Reconciliation

[0:00] I Thank you.

[1:00] Thank you.

[1:30] If you have a newsletter or need an update of any information, please be sure to fill out the address, email, and phone number. On the back, you can write prayer concerns, blessings, or notes to the staff.

[1:43] Please enjoy our service and have a blessed day. Good morning, everybody. Everything's about a minute or so behind this morning because of the weather.

[1:57] You know, we're all kind of just drooping along. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made.

[2:18] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made.

[2:35] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made.

[2:48] Will you pray with me? Dear God in heaven, we just pray that your Holy Spirit would come into this place, that you would wake us up with your Spirit and bless us with your presence and help us to experience exactly what you want us to this morning.

[3:03] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I'd like to invite you, if you're able, to stand as we're going to sing together, O Jesus, I have promised. Serve thee to the end.

[3:49] Be thou forever near me, my master and my friend. I shall not fear the battle, if thou art by my side, nor wander from the pathway, if thou will be my guide.

[4:16] O let me fear thee near me, the world is ever near. I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear.

[4:33] My foes are ever near me, around me and within. But Jesus, draw thou nearer and shield my soul from sin.

[4:50] O let me hear thee speaking, in accents clear and still. Above the storms of mansion, the murders of self-will.

[5:08] O sing to reassure me, to hasten our control. O sing and make me listen, thou guide him of my soul.

[5:27] The Lord be with you. And also with you. Please be seated. We've got clipboards going around about fall festivals and fish fries and all kinds of stuff.

[5:41] The fish fry was awesome last, on Friday. They had 396, I understand, which is a really, really nice number. And I also want to announce that our mission moment today is for Mission Sunday.

[5:58] And our special missions that are highlighted are Wesley's Place, which is, that's actually the mission that was started by a friend of mine, Reverend Greg Stierheim. And he is working down in the Elmwood Village, Allentown, down in the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, down in there.

[6:14] And they just work on reaching people who wouldn't otherwise be reached. And likewise, Missionary Aviation Repair Center provides a lifeline of hope and Christian witness to remote villages in Alaska where they otherwise wouldn't hear the word of God.

[6:32] And we're hoping that God will move on your hearts to give as the Lord calls you to give to those missions. Let me see, what else do I have here?

[6:42] Connect is happening today. Everybody say, Connect! Awesome! If you have, if you are wanting to get connected into the church, if you're new or newish, or you haven't really been involved and you're looking to get involved in some things and learn about what's going on in the church, you want to see Pastor Sherry at the end of the service today.

[7:02] Because today, between the two services, they have this wonderful event planned. So come and be a part of that, being a part of Connect. This is just wonderful and amazing stuff going on in this church.

[7:14] And do you have any joys that you want to share? Kelly does. I just want to thank and be thankful to God for all the volunteers in our church that have helped with the restoration of our building.

[7:27] And we had a lot of volunteers here, but we also had a ton of volunteers that reinstalled cabinets and installed hardware for TVs and all those things. A lot of actual work that people did.

[7:38] And I'm so grateful for that for all of our ministries. And I'm going to take 20 seconds to say how thankful I am for Karen. Raise your hand, Karen. Yay, Karen. She's our Avon lady.

[7:50] She's my Avon lady. The music is not paid for by the church. It's paid for by the Avon fundraiser. So we don't have to make people pay for the TV and the cantata.

[8:00] The church doesn't pay for the music. The Avon fundraiser does. And it's due this week. So if nobody has asked me yet, Karen has a lot of books. I'll have to see a flyer member or somebody in the cantata.

[8:12] It's the way that we pay for the Orphan Church and the choir. I'm a little nervous this year because I don't know if we've got a lot of sales. So I thought I'd take a huge item this morning and let it go tax-free because it's a church fundraiser too.

[8:26] Amen. So support us for that. I'm just so grateful for our college. Yeah. I have two words about the Avon fundraiser for the choir. Ready? Christmas shopping.

[8:38] That's where I do mine. So with these joys, do you have any other joys that you want to share this morning? Yes. Aha. I know what this joy is. Yes.

