August 22, 2021
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Gathering Gathering Song Let There Be Praise Sandi Patti https://youtu.be/HjLCsn1NnEk Announcements Thursday, 7:00 PM Zoom Bible Study Here is your invitation: Elisabeth Smith is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Bible Study Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86066732644?pwd=emorNUc2RlJkWEN4UUdrZHJZY0o2Zz09 Meeting ID: 860 6673 2644 Passcode: 762435 One tap mobile +19292056099,,86066732644#,,,,*762435# US (New York) +13017158592,,86066732644#,,,,*762435# US (Washington DC) Dial by your location +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) Meeting ID: 860 6673 2644 Passcode: 762435 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcyTFEtQFq Call to Worship This is a day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it! We will praise and worship God in this place! We will give glory to God’s holy name! Song O Worship the King First-Plymouth Church, Lincoln, NE https://youtu.be/RU7x1doQLiQ Opening Prayer Holy God, We are aware that we are on holy ground when we come into your presence. We bow before you in humility and in awe. We are committed to worship you alone. In our prayers, our hymns, our words, and our silence, may we bring honor and glory to you. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Song Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise Halifax Minster https://youtu.be/spE-BE23qxA Hearing the Word Scripture Exodus 20:4-6 You shall not make for yourselves an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. Sermon The Ten Commandments 2 What Do You Worship? If I were to ask you, “What do you worship?” you might wonder about the question. Shouldn’t I be asking, “Whom do you worship?” No, you heard right the first time. What do you worship? Joy Davidman, the wife of author C. S. Lewis, writing in1953 in her book, Smoke on the Mountain imagined these answers: I worship a fishtail Cadillac convertible, brother. All my days I give it offerings of oil and polish. Hours of my time are devoted to its ritual; and it brings me luck in all my undertakings; and it establishes me among my fellows as a success in life. What model is your car brother? I worship my house beautiful, sister. Long and loving meditation have I spent on it; the chairs contrast with the rug, the curtains harmonize with the woodwork, all of it is perfect and holy … I live only for the service of my house, and it rewards me with the envy of my sisters, who must rise up and call me blessed … What shape is your idol, sister? What shape is your idol? It’s a good question, even in 2021. But many people don’t think it is even relevant at all. J. Ellsworth Kalas writes in his book, The Ten Commandments From the Backside, “Not many people today worry about keeping the second commandment, nor do many think it has anything to say to their way of life … Most of us are comfortable with this commandment. It may have meant something to the Hittites, Jebusites, and some errant Israelites, but it’s no issue to anyone in what we perceive to be the civilized Western world … But the commandment is there, like it or not.” The second commandment prohibits two things: it prohibits the worshiping of images or idols of false gods; and it prohibits the making and worshiping of idols intended to represent Yahweh. As Adam Hamilton puts it in his book, Words of Life, God “is not to be portrayed by means of images or statues, for Israel’s God is the creator of all things. He transcends the created world, and nothing made by our hands … could adequately represent him. Hence Israel’s religion, alone among the religions of the ancient Near East, would not make images or idols of her God.” Simply stated, an idol is a god you can see. Hamilton writes, “Idols made the in-visible gods visible and the intangible gods tangible.” They were made of wood or stone and placed in temples, or palaces of the gods. Within the temple, there was a throne room, or holy of holies, where the statue or idol was placed. Worshipers would enter this room to pray or make offerings. In addition to these statues and images, “small statues representing the gods of Egypt or Canaan were crafted, sold, and kept as repre-sentatives of the deities in the homes of common people. These ‘household gods’ are mentioned at least ten times throughout the Hebrew Bible, and the practice was com-mon throughout the ancient world.” (Hamilton) People seem to want a god they can see; after all, seeing is believing. That seems to have been a particular problem to the Israelites. In fact, after God had spoken the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites, Moses stayed up on the mountain for forty days with God. The Israelites started getting restless and asked Aaron to make a god for them to lead them. What they wanted was an idol of Yahweh who was like the idols that the Egyptians had of their gods. So Aaron went along with them and made the golden calf, and they bowed down and worshiped it. Aaron declared, “This is your God … who brought you up out of the land of Egypt,” and said that the next day would be a festival to the Lord. It was clear that the golden calf was meant to represent God. But God could not be contained in a hunk of gold. As Anne Robertson writes in her book, God’s Top 10, “This was a living God, not subject to the manipulation of human hands. The concern of the commandment is that people not carve God in stone and that the Israelites not limit their God to … one kind of face, shape, or image.” And John Killinger points out in his book, To My People With Love, “The other gods were easy enough to see. They were images of men or