When ‘Welcome’ Undermines the Word: A Review of ‘Sunday Service’

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:04:51] Now returning but I got busy talking catching up and I do want to say Happy New Year to everybody and and what oh thank you I was like what you doing arguing about a Happy New Year with me and I also want to say thank you to a couple of people Patricia who is having the weekend off and a few
[00:05:25] out and taking vacation time. I want to thank Marty Provence for leading the music and also Myra Johnson who played the organ and the piano for us last week and to all of you who were here
[00:05:38] and kept the home fires burning. And I also want to say a very heartfelt thank you to the entire church family, to the deacons, to the finance committee. I want to thank you for your expressions
[00:05:54] of glad tidings to our family. The cards, the gifts, the gift cards, the things to eat.
[00:06:06] It was just an overwhelming outpouring of love, and we just felt very blessed. And I just want you to know that, and I want you to know how deeply we all appreciated it. So thank you so
[00:06:20] much for that, and also thank you for the time away. We got to be with Tiffany's side of our family for several days in Nashville, Tennessee. We spent some time with my family as well,
[00:06:32] and so thank you for that. That was a really good time, and we are glad to be back, and we're ready to take on 2026 with you and with the love and the guidance and the care of God. So welcome.
[00:06:48] Welcome back to First Baptist Church of North Wilkesboro.
[00:06:51] Welcome to the new year.
[00:06:53] Welcome into God's presence as we prepare to worship.
[00:06:59] There are some announcements I want to bring to your attention, just a few.
[00:07:03] One is that our first kids and our youth will not be meeting tonight.
[00:07:07] Everybody needs to get back in town.
[00:07:10] They need to get ready for school tomorrow.
[00:07:11] And so we will pick up with those programs next week.
[00:07:15] the lunch small group will meet at the 50s tomorrow at 12 30 and also our fishing group is going to meet at mad jacks at 5 15 on tuesday and anybody who would like to come and eat fish
[00:07:31] with us will be great we find that going to restaurant it's a lot easier you don't have to catch them you don't have to clean them they just bring them right to you so we're kind of on
[00:07:41] on break during the winter. So if anybody'd like to join us on Tuesday evening, that would be great.
[00:07:47] Of course, our handbells will rehearse on Wednesday at five and our choir will also rehearse at 645 on Wednesday. There are some folks that we need to remember in prayer. Of course, Juanita Sparks in the loss of her brother, Russell Blevins, who went to be with the Lord on Thursday.
[00:08:07] And also Dawn Gardner, whose sister-in-law, Carol Lovett, passed away early yesterday morning.
[00:08:14] And Carol was really a great friend to Dawn before she met her brother.
[00:08:22] And they started dating and got married, and so they were very close.
[00:08:26] So please remember her.
[00:08:28] Pat Osborne is going to be having foot surgery on Friday, so please remember Pat.
[00:08:33] Of course, we need to remember Ronnie and his battle with his lungs and with pneumonia.
[00:08:39] Peggy House continues her chemo treatments, as does Dennis Smith.
[00:08:43] We need to continue to remember him.
[00:08:44] Dennis is actually waiting for testing and is kind of on a hiatus from the chemo at the moment.
[00:08:52] There are many others that we need to pray for, and I thank you for your prayers for them and your care for the folks within our congregation and community who need the touch of God's love and care.
[00:09:04] and I thank you for that. We need to sing happy birthday today. Kathleen Caudill, Pete Caudill's widow, is 92 on the 6th, which is Tuesday. So if you don't mind, let's sing happy birthday to Kathleen. Birthday, Kathleen. And I'm just going to say one thing.
[00:09:58] Some of you I know probably don't make New Year's resolutions. Some of you may.
[00:10:02] And if I can put one at the end of your list, I want you to make this the year that you're going to invite somebody to church and stay with them until, until they join. And the reason I say
[00:10:14] that is because this church is just too loving and too warm and too filled with the spirit and too concerned with doing what God wants us to do to keep, keep it a secret or to keep it to
[00:10:30] ourselves. People could benefit from being a part of you. And I just want you to know that.
[00:10:41] You're not going to be bothering them. You're going to be doing them a great favor if you bring them to church here because of the love and the friendship and the warmth and the care that you will offer them. So just keep that in mind in 2026. Let's pray together.
