[0:00] Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Thank you.
[1:00] Thank you.
[1:30] Thank you. This is the day that the Lord has made.
[2:06] Let us rejoice. Let us rejoice. And be glad in it. And be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made.
[2:20] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made.
[2:35] Shall we pray together? Dear God in heaven, we pray that your Holy Spirit will pour into this place. That you'll open up our hearts, our minds, our eyes, our lives to the wonder of God. That you'll fill us and bless us and cause us to be everything you want us to be this morning for you.
[2:51] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. I'd like to invite you, if you're able, as we're going to stand and sing together, Open my eyes that I may see. Open my eyes.
[3:04] Open my eyes that I may see Glypses of truth thou hast for me Place in my hands the wonderful key That shall unclasp and set me free Silently now I wait for thee Ready my God thy will to see Open my eyes, illumine me Spirit divine Open my ears that I may hear
[4:08] Voices of truth thou send is clear And while the wave notes fall on my ear Everything false shall disappear Silently now I wait for thee Ready my God thy will to see Open my ears, illumine me Spirit divine Open my mouth and let me bear Gladly the warm truth everywhere Open my heart and let me prepare Love with my children, thoughts to share Silently now I wait for thee Ready my God thy will to see
[5:09] Open my heart, illumine me Spirit divine The Lord be with you.
[5:20] Also with you. Please be seated. On January 26th of this month at noon we're going to be holding what's called a charge conference which is the official business meeting of our church and you're welcome to come and join us for that if you'd like to.
[5:34] I also wanted to mention that our mission moment this morning is for Community Missions, a ministry in Niagara Falls that does wonderful things for people that we've supported for years and here's a little more about it.
[5:47] Community Missions began in 1923 and since that time we've provided services for the people that are most in need throughout western New York. We have everything from a soup kitchen to a food pantry.
[6:01] We have a clothes closet and we have emergency housing. Those are just a few things that we do on a daily basis here. In all we have 19 different programs that serve Niagara County across 14 different locations and if there's one thing that we've learned over the past 92 years it's that we absolutely cannot do it alone.
[6:19] Last year alone we served over 100,000 meals and provided 11,000 nights of shelter and had over 7,000 visits to our clothes closet. My grandfather and I used to deliver food here and I took care of the last four years of his life.
[6:36] He passed away and now I have to come here. I've been in Niagara Falls now for seven years. I was homeless. As a 50-year-old woman I found myself out of the loop kind of work-wise.
[6:47] I hadn't worked in a very long time. I put a lot of job applications in. I just didn't get any requests for my services. If Community Missions wasn't here I would maybe still be on the streets doing more drugs and not doing good for myself.
[7:05] The Community Missions involvement in my life has been in Niagara. If it wasn't for the Community Missions I really don't know where I would be. Probably sleeping outside somewhere.
[7:16] It helped me get closer to my family and closer to my kids. I live three blocks away. If I don't have anything to eat I can come here for lunch and it's a fabulous lunch.
[7:30] Coming to the clothes closet is like going to the mall for some people. It just relieves the stress. It makes us feel better. And everybody works together. Everybody knows something about somebody hiring or anything like that.
[7:43] Come down to the City Missions. They will help you out. God gave a lot of things to people and people should give things to people too if they need help.
[7:57] So we thank you for your support that you've given us in the past and thank you for the support you're giving us now and look forward to having a partnership with Pendleton United Methodist Church far into the future.
[8:08] Amen. And Community Missions just touches and gives joy to so many hearts. Not only those who are receiving but also those who are giving. So as the Lord leads you'll find that envelope in your bulletin.
[8:21] I have the joy of being on my way to Israel Palestine again. I'm heading out right after I'm done right after Junior Church in the next service. Romney will be here with the truck.
[8:33] Cross your fingers and pray. Just that he remembers. He's actually he needs to remember to come and he will. He will, right? Yeah, good. Okay, everyone agrees that he will remember.
[8:44] This is a good thing. Pastor Sherry, it's a wonderful joy. She is already in Cuba and she's going to be ministering there with other folks from our seminary and meeting with people. Isn't that a joy to know that we reach near to Community Missions and far to other places in the world?
[9:02] What joys do you have to share today? Yes, Pat. My son-in-law is not being deployed. Son-in-law not being deployed. That's a wonderful thing. I mean, it's a wonderful thing that he's serving and we're grateful that he's not going to be in harm's way at this time.
[9:18] Amen. Yes, Dee? Wonderful to have a friend visiting from Orlando who's had safe travels all the way.
