Transcription downloaded from https://services.pcumc.org/sermons/27435/prayer/.

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[0:00] This is the day that the Lord has made.

[0:26] Let us rejoice. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. And be glad in it.

[0:37] This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day.

[0:50] This is the day that the Lord has made. Very good guys. Welcome to Pendleton Center United Methodist Church.

[1:01] I'm Scott Dabb. If you are new to our church, please pick up a gift at the connection site in the back of the sanctuary after worship. And please fill out your friendship card to get on the mailing list, sign up for activities, and for prayers and concerns or notes for the staff.

[1:17] Enjoy the sermon. There's only one little announcement I have. Can you imagine that? And the announcement is this, that the Boy Scouts are having a dinner in a couple of weeks. So if you see some of them running around and you want to have one, well, hopefully not running around, but out there and around and about, and you'd like to come to their Italian night dinner, which is a great dinner, we'd invite you to it.

[1:37] Let's take a moment and turn ourselves over to the Lord in prayer. Dear Lord, we thank you for this morning and we pray your blessings upon us, that you might fill us with your grace, that you might wash into this place with your Holy Spirit, that we might experience the living God.

[1:51] For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Hear these words from Hebrews chapter 4, verses 3 through 10. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, so I declared on oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest.

[2:10] And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words. On the seventh day, God rested from all his works.

[2:21] And again in the passage above he says, They shall never enter my rest. Therefore, since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, God again set a certain day, calling it today.

[2:43] This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

[2:54] For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for anyone who enters God's rests, also rests from their works, just as God did from his.

[3:12] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. I want to live God's way.

[3:31] I want to live God's way. I want to live God's way. I want to live God's way. I'm going to live God's way. I'm going to hate these times my prayers. I want to live God's way.

[3:43] I'm going to follow him today. I want to live God's way. I want to live God's way.

[3:58] I want to live God's way. I want to be trusted and obey. I want to live God's way. I want to live God's way. I'm going to hate these times my prayers. I want to live God's way.

[4:09] I want to live God's way. I want to follow him today. I want to live God's way. God is strong and powerful.

[4:24] He has promised to take care of me. I want to live God's way. I want to live God's way.

[4:36] I want to live God's way. I want to live God's way. I'm going to save these times my prayers. I'm going to live the way.

[4:49] I'm going to follow you today. I want to live the way. Live the way!

[5:08] Terrific job, ladies. I'd like to invite you now, if you're able, as we're going to stand to sing together our opening hymn with Morning Gills' Sky. Morning Gills' Sky When morning yields the skies, my heart awakening cries, may Jesus Christ be praised.

[5:47] May Jesus Christ be praised. Alike at work and prayer, to Jesus I repair, may Jesus Christ be praised. May Jesus Christ be praised.

[6:03] The night becomes as day, when from the heart we say, may Jesus Christ be praised. May the powers of darkness fear, may the powers of darkness fear.

[6:18] When this sweet chat they hear, may Jesus Christ be praised. May Jesus Christ be praised. bece Bring joyous with the sound May Jesus Christ be praised In heaven's eternal bliss The loveliest strain is this May Jesus Christ be praised Heal this while life is mine My catacled divine May Jesus Christ be praised Be this the eternal song Through all the ages long May Jesus Christ be praised

[7:21] The Lord be with you. Take a moment, if you will, and greet your neighbor with the peace of the Spirit. The children are welcome to come on up now if any of the kids want to join me.

[7:33] Good morning, everybody. How are we doing today? I'm real good because there's no snow on the ground.

[7:46] I like that. You hate it. You're on a snow day, huh? Yeah, yeah. I don't like snow days. Snow days are work for me, yeah.

[7:58] But anyways, I want to talk to you about something. Do you think everybody looks the same? You know, everybody has the same length hair, same color eyes?

[8:10] No. Do any of you wear glasses? Yeah, I wear glasses. When I was a kid, they used to call me four eyes because I wore glasses.

[8:22] Did you know that? I hope they don't do that anymore, but they did, yeah. Because people thought I looked funny because I wore glasses. But, you know, so what? I wore glasses. Some people wear glasses.

[8:33] Some people wear pants. Some people wear dresses. Some people put a ribbon in their hair. Some don't. Some people are tall and some are short. Some are wide and some are skinny, right?

[8:47] Some are smart and some not quite as smart. Some people can climb and some can't. Have you ever noticed that? It's like there's all kinds of stuff that are different. Do you know why?

[8:58] There's two reasons because God likes variety. He likes to look down and see different people. And the second thing is because he wants us to work together. So we don't all have the same ability.

[9:09] We don't have the same stuff. Because if we did, then we wouldn't need each other. But because we all have something different we do, we need each other to be able to do everything. So God did that on purpose, okay?

[9:20] So just go out and live the way God made you. And you're blessed because this is the way God wanted you to be, okay? What are you thankful for this morning? If you want to share something, raise your hand. Family and friends.

[9:31] Friends and family. My sister. My family and friends. Family. I'm happy to have a family that will take care of me the right way.

[9:49] Friends and family. Anybody else? All right. Lord, we are thankful for all these blessings you give to us. Our family, our friends, and the good things in our life that make our life go.

