Transcription downloaded from https://services.pcumc.org/sermons/27605/forgiveness/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] Good morning, everyone. Welcome to worship for Pendleton Center and Niagara Falls First United Methodist Churches and all of you who have decided to join us. We're glad to have you here for worship. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad. [0:15] This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. [0:41] This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made. [1:00] Let us pray. God of glory, Lord of love, you offer peace in your arms, shelter under your wing, and strength in the palm of your hand. Though we are physically separated, you have unified us by your spirit. As we worship you, our hearts unfold before you, warm our hearts and transform our lives that we may be instruments of your peace as witnesses to your great love. Amen. [1:30] And I'm going to invite you all to stand, if you're able and willing, as we sing together, Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee. Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love, hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun. [2:07] Open to the sun above. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away. [2:18] Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day. Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed. [2:37] Whelps bring up the joy of living, ocean depths of happy rest. Thou our Father, Christ our brother, all who live in love are Thine. [2:54] Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine. Mortals, join the mighty chorus, which the morning stars began. [3:14] Love divine is reigning o'er us, binding on within its hand. Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife. [3:32] Joyful music leads us somewhere in the triumph song of life. May the Lord be with you. [3:43] And also with you. Please be seated. Take your feet up. Enjoy the service. Well, no, actually we want you to engage in the service. So don't get too comfortable. We want you in action because worship is an action. [3:55] We want you engaged and participating in this. And so we want to invite you to participate with all of the different aspects of worship. And so stand if you're able and sing to a kid song and dance around if you can. [4:09] We want to talk to you about a couple different things. Online there's a little link there for friendship cards. So click on friendship cards. And we want to know if you're here worshiping with us. [4:20] And if you have any praises, any blessings to proclaim, or if you have any pastoral concerns, any concerns you want to have lifted up in prayer, click on the friendship card. [4:31] And that will go to the pastors. And we will take it from there. We also wanted to make sure that everybody is still aware that everything is off as far as activities go. [4:43] We are just playing it by ear, moment by moment, and making decisions in that way. We do want to encourage you to join up. If you're on Facebook, to join in the Facebook group. [4:56] That's Peace UMC Fellowship Group. And it's a way that we've been connecting with one another. And there's been devotions and prayers and music and ways for our church body to stay connected in all of this. [5:08] So as we, as a church body, gather together remotely, it's a little different, but we're still reaching out. We're still trying to connect. And we're always connected to God. [5:19] We want to lift up some people in prayer. This week, we want to lift up Patrick Hahn and Mike Maciejewski and their families. Both Pat and Mike are in the hospital, not coronavirus-related whatsoever, but they're in the hospital in critical condition. [5:37] And we ask for your prayers for them and for their families, because their families are not able to be with them because of the virus. So please pray for Pat and Mike and their families. [5:48] We also want to make sure that we're praying for all of the people that are involved with the coronavirus and all of the people out there in the fields, the medical workers, the law enforcement people, everybody that's considered an essential worker, and everybody that's at home. [6:02] We want to just make sure that we are covering this entire situation in prayer. We also want to keep our eyes open for blessings. We know that in the midst of everything, God is still there. [6:14] God is still with us. God is still moving. And there are many blessings, many things to praise. I am thankful that God is with me. I am thankful for time with my husband, with my family. [6:28] You know, we're able to use the Zoom thing and connect with people. We're doing things online. We're staying connected. There's just a lot to be thankful for. And if you have praises during the offering time, if you want, if you're on the Facebook thing and you want to chat and lift up praises, do it there. [6:44] Otherwise, I ask you to shout it out. Say it to your family. Say it to whomever happens to be with you. Shout it out to God what you're thankful for this morning because God is good. [6:56] And so he is with us and we are praising God. And as we do that, we're going to be taking up an offering. There is a button if you want to give electronically. [7:07] There's a button there. And you can give that way or you can mail it to the church. If you're in a position where you are able to give, we ask that you give to God an offering from your heart with thanksgiving on your heart. [7:22] And so Sue Wissawitz will be doing an offering for us this morning, an offertory. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. [7:41] Peace. Peace. Thank you. [8:11] Thank you. [8:41] Thank you. [9:11] Thank you. [9:41] Thank you. [10:11] Thank you. [10:41] Thank you. [11:11] Thank you. Thank you. [11:41] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [12:45] Yes. Yes. [13:17] Thank you. [13:49] Thank you. Thank you. [14:21] Thank you. Thank you. I hope so. [14:57] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [15:31] Thank you. He has made me glad, I will rejoice for He has made me glad. I will enter His days and nights in my heart, I will enter His hearts in praise. [15:49] I will praise His name, O Lord, that day, I will rejoice for He has made me glad. He has made me glad, I will rejoice for He has made me glad. [16:08] He has made me glad, He has made me glad, I will rejoice for He has made me glad. I will enter His days and nights in my heart, I will enter His hearts in praise. [16:26] I will say this is the day that the Hoer-mini has the Lord, For He has made me glad. [16:36] He has made me glad, He has made me glad. I will rejoice, for He has made me glad. [16:46] He has made me glad, He has made me glad. The Lord rejoicing, for He has made me glad. I will enter His gates with grace sitting in my heart I will enter His courts with grace I will say this is the day that the Lord has been I will rejoice for He has made me glad He has made me glad, He has made me glad I will rejoice for He has made me glad He has made me glad, He has made me glad I will rejoice for He has made me glad Did you make a joyful noise to the Lord? [17:36] I sure hope you did. I did too while I was here waiting and we all worshipped God together. Now I want you to remember, put our instruments down if you haven't done that already, okay? [17:48] Alright, that's great. And I want you to think about how much we love God. I want you to remember that God sent Jesus to save us from our sins. [18:01] And He sent the Holy Spirit to remind us all about how much God loves us. And how we should love each other with God's love. [18:13] So will you make a heart like we do every week? Will you make a heart with your hands? And say it with me. When God's love is in my heart, I can love everybody. [18:30] That's right. Let's try one more time and we'll say it all together. Here we go. When God's love is in my heart, I can love everybody. [18:43] That is so wonderful. And I know, we know that that love doesn't come out of us just because it's there. God puts that love into our hearts, doesn't He? So let's get down way down low. [18:56] Ready? Way down low. And we're going to say, you know, when I don't feel God's love in my heart, I know that I can trust God to fill me up. And He fills us up. And He fills us up. [19:07] And fills us up. And fills us up until we overflow. Yes. Let's do it one more time. Just so we remember. Ready? God fills us up. [19:20] And fills us up. And fills us up. Until we overflow. That's right. Now I want you to make a heart. [19:30] Because Jesus loves us so much. And He's filled us up with love. We want to share that love with everybody, don't we? So I want you to look through the heart of God's love. [19:40] And I want you to tell the people that you're with, Jesus loves you very much. And if you happen to be worshiping by yourself this morning, that's okay too. You can remember how much God loves you. [19:52] And I want to say to you right now, Jesus loves you very much. Amen? Amen. Amen. Jesus loves me, this I know. [20:17] For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong They are weak, but He is strong Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me The Bible tells me so As we're preparing for our time of prayer, I want to remind you that we have an online friendship card that you can fill out. [21:00] And it's at PendletonChurch.org slash friendship card. You can tell us that you were here. Please do tell us you were here, that you joined us online. Share your joys and concerns and leave notes for the staff. [21:13] One of the notes we'd like you to leave is whether you could be involved in an ongoing prayer vigil that we'd like to have the whole church get on board with as we're going through this time when we have to be worshiping far apart. [21:29] What we'd like you to do is choose any day you want, any day of the week, and a particular time when you can commit to pray each week. You could pray for 15 minutes or 30 minutes, an hour, however long it is that'll work into your schedule with everything that's going on at home. [21:47] Each week, there will be a specific prayer focus that we're going to give to you. So if you're willing to pray, you could start this