[9:29] God bless you as you visit. Jen? Yes. Safe travels has been happening back and forth in time with family and this is just a blessing, Jen.
[9:40] Thank you. We're so grateful. Any other joys to share this morning? Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Yolanda Cole is back. My name is Professor of Latvia.
[9:51] Wonderful. Well, we are glad to see you. We are glad to see you and have you back. You've been traveling in Europe and now you're back here and all kinds of things happening.
[10:01] It's a blessing to have you here, Yolanda. Any other joys? No. Ah, Melissa. Nancy's brother was in a coma and he was praying for him and he's home now.
[10:19] Nancy's brother who was in a coma is home after having had prayer with Nancy and Melissa. What a blessing that God is bringing healing in that person's life. What wonderful joy.
[10:31] Do we have other joy? We have Peter's pointing. There's Karen. Hey, Karen. Amen. Yep.
[10:52] Yep. Amen. Amen. He's had surgery that's helped him. Aaron has had surgery that's helped him and he's back to work and Amy is doing well. Yes?
[11:02] Yes. Yes. Amen. All right.
[11:18] So there's all kinds of medical stuff going on in Karen's family and it's all going well. Praise God. Everybody say praise God. Praise God. With these wonderful joys we lift up before the Lord.
[11:29] Let's also return our gifts, tithes, and offerings. Just showing God how much we want to bless God for all the ways God has blessed us. One, two, three.
[11:43] One, two, three. Thank you.
[12:13] Thank you.
[12:43] Thank you.
[13:13] Thank you.
[13:43] Thank you.
[14:13] Thank you.
[14:43] Thank you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.
[15:23] Amen. Thank you. steel drum sound we do have some concerns to bring up before you I'm dick Anderson is in need of ongoing prayer he's still in the hospital and we want to keep him lifted up and also Anna Kay and the rest of the family Ron Elman is having surgery on Tuesday so if you would keep him in your prayers that would be gratefully appreciated and I'm Helen Stevens who is from the Niagara Falls Church and actually comes over here is one of our musicians on Saturday night for worship Helen is in the hospital we know she has cancer her husband Robin is also in the hospital and so they're both being taken care of which is a good thing and neither one is worrying about the other cuz they're both being taken care of but we do want to keep them in prayer because they are in need for their general health and these issues what concerns do you have this morning it's looking like everybody's in good shape praise the
[16:49] Lord let's pray for everybody who's not in good shape let's turn to the Lord in prayer at the rail or in your seats gracious Heavenly Father what a blessing it is that we continue to be able to come before you in prayer that you always hear us and always answer us that you are more willing to hear us than anyone else in our lives Lord we lift up before you right now all those who are sick and who are infirm we pray for continued healing Lord God for all of those who have received surgeries for all of those who have received surgeries for all of those who have been ill and are still recovering
[17:59] Lord we just ask in Jesus name that you would give wisdom to their doctors and their nurses we pray for those who are awaiting surgeries and ask that they would be cared for well wherever it is that they're going to be receiving treatment Lord we pray father in Jesus name for all of those who are grieving losses at this time whether those losses are new or from long ago whenever we are separated from those we love it can be troubling we just pray for your peace Lord God that by your Holy Spirit you would come up around each one in need and wrap them up with your arms of love help them Lord help them to feel your peace help them to know that they have the hope of eternal life in you and to hope for that time when we will all see you face to face we pray for what father for people who are traveling for people who are ministering in all kinds of places we ask that your love and grace and mercy would shine through your church we pray for for people who are ministering in all kinds of places.
[19:22] We ask that your love and grace and mercy would shine through your church. We pray that we would be a blessing wherever we go and that you would transform us and strengthen us to be prepared for what is coming.
[19:37] Those things that you know about that we're going to encounter but that we have not seen or heard about yet. Lord, we pray in Jesus' name that we would have open hearts and minds and spirits to be changed so we would be more like Jesus and well able to handle all that comes our way with your love and grace and mercy.
[20:07] Now, Lord, we pray in the silence of our hearts for all of those who were not named out loud for all of those concerns we know that you already know about.
[20:21] But we gather together to pray because you have called us to do so. Amen. Amen. Father, we pray in Jesus' name for the rest of this worship service and for the coming week.
[20:51] We ask that with every prayer prayed, every song sung, every moment of hearing from your word, that it would just be a blessing, Lord God.
[21:02] We pray for Pastor Tom as he is preparing to deliver the message that you have given him for us. Let it be a blessing to him and to us. And Father, make all of our worship to be a blessing to you so we may go forth with blessing for others.