[10:03] Thank you for making us different and giving each other for our love and care. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay, you guys can all go out to church school now. The children are welcome to go out to church school. To invite all the youth and youth leaders to come forward, please.

[10:27] To invite all the youth and youth leaders to come forward, please. Come on over.

[10:46] We had a wonderful retreat this past weekend.

[10:58] It was a blessed time. Throughout the weekend, they drew closer to one another, closer to God, and closer to the Christian adults that were there who dedicated their time to the youth.

[11:10] And I personally am thankful for your support of the youth ministry. It's making a huge impact in the lives of these youth. We have a few of them who'd actually like to share with you a little bit.

[11:21] Let's start with... Let me just start out with, life is hard. It gets rough. Trust me, I would know.

[11:33] Sometimes life does that. I'm not saying that as a good thing, but I'm also not saying that as a bad thing. Sometimes our hearts get broken. When this happens, we feel no one's there.

[11:46] But there is. It's God. You probably hear this a lot, but it's true. God never goes anywhere unless you want him to go. After the retreat, I realized that God has a plan for us.

[12:00] He doesn't do it automatically, but he will eventually, even if you're really old. God gives us signs, and we have to listen hard and look hard for them.

[12:15] People always say that this always happens, but we have to believe it does. We have to know that those signs are real, and it's him.

[12:26] The retreat was a fun, everlasting experience. There was crying, fun times, and serious times. We're all different. We have stuff we love, and we have stuff we don't really care much about.

[12:40] As you can probably tell, the retreat saved my faith. It made me braver and stronger as a person. Just think about it the next time someone brings you down.

[12:52] Go to God. He's thinking about you and wants you to be with him. He loves you enough to kill his only son. He would have done this even if it was just for one person. Be you.

[13:05] Spread your wings and find him. Trust me. He's waiting for you. He found me, and I chose to go with him. Now it's your turn. You got to go with me, and a nuke I was at net where is his onlyipposunny.

[13:20] Yeah. Oh, cool, cool, cool. I didn't get time to prepare, like, a speech, so I'm just going to, like, do as the kids say and let Jesus take the wheel. But I remember a couple times in, like, service, PT would talk about, like, a time called Kairos and, like, Kronos.

[13:37] And I think Kronos being, like, the long time. Yeah, right? And Kronos is, like, the time that we do in our regular lives and that can, like, build up stress. I remember Kairos being, like, a time when you can just, like, have a relaxing day and just let all of that go.

[13:51] And I think this trip was, like, the best example of Kairos. Like, when we were on the trip, there was, like, no negativity, no outside noise stopping us from connecting to our faith. It was just, like, so, like, spontaneous and, like, magical.

[14:05] It was, like, crazy because, like, I felt like we were in a bubble and, like, we were just, like, it was so clear and, like, I don't know, I can't explain it in, like, words. It was just so clear and nice.

[14:15] It was the most connecting I ever, like, felt to God. I was connected with my friends. I felt like it just relieved all the stress I've had throughout the year. And it's just, I thought it was the best there was.

[14:27] And that's what I'm thankful for, connecting with my friends in God. Thank you. Thank you. I did not have any time to plan a speech, kind of like him.

[14:44] So, I'm thankful for having all of these adults and leaders who have been able to help me come here and make this all possible. It is to have such a wonderful youth group with such really, really amazing leadership.

[15:16] We all need to be thanking Pastor Sherry and all the folks who come up. I had the opportunity to talk with Sue Russell, actually, rather at length on Thursday. And she is the person who directs all of the activities and whatnot down at Camp Asbury, which was where the retreat was.

[15:32] You guys got to hear what she had to say about you. She said that it was just awesome. She said you guys were respectful and wonderful to all of the kitchen staff and all of the other staff. She said you guys were so terrific, just in terms of the way you were praising God and the way that you were conducting yourselves.

[15:49] We got a lot to be proud of here, folks. These kids are being brought up in the Lord in a way that is just amazing. She said, wait, the last thing she said was, like, you want to do at a campsite?

[16:01] She said they left the camp cleaner than they found it. Yeah, she was real blessed to have you guys there. So, you know, in the United Methodist Church, we want to take care.

[16:15] We take care of our kids. We take care of our youth. We take care of our young people and our young adults. That's not just true in this country. It's true all over the world. In this nation, we have built, as a church, the Methodist denomination, has built hundreds of colleges and universities and seminaries.

[16:34] And since the gospel has spread throughout the world, we have begun, as the United Methodist Church, this wonderful place called Africa University. And you're going to find an envelope in your bulletin there.

[16:46] If you would like to, and you're feeling led by the Lord to support this university, it is for bringing up the young people who are in Africa, who are going to be our leaders in that part of the world in the coming years.

[16:58] So we're going to bring all of our gifts, tithes, and offerings before the Lord now. We do it as an act of worship and a blessing. We are blessed with our kids. We are blessed with all God is poured into our lives.

[17:08] Amen? Let's bring our gifts, tithes, and offerings before the Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[17:21] Amen. Amen.

