December 2, 2024 • 49 mins
Can gratitude transform your life into one of peace and joy? Join us as we explore this profound question As Thanksgiving approaches, we celebrate the power of living a life guided by love and gratitude, inspired. Together, we reflect on the importance of being instruments of peace and bridge builders, much like the Prayer of St. Francis encourages. By embracing gratitude as a lifestyle and an ethical choice, imagine the possibilities of creating a kingdom on Earth filled with light and love.
Through personal stories, we recount journey from struggling with anger, to finding inner peace by embodying forgiveness, mercy, and kindness. Our conversation centers on how embracing these virtues can lead to self-liberation and personal growth, aligning with the spirit of love that God has for all of us. We also delve into the significance of reframing our perspectives, using gratitude to shift focus from self-centeredness to a mindset of abundance and community, even when faced with life's challenges.
In a world that often prioritizes speed and convenience, we emphasize the beauty of slowing down, practicing generosity, and making space for others. Hear about a poignant story that underscores the tragic consequences of impatience and the transformative power of love and peace. Our discussion wraps up with insights on approaching life's hurdles with grace, reinforced by the sacred practice of communion, reminding us of God's boundless love and provision. Throughout, gratitude remains a central theme, encouraging us to adopt it as a lifeline to a more fulfilling life.
This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church you can donate at https://www.firstlovechurch.org/giving
In the service of LOVE,
Pastors Dennis and Heather Drake
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.
This is a collection of Sundayteachings inspired by the
Revised Common Lectionary andrecorded weekly in Ocala,
florida.
And the Christ in us greets theChrist in you.
Thank you for the light and thebeauty that you are and that, as
we come together, we expand ourlight and our ability to love
(00:24):
and to see people as they areand to welcome them into the
presence of the Lord.
It's our joy, an absolute joy,to be with you this morning and
to consider together the word oflife, the word of the Lord, and
one of the things that we dowhen we're together is we allow
ourselves to be formed by otherthought, by higher thought, by
(00:47):
the words of Christ, who remindus what it is like to be a
people who are deeply loved byGod.
What if everything that we didin our life was out of the
source of love?
Our world would be anotherplace.
It would be the kingdom hereright now, and so one of the
things that we do together isthat we learn how to be people
(01:10):
who are formed by God's love,and so it is with great joy this
morning that we go to the text,that we go to the word of life
and that we allow it to expandour ideas and to expand our
understanding of what isavailable to us right now.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well listen, I'm so glad all of you came to church
today, but I am especially gladmy cousin Kenny and Ria are here
.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I love the collective .
Speaker 2 (01:37):
They usually come from all the way from
Jacksonville, Illinois, and Ilike when they stand up.
Yeah, it's very nice, so I gotthem on my cousin's on parade,
but now that they're retiredthey come to you from not just,
but they might be from theBahamas, it might be from
whatever.
So we are just grateful to haveyou and to have everyone.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
We could go around the room and say how grateful we
are for all of the people whoare here, all of them.
Yes for Vince, yes for everysingle one.
I've looked at you and I'msaying I'm grateful for all of
you, from Vince, who drove upfrom early this morning, and
grateful for everyone who makesthe drive and who says this is
where I want to be.
And so I'm again not justgrateful, we're talking about
(02:18):
something that I am reallyexcited to share with you this
morning, and I think that maybefeels overused, because every
time I'm here I'm happy to sharewith you.
But sometimes the textchallenges us on a different
level and while I find this textchallenging, it feels so good,
it feels like, yes, this isright, this is what we've come
(02:41):
for.
So this morning, when we go tothe text oh, before we go to the
text, I would like us to praySt Francis' prayer together as
we move into unity and into thebond of the Holy Spirit between
us.
If you would pray with us, lord, make me an instrument of your
peace.
Where there is hatred, let mesow love when there is hatred.
(03:06):
Let me sow love when there isinjury, pardon when there is
doubt.
Faith when there is despair.
Hope when there is darkness,light.
And where there is sadness.
Joy, o Divine Master, grantthat I may not so much seek to
(03:27):
be consoled as to console, to beunderstood as to understand and
to be loved as to love, for itis in giving that we receive, it
is in pardoning that we arepardoned, and it is in dying
that we are born to eternal lifeamen it has been a prayer of
(03:51):
ours continually over the pastfew weeks, and perhaps this is
an invitation for us to livelike this.
But, lord, make me an instrumentof your peace.
Very often we want peace aroundus, but we want everybody else
to do the changing.
I want you to not behave likethat so that I can have my peace
, and this invitation is make methe instrument of peace.
(04:12):
Let me so live in the peace ofjesus christ, that everywhere I
go, there can be peace, therecan be bridges built, there can
be things that allow for peaceamong all people, and so I'm
grateful for that.
We go this morning toColossians, chapter 3.
And in this particular textthis morning, I know that we're
(04:32):
all aware that Thanksgiving iscoming quickly.
Many of you are making yourlists and your plans and setting
your menu, and I remind youthat Thanksgiving is something
that is a mark of someone whoknows that they are loved, being
able to say thank you, beingable to express gratitude.
That thanksgiving is somethingthat is a mark of someone who
knows that they are loved, beingable to say thank you, being
(04:53):
able to express gratitude, andit is not just reserved for one
day.
In fact, it is a lifestylechoice, it is an ethical choice,
and we see this as we followJesus over and over again.
Jesus demonstrated to us, andin fact, the words of the people
that witnessed him said and hegave thanks, and he gave thanks,
and he gave thanks.
So giving thanks was a practiceof Jesus who shows us what it's
like to really live.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You know we're going to talk about these practices
today and sometimes they can goright over our heads or
sometimes we can maybe not fullyunderstand how that they're
really useful to us.
And so I want you to kind ofthink about, you know, the idea
that when we get a word from theLord, it's advice that we're
(05:37):
turning down.
In some cases that doesn'tsound wise.
When I put it like that, doesit?
Do you really want to turn downadvice given to you by the
Creator?
And I think what happens to usis we wouldn't literally do
something like that, but we kindof get it in our head that what
(06:01):
you're saying is too good to betrue, or my experience has
shown me that I can't have peace.
So what you do is you exaltyour opinion or your experience
above God's word, and soessentially we say God, you're
(06:21):
lying.
I don't think that's a goodplace to sit to trust some
experiences you've had, and Iwant you to understand I think
I've done this in the past.
That's why I share this withyou.
I'm confident that I've lookedat my experience and I said but
I just don't think that's goingto be applicable to me, I don't
(06:41):
think that's gonna really helpme, and I've come to realize
that I'm the one that needschanged, not god.
And if I can listen to thesethings as they're being
instructed to me and thesepractices, and if I can, just
all right, I'll do it.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
I don't see how bathing in the river seven times
is going to take away myleprosy, but you told me to do
it, so I'll do the practice well, you see that, regarding naman,
who has leprosy and can't curehimself, goes and asks for help,
(07:20):
and then the word comes to himand says go to the river and dip
seven times.
And I'm sure that was anenormous disappointment Because
we want something that is big orflashy or immediate.
But I want to tell you, thefirst time Naaman dipped, he was
healed.
And let me tell you why Becausehe chose the obedient way.
The first time Now, it tooktill the seventh time till his
(07:43):
skin actually cleared up and wesaw a manifestation of that.
But the very first time now, ittook till the seventh time till
his skin actually cleared upand we saw a manifestation of
that.
But the very first time youchoose to obey, you choose to
walk in love, you choose tofollow god's path, the healing
is already there, the miraclehas already been provided.
And so I remind you that thepractices allow us to be formed,
to build the muscle, to buildthe response, to build the faith
(08:03):
, to build the hope.
That to build the response, tobuild the faith, to build the
hope that is allowed to us InColossians, chapter 3, put on
your new nature and be renewedas you learn to know your
creator and become like him.
This is the invitation for allof us Renewal, transformation,
(08:24):
resurrection, the miraculous,this is available to all of us.
And then this becomes ourchoice, as you learn to know
your creator and I want toremind you that this takes a
lifetime Learning to know yourcreator, living in the creation
that testifies.
This is an invitation for us,for a life of learning, for us
(08:46):
to sit and be able to say I havea teacher, I have a guide, I
have a love who shows me how tobe in this world, in this new
life.
It doesn't matter if you're Jewor Gentile, circumcised or
uncircumcised, barbaric,uncivilized, slave or free.
Christ is all that matters andhe lives in all of us.
(09:07):
This verse is so beautiful inreminding us that whatever
identifier that you have hadthat says that you are separate,
that thing no longer matters.
You are one with Christ, youare one with God's family.
So where before we would saythe civilized and the
uncivilized, let's put a linethere and say we're not going to
(09:28):
cross that, and Jesus is sayingno, that line is erased.
All of you, whether you'reuncivilized or not and I think
that really refers a lot to likechildren, small people,
teenagers in particular, feellike in the uncivilized category
, and then we just want toembrace them and say no, no,
we're one in Christ.
Those beautiful people, intheir way of expressing things,
is welcomed in the body ofChrist, is welcomed in our midst
(09:51):
.
And so, I remind you, we don'thave, typically, people that we
say are barbarians, or at leastnot on a regular basis.
They're also welcomed here.
But I remind you, to these firstcentury listeners, they would
have been shocked that youincluded the barbarians.
I mean, they would have justbeen irritated at the fact, like
you've gone too far in thisinclusion thing, beloved, like
(10:12):
we can include them, but thebarbarians often don't even wear
clothes and so we're going toinvite them to our tables like
naked and wild, like that.