[21:22] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Shall we hear from the word of the Lord? And my rem rem sales of God, God bless you.
[21:44] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[21:55] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Good morning. Today's scripture reading is from Matthew chapter 2, verses 13 through 23.
[22:12] When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.
[22:27] So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet, Out of Egypt I called my son.
[22:44] When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious. And he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under.
[22:56] In accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled. A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping in great mourning.
[23:08] Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more. After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel.
[23:24] For those who were trying to take the child's life are dead. So he got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he had heard that Archelos was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.
[23:42] Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
[23:54] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Thank you, Jeff. You know, someone has said along the line that whatever we learn before the age of five or six determines who we'll be for most of the rest of our lives.
[24:13] Sixty to seventy percent of who you are was decided when you were this big, and yet we don't remember most of it, do we? I remember when I was about five or six, my parents went to the seashore near my cousin's house, and we were going swimming.
[24:30] And I wanted to go swimming in the water, but I was on this little pier, well, long pier that went out into the water, and I noticed there were rocks in the water where you'd jump in.
[24:42] Not big boulders, but little stones. And I didn't want to jump in and hurt my feet. So I walked out the pier, and walked out the pier, and walked out the pier, until I didn't see any stones anymore, and I jumped in.
[24:57] Probably to about 20 foot of water. I remember being under the water. It's fascinating. That's over 55 years ago.
[25:07] And I remember being under the water, and I remember the sensation of what it was like to be drowning. And then I woke up on the shore with this beautiful angel staring down at me who had been pumping water out of my lungs, because she had been watching from her lifeguard post, and saw this little boy walking out on the pier, and came and saved me.
[25:31] That's a fascinating thing. God sent someone to save me. What a powerful message that is. Jesus had angels sent to save him.
[25:45] What an incredible story this is. The other day I was reading the newspaper about a family that was riding in their car, and a pickup truck pulled up next to them, and for some unknown reason, the man took a gun and shot a seven-year-old child.
[26:08] See, that's what this story feels like to me. Jesus was saved. Jesus was saved. The babies in Bethlehem weren't. What does that mean, Taz?
[26:20] Does God protect us, or does God not really care? Or does God only protect certain special people? It's troubling. Mark Twain, that wonderful moral philosopher, once said that reading the Bible is like eating fish.
[26:38] When you're eating fish, every once in a while you come across a bone. You don't try to choke it down. You just set it aside and go on to the good stuff. Now that's what you should do with these kind of passages in the Bible.
[26:49] Just set them aside and go on to the good stuff. Generally a good idea, but sometimes we have to look at these things. And try to figure out what do they mean for us that Jesus is a subject.
[27:03] That's what we're talking about for these next few months. Who is Jesus? What was his life about? And what does it mean to us? And right now he's a little tiny boy. In fact, he's a vulnerable little boy.
[27:15] And Herod wants to kill him. And the decisions of his father will make or break his life. Literally. And God sent angels to warn his father.
[27:31] And his father got up in the middle of the night and immediately took the child to Egypt. Didn't mess around. Didn't wait. Didn't, you know, put his business in order and sell off the carpentry shop or whatever it was that he had.
[27:45] But he didn't have to. And he might not have. But he did. And when they went to Egypt, Jesus was probably just a little boy, not even two years old.
[27:55] But he was there for two or three years in the most formulative time of his life. How did that change him? Is Jesus part Egyptian in the way he thinks and feels and looks at life?
[28:11] What would that mean for us? And then he came back and they say that they were still afraid. And so they decided where they would live based on fear. And they went to Nazareth.
[28:24] Wow. That's an interesting story. Especially for us. Because we seem to be all afraid of something. We're afraid our health will be a problem.
[28:35] We're afraid our kids will have difficulties. We're afraid of failure. We're afraid that the money will run out. We're afraid of our work. We're afraid of the guys in the pickup trucks.
[28:47] No offense to you guys who own pickup trucks. You see, it's a weird kind of culture we live in. This is, as I've said before, one of the most blessed cultures that has ever existed.
[29:02] We have the lowest unemployment in my lifetime. There seems to be plenty of money to do so many things. People have their freedoms and their rights.
[29:12] I mean, entertainment. My gosh. We aren't satisfied with 400 channels of TV and everything we can find on the internet. And we still say there's nothing to do. But fear abounds in our blessed culture.
[29:31] The people who share that media and even that entertainment with us seem to be pumping fear into our lives on a daily basis. Telling us we need to be worried.
