Theological Status: COMPROMISED (Worldly/Sloppy)
Biblical Parallel(Archetype): Pergamum
❓ What do these grades mean?
🔍 Biblical Discernment: The 7 Church Parallels
The Cold Orthodox Parallel
Ephesus
Teaching that upholds doctrinal precision yet parallels the loss of the "first love"—the vital, motivating power of the Gospel (Rev 2:4).
The Compromised Parallel
Pergamum
Teaching that parallels churches tolerating the "doctrine of Balaam" through cultural accommodation (Rev 2:14), characterized by weak boundaries, sloppy theology, and worldly compromise.
Why strictly "Mark & Avoid"?
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This ministry's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
We do not issue this rating to attack the speaker, but to protect the listener. This ministry's overall teaching trend consistently deviates from sound doctrine. As per Romans 16:17, we identify these patterns so believers can guard their hearts.
🧐 Overview
Theological Verdict & Summary
Sermon Summary: Are you relying on external religious performance or internal transformation? This sermon challenges the cultural assumption that adulthood marks the end of growth, urging believers to pursue a lifelong journey of becoming like Christ.
Pastoral Analysis: The pastor delivers a compelling message on humility and the necessity of spiritual disciplines, using vivid illustrations like the butterfly and the hollow branch. However, the sermon is compromised by a 'Christless Sanctification' approach, where the means of grace are presented as human efforts to 'place ourselves' for God's work, rather than responses to Christ's finished work. This creates a subtle but dangerous shift from gospel-driven growth to moralistic self-improvement.
Biblical Parallel (Archetype): Pergamum — The sermon blends orthodox truth with minor worldly philosophies. While it correctly identifies the need for spiritual growth and humility, it compromises the gospel by presenting sanctification as a human-led effort to access grace, rather than a Christ-centered response to finished redemption. This reflects a blending of biblical discipline with a works-based mindset.
Big Idea: The Christian life is a lifelong journey of transformation into the likeness of Christ, which requires humility and active engagement with the means of grace to bear the fruit of the Spirit, rather than relying on external religious performance. [00:27:44 ▶️ 📄]
🎨 The Visual Metaphor
The hollow branch represents the Christian emptied of self-reliance and pride, creating space for the Holy Spirit to flow through and bear fruit. Transformation occurs not through external decoration but through a humble connection to the Vine and a willingness to be used by God.
📖 How they Handle Scripture & Jesus
- Primary Text: Luke 18:9-14
- Usage Classification: Expository with Moralistic Application
- Text-to-Talk Ratio: High
- Pulpit Decorum: ✅ PASS - The pastor maintains a respectful and pastoral tone throughout.
✝️ Christological Focus: Implicit/Weak
"Christ is mentioned as the goal of transformation, but His atoning work is not presented as the means or power for sanctification."
Scripture Saturation: Verses Read: 21 | Referenced: 2 | Alluded: 0
Passages Read Aloud:
-
2 Timothy 4:6-8
[00:19:10 ▶️ 📄]
"For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing."
-
Luke 18:9-14
[00:24:29 ▶️ 📄]
"He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying, Thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other people, thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of all my income. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his home justified, rather than the other. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."
-
Deuteronomy 8:11-18
[00:32:58 ▶️ 📄]
"Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, Then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today."
-
Galatians 5:20-23
[00:39:19 ▶️ 📄]
"Idolatry, meaning putting your faith, hope, trust, and love in anything other than God. Sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, Quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. And this is what Paul says, I am warning you. I warned you before, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. By contrast, the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."
Key References: 2 Corinthians 3:18, John 15:5
🎙️ Sermon Content & Delivery
Word Count: 3,309 words
📌 Key Topics Addressed
-
Discipleship and Transformation
[00:07:14 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor introduces the concept of discipleship as a lifelong journey that transforms believers into the likeness of Christ, referencing 2 Corinthians 3. -
Humility vs. Self-Righteousness
[00:25:19 ▶️ 📄]
> Through the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the pastor contrasts self-exaltation with humility, asserting that 'all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.' -
Dependence on God
[00:31:49 ▶️ 📄]
> Using the metaphor of the vine and branches, the pastor argues that external religious performance is hollow without internal abiding in Christ, citing John 15:5. -
Stewardship and Providence
[00:33:49 ▶️ 📄]
> Referencing Deuteronomy 8, the pastor warns against forgetting God when prosperous, emphasizing that God gives the power to create wealth. -
Humility and Divine Provision
[00:33:08 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor warns against forgetting God when wealth multiplies, using a thought experiment about the grocery store supply chain to illustrate that human effort is dependent on God's provision. -
Paul's Transformation
[00:36:28 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor contrasts Paul's pre-conversion Pharisaical pride with his post-conversion life of hardship and grace, defining true transformation as moving from self-reliance to Christ-centeredness. -
The Fruits of the Spirit
[00:39:09 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor lists the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, etc.) and contrasts them with the works of the flesh, defining these fruits as supernatural gifts like peace in a hurricane rather than natural emotional states. -
Means of Grace
[00:40:46 ▶️ 📄]
> Referencing John Wesley, the pastor explains that placing oneself in 'means of grace' (prayer, scripture, communion, mercy) is necessary to receive God's transforming power, comparing refusal of these practices to refusing prescribed medicine. -
Formation vs. Information
[00:42:20 ▶️ 📄]
> Using Bloom's Taxonomy, the pastor argues that true faith learning is 'formation not just information,' requiring active practice and intentionality rather than passive listening or mere ritual participation.
🖼️ Illustrations & Stories
-
Sermon Illustration
[00:26:02 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor shares a personal anecdote about receiving a call from a member who lost their spouse, which sparked his desire to attend seminary to learn the 'right words' to say, only to later realize that seminary taught him 'the more you know, the more you realize you don't know.' -
Sermon Illustration
[00:28:21 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor uses the analogy of a butterfly transforming from a caterpillar to explain how believers should expect great transformation over their lifetime, even though they do not physically change species. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:31:35 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor describes a hollow tree branch that looks healthy on the outside but is empty inside, using it as a metaphor for the Pharisee who appears righteous externally but is void of the Spirit internally. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:34:07 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor recounts a conversation from the Bible Project podcast where a podcaster deconstructs the statement 'I worked hard to put food on the table' by asking where the food came from (the grocery store) and if the person works there, highlighting the role of providence and others in one's success. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:34:13 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor recounts a conversation from the Bible Project podcast where a podcaster deconstructs the claim 'I worked hard to put food on the table' by tracing the supply chain back to the grocery store, delivery truck, farm, and finally to God as the creator of seeds, soil, sun, and rain. -
Sermon Illustration
[00:43:54 ▶️ 📄]
> The pastor shares a personal anecdote about preparing a sermon on the fruits of the Spirit while yelling at his children for interrupting him, illustrating his own struggle with patience and gentleness and how his focus shifted from God to his own performance.
🚀 Calls to Action (Application)
-
Pastoral Charge
[00:28:18 ▶️ 📄]
> Close eyes and visualize a transforming creature (like a butterfly) to meditate on personal spiritual transformation. -
Pastoral Charge
[00:34:15 ▶️ 📄]
> Listen to the Bible Project podcast. -
Pastoral Charge
[00:34:15 ▶️ 📄]
> Listen to the Bible Project podcast. -
Pastoral Charge
[00:46:09 ▶️ 📄]
> Identify a specific fruit of the Spirit to focus on and seek moments of transformation in that area during the week.
🧭 Biblical Alignment Dashboard
Overall Verdict: Compromised / Weak
| Category | Status | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Gospel Presentation | ❌ FAIL | The Gospel Engine is broken due to 'Assumed Gospel / Christless Sanctification.' The sermon exhorts the congregation to pursue spiritual transformation and engage in spiritual disciplines but completely omits Christ's atoning death on the cross as the necessary foundation and fuel for this sanctification. |
| Soteriology | ⚠️ WEAK | The sermon teaches a synergistic view of grace by asserting that human action ('We place ourselves') is required to 'open us up' to the Holy Spirit's transforming power, contradicting the biblical doctrine of effectual, monergistic grace. |
| Bibliology | ✅ PASS | Scripture is used appropriately to illustrate the need for humility and the danger of self-righteousness. |
| Hermeneutic | ✅ PASS | The interpretation of Luke and Timothy texts is sound, though the application drifts into moralism. |
| Theology Proper | ✅ PASS | God is correctly identified as the source of power and provision, though the mechanism of receiving grace is misstated. |
| Sacramentology | ✅ PASS | No errors detected in sacramental theology. |
| Confessional Depth | ❌ FAIL | The sermon engages with deep theological concepts like the means of grace and sanctification, but lacks the robust Christological foundation necessary to anchor them. |
⚙️ The Gospel Engine (Confessional Distinctives)
✅ The Law And Wrath:
"those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." [00:39:44 ▶️ 📄]
✅ Total Depravity And Inability:
"None of us are accomplishing anything on our own." [00:35:50 ▶️ 📄]
✅ Active Obedience Of Christ:
"It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" [00:37:47 ▶️ 📄]
❌ The Cross And Atonement: Not observed in the sermon.