week. Our focus for this time is going to be Psalm 125, verses 1 and 2. [22:01] We want to pray that people would know and trust in the Lord in the way that we do and increase our trust, too. [22:30] Trust that God's love is surrounding us in amazing ways. And now, let's prepare for a time of prayer. You could try kneeling if you want. [22:43] You can sit down and fold your hands. You could stand and raise your hands. Whatever way it is that you are feeling that you can center down to pray to God. [22:56] Let's enter into a time of prayer with our Lord. Heavenly Father, we come before you now knowing and trusting that you hear and answer our prayers. [23:12] We are grateful. We are blessed. And so we lift up now, Lord God, all of those people who are sick and infirm. [23:24] People who are suffering from all kinds of illnesses. People who are suffering from the effects of this coronavirus. We are lifting up people who are recovering from surgeries and who are having to put surgeries off during this time. [23:42] We ask that you would hold them and keep them. Help them to remain healthy and well while they wait. Father, we pray in Jesus' name for those who are grieving losses. [23:56] Lord, this is a time of loss for all of us. A loss of schedule. A loss of work. A loss of sometimes people that we love dearly. [24:09] A loss of time to draw together and be in the same place at the same time. Help us, Lord, as we deal with this kind of grieving. [24:22] Father, we also pray for all of those people across the world who do not know you. We ask in Jesus' name that you would call to them, Lord. [24:34] Draw them by your prevenient grace. Help them to know you in this time. Help them to turn from you, to you, from the ways of the world. [24:46] We ask in Jesus' name also, Lord God, that those who may have turned away from you because of what's going on right now, because they seem to have let go of their faith. [24:59] We pray in Jesus' name that you would draw them back. Help them, Lord. And for those of us who are trying to walk strong with you, Lord God, to be strong for each other, to love you and all those around us, we pray in Jesus' name that you would strengthen our faith. [25:18] Help us, Lord God. We ask also, Lord, that you would make all things new when this time has come to an end. [25:31] When we're able to get back to normal, Lord God, that you would give us a fresh perspective of who you are in the world, of your great provision, of your saving power, of the hope that we have of eternal life with you. [25:46] Now we take a moment to silently lift up our requests and lift up our requests before you. And Lord, we're going to lift up a prayer now that is the prayer that Jesus taught us. [26:10] And I want to ask all of our friends who are watching online through the internet to remember that we may have people who don't know how this prayer goes and that we have young children who are with us. [26:25] And so if they would have patience as we say this prayer that you gave us a piece at a time and repeat after me. Give us a prayer that we may have time for you. [26:35] Our Father, Our Father, Our Father, Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. [26:54] Give us this day, Our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive those Who trespass against us. [27:15] And lead us not Into temptation, But deliver us from evil. [27:28] For thine is the kingdom And the power and the glory Forever and ever. Amen. [27:39] Now Lord, We pray for The message That we're about to hear For Pastor Tom As he delivers it. May it be a blessing to him And a blessing to us. [27:53] And wherever it is That we're worshiping, Lord, May all of our worship Be a blessing to you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Shall we hear from the word of the Lord? [28:08] The scripture this morning Is from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 9 through 15. Jesus said, This then, Is how you should pray. [28:19] Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, And forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors. [28:37] And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive other people When they sin against you, Your heavenly Father will also forgive you. [28:52] But if you do not forgive others their sins, Your Father will not forgive your sins. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. The Lord's Prayer. [29:06] Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. We say that prayer every week, And we're talking about kingdom living, And how we want that to be. [29:19] We want God's kingdom to come here on earth. God, fix everything. A long time ago, Back in the late 60s, My family and I were traveling Through the Rocky Mountains. [29:33] Well actually we saw the Rocky Mountains From about 500 miles away. It's amazing. You keep driving and driving, And you see them, And you keep coming and coming and coming. And when we got to them, They looked like a wall going straight up. [29:46] Now the reason why this troubled us Is because we had an old station wagon That we were driving in, That would even, Driving down