And the idea is yes, becausewe're not looking at the things
that divide us, we are lookingat the spirit that unites us,
and the spirit is christ spiritwho lives in all of us you know
(10:32):
there's a principle and and itis that you know if you forgive,
you yourself will be forgiven.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So the the other side of that is, if you won't
forgive, you know you won't you,you just can't walk in, that
forgiveness and and thatprinciple is is really uh, moves
out into other areas, like thislike, if you exclude, you,
yourself will be excluded.
(10:59):
And it's not so much that God'sgoing well, you know you
excluded some people, so I'mgoing to exclude you.
What it really means is, if youcan't, within you, accept that
idea of including people, youwill find a reason why you are
excluded.
It is really within you thatthis trap is set.
(11:20):
You know it's not.
You know, know god going better.
You know you better adjust somestuff or otherwise.
I'm gonna get you.
God is for us, but he's showingus in these practices how we can
trap ourselves.
Because I know I've knownpeople that have had horrible
atrocities happen to them andbut they have committed some
(11:44):
horrible things as well andunwilling to forgive themselves
for the things that they havedone, because they weren't going
to forgive the things that weredone to them.
And so we feel like we'rereleasing somebody else, but
we're releasing ourselves andthe idea of allowing that grace
to come to others means it willcome to you as well.
(12:06):
And boy do I ever need thatgrace.
Am I the only one?
Help us out.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Since God chose you to be the holy people that he
loves.
I just remind you that you arethe holy people that God loves.
You are.
Everyone is actually for God,so loved.
The world that he gave.
(12:31):
God is love, and God is wildlyand passionately in love with
you.
So because you are these people, you are sons and daughters of
God, you must clothe yourselfwith tenderhearted mercy,
kindness, humility, gentlenessand patience.
And again, here the teacher isreminding us that it is mercy,
(12:57):
kindness, humility, gentlenessand patience.
This kind of list reminds youof the list that talks about
what the Holy Spirit looks likewhen it's manifesting in someone
and what love looks like.
Love is patient, love is kind,love is long-suffering.
Love is not rude, love does notput itself first.
This sounds like this continualbeautiful picture that says
(13:22):
this is who you are.
You might have thought, orsomeone told you you were angry
and disappointed, but actuallyyou are a person clothed in love
.
Actually you are full ofgentleness and patience.
You may have just been notpracticed in that yet, and this
is a beautiful invitation for usto learn a way of living to who
(13:43):
we really are you know thischurch.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
We've been on a journey, a process where God is
healing us of traffic problems,of our anger and traffic.
Have you noticed that?
That we've been on this journeytogether?
Some of you are less willing togo on the journey with me, but
we're on this journey and and Ican tell you that, as I'm
(14:09):
practicing that love towardspeople, it is absolutely
changing me, you know.
And so we look at this.
Oh my God, there's this biglist.
I got to be tender hearted,merciful, kind Boy.
That's going to be a full-timejob for me.
But you know, what I've neededevery moment and every day of my
life is I've needed that tenderkindness towards me.
And I tell you what, as roughas I am on other people, I'm
(14:31):
more rough on myself, and youare as well.
So if we can begin to practicethis change you know I have in
my lifetime kids were littlelast time it happened but on the
turnpike I pulled a guy over,dragged him out of his car and
was going to beat him as apastor of a church.
And I looked at it and the guywas like a retired age guy and I
(14:54):
thought to myself this is goingto go one of two ways.
I'm a 30-something-year-old guythat's going to beat an old man
and look like a jerk or worse,I'm going to get beat up by an
old man on the side of the road.
So this is lose-lose.
So I pushed him back in his carand left.
But this is the kind of rageand anger that I'm talking about
, that I have struggled with.
So I'm not saying, oh, just,this is easy, just deal with it,
(15:16):
or you know as if I don'tunderstand what we're talking
about.
But fast forward to just.
I think it was yesterday or theday before Heather and I were
in Orlando and these people werebehind me.
This person was laying on thehorn for me to get over and just
tailgating me like this and getover, get over because they
needed to get around.
And so I got over and they wereso busy yelling at me that they
(15:41):
didn't realize that I wasgetting over because the lane
was ended in one car length up.
So thankfully, that person whowas needed to be around me so
bad and was so angry andnormally would have engaged me
in kind of a thing I justthought, oh, I feel so sorry for
you that you're out here andyou need to get around, so bad
(16:03):
that you don't even see thatneed you have has no end, that
has no future for you.
It is a literal dead end whatyou're trying to do and I love
that.
God just allowed me to see thatin my peace and, furthermore,
gave me the grace to not go.
Hey, I told you so in thewindow, adam.
I put my head down and justsaid let the lord deal with them
(16:26):
and and I was able to be freefrom something that used to
control me.
I literally would go out intraffic and how my day went
totally depended on someone else.
If they drove perfectly for myjudgment, then I would have a
good day, but if not, I'd have astory to tell everybody for the
(16:47):
next.
This big jerk got in my way, youknow, and all this, and we
allow ourselves to be pulledinto that energy and that place.
Or we can decide.
I can always be a distributorof grace and of kindness and be
the kind of person that exudesthat.
And what happens when I sharethat?
It comes back to me.
(17:07):
That's the kind of person thatexudes that.
And what happens when I sharethat?
It comes back to me.
That's the kind of people Iattract and I'm around, and even
when someone is so opposed toit, it becomes so ridiculous.
Why would we want to be thosekind of angry people?
Why?
Why?
For that momentary satisfactionof flesh that follows behind it
Hours, if not days, of shameand regret?
(17:28):
Or could we walk in a placewhere we are distributing the
very grace of god to peoplearound us?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
there's no comparison make allowance for each other's
faults, which is very differentthan judge each other's faults
or bring some kind ofcondemnation for each other's
faults.
Just make allowance for it.
I mean, what would that looklike in your day if you just
allowed people to have theirfaults and you just say I built
(18:00):
my day with plenty of allowance,with the allowance for someone
to be having their bad day?
What would that look like inyour marriage if you just made
allowance for each other's fault?
What if, on a regular basis, wedidn't have to correct faults,
we didn't have to tell someonetheir faults, we could just make
an allowance for it?
And this is a way beloved tolive in peace.
This is a way to live in Christ.
(18:23):
This is a way to live ascendedin our thoughts.
Just make an allowance for it.
Build into your life anallowance for people to be on
their own journey, for people tobe as they are without needing
to be changed by you.
Make allowance for each other'sfaults and forgive anyone who
offends you.
Just go ahead and forgive them.
(18:44):
Just right, then forgive them.
Remember the Lord forgave you,so you must forgive others and,
above all, clothe yourself withlove, which binds us all
together in perfect harmony.
This is, in fact, the highestof all the virtues love.
Love is the way God is love,and Jesus showed us how to live
(19:08):
and embrace our humanity and tothrive.
And this way, this is the wayof peace, that love binds us all
together in perfect harmony.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Remember earlier when I said you might be getting
some advice and there's going tobe a tendency to want to tell
us why this is not going to work.
There's going to be a tendencyto want to tell us why this is
not going to work.
And I find that within myself,and I find it within people I
counsel and just in humanitythat we would rather justify why
we're going to continue in thepath of destruction, other than
(19:42):
really humbling ourselves anddeciding that man, with some
adjustment and really such aslight course correction now in
a long haul, can change yourdirection so drastically.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Over time?
And so sometimes we think, oh,my god, it's too overwhelming if
(20:05):
I was to change.
What if we changed one thingabout making allowance or just
for our spouse, or kindness, andwanted to move in this area?
What would happen for you tosurrender to God in that area is
that we begin to see God'smanifesting in our life in that
area, that God will be showingup in such a great way, and
(20:29):
that's what you and I need.
So, instead of us telling whythis won't work, what if we just
say, all right, you're the onewho gives the direction and
offers this practice, and I willchoose to go out there.
And you know that, naaman, hehad to go in that water.
He's a rich guy coming fromanother land and I've seen the
(20:50):
Jordan River.
It is nothing much to look at.
It's a filthy little river,it's a little creek by our
standards, to be honest with you, and it wasn't even a glorious
bath or palace that he would go.
It was a humbling place to goand that's what God's asking you
and I Humbly that we would biteour tongue and be gracious to
other people, but watch what itdoes, the miracle that it does
(21:13):
in you.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I just want to be mindful of the fact that you
just mentioned.
It's not much of a river by ourstandards, and I want to tell
you that I've never made a riverDennis has never made a river,
but our space where we occupy itwas in the Midwest, and the
Mississippi is quite a river.
That was not created by us, butagain that becomes our
standards.
One time we were in Israel andsomeone said something about the
Jordan River.
We were like we couldn't findit, and they were like you must
(21:37):
have you crossed over.
We're like there was a creek,and they were like no, that was
the Jordan River, but our frameof reference was the Mississippi
.
And so we were like we neverfound it.
We never found it, and then sowe had to go back and find it
and then change the way that wethought about the river and
we're like well, here it is.
And so sometimes in our livesthe same thing happens, where
your culture says to you this iswhat it is.
(21:59):
And so allow another frameworkto come to you, Because this
verse says let the peace thatcomes from Christ rule in your
hearts.
Beloved, if we can encourageyou with anything, be a people
of peace, Be a people who livein peace, who create peace, and
the scripture is reminding usthis is the peace of Christ.