[29:45] And so we do. We're going to fail the test. We're going to fail at life. We're going to fail at love. It's as if somebody is trying to pull despair out of blessing and leave us broken.
[30:03] And, you know, some fears are rational. I mean, little Jesus could have died. His father had to worry about the soldiers coming.
[30:13] That's a real fear that most of us have not experienced. But a lot of people in the world have. There are things to be afraid of. My wife was in the military and she said they would teach something they called situational awareness.
[30:29] Just be aware of what's going on around you. Take note of things that seem out of place. There's things to be afraid of.
[30:41] Because there are real problems in our lives. We live in a broken world where creation is not what it was meant to be. We read that in the first book of Genesis.
[30:54] We get a glimpse into heaven. And we get a glimpse into hell. So that hopefully we will choose to go to glory.
[31:05] Matthew chapter 5 has a verse in it that's often quoted. God causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
[31:18] Good things happen to the good and bad alike. When I was young I had a moral philosopher. He was about my age. He was an auto mechanic. And he once said to me something very profound.
[31:29] He said, sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. I don't know why it stuck with me. It seemed to make a lot of sense. Sometimes stuff happens to everybody.
[31:42] God cares. God cares. In this story we read that God sent the angels. God sent the messengers. God sent the warning.
[31:53] God was very specific and clear about what they needed to do. So that Joseph could respond in the right way. He wasn't living without the opportunity or possibility of finding the salvation.
[32:07] God cares. But if God cares and if God is so good and if God is all powerful. It's just natural that we all ask them, why do bad things happen to good people?
[32:24] I can't believe that that little girl in the pickup truck or next to the pickup truck deserves something like that. But when we ask, why do bad things happen to good people?
[32:37] We have to start with who's good. In Mark chapter 10, Jesus gives us the answer. No one is good except God alone.
[32:49] See, we've got this I deserve culture. I hear it in the commercials all the time. You've probably heard it. You deserve this. You deserve that. You deserve this. You deserve that. You deserve this and this and this and that.
[33:01] And somebody else should pay for it and do the work and you deserve it. Right? We've all heard it. It's a routine, regular thing. But according to the scriptures, those who have sinned deserve to die and go to hell.
[33:19] Anybody here who hasn't sinned? Anybody here who hasn't fallen short of the mark? So what we really deserve? What we deserve? But God doesn't give us all that.
[33:32] So sometimes what he's doing is actually good. That we don't deserve. And after all, what is good? In our culture, good has been defined as what makes me feel good?
[33:47] What makes me comfortable? What makes my life go? What makes me happy? But I don't know that that's true for God. Even in the case of these little innocent ones, really what happened with them is they went from the innocence to glory.
[34:04] And never had the misery of experiencing the brokenness we can afflict on one another. We wouldn't consider that good. And I'm sure their parents didn't consider it good.
[34:15] But in some sense, going from innocence to glory isn't the worst thing that could happen. I know you don't want to hear that. That doesn't seem to make sense. But you see, we need to take our morality and put it in the sense of what does God think?
[34:29] And what does God want? And where is God in all of this? God cares. And he cares enough to give us real choices. He doesn't put us in a world where we're robotic and we have to do whatever or it's all determined and fate has decided what will happen and makes no difference what you do or what you say.
[34:47] These people had to make real choices. Joseph had to choose what he was going to do and that would determine the fate of his family. It says that in verse 16, Herod was furious.
[35:05] He's furious, I'm sure, with the Magi. Last week we talked about how the Magi came to Jerusalem and told him a new king of the Jews is going to be born. And Herod was like, well, I'm the king of the Jews, right?
[35:18] He was threatened by that. And he had worked it out with the Magi to show him where and when and who. But they didn't because they'd been born by God. So they didn't go back to Herod.
[35:28] So he's furious. He's furious at the Magi. He's probably furious at himself and he takes out his wrath on little ones. The evil in other people's hearts can cause great pain.
[35:40] Great pain for us and even for people who've done nothing really wrong. And then we have the Magi. They made a decision based on what they thought was right to not follow the star to where it was taking them, not follow the angel to where they should go, but instead went to Jerusalem and caused all this uproar in the first place.
[36:05] Because good people sometimes make the wrong decision. A few weeks ago, my doctor put me on a new blood sugar pill. You know?
[36:16] And I've got to tell you, I've been losing weight like you can't even imagine. On the doctor's scale, I'm down 30 pounds. It's pretty cool. So I thought I had the super pill.
[36:28] Which meant I could eat all those cakes and cookies and sugars and everything you can imagine. And I took a blood test in the midst of it. The doctor called and left his cell phone number.