[17:46] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. In the desert place Now pour through your love Through the rest Blessing be your name Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to grace When the darkness Moves his hand Lord still our blessing Blessing be the name Of the Lord Blessed be your name Blessed be the name Of the Lord Blessed be your glorious day Blessed be your name In the sunshine In the clouds All as it should be Blessed be your name Blessed be your name

[18:46] In the world Armed with suffering When the spade In the offering Blessed be your name Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to grace When the darkness Moves his hand Lord still our blessing Blessed be the name Of the Lord Blessed be your name Blessed be your name Blessed be the name Of the Lord Blessed be your glory Of your name And give and take away Give and take away My heart will choose to say The grace of the Lord

[19:51] Blessed be the name The grace of God Blessed be our name Thank you when you круж and I have a point No more than you are Oh Oh Oh

[21:03] Oh Oh Oh Dear Heavenly Father, we do give you thanks and praise for this day that we may have the opportunity to gather together and worship you. Lord, we lift up all of our gifts, our tithes, our offerings to you. You are the one who gives us everything we have, who makes us everything.

[21:31] We are that is good. Lord God, we just ask that you would bless this offering. Give us wisdom to know how to use it best for the furtherance of your kingdom. We thank you, Lord, especially for this offering for Africa University. We ask that many, many, many young people would grow to know you, would grow to serve you, would grow to share your gospel throughout the world.

[22:01] Thank you, Lord. Amen. Please be seated. As we come to our time of prayer, of course, we all have requests for the Lord. We all have things that are on our hearts that are troubling us, and we have joys to lift up before God as well.

[22:22] We have just a couple of them to voice out loud for all of you. We're in prayer for Janice Spedding, who had a stroke this week, and she's in the hospital right now. Sally Reed's family, we want to keep her in prayer. Her father died this past week.

[22:37] And we just got word that Lauren Butel is having some complications after the surgery he had in December, and he is actually meeting with the surgeon right now to try and figure out what to do with that.

[22:51] And so they have asked us for our prayers that there will be healing in his life and in his family. So with these concerns and those that are in your hearts, we're going to turn to the Lord in prayer. You're welcome to join me from your seats or up at the rail. Let's pray.

[23:07] Heavenly Father, Heavenly Father, We come before you this morning knowing that you know our needs before we even ask.

[23:27] You know those things that trouble our hearts, and because they trouble us, they trouble you. Lord, we just ask in Jesus' name, For you to be with us and help us to pray. Help us to know how to pray. Relieve us of all of those things that trouble our hearts as we lift them up to you.

[23:49] And place our trust in you as you take them from us. Right now, Lord God, we pray for all of those people who are sick and infirm.

[24:00] We ask that you would touch them with healing and make them whole from the tops of their heads to the soles of their feet. We ask that whatever their needs are in their spirits, their souls or their bodies, you know best, Lord.

[24:15] Touch them and make them whole. Draw them to yourself. And pray for those, Lord God, who are grieving losses. We know, Lord God, how hard that can be.

[24:29] Some of us are going through that immediately right now, and some are still remembering those losses that have occurred in the past. Lord, we just ask that you would bring comfort wherever comfort is needed.

[24:44] We pray, Lord, that you would help each and every one of us as members of your body. To be your comfort.

[24:57] To be your hands and feet and your voice. That brings your love and your peace wherever we go. Help us, Lord, to help our brothers and sisters in Christ as they deal with the burdens of this world.

[25:14] Help us to encourage them to lift them up to you. Help us, Lord, to reach out to those who don't know you.

[25:24] To share your love and your mercy with them. That they would know. That they can seek you too.

[25:38] Lord, we pray also for those folks who are suffering from the after effects of all kinds of disasters in this world, whether they were brought on by human beings or just by nature, Lord.

[25:54] Especially, we're remembering right now the victims of the families too, of the victims of the avalanche that happened. We just ask in Jesus' name that help would come. We pray not only for those immediate needs, but also for those that have happened a while ago that sometimes just because they're not in the news, we forget about it.

[26:17] Lord, remind us to pray. Remind us to be concerned for those who are having troubles that we cannot even imagine. Let us know what we want us to do, Lord.

[26:31] To be of help. Lord, we pray for our governments. We pray for our nation. As our leadership has changed in so many different ways, we just ask that you would make each one who is in office to have a heart that is willing to be open to you.

[26:57] Help them, Lord. Guide them by your spirit. Let them be willing to hear and to see what you have.

[27:09] The kind of wisdom that only you can provide. Help them, Lord. And help each one of us, Lord God, to be an influence for good, an influence for you in our neighborhoods, in our communities, our schools, our workplaces, Lord.

[27:28] Let us be your example, shining your light wherever we go. Let it be said of your church that we come in love, in grace, and in mercy.

[27:48] Let it be said of your church that we have the wisdom of God. Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. As we continue to hear your word spoken and songs sung and offerings of praise and worship lifted up to you, that we would be transformed into the people you intended us to be from the beginning.

[28:15] We know that there is nothing of ourselves in our natural state that is any good. It's only the good that comes from you. Lord, we ask that you would bless Pastor Tom as he brings the word that you have given to him for us.

[28:34] Let it be a blessing to him and to us and let all of our worship be a blessing to you, Lord. That is why we came. In Jesus' name we pray.

[28:45] Amen. Shall we hear from the word of the Lord? God.

[28:58] vostro Testament wolf cow Good morning.

[29:28] This morning's scripture lesson is from Genesis chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing.

[29:42] So on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

[29:53] This is the word of the Lord. Is that one short enough for you, Tim? Or in other words, the seventh day God chilled.