the road, Would overheat from time to time. We were wondering, Can these things really get us Over that mountain? [29:59] Sometimes life feels like we have mountains That are just too hard to overcome. Feels like that now. This time Lord you gave me a mountain, A mountain that I'll never climb. [30:14] Our bishop asked us to say the Lord's Prayer Last week, Along with the Pope asking all the Roman Catholics So we had Christians around the world At noon saying the Lord's Prayer. [30:27] Our Father who is in heaven. We address our prayer. It's not just to whom it may concern. Hallowed be your name. Praise you God. Your kingdom come. [30:38] What you want to do. On earth, The way it happens in heaven. You say the word and it occurs. Give us today our daily bread, What we need. And forgive us our debts. [30:55] Forgive us our debts. We don't often think of owing God a debt, Do we? I mean, That just isn't the way we think about it. We make our own way. [31:07] God is sort of like an extra, Maybe a cherry on top of the dessert Or something. Do we owe God something? We're talking about kingdom living, Which is different Than living in the United States of America. [31:20] In a kingdom, This might sound strange, But the land all belongs to the king, Or to the kingdom, if you will. So does the water. So does the seed That the people plant in the ground. [31:33] So they take the seed That they're given by the king, They take the water Which comes from the kingdom, They use the land that was provided to them, And they grow crops to feed themselves. And somewhere at the end of that, The king expects that They're going to get a little something back, So they can continue To provide the water, The seed, The land. [31:52] It doesn't belong to them. They are, if you will, Borrowing it. They're in debt. There's another parable in the Bible That says the kingdom of heaven Is like a king Who decided to settle his debts. [32:06] So he called in Someone that owed him An immense fortune, 10,000 bags of gold. I don't know what that is On the market today, But it's billions. Billions and billions of dollars That he could never pay. [32:22] And so the servant Threw himself at the king's mercy And said, Please forgive me. Give me time. Don't throw me in prison. And I'll pay everything back. Now the king knew He couldn't pay it back. [32:33] It wasn't possible. He just didn't have the ability to. And it said that he had mercy On the man And he forgave him. This enormous debt. Well he went out from the king And immediately came upon A man who owed him A few dollars. [32:53] Be the equivalent of about 50 to 100 dollars today. And he said, Give me my money right now. He took the man And he choked him by the neck. Give me my money. And the man said the same thing. Just give me time. [33:05] Let me work it off. I will repay it. I promise. And the guy said, No, you're going to prison. That's it. I've had it with you. I've had enough patience. And he tossed him in prison. [33:18] The servants of the king Saw this and heard this And went and told the king about it. Wow. What a jerk. Really? I'd never do anything like that. [33:28] Would you? Of course not. We appreciate everything We've been given, right? I remember, And I've probably told Some of you this story, That years ago When I was strong And healthy, You know, young man, I was over visiting my father. [33:43] And on the way out, He said, You know, Tommy, If you could, Could you come by Sometime this week And help me move A couch from the house Out to the porch? And I said, Well, Dad, You know, I'll try to get to it. [33:55] I'm kind of busy. I'm trying to, I'll see if I can find some time. And I'll let you know. And he went back in the house. You know, he was fine. But the neighbor next door, Who I've known for years, Come over to me and he says, You should be ashamed of yourself. [34:10] And I said, What? Got a little surprised. He said, That man gave you everything. When you were a baby, He carried you. He provided you with food. He gave you shelter. [34:20] He has done everything for you. He asked you to move a couch. And you give him excuses. He said, I wish I had my father To be able to help him Move a couch again. [34:32] He just walked away. I'd never be like that. Would you? It's so easy, As the Bible says, To see the splinter In someone else's eye And not see the log In our own. [34:50] We have a difficulty right now. We have people who are Truly afraid. They're afraid that they might Catch a disease Or someone they love Might catch a disease And die. [35:02] And it is happening. We have other people Who are saying, You know, We need to go out and live. We need to take care of things. We have stuff to do. I'm healthy. [35:14] Maybe I'm young. You're holding me back. It's hard. It's hard both ways. And trying to manage The stress in a culture Where we have people With very different ideas Of how to react to these things. [35:30] It's not easy. Forgive us our sins As we forgive those Who sin against us. [35:44] You know, Verse 12 of this passage Says that we're supposed to Forgive sins as God forgives us. But then in verse 