[36:40] How many of you have your doctor's cell phone number? I said, dude, you've got to call me now! And I found out my blood sugar was spiking up over 500, for those of you who know what sugar is.
[36:54] Whose fault is that? The doctor because he put me on the wrong pill? You know? You for giving me all that sugar and stuff to eat? You know whose fault it was.
[37:10] We make decisions and then we wonder how come bad things happen to us. Well, because we make decisions. Even good people that aren't necessarily the right ones. And then we do decisions that are good ones.
[37:21] I went to see Mary Poppins Returns this week. Anybody see the movie yet? Great movie. You'll enjoy it. In fact, Pastor Mike was talking to me about it. He said, no violence, no inappropriate scenes, no bad language, nothing like that.
[37:35] And even my 17-year-old grandson said, that was a pretty good movie, Papa. You know? So, recommend it. Good movie. And what Mary Poppins is about, actually, is it's about, whether you're talking the first one or the second one, it's about a paradigm shift.
[37:53] This was the shift in the original. No, not that, Stedion. Well, do you have anything to say, Banks?
[38:23] Well, sir, they do say that when there's nothing to say, all you can say... Confound it, Banks, I said.
[38:36] Do you have anything to say? Just one word, sir. Yes? Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. What?
[38:50] Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Mary Poppins was right. It's extraordinary. It does make you feel better. What are you talking about, men? There's no such word. Oh, yes. It is a word, a perfectly good word.
[39:01] Actually, do you know what there's no such thing as? It turns out, with due respect, when all is said and done, that there's no such thing as you. Impertinent, sir. Speaking of impertinence, would you like to hear a perfectly marvellous joke?
[39:14] A real snapper. Joke? Snapper? Yes. There are these two wonderful young people, Jane and Michael, and they meet one day on the street, and Jane says to Michael, I know a man with a wooden leg named Smith.
[39:26] And Michael says, really? What's the name of his other leg? Oh, you... You... The man's gone mad. Call the guard. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
[39:37] I'm feeling better. All the talking... Banks, don't you dare strike my father. There's the tuppence. The wonderful, faithful, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious tuppence. Guard it well. Goodbye.
[39:48] Banks, where are you going? I don't know. I might pop through a chalk pavement picture and go for an outing in the country, or I might seize a horse off a merry-go-round and win the derby, or I might just fly a kite.
[39:59] Only Poppins would know. Poppins? My nanny. She's the one who sings that ridiculous song. A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.
[40:09] The medicine go down. The medicine go down. The medicine go down. Mad as a March hare. A wooden leg named Smith.
[40:23] A wooden leg named Smith. A wooden... Father. Father.
[40:48] Father, come down. Daddy. Daddy, come back. And so the wind changes because in the Mary Poppins movie, if you'll recall, all of a sudden this man realizes what matters in life, and it's not this sad little job that he has.
[41:14] But it's a life he can live. And the wonders that God has given to him. And the family he enjoys. And so he's lost his job and he goes out the door. Right?
[41:26] I can't get as high as he does. You see, when we look at this passage, we look at the surface message. And our idea is this must be about why do bad things happen to good people?
[41:38] But that's not what Matthew's trying to teach us. That's not what Matthew's really speaking to us about. He's speaking to us about a message of Jesus in hope and love.
[41:50] And we know that when we look at these prophecies he talks about. The first one in verse 17, he talks about this voice in Ramah, weeping in great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more.
[42:10] You see, when they quote a verse like this, if all you do is take it on the surface, you don't understand what Matthew's saying. Matthew's saying, have you read Jeremiah? Do you even know what the 31st chapter of Jeremiah is about?
[42:25] It's about how God will take a land that has lost its people, the nation of Israel, taken into captivity, where the land is saying we have no people and God will bring the people back and God will restore the promise of even those who feel broken, those who are hurting.
[42:42] God will return the children. This is what it says in Jeremiah 16. Restrain your voice from weeping, your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded, declares the Lord. They will return from the land of the enemy.
[42:54] So there is hope for your descendants, declares the Lord. Your children will return to their own land. There is hope in the midst of despair. The message of Jesus is there is always hope.
[43:07] There are always possibilities when troubles come. It tells us if we repent and turn back to God, he will return us to blessings. In fact, he'll send us road signs for the journey.
[43:21] He'll send us angels to give the message. In verse 21 of Jeremiah 31, he says, set up road signs. Put up guideposts. Take note of the highway.
[43:32] God will show you the way to blessing. And even more important, if you know Jeremiah chapter 31, chapter 31 of Jeremiah is about a new covenant.