✅ Commendations
Illustration | The Hollow Branch
The pastor uses a vivid and memorable illustration of a hollow tree branch to explain the danger of external religious performance without internal connection to Christ.
Application | Thought Experiments on Providence
The pastor provides a practical 'thought experiment' to help the congregation combat pride by tracing their blessings back to God's provision, rather than their own power.
Vulnerability | Personal Anecdote on Patience
The pastor shares a personal struggle with patience and gentleness, modeling humility and making the message relatable.
⚠️ Theological Concerns
🟠 Christless Sanctification (The Error of Human Self-Sufficiency)
Root Cause: Moralistic Therapeutic Deism / Pelagianism (The Error of Human Self-Sufficiency)
"We place ourselves where God's grace flows. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, called this practice of placing ourselves where God's grace flows the means of grace. Means of grace are works of piety, mercy, and communion. Praying, reading scripture, public worship, fasting, feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, doing good to all people, especially the poor, and Christian conferencing... These means of grace open us up to the transforming power of God's grace." [00:40:46 ▶️ 📄]
Correction: Sanctification is not achieved by human placement but by union with Christ. We are sanctified by the truth (John 17:17) and the Spirit's work, not by our own efforts to 'open up' to Him. The means of grace are channels through which God works, not human ladders to climb to Him.
🟠 Synergistic Grace (The Error of Human Cooperation)
Root Cause: Semi-Pelagianism (The Error of Human Cooperation in Salvation)
"We place ourselves where God's grace flows. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, called this practice of placing ourselves where God's grace flows the means of grace. Means of grace are works of piety, mercy, and communion. Praying, reading scripture, public worship, fasting, feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, doing good to all people, especially the poor, and Christian conferencing... These means of grace open us up to the transforming power of God's grace." [00:40:46 ▶️ 📄]
Correction: True transformation is entirely the monergistic work of the Holy Spirit, who sovereignly and irresistibly applies grace to the elect without human preconditioning or placement. We are passive in regeneration but active in sanctification, yet even that activity is enabled by grace (Philippians 2:13).
📜 Full Sermon Transcript (Audit)
Use the 📄 icons next to quotes above to automatically jump to their location in this raw transcript.
[00:01:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Just so you'll know what's happening, those of you that are here on a regular basis every Sunday morning, notice that it's a little more wiggly and a little more noisy than it normally is.
[00:01:09] And we are so excited, kids, that you have come to sing for us and to lead us in worship today.
[00:01:16] If you are a regular here and you're thinking, man, there's a lot of stuff happening in here, enjoy it and love it for the children coming to be a part of this service.
[00:01:30] It might just, it might make you feel a little bit strange because you're not used to that much noise in this service.
[00:01:37] And I want you to remember that about 95% of the churches in this country would die to have this happen, to have noise in their church.
[00:01:45] So hallelujah, praise Jesus that we have children that are here.
[00:01:50] Not yet, not yet.
[00:01:53] So, our children are going to sing for us in just a minute.
[00:01:58] Parents of our kids, we are inviting you to, once they finish singing, they'll go back and sit with you.
[00:02:05] If they are a cherub, one of the youngest ones, and you want them to go to nursery, you can walk them over there and check them in.
[00:02:11] Otherwise, we have made this whole service mostly led by kids, except for the sermon.
[00:02:16] Thank you, Whitney.
[00:02:17] We're glad we didn't have that part.
[00:02:18] And we want our children to stay in worship with us today so they can go back and sit with you.
[00:02:23] There's lots of kid bags in the back so they'll have something to do.
[00:02:27] So before or as we begin our worship time this morning, Nina is going to lead us in Amazing Grace.
[00:03:03] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Let us pray.
[00:03:10] Let us pray.
[00:05:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Every word, every day, be kind one to another, God wants us to live this way Be a helper, be a friend, be your giving too Be a helper, be a friend, the whole world
[00:06:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Amen.
[00:06:19] What a great way to start worship this morning.
[00:06:22] Welcome to worship here at Williamson's Chapel United Methodist Church.
[00:06:26] My name is Pastor Wes Smith along with my co-pastor, my wife, Tony Ruth.
[00:06:31] We are delighted that you are here today.
[00:06:35] And actually, just for your prayers, Pastor Tony Ruth will be out of town this week on a week-long study leave in Durham.
[00:06:44] So she is not here this morning.
[00:06:46] She is getting ready to spend a week at Duke Divinity School for some renewal.
[00:06:53] So if you'll pray with Tonya Ruth this week, we'd very much appreciate it.
[00:06:58] And if you're joining us online this morning as well, we want to welcome you as we worship together.
[00:07:05] And a special Sunday, a very joyful Sunday, as we celebrate third graders receiving their Bibles.
[00:07:14] And we'll talk about what it means to be on a journey of discipleship.
[00:07:18] It's a lifelong journey.
[00:07:20] That transforms us into the likeness of Christ, a journey that we all travel together.
[00:07:27] As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, And we all are being transformed into His image with an ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
[00:07:39] And so part of that transformation is growing in our understanding of the Word as well as gathering together for worship.
[00:07:48] And we are also blessed this morning for Whitney Cassell to bring us the Word this morning, helping us think about how we grow in our faith as disciples.
[00:08:00] So as we continue, I'm going to invite you all to take a deep breath.
[00:08:07] Let us be centered and focused on God as we worship together.
[00:08:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Please stand for the call of worship.
[00:08:20] We gather as people on a journey.
[00:08:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
A journey of faith, of growing, of becoming.
[00:08:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
From our first breath to our final step, God's Spirit calls us forward, shaping us in love.
[00:08:41] The road is long, but Christ walks beside us.
[00:08:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Each season brings lessons, each trial refines our hearts.
[00:08:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Come, Holy Spirit, renew us again today.
[00:08:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Transform our hearts, guide our steps, and turn our eyes toward you, O God.
[00:09:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
We worship the God who makes all things new, now and forever.
[00:09:07] Amen.
[00:09:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
554.
[00:09:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
of Christ Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
[00:10:16] In my ears they lie in fear Voices of truth that sendest fear And while the waves of God are near Everything falls to dismay
[00:11:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
You may be seated.
[00:11:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
I invite all the children to come up and join me here at the front, including our third graders.
[00:12:06] Y'all can come on and sit around here.
[00:12:09] I'll come down to you guys.
[00:12:27] Holly, could you hand me my phone right there on the front view?
[00:12:33] Thank you.
[00:12:35] Good morning, children.
[00:12:40] Okay, we got...
[00:12:42] There you go, Gemma.
[00:12:45] Yeah, it's a little bit behind, but you got it.
[00:12:48] You're good.
[00:12:49] okay so today we're giving bibles to our third graders and it's a really important important day and um it's a well third graders that's next year when you're in third grade you'll get a bible and so i brought to read a verse to you all this morning i brought
[00:13:13] One of the first Bibles I ever had.
[00:13:15] By the way, if you can't see this, it's a Good News Bible that I apparently did not take very good care of because there's two layers of duct tape and then some scotch tape here holding this together.
[00:13:34] I got this Bible when I was probably 14 years old.
[00:13:40] And I don't really use it anymore.
[00:13:42] I have a lot of other Bibles that I use, but I keep this on top of a bookcase in my office.
[00:13:50] And I see it whenever I go into my office, and it's a reminder to me, it reminds me that God's Word is really important, and that I have been given a gift of God's Word, that God's Word Scripture is a gift.
[00:14:08] But here's how
[00:14:10] Bible, how Psalm 119 describes God's Word.
[00:14:15] It's a verse from the Psalms.
[00:14:16] It says, Your Word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path.
[00:14:26] All right, so what did I just turn on on my phone?
[00:14:30] My flashlight.
[00:14:32] Why would I need a flashlight?
[00:14:34] To see.
[00:14:34] To see what?
[00:14:37] To see in the dark.
[00:14:39] Why would I need to see in the dark?
[00:14:44] Because you can't see where you're going.
[00:14:52] You can't see where you're going.
[00:14:52] Because you can't read.
[00:14:53] Because you can't read?
[00:14:54] Oh, I like that.
[00:15:03] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
No, because you can't read.
[00:15:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
It's kind of like... Well, you've got to be able to see where you're going.
[00:15:07] You've got to be able to see where you're going.
[00:15:09] Grown-ups, how many of you have ever gotten up when it's dark and tried to walk somewhere without a light and stubbed your toe?
[00:15:14] Isn't that the worst?
[00:15:16] Especially in the middle of the night because then you're just awake for a while.
[00:15:20] So if we don't have a light and it's dark and we can't see if we don't have a light, we might get hurt.
[00:15:27] We might trip.
[00:15:29] So we need the light now.
[00:15:33] Turn that flashlight on.
[00:15:36] Scripture says, your word is a lamp and a light for my path.
[00:15:39] So if I did this, does that shine any light?
[00:15:43] No.
[00:15:44] So that verse of God's word is a light for my path, it doesn't mean a real light.
