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September 17, 2024 • 56 mins
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Speaker 1 (02:57):
Good mornings.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Please join me in the call to worship. The heavens
are telling the glory of God, and the night sky
proclaims God's handiwork day to day pours forth speech, and
night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor
are their words to speak of the wonders of creation.

(03:23):
From the rising of the sun in the morning to
the rising of the moon at night. God has given
us this day, and we are filled with thanksgiving. God's
word is as perfect as creation. It revives the soul,
guides our lives, and makes wise the simple. More desire

(03:45):
than gold is the wisdom of God's word, for it
teaches us how to live in justice and in love.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of
my heart be acceptable to to you, O Lord, my
Rock and my Redeemer. Please pray with me. Dear Lord,

(04:09):
Please know how grateful we are to be in your
house today. We ask that you direct and rule our
hearts as we continually strive to please you. We ask
that you bless us with a spirit of peace as
we attempt to focus on you and your word. Let
us feel your love and grace, and let us be

(04:31):
assured that you are present among us. May each person
here know for certain that it is good to be worshiping. You.
Be with us on our journey through life, as we
continue to strive to feel your presence in all that
we do. Help us to trust you with all our hearts,
and instill in us the love of your name. Grant

(04:54):
us the spirit to think and always do those things
that are right. Receive now our prayers, as we call
on you with the prayer that you taught us our father,
who art in heaven. How would be thy name, Thy
Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on earth as it

(05:15):
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, the Power,
and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Three S SO S.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
S S.

Speaker 5 (06:37):
S S S S.

Speaker 6 (07:08):
S S.

Speaker 7 (07:26):
S S.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Good morning. Please pray with me, Dear Lord, Thank you
for the blessings of today and from all of our days.
We pray that you accept not just our offerings, but
also the lives we give to you ingratitude for all
you do for us. Allow us to absorb today's message
and take your teachings with us as we go through
our day, and think about how we are able to

(08:27):
bless those around us. Amen, not.

Speaker 8 (10:44):
Six pictures SCA.

Speaker 5 (11:13):
You may have seated, Will you join me in prayer,
Oh God, become in worship today as thousands of churches
in our country and millions of congregations around the world
are gathering in worship at different times this day and
different time zones across this globe as it spends in

(11:36):
this solar system, we ask O God that you'll be
with all those who are facing difficulties in our world.
And we look at the news and see all that's happening,
from the wildfires out in California, to those who have
been devastated by the floodwaters of the last hurricane through
Mississippi and beyond, for the school shooting and Georgia a

(12:01):
little over a week ago, for the situation in Ukraine
and in Gaza and the West Bank. Oh God, our
heart breaks for problems that we have created ourselves, and
for problems that are just of the equilibrium of the
weather systems that inhabit this globe. We understand that when

(12:27):
hurricanes and floods and all that happened before we as
human beings inhabited this world are part of the natural
order of things, but now our lives are in midst
of those So we cannot ask that those things cease
to happen, because they are a part of this created
world that you have made. But we do ask o God,

(12:48):
that you would give us the wisdom to act, the
wisdom to help those who need the wisdom to make
better plans for the future. We would collaborate together as
a people and as a nation to understand these forces
are a part of this world and that we have

(13:09):
to figure out a way to live within them. We
ask for God that you'll be with the heartache and
our own congregation from those who are struggling with health issues,
recovering from surgeries and taking one step, one day at
a time. We particularly think of Mary Barnett and for

(13:32):
the death of her husband Joe, and just ask that
you would surround her with your love and that you
would help us as a congregation to reach out to
Mary and her family let them know of our heartache
with her in her loss. We asked her to prepare
her heart and us as a congregation to support her

(13:53):
with Joe's service coming up this coming Saturday. All these
heartaches we lay up to you again because we know
you are the one who listens and cares for us.
You know the number of hairs on our head, You
know all the days of our lives. You know us.

(14:14):
Help us, oh God, to hear your spirit and the
nudging of your guidance in our lives. Help us to
respond to your love and how we receive that love
and live in this world. For all these things we

(14:36):
pray in your Son's name, Jesus, to Christ Amen.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Say no to say on I'd change, say don't change.

Speaker 5 (17:19):
J I.

Speaker 7 (17:38):
Don't see.

Speaker 4 (18:08):
No time round way and.

Speaker 6 (18:14):
Nay strange IDAs chal were so.

Speaker 7 (18:38):
Said.

Speaker 5 (19:01):
Our manuscripture Texas Morning, comes from Paul's letter to the Philippians.
We're looking at the fourth chapter, just four verses, beginning
with verse ten. I rejoice in the Lord greatly that
now at last you have revived your concern for me.