[30:05] God just took a break. So there's not a lot to talk about about the seventh day, but I've got a whole sermon for you, so we'll figure something out. What do these people have in common?

[30:17] Carlos Simpilu, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Mark Zirkenberg, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Amanicio Ortega.

[30:36] These eight men, and they're all men, are richer than 3.5 billion people added together. They're wealthier than half the population of the world.

[30:48] Just these eight guys alone, which by the way doesn't say how much money they have, it says how little money did 3.5 billion have, by the way. But they have a lot of money. Let's take the poorest one, Michael Bloomberg.

[31:03] He's just got a mere $40 billion. Kind of a poor fellow, you know. What if he came to you one day and said, I've decided to give you all my money. Just want to give it to you.

[31:15] What would that do to your world? What would that do to your perspective on things, to the way in which you live out your life? What would you do different?

[31:25] Would you work the same work? Would you work the same job? Would you work at all? What would you do with your life? If somebody gave you $40 billion, God rested from his works.

[31:45] Because he saw that they were complete. As we heard in Hebrews, it says, and yet his works have been finished.

[31:56] Since the creation of the world, everything we ever needed, we could ever imagine wanting, all the things that provide us with life, love, joy, and happiness, everything we need, God gave it to us.

[32:11] It's actually worth more than $40 billion. It's everything. God made everything, and it is complete.

[32:22] There's not a thing that we can do to add to it that will make it more. God did it all. It's done. Sometimes we don't even have a concept of just how amazing God's creation is.

[32:39] We have to step back from our regular life and all the things that we make, which, by the way, men make things in straight edges, to look at the things that God makes without the straight edges.

[32:52] So we're also looking for little-known travel tips in western New York. Has anybody here ever been on the Buffalo Garden Walk? The Buffalo Garden Walk.

[33:05] Hundreds, not dozens, hundreds and hundreds of gardens you can walk through this spring all over Buffalo. And you know how much it costs?

[33:18] Nothing. It's completely free. These people went and did all the work, made their gardens beautiful, just so you could come and look at it. How cool is that?

[33:29] A lot of people have never even done it. Amazing gardens. I understand that the Buffalo Garden Walk, I believe, is the biggest one in the nation. In the nation. And it's here in Buffalo.

[33:42] And it's given to you for free. Just as God gives to us all of creation, and there's not a thing we did to make it happen. God just gave it to us for free.

[33:58] God gives us a lot of things for free. We call it grace. We're talking about the keys of the kingdom, if you will. Those secret little things that we can do that if we could find the keys and unlock the way, we'll be able to enter into the kingdom of God.

[34:18] Where God's grace and God's amazing power changes and transforms our life. God's grace. God's love. God's forgiveness of our sins.

[34:30] Eternal life promised to us. And all this creation we live in, God gives it to us for free. It's a gift. But so many people can't see it.

[34:43] It's hidden from them. I think it was a little over a year ago or so, there was this thing came out called Pokemon Go. Anybody remember this? Now, Pokemons.

[34:55] If you had the right program on your phone, you could catch them. They were everywhere. They were even on our church property. I'd come down here and find teenagers wandering around our property catching Pokemons.

[35:09] I went through Batavia one night when this first came out. There had to be like 300 teenagers roaming around out in the fresh air, talking to each other.

[35:21] I played it with my grandson. We'd go and do Pokemon Go because I thought this kind of thing was a lot better than sitting in a little room doing this kind of one, right? But you couldn't see them.

[35:33] You had to know the secret. You had to have the program. You had to go find them and unlock that secret. Grace, for a lot of people, is like that.

[35:46] It feels like something that's out there, but we just can't figure out how we obtain it. And part of the problem is it's because we actually are trying too hard.

[35:59] In the book of Ephesians, it says to us, by grace you've been saved, through faith. This isn't from yourself. It's a gift of God. Not by your actions, because it's not about boasting about you.

[36:13] It's about boasting about God. Just a gift. I was driving one time on the middle of the valley road out here, Scrinco.

[36:25] Not from the open, but I don't know. And as I'm going along, all of a sudden, I see sculptures just like everywhere. I don't know if you've ever seen this place. It's called the Griffith Sculpture Park.

[36:37] It's hundreds of acres with just sculptures, metal sculptures, some other kind of sculptures, just coming out of the ground. Some of them are hidden in the woods. You'll walk along, and there's a bug or something like that.

[36:49] There's things everywhere. Some of them are tall. Some of them are short. Some you can sit on. Some you can climb on. Mr. Griffiths made this park. You know how much it costs to get into it?

[37:03] It's pretty. He actually has a little spot where he says, if you've got some money and you want to give me $5, that would be great. Five hours? That's not even, that's not even, that's $5.

[37:17] But you don't have to. You can go there for free. How many of you have ever been to Griffiths Sculpture Park? Oh, wow, a few of you.

[37:27] I thought this was amazing. Where did this thing come from? Why doesn't everybody know it exists? Because it's one of those hidden secrets. Just like grace.

[37:42] It's a gift. Just like grace is a gift to us, part of our struggle is, is that we don't understand that grace is not just something that helps us for eternal life.