[8:49] Our God is giving us to the church. We are giving us to the church. We are giving us to the church. We are giving us to the church. We are giving us to the church. Amen. Amen. No cancer in the lymph nodes.

[9:00] Surgery went well for Kim. What a blessing. Any others to share this morning? I'm a grandma. Who's a grandma? Yay! Sue's a grandma again. And Jim.

[9:11] That would make Jim a grandpa, right? Where's Jim? And he's out there someplace. There he is. Praise God. All right. Well, we have so many joys in our hearts because God has blessed us so abundantly.

[9:22] With all of these joys that we lift up, let's lift up our gifts, tithes, and offerings before the Lord, too. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[9:57] No. Thank you. Let me entrambunch. Thank you. How lovely is your dwelling place O Lord Almighty My soul doth walk And we've been raised for you Here my heart is satisfied Within your presence

[11:01] I sing beneath The shadow of your wings There is one day in your courts There is one day in your house There is one day in your courts There is one day in your courts There is one day in your house There is one day in your courts There are thousands elsewhere What wedding I ask Then I will see To see your beauty To find you in The place your glory dwells

[12:01] There is one day in your courts There is one day in your house There is one day in your courts And thousands elsewhere There is one day in your courts There is one day in your courts There is one day in your courts One day in your courts There is one day in your courts And thousands elsewhere My heart and flesh cry out For you, the living God Your Spirit's water to my soul I've tasted and I've seen Long once again to me I will draw near to you I will draw near to you There is one day in your courts There is one day in your courts

[13:04] And thousands elsewhere There is one day in your courts Than thousands elsewhere There is one day in your house, better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere.

[13:41] Thousands elsewhere. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty.

[14:10] Praise God from your blessings flow.

[14:37] Praise him, all creatures here below. Praise him above, ye heavenly host.

[14:50] Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, it is better to be in your house.

[15:07] Gathered together with your people, we are grateful for the opportunity, Lord. We are grateful that we can be with you and with those who love you.

[15:19] Lord God, we are returning to you just a small portion of all the blessings you have poured out into our lives. We ask you to bless them.

[15:31] Bless each and every one. Give us wisdom to know how to best use these offerings. That your kingdom would be furthered. Many would come to salvation in Jesus Christ.

[15:43] Bless especially the work that's going on that we've given in this special offering for our mission Sunday. For Wesley's Place.

[15:54] For the work that's being done in Alaska. We just ask in Jesus' name, Lord God, that you would be with us and bless us. Bless the offering. Bless all of the work that you have called us to do.

[16:07] We offer it up to you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. And we do have All Saints Sunday coming up in a couple of weeks.

[16:27] You have a card in your bulletin that if there is someone who has passed during the previous year and you want their name to be read and remembered in a couple of weeks on All Saints Sunday, please fill that out and get it to us some way or another.

[16:43] You can put it in the offering which we just had or you can just hand it off to Julie at the desk or you can put it in one of the lock boxes. We have a couple of concerns that we want to lift up for you before you.

[16:58] Two funeral services will be happening this coming Saturday. Sandy Garrig's funeral is at 11 a.m. And we also have Carol Schneider, who is one of our line dancers, a regular on Wednesday nights.

[17:12] Her funeral will be at 2 o'clock on Saturday. So we wanted to let you know about those. And Jan Gertz is in the hospital. We want to lift her up. She's in need of our prayers for healing.

[17:24] Tom's in need of our prayers as well as he supports her and gets her through this. What other concerns do we have this morning? Judy. For healing for Mark, Mike, Tammy, Tara, Carol, and Tiffany, that his word of healing is conceived and manifested in their bodies.

[17:43] Lots of healing for our prayers as we have crossed today. Amen. Okay, so we're in need of healing and God to move in the lives of these folks in Jesus' name. And we're trusting God to hear and answer our prayers.

[17:55] Anyone else have anything that needs lifting up? Continued healing and recovery for Kim, of course, for Kim Lawrence. And who else has something?

[18:05] Yes. Okay. I'm going to.

[18:15] Can you. Say that out loud. One of the youth this past week, Joey Munson. He passed away at 23.

