Week 3 Adventure Sermon

Lewis Cox

Join The Adventure • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

0 ratings

· 4 views

Notes

Transcript

Sermon Tone Analysis

Emotion

Language

Social

View more →

Pastoral Welcome

Good morning (good morning)

It is good to be in worship with you this morning, I can’t wait to see how God speaks to us in this time together. If we have yet to meet my name is Lewis and I serve as the campus pastor at our Faith Chapel location. I welcome you to this place and to this space where we together will stand in awe of what God is doing in our midst. I want to give a special word of welcome to all of the people that are up there in the balcony sitting in that seat right there, and in that seat right over there. That is what I call the people that are worshiping online with us. Even though you are worshiping online I invite you to still participate fully in worship by singing, and standing, and praying. Also want to extend a word of welcome to our newcomers to faith or to Ankeny First. My prayer is that you might experience a glimpse of God’s grace this morning.

All Praise thee, for thou, O Divine #166

Call to Worship

Leader: By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,

People: And all their host by the breath of his mouth.

Leader: He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;

People: He put the deeps in storehouses.

Leader: Let all the earth fear the LORD;

People: Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. (Psalms 33:6-8)

Special Music: Be still and know

Liturgy

I waited patiently for the Lord,

who inclined to me and heard my cry.

The Lord drew me up from the desolate pit,

out of the miry bog,

set my feet upon a rock,

making my steps secure

The Lord put a new song in my mouth,

a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and be in awe,

and put their trust in the Lord. R

Blessed are those who make the Lord their trust,

who do not turn to the proud,

to those who go astray after false gods!

O Lord my God, you have multiplied your wondrous deeds

and your thoughts toward us;

none can compare with you!

Were I to proclaim and tell of them,

they would be more than can be numbered.

Sacrifice and offering you do not desire;

but you have given me an open ear.

Burnt offering and sin offering

you have not required.

Then I said, “Lo, I come;

in the roll of the book it is written of me;

I delight to do your will, O my God;

your law is within my heart.” R

You may be seated

Intro

Amen, amen, may that be so. You know the liturgy that we just read together also serves as our scripture this morning, and don’t worry if you weren’t paying attention I will read it again during the sermon. We are all about second chances here. You know it speaks of waiting on the Lord, patiently trusting the Lord, and standing in awe of what God is doing in our midst. In a lot of ways it carries with it this sense of awe. And truly when we are in tune to what God is doing in our midst we have the privilege of seeing God do some pretty amazing things.

We are in the midst of our annual stewardship campaign that goes along with the sermon series that we are in and devotionals that we are reading as well as a church. By the way if you have not been reading those devotionals or they haven’t been getting to your mailbox reach out to our church office to get on that email list, because these stories are really amazing. And they are not amazing because of the people in our church, though you all are great. They are some really amazing stories because of what God is doing in our midst. It has been such a blessing to pause each day for me and just give thanks that God is working in someone else life in our community often through stories that I had no clue of.

One of the ways that we see god’s faithfulness at play across our church is through the many ways that people respond through time, talent, and treasure to make the area that we live in look just 1% more like the kingdom of God. So even though we are in the midst of a season of generosity right, now I want to take a moment to just look back over the last month the month of December just to be in awe for one moment about what God is doing through the people of our church.

Middle chunk

Celebration of the season of giving numbers

Diapers

End of year giving

Mortgage update

Announcing that we will be singing our way into prayer

God let your light shine through me

Pastoral Prayer

Lord let your light shine through us, so that others can know you.

Lord, we wait with eager expectation for the coming of Your kingdom

when the humble will be exalted and the hungry fed.

Where we participate with you in doing what is right in our midst.

Lord, we watch with those who wait and weep,

longing for a kingdom that makes sense in light of the grief that we feel

We lift up to you the Crabtree and the Dillingham family and we pray that in the recent loss of their loved ones they might find hope and resurection.

In the moments of questioning and uncertainty guide our paths.

Connect us with you and with each other once again

We pray for those that are struggling with uncertainties of their health. We lift up Florence Bishop, Ruth O’Donnell, and Pastor Angie.

In the long-drawn and heavy breaths of despair and pain we cry out to you with them.

We lift up the many that struggle with health set-backs related to Covid-19 and it’s many variants. O God we grief the many transitions and loses that this disease has brought through our community. Help us to be peacemakers in a world that is often not categorized by peace.

Lord, we seek You among the despised and rejected,

knowing that there we will find Your light shining in the dark.

When we have felt outcast comfort us in our loneliness,

And convict us in our complacency

I pray that you would comfort the afflicted

and challenge the comfortable

Help us to bed holy and to seek what is right both for ourselve, and for our community

Lord pour your spirit out of to the leaders in our lives. To the mentors, guides, counselors and church leaders in our own life. Pour out your spirit on the leaders of our denomination, of our state, and of our national government structures. God may they be led by a spirit of compassion and grace.

As we seek to be a confessing and repenting church

We confess before you this morning:

We have been unworthy servants.

We have misused and abused the creation.

We have wounded one another by divisions everywhere.

We have often failed to take decisive action

against environmental destruction, poverty, racism,

caste-ism, war and genocide.

Forgive us lord for the ways we have knowingly and wittingly been perpetrators of violence.