This peace can guard your heart, For, as members of one body,
(22:24):
you are called to live in peace.
Now, this would have again beento the original readers.
These people were barbariansand to tell them they were
called to live in peace wouldhave been astonishing, because
these were people of war, thesewere people who based everything
on conquest and this idea ofyou are called to be people of
(22:44):
peace.
You are called to one body.
You are called to unity, youare called to love.
You are called to live in peaceand always be thankful.
Here we are again and this iswhy, with great joy, I remind
all of us that this is thepractice.
If you thought the other thingswere the practice beloved, this
(23:06):
is the practice Be thankful.
Make it your practice to bethankful.
There's a little proverb thatsays this.
It says gratitude turns what wehave into enough.
So, when you find yourself inlack of anything that you can
say, this is what I'm going tochoose the path of thankfulness
(23:27):
that will allow me to see theabundance.
That will allow me to see whatis not here.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
You know, thankfulness is such a, you know
, gratitude, it's such a path oftransformation for us.
You know, it's really one ofthe only practices that really
can get you out of your ego,because our ego kind of uh looks
(23:56):
at, um, uh, you know ourselfand how we're feeling and how,
and we get kind of soself-centered, you know, in that
world, and we don't evenrealize we're doing it.
It's oftentimes, as you know,we kind of build our ego to
protect ourselves or whatever.
But thankfulness, and I'll tellyou, there's a few people.
(24:18):
I talk to a lot of people on aregular basis.
I check in with people, andthere's certain people I can
check in on them and theywouldn't tell me if all their
limbs had fallen off.
Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine.
And then there's other peoplethat just can't wait to tell me
all the horrible things that aregoing on in their life and they
(24:38):
just they can rehearse, and soI'll find myself kind of playing
pong with them.
They'll throw it at me and I'llgo yeah, but can you thank God
for this?
And they'll go, yeah, but yougot to understand, this is
horrible.
I'm so alone.
I said, yeah, but you're alive,you can breathe air.
Yeah, but you know I can't.
I hate my job, yeah, but yougot a car, you can drive there,
you know, and I'm just and I gotoff the phone after a couple of
minutes and I'm like that wastiring man, you know, and
(25:09):
they're trapped.
And you might be trapped in thatplace and you might say to me
no, there is nothing that I canbe thankful for, there's nothing
good in my life, and I gottatell you that I understand that
you're trapped, but if you coulddo this practice of looking, is
there anything that you'rethankful for?
You know, you, you get to livein florida.
It's green year-round, yeah,but it's so freaking hot and
(25:29):
it's humid, you know.
At least you're not frozeninside a glacier somewhere.
Can you find something?
You know what I mean and whatwill happen.
And I'm being silly, but I'mbeing serious, because that trap
that you're in is terrible foryou and it's terrible for us
that are around you, because youare dragging us down like a
(25:50):
millstone.
For god's sake, would you findsomething to be joyful?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
over, so we're going to make allowance for your well
let me finish because I'm on aroll here.
I'm pastoring right now andwhat we're going to do is we're
just going to be grateful foryou wherever you are.
Well, no, but we're going to.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
We're going to talk about this because we're going
to try to help you, we're goingto pray for you, but we get to
go home and be happy.
You're staying in this mud and Iwant you out of there because I
love you.
And so here's what I'mchallenging you at If you could
recognize that this one gift ofgratitude can get you out of
your ego, because it forces youto think of something else and
(26:29):
someone else.
It forces you to think of asource outside of yourself.
I'm thankful for the sun, I'mthankful for cotton candy,
something that is outside ofyour creation that I'm thankful
that that you know there's birds, that you know.
The only time I'm ever happy isif I hear a chirp, chirp.
Well, thank God, buy an appthat plays chirp chirps 24 hours
(26:52):
a day.
Find something that can get yououtside of that trap, and
that's what gratitude will do.
And it's a practice.
I'm not good at things until Ipractice at them for a while,
you will not be good at this,but I'm telling you, it's a rope
God is throwing you and you'resaying you know, I'm sick of me,
(27:13):
I'm sick of being negative.
Well then, here's the deal.
Grab a hold of this truth thathas been there your whole life,
but you just didn't realize howlife changing it is for you to
just look around.
You know, heather and I, we hadsomewhere to go the other day,
but both of us were just sittingin our front room and we
(27:35):
realized that we talked to eachother after I said why were you
hanging around the front room?
So we had to leave.
And Heather said, and I askedher and she said she goes.
I couldn't stop staring at ourkids Now they're adults now, but
they were talking and theyweren't yelling at each other,
they were laughing and they weretelling stories and one was
getting louder than the otherand we were just going look Look
(28:00):
at this.
Oh man, this is so special.
How many of you come in and outof the house and you pass by
those miracles that are yourchildren?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Or your spouse.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Especially for you.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yes, what a miracle, what a miracle.
May the Lord be praised.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
No, you're so right If we can celebrate or we can
find some things you know onthat song earlier you missed the
cue on there.
I did, I did.
Or we can find some things youknow on that song earlier.
You missed the cue on there.
Or we can go.
Thank God I have a wife who canbeautifully sing and sometimes
catches those cues.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
No, most of the time not, but I'm just saying, can we
turn that, do we?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
have to constantly dwell on the negative and stay
trapped in that misery.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining
us today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, pause here for a
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If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
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This podcast is made possiblethanks to the generosity of
people just like you.
If you would like to supportthe ongoing work of First Love
Church and the continued work ofour podcast, visit us online at
(29:07):
firstlovechurchorg, remindingyou to like, follow and
subscribe.
This is the beautiful invitationthat we see as the following of
the practices that Jesus gaveus.
Where gratitude turns what wehave into enough, the practice
of gratitude allows peace toreign in our hearts.
Gratitude doesn't mean thatyou're happy that this is this
(29:30):
way, I mean, but there is athing to be able to say where is
the peace that I can accessright now?
Where is the remembrance?
In fact, we use a word in theEnglish language and when you
trace the word back, it is thiswe say thank you, and actually
the word in its beginnings camefrom the word when you received
something.
You would say I'll think of you, and that has evolved into
(29:52):
thank you, and thank you rightnow means nothing.
It really kind of doesn't.
I mean, our machines say thankyou, but what if, when somebody
gave you something, anything,I'll think of you.
I will remember this.
This is what I'll do and again,this is the practice of the
Eucharist, of Holy Communion,that every time the feast is
there, I will think of the factthat you have prepared a table
(30:13):
for me.
I will think of the fact that Iam invited to this feast.
I will receive the feast thatyou gave us.
So when someone does somethingfor you and you choose to say
thank you or you rehearse thatinstead of how someone has
offended you or someone hasbrought fault to you, what can
we be thankful for?
Sometimes, all we can bethankful for is that God loves
(30:35):
them, and that's a good place tostart, like when somebody is
very difficult with you.
Just I'm grateful that the Lordloves them, I'm grateful that
there is mercy, I'm gratefulthat they have a savior and you
can start.
Just I tell you that it is abeautiful practice because once
you start, the Spirit will beginto like bubble up in you and
you will remember the thingsthat you can be grateful for and
always be thankful and let themessage about Christ in all of
(30:59):
its richness fill your lives.
Teach and counsel each otherwith all the wisdom that love
gives, that God gives, andcounsel each other with all the
wisdom that love gives, that Godgives, that Jesus gives, Sing
psalms and hymns and spiritualGod to song to God with thankful
hearts.
Again, this is the invitationinto a practice of thankfulness,
(31:20):
into a practice of gratitude,into a practice of hope.
I was sitting with some peoplethat we were doing a project
with and we were going to beserved.
This was not in this country,but we were going to be served
what was loosely I would saylunch Loosely.
It was a sit down time.
We got some water and thenthere was this stuff served and
(31:43):
literally I will tell you thatit made me feel nauseous just
looking at it and I thought Iwould have better never even
seen this than actually try it.
So we just started together.
I gave my friend a little lookand we started this and we're
like isn't it so wonderful thatwe get to be together?
Yeah, Isn't it so wonderfulthat we have a moment to sit
down in the chairs and rest?
And what delicious water thisis.
(32:03):
And we refuse to comment onwhat this was.
I will tell you what it was.
It was a piece of pig fat thathad not been cooked but was cut
in a cube like a brownie, butwas the pig fat that was still
gelatinous and moving, but thatwas served to us for lunch and
so we can all go.
I'm fasting it's a religiouspractice, but this idea is no
(32:27):
matter what happens, you canfind things to be grateful for
and what it did.
So then what happened was myfriend and I kept going back and
forth.
I would say just to be togetheris so beautiful, Just to feel
the breeze is beautiful, Just tosit for a moment and think
let's talk about how grateful weare.
And then other people startedcatching on, because they also
saw what we were served and theywere like oh, let's think about
the fact that we are sofortunate that we have the
(32:49):
strength to be able to do thisgood work Instead of going.
What are we going to do withthis?
This is unedible.
We can find ways to, and I will, without hesitation.
I tell you that we left with somuch strength, not because we
had been nourished by food, butwe had been nourished by
fellowship that was brought onby thankfulness and beloved.
(33:11):
That is true for you, no matterwhere you find yourself.
The practice of findingsomething, even if you cannot
find anything good.
With that, there's other thingsaround you.
And the awareness, the bringingourselves into the awareness.
I will think of you, I willthink of God, who gives us every
good thing that we need toenjoy.
And whatever you do or say, I'velooked in the original language
(33:34):
too, and it does.