[18:26] So keep his family in your prayers. Joey Munson's family who passed away this week. Any others? Sorry?

[18:40] Yeah, I just repeated it. Any others this morning? With these concerns and those, Karen does. Karen has one. Yes?

[19:00] And then slightly Darual and 끓 medicine for her았습니다 test work.

[19:11] And she's scary . No. for Holly's family and the loss of her son Adam who was killed in a motorcycle accident. Any others this morning?

[19:27] With these concerns and those that are in your heart, let's turn to the Lord in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, you are with us in all things, in times of joy, in times of pain and sorrow, in times of illness, in times of tragedy.

[20:10] You are ever more willing to hear us pray than often we are to pray. But as imperfect as we are, you call us.

[20:23] You call us into your throne room. You call us to get down on our knees, to bow our heads, to take time to attend to those things that need prayer.

[20:40] And so we pray today. we lift up all of those people who are sick and in need of a healing touch from you. we pray that you will give them strength, that you will give them comfort, that you will give wisdom to their doctors and nurses and other professionals that they're working with to be able to care for them well, to know what to do for them, to know how to help their loved ones as they help with the healing process.

[21:20] you know what we need before we even ask and we pray that they would be made whole from the tops of their heads to the soles of their feet and their spirits, their souls and their bodies as you know they need healing.

[21:36] Touch them where you know they need your grace. help them to draw closer to you. Give them willing hearts, Lord God.

[21:50] Help them change hearts to come and to be people who seek you, people who know that they can trust in you for everything.

[22:07] We pray, Lord God, for those who are grieving losses. Lord, we just ask in Jesus' name that you would touch them. That you would comfort them, that you would give them your peace which passes all understanding.

[22:27] That they would know your presence as waves of grief come over them and as times of joy come with memories of love and laughter.

[22:45] Help each and every one, Lord God, to know and to trust that you are holding on to their loved ones, that you have attended to them.

[22:59] even as you attend to us who are left here. Lord God, let them know that because that one was in their life, that that one is a part of who they are and will be a part of who they are forever.

[23:21] We pray, Lord God, for all those in our community who do not know you. We pray for those people in our lives that we can witness to, that we can touch, that we can show your love and grace and mercy to.

[23:41] Help us to grow in our faith so that we can minister better to those people you've put in our lives. Through the music, through the prayer, through the reading of your word, through the message we hear today, through fellowship with one another and encountering one another in the love of God, help us to be changed into people who are well equipped to share your love wherever we go.

[24:14] Give us wisdom to know what these folks need to see in us, what they need to hear from us so that they would be drawn to you.

[24:29] Bless our families. Bless all those we love and all those who love us. Be with Pastor Tom as he delivers the message that you've given for us this day.

[24:44] Give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts and minds to understand and to receive all that you have for us this day. And may all of our worship be a blessing to you.

[24:59] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Shall we hear from the word of the Lord?

[25:10] Good morning.

[25:36] Good morning. Good morning. Our scripture lesson today is from the book of Exodus, chapter 11, 1 through 8, and chapter 12, 21 through 23.

[25:55] Now the Lord said to Moses, I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here and when he does, he will drive you out completely.

[26:12] Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold. The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people and Moses himself and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.

[26:35] So Moses said, this is what the Lord says, about midnight, I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die.

[26:47] From the firstborn son of Pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn son of the female slave who is at her hand mill and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.

[27:01] There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt, worse than there has ever been and ever will be again. But among the Israelites, not a dog will bark at any person or animal.

[27:16] Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, go, you and all the people who follow you.

[27:33] After that, I will leave. Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh. Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.

[27:54] Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and both sides of the door frame.

[28:06] None of you shall go out of the door of your home until morning. When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the door frame and he will pass over that doorway and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

[28:31] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Thank you, Julie. You know, as I was listening to that, I was thinking back in those days, all the bathrooms were outside the house and they were told not to go out for the whole night.

[28:46] That could be a rough night. I'm just saying. A guy my age, that could be a problem. The other night at the fish fry, I was talking to a gentleman from a different United Methodist church and you ever have one of these conversations where you feel like a guy's trying to egg you on?