[00:10:59] Lord, I thank you, of course, for the birth of Christ Whose birth we still celebrate Through one more Sunday And we thank you, Lord, for the light and the life That Christ brings to all, to everyone
[00:11:21] Through the generations And we pray, Lord, that we would be reflectors of that light As we also bask in its warmth We thank you for this opportunity to worship together and I ask your blessings Lord on this time and pray that you would open our hearts and guide
[00:11:41] our minds to be connected and on par with your dreams, your visions, and your will for our lives and for this church. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. The peace of Christ be
[00:11:59] with you. Thank you. And I want to say a very warm welcome this morning to anybody who's a guest here today whether you're here with family or you're here with friends or you just came on your own
[00:12:12] we're so glad that you're here and i meant what i said this is a very kind place the folks here are are genuine and they're warm and i hope you find that to be the case if you don't let me know about
[00:12:23] it but thank you for being here there is a visitor's card in the back of the pew in front of you if you would do us a favor filling that out and placing the offering plate when it goes by
[00:12:33] in today's service later on, we'll have a record of your being here.
[00:12:38] And if you have any questions for me or if I can do anything for you, you can put it on that card.
[00:12:42] But thank you for being here.

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:12:44] And now it's time we're going to sing our praise song.
[00:12:46] It's a hymn.
[00:12:47] It's printed in your bulletin.
[00:12:49] We're going to sing the first stanzing of the birthday of the king.
[00:12:53] We'll sing it all the way through one time.
[00:12:55] Turn and greet each other in the name of Christ.
[00:12:57] And then sing it again as we return to our seats.
[00:13:00] Let's stand and sing together.

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:16:29] Children, will you join me?
[00:16:31] Good morning, beloved. Thankful you are here. We have had such a great morning already. We had a great time in Sunday school, didn't we? We're learning about some inventors. We learned about the Popsicle inventor this morning, didn't we? So, yes, it was. I have something to show you.
[00:17:26] Have you ever received a gift, the perfect gift? Have you ever received the perfect gift?
[00:17:34] Well, we all have. Well, I mean, Jesus is our perfect gift, right? I'm sorry, I kind of put y'all on the spot a little bit there. I'm sorry. But no, we have a gift. Now, there are some great
[00:17:50] ways to receive gifts, right? When you receive a gift, you're grateful, right? When you give a gift, there's some great ways to give a gift, correct? When you give a gift, you don't expect anything
[00:18:08] for it, right? You don't expect the perfect gift back or a great gift back. When you give a gift, you're not expecting anything in return. When you give a gift, you also want to make sure that
[00:18:25] you're giving a gift because that's what that person needed or wanted, not necessarily what you needed or what you wanted, right? There's some great ways to give a gift and there's not so great ways to give a gift. Because sometimes we're going to be sadly disappointed if we give
[00:18:43] a gift just to get one in return, right? We give it from our heart. Now, Jesus received some gifts at the time, around the time of his birth, maybe a little bit older, and there were three,
[00:19:00] what were there that came? Gold. No, not the gifts. Who came? The three wise men. That's right. And now in that gift, he received gold. What else? Do you remember? Frankincense. And there's one more.
[00:19:24] Myrrh. That's right. He received frankincense, gold, and myrrh. And that was because not necessarily did a child need frankincense, and not necessarily that he needed myrrh or gold, but it was the best.
[00:19:43] He was given the best because it was Jesus. He was given the most valuable because of who he was.
[00:19:55] He was the Son of God. He was the King of kings and the Lord of lords. That's right, Kaylee.
[00:20:04] that's right now do you have some gold to give do you have any frankincense no or myrrh you don't think well we'll have to look that up I think they do a little bit but listen we don't have to give that we don't have to just give stuff do
[00:20:29] we? What is a great gift we can give to others? Maybe our time, helping those in need, and maybe sharing love. Those are fantastic gifts. And when you give them for the right reasons that you're
[00:20:57] not expecting anything in return, then you're doing it because you want to show that person love.
[00:21:04] you want to show them who Jesus is, that is the right reason to give a gift. Will you pray with me? Lord God, we are so very thankful for the gifts that you have given us. Your love, your time,
[00:21:25] your presence. Lord, we're so thankful for the gift of Jesus. We're thankful that he has taught us how to show your love to others, how he has given us the gift of the example of his life,
[00:21:46] the gift of sacrifice, the gift of being our Savior. Lord, remind us every day that as we give gifts, give our gift of time, of helping others, that we don't do it for the attention.