[00:15:51] It means that God's word, the Bible, helps me, it teaches me how to make good choices, how to be like Jesus, how to love people.
[00:16:02] How to have joy, how to be faithful to God.
[00:16:06] So we're learning in Scripture how to love God, how to love other people, and how to grow.
[00:16:13] So this Bible, and the Bible is the third graders getting ready to receive, it's full of truth and wisdom for us that can guide us, especially when things feel dark and we don't know where we're going.
[00:16:29] So we're going to go ahead and call up our third graders and hand them their Bibles.
[00:16:36] So when Miss Holly calls your name, come on, step on up here, and then we're going to pray together for our third graders.
[00:16:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Allison Sieberling.
[00:16:55] All right.
[00:16:55] And Carly Jones.
[00:17:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Friends, you hold in your hands God's Word and it is a treasure for all of us.
[00:17:29] It tells us who we are and it tells us that we belong to God.
[00:17:34] The Bible points us to Jesus and teaches us about God and His love for us and for the whole world.
[00:17:41] Friends, let us pray.
[00:17:44] Thank You, God, for the gift of Your Word.
[00:17:47] Please guide these children in Your truth as they read Your Word at home with their families and here at church.
[00:17:55] Help all of us to grow in our faith and in our love of Scripture, but more importantly in our love for our neighbors and our love for You.
[00:18:04] We pray for these young people that your word will be a lamp for their feet and a light for their path.
[00:18:10] In Jesus' name we pray.
[00:18:12] Amen.
[00:18:14] Thank you guys.
[00:18:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Quick reminder.
[00:18:22] Yes.
[00:18:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
I love how every year when we do this, they instantly start looking.
[00:18:42] Thank you guys.
[00:18:44] All right, children, you all can go back to your seats.
[00:18:47] Thank you.
[00:18:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Congregation, will you stand for the Scripture reading?
[00:19:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Is it the Gospel?
[00:19:04] Yeah, might as well.
[00:19:04] It's fine.
[00:19:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.
[00:19:16] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
[00:19:31] will award to me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
[00:19:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever
[00:20:20] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:20:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
In God's journey of faith together, sometimes weary, sometimes strong, along the way God gives us companions, people who remind us that we are never alone.
[00:20:47] Let us now share the peace of Christ as travelers on the same holy road.
[00:20:52] The peace of Christ be with you on your journey.
[00:20:59] I invite you now to greet each other with words like peace for your journey or God walks with you.
[00:21:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
No.
[00:22:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
I have a song, a joyful song, music of love and light.
[00:22:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
I will rejoice and live each day, growing in praise, sharing my praise, giving Christ to the Lord.
[00:22:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
I have a song,
[00:22:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
I will rejoice and live each day Glowing in grace, sharing my praise Giving my song to the Lord Hallelujah I will sing a beautiful song
[00:23:10] Alleluia!
[00:23:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
I will sing and lift up my voice.
[00:23:29] I have a song I'd like to share.
[00:23:30] Music to change the world.
[00:23:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
I will rejoice and live each day Throwing in praise, sharing my praise Giving my song to the Lord Giving my song to the Lord
[00:24:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Good morning.
[00:24:09] I want to start by thanking these children for this music.
[00:24:12] It is such a delight this morning, so thank you all so much for sharing that with us.
[00:24:20] Please listen to the scripture according to Luke, chapter 18, verses 9 through 14.
[00:24:29] He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.
[00:24:37] Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
[00:24:44] The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying,
[00:24:47] Thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other people, thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
[00:24:58] I fast twice a week.
[00:25:00] I give a tenth of all my income.
[00:25:03] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
[00:25:14] I tell you, this man went down to his home justified, rather than the other.
[00:25:19] For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.
[00:25:26] The word of God for all people.
[00:25:29] Thanks be to God.
[00:25:30] Please join me in prayer.
[00:25:33] Dearest God, thank you for this day that you have given us.
[00:25:36] Thank you for this moment in time for us all to be together to worship you and to hear your word.
[00:25:43] Thank you for being with us now and always, and I pray that you will open up our hearts and our minds to hear what we need to hear today, that we may be transformed by your word, and that we may apply it in our lives.
[00:25:57] It's in your great name we pray.
[00:25:59] Amen.
[00:26:02] So about five and a half years ago, I was the director of missions here at Williamson's Chapel.
[00:26:08] And I received a phone call from one of our members who had recently lost their spouse.
[00:26:14] And they wanted to give their spouse's clothing to one of our giving organizations.
[00:26:19] And I remember hanging up the phone from that call and just wishing that I would have had better words to say or maybe the right words to say or if I just could have done something differently or if I knew more.
[00:26:35] and that was really my first desire to want to pursue going to seminary and to be honest with you I had this idea that I would go to seminary and I would learn everything there was to know about God in seminary and I would know all the right things to say after I graduated from seminary and I'm happy to say that I'm five years in January 9th is my last day of my last class and I am counting because it's been quite a journey
[00:27:03] But on this journey, I have learned a phrase to be true in my life, which you're probably familiar with.
[00:27:12] And it's, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know.
[00:27:18] Correct.
[00:27:20] Seminary is a very humbling experience.
[00:27:22] It's not about what I know or what I don't know.
[00:27:27] It's actually not about me at all.
[00:27:29] It's about pointing people to God.
[00:27:33] Today we are giving our third graders their Bibles, or we already gave our third graders their Bibles, and they're beginning their faith journey as disciples of Christ.
[00:27:44] It is a journey that is a lifelong experience that involves humility, fruits of the Spirit, and transformation.
[00:27:52] Oftentimes I think
[00:27:55] Children at least, and I think sometimes adults too, think that once you've become an adult that your journey has ended, you know everything, there's nothing else to learn.
[00:28:06] But I want to remind everybody in here that we are all on this journey, every single person that is here.
[00:28:13] And it is a journey of transformation.
[00:28:18] I invite you to close your eyes for a second.
[00:28:21] I want you to think of something in creation.
[00:28:24] that transforms over its lifetime.
[00:28:28] Something that has been created that transforms greatly over its lifetime.
[00:28:33] Open your eyes.
[00:28:34] Who thought of a butterfly?
[00:28:36] Anybody visualize a butterfly?
[00:28:38] Butterflies go through a great transformation that you can see.
[00:28:43] While we are not caterpillars transforming into butterflies, we should think of our lives in the same way.
[00:28:53] We read two scriptures today.
[00:28:54] There was a parable in Luke and a letter from Paul in prison in the book of Timothy.
[00:29:01] These stories from the Bible help us see what a lifelong faith journey of transformation and humility look like and why they are important.
[00:29:11] In the parable of Luke, we have two characters.
[00:29:15] We have the Pharisee and the tax collector.
[00:29:19] In ancient times, Pharisees were the moral, religious guides of the time.
[00:29:24] They were highly regarded.
[00:29:26] People looked up to them.
[00:29:28] People wanted to know what they were saying and what they were doing, and they would do and say what the Pharisees would do and say.
[00:29:36] If you think of it from a school perspective, they're the ones who sit down at the lunchroom cafeteria and everybody sits down with them.
[00:29:43] They want to know them and they want to hear what the Pharisee is saying.
[00:29:46] Then you have the tax collector, who was regarded as one of the most immoral jobs you could possibly have, and people did not like tax collectors.
[00:29:58] They were the ones that would sit down at the lunchroom table and everybody at that table would get up and leave.
[00:30:04] You didn't want to be seen with a tax collector.
[00:30:08] And in this parable that Jesus tells, they each say a prayer.
[00:30:12] And the prayer that the Pharisee says is basically this.
[00:30:17] Thank you so much God that I am doing everything right.
[00:30:21] I am doing everything that you told me and because I'm doing everything that you told me and I'm doing it so well I have such a great life.
[00:30:29] I am so thankful I am not like these people, these lowly people and like this tax collector.
[00:30:37] Then he tells the story of how the tax collector prays, with a completely different posture.
[00:30:44] The tax collector cannot even raise his head as he's praying.
[00:30:48] Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.
[00:30:52] Jesus then goes on to say that one of those people is exalted and the other one needs to be humbled.
[00:31:00] And what would be shocking to the listeners at the time was it was the tax collector that was exalted.
[00:31:08] Why would Jesus say that?
[00:31:11] This scripture is an excellent lesson on humility.
[00:31:15] From the outside, it looks like the Pharisee is doing everything right.
[00:31:19] But clearly, by Christ's standard, he is not.
[00:31:24] I recently learned this, if you look at this picture up here, I hope you guys can see this, there is a branch, and I never knew this before, there are branches that come off of trees that look like they're healthy and they're doing well, but if you look on the inside of the branch, it's completely hollowed out.
[00:31:44] In John 15 5, Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches.
[00:31:49] Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
[00:31:58] The Pharisee is the branch that is hollow inside.
[00:32:03] From the outside he is doing everything right, but on the inside he is empty, void of the nutrients that God provides, void of the fruit of the Spirit.
[00:32:15] Jesus is using him as an example in the parable as one who trusts in themselves that they were righteous and holds others with contempt.