[29:03] You know? He was talking about some of the controversies that people talk about in the church and what do you think and this and that and kind of like almost verbally poking at me, you know?

[29:13] I just wanted to stop him. But I didn't. You know, the problem is is it feels so often in our culture that we have this kind of us and them thing going on and it's a real struggle in our lives.

[29:33] I don't think I ever lived in a time when just saying the president's name gets everybody all upset. In the book of Acts in chapter 2, one of the most powerful passages of the Bible, it says, when the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

[29:51] They were all together in the same place. They were of one mind, of one thought, and then suddenly a sound like a blowing of a violent wind came from heaven, filled the whole house where they were sitting.

[30:05] When they were all together, when they were of one mind, when they decided to put everything that kept them apart aside and focus on what held them together, that's when the Holy Spirit broke out.

[30:19] People are always saying they want God's Holy Spirit to speak to them. They want their church to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They want to get to the dreams that God has in mind. But sometimes we do things that just block the Holy Spirit.

[30:35] These people lived together for 400 years. 400 years. Think about that. And they're still bickering with each other. Still can't get over the brokenness between each other.

[30:53] And we can get so broken that we get to a place where we hurt each other. And we hurt each other badly. And you know, the thing about this is, it's about things that don't matter.

[31:04] Pharaoh is worried about his power. He's the most powerful man on the face of the earth. He's worried about his wealth. And he's the wealthiest man on the face of the earth. He's worried about his position.

[31:19] And he's the one that everyone in the world is looking to. You know, the difficulty is, is we can get to a place where we worry so much about this stuff that we lose track of what really matters.

[31:32] And so what's in our gate that keeps us from getting to God's dreams for us today? My apologies to anyone named Jones. Keeping up with the Joneses.

[31:43] You've heard that phrase, haven't you? Those poor Joneses, they've been picked on for years. Keeping up with the Joneses. trying to figure out what in life we're supposed to do so that we can be in a place where we feel okay about ourselves.

[32:04] What motivates us on all of this? It could be need. It could be fear. It could be desire. And quite often times, it's all three of those things.

[32:15] We wonder about, Pharaoh, why is he that way? I've been poor in my life. When we first started out in life, we had nothing. If somebody gave us an old dresser, we'd take it.

[32:26] Try to make it work in our world. One time, my wife bought dishes at one of those auctions. She bid on a box without looking in it. I told her, that's your dishes.

[32:38] And they weren't much dishes. That's what we had. $3 was one-fifth of our income. You take whatever you can get.

[32:53] But then we get to a place where we have so much stuff. You know, I not only have all the stuff we've accumulated over the years together, we have the stuff that my parents gave us and we've got the stuff that my in-laws gave us.

[33:05] We've got stuff upon stuff upon stuff. Anybody else ever feel that way? Oh my Lord. And see, people say, well, why don't you just get rid of it? It's not that easy because every piece, everything has a story.

[33:22] Right? So you have to literally sit down and talk about every single item before you make the wrong decision. Our possessions can be something we own and then they can be something that possesses us.

[33:39] Because we get so wrapped up in it. And we forget what we're supposed to be about, which is not gaining possessions, not even pleasing other people, but doing what God wants us to do.

[33:53] And as Christians, we want to do what God wants us to do. Amen? Of course. Unless it's weird. Right? I mean, we don't want to do something weird.

[34:04] I just want you to picture that God told you to put blood on the front of your house. Just get out there, kill some animal, and just take the blood and put it all over the front of your house. How many of you would really do that?

[34:17] I don't want to show hands. Okay? Because that's weird. That's just plain, outright, strange, weird, just makes no sense. I don't think so, God.

[34:32] I mean, it's hard enough sometimes just saying you believe in God, nonetheless doing something bizarre like that. And then God says, go ask people for stuff.

[34:45] Go ask people for stuff. My grandson asked me the other day, how come Halloween is only for little kids? Little kids can go begging for stuff, but when you get older, you can't do it anymore.