bulls or lions or eagles. But Yahweh, the real God, was transcendent. No one could see Yahweh … He was beyond all hu-man understanding.” God saw what the people were doing and became angry; he sent Moses back down the mountain to deal with the people. Moses threw the stone tablets down on the ground, which broke them into pieces. He grabbed the golden calf and threw it into the fire, where it was destroyed. And there was other punishment that came on the people for their unfaithfulness. They couldn’t even make it forty days without breaking one the of Ten Commandments. Throughout Old Testament history, the Israelites struggled with this tendency to prefer a god they could see. They frequently wandered from God, and most often it began with a graven image. They were often chastised by the prophets for bowing down to the Baals. In Jeremiah 10:3-5, we find his scornful condemnation of those who would worship idols: a tree from the forest is cut down, and worked with an ax by the hands of an artisan; people deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they can-not speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor is it in them to do good. The problem with any idol or image of God is that we have a God that can be comprehended by our senses, a God who is limited, because all physical images are restrictive in some way. There is more to God than can ever be pictured. It reminds me of an old book by J. B. Phillips called Your God is Too Small. Idols make God smaller. As Kalas puts it, “idols reduce the infinite to the finite.” So what does all of this have to do with us, here and now? We don’t have any idols in our homes, do we? Well, don’t be too sure about that. I think that any one of us – maybe all of us – are capable of breaking the second commandment and worshiping idols. Because any material object can become an idol. For example, we can make an idol of our church. Don’t believe me? There are churches that have made idols of an organ, or a steeple, or a flag, or an altar, or an entire building! In other churches, the idols may be favorite hymns or forms of serving communion. Anne Robertson writes that these idols are “the things that pastors don’t know are worshiped until they try to move worship in another direction, with weeping and gnashing of teeth the usual result. These household gods violate the commandment against graven images because they don’t allow God to live and move. They keep Jesus sealed in the tomb of ‘the way we’ve always done it be-fore.’” Other people make idols of a pastor, or music director, or favorite Christian author. Still others make an idol of the Bible, and worship the Bible more than they worship God. Some people worship the activities of the church. As Adam Hamilton writes, “Missions, music, social justice, the fight for inclusion, environmental ministry, teaching children, and a hundred other good things that we might do for God can easily take the place of God in our lives.” For some people, there are political idols. I hate to be the one to tell you, but God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat. As Anne Robertson says, “there are more than enough Bible passages, even within the sayings of Jesus, to make both Republicans and Democrats decidedly uncomfortable.” No political party, no political leader, not even a long-serving Senator or beloved President, should become an idol. There is great danger in putting that person in the place of God. Robertson writes, “Idols always end up demanding human sacrifice, and in the case of our intense political polarization, the sacrifice has been the unity of our country. We’ve become afraid to speak our minds, to offer an opinion contrary to the political culture in which we travel. That sort of fear is exactly what leads to the tyranny of the majority. If we don’t make up our minds to smash our political idols into dust, the future of our nation is in jeopardy. To destroy these idols, we need a strong dose of moral courage. We need the courage to step across the aisle … Who has the courage to lay their positions and their wealth on the line and admit mistakes? Who has the courage to stand up to powerful and well-heeled lobbyists? When will we stop having contests between my idol and yours and have meaningful debate?” Interestingly enough, the Ten Commandments themselves have become some-thing of an idol in American culture. You mighty remember Judge Roy Moore of Alabama, who refused a court order to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from his courthouse. Eventually the monument was removed, and it was taken to cities across the country, where people cheered it on and even kissed it. Anne Robertson said, “Maybe it’s just me, but it seems odd that this image of God’s law, carved in stone, has become exactly the thing its words prohibit.” No matter what form we try to reduce God to, no matter what our idol may look like, we cannot contain God in any image or idol. God is bigger than anything we can ever imagine. God cannot be adequately represented in any image. With two exceptions, according to Adam Hamilton. Let’s look at what they are. First, God made his image visible in Jesus, his Son. John 1:14 says, “the Word became flesh and lived among us.” Jesus is the incarnation of God, not an idol, but God in the flesh. And Colossians 1:15 says, “The Son is the image of the invisible God.” If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. But even then, we don’t have any physical, material image of Jesus from the 1st century. There were no came-ras on hand to capture his picture. No one painted him and no one carved his face in stone. What we have is a “picture” of him in