved my remote? I can't fight!
[56:14] And we sound just like those babies shouting out, don't we? It's just we've got words. True. Because we find out that everything we counted on for us doesn't work anymore.
[56:29] We have to depend on God. We don't do the work of the ministry so that we can earn salvation. We can never earn grace. Grace is a gift.
[56:41] Each and every one of us will be judged according to what we've done. And we will all come up short, every one of us. Because none of us are good enough, none of us are perfect enough to claim heaven. We do what God put us in this world for because it makes our souls sing and because it pleases God.
[56:57] So when we stand there before Him, He'll say, You're pretty messed up. But you know, I like that about you. And then we depend on God, just like little children depend on their parents to carry us from this world to the next.
[57:11] No. If I should die before I wake, I pray to the Lord, my soul today. And also, we do it because we want to take everybody we know and love on that train to glory with us.
[57:32] Amen? Do you really want to get the glory and the children that you raised are not there because you didn't instill in them the blessings of God and the understanding of God?
[57:45] Do you really want to go to glory and not see your parents, your spouse, your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers? Heck, I even want to see my enemies if I have such a thing.
[57:57] I want everybody to go, not just us. And He says, Some people standing here will not even taste death until they experience the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, the eternal life begins in this world when we give ourselves over to God and His purpose for our lives.
[58:14] God opens up the kingdom to us. Who am I? I am a child of God saved by the grace of God and I pray you are too. Amen? Because that's what it's all about.
[58:28] Having that relationship with our Lord that's so close that we become like Jesus is. A son to a father.
[58:41] I was in the hospital room with my father-in-law on the day he died. Went for surgery for an aneurysm. And the nurse had written on the board, you know, put above the bed, Tom Kraft.
[58:53] And my wife said, no, that's wrong. It's not son. It's son-in-law. And my father-in-law said, well, it's the same thing. See, we may have had our problems for 20 years, but we have 15 years of loving each other and figuring out a way to reconcile two strong-willed people into the same idea.
[59:20] Jesus said, I must go up and suffer and die on a cross so that everyone could have salvation. Because our sin is pardoned.
[59:30] It's not compensated. We're saved. We don't earn it by the power of God himself. First Corinthians says, when I was a child, I spoke like a child.
[59:41] I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror. Then we'll see face to face.
[59:52] Now I know in part. Then I shall know fully even as I am fully known. What is our goal? Very simple. Our goal is to know God fully.
[60:03] Who am I? A child of the risen God. who plans to live not just for another couple of decades but for all eternity.
[60:14] Who am I?
[60:31] that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt?
[60:43] Who am I? that the bright and morning star would choose to invite the way for my ever-wandering heart.
[60:59] Not because of who I am, but because of what you've done. not because of what I've done, but because of who you are.
[61:15] I am a flower quickly fading Every day and gone tomorrow A wave tossed in the ocean A paper in the wind Still you hear me when I'm calling Lord, you catch me when I'm falling And you've told me who I am I am yours I am yours Who am I?
[61:57] that the eyes would see my sin Would look on me with love And watch me rise again Who am I?
[62:11] Let the voice that comes, oh see Would call out through the rain And calm the storm in me Not because of who I am But because of what you've done Not because of what I've done But because of who you are I am a flower quickly fading It's a day and gone tomorrow A wave tossed in the ocean A paper in the wind Still you hear me when I'm calling Lord, you catch me when I'm falling And you've told me who I am I am yours
[63:12] I am yours I am yours I am yours Beautiful Lord, wonderful Savior Lord, I know for sure Part of my days I held in your hand I've lived in tune Your love and plan You gently guide me into your presence
[64:12] Guide me to your life Your Holy Spirit Peace me, dear Lord To live all my life Through your eyes I'm captured by your holy calling Set me apart I know you're drawing me Lead me to your side Lead me, Lord Lead me, Lord I pray Take me Hold me Use me Use me Fill me I give my life To the Father's hand Call me Guide me
[65:13] Lead me Lead me Lead me Walk beside me Lead me I give my life To the Father's hand To the Father's hand To the Father's hand You gently call me Into your presence Guide me Guide me Your Holy Spirit Teach me, dear Lord To the Father's hand To the Father's hand Guide me To the Father's hand Your Holy Spirit Teach me, dear Lord To live all my life Through your eyes I'm captured by your holy calling Set me apart I know you're drawing me to yourself Lead me, Lord, I pray.
