Counting Our Blessings
November 2019 Sermon Series
For Christ and the Kingdom
November 24, 2019 • Rev. Sam Hayes
11-24-19 Sermon Notes “For Christ and the Kingdom” See if you can identify the following “Kings”: Who is… The King of Swing? The King of Stock-car racing? The King of Pop? The King of Rock-n-Roll? The King of the Blues? The King of Hip-Hop? The King of Polka? The King of Country Music? The King of Latin Music? The King of pain? The King of the Jungle? The King of the Ocean? The King of the Birds? (The answers… Benny Goodman, Richard Petty, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Eminem, Jan Lewan, George Strait, Tito Puente, Sting, Elephants or Lions, Killer Whales or Great White Sharks, Eagles) How’d you do? If any of you got all of them right (without looking), then I want you to tell me about it this Sunday. I’d be really impressed! Then there is one more question: Who is THE King? There’s only one answer to that question. It’s Jesus Christ our Lord! Listen to the way Paul describes King Jesus as being Supreme in every way…. 11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. (Col. 1: 1-11 NRSV) This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday, and it is the last of our “Count Your Blessings” series. When I count my blessings, I remember to be thankful for Jesus - this One, All-Supreme King, Who (wonder of wonders) has welcomed us into the Kingdom! See you Sunday, Pastor Sam
For Our Church Family-the Body of Christ
November 17, 2019 • Rev. Sam Hayes
11-17-19 Sermon Notes “For Our Church Family – the Body of Christ” I always like to think of our church as a “family.” The Bible, on the other hand, refers to the church as the “Body of Christ.” The church = the “body.” Wow? Why not a committee? Why not a task force? Why a body? I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about how magnificent the human body really is. In a book by Mac McCutheon entitled, The Compass in Your Nose we read the following about our bodies: The body is a temple, warehouse, laboratory, pharmacy (the brain alone produces more than 50 cycle-active drugs), electric company, farm, mass-transit system, library (the brain stores the equivalent information of 500 sets of the Encyclopedia Britannia, utility company, hospital, and sewage treatment plant. It also has a self-regulating police force, with daily infusions of millions of microscopic criminals and terrorists to apprehend; an array of traffic controllers; an army of medics and mechanics (a trillion platelets cruise the circulatory system daily in search of wounds); centralized and outlying governments that argue with one another (the stomach and the brain, for example, never agree on taking that second helping of chocolate cake); and motors, pumps, compressors, vacuums, regulators, air conditioners, furnaces, plumbing, filters, strainers, thermo-stats, alarm clocks, timers, and more. Now to go from the telescopic to the microscopic, think about your eyes. Your eye muscles get the greatest day-to-day workout, moving some 100,000 times in any twenty-four hour period. To give the legs the same degree of exercise, 50 miles of walking would be required. Think about your ears. Depending on its origination, sound usually reaches one ear a fraction of a second faster than the other ear. By calculating the difference in receiving times between ears, the brain can pinpoint a sound source within two or three degrees. Think about your skin. Your skin waterproofs your body, blocks out and destroys harmful bacteria, regulates temperature, and continuously communicates with the brain. Functioning as the body‘s "feeler," it tells the brain what is cold and what is hot. It can sense an object as tiny as one one-hundredth of a millimeter. In only one square inch of human skin, there are 19 million cells, 625 sweat glands, 90 oil glands, 19 feet of blood vessels, 19,000 sensory cells, and over 20 million microscopic animals. Think for a moment about your stomach. The human body is incredibly efficient at turning food into fuel. To ride a bicycle at ten miles an hour for one hour, the body needs the food energy contained in only three ounces of carbohydrates roughly the equivalent of 1.4 ounces of gasoline. If our bodies used gasoline instead of food we could ride over 900 miles on a single gallon of gas. Yikes! There are so many things going on in our bodies at the same time – so many different functions… And yet… there is unity (when things are working properly). Ephesians 4 says it this way: “…the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” (Eph. 4: 16 NRSV) This Sunday we will be counting our blessings again – this time for our Church Family – the Body of Christ.” Notice what Ephesians 4: 16 says about the “body.” It is (1) Joined and knit together; (2) Equipped; (3) Working properly together. This is how our church family – the Body – is meant to work. • Connected to Christ and one another (Eph. 4: 3-6) • Growing in Christ (Eph. 4: 12-16) • Serving as Christ (Eph. 4: 12) See you Sunday! Pastor Sam
For Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs
November 10, 2019 • Rev. Sam Hayes