the Gospels, a description of what Jesus is like from his words and his deeds. And that gives us a picture of what God is like. Second, God makes his image visible in you and me. Genesis tells us that God created human beings in his own image. We were meant to reflect the glory of God. And when we live as Jesus taught us to live, when we walk the way of Christ, we reveal God in the world. One last thought. To quote Joy Davidman, “The real horror of idols is not merely that they give us nothing, but that they take away from us even that which we have. By the act of imagining power in the [idol] we rob ourselves, and the Holy Spirit within us, of that much power … The more we look to material objects for help, the less we can help ourselves or ask help from the grace of God. If we are to be saved, it will not be by wood, however well carved and polished; nor by machines, however efficient … If we are to be saved, it must be by the one power that is built into a man at his beginning and that he does not have to make with his hands – the power of the Holy Spirit, which is God.” Song We Will Glorify Twila Paris https://youtu.be/OmtrYms47Ig Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Pastoral Prayer Holy, Only God, We mighty assume that idols are a thing of the ancient past, and that we are not susceptible to them. And yet – we manage to find other things or people to worship and turn them into idols. Material possessions; money; positions of power or authority; winners of talent contests; political leaders; our own selves. But whatever we shape into an idol and worship, we have broken your commandment. They are false gods. And you cannot be reduced to any created object. You, after all, are the Creator of all that is. So help us to keep you and you alone as our God to be worshiped. Even though we cannot see you, we believe in you. And when we look at Jesus, we see who you really are in his words and his actions. And perhaps, on a good day, others can see a bit of you in ours. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who taught his disciples to pray: The Lord’s Prayer 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. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Prayer of Dedication Gracious and Loving God, creator, provider, and giver of all blessings, we thank you for all that you have given to us. We come now to give back a portion of those gifts. Bless them and use them in your service, both in our congregation and beyond the walls of this church. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Song How Great is Our God Chris Tomlin https://youtu.be/cKLQ1td3MbE Benediction The Lord Bless You and Keep You Peter C. Lutkin Westminster Choir https://youtu.be/dNj7v6RUTwA August 15, 2021
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Gathering Gathering Song Come, Now is the Time to Worship Phillips, Craig & Dean https://youtu.be/0oKf84dtEGs Announcements Thursday, 7:00 PM Zoom Bible Study Here is your invitation: Elisabeth Smith is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Bible Study Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86066732644?pwd=emorNUc2RlJkWEN4UUdrZHJZY0o2Zz09 Meeting ID: 860 6673 2644 Passcode: 762435 One tap mobile +19292056099,,86066732644#,,,,*762435# US (New York) +13017158592,,86066732644#,,,,*762435# US (Washington DC) Dial by your location +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) Meeting ID: 860 6673 2644 Passcode: 762435 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcyTFEtQFq Call to Worship We gather here to meet God in this place. We listen for God’s voice to speak to us. We want to know what God requires of us. We want to do the things that are right in the eyes of the Lord. We lift up our voices in prayer and praise. Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Song Great is the Lord Michael W. Smith https://youtu.be/YVL0aka7Bho Opening Prayer O Holy and Righteous God, We tremble at the thought that we are in your presence. We know that you are worthy of all our praise and worship. We seek to understand your commandments and how they apply to our lives today. Help us to see them not as limits on our freedom, but as guidelines and guard rails that will help us to live with joy and goodness. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Song Agnus Dei Amy Grant https://youtu.be/sCwIJq50jTQ Hearing the Word Scripture Exodus 20:1-3 Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. Sermon The Ten Commandments 1 Putting God First I’d like to try a little exercise with you this morning. I want you to take a small piece of paper, maybe the bulletin insert, and a pen or pencil. And I want you to number 1, 2, and 3. Now, I want you to list the 3 things that matter most to you. Don’t think about it too long, just put down the first 3 things that come to your mind. What are the 3 most important things in your life? In his book, The Ten Commandments From the Backside, author J. Ellsworth Kalas suggests that, “When we draw up our little list of things that matter most, that which we designate Number One is god. Whether or not it is God with a capital G is another matter.” As we begin our sermon series on the Ten Commandments, we begin with God. What we think about God determines what we think about ourselves and about others. This first commandment is the big one, the most important one, because all the others depend on whether or not we keep this one. As author Anne Robertson puts it in her book, God’s Top 10, “I think this one heads the list because, like the top button on a shirt, if you don’t get this one right, all the rest will be messed up as well.” But let’s back up for just a minute