[37:53] Grace is something that helps redirect our current life and the way we live. Because we're living towards the wrong intention, the wrong goal. We're trying to prove ourselves.

[38:04] We're trying to prove ourselves worthy to God. We're trying to prove ourselves as worthy to the people around us. We're trying to prove ourselves as worthy to ourselves, that we're good enough, that we're okay.

[38:16] We have people, they call overachievers. They work until they drop. They're struggling so hard just so that somebody will say they're okay.

[38:28] We have other people that are underachievers because basically they've decided there's no point in trying. They'll never measure up and be good enough to what our culture, what the people around us say they need to be.

[38:40] And God says, it doesn't matter how much you accomplish because he's already done it.

[38:51] Remember on the cross? What were those words he used? It's finished. Not, and now the real word begins. That would be the Hollywood movie, right?

[39:02] Jesus on the cross is, and now the real story will be done. He says, it's done. Right here, done. Done. There's not a thing you can add to it, not a thing you can do to change it.

[39:13] It's finished. It's done. God's grace doesn't cost us anything. Grace says, stop trying to prove how good you are and start rejoicing in how good and amazing God is.

[39:36] Key to the kingdom is grace. Grace. Hebrews chapter 3, it says, now we who have believed enter that rest just as God said.

[39:52] The rest. Sometimes it's called the Sabbath day. The day of rest. The one who wrote this passage from Genesis, he believed in how important it was to understand the concept of Sabbath living.

[40:09] And so he made the creation story based on six days and the seventh day God rested. He didn't do it because I think, I don't think he'd care one way or the other how many actual days it took to make the world.

[40:22] I don't want you to misunderstand. I have absolutely no problem with the idea that God could make a world in six days, 24 hours. I also have absolutely no concern whether God did or whether God just took billions of years.

[40:37] The Bible says a day in the life of God is like a thousand years in the life of people. How do we know what that means? What this man was trying to say is that there's a pattern to life.

[40:51] There's a part that we work at and there's a part that we live in that we do for ourselves but that somewhere we need to set aside some time for God.

[41:03] One day out of seven. I want you to go back to that idea that Michael Bloomberg just gave $40 billion. And he said there's just one thing I'd like you to do.

[41:17] Be really nice if once a week you'd come and visit me and tell me what you've done with the $40 billion. Just share with me your choice and your stories about what's working what's not working.

[41:29] I just like to hear about it. You don't have to stay long an hour, an hour and a half something like that. That would be really cool. Would you be willing to do that for $40 billion? I bet you you'd be willing to do that for $40 million.

[41:43] Maybe some of you wouldn't think that's very much. I know it's kind of a measly amount of money but I probably would do it for $40 million if I could visit somebody one day a week for a little while to tell them what wonderful things are going on and to celebrate life.

[42:01] And we think well obviously we'd do that for 40 little pieces 40 billion pieces of green paper. But God has given us everything.

[42:11] all of it. All of creation. Everything we ever needed. And he asks us to remember it. Take a little bit of time once a week to reflect on what God has done in your life.

[42:28] Our problem is you see we get so caught up in that six day living that chronos time that Brandon was talking about that we forget our need for our chiro's time to get away with God.

[42:41] So sometimes we take a retreat to get away. We take a moment of time. And sometimes we need to get completely away from our world. So I've got another travel tip for you.

[42:53] It's actually named after a biblical retreat. It's called Zor. Anybody here ever been to Zor Valley? What a cool place. It's got streams and walls and cliffs.

[43:07] It has old forests that are so old that no one has ever come which isn't true of most of our forests. Most of our forests at one time were clear farmland. And so what's left are just little stubby trees compared to these ancient forests.

[43:25] You can go to Zor Valley and you can walk and hike. You can have a day. You can have a day. And you know how much it costs? It's free.

[43:36] Absolutely free. It doesn't cost you a thing. Amazing. Are you picking up the theme by the way? Are my batteries dead by the way?

[43:47] Sounds like. Sounds like your batteries are dead. That's okay because God gave me a voice. I can preach if I need you. God made everything we ever need and gave me a voice.

[44:09] And our problem is that we misunderstand what God means by sound. Grab your book.

[44:23] Is that right? It works. You put it in backwards it doesn't do anything. There we go.

[44:34] Back. So what God wants us to do is to have a proper understanding of Sabbath. You see we think Sabbath is something we do to please God.

[44:49] We think Sabbath is something that was created so that we can make God happy by showing up at his house. But in the book of Mark it says that the Sabbath was made for people not people for the Sabbath.

[45:05] God didn't create this day so that he would make us come somewhere and do something. He created this day so that we could be filled with the grace of God.

[45:17] We have weird concepts of Sabbath. You know years ago when I was young you weren't allowed to go shopping on Sunday. Anybody remember that? You just like literally couldn't do it.

[45:28] And the place where I've got a cottage in Silver Lake they wouldn't let the trains run on Sunday. In fact there was a time that there was so much nothing to do on Sunday you might as well go to dumb old church because there's nothing else to do anyway.

[45:40] We turned Sabbath into something we thought we were doing to earn God's blessing but that's not what Sabbath was meant to be.

[45:56] In Hebrews it says to us there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works just as God did from His.

[46:11] The Sabbath is meant to feed our understanding of grace and help us understand what God intended for us to be. So the first thing we learn from the Sabbath is we're not God.