[66:12] Take me, hold me, use me, build me. I give my life to the Father's hand.
[66:30] Call me, guide me, lead me, walk beside me.
[66:42] I give my life to the Father's hand. Please be seated.
[66:57] You know, I talk a lot. You might have noticed that. It's an occupational hazard. So, man, do I understand Peter. He pointed his foot full-size right in his mouth.
[67:09] Have you ever done that before? I mean, you say something, you're thinking, the rest of my life I will regret what I said. He just said this thing where Jesus says you're wonderful, and then he says this thing where Jesus calls him Satan.
[67:21] It's like, ah, ah, ah. I can't believe I blew it, you know? Well, we do. If we really think we're perfect, we'll never make it.
[67:32] We'll make it through the grace of God. That doesn't mean that we don't try our best and do our best and live into the calling God has called us to, but we need the mercy of God, too. So let's give that up to God in prayer.
[67:44] Dear God in heaven, I have sinned. I've done all sorts of things wrong. And I haven't done everything right.
[67:58] I get too me-focused and not you-focused. I don't show the love of God to others in this world.
[68:11] Cause me to repent, to change, to become what you want me to be. Forgive my sin and make me into your child.
[68:26] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Wow. What a wonderful thing God does. They're reading those books and they're talking about all we did and judging us on what we've done.
[68:39] And the verdict is going down. We're sinners. We've failed. We've done everything wrong. And then Jesus says, wait a minute, don't read those parts. The name's in my book. They're pardoned. They've been set free.
[68:50] They're forgiven. They go to glory. In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Glory to God.
[69:01] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[69:11] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[69:36] Amen. Amen. Amen. How beautiful How beautiful How beautiful Is the body Of Christ How beautiful How calm that bled And took all my sins And more rhythms there How beautiful With tender eyes
[70:40] And chose to forgive And never decide How beautiful How beautiful How beautiful Is the body Of Christ And as He laid down His mind We offer these Sacrifice That we will live That we will live Just as He died Willing to pay the price Willing to pay the price
[71:43] How beautiful How beautiful The feet that breathe The sound of good news And the love of the King How beautiful How beautiful The hands that serve The wine and the bread And the sons of the earth How beautiful How beautiful How beautiful How beautiful How beautiful How beautiful How beautiful Is the body Of Christ The rim
[72:45] How beautiful Now When we come to the table We celebrate all that God has done for us All that Jesus Offered up for us All that Jesus suffered and died For us and our sins Those things we could not do For ourselves he did for us with love.
[73:11] Everyone is welcome at the Lord's table where we not only remember the sacrifice of our God but we partake of God's goodness and receive everything we need to be the people God has called us to be.
[73:29] You are welcome to come to the table because Jesus himself has invited you whether you're new to this church or new to any church if you love God repent of your sin and seek to live in peace as a disciple of Jesus Christ you are welcome to come to the table this morning.
[73:51] Come be renewed in Christ the Lord be with you. Lift up your hearts 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 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 you delivered us from captivity made covenant to be our sovereign God and spoke to us through your prophets 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
[74:53] Hosanna in the highest holy are you and blessed is your son Jesus Christ 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 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 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 saying take and eat this is my body which is given for you do this and remember when the supper was over he took the cup and he gave you thanks and praise and gave it to his disciples 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 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
[76:32] 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 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 be feast at his heavenly banquet through your son Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit in your holy church all honor and glory is yours almighty father now and forever amen shall we pray together faith that God that God has given us the prayer Jesus taught 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 forever and ever amen will those who are serving please come forward thank you
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