[00:32:25] When a storm comes, this branch will surely fall.
[00:32:31] There is a great part of Deuteronomy 8 where Moses is talking to the Israelites as they're getting ready to enter into the Promised Land after being in the wilderness for 40 years.
[00:32:43] And he's really taking this time to talk to them about everything that he thinks is important for them to know.
[00:32:49] I want to read from you Deuteronomy 8, 11 through 18.
[00:32:58] Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today.
[00:33:08] When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied,
[00:33:22] Then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good.
[00:33:42] Do not say to yourself, My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.
[00:33:49] But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.
[00:34:00] Don't forget God when you enter the Promised Land.
[00:34:07] There is a great story I heard recently on a podcast I listened to, or a great conversation rather.
[00:34:13] I listened to the Bible Project.
[00:34:15] I highly recommend it if you're looking for a podcast to listen to.
[00:34:19] And they were having a conversation kind of about what this would look like in modern times.
[00:34:25] And one of the podcasters said something that a lot of people, you hear a lot of people say is, I worked really hard to put the food on the table for my family.
[00:34:34] I did that.
[00:34:36] And the podcaster said, that is 100% true, you did do that.
[00:34:41] Where did you get the food from?
[00:34:42] And he said, well, I got it from the grocery store.
[00:34:45] Do you work at the grocery store?
[00:34:48] No.
[00:34:50] So there are a lot of people that work at the grocery store that there is food for you to buy there.
[00:34:55] Yes.
[00:34:55] Where does the grocery store get the food?
[00:34:58] Well, a delivery truck, probably, some kind of delivery service.
[00:35:02] Do you work for the delivery service?
[00:35:05] No.
[00:35:06] Okay, so there are people involved in getting that food to the grocery store.
[00:35:10] Where does the delivery truck get the products?
[00:35:14] From either a packaging plant or maybe even directly from a farm?
[00:35:18] And you keep doing this thought project or process until you get down to the bare bones of it.
[00:35:25] Who made the seed that was put into the ground?
[00:35:28] Who made the soil?
[00:35:29] Who provides the sun and the rain and the water?
[00:35:34] It's a very humbling process and journey to take and you can do it with everything that you have in your life.
[00:35:43] God is reminding us to not forget about each other and to not forget about God.
[00:35:50] None of us are accomplishing anything on our own.
[00:35:54] So how can we stay humble even when things are going really well when we're in the promised land and we begin to think it is because of ourselves?
[00:36:04] Maybe we can do more thought experiments and maybe we can remember the 40 years in the wilderness that we are always told to never forget.
[00:36:14] Now let's look at Paul and his letter to Timothy to understand transformation, what it looks like, and why we are called to transformation as disciples of Christ.
[00:36:28] In 2 Timothy 4, 6-8, at first glance, this sounds a lot like the Pharisees' prayer from Luke.
[00:36:37] But we need to look more closely at Paul when he said this.
[00:36:42] First of all, Paul was saying this from a prison.
[00:36:46] He was not saying this from a place of comfort.
[00:36:50] Secondly, you have to take Paul's life into consideration.
[00:36:54] Paul was originally a Pharisee himself, much like the Pharisee from Luke, who thought he knew everything about God and about how you were to follow God.
[00:37:08] He could not stand the teachings of Jesus Christ, so much so that he persecuted followers of Christ and even killed followers of Christ.
[00:37:19] But everything changed in Paul's life on the road to Damascus when he encountered Jesus Christ.
[00:37:27] Everything he knew to be true got turned upside down.
[00:37:33] He realized righteousness doesn't come from the law, but through faith in Christ .
[00:37:37] His entire life became centered on grace, saying, It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me .
[00:37:47] He began preaching the very message he once opposed .
[00:37:55] He dedicated the rest of his life to the message of Christ.
[00:38:00] He no longer condemned his neighbor.
[00:38:02] He loved his neighbor.
[00:38:04] He even loved his enemies .
[00:38:06] He was no longer a man of wealth, power, and status, but one who went on from that moment, facing many hardships.
[00:38:17] He was beaten, shipwrecked, prisoned, and often hungry.
[00:38:23] That is what he meant by, I have fought the good fight.
[00:38:26] I have finished the race.
[00:38:28] I have kept the faith.
[00:38:30] This is not a man holding himself up high from a place of comfort congratulating his good works.
[00:38:38] God is not calling all of us
[00:38:40] To be Paul.
[00:38:42] But make certain to know that God is calling all of us.
[00:38:46] He is calling us to be transformed by the Holy Spirit so that we may be more like Christ, so that we may be more like the image of God that we were created to be.
[00:38:57] But how do we know if we are transforming?
[00:39:01] How do we know if we are connected to the vine and growing in Christ and not a hollow branch?
[00:39:09] Paul says in Galatians 5, 20-23, You will notice the fruits of the Spirit in you.
[00:39:17] Listen to his words.
[00:39:19] Idolatry, meaning putting your faith, hope, trust, and love in anything other than God.
[00:39:25] Sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger,
[00:39:32] Quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.
[00:39:40] And this is what Paul says, I am warning you.
[00:39:44] I warned you before, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
[00:39:52] By contrast, the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
[00:40:04] Who doesn't yearn for a life filled with these fruits?
[00:40:09] Love that is sustaining, not fleeting.
[00:40:12] Joy in the midst of pain.
[00:40:14] This is not happiness when things are going well.
[00:40:19] This is worshiping and praising God that he is with you when things are very, very hard.
[00:40:26] Peace in the midst of chaos.
[00:40:29] This is not peace in a spa or a zen garden.
[00:40:32] This is peace in the middle of a hurricane.
[00:40:35] These are the gifts that only God can provide.
[00:40:41] How do we make room for the Holy Spirit to work within us?
[00:40:46] We place ourselves where God's grace flows.
[00:40:50] John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, called this practice of placing ourselves where God's grace flows the means of grace.
[00:41:00] Means of grace are works of piety, mercy, and communion.
[00:41:06] Praying, reading scripture, public worship, fasting, feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, doing good to all people, especially the poor, and Christian conferencing, which is any time two or more Christians are together, whether it's a Bible study or it's just a friendly text of encouragement like the one Pastor Mark gave me yesterday.
[00:41:33] These are just to name a few.
[00:41:35] These means of grace open us up to the transforming power of God's grace.
[00:41:42] Wesley said refusing them was like refusing the medicine that God prescribed for our souls.
[00:41:51] But there are people who do all these things on the outside and there still doesn't seem to be much movement or transformation on the inside.
[00:42:01] I'm sure the Pharisee did a lot of these things because he was expected to.
[00:42:06] They were the moral leaders of the time.
[00:42:08] It is important what your intention, your type of participation is, and what your focus is when you are participating in these means of grace.
[00:42:20] This is a slide that is in my Christian education classes and seminary, and I love it.
[00:42:25] It brings down Bloom's Taxonomy, which if you're a teacher, you're probably familiar with what that is, but it talks about how people learn things.
[00:42:37] You can listen to something and easily forget it.
[00:42:41] You need to practice it.
[00:42:43] and then you need to start doing it and then the more you do it then you start living it it becomes who we are true learning especially in faith is formation not just information
[00:42:59] We must do more than just listen.
[00:43:02] We must do more than just go through the movements.
[00:43:06] We have to want to transform.
[00:43:09] We have to stay humble.
[00:43:11] Coming to listen to a sermon once a week and leaving without ever thinking about it again for the rest of the week or maybe ever is not going to transform you.
[00:43:22] We need the medicine of the soul.
[00:43:24] We need to be actively opening ourselves up through the means of grace with the intention of wanting to transform.
[00:43:34] It is also very easy to slip into
[00:43:39] Not following this.
[00:43:41] But it will come to your attention pretty quickly when you realize that you're not in a place where you're letting the Holy Spirit transform you.
[00:43:48] And I am guilty of this as early and recently as yesterday.
[00:43:54] I was preparing for my sermon and my kids will tell you there wasn't a lot of gentleness and patience happening from me yesterday as they kept interrupting me.
[00:44:06] And it's interesting with sermon prep, I love prepping for sermons.
[00:44:11] I plan for my sermons a month in advance and every day that I wake up I feel like God has revealed something new to me.
[00:44:17] And it's such a fun journey up until the day before I give the sermon.
[00:44:23] And I remember as Pastor Mark texted me and said, good luck tomorrow.
[00:44:28] I said, thank you.
[00:44:28] It's very humbling writing a sermon about the fruits of the Spirit while I'm yelling at my children.
[00:44:33] And he said, well, that sounds like an example of practical experience you should include.
[00:44:40] And it really got me thinking.
[00:44:43] Why am I so upset today?
[00:44:45] Why am I so easy to anger?
[00:44:48] And I realize that as I'm prepping for my sermon the days before today, I'm just enjoying God's Word.
[00:44:56] I am bathing in it, honestly.
[00:44:58] And it's just really cool because I feel like things are being shown to me every day.
[00:45:03] But then my focus shifts the day before and I start thinking about, well, how am I going to sound?