11-10-19 Sermon Notes “For Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs” When you count your blessings, what do you include? Do you include music among your blessings? Paul specifically mentioned psalms, hymns and spiritual songs among those things for which we should give thanks. He said it in his letter to the Ephesians. Remember that letter? Ephesus was a special place to Paul. For a short time during his second missionary journey, and then for more than 2 years on his third missionary journey, Paul ministered to the church at Ephesus. During Paul’s time there, Ephesus was home to the great Temple to the goddess Artemis. This temple was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Despite widespread pagan worship, Paul saw many people become followers of Jesus Christ during his time in Ephesus. Paul also experienced some persecution and harassment. Here’s how that went down: There was a prominent silversmith in Ephesus, named Demetrius, who had a good business going making silver implements used for the worship of Artemis. Demetrius found his business suffering because people were converting to Christianity. He gathered up a bunch of folks and started a riot, and Paul had to leave the city. But Paul left a stable, growing Christian community there. (Acts 18 – 19) Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians while he was in a Roman prison. He wanted to encourage them by reminding them of the incredible blessings they had in Jesus Christ, and he wanted to remind them not to be like their pagan neighbors. They were to be careful how they lived. They were to make sure to live wise, sober, thankful lives. Here’s the passage we will use this Sunday: 15 Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17 So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20 giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph. 5: 15-20 NRSV) Giving thanks to God for all things…particularly psalms, hymns and spiritual songs… Why is it so important to be thankful for psalms, hymns and spiritual songs? Why are we thankful for “church” music? Because this great music gives glory to god and gives refreshment to our souls! Some of the best music ever written was written God’s glory. Let me tell you a story from almost 300 years ago… In 1722, in Leipzig, Germany, a search was on for a new cantor in the School of Saint Thomas and organist for the church of Saint Thomas. The search committee found the perfect person, made that person an offer, and the person turned them down. Then they contacted their second pick, and he also turned them down. The committee decided, “since the best person could not be obtained,” to choose a “mediocre” candidate. The mediocre candidate was reluctantly accepted. His name was Johann Sebastian Bach. It would be hard to overstate how important Bach’s music has been to the church. His music has been called, “The Fifth Gospel.” Bach was known to say, “All music should have no other end and aim than to the glory of God and the soul’s refreshment; where this is not remembered there is no real music but only a devilish hubbub.” Back to Ephesians… I think Paul was telling the church at Ephesus to always be thankful for beautiful psalms, hymns and spiritual songs that glorify God and refresh the soul. Let the pagans have the devilish hubbub. We’re thankful for the good stuff! See you Sunday! Pastor Sam
For All the Saints
November 3, 2019 • Rev. Sam Hayes
11-3-19 Sermon Notes “For All The Saints” All Saints’ Sunday One of my favorite teachers, Leonard Sweet, used to always greet our class (of preachers) this way: “Good morning saints!” (We’d reluctantly say, “Good morning.”) Then he’d say, “Good morning, sinners!” (A little more enthusiastically this time – we’d say, “Good morning!”) Does it make you a little uncomfortable being called a “saint?” It caused our class to squirm a little. But here’s a truth we need to remember as we celebrate “All Saints’ Sunday” this coming Sunday: All Christians were called “saints” from early Christianity on. Just listen to this opening of the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians: To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: (1 Cor. 1: 2) Who are called to be saints? “All those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – both their Lord and ours.” So from the early church, Christians were known as saints. Everyone who called Jesus, “Lord” was a saint. Did saints include even those with problems?? A careful reading of the New Testament letters will remind us that the early churches had their problems – just like we do. So “saints” were not “Super Christians.” So where did we get that idea? Over time, there were certain Christians who did live especially holy and special lives – who stood out from the crowd in their dedication and service on God’s behalf. The Roman Catholic Church began to recognize these special people, and cherish their lives. The Pope would examine that person’s life (after that person had died) and if certain criteria were met, that person would canonized as a “saint.” (I’m probably doing a poor job of describing this, since I am not Roman Catholic – so my apologies!) These special people (in the Roman Catholic tradition) are the ones we are used to hearing about…St. Francis, St. Patrick, St. Christopher… If you can, take the time to read about the amazing lives of these people. We can learn a lot from them! Somewhere along the line, though, we started looking at their extraordinary lives and holding them up to our ordinary lives…and all the sudden…we didn’t feel much like saints and sinners…just like sinners. The truth remains… we are both saints and sinners. We are saints by virtue of who God is. We are sinners by virtue of who we are. And we walk the line between those two, holding them in tension. We hold the tension between, “Lord I believe,” and “Help my unbelief.” (Mark 9: 24) On All Saints’ Sunday, we remember all the saints…the ones who are “running the race” alongside us, and the ones who have “finished the race” and are not a part of the “great cloud of witnesses.” We who are still alive are still struggling on the “field” of life. The saints who have gone before us have finished the race and are in the stands cheering us on. This image of the saints is brought to us by Hebrews 12: 1-2… Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb. 12: 1-2 NRSV) This Sunday we will light a candle remembering the members of our church who have died since last All Saints’ Sunday. We will honor them not only by lighting a candle, but also by doing a “roll call.” When we call each one’s name and light the candle, we will all say, “Present.” This is a recognition of the great cloud of witnesses. Their influence and example is still with us. Remembering them helps encourage us to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us!” See you Sunday, Pastor Sam