[00:22:03] we don't do it for what we get in return but that we give it because it is out of the love that you want to share that we do it in honor of you we love you and we praise you
[00:22:21] it's in Jesus name we pray amen all right guys are you ready for children's church let's go

[00:22:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:22:27] Bow with me in prayer please. One, your light has come and it shines brightly into our humble lives bringing warmth, grace, provision, and blessing. At this time we acknowledge your goodness to us as we bring our tithes and offerings to your altar in the hopes that it will enable your
[00:26:42] light to shine farther, deeper, and brighter into our world of shadows and darkness. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. It's familiar. It's Matthew's account of the journey of the wise men. It's found in chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in
[00:32:28] Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem asking, where is the child who's been born King of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and we've come to pay him
[00:32:41] homage. When King Herod heard this, he was frightened and all Jerusalem with him and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written
[00:32:59] by the prophet and you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod secretly
[00:33:15] called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.
[00:33:21] Then he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage. When they had heard the
[00:33:32] king, they set out and there ahead of them went the star that they had seen at its rising until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were
[00:33:45] overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then opening their treasure chest, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for
[00:34:05] their own country by another road. May this be the word of God for us on this day. And as we pray together at the new year, I find great comfort in the most famous prayer written by
[00:34:21] Thomas Merton. He wrote it as an I prayer, individual prayer, but I'm going to adapt it to we, to include all of us as we begin a new year together. Let's pray together.
[00:34:35] Our Lord God, not one of us knows where we are going. We do not see the road ahead of us.
[00:34:45] We cannot know for certain where it will end, nor do we really know ourselves.
[00:34:52] And the fact that we think that we are following your will does not mean that we're actually doing so. But we believe that the desire to please you, God, does in fact please you. And we hope and pray
[00:35:07] that we have that desire in all that we are doing. We hope and pray that we will never do anything apart from that desire. And we know that if we do this, you will lead us by the right road,
[00:35:23] though we may know nothing about it. Therefore, we will trust you always, though we may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death we will not fear for you are ever with us
[00:35:40] and you will never leave us to face our perils alone and now let's pray together the words Jesus taught his disciples to pray 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
[00:36:08] 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 the power and the glory forever Amen.

[00:36:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:36:27] Thank you so much, Emily and Carol.

[00:40:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:40:34] That was beautiful.
[00:40:37] Well, as we've done during Advent, I need to take a moment to get into my costume.
[00:40:41] I'm playing one of the wise men.
[00:40:48] Here, does this help?
[00:40:51] I'm just kidding.
[00:40:52] One of my New Year's resolutions is humility.
[00:40:57] A little epiphany humor.
[00:40:58] I ran that by the staff, by the way, before I said it today.
[00:41:02] Anyway, you've seen us on your Christmas cards.
[00:41:09] three figures frozen in camel silhouettes, forever journeying, forever arriving, forever kneeling. But before we were ever figurines in a nativity set, we were scholars, watchers, seekers of patterns written into the heavens and on the heart. We're also known
[00:41:43] as the Magi because our wisdom was of the eastern sort and was centered in astronomy and astrology. Now we studied for years, not casually, not as a hobby, not when it was convenient. We gave our lives to learning astronomy, philosophy, ancient texts, the wisdom
[00:42:13] of many, many peoples. And we believed that truth with a capital T was real and that it could be sought and that it demanded discipline, commitment, and consistency. When others dismissed the sky as chaos or superstition, we kept looking night after night, scroll after scroll.
[00:42:59] You know, when seeking a showing or a message from God, you have no idea when exactly it's going to come. So we deemed this word from God Almighty to be important enough not to miss.
[00:43:17] we were always, always looking. And then one night, in the vast, dark, beautiful sky, we saw it. A sign that did not fit our charts. A star that did not obey our formulas.
[00:43:47] It was not less than knowledge, but rather it was more than knowledge.
[00:43:58] And it invited us beyond what we already knew.
[00:44:05] And here's the first lesson that I offer to you, the people of the 21st century.
[00:44:12] Truth still requires diligence.
[00:44:15] In your world, you carry more information in your pockets than we had in entire libraries.
[00:44:29] Yet I wonder, do you still study or do you skim?
[00:44:38] Do you seek wisdom or only affirmation of yourselves and confirmation of what you already believe?