15, Jesus comes back and says, But if you do not forgive others Their sins, God will not forgive your sins. [35:59] That's kind of an interesting thing. It's the only part of the prayer That he actually pulls out And emphasizes That we're supposed to forgive each other. [36:14] But forgiveness is hard. Especially when we see people Do things that we just think Are wrong. Like this. God wasn't thinking Of his own finances. [36:26] He cared about his workers But mostly the experience For the people. Be safe and be happy. Exactly. Financial, health risk. You know, Such a good fun party And everybody, I think we could use it right now With what's going on In this country And the world And everything. [36:42] We could use it. A good party here. These unprecedented times Offer no playbook to follow. So Don had to make the decision Many have been And will be forced to soon. [36:55] It's easy to forgive Some of those little things People do. Somebody cuts you off In traffic Or maybe said something A little too sharp to you Or whatever. But what if somebody Gave someone you loved A virus that killed them? [37:13] That's not so easy, is it? Our sin Did that to Jesus. In 1 John chapter 3 It says to us You know that Jesus appeared So that he might take away Our sins And in him is no sin And that it also says In Corinthians God made him who had no sin To be sin for us So that in him We might become The righteousness of God What the cross Shows us Is that God died To his perfection Because of our sin God Can't Literally die Like he would cease existing But the most Precious thing to God Is that he Is perfect He is without sin He's good God Is good And our sin Takes that away If we're going to Be [38:13] Anywhere near God Now God can just Push us away And have nothing to do With us And he remains good But if God is going To draw us close We kill his perfection In Matthew Chapter 18 Where the parable Comes from It says Peter came to Jesus And asked Lord How many times Shall I forgive My brother or sister Who sins against me Is seven times enough How many times Do we forgive someone And who is it That we should Forgive And does God Forgive Everyone The Bible implies That some people Are not forgiven They're condemned In their sin And that's because Forgiveness depends On relationship With people And with God It depends On remaining In love [39:15] With one another In the book of Peter It says to us Above all Love each other deeply Because love covers over A multitude Of sins In Matthew chapter 12 We read about The unforgivable sin That the only sin That can't be forgiven Is blaspheming The Holy Spirit Which means to Turn our back On God Turn our back On the Holy Spirit Refuse to be in relationship Because we cannot Forgive someone Who isn't willing To be forgiven Who refuses To keep that relationship Of love with us Now the book of Isaiah Talks about forgiveness And it says I even I am he Who blots out Your transgressions For my own sake And remembers Your sins No more Forgive And forget Just Don't think about it [40:16] But the interesting part Is that in the parable Of the Of the servant Who has forgiven His debt It says That when the king's Servants came And told him about it What had happened All of a sudden All the debt The man had Was reinstated Even though it had been Forgiven It was now Brought back So even though God says he forgives And he forgets It's dependent On something More than some Legalistic Kind of relationship It's dependent On love In 1 Corinthians 13 It says Love keeps no Record of the wrongs Which is almost Impossible to think About isn't it But think about The idea That you're in love With someone And you're happy And you're doing Wonderful things And it's a great day And all you can think About is how much You deeply Dearly love this person At that time Are you thinking About any wrongs You're not Because love Takes away The record The concerns About the wrongs [41:16] But sometimes When we're not Feeling so loving All that other stuff Comes back So the goal Is not only To forgive But to stay In love Stay in love With each other And stay in love With God Which is one of Wesley's rules Stay in love With God So that our sins Can be no more Forgive us our sins As we forgive those Who sin Against us And lead us Not into temptation But deliver us From the evil one God actually Allows us to be Tempted to test Our faith But that's not The same As falling Into the control Or the damaging Relationship That happens When we are Delivered to the Evil one Satan may tempt [42:17] Us But God gives us The ability To overcome That temptation But when we Give in to Satan Things get broken And people Who refuse To have God In their lives Have given Their lives To Satan And therefore They don't even Want to be forgiven They don't think They need to be forgiven Maybe you've had Somebody like that In your life Maybe you've been Someone like that To someone else Sometimes we have Such a sense Of feeling Like we Have an entitlement To something That we We don't want To be forgiven We don't have anything To do with that person That's falling Under the control Of the evil one