[00:45:09] Is this short enough?
[00:45:10] Is this running too long?
[00:45:11] Did I say this right?
[00:45:12] Am I wearing the right thing?
[00:45:15] My focus completely leaves God and it becomes so evident because you don't see the fruit of the Spirit anymore.
[00:45:25] So that was a very humbling experience for me.
[00:45:27] And that's why I want to tell these third graders, you're not in this journey by yourself.
[00:45:34] We are all in this journey together.
[00:45:39] We are all humbly transforming together.
[00:45:42] No one has all the answers, but we can all point our lives and each other to the one that does, and that is God.
[00:45:52] We can all be a vine connected to God that bears the fruit of the Spirit.
[00:45:58] We can all become butterflies.
[00:46:01] In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
[00:46:07] If you'll put this slide, thank you.
[00:46:09] As a response to this sermon, I'd like for you to look at this slide and think of one of these fruits of the Spirit that you would really like God to help you with this week, that you would really like to see transformed in probably moments, nobody achieves all of these all the time, but just to feel moments of these throughout the week.
[00:46:35] So go ahead and pick which one that is for you, and then please join me in prayer.
[00:46:40] Dearest God, we come humbly before you.
[00:46:47] We oftentimes think it is about us, and we need to keep remembering that it is not about us.
[00:46:53] It is not about how much we know.
[00:46:55] It's not about how good we say things.
[00:47:00] It's about your love, grace, and mercy.
[00:47:04] And we are so thankful for that.
[00:47:06] We're thankful that you hold us every minute of every day.
[00:47:10] Dear Lord, we each have a fruit of the Spirit that we're lifting up to you right now.
[00:47:15] And we just pray that you will transform us in that way and that we will know it and we will feel it.
[00:47:24] Help us to be mindful this week when we start to feel things like anger, frustration, anxiety.
[00:47:31] Help us to look within, to spend time in prayer or maybe conferencing with each other, that you may speak to us and reveal to us how we can get back to the fruit of the Spirit.
[00:47:46] Dear Lord, it is in your great and glorious name that we pray.
[00:47:50] Amen.
[00:48:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]:
It's time for the part of service that is the offering.
[00:48:40] This is a very special time of the service where we get to respond to how good and great God is.
[00:48:49] When we pass the plates around, think about all the ways that God has blessed you through this church and your friends here.
[00:48:59] We invite you to give generously so that we can continue living our faith
[00:49:05] Here at church and in the world around us by sharing Bible stories, going to Sunday school, and of course singing in the kids chorus.
[00:49:17] There is a QR code on the screen if you'd like to give digitally.
[00:49:31] Let us pray.
[00:49:32] Thank you God for all the ways you lead us and guide us.
[00:49:36] Thank you for the church that allows kids like us to worship and learn about Jesus.
[00:49:43] Amen.
[00:51:02] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Let us pray.
[00:51:38] The Gospel of the Lord
[00:52:41] In Jesus' name we pray.
[00:53:09] Amen.
[00:54:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
.
[00:54:52] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
.
[00:54:52] .
[00:54:52] .
[00:54:52] .
[00:55:18] Let our humble blessings flow,
[00:55:40] of the Holy One, Praise Him above the heavenly host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
[00:56:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Our closing hymn is In the Garden on 314.
[00:56:12] Let's join together.
[00:57:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
He speaks at the Son's door
[00:58:10] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
The Lord is with me, and he tells me I am his own.
[00:58:31] And the joy we share, he tells me that no other has a better home.
[00:58:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Let's stay in the Lord.
[00:59:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one.
[01:00:01] Are we... does Daylight Savings Time begin or end next week?
[01:00:06] It ends next week.
[01:00:07] I had never known.
[01:00:09] You get an extra hour next week.
[01:00:11] So just be aware.
[01:00:13] You get an extra hour of sleep.
[01:00:15] And I think if you get an extra hour, that means if you show up here at 11, it'll be... Just change your clocks!
[01:00:23] And we use our phones anyway, so really you don't have to do anything.
[01:00:30] Time change next week.
[01:00:31] It's also First Food Sunday.
[01:00:32] First Sunday of the month.
[01:00:34] And we're continuing what we've been doing as we get closer to the end of the year in November.
[01:00:41] We try to kind of give a little push as we move into the colder months, the needs and demands on food pantries.
[01:00:49] We've done a men versus women challenge.
[01:01:01] And fellas, we've lost every year.
[01:01:05] And that's just not right.
[01:01:07] So men, you need to do the grocery shopping for your family this week.
[01:01:15] Pick up a few things for...
[01:01:18] First Food Sunday and you're not going to bring it to the shopping carts we normally use, although I say buggies.
[01:01:27] There's not going to be any buggies out there.
[01:01:30] There will be trucks down in the parking lot.
[01:01:32] You'll bring your items to the kind of overhang right there and we'll weigh the items.
[01:01:38] God bless you.
[01:02:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Our next big rehearsal is this afternoon from 2 to 4.
[01:02:06] If you were on the fence about whether you wanted to join in with Messiah, today's your day.
[01:02:11] Come on up here at 2 o'clock, join in, see how it feels, and we'll go from there.
[01:02:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Yeah, what an awesome opportunity to come together with a lot of different people from our community to prepare for a wonderful Messiah performance as we begin looking crazily enough to Advent and Christmas.
[01:02:29] So, yeah.
[01:02:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
As you go out from the sanctuary into the world, remember that God is not calling you to be perfect or right.
[01:02:39] God is calling you to stay connected to the vine, to love God and love one another, and to point each other to the one who does know, which is God.
[01:02:48] Go out now and be held in his love every minute of every day.
[01:02:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Amen.
Just so you'll know what's happening, those of you that are here on a regular basis every Sunday morning, notice that it's a little more wiggly and a little more noisy than it normally is.
[00:01:09] And we are so excited, kids, that you have come to sing for us and to lead us in worship today.
[00:01:16] If you are a regular here and you're thinking, man, there's a lot of stuff happening in here, enjoy it and love it for the children coming to be a part of this service.
[00:01:30] It might just, it might make you feel a little bit strange because you're not used to that much noise in this service.
[00:01:37] And I want you to remember that about 95% of the churches in this country would die to have this happen, to have noise in their church.
[00:01:45] So hallelujah, praise Jesus that we have children that are here.
[00:01:50] Not yet, not yet.
[00:01:53] So, our children are going to sing for us in just a minute.
[00:01:58] Parents of our kids, we are inviting you to, once they finish singing, they'll go back and sit with you.
[00:02:05] If they are a cherub, one of the youngest ones, and you want them to go to nursery, you can walk them over there and check them in.
[00:02:11] Otherwise, we have made this whole service mostly led by kids, except for the sermon.
[00:02:16] Thank you, Whitney.
[00:02:17] We're glad we didn't have that part.
[00:02:18] And we want our children to stay in worship with us today so they can go back and sit with you.
[00:02:23] There's lots of kid bags in the back so they'll have something to do.
[00:02:27] So before or as we begin our worship time this morning, Nina is going to lead us in Amazing Grace.
[00:03:03] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Let us pray.
[00:03:10] Let us pray.
[00:05:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Every word, every day, be kind one to another, God wants us to live this way Be a helper, be a friend, be your giving too Be a helper, be a friend, the whole world
[00:06:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Amen.
[00:06:19] What a great way to start worship this morning.
[00:06:22] Welcome to worship here at Williamson's Chapel United Methodist Church.
[00:06:26] My name is Pastor Wes Smith along with my co-pastor, my wife, Tony Ruth.
[00:06:31] We are delighted that you are here today.
[00:06:35] And actually, just for your prayers, Pastor Tony Ruth will be out of town this week on a week-long study leave in Durham.
[00:06:44] So she is not here this morning.
[00:06:46] She is getting ready to spend a week at Duke Divinity School for some renewal.
[00:06:53] So if you'll pray with Tonya Ruth this week, we'd very much appreciate it.
[00:06:58] And if you're joining us online this morning as well, we want to welcome you as we worship together.
[00:07:05] And a special Sunday, a very joyful Sunday, as we celebrate third graders receiving their Bibles.
[00:07:14] And we'll talk about what it means to be on a journey of discipleship.
[00:07:18] It's a lifelong journey.
[00:07:20] That transforms us into the likeness of Christ, a journey that we all travel together.
[00:07:27] As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, And we all are being transformed into His image with an ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
[00:07:39] And so part of that transformation is growing in our understanding of the Word as well as gathering together for worship.
[00:07:48] And we are also blessed this morning for Whitney Cassell to bring us the Word this morning, helping us think about how we grow in our faith as disciples.
[00:08:00] So as we continue, I'm going to invite you all to take a deep breath.
[00:08:07] Let us be centered and focused on God as we worship together.
[00:08:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Please stand for the call of worship.
[00:08:20] We gather as people on a journey.
[00:08:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
A journey of faith, of growing, of becoming.
[00:08:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
From our first breath to our final step, God's Spirit calls us forward, shaping us in love.