[46:24] When we come to worship God we come to remember we're not God because in the rest of our lives we start to think everything's about us it's all about us and about those we know or care about and the whole world responds around that and nothing else exists except for our needs and our concerns.

[46:45] So the writer of Genesis said we need one day to keep holy. Holy means to remember God is God. God made everything and we're just people.

[47:00] All of us. Just peeps the same each and every one of us. in the book of Galatians it says to us in Christ Jesus you're all children of God through faith.

[47:13] All of you are baptized into Christ and implode yourself with Christ. Christ. There's neither Jew nor Gentile slave or free, male or female. You're all like Christ Jesus.

[47:24] Look at that up there for a minute. Because sometimes we need to put this into a modern context. There's neither Christian nor non-Christian. There's neither workers nor bosses.

[47:38] There's not men better or women better. we're all peeps. Every one of us. Created by the same God.

[47:52] So we come to remember who we're not. To take a moment to be holy and remember who God is.

[48:05] Now it says that we're supposed to take a day of rest. That doesn't say that work is bad. right? Because it says in Exodus, six days you'll work and on the seventh you rest.

[48:16] I don't know about you all, but six days work is a lot of work. If you have work six days a week, that's not exactly a lazy pattern. It's not work one day and take six days off.

[48:27] It's work six days and take one day off. Because work is important as well to God. It's a reflection of who God is. And the Sabbath helps us to get a perspective even on our work.

[48:41] And remember, the work is just us reflecting God. He created the world. He wants us to create and add blessing and grace just as he did. It's a gift from God that we're supposed to enjoy.

[48:56] Work with Jesus. And doing the things that God created us to do should fill us with blessing and hope and rest and peace. as you live into the purpose God made you for.

[49:09] You know, Jesus talked about it in the book of Matthew where he said, come to me all you who are weary and burdened. Anybody feel weary and burdened?

[49:20] And I will give you rest. Take my yoke, or that's the oxen yoke. Take my work, my work upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and humble and hard.

[49:35] You'll find rest for your souls because my work is easy. My burden is light. If you're feeling like your work is too much of a burden, either you're doing too much of it or you're not doing the thing God created you to be or you're not embracing what God intended you to be.

[50:00] See, the truth of the matter is all too often our problem gets back to that comparing. How do we measure up against someone else? We're so worried about the way God made someone else and the way God gifted someone else.

[50:17] In the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 12 it talks about the gifts God gives us. There's different kinds of gifts. It's the same spirit. Different kinds of service but it's the same Lord.

[50:28] Different kinds of working but in all of them and in everyone it's the same God at work and each one the manifestation of the spirit is given for what? A common good.

[50:41] God gave each of us some special unique set of abilities that makes us different and essential because we can't do it alone.

[50:55] None of us are gifted enough to do it all. We need the gifts that God has given to other people. He made it that way on purpose because God wants us to work together, live together, love together, and be together.

[51:15] Our problem is we don't live that way. We live in such a sense that we keep comparing to other people. people. We keep worrying because our gifts don't seem to be the same as their gifts and people say their gifts are better than our gifts.

[51:32] So we get frustrated. We end up with envy and anger and hurt and disappointment and we start to feel less than and little by little we find ourselves in an angry little shell looking at the world and trying to just figure out a way to make it go away or destroy it for yet.

[51:59] So we end up like this. Open position. Watch out!

[52:10] Stay on the floor! Basically, sorry I got home so late but I had to put something up on the work. It's such a beautiful day outside. you should let your son in the room.

[52:23] Sorry. That's better. Why don't you stop playing and open the present I got for you? Droney? Hello? Oh, yes, sir.

[52:34] I don't know why you didn't get the papers. I put them on your book before I... Okay. Whoa! Cool!

[52:45] Cool! You gotta be kidding!

[52:56] Get lost! Tschoof!

[53:18] Hmm? Doing over what you saw and errors and errors and errors you husband on your own, you could knew you would or continue to have an empty room. Öyle and then you above the high school,哈哈, you wanna really go Everybody showed up and then moved.

[53:34] Almost started. I'm not sure where to crawling. But, so directions. What? I thought I was just mad about it.

[53:57] I crawled. I don't know.

[54:28] Hm. Mom! We'll be outside!

[54:58] Wraps! Wraps! Wraps! It's all I... It remains the past.

[55:14] We start to feel sorry for ourselves because we don't have it as somebody else does. It's not fair. I'm not as smart as that one. Not as attractive as this one. I can't do this as easily as the other one.

[55:28] Why can't I speak in front of people like this one? Why can't I get the school grades that that one gets? Because what we're doing is we're trying to fit our lives into society's little bodies.

[55:42] All the little things that people told us that if we could just measure up to that, we'd be okay. But God already said you're okay. When He created you, He said that you were very good.

[55:58] He didn't say you were deficient. He didn't say you were neurotic. He didn't say that you had some psychological dysfunction, or you weren't intelligent, or you weren't tall enough, or you weren't short enough, or you weren't skinny enough, or you weren't wide enough.

[56:14] He didn't say that you didn't have good eyes, or that you couldn't hear well. He didn't say that you had the right gift or the wrong gift. He simply said, this is awesome.