And we don't want Satan to gain Power over us When someone Refuses to be forgiven And you can't Restore relationship With them But you hold on To that pain [43:18] And that hurt From the forgiveness It starts to develop In you A grudge And it starts To develop In you A nurturing Of things That just Break us And hurt us And wear us Down It's like a demon That just Fills us And we're giving Ourselves over To Satan So sometimes What we need to do Is just be delivered From the evil one Dear God Take away My grudge Dear God Take away My anger Dear God Take away My frustration And my pain Dear God Fill my heart With love And cast out The work Of the evil one Peter Is concerned How many times Lord Seven Seven seems reasonable Doesn't it How many times Do you let somebody Take advantage of you How long do we Allow somebody To abuse us What's fair Jesus said If it's your brother Or sister Think in terms Of seven times [44:18] Seventy That's four hundred and ninety You know That would take quite a bit To remember Wouldn't it Four hundred and ninety Or in other words Seven times seventy Is as many times As they ask And that's not fair It's not right It's not good When people are abusive And they're hurtful To people When people take advantage Of other people When people love When people love Themselves But they don't really Love the person Who loves them And we do have to Be careful Of folks like this We do need to protect People that are being Unfairly taken advantage Of And forgiveness Can lead to abuse And sometimes We need to Make sure That doesn't happen But this is talking About people That are Brothers and sisters [45:18] These are talking About people Who are trying To live Like we do These are not Talking about people Who've turned their back On us And on God And are following Satan These are people Who are trying To do What's right I've been married Over forty years I can't tell you How many times My wife has had To forgive me And if I counted it up I bet it's more than Four hundred and ninety But we still go forward Forgiveness Is inherently unfair Just the very nature Of it is unfair It's not right It means somebody Gives more than Somebody else And our response To this coronavirus Is unfair Have you watched Our leaders Our national leaders Our state leaders Our county leaders The people who are Out there leading For us They're exposing Themselves to the Coronavirus every day [46:18] That's not fair My daughter works In security She has to go To a plaza That is a grocery store And a medical facility Every single day She is literally Risking her life Doctors and nurses Law enforcement people It's not fair The problem is Our culture Shouldn't be based On what's fair It should be based On just having An attitude Of gratitude To God First Corinthians Chapter 10 Says to us I have a right To do anything But not everything Is beneficial I have a right To do anything But not everything Is constructive No one should seek Their own good But the good Of others You know As Americans We say We can do whatever We want I'm free I'm an American Is it going To be helpful Is it going To be beneficial Is it going To do something [47:19] Loving For others More so Than harmful Are we living As God Would want us To live Are we living In an entitlement Culture I had a friend Of mine once And we asked him To do a blessing For a meal And he said Okay Dear God I work for the money To pay for the food So thanks for nothing Amen Although Ooh Lightning anybody? [47:53] Although I Think sometimes That's how we feel When you're A part of a kingdom You see yourself As part of The whole Greater good It's not about What we accomplish It's about What the kingdom Accomplishes It's not about What we get personally It's about What the whole Nation gets The king came To settle his accounts He comes to settle His accounts With us What does What does that mean? [48:23] What do we owe God? We owe God Our very life The breath we breathe Everything in this world Around us We owe God for Everything good in life We owe God for Forgiveness of our sins We owe to God Eternal life We owe to God You see The problem is Is that Forgiveness hurts I know we think Well you know It's the king Kings can afford anything The government can afford anything God can afford anything Right? [48:56] But The cost comes from somewhere I think This idea That the government Is going to try To help people What they're calling A bailout Or a stimulus Is a good thing But Even printing money Has a cost Somebody will pay For this And it's the whole kingdom That will pay for it To make the kingdom better But there is a cost Love hurts Love is a struggle Love is a pain Love isn't simple Love doesn't Doesn't come Without a penalty It's hard And it even hurts God It took away His perfection Now by the way The good news is God's love Overcame That sin So God isn't broken Now But But He experienced that Because of us [49:56] It's like what a parent Goes through When they take Take the The punishment That a child deserves As their own It hurts If forgiveness Was easy It wouldn't have Required a cross If we think about What we owe God