[00:08:41] The road is long, but Christ walks beside us.
[00:08:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Each season brings lessons, each trial refines our hearts.
[00:08:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
Come, Holy Spirit, renew us again today.
[00:08:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Transform our hearts, guide our steps, and turn our eyes toward you, O God.
[00:09:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]:
We worship the God who makes all things new, now and forever.
[00:09:07] Amen.
[00:09:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
554.
[00:09:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
of Christ Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
[00:10:16] In my ears they lie in fear Voices of truth that sendest fear And while the waves of God are near Everything falls to dismay
[00:11:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
You may be seated.
[00:11:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
I invite all the children to come up and join me here at the front, including our third graders.
[00:12:06] Y'all can come on and sit around here.
[00:12:09] I'll come down to you guys.
[00:12:27] Holly, could you hand me my phone right there on the front view?
[00:12:33] Thank you.
[00:12:35] Good morning, children.
[00:12:40] Okay, we got...
[00:12:42] There you go, Gemma.
[00:12:45] Yeah, it's a little bit behind, but you got it.
[00:12:48] You're good.
[00:12:49] okay so today we're giving bibles to our third graders and it's a really important important day and um it's a well third graders that's next year when you're in third grade you'll get a bible and so i brought to read a verse to you all this morning i brought
[00:13:13] One of the first Bibles I ever had.
[00:13:15] By the way, if you can't see this, it's a Good News Bible that I apparently did not take very good care of because there's two layers of duct tape and then some scotch tape here holding this together.
[00:13:34] I got this Bible when I was probably 14 years old.
[00:13:40] And I don't really use it anymore.
[00:13:42] I have a lot of other Bibles that I use, but I keep this on top of a bookcase in my office.
[00:13:50] And I see it whenever I go into my office, and it's a reminder to me, it reminds me that God's Word is really important, and that I have been given a gift of God's Word, that God's Word Scripture is a gift.
[00:14:08] But here's how
[00:14:10] Bible, how Psalm 119 describes God's Word.
[00:14:15] It's a verse from the Psalms.
[00:14:16] It says, Your Word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path.
[00:14:26] All right, so what did I just turn on on my phone?
[00:14:30] My flashlight.
[00:14:32] Why would I need a flashlight?
[00:14:34] To see.
[00:14:34] To see what?
[00:14:37] To see in the dark.
[00:14:39] Why would I need to see in the dark?
[00:14:44] Because you can't see where you're going.
[00:14:52] You can't see where you're going.
[00:14:52] Because you can't read.
[00:14:53] Because you can't read?
[00:14:54] Oh, I like that.
[00:15:03] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
No, because you can't read.
[00:15:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
It's kind of like... Well, you've got to be able to see where you're going.
[00:15:07] You've got to be able to see where you're going.
[00:15:09] Grown-ups, how many of you have ever gotten up when it's dark and tried to walk somewhere without a light and stubbed your toe?
[00:15:14] Isn't that the worst?
[00:15:16] Especially in the middle of the night because then you're just awake for a while.
[00:15:20] So if we don't have a light and it's dark and we can't see if we don't have a light, we might get hurt.
[00:15:27] We might trip.
[00:15:29] So we need the light now.
[00:15:33] Turn that flashlight on.
[00:15:36] Scripture says, your word is a lamp and a light for my path.
[00:15:39] So if I did this, does that shine any light?
[00:15:43] No.
[00:15:44] So that verse of God's word is a light for my path, it doesn't mean a real light.
[00:15:51] It means that God's word, the Bible, helps me, it teaches me how to make good choices, how to be like Jesus, how to love people.
[00:16:02] How to have joy, how to be faithful to God.
[00:16:06] So we're learning in Scripture how to love God, how to love other people, and how to grow.
[00:16:13] So this Bible, and the Bible is the third graders getting ready to receive, it's full of truth and wisdom for us that can guide us, especially when things feel dark and we don't know where we're going.
[00:16:29] So we're going to go ahead and call up our third graders and hand them their Bibles.
[00:16:36] So when Miss Holly calls your name, come on, step on up here, and then we're going to pray together for our third graders.
[00:16:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Allison Sieberling.
[00:16:55] All right.
[00:16:55] And Carly Jones.
[00:17:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Friends, you hold in your hands God's Word and it is a treasure for all of us.
[00:17:29] It tells us who we are and it tells us that we belong to God.
[00:17:34] The Bible points us to Jesus and teaches us about God and His love for us and for the whole world.
[00:17:41] Friends, let us pray.
[00:17:44] Thank You, God, for the gift of Your Word.
[00:17:47] Please guide these children in Your truth as they read Your Word at home with their families and here at church.
[00:17:55] Help all of us to grow in our faith and in our love of Scripture, but more importantly in our love for our neighbors and our love for You.
[00:18:04] We pray for these young people that your word will be a lamp for their feet and a light for their path.
[00:18:10] In Jesus' name we pray.
[00:18:12] Amen.
[00:18:14] Thank you guys.
[00:18:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Quick reminder.
[00:18:22] Yes.
[00:18:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
I love how every year when we do this, they instantly start looking.
[00:18:42] Thank you guys.
[00:18:44] All right, children, you all can go back to your seats.
[00:18:47] Thank you.
[00:18:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Congregation, will you stand for the Scripture reading?
[00:19:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Is it the Gospel?
[00:19:04] Yeah, might as well.
[00:19:04] It's fine.
[00:19:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.
[00:19:16] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
[00:19:31] will award to me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
[00:19:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever
[00:20:20] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:20:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
In God's journey of faith together, sometimes weary, sometimes strong, along the way God gives us companions, people who remind us that we are never alone.
[00:20:47] Let us now share the peace of Christ as travelers on the same holy road.
[00:20:52] The peace of Christ be with you on your journey.
[00:20:59] I invite you now to greet each other with words like peace for your journey or God walks with you.
[00:21:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
No.
[00:22:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
I have a song, a joyful song, music of love and light.
[00:22:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
I will rejoice and live each day, growing in praise, sharing my praise, giving Christ to the Lord.
[00:22:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
I have a song,
[00:22:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
I will rejoice and live each day Glowing in grace, sharing my praise Giving my song to the Lord Hallelujah I will sing a beautiful song
[00:23:10] Alleluia!
[00:23:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
I will sing and lift up my voice.
[00:23:29] I have a song I'd like to share.
[00:23:30] Music to change the world.
[00:23:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
I will rejoice and live each day Throwing in praise, sharing my praise Giving my song to the Lord Giving my song to the Lord
[00:24:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Good morning.
[00:24:09] I want to start by thanking these children for this music.
[00:24:12] It is such a delight this morning, so thank you all so much for sharing that with us.
[00:24:20] Please listen to the scripture according to Luke, chapter 18, verses 9 through 14.
[00:24:29] He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.
[00:24:37] Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
[00:24:44] The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying,
[00:24:47] Thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other people, thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
[00:24:58] I fast twice a week.
[00:25:00] I give a tenth of all my income.
[00:25:03] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
[00:25:14] I tell you, this man went down to his home justified, rather than the other.
[00:25:19] For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.
[00:25:26] The word of God for all people.
[00:25:29] Thanks be to God.
[00:25:30] Please join me in prayer.
[00:25:33] Dearest God, thank you for this day that you have given us.
[00:25:36] Thank you for this moment in time for us all to be together to worship you and to hear your word.
[00:25:43] Thank you for being with us now and always, and I pray that you will open up our hearts and our minds to hear what we need to hear today, that we may be transformed by your word, and that we may apply it in our lives.
[00:25:57] It's in your great name we pray.
[00:25:59] Amen.
[00:26:02] So about five and a half years ago, I was the director of missions here at Williamson's Chapel.
[00:26:08] And I received a phone call from one of our members who had recently lost their spouse.
[00:26:14] And they wanted to give their spouse's clothing to one of our giving organizations.
[00:26:19] And I remember hanging up the phone from that call and just wishing that I would have had better words to say or maybe the right words to say or if I just could have done something differently or if I knew more.
[00:26:35] and that was really my first desire to want to pursue going to seminary and to be honest with you I had this idea that I would go to seminary and I would learn everything there was to know about God in seminary and I would know all the right things to say after I graduated from seminary and I'm happy to say that I'm five years in January 9th is my last day of my last class and I am counting because it's been quite a journey
[00:27:03] But on this journey, I have learned a phrase to be true in my life, which you're probably familiar with.
[00:27:12] And it's, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know.
[00:27:18] Correct.
[00:27:20] Seminary is a very humbling experience.
[00:27:22] It's not about what I know or what I don't know.
[00:27:27] It's actually not about me at all.
[00:27:29] It's about pointing people to God.
[00:27:33] Today we are giving our third graders their Bibles, or we already gave our third graders their Bibles, and they're beginning their faith journey as disciples of Christ.
[00:27:44] It is a journey that is a lifelong experience that involves humility, fruits of the Spirit, and transformation.
[00:27:52] Oftentimes I think
[00:27:55] Children at least, and I think sometimes adults too, think that once you've become an adult that your journey has ended, you know everything, there's nothing else to learn.