[56:26] Now if we can take all these pieces and put them together, and get them to work with each other in love, then I will have done something very good.

[56:38] You weren't meant to have everybody else's gift. We have a weird society where we actually even value the things that are the least common. I used to talk about Antiques Roadshow.

[56:50] Now my wife wants me to watch this thing called American Pickers. Anybody watch this Pickers show? This thing drives me nuts. They go out and they find a bar, and it's like, oh, we're just weird old side that nobody wants.

[57:01] I'll give you a thousand dollars for it. And I'm thinking, are you out of here, right? There's a reason that side is in the barn. Because it's junk! It's no good! It's garbage! Just, what are you, crazy?

[57:13] Well, it's rare, and there aren't many around. Yes, because it's useless! So we start to think things that are rare, and things that are unusual. Those are the valuable things.

[57:25] That's not how God sees them. God actually gives those rare gifts to a few people, because we don't need a thousand people to sing a song. We don't need a thousand people to be able to do some of the things we think are outstandingly amazing.

[57:40] We only have to do those. We don't need a thousand people to be brilliant. We need billions and billions of people to be as kind and professional.

[57:51] So God said the three greatest gifts are faith, hope, and love. Nothing's more important than these. And all of us are given those gifts.

[58:02] And all of us can use those gifts. See, if we start living into the box that God wants us to live in, we'll find that is the whole of creation. And God will do incredible, blessed things in our lives.

[58:16] That's what this writer is trying to tell us. Sabbath is about remembering that everything was a gift from God.

[58:27] And all we do is live in the playground, the garden that God created. But we don't like gifts. They make us feel obligated, you know?

[58:38] If some guy gives you $40 billion, you're going to feel like any time they call, you've got to jump, right? And you probably would be okay with that. God gives us this amazing gift called grace.

[58:51] And we say, no thank you. Because we're afraid we might be obligated. The obligation is an obligation of love and gratitude for the amazing things God has already done for us.

[59:02] We struggle with this. I was playing Pokemon Go with my grandson over at UB. There's a lot of Pokemons at UB. And we're down by LaSalle Lake. LaSalle Lake is an artificial lake to be where they finally took those old ruins that were over on the south campus of Amherst and put them to some use and put them in the middle of a lake.

[59:21] That's what they did. So as we're walking around this lake catching Pokemons, I came across this boat thing. And so I went up to the lady and I said, how much to take the boats out? She says, you can't rent them.

[59:33] I said, oh, they're just for students. I said, what about alumni? I said, I'm not being alumni, you know? She said, well, you can take a boat out.

[59:44] I said, really? Go, go. Pace me a alumni. She said, well, actually, anybody can take a boat out. We don't care. Anybody. I said, you mean like they're just like free for anybody?

[59:57] You want to, you want some little little boat ride? Just go from UB in the summertime. You can take out canoes. You can take out rowboats. You can take out those little, what are those things? You can take out all kinds of little boats and just go around the lake.

[60:09] How cool is that? For free. They have an aerondack chairs. You can sit and watch the other people with a boat. But it doesn't feel right because I should pay for it. You see, God just wants to give it to us as a gift.

[60:24] And this passage of the image really messes with the idea of Sabbath because we think Sabbath is something that God established years ago and it's something we do as once we think.

[60:35] And it's about worship and all this. And he says, there's a day that's still to come for a lot of people because they didn't accept the day before. And the day is called today.

[60:49] The day is called today. He says, today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts. Because today is the day.

[61:03] Today is the day that you change it all. How many of you felt the shift when that boy got up with the crutches?

[61:14] I mean, before that, you wanted to. Right? I mean, seriously, didn't you want to slap that boy around a little bit? I know I'm not supposed to do that anymore, but you know what I'm talking about, right? You wanted to.

[61:25] Not that you would because that would be inappropriate, right? But you wanted to. And then all of a sudden you went, oh, oh. I now see what I didn't see.

[61:38] That's what God wants you to do with your life. He wants you to shift the paradigm. Stop living for this broken model that our culture hands to you that will only end in failure as you find out you don't have all the gifts, you don't have all the abilities.

[61:56] You will never measure up to be good enough for everybody out there. There's nobody that ever gets that. Instead, shift that paradigm to being what God wants you to be, grace, and accept the gift that he's willing to give you just for the receiving point.

[62:17] It's already gone. It's finished. Billions of dollars will not make you complete. Michael Bloomberg does not feel complete.

[62:28] Nobody does. We all know we come up somehow a little short because we weren't made to do it alone. What will make you complete is when you lift it into the life that God already made for you.

[62:44] Matthew chapter 11. Jesus said, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. I will give you rest.

[62:55] Take my word upon you. Work for me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls.

[63:08] Because my burden is easy, and my burden is life. You don't need to build this. All right?

[63:20] It's not your fault, right? It's not your fault. I just said that. See what happens? You got to blame something else, because it can't be me, right? I can mess up, right?

[63:32] See how that works? Oh, bad bastard, bad bastard. Just remember, all we need is the one who made us.

[63:44] All we need is God. We need is God. I can mess up a shining atom, and without you, I can nigh him, 포인트arsi plays only with us.

[64:01] All that Jess MACCon khi 일chtем Si intuitively worship mod Filipino &楚ителks play Jesus. Let's sing! OTHERник пять AFS Education I can...