If we start living With a grateful heart Then we might be able To understand A little bit Of what God Wants us to do When he talks about Loving one another In the Greek They call it Agape love A self-giving love A love that gives Of itself Without a concern For itself Kingdom living Is about the kingdom About how each person Does their part Not about what's In it for me But what can I do To make it work For everybody It's You know You've seen this before Right It's inside out Living It's finding a way That somehow We can take [50:57] What we feel We should get That soft Wonderful thing And give it out To others And if we need To work on Fixing somebody We work on Fixing ourselves Inside out Living For each other Living for For a greater good In Matthew Chapter 18 Where that parable Came from It actually Says This is how My heavenly father Will treat each of you Unless you forgive Your brother or sister From your Heart Forgiveness Is a heart thing It's not about Being fair It's not about Gaining God's forgiveness And living forever Those are just Side benefits It's about loving Because that's what God made us To be with each other To love One another Forgive us our sins [51:57] As we forgive those Who sin Against us So we Got in our Station wagon And approached Those mountains And I remember this And I was just A young boy At the time And my dad Started up The mountains It was like That little train Gotta make it Gotta make it Gotta make it Gotta make it Right Trying to get over The mountain I think I can I think I can We had to stop Several times My dad had about I don't know Four or five gallons Of water in the car Because he kept Pouring it in the radiator I know Nowadays we'd use Antifreeze But that's not how They did it back then They just kept Pouring more water Into the car As it overheated We had to stop We had to take Some time But we made it Over the mountains And we'll overcome This virus I believe that Firmly and completely That we will go forward As a people As a nation As a kingdom It won't be easy For everyone [52:57] And some people Are going to pay What they call The ultimate Sacrifice But God Will get us over Get us through Get us past The mountain Matthew says to us Truly I tell you If you have faith And do not doubt Not only can you do What was done To this fig tree But also you can say To this mountain Go throw yourself Into the sea And it will be done If you believe You will receive Whatever you ask In prayer Pray God Thy kingdom come Thy will be done On earth As it is in heaven Take this mountain Before us And cast it Into the sea But the biggest Mountain we face Are certainly not Physical mountains Nowadays We just fly over them It's not even A virus It's mountains That we face In our personal lives [53:58] With one another As we live Together Into the kingdom Of God The people working On this coronavirus Are just trying To figure it out The best they can And everybody Swimming in stress Everybody Even if they act Like they aren't And people will make Wrong decisions Trying to do The right thing Because we're people The most important Thing is not Going to be Whether or not We get through Because we will It's whether or not We'll be in love With each other And in love with God On the other side Of the mountain Stay in love With God Stay in love With each other Stay safe And may God bless you Everyone needs compassion [55:16] Love that's never failing Let mercy fall on me Everyone needs forgiveness The kindness of a Savior The home of nations Savior, King and rule the mountains My God is mighty to save He is mighty to save Forever Author of salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave So take me as you find me [56:19] All my fears and failures Fill my life again And give my life to follow Everything I believe in Everything I believe in Now I surrender I surrender I surrender I surrender Savior He can't move no mountains My God is mighty to save He is mighty to save Forever Author of salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave Shine your light and let the whole world see For singing for the glory of the risen King Jesus, shine your light and let the whole world see [57:21] He was singing for the glory of the risen King Savior He can move the mountains My God is mighty to save He is mighty to save Forever Offer of salvation He rose and conquered the grave He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave Jesus conquered the graveMon size hoor... [58:14] 크�rian He was accepted in theatori of the risen King They were a bit forget that Hanan and Bodhi He is worth the name He has GOD Before the day, before the light, Before the world revolved around the sun, God, I stepped down into time [59:16] And wrote the story of His love for everyone. He has filled our hearts with wonder So that we always remember You and I are made to worship You and I are called to love You and I are forgiven and free When you and I embrace the rapture When you and I choose to believe When you and I will see Who we were meant to be All we are and all we have [60:20] Is all a gift from God that we receive Brought to life We open