[00:44:48] be trained your minds to love the truth or only to defend the tribe or the way it's always been you know the value of your life and mine is the sum total of the commitments we keep
[00:45:14] what are you committed to what do you do daily without fail faithfully that is who you are that is who you are becoming what does it add up to are you committed to following God there was a young girl one time who was an aspiring pianist and she
[00:45:48] went to a concert of one of her heroes and after it was over she went up to him and she said maestro I would give anything and everything to play like you do? And he looked at her and he said, I did. Following God takes commitment, ultimate commitment.
[00:46:16] So we continued to examine and watch the star, not because it flattered our opinions, but because it challenged them. And then came the hardest part. We left. We set out. We took off.
[00:46:36] we left our observatories, our reputations, our safety, and our comfort. We left warm meals and familiar roads. We left the security of our own people, of our own culture, as well as the comfort of being respected experts so that we could become mere strangers, fools to some, travelers who asked
[00:47:07] odd questions in unknown towns. Where is this child who's been born king? Do you have any idea how dangerous a question that was? And we had no idea where the road was going to end.
[00:47:31] We knew only for certain that staying put would have been disobedience. Faith, you see, is not simply just believing something. It's following. It's going somewhere. It's doing something because of what you believe. So here, a second lesson. Truth is rarely found by those
[00:48:03] who refuse to move. If you've made resolutions to start the new year, whether they are spiritually oriented, career oriented, health oriented, or relationship oriented, I can offer you this one bit of advice. Comfort is the biggest trap in life. Everything that you desire in life exists
[00:48:31] outside of your normal routine. I mean, did we want to sleep on the ground in tents instead of in our own beds? No. Did we want to go days without bathing or run the risk of running out of water
[00:48:51] in the arid desert terrain? Of course not. Did we want to say goodbye to those that we knew and loved for who knows how long? Certainly not. Did we want to face the dangers of the road, bandits
[00:49:07] and robbers foreign tyrants and not to mention wild beasts and animals along the way I tell you no but truth God's truth was worth everything to us what's it worth to you you know churches often
[00:49:38] speak of faith and I wonder are church folk willing to leave what is safe and familiar to let go of traditions that no longer serve love to cross the boundaries of culture race politics or even comfort when God's light shines ahead of us I can tell you this the star does not
[00:50:12] shine over the couch or the sanctuary or the fellowship hall it shines over the road so when we arrived in Jerusalem, we made what seemed like a logical choice. I mean, surely a king would be
[00:50:36] born in a palace. Surely power recognizes power. So we went to Herod. Ah, King Herod. Poor, poor Herod. You know, Herod wasn't really a king. He was just a Jewish law and order keeper for Caesar
[00:50:56] in Judea. At most, he was a puppet governor, a pro-consul, but he gave himself the title of king to stroke his ego. But when we arrived, told him what we were doing, he smiled. He quoted scripture.
[00:51:19] He feigned interest in our quest for a newborn king, but his eyes betrayed him, and his smile contained no joy. He feared what he could not control. He wanted religion to serve his power, not threaten it. He had all the truth of this world boxed under his command. He did not
[00:51:49] need new truths and he certainly didn't need a new king. Let me say this plainly because every age needs to hear it. Not everyone who speaks religious language seeks God. Adolf Hitler would come to quote scripture fluently to enact the most evil ungodly plan in the history of the
[00:52:18] world. Lest we forget Satan was also extremely well versed in the words of scripture and could quote verses out of context and in perverse ways to try to deceive and get his way. And guess what
[00:52:31] still does. I mean, but why cozy up to God? Why pretend to have religious devotion? Well, some seek control, some seek security, some seek dominance, but the fakers all seek to serve themselves rather than God. But, you know, having the illusion of God being on their side and having
[00:52:56] God's endorsement certainly helps the cause. Herod asked us to return with information on the location of the newborn Messiah. Not so he could worship, but so he could destroy. And here, friends, is a lesson the church must not forget. Wisdom is a spiritual discipline. Being faithful
[00:53:29] doesn't mean being stupid. We listened, we watched, and when God told us in a dream, we trusted both revelation and reason. We did not say, well, we'll just let God sort it all out.
[00:53:50] No, we changed our route. We used our minds. We protected the newborn child by refusing to cooperate with violence cloaked in piety. Faith that refuses to think is not faith.