(19:21):
But I had no opportunity to show it. Not that
I am referring to being in need, for I have
learned to be content with whatever I have. I know
what it is to have little, and I know what
it is to have plenty in all circumstances. I have

(19:43):
learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry,
of having plenty and of being in need. I can
do all things through God who strengthens me. Here in
the reading of God's Holy Word. May God bless it

(20:05):
for our hearing and understanding. My mother, who many of
y'all knew, Donna, used to sit in the choir in
the soprano section right over there, and sang in the
church choir for decades. My mother was the youngest of
seven children until at age thirteen, she became an older sister.

(20:27):
My grandparents home was modest. My mom, in fact, shared
a small bedroom with two sisters, and the three of
them slept in a twin or a single bed. The
one in the middle had the flip flop. Her head
and feet were in the opposite direction. How'd you like
to go to sleep at every night with somebody's feet,

(20:48):
your sister's feet in your face? How about that? I
grew up with two younger brothers. Many of you know
my brothers, Steve and Dave, and he shared one bedroom,
though we did have separate though. By the time I
reached junior high was called in those days. I did
get my own bedroom, but Stephen Dave shared a bedroom

(21:09):
until I went off to college. My wife and I
renovated our house when she was pregnant with our triplets
so that once they got out of the nursery in
the cribs, each of them would have their own bedroom
and their own bed. That, in a nutshell, three generations

(21:30):
of my family is how America has changed over the
past seventy five years. The nation that grew up during
the Great Depression knew hardship and war. Just about everybody
was poor, but nobody realized it because everybody was You
were just the same as everybody else. My mom, as
I mentioned, was one of eight children. She did not

(21:53):
get a lot of personal attention. Family life revolved around
the family as a whole, not around individuals, and everybody
in her family had a chore to do. Everybody worked
in the family garden because it was the family garden
that fed the family. My brothers and I grew up

(22:16):
with a similar work ethic because our parents believed hard
work was good and taught valuable lessons. Each of us
had after school jobs. By the time we were twelve,
actually began carrying the Afternoon Huntington Advertiser when I was
ten and a half year old. Now, the rule was
you didn't start till twelve. I'm not sure how the
newspaper let me start at ten and a half, but

(22:37):
that's what happened. I guess it's too late to sue
them for that. Today. It's much harder to instill these
work values in teenagers today because the way society has changed.
Newspaper roots no longer exist. Mom and pop stores that

(22:58):
might have in the past hired neighborhood fourteen year old
to sweep the floors and stock the shelves, they've all
been gobbled up by big box stores right, and they
all have specific rules about when you can be hired.
Millennial and gen Z children have grown up at a
time when just about every kid gets a trophy. They

(23:18):
can read their books online, so who needs to go
to a library, and where Walmart and Amazon make it
possible for parents to give their key kids everything imaginable
at any price range. It is difficult to raise children
today without them growing up entitled. Entitlement is becoming a

(23:46):
bane on our society. It affects every sector of our nation, rich, poor, old, young,
every racial and ethnic group, every stripe of political parties.
No one is immune to entire In some ways, I
think my grandparents had easier time raising my parents during

(24:09):
the Great Depression than the challenges parents have today. In fact,
you may have seen it this week the Surgeon General
wrote an essay about the stress level of parents today,
about the mental health of parents worrying and trying to
guide their children in this post covid age. Philippians may

(24:35):
have been the Apostle Paul's favorite church, at least according
to his writing, he was always most affectionate towards them,
and by the end of his letter of the Philippians,
Paul is telling them rejoice in the Lord always again
I say rejoice. In particular, Paul is appreciative of a

(24:55):
generous gift the Philippian Church made to him while he
imprisoned by Roman authorities, though he is quick to say
he wasn't in need. And the passage I read just
a few moments ago, Paul said, I have learned to
be content with whatever I have. I know what it

(25:22):
is to have little, and I know what it is
to have plenty in any and all circumstances. I have
learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry,
of having plenty, and of being in need. I can
do all things through God who strengthens me. Now. Oftentimes

(25:51):
in that passage we focus on that last sentence about
the God who strengthens us, which is an important sentence.
But the sentence that jumps out to me is where
Paul says that he has learned to be content with
whatever he has. I have learned to be content with
whatever I have now. Content here does not mean complacent.