[64:13] Justice I don't know. You're the one that guides my heart.

[64:30] Lord, I need you. Lord, I need you. Every hour I need you.

[64:45] I want to be kept. I've got your chest. Oh, God, I need you.

[65:02] His saints are the ones that cross the Lord. Where God is found and where GodIDE And You come when I am free All of Bernie Panetta is presentee Lord, I need you.

[65:38] Oh, I need you. Every hour I need you.

[65:49] My wondrous, my joy and justice. Oh, God, I need you.

[66:03] So teach my songs as I sing. When temptation comes my way.

[66:14] When I'm not set upon you. Jesus, fill my hope and save.

[66:26] Amen. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you.

[66:38] Every hour I need you. I want to be blessed. My righteousness.

[66:52] Oh, God, how I need you. I want to be blessed.

[67:02] My righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you. I need you.

[67:25] I want to be blessed. I want to be blessed. Thank you.

[68:03] Thank you.

[68:33] Thank you.

[69:03] Thank you. Thank you.

[70:03] Thank you. Thank you.

[71:03] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[71:15] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[71:27] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[71:39] I am yours, nothing compares to knowing you more. All I want, all I need, just to be with you, just to be with you.

[72:02] Here I am, I will be, just to be with you, just to be with you.

[72:15] You made a way to me, all I'm saving you, I will go forever alone.

[72:26] You made a way to me, all I'm saving you, I will go forever alone.

[72:38] I will go forever alone. All I want, all I need, just to be with you, just to be with you.

[72:58] Here I am, I will be, just to be with you. Just to be with you, all I want, all I need, just to be with you.

[73:19] Just to be with you, just to be with you.

[73:35] Please listen. That's all it really is. Just coming to God and remembering Him.

[73:50] He's not coming. The secret of the kingdom is in grace. Remembering that God has already given you the gift.

[74:02] All you have to do is receive it. So we come and we confess who's we are. So that we can be blessed to be what He wants us to be. That's right.

[74:15] Dear God in heaven. I have failed. I don't live what you want. I listen to the wrong voices. I worry about what other people think.

[74:30] I worry about measuring up. I worry about measuring up. To something I'll never measure up through. Forgive me, Lord.

[74:42] Help me to receive your grace. Help me to receive your grace. Help me to receive your love. To remember you already loved me. And you already loved me.

[74:55] And you already loved me. And you already loved me. And to live in that joy. That promise. That promise. That gift.

[75:07] In Jesus name we pray. Amen. A paradigm shift. It's not about confessing the little things we've done wrong. It's about remembering who's we are. God already loves you.

[75:21] It's finished. You made that decision a long time ago. He's just waiting for you to come by. And visit. And tell them what great things are going on in your life. In the name of Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven.

[75:34] In the name of Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven. Lord God. Amen. So come. For the Lord be with you. And also with you.

[75:46] Lift up your hearts. We lift up your hearts. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. We give thanks to our thanks and praise. It is right and a good and a joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

[76:01] Before the mountains were brought forth and formed the earth from everlasting to everlasting. You alone are God. You created light out of darkness and brought forth life on the earth.

[76:15] You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath and light. When we turned away and our love failed. Your love remained steadfast.

[76:28] 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 in heaven. We praise your name and join their enemy in Him.

[76:43] Holy, Holy, Holy Lord. In God, power and light. Heaven and earth are full with your Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

[76:57] Hosanna in the highest. Holy are you and blessed is your son Jesus Christ in whom you have revealed yourself, our light and our salvation.

[77:09] In his baptism and in table fellowship he took his place with sinners. Your spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind.

[77:24] To set at liberty those who are oppressed. And to announce that the time had come when you would save your people. By the baptism of his suffering, death and resurrection, you gave birth to your church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death.

[77:39] And made with us a new covenant by water and the spirit. On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread and he gave thanks to you. He broke the bread and gave it to his disciples saying, take and eat.

[77:54] This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

[78:06] And so in remembrance of these, your disciples, you will be in the name of the Lord. And when the supper was over, he took the cup. He gave you thanks and praise and gave it to his disciples. He said, drink from this, all of you. This is the cup of my blood.

[78:19] The blood of the new covenant poured out for you. It is poured out for many. For the forgiveness of sin. Do this as often as you drink in remembrance of me. And so in remembrance of these, your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves.

[78:41] 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 is God.

[78:53] Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us again. And on these gifts of bread and wine, make them be for us the body and blood of Christ.

[79:07] That we may be for the world the body of Christ. And we may write his blood. By your spirit, make us one with Christ. One with each other and one in ministry to all the world.

[79:20] Until Christ comes in final victory. And we feast at his heavenly man. Through your son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit and your Holy Church. All honor and glory is yours only in the Father.

[79:34] Now and forever. We shall pray together with the prayer of the children of God. As Jesus taught us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[79:49] Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily breath. And forgive us our trespasses. As we forgive those who trespass against us.

[80:04] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever again. Amen.

[80:16] hey hey hey Thank you.

[81:13] Thank you.

[81:43] Thank you.

[82:13] Thank you. Thank you.

[82:45] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[83:21] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[83:33] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[83:45] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[83:57]  Thank you. Thank you.