[34:55] And I said, well, it's just not appropriate. And he says, why? Okay, reasonable question, right? Why? Why can't we as adults just go around the houses begging for stuff?

[35:10] Hey, I like the lamp in your house. Can I have that, please? You know? No, it's your new car. I'd like to take that for myself. Because you just don't do that.

[35:22] That's just weird. We all know that. Because we've been raised with certain cultural expectations of what's okay and what's not.

[35:33] What can we wear? What should we do? What are our actions? Peer pressure doesn't just happen in high school where absolutely it happens.

[35:44] That's just a weird world. What happens for adults too? If somebody tells you that they like the shirt you're wearing, you will wear it 400 times. But if somebody doesn't like the way your hair is cut, you will never get it cut that way again.

[36:02] We do care. It does matter to us. We want the people that live around us to think right of us. We want them to think that we're okay. We want them to think that we've somehow managed to find that sweet spot where the world will say, we're okay.

[36:17] We're right. You've done good. And people's opinions matter. And it starts when we're young. Believe me. Happens to all of us.

[36:28] Oh yeah! Yeah! I double dare you! The exact exchange and nuance of phrase in this ritual is very important. Are you kidding? Stick my tongue to that stupid pole that's dumb.

[36:41] That's cause you know where it'll stick. You're full of it. Oh yeah? Yeah! Well I double dog dare you! Now it was serious. A double dog dare.

[36:51] What else was left but a triple dare you? And finally the coup de grace of all dares. The sinister triple dog dare. I triple dog dare you!

[37:03] Schwartz created a slight breach of etiquette by skipping the triple dare and going right for the throat. All right, all right. Flick's spine stiffened. His lips curled and a defiant sneer.

[37:15] There was no going back now. This is next. Duck?

[37:27] Duck? Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! It really worked!

[37:38] Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duckie! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck!

[37:49] Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck!

[38:00] Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! $25! What's that? What's with that? go wie se? WebP!

[38:10] rang. Oh my gosh. We all know that panic. The bell rang. We only have like two minutes to get into our seat and then the teacher will like freak out on us. The bell rang. Who cares if some kid's tongue's stuck to a pole? Who cares if we're getting along with each other? How many of our actions do we actually take because of something someone somewhere along the line has told us is right or wrong, good or bad, will make us look like we'll be popular or not. And it's not wrong to care what other people think. In fact, in that very passage of the book of Acts, it actually says that they enjoyed the favor of the people. And that's a good thing because obviously we will bring more people to God if we're favorable people than if we're unfavorable people. Our goal is not to offend people. Our goal is not to turn people off. Our goal is not to look like some kind of strange, odd folk. But the real problem is, is what about God? Are we so worried about what other people think of us that we no longer care what God thinks of us? So peer pressure is not the goal. The goal is to have good God esteem. God confidence. Not self-confidence. Not what we're about, but what

[39:39] God can be about through us. Not what we can accomplish, but the dreams that God can do with us. Matthew says, don't worry about what people think. Don't worry about even what people could do to you, even if they could kill you. Worry about the one who holds not only your life, but your soul in his hands. And our verse for today that I want you to really dwell on is in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Our ministry, our purpose as a people of God, is not to find ways to divide, but to find ways to bring people together.

[40:31] It's interesting in here, it says that they will be driven out of Egypt. You know, being driven out is not the same as being allowed to leave. Being driven out means you're not even wanted. And it hurts to not be wanted, to be excluded. I was the other day at a meeting with some colleagues of mine, and I had some friends there, and so I said to them, hey, you guys want to go out for lunch?

[40:57] And they said, well, sorry, we can't go out to lunch with you because we have plans with each other to go out to lunch today. Maybe another time. Oh, well, thank you. I don't think there'll be a good time. I don't even know that they understood what they said. My friends didn't have a seat at the table for me. It's not easy. They're driven out of the place they lived in. Pharaoh didn't show love.

[41:31] He didn't do what God wanted to. So God stepped in. In this passage, it says that they took the blood of the lamb and they put it on their doorsteps. And so this is the original saved by the blood of the lamb passage. Passover. What happened is that they were asked, the Israelites were asked to go out and take the blood of the lamb, put it on the doorsteps, as weird as that is, and that then when the destroyer came in the middle of the night, it would pass over that house and they would not die.