In all this, we have fallen short as disciples of Jesus Christ

who in his incarnation came to save us and teach us how to love.

Forgive us, God, and teach us to forgive one another.

God, we pray for ourselves—members of Your Body here on earth.

Break down the barriers that divide us from one another.

Unite us in our common allegiance to You as Lord and Saviour.

Grant us compassion and humility in our relationships.

Release the gifts You have given to each one,

so that in us and through us,

Your kingdom might come and Your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

We offer in this moment of silence all of those things to your care.

(about 10 seconds of silence)

Oh God some prayers we don’t know how speak out loud yet, or we don’t know the right words that we would use if we tried. In those moments we remember that we don’t need the perfect words you just want us. We remmber also that you taught your disciples when they were unsure

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Amen.

Offertory Announcement

We know that we are a church that loves to give to bless people beyond the walls of our church

Malawi offering this/next week

Tropical storm Ana

Video

Making sense of it after the fact

We partner with some churches in Germany and with another large United Methodist Church here in the Midwest and we want to be able to support them in this time

the best way at the moment to support our partners in Malawi is through our financial gifts, and because this is such an urgent need we are going to try to mobilize giving in the next couple of weeks.

Throughout this week if you give through our online portal or through the app when you give one of the first options in the drop down will be to give to the Malawi gift

If you give through check or cash you can make a note either in the memo line or the offering envelope to indicate that

Because of the urgency of this request and the nature of the emergency we are going to be sending a gift after worship next Sunday with whatever we are able to give.

So I invite you to hold that opportunity to give in prayer today.

Sermon

Opener

Climbing mountains with Austin - the most difficult part is right near the top

Once you overcome the difficult part you are in for quite the treat

If you have ever summited a mountain you know the feeling of awe and gratitude and connection with the people around you that comes along with that

There is a sense that all of the trouble of the adventure was worth it and payed off

Where we find ourselves within the series

First week - Preparing our hearts and our minds to be holy

Second week - Counting the cost

This is a difficult one

When we count the cost it means that we have to come to terms with the fact that all of the things that we thought were perfect were really just second place to God

in the Analogy of our journey together towards discipleship specifically as if relates to giving

it is like the many times the Jesus said follow me

The disciples and us as disciples had to take stock of what that actually meant

We benefit from being able to read the rest of the story

Once the disciples made the jump into following Jesus they almost immediately witnessed the miracles

you know the disciples story is our story

My hope is that over the last couple of weeks you have connected with or perhaps re-connected with what it means to be on the adventure of discipleship

And to allow discipleship TO BE an adventure

This week is all about Awe

This is a theme throughout all of the Psalms

Our scripture this week comes from the psalms....

Scripture

Psalm 40:1–6 NRSV

1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. 2 He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. 4 Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods. 5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted. 6 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.

This passage involves a perspective shift from the way we often see our own adventure

Word Study

I waited - to stand by for someone else to do something

Patiently - a sense of calm in the midst of waiting, perhaps even an understanding that this is exactly where we are meant to be

I Trusted - a sense of getting on the solid ground

Our first point today is.....

What God is doing is always more interesting than what I am doing

I overestimate my role and underestimate God’s role in pretty much everything

How crazy is it that God rescues us out of a pit

Desolate Pit sort of means the lowest levels of Sheol

desolate pit – rushing sound – cistern filling up with water

Found out that trusting God is more solid than we had imagined

trusting that God is and that what you have observed is of God

We often see ourselves as the main character of our own story

We see ourselves as the main character of our story

it can be easy to see ourselves as the main character of our giving too

When we shift our focus to be in awe of God

Psalm 40:5 NRSV

5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.

Our offering is in response to God

We do everything in response to God

...we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us… (communion liturgy in the hymnal)

We are a Holy and Living Sacrifice

Psalm 40:6 NRSV

6 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.

You don’t want an offering

doing life in a way that is offering

I should be an offering

Pastor Angie member of her old church would say imagine that you were to put yourself in that offering plate.

when we are in awe of God we become equipped

if discpleship is an a list of chores it is going to be pretty difficult to cross them off

If generosity is giving a specific number and it is a chore it is going to be difficult

And you know what the difference between an adventure and something that is really difficult? - perspective

God is not calling us into dififculty for difficulty sake

We are not just counting the cost, but when we do count the cost, when we do commit, when we do take that leap to deepen our own discipleship we better be prepared to be amazed by what God can do with that.

So our third sermon point today is.......

Awe Leads to Generosity

And generosity likewise sets us up well to experience awe

When I am generous I see the things that God is doing

My eyes are more opened

Awe precedes Generosity

Awe precedes discipleship

being in awe and in worship of God goes before the actions or the things of faith

Shoutout to the devotionals

They are great

We get to be in awe of what God is doing

Think about the miry bog and the desolate pits of your own life

This next week you should get a letter with an estimate of giving card in it

And before I think about praying about what I will put on mine, I first and formost want to spend some time in awe of what God has done

Giving thanks for all that God has done and for the mysteries that are yet to come

And I hope you will too, becuase awe precedes generosity

Lets Pray.....

(Prayer)

I invite you to rise as we have a moment right now to be in awe of God through our next song...

Benediction

God let your light shine through me so that others can know you!

Related Media

Related Sermons