March 6, 2022 8:30AM Worship at Myers Park

[Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning friends and welcome to our 8 30 service on this the first sunday of lent it is good to be together in god's house welcome to those of you in the room welcome to those of you joining us online it's good to worship god together in this way my name is james howell i'm one of the pastors here and i'm up front this morning with my friend and colleague reverend taylor pride barefoot good morning it's so good to be in worship with you this morning as we enter into this season of lent together we encourage you to stay connected with the church there are small groups during this lenten season we'll have lenten wednesday bible studies with dr howell that we encourage you to join and we also know that our hearts continue to break for what's happening in ukraine and our church has a ukraine disaster relief fund that we encourage you to look into learn more about and participate in let us continue on in worship [Music] please [Music] is [Music] each week please join in the responsive reading found in the front of your bulletin all those who find the protection from god will find rest and assurance all those who love god and call upon him for help will be answered and rescued [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] church may we be reminded of our togetherness as we join our voices in the apostles creed which is found on page 881 in your hymnal i believe in god the father almighty maker of heaven and earth and in jesus christ his only son our lord who is conceived by the holy spirit born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified dead and buried the third day he rose from the dead he ascended into heaven and sit at the right hand of god the father almighty from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead i believe in the holy spirit the holy catholic church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting [Music] you may be seated join me in our prayer of confession lord we come to you in all our brokenness sin has crept into our hearts molded our minds formed our words and separated us from you meet us in these broken places heal our wounds and grant us hope amen hear the good news christ died for us while we were yet sinners that proves god's love for us in the name of jesus christ you are forgiven in the name of jesus christ you are forgiven glory to god amen this is our privilege that the service to celebrate the sacrament of holy baptism jen and rob crawford bring their daughter emma mary for the sacrament this morning brothers and sisters in christ through the sacrament of baptism we are initiated into christ's holy church we are incorporated into god's mighty acts of salvation and given new birth through water and the spirit all of this is god's gift offered to us without price so friends on behalf of the whole church i ask you do you accept the freedom and power god gives you to renounce evil and repent of your sin if so say we do do you confess christ as your savior put your trust in his grace and promise to serve him as your lord if so say we do and when you nurture this child in christ's holy church that by your teaching and example she may be guided to accept god's grace for herself profess her faith openly and lead a christian life if so say we will and you the congregation of myers park we will you include this family now before you in your care will you proclaim the good news and live according to the example of christ will you surround this family with a community of love and forgiveness that they may grow in their service to others will you pray for them that they may be true disciples who walk in a way that leads to life if so say we will let us pray eternal father when nothing existed but chaos you swept across the waters and brought forth light in the days of noah you saved those on the ark through water when you saw your people as captives in egypt you delivered them through the sea their children you brought to the promised land through the jordan in the fullness of time you sent your son jesus he was baptized by john and anointed by your spirit and he calls on his disciples to share in the baptism of his death and resurrection pour out your holy spirit now to bless this gift of water and her who receives it to wash away her sins and clothe her unrighteousness that dying and being raised with christ she may share in your final victory all praise your eternal father through your sons jesus christ who with you in the holy spirit lives and reigns forever and ever amen i baptize you in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit jesus said i am the light of the world therefore let your light so shine before others that they may glorify your father who is in heaven child of god as you grow in age may you grow in grace and the knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ we rejoice to welcome you to the family of god [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] um [Music] please stand for the reading of the gospel the gospel reading is luke chapter 4 beginning with the first verse and jesus full of the holy spirit returned from the jordan and was led by the spirit for forty days in the wilderness tempted by the devil and he ate nothing in those days and when they were ended he was hungry the devil said to him if you are the son of god command this stone to become bread and jesus answered him it is written man shall not live by bread alone and the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him to you i will give all this authority and their glory for it has been delivered to me and i give it to whom i will if you then will worship me it shall be yours and jesus answered him it is written you shall worship the lord your god and him only shall you serve and he took him to jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him if you are the son of god throw yourself down from here for it is written he will give his angels charge of you to guard you and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone and jesus answered him it is said you shall not tempt the lord your god and when the devil had ended every temptation he departed from him until an opportune time this is the word of god for the people of god thanks be to god mary catherine i've i shouldn't ask this in public but might as well if i'm on my deathbed one day will you come and read scripture to me i was interviewed on a webinar with the upper room in nashville the other day and they said what childhood recollections do you have of the season of lent and i had to confess i've never heard of lent until i was in seminary i wasn't a well-churched person i found myself drawn to lent i'm in a focused season the devotion and prayer 40 days jesus was in the wilderness 40 days that all seems sort of magical and if you notice the title of the beautiful song that evan played at the beginning wc's lent and in french it says melancholy i think i think i have a personality that sometimes leans toward melancholy lynch seems to work i was very guilt-motivated as a