and set the stage. For one thing, you might be wondering, “Why is she preaching a sermon series on the Ten Commandments? What do they have to do with anything?” Well, I am preaching on the Ten Commandments for a couple of reasons. First, when I asked you last fall what you would like to hear sermons about, someone suggested the Ten Commandments. But more importantly, I am preaching on the Ten Commandments because I do think they are relevant to us today. They are not just a bunch of random “thou shalt nots” meant to steal our happiness; they are guidelines meant to help us live healthy and happy lives. At the time of Jesus, the Ten Commandments were recited every day at the Temple and every Jewish child would have memorized them. Jesus knew and practiced them himself. And Paul referred to them in his letters. So they were crucial parts of the formation of Christian faith and practice. And let’s also remember the setting of the giving of the Ten Commandments. Moses had led the people out of slavery in Egypt to Mount Sinai, the mountain where he had encountered God in the burning bush. Until that day, with the people gathered at the foot of the mountain, and Moses meeting God at the top, the people had never heard the voice of God for themselves. They had only taken Moses’ word for it that God had spoken to him. But now God began by introducing himself to the people. God spoke and said, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” There are several things I think are important about this statement. First, God gave them his name. “I am the Lord.” In the original text, it would have read, “I am Yahweh,” or “I Am Who I Am.” This was the most personal and sacred name for God in the Hebrew Bible. When God called Moses from the burning bush to go to Egypt and bring his people out of slavery, and Moses asked God whom he should tell the people had sent him, this was the name God had given him. “I Am.” This name is found over 6,400 times in the Old Testament. But it is so sacred that Jews today will not pronounce it, and so it has been replaced with the word “Lord.” By giving this name to the people, God was letting them know that he was the same God who had sent Moses to lead them to freedom. Second, God said “I am YOUR God.” Adam Hamilton points out in his book, Words of Life, that the word “your” is in the singular tense; in other words, God is not just the God of the Israelites, but he is the God of each one of the Israelites. God is Moses’ God, and Aaron’s God, and Joshua’s God, and Miriam’s God, and so on. God called each one of these people, and all of these people, his own. He offered them his care and protection. And third, God was saying to them, “I am your GOD.” As Adam Hamilton states, the Egyptians had worshiped many gods, forces who created and maintained the world and were involved in the affairs of people. But now God was instructing Israel in the truth that all those forces resided in one God who was the source and the sustainer of all that exists. Then we come to the heart of the first commandment: You shall have no other gods before me. This is calling the Israelites to an exclusive relationship with God. They had worshiped many gods in Egypt, just like the Egyptians did. And during much of the history of the Hebrew Bible, we find that they were tempted into worshiping other gods, especially Baal. The prophets wrote about how painful that was for God. Not only was his heart broken because they were unfaithful to him, but he knew that their worship of false gods would only bring them pain in the end. We might wonder what this commandment has to do with us. After all, we are not tempted to worship ancient Egyptian gods or the Canaanite god Baal. But that doesn’t mean there are not false gods that tempt us. Because anything can become a god to us. Anything that takes the place of God in our lives is another god. That might be physical fitness, or social media, or a relationship, or clothing, or success, or popularity, or health, or our body, or a hobby, or travel, or a car, or our career, or our retirement account, or our home or our business. John Killinger writes in his book, To My People With Love, “No other gods – that’s his condition … We must give up our hope in everything else and rest it all in him, letting God be God in everything, in every way. There must be no holdouts, no reservations, no hidden agendas. We must simply let him be G od … We must put him in charge of everything. We must fall down and worship him, with no other gods.” Anne Robertson reminds us of the story of the rich young ruler in the Gospels. He came to Jesus and asked what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him what it said in the commandments. The young man quoted some of them, and said that he had kept them all his life. Jesus then said he only lacked one thing. He needed to go and sell all he had and give to the poor, and then come and follow Jesus. The young man couldn’t do it. He walked away sad, because he had many possessions. He put his wealth ahead of God. So, in truth, he had not kept all the commandments; he could not even keep the first one. Robertson adds, “I know in my own life I’ve lost it the minute Jesus shows up and says, ‘Hand over your computer!’ Never mind family or friends or job or reputation; I’m knocked out of the running by my hard drive.” The way to put a more positive spin on keeping the first commandment might be to consider what Jesus said when someone asked him what was the most important commandment. He didn’t quote one of the Ten. Instead, he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) Really, that is the key to keeping the first commandment. As Adam Hamilton says, “When we love God with all that is within us, we leave no room for false gods.” Song The God of Abraham Praise Jon Bartholomew https://youtu.be/LWjPTXtCAHE Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Pastoral Prayer Almighty God, There are many things that compete for our attention and affection. There are many priorities on our to-do lists. But we know that what matters most in our life is – or should be – You. We are supposed to put You first. Nothing else, no one else, should be more important to us. That is easy to say, but it is really hard to practice. After all, that means that You are more important to us than our families, or our friends; more important than our careers or our vocations; more important than our gifts or our talents; more important than any possession or person. We worship You this morning and we pray that we might remember what it feels like to be here in Your presence. Remind us all during the week that we are always and everywhere in Your presence, always and everywhere to worship You. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who taught his disciples to pray: The Lord’s Prayer 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. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Prayer of Dedication God of love and generosity, we are grateful for this time of sharing with others. Bless these gifts and use them for the building up of your kingdom on this earth. Amen. Song Hundred Miles David Crowder https://youtu.be/jD0uX9KHw3w Benediction You have met God in this place. Have you been changed by the experience? Will you be able to put God first in your life? With the help of God, all things are possible. Go in peace. Amen. August 8, 2021
Welcome! We’re so glad you have joined us today! Gathering Gathering Song Down to the River to Pray Alison Krauss https://youtu.be/nXFL6PBdo5Y Announcements We welcome Michael Brown as our guest preacher this morning. Michael is a staff member at Colby-Sawyer College. Thursday, 7:00 PM Zoom Bible Study Here is your invitation: Elisabeth Smith is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Bible Study Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86066732644?pwd=emorNUc2RlJkWEN4UUdrZHJZY0o2Zz09 Meeting ID: 860 6673 2644 Passcode: 762435 One tap mobile +19292056099,,86066732644#,,,,*762435# US (New York) +13017158592,,86066732644#,,,,*762435# US (Washington DC) Dial by your location +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) Meeting ID: 860 6673 2644 Passcode: 762435 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcyTFEtQFq Call to Worship Blessed be the longing that brought us here and quickens our soul with wonder. May we have the courage to listen to the voice of desire that disturbs us when we have settled for something safe. May we have the wisdom to enter generously into our own unease to discover the new direction our longing wants us to take. May the forms of our belonging – in love, creativity, and friendship – be equal to the grandeur and the call of our souls. May the one we long for long for us. May our dreams gradually reveal the destination of our desire. May a secret Providence guide our thought and nurture our feeling. May our minds inhabit our lives with the sureness with which our bodies inhabit the world. May we come to accept our longing as divine urgency. May we know the urgency with which God longs for us. (John O’Donohue, adapted) Song Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley Arr. by Victor C. Johnson https://youtu.be/kXS7zHv7uzk Opening Prayer We greet you, welcoming God, with our many morning moods. Some of us could not wait to get here; some of us just made it. Some of us know exactly why we’ve come; others are not sure. Still, something calls us each to you and we come to seek you and to worship. Speak to us, in word and melody and silence, that we may be renewed in our faith. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. (Ann B. Day) Song How Beautiful Twila Paris https://youtu.be/UliMCDA9VXs Hearing the Word Scripture Matthew 17:14-20 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Sermon Belief + Work = Faith I recently went on a road trip back home to Kansas City. Just me. I took a southern route going and a northern route coming back home basically making a full circle. But during one of the legs of driving—I think it was Iowa to Wisconsin, closer to the end of my trip—it dawned on me that the whole trip had been a trip of faith. There were messages of faith that kept popping up during the trip. Some of them I noticed at the time—like sermons or gospel songs I listened to—and others that came to me during this moment of reflection that reminded me if I had not put my faith and trust in God I wouldn’t have made to Kansas City and back as I had with no issues at all. Now it was during another leg of my trip that I began to ponder the question what is faith? Me being a person of Higher Ed, I decided to first turn to my friends at Merriam-Webster and see what they had to say. Of the three definitions it gave I looked at the second one—which was itself broken into four parts—as it came closest to my experience. If you look up the word faith in Merriam Webster’s dictionary you will find this definition: “Faith- belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion, (3) firm belief in something for which there is no proof, (4) complete trust.” Like I said that got close to what I experienced, but it didn’t hit the nail on the head. So, I turned to the Bible. And I found myself in Hebrews chapter 11 where Paul gives not only a definition in verse one—“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”—but