[43:45] Not a covenant based in laws and rules. Not a covenant based in harshness and judgment. But a law and a covenant based in God's hope and love and forgiveness.
[43:57] In chapter 31, verse 31, we read these words. The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I'll make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
[44:08] It won't be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. This is a covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time.
[44:21] He says, I will put my law on their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God. They will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor or say to one another, know the Lord, because they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.
[44:39] For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more. God is making a new covenant, a new agreement, not something we learn about, not something we even read about, something that we internalize, something that comes into our lives, transforms us and changes us and gives us hope for glory today and forever.
[45:02] Or in other words, it will end good and it will last in goodness forever. Our difficulty is, we feel that this little world we live in is all we've got and it's a competition between each other.
[45:20] I was talking about bears. There were some people out on a little hunting excursion and while they were in camp, they heard this rustling in the woods and looked over and there was a bear. And the one fellow reached down and started putting on his sneakers and the other guy said, you really think you can outrun that bear?
[45:37] He said, I don't have to. I just have to outrun you. Isn't that what we think life is about? All we've got to do is outrun the other person. All we've got to do is be better than the next.
[45:49] All we've got to do is win. God doesn't call us to win in this life, but to live and win into eternity.
[46:01] And in the process, we win right here. Because Matthew is pointing to hope, but he's also pointing to the love of God. This passage in verse 15, where he says, out of Egypt I called my son.
[46:16] That sounds like a geographical reference, doesn't it? But that's not what Hosea is about. Is there anybody here who's ever read Hosea? Hosea is a book about a prophet who is told by God to go marry a prostitute.
[46:30] And then when she comes and lives with him, she becomes unfaithful to him. And yet God says, go get her back and love her anyways. Powerful story.
[46:41] That culminates in chapter 11 of Hosea, where God says, out of Egypt I called my child. I raised him like a little boy.
[46:51] I took him by the hand. I nurtured him. I loved him. I gave him everything he could ever need. And then he turned against me.
[47:03] And then he followed other gods. Then he broke my heart. He made me feel like my love was for nothing.
[47:18] So I'd like to destroy him. Come on, crush him. Just like everybody feels when their heart's broken, when somebody has taken their love and mistreated it and turns it into pain and hurt.
[47:34] And then in verse 8, God says this, how can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Adma? How can I make you like Zebulun?
[47:47] My heart is changed within me. All my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again, for I am God and not a man, the Holy One among you that will not come against your cities.
[48:05] They will follow the Lord. He'll roar like a lion, and when he roars, his children will come trembling from the west and return to their loving Father.
[48:20] I am God. I judge in a different way, and I live from love and compassion. We're afraid.
[48:33] And so we get focused on all the wrong things, and we start doing things we know are wrong or making decisions based on the wrong thing. We're disappointed with God. We turn away from God. We don't even trust God.
[48:45] We don't even know if there is a God. We break God's heart. And the message of Jesus, the message, the reason why God even sent Jesus, is to say, and yet God loves you anyways.
[49:02] And yet God loves you anyways, not because you deserved it, but because you're his, and he's not going to let you go.
[49:19] I learned love from my parents. When I was a teenager, I was what would have been called a troubled youth. I don't need to go into the details, but I got in trouble with the law.
[49:32] I got in trouble in school. Got in trouble with my grades. I did things I shouldn't. I wore my hair long just to tick my father off so he wouldn't look at me.
[49:45] I drank. Got kicked off the sports teams. And every single day when I came home, my parents gave me a meal to eat, a bed to sleep in, and loved me anyway.
[50:07] I'm not saying they never disciplined me. I'm not saying they didn't try to correct me. I'm not saying they didn't say when I was making bad choices. I'm saying they loved me anyways.
[50:17] And that's the message in this passage from Matthew that God loves us more than we can imagine. And the whole thing we learn about Jesus is that this little boy was sent in a vulnerable state for us to understand that God is vulnerable to the world because of his love.
[50:40] That he's willing to take a chance on us because he cares so much about us. In Matthew chapter 5, a couple of chapters further, we have that verse, but let's put it in context.
[50:54] It says, you have heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your Father in heaven because he causes the sun to rise on the good and the evil and sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
[51:15] And the sun and the rain are the things we need to survive. God cares for even people who are broken and evil and sinful and have turned their back on him because he chose love.
[51:27] And that's the message of Jesus. And that's the message of Matthew here. Yes, life can be a struggle. It can be frustration. It can be harsh and even bad and hurtful.