It is this wide whatever you door say, that's kind of
everything beloved You're doingand you're saying that's kind of
everything beloved You're doingand you're saying, Do it as a
representation, as arepresentative of the Lord Jesus
Christ, giving thanks throughhim to God, the Father, in
everything that you do.
What if the folding of thelaundry that is already clean,
(33:56):
that you haven't folded and putit away yet?
What if you could do that outof thanks to God?
What if all of the tasks thatwe do, we do it because we're
giving thanks to God?
What if all of the things thatwe do we have the strength to do
because it's an opportunity wehave, that we get to use our
bodies to move in this way, thatwe get to use our energy on
(34:20):
behalf of others?
There is an invitation intonewness of life through the
practice of thanksgiving.
Yes, you will be enriched inevery way so that you can always
be generous.
This is the intention of theblessing you receive from God
(34:43):
and then you give it away.
You receive with open handsevery beautiful thing and then
you become a person who is aconduit of love, of thanksgiving
, of mercy, everything.
You will be enriched so thatyou can always be generous.
Generosity always leads us togratitude.
(35:05):
It is just a natural part ofthis.
Dennis mentions and it's comingup here, but he mentions all
the time that no one is evermore generous than on
Thanksgiving Day.
You are so full of dinner thatwhen anyone comes Thanksgiving
Day just after you've eaten.
Oh yeah, not before the meal hasbeen served, just after You've
already eaten your fill, andthen someone else comes and
(35:26):
there's still food and you'relike, eat, eat, eat.
And they're like, oh, it's okay, I don't want it.
No, just please sit down.
You are so generous because youare so full.
What if we could always be sogenerous with love and mercy and
peace and grace and our gifts,because we realize we've
received them?
And when we take your gifts tothose who need them, they will
(35:49):
thank God.
This generosity producesgratitude in the world around us
.
They might not thank you, butthey will thank God, who gives
us everything and allows us tobe people who are radically
generous, incredibly thankfuland full of God's peace.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
You know what I want for us as a church and I think
it would be pretty hard for youto be a part of this church and
not sign on to this but thatyou're going to do some of the
practices.
You're going to be a kind of aChristian that does some of
these practices.
You know, because you knowwe're challenging on them.
Do them and watch what God does.
You know that we're justgenerous with what we got.
(36:30):
Now I may not have a lot, butwhatever I have, you know I told
you guys a long time ago not topat myself on the back, but
something we decided to do.
Every time we see somebody onthe side of the road, we're
going to give them five5.
We don't have a lot of money,but we set aside at the
beginning.
That makes a lot.
That means we might have to dowithout, but we get a stack of
fives every month, at thebeginning of the month or every
(36:52):
few weeks, and we stick them inthe little cubby of the car and
you know that they've never rundry.
I mean we might get to the lastone and then have to replenish
them, but I mean it's just.
It's amazing how you can decide, you know to do a practice and
God will.
So what if you decided I'mgoing to bring joy to people,
I'm going to bring kindness?
(37:12):
You know, and maybe youyourself wouldn't run out?
You might get right to thebrink sometimes, but you're not
going to run out.
That's God's principle.
I want you to think about that.
There's things that we'vedecided back to us being this
church that practices goodbehavior when we drive, uh the
uh.
There's something that I havedone my whole life.
Maybe I learned it from myfamily of origin.
(37:32):
I bet you you've done it in thepast.
If you don't still do it.
When somebody cuts you off, youmight have a name for them.
You don't know them, but isn'tit interesting how a name rose
up out of you for them and yougave them a name?
Let's all at once tell what ourno no, wait no I bet you you
(37:53):
have some names for people Ihave.
Look at this idiot.
Oh, can you believe it?
You know, know.
And my wife has been practicingsomething for a while and I'll
ask my kids unrehearsed what ifdad was getting ready to call
somebody an idiot?
What would mom call them?
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Beloved child of God.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
What you heard, that across the room why?
Because it's a practice in ourcar and you know what rises up
in me now when these people comeout.
Oh, look at the beloved child ofGod and I can see that that's
God's child and maybe God'schild's impatient.
Maybe God's child needs to workon some things.
But it's not my job.
It's God's job to deal withthat.
(38:38):
So I can turn loose of that.
I don't have the need to dragthem out of the car and teach
them the truth of trafficanymore.
I want to allow that to be inthe hands of the one who
actually can handle that.
Somebody say amen, don't turn meoff because I'm preaching real
good.
Don't tell me why this is notgoing to work, because I'm
telling you these practiceschange you and they bring an
(39:00):
abundance in your life.
Because we laugh in our car now, instead of creating that
atmosphere where, where it'scringe and all the passengers
are wondering if you're going toturn the car into a bridge and
punishment and kill everyone inthe car.
You're so angry and enragedyou're terrifying to be around.
I'm preaching to somebody, ifnot to my children about me, or
(39:28):
can we allow love?
Because I'm not just talkingabout me.
Unfortunately, there's a lot ofpeople that carry around that
kind of range and just onelittle thing sets us off.
What if we could carry aroundthe abundance of love where just
anything will set that off.
Grace would be shared andhanded to those people that
clearly need it out there,because they have not yet
(39:49):
learned how to drive to mystandards, so they need God's
grace.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
We talked about this a few weeks ago, but Dennis and
I wrote a sign, one of thoseones that are on the side of the
road, that they can change.
They can tell you the lane isclosed, they can tell you
there's traffic ahead or there'sa detour.
But this one said the lane isnot your birthright, let them
merge.
And I love that so much.
We've been laughing at thisidea of sometimes, when we're
(40:16):
doing something, we feel likeit's our birthright, beloved.
I want to remind you of whatyour birthright is.
You are a child of God, yourwhat your birthright is you are
a child of God.
Your birthright is belovedness.
Your birthright is worthiness.
You have every good thingbecause your Father in heaven
has given it to you, and so ourbirthright is to know that the
(40:38):
source of everything that wehave need of and this verse 12,.
So two good things will resultfrom this ministry of giving the
needs of the believers inJerusalem will be met and they
will joyfully express theirthanks to God, and, as a result
of your ministry or your giving,they will give glory to God,
(40:58):
for your generosity to them andto all believers will prove that
you are obedient to the goodnews of Christ Beloved.
Gratitude is good news.
Being able to find something tobe thankful for is good news.
The ability to be able to saywe get to be together and remind
ourselves of things to bethankful for or things to be
(41:21):
aware of that we are gifted.
Last night I hope that you gotto see the moon.
I hope that you went into yourroom and the moon was so bright.
You just noticed the beauty ofthat light on the floor because
the moon was there.
Now the moon is there all thetime, beloved.
We just don't see it, andsometimes during the year, you
know this is the last.
(41:41):
This is like the autumn moon,where the solstice comes next
and then we're gonna.
You know that things are gonnachange in the atmosphere, but
last night's moon was sobeautiful and I hope that you
are able to see that.
I hope that when you go outsidein the evenings it's gonna be
cold.
I looked at my app, which isawesome, and the next couple of
days, sweater weather excitingfor us.
It's full fall.
(42:02):
Don't panic like don't get outyour boots or mittens or
anything.
It's just going to be like.
You know you get to have asweater, but maybe you'll go
outside and sit on your porchand maybe you'll listen to the
bird or to the cicadas or towhatever it is that is happening
.
Maybe it's your neighbor's dog,who never shuts up.
What a blessing that is, youknow, to be able to say, well,
look at that animal who'sconstantly praising.
Or, you know, maybe it's awoodpecker who is doing some
(42:25):
kind of reconstruction onsomething that you didn't know
anything about.
But I hope that you will take amoment to allow nature to
witness to you, to re-witness toyou the beauty and the
diversity that is our world andhow we can enjoy all of the
goodness that is heaped uparound us.
We're about to togethercelebrate Holy Communion and I'm
(42:46):
so incredibly grateful for thistime that we get to say what do
we do, to be grateful forthings we bring to remembrance.
We think of Christ, who showsus how to live, shows us, in
generosity, what to do.
One of the things that you getto participate in is giving
offerings, giving tithes, sayingthis is what I'm going to do to
(43:07):
support the things that arehere.
We and you take care of eachother, take care of your
neighbors, invite someone toyour Thanksgiving table who
doesn't usually come or who maynot have a place to be.
What would our world look likeif all of us expanded our
ability to be able to say whocan we bring into the table or
into this place, to be able tosay there is enough and there's
(43:28):
beauty for everyone?
Speaker 2 (43:30):
you know, I I just believe that it's allowing god
to help us see things correctly.
What?
What is that?
That we get in this idea?
We don't deserve to beinconvenienced, or we don't?
You know, I don't need to havethis happening to me, you know,
and we just decide that wedeserve that, whatever this
thing that we have conceived inour head, and everyone else pays
(43:53):
that price.
You know, when heather wastalking about that idea of the
uh lane of, it's not yourbirthright.
You know, recently I went into arestaurant and they just
weren't responding to me and Istood there so long that other
people came in the line after meand when the person finally
(44:14):
turned around, they took theother people's order and I'm
like do you know what I wantedto do and what I've done in the
past?
I've explained to everybody theorder and how lines work and I
made it weird for everyone.
But I was in a hurry and reallyin my mind I judged that I
(44:35):
needed this.
And the thing is that when weallow that hurry to be the
justification for why, or we canrecognize one of the greatest
practices that we can do in ourlives is eliminate hurry, is to
recognize that that alone is thecause for so much pain.
(44:58):
Do you know that?