up our eyes To see the majesty and glory of the King He has filled our hearts with wonder So that we always remember You and I are made to worship You and I are called to love You and I are forgiven and free When you and I embrace the rapture When you and I choose to believe And you and I will see [61:21] Who we were meant to be Even the rocks cry up And even the heavens shout At the sound of His holy name So that every voice sing up And that every knee bow down Is worthy of all our praise You and I are made to worship You and I are called to love You and I are forgiven and free When you and I embrace the land of the way You and I choose to believe When you and I choose to believe [62:42] I will see Who we were meant to be The Lord be with you Lift up your hearts Let us give thanks to the Lord our God It is right It is right A good and a joyful thing Always and everywhere To give thanks to God He has blessed us Even in the midst of this crisis He blesses us In the midst of everything God is with us And so we turn to God That we might make Our relationship right with Him As we talked about In the sermon this morning We seek to be in forgiveness With each other We also seek to be in forgiveness With our God So shall we pray together A prayer of confession Dear God in heaven I have sinned [63:43] You know what I've done wrong You know what I need to change Forgive me Lord Hear my prayer of confession Hear my prayer of confession Hear my prayer of confession Now Lord touch me That I might feel your spirit That I might repent And turn back to you Help me to live in love With each other And bless me To be a blessing In Jesus name we pray Amen The good news is that Jesus loves us And forgives us No matter who we are And what we've done And where we've been And so I can say to you In the name of Jesus Christ [64:44] Your sins are forgiven Glory to God Amen As I said last week This is a time Where we often celebrate Communion in our services However We will celebrate communion When we gather as a church again What a day of rejoicing That will be Today we need to reconsider How do we respond How do we be the people of God In this world And our responses Can take many forms I know that we have Some people that were feeding Hungry folks in Niagara Falls We have some others Who are going down into Buffalo To help feed those Who are homeless Maybe it's something You can do for a neighbor Or there's a child That you can call And talk to on the phone Or maybe you can wave Across the street To your neighbor Or like they're doing in Italy Sing songs to each other Or bang the pots And just let people know That there are people there That care about them We are calling around to people And again if you can help Or would like to be part of that Contact Pastor Sherry [65:44] At the email that you can see We really want to touch everybody And it makes a difference When we make those calls We're also trying to figure out How we can help And where we can help And what we could do Right here in Pendleton Or Amherst Or Lockport Or where we can do things In a safe way And so if you have ideas Or you're willing to help Or you have something That you can offer Please contact Edge at Melinda At the address that's listed God be with you And bless you And God keep you safe And God lift up your hearts Before him Shall we join together In the prayer that God 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 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 [66:59] God forgave my sin In Jesus' name I've been born again In Jesus' name And in Jesus' name I come to you To share his love As he told me to He said He said Freely, freely Freely You have received Freely, freely Give Go in my name And because you believe Others will know That I live All power is given In Jesus' name In Jesus' name In earth and heaven In Jesus' name [68:00] And in Jesus' name I come to you To share his power As he told me to He said He said Freely, freely You have received Freely, freely Give Go in my name And because you believe Others will know That I live I pray that this service has been a blessing to you As we gather together to do this service It's interesting Because we have Technology to fix Every mistake And everything That we might say Or do wrong And we decided not to So you'll notice That Pastor Tom Stumbles over his words Just like normal Nothing new there But that's the whole Point of life Isn't it? [68:57] None of us Gets it quite right And we want everybody To love and forgive us But so often We want God To smite those other people Right? Go out and live The way God Would want you to live And love the way God loves you Before I give him A benediction I just want to mention That we have A wonderful friend Who's going to share With us a song After the service So stay tuned Because you'll be You'll be thrilled by it Anyways May God bless you Be with you Keep you safe And watch over you Send angels To protect your house And your family And give you His care and his love This day And hold you from now And into eternity Go in peace Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen [70:04] Amen