[51:39] But Matthew calls us to a paradigm shift. Matthew is trying to pull hope out of despair so that we can get through life looking to the blessings because God gives us blessings.
[51:59] If we'll just look for them, God sends the angels. If we'll just hear them, you've got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, hold on to what's affirmative.
[52:11] Don't mess with Mr. In-between. Not because you need to have a Pollyanna view of life. Not because you have to ignore where there's brokenness. Not because you don't have to have situational awareness.
[52:23] Not because there aren't problems in the world. I see as many problems as probably anybody does. Because in the end, in the end, God will bring goodness.
[52:35] God's love will triumph over our sin and brokenness. See, we all want justice.
[52:48] We all say it's not fair. It's not right. It's not good. Because we live in a two-dimensional world where all we see is right or wrong.
[53:00] All we see is good or bad. All we see is we win, they lose. The bear chased after that fellow without the sneakers. His friend was long gone, didn't care.
[53:12] And he's running and the bear's kind of closing in on him and then he stumbled and fell. And he looked up as the bear was coming at him and he prayed. And he said, Dear God, make the bear a Christian bear.
[53:24] And the bear stopped. And he got down on his knees and he put his hands together and he said, Dear Lord, for the meal we are about to eat, we give thee thanks.
[53:43] Oh, they're old jokes. But they're around because they still have a meaning, don't they? You see, we live in a two-dimensional world thinking it's got to be this way or that way when actually we're all a part of all of it.
[53:58] Justice is important. The Old Testament gave us a lot of justice. But Jesus reveals the heart of God, the hope of God. We all struggle in this broken creation to try and get it right.
[54:13] We want to blame somebody else. It's the evil people. It's Herod. It's the guy in the pickup truck. If we could just get rid of them. But good people like you and me, we make bad choices too.
[54:28] And we want mercy. We want love. We want hope. Can we have hope for Herod?
[54:41] Can we have mercy and love for people like that who need their evil hearts turned? Not by punishment, but by the only thing that can overcome evil, which is the love of God.
[55:00] Do we have mercy and love for the Magi who messed up in a big way? Joseph shouldn't have received them. He should have slept them.
[55:13] How could you do this to my kid? Do we have mercy for people like me and love and grace for folks like you?
[55:25] The message of this story about Jesus is if we look close, if we look past the surface, if we open up our eyes and our hearts and our minds, that God will give us hope and God will give us love and God will give us a reason to get up the next day believing that Jesus is going to change it all and bring blessings to all of us.
[56:03] Open your eyes. Open your life. Open your mind. Open your heart to the love of God. Amen. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.
[56:29] Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. I want to see you.
[56:44] Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you.
[56:58] I want to see you. See you high and lifted up.
[57:10] Shining in the light of your glory. pour out your power and love as we sing holy, holy, holy.
[57:28] Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you.
[57:41] I want to see you. I want to see you. I want to see you. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.
[57:54] Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. I want to see you.
[58:06] I want to see you. See you high and lifted up.
[58:27] Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy I want to see you And we cry Holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy I want to see you Open the eyes of my heart, Lord Open the eyes of my heart I want to see you I want to see you
[59:32] Why do we come to confess our sins each week? Is it because we're perfect and those other guys are the bad ones?
[59:46] Is it because we want to say how good we've been to God and list off the list of everything we've done right? Is it because sometimes we feel like the Magi and we've just messed up?
