1/12/2020 Who is at Work?

Are scripture reading for this Sunday comes from 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 13 through 17.

But we are we are always to thank God for you brothers and sisters Love by the Lord because God chose you as first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then brothers and sisters stand firm and hold fast to the teachings. We passed on to you whether by word of mouth or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father Who Loved Us and by his grace gave us Eternal encouragement and Good Hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word the word of God for the people of God.

Thank you, Seth.

Let us pray. Lord May the meditations of our hearts in the words of my lips be pleasing in your sight our Rock and Our Redeemer. amen

every week Sometime before I preach the sermon here. preacher to my head

but I don't just say it to myself I go to a place in my brain is actually a place in my memory. Google your place many of you feared and never go it was my intro to public speaking class. We had it in a semi round the deaths went this way and then this way and then this way in the escape hatch was over here and the teacher Mr. Huber sat here. There was an agreement in the class after your speech any student could ask anything.

But the person decided the speaker decided what they would answer and what they wouldn't. Essentially what mr. Huber did was created a safe space as safe as a high-school space can be for us to experiment with public speaking.

Mr. Huber was also known for providing honest feedback.

I was asked to be one of the two Baccalaureate speakers at my high school. I wasn't their first choice their first choice was unavailable. So they went with me which wasn't a vote of confidence.

I graduated with 426 classmates. At the time my ADHD wasn't really even acknowledge. So you have the pride of your pastor being roughly 412 out of 426 academically. That's not good for everybody else in the room hasn't figured that out yet.

I was nervous.

And I wasn't really quite sure what to do with the nerves. So in front of probably between 500 and 700 people I got to the podium. and I said I don't even know why I'm up here. I don't know half of you and the other half. I don't like.

It wasn't a good start. It it went downhill from there. Mr. Huber was in the audience there and I was Blissfully ignorant of his honesty and so I went to him afterwards and I said, well, what did you think so while robbing? I guess somebody had to say something.

I go there in my mind because anyone can ask any question and the room is brutally honest. That's a good place for us to be that's the place where we have to be in order that we might grow that I've grown a lot since then. I hope now I know with my nerves with any public speaking nerves you can have those nerves released by doing something simple is taking a drink from a clap from a glass. You see it often at the beginning of TED Talks. What it does is it humanizes me to you you drink out of a 20 oz bottle sometimes and so do I so therefore there's something that we have in common, right? It's also something that I do want a regular basis. So therefore it makes me more comfortable as well.

This morning. We are looking at the scripture. About good deeds and work. It says what we always ought to thank God for you brothers and sisters loved by the Lord God shows you his first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you through our gospel that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then brothers and sisters stand firm and hold fast to the teachings that we passed on to you whether by word of mouth or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father Who Loved Us and by his grace gave us internal encouragement and Good Hope. Encourage you your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

The Good Deeds that we do in our life do not have to be in a church building.

Mr. Huber Was a larger-than-life personality. He's probably about my size. Actually. He was a Gunship pilot in the Vietnam War. Every Friday he wore prescription Rose Colored Glasses because he likes to look at the world with a rose-colored.

The last 10 minutes of every Friday where his Friday stories and they always ended with the same two lines.

Be safe this weekend. And remember to buckle your butt.

he instilled in us that if we were driving it was our responsibility to make sure everyone in our car had buckled there but All of my children know that before I leave especially to go on long trips even just around town and say have you buckle your butt? all of my friends Know that I asked them all the time the car doesn't move unless you buckle your butt. The reason that that statement was made was cuz often times the stories that Ron Hubert old included death.

Or loss or grief if you teach at a large school for over 30 years, there's a lot of students that passed away in the process. Many of them from not buckling their butt.

The impact that we can have on people around us through the work in the words and the Deeds that we do can go on from generation to generation.

I'm here today because Ron Huber said for the two times that I took his public speaking class.

buckle your butt I've returned home from St. Louis. My dad has gotten sick. And right before Dad got sick. My parents bought a brand new minivan. We brought that home from the hospital with hospice care, and he was in the process of passing away. I work at church camp and desired to have a little Escape. So I went down to Wesley Woods and my mom said I'm 22, by the way, maybe 23. So that's fine. Go on down there take the van but just go to camp and come back said okay, and I got down to camp and my buddy was engaged to a farm girl whose daddy was a cattle farmer and he wanted to have everybody over the hour drive for steak dinner, and there was five of us and I had the minivan. So I was even on the phone with my mom saying no we're going to take Jason's car. I lied this woman had a husband at home dying in the Next Room. I was being the good son. She did not need to worry about this. Until we are coming back that night is Memorial Day weekend. We are crossing a hill on a two-lane road. There was a graduation party just getting out. And it's high school graduation parties. Go this one had someone who had too much to drink and they decided over the cusp of the hill in the pouring down rain to make 180 degree. Turn from a dead stop. I was going 60 just as I crossed the cusp of that hill and I had to decide. Do I roll it in the ditch, or do I T-Bone the poor kid?

I T-boned him going 60 miles an hour. There are some racks where the insurance company will not even evaluate the car beyond the first look and that is if the frame of the car crumples like an accordion upon impact there's nothing you can do to save that vehicle and that's what happened in this vehicle. The van was totaled. Immediately. I knew everyone in my car was buckled. I remember that for quite some time because I had the bruises and the broken ribs from having a a seatbelt like bruise.

I was nervous, but I did the the thing where I called my older sister so she could tell my mom so I didn't have to call and tell her directly.

But the reality was the impact that Mr. Huber had on my life was that I made sure to buckle my butt and I made sure everybody did with me as well.

He died two weeks ago. It took a while for the family to come out with an obituary and and a while for them to decide when the service is would be in where they would be. But in the meantime many of his former students wrote. Testimonials to his class into his care in to his love. in the meantime

full of Stories of the pink and Rose Colored Glasses in the Friday stories to buckle your butt.

He sent me a message two years ago on my birthday.

He told me.

Well, look at you Aging in Grace Padre. Happy birthday in good health and ongoing blessings. Never forget regardless of the collars the titles or the degrees. You are still a silly Dilly. And whatever and what a blessing you are.

we all Have to say something. But what we say can be an extension of God's love the way that we live in the things that we can do can remind others of their value in the body of Christ and who they are as a person.

We don't have to say any particulars about our religious faith in our loving of others. We can through on loving others open up conversations about what God has done for us. In about what God can do through us.

But what we say.

Or we can allow that to be the work of God. the Deeds that we do we can allow those deeds to be of God if we just make ourselves available. to be vessels of his love

the wonderful Deeds that we have to share sometimes their wisdom to bestow on the others. I can recall many of times. When we could ask anything, we wanted we would look in the corner and there would be Ron Huber becoming overly emotional because of something that is student ID shared. And on the way out of class, he would call them aside and offer them and encouraging word or a hug.

We're called to do the same. We're called the share in one and Other Stories so much that our deeds and our love crossover and share the love and actions of God.

We don't have to worry about what kind of works we will do.

We just have to be available for the spirit to work through us. Just to be available to be vessels to transfer God's love to others. We don't have to provide answers. We just have to be willing to ask questions. We just have to be honest in our love of others. So that others may see and feel that we are a safe space for them to grow in their faith. And to grow with our savior.

May all the things that we do transfer God's love. The hope the Forgiveness the Salvation the acceptance and the joy that we have in Christ. With everyone we me.

Cuz we all have something to say. I guess. But I spray.

Lord

we thank you for those lives that is spoken into us. That is shared in our journey. And there's made us who we are today.

Help us.

To be that for others. Help us to be available to do your work. And through or work.

May your work be known.

In Jesus name we pray. amen