[00:28:06] But I want to remind everybody in here that we are all on this journey, every single person that is here.
[00:28:13] And it is a journey of transformation.
[00:28:18] I invite you to close your eyes for a second.
[00:28:21] I want you to think of something in creation.
[00:28:24] that transforms over its lifetime.
[00:28:28] Something that has been created that transforms greatly over its lifetime.
[00:28:33] Open your eyes.
[00:28:34] Who thought of a butterfly?
[00:28:36] Anybody visualize a butterfly?
[00:28:38] Butterflies go through a great transformation that you can see.
[00:28:43] While we are not caterpillars transforming into butterflies, we should think of our lives in the same way.
[00:28:53] We read two scriptures today.
[00:28:54] There was a parable in Luke and a letter from Paul in prison in the book of Timothy.
[00:29:01] These stories from the Bible help us see what a lifelong faith journey of transformation and humility look like and why they are important.
[00:29:11] In the parable of Luke, we have two characters.
[00:29:15] We have the Pharisee and the tax collector.
[00:29:19] In ancient times, Pharisees were the moral, religious guides of the time.
[00:29:24] They were highly regarded.
[00:29:26] People looked up to them.
[00:29:28] People wanted to know what they were saying and what they were doing, and they would do and say what the Pharisees would do and say.
[00:29:36] If you think of it from a school perspective, they're the ones who sit down at the lunchroom cafeteria and everybody sits down with them.
[00:29:43] They want to know them and they want to hear what the Pharisee is saying.
[00:29:46] Then you have the tax collector, who was regarded as one of the most immoral jobs you could possibly have, and people did not like tax collectors.
[00:29:58] They were the ones that would sit down at the lunchroom table and everybody at that table would get up and leave.
[00:30:04] You didn't want to be seen with a tax collector.
[00:30:08] And in this parable that Jesus tells, they each say a prayer.
[00:30:12] And the prayer that the Pharisee says is basically this.
[00:30:17] Thank you so much God that I am doing everything right.
[00:30:21] I am doing everything that you told me and because I'm doing everything that you told me and I'm doing it so well I have such a great life.
[00:30:29] I am so thankful I am not like these people, these lowly people and like this tax collector.
[00:30:37] Then he tells the story of how the tax collector prays, with a completely different posture.
[00:30:44] The tax collector cannot even raise his head as he's praying.
[00:30:48] Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.
[00:30:52] Jesus then goes on to say that one of those people is exalted and the other one needs to be humbled.
[00:31:00] And what would be shocking to the listeners at the time was it was the tax collector that was exalted.
[00:31:08] Why would Jesus say that?
[00:31:11] This scripture is an excellent lesson on humility.
[00:31:15] From the outside, it looks like the Pharisee is doing everything right.
[00:31:19] But clearly, by Christ's standard, he is not.
[00:31:24] I recently learned this, if you look at this picture up here, I hope you guys can see this, there is a branch, and I never knew this before, there are branches that come off of trees that look like they're healthy and they're doing well, but if you look on the inside of the branch, it's completely hollowed out.
[00:31:44] In John 15 5, Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches.
[00:31:49] Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
[00:31:58] The Pharisee is the branch that is hollow inside.
[00:32:03] From the outside he is doing everything right, but on the inside he is empty, void of the nutrients that God provides, void of the fruit of the Spirit.
[00:32:15] Jesus is using him as an example in the parable as one who trusts in themselves that they were righteous and holds others with contempt.
[00:32:25] When a storm comes, this branch will surely fall.
[00:32:31] There is a great part of Deuteronomy 8 where Moses is talking to the Israelites as they're getting ready to enter into the Promised Land after being in the wilderness for 40 years.
[00:32:43] And he's really taking this time to talk to them about everything that he thinks is important for them to know.
[00:32:49] I want to read from you Deuteronomy 8, 11 through 18.
[00:32:58] Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today.
[00:33:08] When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied,
[00:33:22] Then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good.
[00:33:42] Do not say to yourself, My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.
[00:33:49] But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.
[00:34:00] Don't forget God when you enter the Promised Land.
[00:34:07] There is a great story I heard recently on a podcast I listened to, or a great conversation rather.
[00:34:13] I listened to the Bible Project.
[00:34:15] I highly recommend it if you're looking for a podcast to listen to.
[00:34:19] And they were having a conversation kind of about what this would look like in modern times.
[00:34:25] And one of the podcasters said something that a lot of people, you hear a lot of people say is, I worked really hard to put the food on the table for my family.
[00:34:34] I did that.
[00:34:36] And the podcaster said, that is 100% true, you did do that.
[00:34:41] Where did you get the food from?
[00:34:42] And he said, well, I got it from the grocery store.
[00:34:45] Do you work at the grocery store?
[00:34:48] No.
[00:34:50] So there are a lot of people that work at the grocery store that there is food for you to buy there.
[00:34:55] Yes.
[00:34:55] Where does the grocery store get the food?
[00:34:58] Well, a delivery truck, probably, some kind of delivery service.
[00:35:02] Do you work for the delivery service?
[00:35:05] No.
[00:35:06] Okay, so there are people involved in getting that food to the grocery store.
[00:35:10] Where does the delivery truck get the products?
[00:35:14] From either a packaging plant or maybe even directly from a farm?
[00:35:18] And you keep doing this thought project or process until you get down to the bare bones of it.
[00:35:25] Who made the seed that was put into the ground?
[00:35:28] Who made the soil?
[00:35:29] Who provides the sun and the rain and the water?
[00:35:34] It's a very humbling process and journey to take and you can do it with everything that you have in your life.
[00:35:43] God is reminding us to not forget about each other and to not forget about God.
[00:35:50] None of us are accomplishing anything on our own.
[00:35:54] So how can we stay humble even when things are going really well when we're in the promised land and we begin to think it is because of ourselves?
[00:36:04] Maybe we can do more thought experiments and maybe we can remember the 40 years in the wilderness that we are always told to never forget.
[00:36:14] Now let's look at Paul and his letter to Timothy to understand transformation, what it looks like, and why we are called to transformation as disciples of Christ.
[00:36:28] In 2 Timothy 4, 6-8, at first glance, this sounds a lot like the Pharisees' prayer from Luke.
[00:36:37] But we need to look more closely at Paul when he said this.
[00:36:42] First of all, Paul was saying this from a prison.
[00:36:46] He was not saying this from a place of comfort.
[00:36:50] Secondly, you have to take Paul's life into consideration.
[00:36:54] Paul was originally a Pharisee himself, much like the Pharisee from Luke, who thought he knew everything about God and about how you were to follow God.
[00:37:08] He could not stand the teachings of Jesus Christ, so much so that he persecuted followers of Christ and even killed followers of Christ.
[00:37:19] But everything changed in Paul's life on the road to Damascus when he encountered Jesus Christ.
[00:37:27] Everything he knew to be true got turned upside down.
[00:37:33] He realized righteousness doesn't come from the law, but through faith in Christ .
[00:37:37] His entire life became centered on grace, saying, It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me .
[00:37:47] He began preaching the very message he once opposed .
[00:37:55] He dedicated the rest of his life to the message of Christ.
[00:38:00] He no longer condemned his neighbor.
[00:38:02] He loved his neighbor.
[00:38:04] He even loved his enemies .
[00:38:06] He was no longer a man of wealth, power, and status, but one who went on from that moment, facing many hardships.
[00:38:17] He was beaten, shipwrecked, prisoned, and often hungry.
[00:38:23] That is what he meant by, I have fought the good fight.
[00:38:26] I have finished the race.
[00:38:28] I have kept the faith.
[00:38:30] This is not a man holding himself up high from a place of comfort congratulating his good works.
[00:38:38] God is not calling all of us
[00:38:40] To be Paul.
[00:38:42] But make certain to know that God is calling all of us.
[00:38:46] He is calling us to be transformed by the Holy Spirit so that we may be more like Christ, so that we may be more like the image of God that we were created to be.
[00:38:57] But how do we know if we are transforming?
[00:39:01] How do we know if we are connected to the vine and growing in Christ and not a hollow branch?
[00:39:09] Paul says in Galatians 5, 20-23, You will notice the fruits of the Spirit in you.
[00:39:17] Listen to his words.
[00:39:19] Idolatry, meaning putting your faith, hope, trust, and love in anything other than God.
[00:39:25] Sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger,
[00:39:32] Quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.
[00:39:40] And this is what Paul says, I am warning you.
[00:39:44] I warned you before, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
[00:39:52] By contrast, the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
[00:40:04] Who doesn't yearn for a life filled with these fruits?
[00:40:09] Love that is sustaining, not fleeting.
[00:40:12] Joy in the midst of pain.
[00:40:14] This is not happiness when things are going well.
[00:40:19] This is worshiping and praising God that he is with you when things are very, very hard.
[00:40:26] Peace in the midst of chaos.
[00:40:29] This is not peace in a spa or a zen garden.
[00:40:32] This is peace in the middle of a hurricane.
[00:40:35] These are the gifts that only God can provide.