child that's how my parents that's how you motivate you apply a guilt i only learned later that lent isn't really about guilt it's a season of focus it's a season of fasting jesus was in the wilderness 40 days and did not eat if you were here on ash wednesday your doctor uh kim tell the story of after i had invited him to come and be one of the pastors on our staff he would not give me an answer until he had fasted for four days nothing but water this frightened me actually i'm accustomed to talking people into things and i thought he's done that he says no i'd be arguing with god i don't know he's a holy man to do such a thing fasting i mean is lent a good time to diet to give up what you ought to give up anyway yeah i don't think so it's giving us something that's really precious to you uh back in the day for quite a number of years i would give up chocolate not to lose weight but just to give up chocolate and back in those days i would have bad days and good days on my bad days i would say oh i want some chocolate for me on my worst days i would say i am so holy i am refraining from chocolate on my good days i would realize i am so superficial that i'm undone by something like not being able to have a chocolate chip cookie on my good days i would realize i actually have a deep hankering in my soul and it's not for a chocolate chip cookie it is for god and on my good days i would think about the people who can't just pick up a cookie or anything else and i would think about their hunger cannot be one with them there are all kinds of fasts we might engage in some people i know shut down facebook for the season of lent some people i know i even put down their smart phone which i call the dumb phone we get addicted to it when it is the time the fasting business it's about exposing our addictions right a number of years ago i made the suggestion a number of you follow this to give up alcohol for lent it was interesting several people came to me and said i just can't do that i said that's something you need to know [Laughter] we even back then created a spirit fund get it spirit fund you take the money you would spend on alcohol and you give it to the church and we use it for an alcohol rehab program god asks us to do hard things so often we think we want god to make my life easier but in the bible god god asked us to do hard things i love to carry newcomer song you can do this hard thing god wired us so that we can do hard things like observe the holy lent jesus goes into the wilderness for a season of testing which he endured on purpose and we could look at this passage and say jesus shows us how to overcome temptation except there are two things about that one is for us we hardly even try to overcome temptation we're all about indulgence we're all about slaking every desire that we happen to have but jesus had peculiar tests and i would flunk them if god gave me the power to turn rocks into bread i'd do it in a nanosecond because there are hungry people who need some bread if god offered me power over all of the world i would accept that i would be a benevolent dictator as i ruled the world forgetting that even gandalf and the lord of the rings refuses the ring of power power corrupts jesus refuses that kind of ruling power his kingdom is of a different sort and then with the last temptation the devil takes jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and invites him to jump off not a good idea except he quotes scripture god will protect you psalm 91 i've often said this is the devil's favorite bible verse right because people say god's supposed to protect me and then if god didn't protect me or god didn't protect the ones that i love there must not be a god and the devil says got another one devil's loves psalm 91 parenthetically just to talk about the devil i guess when i was a little boy i heard about the devil and i thought he was like a red guy with a pitchfork breathing fire you you'd run from him every time there's a real force of evil in the world it looks really pretty it looks really attractive it's really seductive it says i will i'll give you the moon i'll promise you so many wonderful and we will get drawn in nicos kazanzakas and the last temptation of christ imagines jesus in the wilderness being tested and the devil is like this bird with claws that keeps flying up behind jesus and planting its talons into his shoulders and jesus he's just always being harassed some theologian years ago said the devil's greatest while is convince us that he does not exist i think thomas merton is more on point thomas merton said the way the devil wants above all else is attention credit the devil loves it when we talk about the devil the devil loves when we say oh the devil did that oh the devil is around every corner merton says instead of focusing on the devil let's focus on the true beauty which is jesus that we won't notice the forces of evil they're out there they're in your head jesus hears voices and you too may hear voices or voices that chatter in the head maybe in the dark self doubt self-recrimination maybe their voices that pass judgment on other people maybe they're the voices of society saying if you just buy this if you just get that better job if you just go to this place then all what those are the voices and and lent how do we say the way to think about lent is not a season of grumbling guilt but lent is the season to learn to distinguish the voices in your head to sort through the messages that we hear and to focus on and listen to the messages that actually are jesus that actually are the voice of god that actually are the way to life and beauty and to learn how to tune out those other competing voices as just racket we'll turn it down we will turn it off i picked up a book that was reviewed recently in the charlotte observer it's by a local guy named d kirkpatrick uh he's a forensic psychologist and he wrote a book about slave owners and their mentality and his question is how could slave owners how could they rationalize owning slaves and this is interesting i just read the table of contents i haven't read the book yet he said that slave owners were psychological acrobats they were good at denial they were good at projection they were good at delusion they were good at rationalization i thought that's all of us we are all of us psychological acrobats are we not we engage in denial lent is the seasons you stop denial accept reality not a season of delusion it's not a season of rationalization not a season of rationalization it's a season of testing sorting out the voices when we start out the voices we need to notice that mary catherine read luke chapter 4 luke begins the story of jesus being tested in the wilderness by naming the political powers tiberius the roman emperor pilot the roman governor herod the judean king and there's some implication that they're the test they're the problem they may themselves be the voice of evil in the world we can figure this out right now vladimir putin yeah there's evil if i say joe biden half of america will say yeah that's real evil and if i say