Something that we heard a storyrecently that has been grieving
Heather and I, but it's beenpart of our conversation for a
couple of months now.
But there was a young hockeyplayer I think he was around 19
or something and he had justgotten his big 60 million dollar
contract and he went to go tohis sister's wedding, him and
his brother and they decided togo biking.
(45:20):
So they put their biker helmetson and their their bikes and
they went around out in thehills or whatever, and they were
going on a bike trip and whathappened was some cars were
slowing down to go around themand a guy three cars back
couldn't see what was going onbut had no patience to wait
their turn, was clearly in ahurry, flies around and mowed
(45:43):
over that young hockey playerwith all that potential and his
brother and and not to mentionthe hockey player's wife, was
several months pregnant withtheir first child, and so that
life was taken away.
And I could see I've done thatin the past just tromped on the
gas, and I don't know what'sgoing on around here, but I have
(46:05):
got to get where I'm going toget and that place that we put
ourselves on.
We don't deserve it anymore.
You know what ended uphappening when they ended up
getting my order last, but myfood came out first.
How did that happen?
And I ended up getting to whereI was going seven minutes early
.
(46:26):
So it turns out what I wasconvinced was stealing my time
did not steal my time, but mybelief that I have to get
somewhere and I've got to keepthis schedule, and how that
could drive me potentially to dosomething so horrific and so
(46:46):
unchangeable, so devastating,because I'm driven by a spirit
other than the spirit of loveand peace, you know.
And?
And so what if somebody elsegot to go in a line before you?
Wouldn't that be terrible?
Or wouldn't it be loving andkind if we can allow these
practices that we're talkingabout to really begin to affect
(47:11):
our everyday life?
You know, these are the thingsthat we're going to do, and some
of you say, oh, I do that kindof thing all the time.
Do you To the people in yourhome?
Or is that where all thateffort is pulled back and now I
say whatever I want to say anddo whatever I want to do?
Speaker 1 (47:31):
god help us, amen, and he will and give us the
grace the invitation is to mercy, the infinite mercy of god,
that we would be merciful withourselves, that we would be
merciful with ourselves, that wewould be merciful with the
world, that we would have thesepractices of generosity that
lead to gratitude, that lead toother people being able to be
(47:52):
grateful, and I am so.
I'm just encouraged by youreminding us to ruthlessly
eliminate hurry from our life.
I think that goes right alongwith that first verse that said
make an allowance for everyone'sfaults.
That will help with your hurry,because you knew this person
wasn't going to be able to getthere on time anyway, right?
Or you knew they weren't goingto be able to help you with the
tech.
Lord, have mercy, christ.
(48:13):
Have mercy, lord.
Have mercy when we have to dealwith electronics.
Let the peace of God rule yourheart and mind through Christ
Jesus.
There is a test that all of usgo through.
Beloved, I have a lot ofgenerosity.
I feel like I do, at least whenI'm measuring myself.
I have generosity toward people, do not have generosity toward
the electronics, and I need tojust look at this kind of thing
(48:36):
and go.
This is the way that I get tolearn and get to establish a new
spiritual practice in myself,but in everything we do.
We should give thanks.
In everything we do, and thiswill motivate us and give us the
strength that we need for allof the jobs that we get to do.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
I would just like to interject.
If we had maybe the idea thatwe could expect, I'll probably
call tech support and they willspeak with an accent that I have
a hard time understanding.
Or I'll call tech support andthey'll tell me to go to the
website.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
And I've already gone to the website.
That's why I'm calling.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
But I will still be kind and loving to that person
as they do their job.
We're going to need some helpwith that, so that's why we're
going to communion.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
Yes To the table of the Lord, to this beautiful
sacrament that reminds us thatevery good thing that we have
need of is given to us by God'sincredible love.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about us, visit us
online at firstlovechurchorg.
Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.
This is a collection of Sundayteachings inspired by the
Revised Common Lectionary andrecorded weekly in Ocala,
florida.
And the Christ in us greets theChrist in you.
Thank you for the light and thebeauty that you are and that, as
we come together, we expand ourlight and our ability to love
(00:24):
and to see people as they areand to welcome them into the
presence of the Lord.
It's our joy, an absolute joy,to be with you this morning and
to consider together the word oflife, the word of the Lord, and
one of the things that we dowhen we're together is we allow
ourselves to be formed by otherthought, by higher thought, by
(00:47):
the words of Christ, who remindus what it is like to be a
people who are deeply loved byGod.
What if everything that we didin our life was out of the
source of love?
Our world would be anotherplace.
It would be the kingdom hereright now, and so one of the
things that we do together isthat we learn how to be people
(01:10):
who are formed by God's love,and so it is with great joy this
morning that we go to the text,that we go to the word of life
and that we allow it to expandour ideas and to expand our
understanding of what isavailable to us right now.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well listen, I'm so glad all of you came to church
today, but I am especially gladmy cousin Kenny and Ria are here
.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I love the collective .
Speaker 2 (01:37):
They usually come from all the way from
Jacksonville, Illinois, and Ilike when they stand up.
Yeah, it's very nice, so I gotthem on my cousin's on parade,
but now that they're retiredthey come to you from not just,
but they might be from theBahamas, it might be from
whatever.
So we are just grateful to haveyou and to have everyone.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
We could go around the room and say how grateful we
are for all of the people whoare here, all of them.
Yes for Vince, yes for everysingle one.
I've looked at you and I'msaying I'm grateful for all of
you, from Vince, who drove upfrom early this morning, and
grateful for everyone who makesthe drive and who says this is
where I want to be.
And so I'm again not justgrateful, we're talking about
(02:18):
something that I am reallyexcited to share with you this
morning, and I think that maybefeels overused, because every
time I'm here I'm happy to sharewith you.
But sometimes the textchallenges us on a different
level and while I find this textchallenging, it feels so good,
it feels like, yes, this isright, this is what we've come
(02:41):
for.
So this morning, when we go tothe text oh, before we go to the
text, I would like us to praySt Francis' prayer together as
we move into unity and into thebond of the Holy Spirit between
us.
If you would pray with us, lord, make me an instrument of your
peace.
Where there is hatred, let mesow love when there is hatred.
(03:06):
Let me sow love when there isinjury, pardon when there is
doubt.
Faith when there is despair.
Hope when there is darkness,light.
And where there is sadness.
Joy, o Divine Master, grantthat I may not so much seek to
(03:27):
be consoled as to console, to beunderstood as to understand and
to be loved as to love, for itis in giving that we receive, it
is in pardoning that we arepardoned, and it is in dying
that we are born to eternal lifeamen it has been a prayer of
(03:51):
ours continually over the pastfew weeks, and perhaps this is
an invitation for us to livelike this.
But, lord, make me an instrumentof your peace.
Very often we want peace aroundus, but we want everybody else
to do the changing.
I want you to not behave likethat so that I can have my peace
, and this invitation is make methe instrument of peace.
(04:12):
Let me so live in the peace ofjesus christ, that everywhere I
go, there can be peace, therecan be bridges built, there can
be things that allow for peaceamong all people, and so I'm
grateful for that.
We go this morning toColossians, chapter 3.
And in this particular textthis morning, I know that we're
(04:32):
all aware that Thanksgiving iscoming quickly.
Many of you are making yourlists and your plans and setting
your menu, and I remind youthat Thanksgiving is something
that is a mark of someone whoknows that they are loved, being
able to say thank you, beingable to express gratitude.
That thanksgiving is somethingthat is a mark of someone who
knows that they are loved, beingable to say thank you, being
(04:53):
able to express gratitude, andit is not just reserved for one
day.
In fact, it is a lifestylechoice, it is an ethical choice,
and we see this as we followJesus over and over again.
Jesus demonstrated to us, andin fact, the words of the people
that witnessed him said and hegave thanks, and he gave thanks,
and he gave thanks.
So giving thanks was a practiceof Jesus who shows us what it's
like to really live.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You know we're going to talk about these practices
today and sometimes they can goright over our heads or
sometimes we can maybe not fullyunderstand how that they're
really useful to us.
And so I want you to kind ofthink about, you know, the idea
that when we get a word from theLord, it's advice that we're
(05:37):
turning down.
In some cases that doesn'tsound wise.
When I put it like that, doesit?
Do you really want to turn downadvice given to you by the
Creator?
And I think what happens to usis we wouldn't literally do
something like that, but we kindof get it in our head that what
(06:01):
you're saying is too good to betrue, or my experience has
shown me that I can't have peace.
So what you do is you exaltyour opinion or your experience
above God's word, and soessentially we say God, you're
(06:21):
lying.
I don't think that's a goodplace to sit to trust some
experiences you've had, and Iwant you to understand I think
I've done this in the past.
That's why I share this withyou.
I'm confident that I've lookedat my experience and I said but
I just don't think that's goingto be applicable to me, I don't
(06:41):
think that's gonna really helpme, and I've come to realize
that I'm the one that needschanged, not god.
And if I can listen to thesethings as they're being
instructed to me and thesepractices, and if I can, just
all right, I'll do it.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
I don't see how bathing in the river seven times
is going to take away myleprosy, but you told me to do
it, so I'll do the practice well, you see that, regarding naman,
who has leprosy and can't curehimself, goes and asks for help,
(07:20):
and then the word comes to himand says go to the river and dip
seven times.
And I'm sure that was anenormous disappointment Because
we want something that is big orflashy or immediate.
But I want to tell you, thefirst time Naaman dipped, he was
healed.