[00:40:41] How do we make room for the Holy Spirit to work within us?
[00:40:46] We place ourselves where God's grace flows.
[00:40:50] John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, called this practice of placing ourselves where God's grace flows the means of grace.
[00:41:00] Means of grace are works of piety, mercy, and communion.
[00:41:06] Praying, reading scripture, public worship, fasting, feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, doing good to all people, especially the poor, and Christian conferencing, which is any time two or more Christians are together, whether it's a Bible study or it's just a friendly text of encouragement like the one Pastor Mark gave me yesterday.
[00:41:33] These are just to name a few.
[00:41:35] These means of grace open us up to the transforming power of God's grace.
[00:41:42] Wesley said refusing them was like refusing the medicine that God prescribed for our souls.
[00:41:51] But there are people who do all these things on the outside and there still doesn't seem to be much movement or transformation on the inside.
[00:42:01] I'm sure the Pharisee did a lot of these things because he was expected to.
[00:42:06] They were the moral leaders of the time.
[00:42:08] It is important what your intention, your type of participation is, and what your focus is when you are participating in these means of grace.
[00:42:20] This is a slide that is in my Christian education classes and seminary, and I love it.
[00:42:25] It brings down Bloom's Taxonomy, which if you're a teacher, you're probably familiar with what that is, but it talks about how people learn things.
[00:42:37] You can listen to something and easily forget it.
[00:42:41] You need to practice it.
[00:42:43] and then you need to start doing it and then the more you do it then you start living it it becomes who we are true learning especially in faith is formation not just information
[00:42:59] We must do more than just listen.
[00:43:02] We must do more than just go through the movements.
[00:43:06] We have to want to transform.
[00:43:09] We have to stay humble.
[00:43:11] Coming to listen to a sermon once a week and leaving without ever thinking about it again for the rest of the week or maybe ever is not going to transform you.
[00:43:22] We need the medicine of the soul.
[00:43:24] We need to be actively opening ourselves up through the means of grace with the intention of wanting to transform.
[00:43:34] It is also very easy to slip into
[00:43:39] Not following this.
[00:43:41] But it will come to your attention pretty quickly when you realize that you're not in a place where you're letting the Holy Spirit transform you.
[00:43:48] And I am guilty of this as early and recently as yesterday.
[00:43:54] I was preparing for my sermon and my kids will tell you there wasn't a lot of gentleness and patience happening from me yesterday as they kept interrupting me.
[00:44:06] And it's interesting with sermon prep, I love prepping for sermons.
[00:44:11] I plan for my sermons a month in advance and every day that I wake up I feel like God has revealed something new to me.
[00:44:17] And it's such a fun journey up until the day before I give the sermon.
[00:44:23] And I remember as Pastor Mark texted me and said, good luck tomorrow.
[00:44:28] I said, thank you.
[00:44:28] It's very humbling writing a sermon about the fruits of the Spirit while I'm yelling at my children.
[00:44:33] And he said, well, that sounds like an example of practical experience you should include.
[00:44:40] And it really got me thinking.
[00:44:43] Why am I so upset today?
[00:44:45] Why am I so easy to anger?
[00:44:48] And I realize that as I'm prepping for my sermon the days before today, I'm just enjoying God's Word.
[00:44:56] I am bathing in it, honestly.
[00:44:58] And it's just really cool because I feel like things are being shown to me every day.
[00:45:03] But then my focus shifts the day before and I start thinking about, well, how am I going to sound?
[00:45:09] Is this short enough?
[00:45:10] Is this running too long?
[00:45:11] Did I say this right?
[00:45:12] Am I wearing the right thing?
[00:45:15] My focus completely leaves God and it becomes so evident because you don't see the fruit of the Spirit anymore.
[00:45:25] So that was a very humbling experience for me.
[00:45:27] And that's why I want to tell these third graders, you're not in this journey by yourself.
[00:45:34] We are all in this journey together.
[00:45:39] We are all humbly transforming together.
[00:45:42] No one has all the answers, but we can all point our lives and each other to the one that does, and that is God.
[00:45:52] We can all be a vine connected to God that bears the fruit of the Spirit.
[00:45:58] We can all become butterflies.
[00:46:01] In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
[00:46:07] If you'll put this slide, thank you.
[00:46:09] As a response to this sermon, I'd like for you to look at this slide and think of one of these fruits of the Spirit that you would really like God to help you with this week, that you would really like to see transformed in probably moments, nobody achieves all of these all the time, but just to feel moments of these throughout the week.
[00:46:35] So go ahead and pick which one that is for you, and then please join me in prayer.
[00:46:40] Dearest God, we come humbly before you.
[00:46:47] We oftentimes think it is about us, and we need to keep remembering that it is not about us.
[00:46:53] It is not about how much we know.
[00:46:55] It's not about how good we say things.
[00:47:00] It's about your love, grace, and mercy.
[00:47:04] And we are so thankful for that.
[00:47:06] We're thankful that you hold us every minute of every day.
[00:47:10] Dear Lord, we each have a fruit of the Spirit that we're lifting up to you right now.
[00:47:15] And we just pray that you will transform us in that way and that we will know it and we will feel it.
[00:47:24] Help us to be mindful this week when we start to feel things like anger, frustration, anxiety.
[00:47:31] Help us to look within, to spend time in prayer or maybe conferencing with each other, that you may speak to us and reveal to us how we can get back to the fruit of the Spirit.
[00:47:46] Dear Lord, it is in your great and glorious name that we pray.
[00:47:50] Amen.
[00:48:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]:
It's time for the part of service that is the offering.
[00:48:40] This is a very special time of the service where we get to respond to how good and great God is.
[00:48:49] When we pass the plates around, think about all the ways that God has blessed you through this church and your friends here.
[00:48:59] We invite you to give generously so that we can continue living our faith
[00:49:05] Here at church and in the world around us by sharing Bible stories, going to Sunday school, and of course singing in the kids chorus.
[00:49:17] There is a QR code on the screen if you'd like to give digitally.
[00:49:31] Let us pray.
[00:49:32] Thank you God for all the ways you lead us and guide us.
[00:49:36] Thank you for the church that allows kids like us to worship and learn about Jesus.
[00:49:43] Amen.
[00:51:02] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Let us pray.
[00:51:38] The Gospel of the Lord
[00:52:41] In Jesus' name we pray.
[00:53:09] Amen.
[00:54:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
.
[00:54:52] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
.
[00:54:52] .
[00:54:52] .
[00:54:52] .
[00:55:18] Let our humble blessings flow,
[00:55:40] of the Holy One, Praise Him above the heavenly host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
[00:56:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Our closing hymn is In the Garden on 314.
[00:56:12] Let's join together.
[00:57:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
He speaks at the Son's door
[00:58:10] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
The Lord is with me, and he tells me I am his own.
[00:58:31] And the joy we share, he tells me that no other has a better home.
[00:58:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Let's stay in the Lord.
[00:59:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one.
[01:00:01] Are we... does Daylight Savings Time begin or end next week?
[01:00:06] It ends next week.
[01:00:07] I had never known.
[01:00:09] You get an extra hour next week.
[01:00:11] So just be aware.
[01:00:13] You get an extra hour of sleep.
[01:00:15] And I think if you get an extra hour, that means if you show up here at 11, it'll be... Just change your clocks!
[01:00:23] And we use our phones anyway, so really you don't have to do anything.
[01:00:30] Time change next week.
[01:00:31] It's also First Food Sunday.
[01:00:32] First Sunday of the month.
[01:00:34] And we're continuing what we've been doing as we get closer to the end of the year in November.
[01:00:41] We try to kind of give a little push as we move into the colder months, the needs and demands on food pantries.
[01:00:49] We've done a men versus women challenge.
[01:01:01] And fellas, we've lost every year.
[01:01:05] And that's just not right.
[01:01:07] So men, you need to do the grocery shopping for your family this week.
[01:01:15] Pick up a few things for...
[01:01:18] First Food Sunday and you're not going to bring it to the shopping carts we normally use, although I say buggies.
[01:01:27] There's not going to be any buggies out there.
[01:01:30] There will be trucks down in the parking lot.
[01:01:32] You'll bring your items to the kind of overhang right there and we'll weigh the items.
[01:01:38] God bless you.
[01:02:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Our next big rehearsal is this afternoon from 2 to 4.
[01:02:06] If you were on the fence about whether you wanted to join in with Messiah, today's your day.
[01:02:11] Come on up here at 2 o'clock, join in, see how it feels, and we'll go from there.
[01:02:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Yeah, what an awesome opportunity to come together with a lot of different people from our community to prepare for a wonderful Messiah performance as we begin looking crazily enough to Advent and Christmas.
[01:02:29] So, yeah.
[01:02:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
As you go out from the sanctuary into the world, remember that God is not calling you to be perfect or right.
[01:02:39] God is calling you to stay connected to the vine, to love God and love one another, and to point each other to the one who does know, which is God.
[01:02:48] Go out now and be held in his love every minute of every day.
[01:02:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Amen.