[59:58] Didn't even know we were going to do it Sometimes we feel like Herod We don't want to admit it to anybody But we need to admit it to God See, God isn't calling us to what everybody else is doing He's calling us to a new paradigm A new way of looking at this world That when people extend hate, we return love That when people reach out with evil We reach back with hope That's what Jesus brought us So I invite you to pray with me now Dear God in Heaven I have sinned I've broken your rules I've broken your heart And I've hurt others Forgive me, Lord Look into my heart And pour your love there Help me to be like you Help me to return love For hate
[61:00] And hope For evil That I might help change this world To a world you can love Unconditionally Forever Turn my heart In Jesus' name we pray Amen Can you imagine God loves you so much That he's willing to overlook All the hurt All the pain All the struggle All the things that You and I have done to him That's real love That's what Matthew's trying to get across to us That's why he put these passages in there For us to see God has always loved us And always wanted us to be with him In the name of Jesus Christ Your sins are forgiven In the name of Jesus Christ Your sins are forgiven Glory to God Amen Amen
[62:03] O hym as I will sing this song called calcuP And hear myolor and then сильal sound of grace And this is a song of life Come on How the hell Of God For you to be with him И for you to be with him He may cannot be with him All days I will sing a song of grace In my praise, the fountain of divine For in my outing life I cry and raise the mercy In my outing life I will trust in the cost of my redeemer I will sing of the blood that never fails Our sins forgiven
[63:04] Our conscience blessed Of death deeply and life without end Beautiful Savior Wonderful Counselor Lord and Majesty Lord of History You're the way, the truth, the light Star of the morning Glorious and holiness You're the risen one, heaven's champion And you reign, you reign over all I long to be where the praise is never ending Here to dwell where the glory never gains
[64:08] There countenance, worshipers will share One song That prize of worthy will on earth all night Beautiful Savior Beautiful Savior Wonderful Counselor Glorious and majesty Lord of History Lord of History You're the way, the truth, the light Of sorrow, the morning Glorious and holiness You're the way, the truth, the light For the risen one, heaven's champion And you reign, you reign over all Now as forgiven children of God Let's pass the peace of the Spirit with one another Let's pass the peace of the Spirit with one another
[65:36] Let's pass the peace of the Spirit with one another Amen And our Savior has gone on to do amazing and wonderful things on our behalf That we can't begin to be worthy of But yet, God loves us so much That he sent his Son so that we could be free Free from sin, free from death Absolutely available to have eternal life And we celebrate that at the table What a blessing it is to come to the table To remember what God has done for us And to celebrate with him
[66:37] That we can participate In his plan to bring salvation to the whole world Amen? Everyone is welcome to be part of this celebration If you love God, repent of your sin And seek to live in peace as a disciple of Jesus Christ It doesn't matter if it's the first time that you've been to church This church or any other church If you are feeling that God wants to connect with you today And that you want to respond to that connection You come to the table And God will meet you here You come and receive the bread and the cup And God will bless you and fill you to overflowing So that you can be And I can be We the church Can be the people that God's called us to be So come to the table this morning You are welcome 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
[67:37] To give thanks to you, Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth Before the mountains were brought forth Or you had formed the earth From everlasting to everlasting You alone are God You created light out of darkness And brought forth life on the 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 Hosanna in the highest Holy are you and blessed is your son Jesus Christ In whom you have revealed yourself
[68:39] Our light and our salvation By the baptism of his suffering Death and resurrection You gave birth to your church Delivered us from sin and death And slavery to those And made with us a new covenant By water and the spirit On the night in which he gave himself up for us Jesus took bread And he gave thanks to you He broke the bread And gave it to his disciples He said take and eat This is my body Which is given for you Do this in remembrance of me When the supper was over He took the cup And he gave you thanks and praise And gave it to his disciples Saying drink from this all of you This is the cup of my blood The blood of the new covenant Poured out for you and for many For the forgiveness of sins Do this as often as you drink it In remembrance of me
[69:40] And so in remembrance of these Your mighty acts in Jesus Christ We offer ourselves In praise and thanksgiving As a holy and living sacrifice In union with Christ's offering for us As we proclaim the mystery of faith Christ has died Christ is risen Christ will come again Pour out your Holy Spirit on us Gathered here And on these gifts of bread and wine Make them be for us The body and blood of Christ That we may be for the world The body of Christ Redeemed by his blood 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 are yours Almighty Father Now and forever Amen Shall we pray together
[70:40] With the confidence of children of God The prayer Jesus taught us Our Father Who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven Give us this day Our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive those Who trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom And the power And the glory Forever and ever Amen Will those who are serving Please come forward To increase our legislation Do we even make that From evil To be MARK As weなら To be healthy As we maar AEd As we cię Willotros Twenty Cool As we
[71:41] Know The built And 초 To be Those who are And Housing Thank you.
[72:19] Thank you.
[72:49] Thank you.
[73:19] Dear God invites us, the blessing, to come to the table. Our loving Father in heaven invites you to come and join us at the rail for prayers for healing, anointing, to make a commitment, or to light a candle as your prayer.
[73:34] Come and join us with the Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[73:59] Amen. Thank you.
[74:30] Thank you.
[75:00] Thank you.
[75:30] Thank you.
[76:00] Thank you.
[76:30] Thank you.
[77:00] Thank you.
[77:30] Thank you.
[78:00] Thank you.
[78:30] Thank you.
[79:00] Thank you. Thank you.
[80:00] Thank you. Thank you.
[81:00] We are all Wirk ourselves- hope and his peace and his love if we just reach out and remember what he's done for us and give it to others. Go in the peace of God and the love of God and the hope of Jesus now and forever. Amen.