[42:12] They were passed over. Because God told them what to do and they listened. The fight was over stuff, over power, over an inability to figure out a way to get along, over the fact that Pharaoh was so self-centered that he actually didn't care what God thought.

[42:32] And so God said, in chapter 10 of this book, he said, I'm doing this so that people will know that I'm God, that I'm more powerful than a Pharaoh, that I'm more powerful than a king, and I will distinguish between those who are people of faith, the people of Israel, and the people of Egypt, the people who refuse to follow me.

[42:59] And so the angel of death, the destroyer, came in the middle of the night and passed over their houses. Don't cry, Daddy. Daddy, please don't cry.

[43:12] Daddy, you still got me and little Tommy. Together we'll find us a brand new mommy. Daddy, Daddy, please laugh again. Daddy, ride us on your back again. Oh, Daddy, please don't cry.

[43:29] I walk through the valley of the shadow of death with many of you. It's not an easy place to go. Things change when someone dies.

[43:42] Everything in life gets a different perspective. We actually stop, usually. We stop our work. We stop our lives. We don't care about the things. The things that we were doing to keep up with the Joneses don't matter anymore.

[43:58] Everything changes. And especially one like this. Where it says the king's son will die. And every Egyptian's son will die.

[44:10] And the firstborn of even the servants will die. Even the cattle will be weeping and crying. Because of the brokenness between these people.

[44:25] It's interesting that in verse 8 it says, Moses was angry. He was angry. I wondered why he was angry. And then I thought about it.

[44:36] Because it should not have come to this. It should never have gotten to this place. When I talk to couples who are getting married, one of the things I talk to them about is the nuclear button.

[44:50] The nuclear button in a relationship is something that you, after a period of time, learn about someone or find out about someone that if you were to say it to them, you would destroy them.

[45:03] Anybody who's been married as long as I have knows that you've got a nuclear weapon with your spouse. But you've got nuclear weapons with your children, with your parents.

[45:14] You've got that button that you know if you push, you could just cut them to the center of their heart. And so what I tell couples is, you know, if you're getting close to pushing that nuclear button, walk away.

[45:32] Tell the person you'll be back. Don't have them freaking out that you're like leaving them or something. But walk away. Nothing, nothing in life is worth pushing the nuclear button on the people you love.

[45:48] Moses didn't want this to happen. Sometimes we look at this passage and we look at it like, you know, one of those Sylvester Stallone movies or something like that, you know, where we've got guys getting gunned down all over the place.

[46:02] Get that one on the roof. Yeah, yeah, get the one behind the barrel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And all these guys are getting shot all over the place. We're like, yeah, yeah, go, go, Sly.

[46:13] Yeah, get them all. But we don't think about them because it's a movie. Those are fathers and brothers and sons and sisters and daughters. And what if he shot all those people and they all turned out to be kids?

[46:29] This is not easy stuff here. Children died so that the people of Israel could go free.

[46:44] Shouldn't come to this. But unfortunately, sometimes it does come to this. And so the people of Israel called this Passover, the day God passed over them.

[46:55] And instead of doing what he would have done, they lived. Because they followed God. The greatest Passover that ever occurred for Christians happened on what day?

[47:07] Good Friday. Good Friday. The day that Christ died on a cross. So God would pass over the punishment that we deserve.

[47:19] And God would say no to the destroyer. For everyone. And so death changed everything. God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him would not die, but have life.

[47:41] And what did God give up that day? Because we know God's immortal. God gave up something so powerful that it's hard for us to even understand.

[47:52] Because we all mess up. None of us are perfect, right? We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's just the truth. But God's perfect. Have you ever tried to put water and oil together?

[48:04] They don't mix, right? You're going to throw them together as hard as you want, and they'll separate right out. See, that's the way it is with us and God.

[48:17] Somewhere along the line, we've done something that makes us less than perfect. And so for God to remain perfect, for God to keep his holiness, the only way he can do that is to keep us out of his presence.