And let me tell you why Becausehe chose the obedient way.
The first time Now, it tooktill the seventh time till his
(07:43):
skin actually cleared up and wesaw a manifestation of that.
But the very first time now, ittook till the seventh time till
his skin actually cleared upand we saw a manifestation of
that.
But the very first time youchoose to obey, you choose to
walk in love, you choose tofollow god's path, the healing
is already there, the miraclehas already been provided.
And so I remind you that thepractices allow us to be formed,
to build the muscle, to buildthe response, to build the faith
(08:03):
, to build the hope.
That to build the response, tobuild the faith, to build the
hope that is allowed to us InColossians, chapter 3, put on
your new nature and be renewedas you learn to know your
creator and become like him.
This is the invitation for allof us Renewal, transformation,
(08:24):
resurrection, the miraculous,this is available to all of us.
And then this becomes ourchoice, as you learn to know
your creator and I want toremind you that this takes a
lifetime Learning to know yourcreator, living in the creation
that testifies.
This is an invitation for us,for a life of learning, for us
(08:46):
to sit and be able to say I havea teacher, I have a guide, I
have a love who shows me how tobe in this world, in this new
life.
It doesn't matter if you're Jewor Gentile, circumcised or
uncircumcised, barbaric,uncivilized, slave or free.
Christ is all that matters andhe lives in all of us.
(09:07):
This verse is so beautiful inreminding us that whatever
identifier that you have hadthat says that you are separate,
that thing no longer matters.
You are one with Christ, youare one with God's family.
So where before we would saythe civilized and the
uncivilized, let's put a linethere and say we're not going to
(09:28):
cross that, and Jesus is sayingno, that line is erased.
All of you, whether you'reuncivilized or not and I think
that really refers a lot to likechildren, small people,
teenagers in particular, feellike in the uncivilized category
, and then we just want toembrace them and say no, no,
we're one in Christ.
Those beautiful people, intheir way of expressing things,
is welcomed in the body ofChrist, is welcomed in our midst
(09:51):
.
And so, I remind you, we don'thave, typically, people that we
say are barbarians, or at leastnot on a regular basis.
They're also welcomed here.
But I remind you, to these firstcentury listeners, they would
have been shocked that youincluded the barbarians.
I mean, they would have justbeen irritated at the fact, like
you've gone too far in thisinclusion thing, beloved, like
(10:12):
we can include them, but thebarbarians often don't even wear
clothes and so we're going toinvite them to our tables like
naked and wild, like that.
And the idea is yes, becausewe're not looking at the things
that divide us, we are lookingat the spirit that unites us,
and the spirit is christ spiritwho lives in all of us you know
(10:32):
there's a principle and and itis that you know if you forgive,
you yourself will be forgiven.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So the the other side of that is, if you won't
forgive, you know you won't you,you just can't walk in, that
forgiveness and and thatprinciple is is really uh, moves
out into other areas, like thislike, if you exclude, you,
yourself will be excluded.
(10:59):
And it's not so much that God'sgoing well, you know you
excluded some people, so I'mgoing to exclude you.
What it really means is, if youcan't, within you, accept that
idea of including people, youwill find a reason why you are
excluded.
It is really within you thatthis trap is set.
(11:20):
You know it's not.
You know, know god going better.
You know you better adjust somestuff or otherwise.
I'm gonna get you.
God is for us, but he's showingus in these practices how we can
trap ourselves.
Because I know I've knownpeople that have had horrible
atrocities happen to them andbut they have committed some
(11:44):
horrible things as well andunwilling to forgive themselves
for the things that they havedone, because they weren't going
to forgive the things that weredone to them.
And so we feel like we'rereleasing somebody else, but
we're releasing ourselves andthe idea of allowing that grace
to come to others means it willcome to you as well.
(12:06):
And boy do I ever need thatgrace.
Am I the only one?
Help us out.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Since God chose you to be the holy people that he
loves.
I just remind you that you arethe holy people that God loves.
You are.
Everyone is actually for God,so loved.
The world that he gave.
(12:31):
God is love, and God is wildlyand passionately in love with
you.
So because you are these people, you are sons and daughters of
God, you must clothe yourselfwith tenderhearted mercy,
kindness, humility, gentlenessand patience.
And again, here the teacher isreminding us that it is mercy,
(12:57):
kindness, humility, gentlenessand patience.
This kind of list reminds youof the list that talks about
what the Holy Spirit looks likewhen it's manifesting in someone
and what love looks like.
Love is patient, love is kind,love is long-suffering.
Love is not rude, love does notput itself first.
This sounds like this continualbeautiful picture that says
(13:22):
this is who you are.
You might have thought, orsomeone told you you were angry
and disappointed, but actuallyyou are a person clothed in love
.
Actually you are full ofgentleness and patience.
You may have just been notpracticed in that yet, and this
is a beautiful invitation for usto learn a way of living to who
(13:43):
we really are you know thischurch.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
We've been on a journey, a process where God is
healing us of traffic problems,of our anger and traffic.
Have you noticed that?
That we've been on this journeytogether?
Some of you are less willing togo on the journey with me, but
we're on this journey and and Ican tell you that, as I'm
(14:09):
practicing that love towardspeople, it is absolutely
changing me, you know.
And so we look at this.
Oh my God, there's this biglist.
I got to be tender hearted,merciful, kind Boy.
That's going to be a full-timejob for me.
But you know, what I've neededevery moment and every day of my
life is I've needed that tenderkindness towards me.
And I tell you what, as roughas I am on other people, I'm
(14:31):
more rough on myself, and youare as well.
So if we can begin to practicethis change you know I have in
my lifetime kids were littlelast time it happened but on the
turnpike I pulled a guy over,dragged him out of his car and
was going to beat him as apastor of a church.
And I looked at it and the guywas like a retired age guy and I
(14:54):
thought to myself this is goingto go one of two ways.
I'm a 30-something-year-old guythat's going to beat an old man
and look like a jerk or worse,I'm going to get beat up by an
old man on the side of the road.
So this is lose-lose.
So I pushed him back in his carand left.
But this is the kind of rageand anger that I'm talking about
, that I have struggled with.
So I'm not saying, oh, just,this is easy, just deal with it,
(15:16):
or you know as if I don'tunderstand what we're talking
about.
But fast forward to just.
I think it was yesterday or theday before Heather and I were
in Orlando and these people werebehind me.
This person was laying on thehorn for me to get over and just
tailgating me like this and getover, get over because they
needed to get around.
And so I got over and they wereso busy yelling at me that they
(15:41):
didn't realize that I wasgetting over because the lane
was ended in one car length up.
So thankfully, that person whowas needed to be around me so
bad and was so angry andnormally would have engaged me
in kind of a thing I justthought, oh, I feel so sorry for
you that you're out here andyou need to get around, so bad
(16:03):
that you don't even see thatneed you have has no end, that
has no future for you.
It is a literal dead end whatyou're trying to do and I love
that.
God just allowed me to see thatin my peace and, furthermore,
gave me the grace to not go.
Hey, I told you so in thewindow, adam.
I put my head down and justsaid let the lord deal with them
(16:26):
and and I was able to be freefrom something that used to
control me.
I literally would go out intraffic and how my day went
totally depended on someone else.
If they drove perfectly for myjudgment, then I would have a
good day, but if not, I'd have astory to tell everybody for the
(16:47):
next.
This big jerk got in my way, youknow, and all this, and we
allow ourselves to be pulledinto that energy and that place.
Or we can decide.
I can always be a distributorof grace and of kindness and be
the kind of person that exudesthat.
And what happens when I sharethat?
It comes back to me.
(17:07):
That's the kind of person thatexudes that.
And what happens when I sharethat?
It comes back to me.
That's the kind of people Iattract and I'm around, and even
when someone is so opposed toit, it becomes so ridiculous.
Why would we want to be thosekind of angry people?
Why?
Why?
For that momentary satisfactionof flesh that follows behind it
Hours, if not days, of shameand regret?
(17:28):
Or could we walk in a placewhere we are distributing the
very grace of god to peoplearound us?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
there's no comparison make allowance for each other's
faults, which is very differentthan judge each other's faults
or bring some kind ofcondemnation for each other's
faults.
Just make allowance for it.
I mean, what would that looklike in your day if you just
allowed people to have theirfaults and you just say I built
(18:00):
my day with plenty of allowance,with the allowance for someone
to be having their bad day?
What would that look like inyour marriage if you just made
allowance for each other's fault?
What if, on a regular basis, wedidn't have to correct faults,
we didn't have to tell someonetheir faults, we could just make
an allowance for it?
And this is a way beloved tolive in peace.
This is a way to live in Christ.
(18:23):
This is a way to live ascendedin our thoughts.
Just make an allowance for it.
Build into your life anallowance for people to be on
their own journey, for people tobe as they are without needing
to be changed by you.
Make allowance for each other'sfaults and forgive anyone who
offends you.
Just go ahead and forgive them.
(18:44):
Just right, then forgive them.
Remember the Lord forgave you,so you must forgive others and,
above all, clothe yourself withlove, which binds us all
together in perfect harmony.
This is, in fact, the highestof all the virtues love.
Love is the way God is love,and Jesus showed us how to live
(19:08):
and embrace our humanity and tothrive.
And this way, this is the wayof peace, that love binds us all
together in perfect harmony.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Remember earlier when I said you might be getting
some advice and there's going tobe a tendency to want to tell
us why this is not going to work.