[00:54:07] It is vulnerability to manipulation. A watcher of the stars and a brilliant man before his time that followed a few years after us was named Galileo. And he said this, I do not feel obliged
[00:54:25] to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use. The world today has its Herods, leaders who fear love, systems that tremble at compassion. Voices that wrap cruelty in scripture and call it righteousness. The church
[00:54:57] must learn again how to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. It's okay for people of faith to recognize that if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a
[00:55:14] up, no matter how many times or ways it tries to tell us it's a dog. Or as Maya Angelou astutely says, when someone shows you who he or she is, believe it. Finally, we arrived, not at a palace,
[00:55:39] but at a house. Not before a throne, but before a child. And when we saw him, all of our learning fell silent, not erased, but fulfilled. We knelt, not because we were ignorant, but because we were
[00:55:56] wise enough to recognize holiness, even when it appeared without spectacle or fanfare. We opened our treasures, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, gifts fit for a king, a priest, and a suffering servant.
[00:56:14] But hear me, the greater gift was not what we carried in our hands. It was our humility.
[00:56:21] We did not explain him, we did not control him, we worshiped him.
[00:56:30] And so I offer one more word for your time.
[00:56:34] Generosity flows naturally from all.
[00:56:38] When the church loses wonder, it becomes stingy with grace, with resources, with mercy.
[00:56:46] But when we kneel before Christ, not the Christ of power, but the Christ of vulnerability, we will find our hands opening.
[00:56:56] without fear. And now the final truth I carried home with me, etched deeper than any star or any map. This child was born for us. And by us, I mean everyone. Look at us. We were foreigners,
[00:57:17] outsiders, practitioners of a different religion, speaking different languages, carrying different assumptions, yet the star rose for us too. A bunch of stargazers from who knows where, became a part of the Lord's birth narrative in Holy Scripture. I mean, what does that tell you?
[00:57:41] The Messiah did not and does not belong to one nation, one culture, one race, one denomination, one political party, one class, one worship style, one anything. From the very beginning, God announced, this is for all people. Please hear me. When we draw borders God did not draw,
[00:58:09] we betray the gospel when we confuse faith with country we miss the star when we fear outsiders more than injustice we kneel before the wrong throne when we cling to security over obedience to God's call we're never going to arrive at the Messiah's feet the light we followed still shines
[00:58:44] but only for those willing to look up, to set out, to bow low, to think clearly, and to love broadly. You know, we are ultimately guided, like I was with my magi friends, by God. The Bible helps, but it's God speaking through the Bible that we follow. But there's
[00:59:19] a progression in scripture. And if we're not careful, we miss it about God's guidance. You know, the Bible started out in Deuteronomy 23 saying, Moabites are bad. Stay away from them, Israel.
[00:59:36] They were not allowed to dwell among God's people. Then along comes Ruth, the Moabite, who challenges prejudice, marries Hebrew Boaz, and becomes the great-great-grandmother of Jesus.
[00:59:51] The Bible's clear. People from us are bad. Jeremiah 23. But then along comes the story of Job, a man from us, who was the most blameless man on earth, whom God called his servant.
[01:00:09] The Bible's clear. No foreigners or eunuchs are welcomed in the church. Deuteronomy again.
[01:00:16] Then Philip baptizes the African eunuch in Acts 8. The Bible's clear. Samaritans are bad. We are to hate them, then Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, in which the Samaritan is the righteous hero. The story may begin, whether it's in Scripture or whether it's in our lives, it may
[01:00:40] begin with boundaries, with discrimination, even hatred, but the Spirit of God constantly moves towards love, towards welcome, and towards community. That's what God does throughout the Bible. If it weren't true, none of us Gentiles would be sitting here today. I was one of the
[01:01:12] magi. I did not arrive unchanged, and neither should you. Follow the light, even when it costs you, especially when it leads you beyond yourself. And I'm going to share with you the great Christmas poem from Howard Thurman to end today, the work of Christmas. When the song of the angels
[01:01:36] is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins. To find the lost, to heal the broken,
[01:01:51] to feed the hungry, to release the prisoners, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among the people, to make music in the heart. Amen. We're now at the time in our service where we open our
[01:02:15] doors, we open our our roll and welcome anybody to join this family of faith who would like to either by professing faith in Jesus Christ for the first time, seeking baptism, or by moving your
[01:02:27] letter from another church to this one. Either way, we'd be glad to receive you. I'll be down front to greet you if you have such a decision to make as we stand and sing hymn number 115,
[01:02:38] Worship the Lord. Thanks so much for being here. I look forward to being with you again next week and hopefully seeing you in the meantime. I hope your new year gets off to a wonderful start.
[01:04:15] And as we take on 2026, may we all live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, forgive freely, pray daily, and leave the rest to God.