[48:28] That's why there's a separation between where God is and where we are. And we call it heaven and earth, right? But God decided to give that up.

[48:42] He decided to let his perfection be broken so that we could be with him. We call it the atonement.

[48:55] It's what actually happened on the cross. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it says to us, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

[49:09] What God did is he died. He died to his right to be absolutely perfect, his ability to be absolutely perfect, and took all our brokenness so we could be together.

[49:21] Because he loved us enough to make us one with each other, one with even people he disagreed with, people he didn't like their behavior, people he didn't like what they were doing, people who had insulted and hurt him through the years.

[49:36] He did this for them. And God did this to show not that he's more powerful, but that he's more loving than we could imagine and that anyone deserves.

[49:51] And going back to our verse, it says, all this is from God who reconciled to us to himself through Christ, and he gave us what? The ministry of reconciliation.

[50:05] If God, if God can accept us as messed up and broken and as full of sin as we are, and you know you are, I know I am, all he's asking us to do is love each other.

[50:25] And when we're all together in one place, the Holy Spirit breaks out. And we can go to the place that God wants us to be. We can live the dream that God expects for us as people, as a church, as a nation.

[50:39] The one thing that will keep us from that is if we keep distinguishing between people, if we keep seeing they're right, they're wrong, they're good, they're bad, they're winners, they're losers.

[50:55] God distinguished between Egypt and Israel. But God doesn't want us to do that. That was his choice based on whether or not they choose to follow God or not.

[51:06] So what are we willing to give our life for? What are we willing to die for? Is it the stuff that the Joneses have?

[51:18] I read last week that Paul Allen died. Do you know who Paul Allen is? He's the other Microsoft guy. Yeah, you haven't heard of him because you're so enamored with Bill Gates you didn't realize there's another guy.

[51:29] Paul Allen was the guy who actually invented all the technical stuff. His buddy, you know, Billy Gates was just good at marketing. Right? And Paul Allen never quite got as rich as, you know, Mr. Gates.

[51:44] He only had $26.1 billion. You know, just a small little fortune. Most of us would have struggled getting by on it, right? And so I read about him and I really looked it up.

[51:55] I really tried. I read article after article after article about him and I saw how he owned sports teams, how he had helped Amazon move to Seattle, how he had done things to try and become one of the most successful and influential people in the world.

[52:14] He was the Joneses. But you know what I didn't see in any of his obituaries? I didn't see God.

[52:27] Now, I don't know anything about Paul Allen. I didn't know the man. For all I know, and I pray it's true, he made a great relationship with God and he's in glory right now. That's what I like for him.

[52:39] But what would our obituaries say? What will it say when we leave this world? We got all the stuff the Joneses had, but we didn't have God.

[52:51] Peer pressure might get us to where other people will envy us. But to have God confidence will mean we don't care about what other people think.

[53:03] We only care about what God wants us to do. So here's something that's bugged me about this story. I mean, really, really bugged me about this story. As they read it, and that is, I just wonder, did the Israelites tell any of the Egyptians to put blood on their door frames?

[53:23] Do you know what I'm saying? Were they like, I got my God, forget you. Or were they saying, hey dude, you know, just telling you, you might want to get a lamb and put a little blood on the door frame there.

[53:38] I know it's weird. I know it's strange. But you're going to be really happy about it tomorrow. Believe me. Because it doesn't say any of the Egyptians, any of them, not one of them, were saved.

[53:56] Which makes me feel that maybe the Israelites didn't care. I don't know. I don't want to be those people.

[54:07] 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, chapter 5 says, all this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We want the Holy Spirit to break out in our lives.

[54:19] Amen? We want to hear from God. We want to know God. We want the Holy Spirit to power our church. Amen? Amen? We want to get to the dream that God designed for our life.

[54:30] We want to be a part of what God has already decided to bless in our lives. And to do that, we have to die to all the stuff we're told matters. And become alive to Christ.

[54:41] He said, take up your cross and follow me. And you'll overcome the pain, the hurt, the brokenness. And you'll be the people who could save the whole nation.