There's going to be a tendencyto want to tell us why this is
not going to work.
And I find that within myself,and I find it within people I
counsel and just in humanitythat we would rather justify why
we're going to continue in thepath of destruction, other than
(19:42):
really humbling ourselves anddeciding that man, with some
adjustment and really such aslight course correction now in
a long haul, can change yourdirection so drastically.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Over time?
And so sometimes we think, oh,my god, it's too overwhelming if
(20:05):
I was to change.
What if we changed one thingabout making allowance or just
for our spouse, or kindness, andwanted to move in this area?
What would happen for you tosurrender to God in that area is
that we begin to see God'smanifesting in our life in that
area, that God will be showingup in such a great way, and
(20:29):
that's what you and I need.
So, instead of us telling whythis won't work, what if we just
say, all right, you're the onewho gives the direction and
offers this practice, and I willchoose to go out there.
And you know that, naaman, hehad to go in that water.
He's a rich guy coming fromanother land and I've seen the
(20:50):
Jordan River.
It is nothing much to look at.
It's a filthy little river,it's a little creek by our
standards, to be honest with you, and it wasn't even a glorious
bath or palace that he would go.
It was a humbling place to goand that's what God's asking you
and I Humbly that we would biteour tongue and be gracious to
other people, but watch what itdoes, the miracle that it does
(21:13):
in you.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I just want to be mindful of the fact that you
just mentioned.
It's not much of a river by ourstandards, and I want to tell
you that I've never made a riverDennis has never made a river,
but our space where we occupy itwas in the Midwest, and the
Mississippi is quite a river.
That was not created by us, butagain that becomes our
standards.
One time we were in Israel andsomeone said something about the
Jordan River.
We were like we couldn't findit, and they were like you must
(21:37):
have you crossed over.
We're like there was a creek,and they were like no, that was
the Jordan River, but our frameof reference was the Mississippi
.
And so we were like we neverfound it.
We never found it, and then sowe had to go back and find it
and then change the way that wethought about the river and
we're like well, here it is.
And so sometimes in our livesthe same thing happens, where
your culture says to you this iswhat it is.
(21:59):
And so allow another frameworkto come to you, Because this
verse says let the peace thatcomes from Christ rule in your
hearts.
Beloved, if we can encourageyou with anything, be a people
of peace, Be a people who livein peace, who create peace, and
the scripture is reminding usthis is the peace of Christ.
This peace can guard your heart, For, as members of one body,
(22:24):
you are called to live in peace.
Now, this would have again beento the original readers.
These people were barbariansand to tell them they were
called to live in peace wouldhave been astonishing, because
these were people of war, thesewere people who based everything
on conquest and this idea ofyou are called to be people of
(22:44):
peace.
You are called to one body.
You are called to unity, youare called to love.
You are called to live in peaceand always be thankful.
Here we are again and this iswhy, with great joy, I remind
all of us that this is thepractice.
If you thought the other thingswere the practice beloved, this
(23:06):
is the practice Be thankful.
Make it your practice to bethankful.
There's a little proverb thatsays this.
It says gratitude turns what wehave into enough.
So, when you find yourself inlack of anything that you can
say, this is what I'm going tochoose the path of thankfulness
(23:27):
that will allow me to see theabundance.
That will allow me to see whatis not here.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
You know, thankfulness is such a, you know
, gratitude, it's such a path oftransformation for us.
You know, it's really one ofthe only practices that really
can get you out of your ego,because our ego kind of uh looks
(23:56):
at, um, uh, you know ourselfand how we're feeling and how,
and we get kind of soself-centered, you know, in that
world, and we don't evenrealize we're doing it.
It's oftentimes, as you know,we kind of build our ego to
protect ourselves or whatever.
But thankfulness, and I'll tellyou, there's a few people.
(24:18):
I talk to a lot of people on aregular basis.
I check in with people, andthere's certain people I can
check in on them and theywouldn't tell me if all their
limbs had fallen off.
Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine.
And then there's other peoplethat just can't wait to tell me
all the horrible things that aregoing on in their life and they
(24:38):
just they can rehearse, and soI'll find myself kind of playing
pong with them.
They'll throw it at me and I'llgo yeah, but can you thank God
for this?
And they'll go, yeah, but yougot to understand, this is
horrible.
I'm so alone.
I said, yeah, but you're alive,you can breathe air.
Yeah, but you know I can't.
I hate my job, yeah, but yougot a car, you can drive there,
you know, and I'm just and I gotoff the phone after a couple of
minutes and I'm like that wastiring man, you know, and
(25:09):
they're trapped.
And you might be trapped in thatplace and you might say to me
no, there is nothing that I canbe thankful for, there's nothing
good in my life, and I gottatell you that I understand that
you're trapped, but if you coulddo this practice of looking, is
there anything that you'rethankful for?
You know, you, you get to livein florida.
It's green year-round, yeah,but it's so freaking hot and
(25:29):
it's humid, you know.
At least you're not frozeninside a glacier somewhere.
Can you find something?
You know what I mean and whatwill happen.
And I'm being silly, but I'mbeing serious, because that trap
that you're in is terrible foryou and it's terrible for us
that are around you, because youare dragging us down like a
(25:50):
millstone.
For god's sake, would you findsomething to be joyful?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
over, so we're going to make allowance for your well
let me finish because I'm on aroll here.
I'm pastoring right now andwhat we're going to do is we're
just going to be grateful foryou wherever you are.
Well, no, but we're going to.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
We're going to talk about this because we're going
to try to help you, we're goingto pray for you, but we get to
go home and be happy.
You're staying in this mud and Iwant you out of there because I
love you.
And so here's what I'mchallenging you at If you could
recognize that this one gift ofgratitude can get you out of
your ego, because it forces youto think of something else and
(26:29):
someone else.
It forces you to think of asource outside of yourself.
I'm thankful for the sun, I'mthankful for cotton candy,
something that is outside ofyour creation that I'm thankful
that that you know there's birds, that you know.
The only time I'm ever happy isif I hear a chirp, chirp.
Well, thank God, buy an appthat plays chirp chirps 24 hours
(26:52):
a day.
Find something that can get yououtside of that trap, and
that's what gratitude will do.
And it's a practice.
I'm not good at things until Ipractice at them for a while,
you will not be good at this,but I'm telling you, it's a rope
God is throwing you and you'resaying you know, I'm sick of me,
(27:13):
I'm sick of being negative.
Well then, here's the deal.
Grab a hold of this truth thathas been there your whole life,
but you just didn't realize howlife changing it is for you to
just look around.
You know, heather and I, we hadsomewhere to go the other day,
but both of us were just sittingin our front room and we
(27:35):
realized that we talked to eachother after I said why were you
hanging around the front room?
So we had to leave.
And Heather said, and I askedher and she said she goes.
I couldn't stop staring at ourkids Now they're adults now, but
they were talking and theyweren't yelling at each other,
they were laughing and they weretelling stories and one was
getting louder than the otherand we were just going look Look
(28:00):
at this.
Oh man, this is so special.
How many of you come in and outof the house and you pass by
those miracles that are yourchildren?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Or your spouse.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Especially for you.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yes, what a miracle, what a miracle.
May the Lord be praised.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
No, you're so right If we can celebrate or we can
find some things you know onthat song earlier you missed the
cue on there.
I did, I did.
Or we can find some things youknow on that song earlier.
You missed the cue on there.
Or we can go.
Thank God I have a wife who canbeautifully sing and sometimes
catches those cues.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
No, most of the time not, but I'm just saying, can we
turn that, do we?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
have to constantly dwell on the negative and stay
trapped in that misery.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining
us today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, pause here for a
moment to thank you for joiningus today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
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This podcast is made possiblethanks to the generosity of
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If you would like to supportthe ongoing work of First Love
Church and the continued work ofour podcast, visit us online at
(29:07):
firstlovechurchorg, remindingyou to like, follow and
subscribe.
This is the beautiful invitationthat we see as the following of
the practices that Jesus gaveus.
Where gratitude turns what wehave into enough, the practice
of gratitude allows peace toreign in our hearts.
Gratitude doesn't mean thatyou're happy that this is this
(29:30):
way, I mean, but there is athing to be able to say where is
the peace that I can accessright now?
Where is the remembrance?
In fact, we use a word in theEnglish language and when you
trace the word back, it is thiswe say thank you, and actually
the word in its beginnings camefrom the word when you received
something.
You would say I'll think of you, and that has evolved into
(29:52):
thank you, and thank you rightnow means nothing.
It really kind of doesn't.
I mean, our machines say thankyou, but what if, when somebody
gave you something, anything,I'll think of you.
I will remember this.
This is what I'll do and again,this is the practice of the
Eucharist, of Holy Communion,that every time the feast is
there, I will think of the factthat you have prepared a table
(30:13):
for me.
I will think of the fact that Iam invited to this feast.
I will receive the feast thatyou gave us.
So when someone does somethingfor you and you choose to say
thank you or you rehearse thatinstead of how someone has
offended you or someone hasbrought fault to you, what can
we be thankful for?
Sometimes, all we can bethankful for is that God loves
(30:35):
them, and that's a good place tostart, like when somebody is
very difficult with you.
Just I'm grateful that the Lordloves them, I'm grateful that
there is mercy, I'm gratefulthat they have a savior and you
can start.
Just I tell you that it is abeautiful practice because once
you start, the Spirit will beginto like bubble up in you and
you will remember the thingsthat you can be grateful for and
always be thankful and let themessage about Christ in all of
(30:59):
its richness fill your lives.