he also give us chronological examples of faith from Abel to Abraham and his sons, and the prophets of the Old Testament and how they all lived and overcame by faith. Wait a minute? Didn’t Webster’s say faith is “firm belief in something for which there is no proof?” Well Paul said it was “the evidence of things not seen.” Now, I’m pretty sure when you’ve got evidence of something, whether you’ve seen it or not, you’ve got proof of it. In other words, I might not have seen you get healed, but the fact that you’re up alive and walking and talking and in you’re right mind when the doctors counted you out that’s proof of what God can do. I might not have seen Him do it, but the fact that you’re on top of your mountain today when last year, last month, or even last week you were in your lowest valley that’s proof again of what God can do that we can’t see. Amen. That’s a subject for another day though. Getting back on topic, again, I have to ask what is faith? I then got to thinking about it and I thought about the phrase “…Faith, if it hath not works, is dead…” which come from James chapter 2 verse 17, but I still didn’t feel as though I had my answer, but God. God has a way of leading you to answers when you least expect it. I won’t go into it much, but I happened to be on Facebook and I someone had posted the words Matthew 17:20, and out of curiosity I went there, and I read that verse which lead to go back a few verses to get our full text today of “Matthew 17: 14-20”. This set with me because you see, a man comes to Jesus and asked him to cast the demons out of his possessed son because Jesus’ disciples were not able to do so. Jesus says bring the boy to me, and he cast out the demon. Then Jesus’ disciples wonder why they couldn’t cast out the demon. “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” That’s when I realized—and if you don’t take anything else from this message take this—this simple equation, Belief + Works=Faith. You see the disciples were doing the work but they didn’t believe the demon could be cast out. If you think about it often times we do the work when we need something from the Lord—we pray, we fast, we preach, but then there’s that human side of us that doesn’t always believe. That’s alright though. Even the disciples didn’t always believe it either. Remember Thomas, who wouldn’t believe that Jesus had been resurrected until he was able to see and touch Jesus himself? Or Peter, who Jesus called to walk on water to him, and the Bible says a wind started to blow and scared Peter and he began to sink until Jesus got ahold and said, “Ye of little faith. Why did you doubt?” When you pray and ask the Lord to do something you have to believe it and trust in Him with your whole heart and soul. Now on the flip side of that, you may believe but you’re not putting in any of the work. Yes God can heal you, but you still have to do the work and take yourself to the doctor. Who do you think put the doctor there? Yes you may need a financial break through, but you still have to take yourself to your job. God blessed you with it now you’ve got to do the work. If you’re still not following me, let me give you a few examples Belief + Work. You see, faith is believing that the dry bones in the valley can live, but the work preaching. Faith, is believing the giant will fall, the work is shooting your sling shot. Faith, is believing God will deliver his people from captivity, but the work is walking before pharaoh and saying I was sent was sent by the great I AM and now let my people go! Faith, is believing that God can heal you from the issue of blood, but the work is reaching out to touch the hem of his garment! Finally, brothers and sisters, Faith is believing God can redeem the people, but the work is bearing the sins of the people and dying the cross for their salvation. Amen! I thank you all for letting me fellowship and worship with you all this morning. Song We’ve Come This Far by Faith Arr. by Mary McDonald https://youtu.be/BGbkokO-TsM Praying Together Concerns and Celebrations: Please share any concerns or celebrations you may have with Pastor Elisabeth. Please note if you do not want this shared with this faith community. Pastoral Prayer Holy and Mighty God, Sometimes we don’t get what we need because we don’t ask for it. We lack the faith to even pray. Like the disciples in the story, we are unable to make things happen because of our lack of faith. Help us to realize that there is great power in prayer, not because we are powerful, but because you are powerful. Give us the faith and the boldness to ask for what we need, and to ask for great things, trusting that you will answer our prayers. Help us to believe that when we do our part, you will honor that and you will do your part, that which is in your will. Plant in us the notion that our prayers may not be big enough because our understanding of who you are is not big enough. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who taught his disciples to pray: The Lord’s Prayer 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. Responding Offertory: You may send your offerings to Grantham United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 152, Grantham, NH, 03753. Doxology UMH #95 Prayer of Dedication Thank you, God, for the opportunity to share in your creative and restorative work among people. Because you have blessed us, we have something to give. Our offerings express our gratitude for all that you have done for us. Amen. Song Here I Am, Lord https://youtu.be/EcxOkht8w7c Benediction May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Amen. |
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