[54:59] And the Holy Spirit will break out and bring us where God wants us to be. Amen? In letters of crimson God wrote His love On a hillside so long, long ago For you and for me Jesus died And God's latest story was told I love you I love you That's what Calvary said

[56:02] I love you I love you I love you I love you With men in red Down to the ages And God wrote His love With a seed and That's all that I bear Giving all he had Giving all he had To give A message so easily I love you I love you That's what Calvary said

[57:08] I love you I love you I love you With amen I love you I love you With amen In red Sinner I come Crying my soul Remember Remember Redemption's hill

[58:09] Where your blood was filled For my ransom Everything I watched Everything I watched And dear I doubt It all has lost Lead me to the cross Where your love for loved Bring me to my knees But I lay me down In me of my soul I belong to you Oh lead me Lead me to the cross Lead me to the cross There were as I

[59:17] Tempted and tried My human When he came flesh For my sin and death Now you're risen Everything I watched And dear My child I love you And dear It all has lost Lead me to the cross Where your love for loved Bring me to my knees For my daily death Bring me to the cross I belong to you Oh lead me E82 Lead me

[60:17] Lead me Lead me Lead me Lead me lead me to your heart Lead me Lead me lead me Lead me Lead me Lead me lead me Lead me Lead me Lead me Lead me Lead me Oh Oh Bring Me to my knees

[61:18] Lord I lay me Down Bring me on myself I belong To you Oh lead Me Lead me To the cross We come here to rid ourselves of ourselves and be filled up with God, to reflect on what are the things in our lives that we've put above God, and to repent.

[61:54] And God says, I love you, and I want to be in a relationship with you no matter what. Just come and be with me and be led to my cross that sacrificed for you.

[62:05] So as we prepare for a table of grace, let's say a prayer of confession together. Lord, I am a sinner. Lord, I am a sinner. I need your grace. I need your grace. Forgive my sins.

[62:16] Forgive my sins. Set my priorities. Set my priorities. To be on you. To be on you. That things. Are below people.

[62:27] Are below you. Are below you. That you are above all. You are above all. That you be praised in my life. You be praised in my life.

[62:38] For it's in Jesus' name we pray. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Hear the good news. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, and this proves God's love for you and for me.

[62:51] In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Glory to God. Amen. And now as a forgiven body of Christ, let's greet one another with the peace of the Holy Spirit.

[63:04] All right. All right.

[64:04] All right.

[64:34] All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

[64:46] All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

[64:58] All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

[65:10] All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

[65:22] All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

[65:34] All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

[65:46] I choose to be holy, set a heart for you, my master, ready to do your will.

[66:08] Here in the United Methodist Church, we have what is called an open table, and that means that everyone is welcome, whether this is your first time here, you've been here all along, you are seeking Christ in your life, you are welcome to the table of grace.

[66:23] 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.

[66:41] 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 the prophets.

[66:59] 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.

[67:13] 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.

[67:25] 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.

[67:40] 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, made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

[67:58] When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always in the power of your word and Holy Spirit. On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread.

[68:10] He gave thanks to you. He broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, and he said, Take and eat. This is my body, which is broken for you.

[68:23] Eat of this often, remembering me. And when the supper was over, he took the cup. He gave thanks to God.

[68:36] He said, This is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, poured out for you, poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins.

[68:49] Drink of this often, remembering 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.

[69:12] 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.

[69:31] 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. Through your Son, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your Holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever.

[69:51] Amen. Now let us pray the prayer that Jesus taught us, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

[70:07] 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.

[70:21] For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. For those who are serving, please come forward. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[70:31] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[70:48] Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

[71:20] Thank you.

[71:50] Thank you.

[72:20] Thank you.

[72:50] Thank you.

[73:20] Thank you.

[73:50] Thank you.

[74:20] Thank you.

[74:50] Thank you.

[75:20] Thank you.

[75:50] Thank you.

[76:20] Thank you.

[76:50] Thank you.

[77:20] Thank you.

[77:50] Thank you.

[78:20] Thank you.

[78:50] Thank you.

[79:20] Thank you.

[79:50] Thank you.

[80:20] Amen.