(26:17):
The apostle Paul was always driving himself in serving the
churches he started. Complacency was not in his vocabulary. Content
does not mean complacent. Content means that after all he did,
with all the time he had, with all the resources,
after he did everything he could. Content meant he was

(26:40):
satisfied with whatever he had, with whatever situation he was in.
This is a foreign concept today. We live in a
society where practically nothing is enough and it is wrecking

(27:01):
havoc on our children. Teenagers today are lonelier and more
unhappy than they were just a decade ago and a
generation to go. The numbers are significantly different, and here's
the surprising thing. The more affluent you are the more

(27:22):
likely your children are unhappy. It's easy to compare the
mental health of children who attending public school and the
ones who are attending private school. And if your children
are attending private school, they are two to five times
more likely to have anxiety, depression, attention problems, and rule

(27:43):
breaking episodes than students in the general population. Prosperity and
how we are handling it as families and as churches
is having a negative effect on our children in a
society where nothing is ever enough, Prosperity only whets the

(28:07):
appetite for more. So, how do we help our children,
our grandchildren, the children of this congregation? And I'm talking
here to all of us, not just the parents and grandparents.
Here do all of us have a responsibility to the
children and the teenagers of this congregation? How do we

(28:29):
help them to learn to be content with whatever they
have and with whomever they are. Their mental health is
more important than anything they have or any achievement they
can make. How do we help them to learn that

(28:50):
they will be enough and that they have enough in
the God who strengthens them. Well For the second week
in row, I'm gonna do one, two, three, Okay, don't
get used to this first. It is really important at

(29:11):
a young age for families to set limits for your
children and to stick to them. That these may be
limits about bedtime and screen time. For those of you
who might screen time is TV, phone, computer device, anything
with a screen, meal time, and maybe most important, limit

(29:34):
on material possessions. Children who get everything they want never
quest their thirst for more. In one sense, it really
doesn't matter what your limits are you as parents are grandparents,
you work on those limits. It's important that whatever your
limit is, that you just have them, that you talk

(29:55):
about why you have these limits, and that you stick
to them. Now, let me tell you, children are the
most optimistic people in this world. If mom or dad say,
for instance, there's not going to be any ice cream
tonight after dinner because we've had too many sweets today,

(30:18):
you can bet your children are going to ask a
little bit more, can we have some ice cream or
some other dessert? And if you say no once twice,
that doesn't mean they're going to stop. In fact, some
of you have children who are born sales representatives in
the future. They are going to keep asking and asking
and asking. And if you finally give in on the

(30:39):
twentieth time, you have cursed yourself for a long time
because you have just taught them that if they plead enough,
if they use the right voice enough, you are going
to give in. Parents. If you're going to give in,
do it quickly for your own sake. Don't wait till
the twentieth time. Okay, that's just the rule of thumb.

(31:00):
If you set good boundaries for your household and your
limits for your young children, they will learn to be
content within those limits. And as they become older children
and teenagers, you can help them to set their own
boundaries for themselves by giving them choices. Let's do a

(31:23):
pretend moment. Let's say pretend for a moment that your
family has set up a celebration for grandmother's seventy fifth
birthday on the same night when your middle schooler had
been invited to a sleepover at a friend's house. Now
you've got a conundrum. Grandmother seventy fifth birthday, your middle

(31:46):
schooler's important sleepover at a friend's house. Consider giving your
child a choice within boundaries. We would like you to
go with us, and grandmother would like you to be
with us for this big celebration, but we also know
going to the middle school sleepover is really important to you,

(32:08):
so we will allow you to do that if you
first write a very loving note to your grandmother and
how you will visit her another time, just you and her,
and that you will get your weekend chores done before
you go, because when you come back those things you
are a zombie for the next twenty four hours. You

(32:29):
know you're not gonna get anything done. And then let
your middle schooter choose. Let her choose her boundaries, let
her decide which of those things she wants to do
within those limits. Giving our teenage a choice in life
to choose their boundaries and their limits as a way

(32:50):
of helping them have agency that they can make the
decisions and they can control themselves within these boundaries and limits.
You know, we can really can't make our children be content.
We can only teach them how to set their own
boundaries and their own limits and learn to be content
within them. Number two, Focus on the effort, not the result.

(33:21):
Not every student can get straight a's just not going
to happen for all of us. Your child may be
a good, hard working student, may be a person of
great character, but they may never get calculus or algebra.
It just may never happen, all right, So watch how
you handle rewards in your family. If your rewards are
always based on the results, then you're already setting your

(33:46):
child up from some failure right from the start. Can
you figure out ways to reward effort, because whether you're
a C student or an A student, you can still
make the effort to learn as as much as you
possibly can in the subjects that you find most challenging.