donald trump the other half of america will say yeah that's real evil the point is we vest ourselves i recorded a bible study with uh gary mason who's a pastor in ireland that i've gotten to be friends with over the last few years it'll come not this coming wednesday when i'll be with reverend sarah howell miller who's amazing my daughter the next week we'll play the one with gary mason and he talks over and over and there about why why do we put so much weight on the temporal instead of the eternal right we think the temporal the rulers of the day that's what we've got to worry about but he says instead we need to focus on the eternal oh god the temporal can't bear the weight we try to bear the weight i love in uyon's ash wednesday sermon he quoted thomas merton with these words the source of all sorrow is the illusion that of ourselves we are anything but dust i can't bear the way god is all our joy and in him our dust can become splendor you are dust and that is not bad news this is the humble truth we're just us we're just some stuff in whom god has breathed the breath of life a good cause to be humble but it's not humiliation it is humility we're god's creatures god has made us for wonder god has not made us to be atlas and to carry the world on our shoulders and to judge other people and all these things we get caught into those are the demonic voices in our heads that will be our undoing lent is the season how shall we say it not to shun what seems attractive although that may be a step it's really to learn what is truly attractive what is truly beautiful in the season of lent we take the time to focus on pharaoh's lord jesus our beautiful savior i see jesus in that wilderness and i see him doing what i could never do he fasts for a long time he has offered so much that the world values so highly and he says no i'm about god i want to be holy i want to do god's will and it's such a beautiful life and he walks out of that wilderness and he touches the untouchables and he heals the people that nobody else felt like you care for me jesus really you have compassion on me and jesus did he fed the hungary thought about the victims of war and brokenness violence he gave his life for us he is our savior he is our lord he is all beauty lent is learning to hear his voice wendt is learning to see his face went is learning to be the body of christ all of us together a beautiful season thanks be to god let us prepare our hearts for prayer oh lord as we move through this lenten season help us to draw near to you in praise stripping away all that distract us from worshiping you forgive us for our apathy for our lack of courage to speak out forgive us when we walk past and don't offer to help forgive us when we get it wrong may we be a liberating presence and offer love compassion and whatever is needed to act justly love mercy and walk humbly with our god lord in your mercy god of grace and love let us serve you in our world we ask that you would lead us into action give us strength to be a voice crying for justice and peace pour on your people such love and compassion that we cannot remain silent we cannot tolerate injustice and poverty as your grace fills our hearts may we be stirred into action to demonstrate your love your care your kindness for all humanity lord in your mercy o lord give us hearts hungry to serve you and those who need what we have to give we pray today for countries where justice seems far away where human rights are ignored let us remind those in power that prisoners are not forgotten we pray that the dignity of life is respected and remember those who have lost that dignity through war age infirmity or neglect lord in your mercy oh god we pray today for the power to be gentle the strength to be forgiving the patience to be understanding and we pray this praying as you taught your disciples to pray saying our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not to temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen well your gifts your generous gifts of support so many ministries here in our congregation and one of those is our music ministry and nancy is coming here the microphone nancy's right down here flip it on and tell us a little bit about music ministry and what it means to you hi good morning i've shown you several churches around this city since we moved here back in 1984 and um but none of them ever felt right like the right fit and then um one night i was at opera rehearsal with nancy hampton peg and i heard them talking about their church choir so i asked him if i could come and sing and of course they said yes and told me when and where and um at that first rehearsal i just got a i was just blown away by the size of the choir and how good they were and not only that it was like after choir so many people came up and and introduced themselves and welcomed me that i felt like i finally found my church home but you can't have a great music department without good leadership so first the newest addition to our music department hugh floyd hugh has a wealth of knowledge he's a great director and he's just really a genuinely nice man he makes rehearsals a pleasure every week and then there's evan what can i say i mean evan is just such a treasure i could listen to him play all day long and he makes what we do every sunday so much better sue bain that woman she does a tremendous job keeping everything organized getting us where we have to be when we have to be there and keeping us informed of everything we need to know especially with all the covet protocols and everything and on top of that she's an awesome pianist so that's a bonus that's i've been playing hand bells probably since i was about 12 years old and i have never worked with a hand belt director as good as brian childers he knows more about hand belts and hand build technique than anyone i've ever met and i'm an infinitely better wringer since working with him so i'm trying to say is we really have something special here we're truly blessed with a group of very talented and dedicated people who give their time and their talent to lead worship every sunday and it's more than a choir and a bunch of ensembles this is a family and i'm really really grateful to be a part of it thank you it is your gifts that make possible the many ministries in advance of your giving today thank you for your generosity peace [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] o creator god lord of all that is accept our gifts and our lives that the world and all people may know your love and care for it's in christ's most holy and precious name we pray amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] church as we continue on this lenten journey may we not turn our faces from our sorrow or the evil in the world but instead press onward and know that we are not alone that god is with us go now in peace [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Myers Park United Methodist Church

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Length: 58min 34sec (3514 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 06 2022