(34:06):
Not every athlete can finish the race first, but every
athlete can practice and work on skills. Give your child
and your grandchild the same hug after a fourth place
finish as you would for a first place finish, whether
he set his lines perfectly in the school play or

(34:28):
forgot them part way through. Focus on the effort, not
the result. Losing, in fact, teaches us things that winning
never can, one of which is humility, which may be
one of the most important lessons of life. And if

(34:50):
your child wins all the time, then make sure you
have him play tougher competition one for the humility and
because better players make you better. I'll never forget when
my daughter Abby was starting to perfect the first time
her jump serve in volleyball. She was playing on a
practice volleyball team and had just really started getting the

(35:13):
groove with her jump serve, and one game it was magical.
She did her jump serve, perfect serve ace, second, one ace, next,
one service winner. After five in a row, the other
team called time out. After two more aces, the coach
started talking the coach on the other team, which was

(35:34):
really a big no no in travel volleyball. The coach
on the other team started saying things out last Abby
off her game. Finally, on the tenth serve in a row,
the other team won the serve back. Afterwards, Abby is living.
She could not believe how this other coach had been
so unfair and gotten her off her rhythm and so forth,

(35:57):
and she went on and on, and I was the
listening dad, y'all. Be I was a good listener. Just
let it float out. When all anger and upset, peace
of throats got out of the way, I finally said,
you know, Abby, I think she did you a favor.
What she said startled. I said, if you keep getting

(36:19):
better at this jump serve and you start serving this
well against Myers Park and Providence High too, of their
high school rivals in Charlotte, She said, do you think
they're going to just let you keep doing that. They're
going to do things to get inside your head and
get you off your mark. If your child is finding success,

(36:44):
continue giving them challenges so they can work on the effort.
But don't worry about the result. We can't make our
children content. We can only teach them to focus on
their effort and to be proud of their hard work
and the effort to master a subject or a skill,
and then to learn to live with whatever the result is.

(37:09):
You tried your best. You tried your hardest. That's all
we ask. Three. Teach your children that your family shows
its blessings with the poor and the less fortunate, as
Jesus taught us to do. Practice generosity in ways that
your children and grandchildren can see you give and to

(37:30):
make it possible for them to be involved in the
giving as well. When you're shopping for some food that
you're going to give to the Cridlin Center, take your
children with you. Have them pick out things. When it's
the beginning of the school year and we're buying things
for school supplies for children who are less fortunate, take
your children with you. Have them make their list of

(37:52):
what they want to have for school, and then ask
them to donate out of their pile something that another
child will need. Get them involved in practicing generosity. Generosity
takes practice. Now, I want to mention a couple things

(38:13):
just straight to the teenagers this morning. Caroline and Cameron,
Leo and Leyton and Campbell, Macy, Brooklyn and Jewels, Carter
and Fletcher Ella. Growing up is not easy, and this
decade may be tougher than decades in the past. It

(38:35):
is not easy. The only way Liam, I forgot you
you were hiding right there. The only way you can
get ready for all that is through your own effort
and hard work. If your parents just give you everything,
you will not be prepared for what awaits you in
college and as a young adult. So in your own mind,

(39:01):
begin thinking about ways you need to be challenged and
ask your parents for more responsibility. Ask them I cook
a meal for the family one time. Just ask for
responsibility where you can do things without their supervision and
it's okay. If you mess up, it's okay. If things
get messed up, it's all right. That's a part of
the learning process. Ask them for challenges, ask them for responsibility,

(39:28):
even if it's nothing more than having afternoon time where
you and your friends get together and play, and you
all decide how you're going to play. Maybe you're going
to do it touch football in a yard someplace, or
as a teenager had a few weeks ago, you can
do beach ball, volleyball, whatever it is. You decide how
you're going to do it. Because Oregon hide the games

(39:48):
is the most important lesson of the games, but too
often adults get in the way. Teenagers need to do
their own games under their own rules. Ask your parents
for responsibility and the freedom that comes with that responsibility,
and you will learn lessons for this life that nothing

(40:11):
else can prepare you for, other than doing it yourself,
making mistakes and doing it again. Dan kinln in his
book Too Much of a Good Thing, which was subtitled
Raising Children of Character in an Indulgent Age. Dan and

(40:32):
his team studied seventeen hundred parents and children and found
ten percent of the children were too good to be
true teenagers. They didn't drink or smoke, they didn't use drugs,
they weren't depressed or meat or spoiled or self centered,
and they worked best at school without being obsessed about it,

(40:53):
and they found some common traits in these teenagers. I'm
gonna mention four of them. Their families frequently ate dinner together,
and they sat at the table and they talked with
each other about how the day went, about what their
hopes were, about what's coming up next. They laughed together,

(41:16):
they told stories. The second thing was that all of
them had responsibilities at home. Some responsibility at home which
included keeping their rooms clean, because every room in the
house is a part of the family, so everyone worked
on something in the house. Number three, there was limits

(41:38):
about their phone use during the day, some restrictions that
the family had all agreed to. And number four they
did community service as a family. And when you think
about it, that's not really a high bar, right just
eating meals together, having some responsibilities are chore as a home,

(42:01):
some restrictions on phone use, and doing community service. Do
those things, we will give our children a chance to
grow up empowered, not entitled in this society. Helping children
and young people learn to be content with whatever they have,

(42:22):
whether they have plenty or whether they have little, is
a pathway to learning to trust that they can do
all things with the God who strengthens them. You know,
the easy part of teaching our children in teenagers faith
is the teaching of it, teaching them to follow Jesus.
The hard part is living this stuff right. Parents. We

(42:46):
don't expect to do that alone. We as a congregation
are here to help you. And where we fall short,
you let us know, you let me know, we'll talk
about it. Mac God, God, help us to learn and
to teach our children to how they can be content
with whatever they have in any and all circumstances. Maybe

(43:07):
learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry,
of having plenty and of being in need. Maybe learn
to trust the God who strengthens us to do all things. Ahmen,
We end our worship service with this Baptist tradition of
opening our doors of fellowship as we stand together and

(43:28):
sing Him seven oh five. We open our doors of fellowship,
and we would invite you if you've never made a
profession of faith in Jesus Christ, but you desire to
follow Jesus and be baptized in his church, Or maybe
you've been a Christian for some time but you're looking
for a new church home. We would hope you would
trust to be a part of our church family. I
alwa'd be in front of the communion table and would

(43:48):
love to greet you as we all stand together and
sing him seven oh five.

Speaker 7 (44:12):
S show S S S.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
S S.

Speaker 5 (45:58):
S S.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
Sos as so.

Speaker 9 (47:48):
Well, good morning.

Speaker 5 (47:49):
I hope it's been a great way to begin your
day and your week. I do appreciate all of you
who have helped so far this morning and who are
with us today in worship. Let me mention a couple
of things. I'm very to Jerry and for Jake and
leading us some prayers. I must also say that Jake
and his wife Josie are really helping us out on
Wednesday nights as one of our two of our leaders
for our youth group. So, teenagers, if you have not

(48:10):
come on Wednesday nights, Jake and Josie and Christy and
Bev are doing a great job and John will be
leading us shortly, so I hope you come on Wednesday nights,
have dinner, and then teenagers meet downstairs in the fab
lab for a great conversation and a great discussion about
kind of living and being a teenager these days. Let
me also mention that some of y'all have asked me

(48:32):
how I'm doing, and wanting to know my recovery. So
I saw the surgeon this past week and got the
pathology report back and it was all good news. So
it was all the extra tissue they took was clear,
and so we're assuming I'll be I'm cancer free now.
I'll be taking blood tests as the process goes over
the next few years. As long as that turns out

(48:53):
to be zero, then I'm good, won't won't have to
do anything else. So I appreciate all of your support,
and so now I'll just kind of focus on get
physically stronger in the next few weeks ahead. So thank
you all so much for your prayers and support. Let's see,
I think that's about it. Just also mentioned that in
three weeks we'll be having our last conversation. If you
have not been with us for these earlier please make

(49:14):
sure you attend this one. You don't have to be
a member of the church. If you're just attending and
you know something about our church, please be here and
help us for that conversation. And teenagers, we want you
to be a part of this conversation as well, particularly
the next one where we'll be talking about what we
are looking for in a new pastor. So October six.
Also keep that in mind. That also be communion Sunday,

(49:34):
and if you can help out with home communion, make
sure you speak with Bev. Let her know that you
can participate with that. Let's receive the benediction. Friends, man,
the Lord bless you, keep you. May the Lord make
his counselness to fall upon you and be gracious unto you.

(49:55):
But the Lord make his face to shine upon you
and give you peace, the peace which passes all understanding.
And friends, as you go back out into the world,
know that God, the creator of the years, has already
prepared away for you this week. And Jesus the Christ
will walk beside if you every step of the way,

(50:17):
and the Holy Spirit God Love is going to swirl
around you and protect you and to guide you through
whatever you face.

Speaker 9 (50:25):
So go in peace, amena

Speaker 7 (54:09):
Pass But
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Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

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