Teach and counsel each otherwith all the wisdom that love
gives, that God gives, andcounsel each other with all the
wisdom that love gives, that Godgives, that Jesus gives, Sing
psalms and hymns and spiritualGod to song to God with thankful
hearts.
Again, this is the invitationinto a practice of thankfulness,
(31:20):
into a practice of gratitude,into a practice of hope.
I was sitting with some peoplethat we were doing a project
with and we were going to beserved.
This was not in this country,but we were going to be served
what was loosely I would saylunch Loosely.
It was a sit down time.
We got some water and thenthere was this stuff served and
(31:43):
literally I will tell you thatit made me feel nauseous just
looking at it and I thought Iwould have better never even
seen this than actually try it.
So we just started together.
I gave my friend a little lookand we started this and we're
like isn't it so wonderful thatwe get to be together?
Yeah, Isn't it so wonderfulthat we have a moment to sit
down in the chairs and rest?
And what delicious water thisis.
(32:03):
And we refuse to comment onwhat this was.
I will tell you what it was.
It was a piece of pig fat thathad not been cooked but was cut
in a cube like a brownie, butwas the pig fat that was still
gelatinous and moving, but thatwas served to us for lunch and
so we can all go.
I'm fasting it's a religiouspractice, but this idea is no
(32:27):
matter what happens, you canfind things to be grateful for
and what it did.
So then what happened was myfriend and I kept going back and
forth.
I would say just to be togetheris so beautiful, Just to feel
the breeze is beautiful, Just tosit for a moment and think
let's talk about how grateful weare.
And then other people startedcatching on, because they also
saw what we were served and theywere like oh, let's think about
the fact that we are sofortunate that we have the
(32:49):
strength to be able to do thisgood work Instead of going.
What are we going to do withthis?
This is unedible.
We can find ways to, and I will, without hesitation.
I tell you that we left with somuch strength, not because we
had been nourished by food, butwe had been nourished by
fellowship that was brought onby thankfulness and beloved.
(33:11):
That is true for you, no matterwhere you find yourself.
The practice of findingsomething, even if you cannot
find anything good.
With that, there's other thingsaround you.
And the awareness, the bringingourselves into the awareness.
I will think of you, I willthink of God, who gives us every
good thing that we need toenjoy.
And whatever you do or say, I'velooked in the original language
(33:34):
too, and it does.
It is this wide whatever you door say, that's kind of
everything beloved You're doingand you're saying that's kind of
everything beloved You're doingand you're saying, Do it as a
representation, as arepresentative of the Lord Jesus
Christ, giving thanks throughhim to God, the Father, in
everything that you do.
What if the folding of thelaundry that is already clean,
(33:56):
that you haven't folded and putit away yet?
What if you could do that outof thanks to God?
What if all of the tasks thatwe do, we do it because we're
giving thanks to God?
What if all of the things thatwe do we have the strength to do
because it's an opportunity wehave, that we get to use our
bodies to move in this way, thatwe get to use our energy on
(34:20):
behalf of others?
There is an invitation intonewness of life through the
practice of thanksgiving.
Yes, you will be enriched inevery way so that you can always
be generous.
This is the intention of theblessing you receive from God
(34:43):
and then you give it away.
You receive with open handsevery beautiful thing and then
you become a person who is aconduit of love, of thanksgiving
, of mercy, everything.
You will be enriched so thatyou can always be generous.
Generosity always leads us togratitude.
(35:05):
It is just a natural part ofthis.
Dennis mentions and it's comingup here, but he mentions all
the time that no one is evermore generous than on
Thanksgiving Day.
You are so full of dinner thatwhen anyone comes Thanksgiving
Day just after you've eaten.
Oh yeah, not before the meal hasbeen served, just after You've
already eaten your fill, andthen someone else comes and
(35:26):
there's still food and you'relike, eat, eat, eat.
And they're like, oh, it's okay, I don't want it.
No, just please sit down.
You are so generous because youare so full.
What if we could always be sogenerous with love and mercy and
peace and grace and our gifts,because we realize we've
received them?
And when we take your gifts tothose who need them, they will
(35:49):
thank God.
This generosity producesgratitude in the world around us
.
They might not thank you, butthey will thank God, who gives
us everything and allows us tobe people who are radically
generous, incredibly thankfuland full of God's peace.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
You know what I want for us as a church and I think
it would be pretty hard for youto be a part of this church and
not sign on to this but thatyou're going to do some of the
practices.
You're going to be a kind of aChristian that does some of
these practices.
You know, because you knowwe're challenging on them.
Do them and watch what God does.
You know that we're justgenerous with what we got.
(36:30):
Now I may not have a lot, butwhatever I have, you know I told
you guys a long time ago not topat myself on the back, but
something we decided to do.
Every time we see somebody onthe side of the road, we're
going to give them five5.
We don't have a lot of money,but we set aside at the
beginning.
That makes a lot.
That means we might have to dowithout, but we get a stack of
fives every month, at thebeginning of the month or every
(36:52):
few weeks, and we stick them inthe little cubby of the car and
you know that they've never rundry.
I mean we might get to the lastone and then have to replenish
them, but I mean it's just.
It's amazing how you can decide, you know to do a practice and
God will.
So what if you decided I'mgoing to bring joy to people,
I'm going to bring kindness?
(37:12):
You know, and maybe youyourself wouldn't run out?
You might get right to thebrink sometimes, but you're not
going to run out.
That's God's principle.
I want you to think about that.
There's things that we'vedecided back to us being this
church that practices goodbehavior when we drive, uh the
uh.
There's something that I havedone my whole life.
Maybe I learned it from myfamily of origin.
(37:32):
I bet you you've done it in thepast.
If you don't still do it.
When somebody cuts you off, youmight have a name for them.
You don't know them, but isn'tit interesting how a name rose
up out of you for them and yougave them a name?
Let's all at once tell what ourno no, wait no I bet you you
(37:53):
have some names for people Ihave.
Look at this idiot.
Oh, can you believe it?
You know, know.
And my wife has been practicingsomething for a while and I'll
ask my kids unrehearsed what ifdad was getting ready to call
somebody an idiot?
What would mom call them?
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Beloved child of God.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
What you heard, that across the room why?
Because it's a practice in ourcar and you know what rises up
in me now when these people comeout.
Oh, look at the beloved child ofGod and I can see that that's
God's child and maybe God'schild's impatient.
Maybe God's child needs to workon some things.
But it's not my job.
It's God's job to deal withthat.
(38:38):
So I can turn loose of that.
I don't have the need to dragthem out of the car and teach
them the truth of trafficanymore.
I want to allow that to be inthe hands of the one who
actually can handle that.
Somebody say amen, don't turn meoff because I'm preaching real
good.
Don't tell me why this is notgoing to work, because I'm
telling you these practiceschange you and they bring an
(39:00):
abundance in your life.
Because we laugh in our car now, instead of creating that
atmosphere where, where it'scringe and all the passengers
are wondering if you're going toturn the car into a bridge and
punishment and kill everyone inthe car.
You're so angry and enragedyou're terrifying to be around.
I'm preaching to somebody, ifnot to my children about me, or
(39:28):
can we allow love?
Because I'm not just talkingabout me.
Unfortunately, there's a lot ofpeople that carry around that
kind of range and just onelittle thing sets us off.
What if we could carry aroundthe abundance of love where just
anything will set that off.
Grace would be shared andhanded to those people that
clearly need it out there,because they have not yet
(39:49):
learned how to drive to mystandards, so they need God's
grace.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
We talked about this a few weeks ago, but Dennis and
I wrote a sign, one of thoseones that are on the side of the
road, that they can change.
They can tell you the lane isclosed, they can tell you
there's traffic ahead or there'sa detour.
But this one said the lane isnot your birthright, let them
merge.
And I love that so much.
We've been laughing at thisidea of sometimes, when we're
(40:16):
doing something, we feel likeit's our birthright, beloved.
I want to remind you of whatyour birthright is.
You are a child of God, yourwhat your birthright is you are
a child of God.
Your birthright is belovedness.
Your birthright is worthiness.
You have every good thingbecause your Father in heaven
has given it to you, and so ourbirthright is to know that the
(40:38):
source of everything that wehave need of and this verse 12,.
So two good things will resultfrom this ministry of giving the
needs of the believers inJerusalem will be met and they
will joyfully express theirthanks to God, and, as a result
of your ministry or your giving,they will give glory to God,
(40:58):
for your generosity to them andto all believers will prove that
you are obedient to the goodnews of Christ Beloved.
Gratitude is good news.
Being able to find something tobe thankful for is good news.
The ability to be able to saywe get to be together and remind
ourselves of things to bethankful for or things to be
(41:21):
aware of that we are gifted.
Last night I hope that you gotto see the moon.
I hope that you went into yourroom and the moon was so bright.
You just noticed the beauty ofthat light on the floor because
the moon was there.
Now the moon is there all thetime, beloved.
We just don't see it, andsometimes during the year, you
know this is the last.
(41:41):
This is like the autumn moon,where the solstice comes next
and then we're gonna.
You know that things are gonnachange in the atmosphere, but
last night's moon was sobeautiful and I hope that you
are able to see that.
I hope that when you go outsidein the evenings it's gonna be
cold.
I looked at my app, which isawesome, and the next couple of
days, sweater weather excitingfor us.
It's full fall.
(42:02):
Don't panic like don't get outyour boots or mittens or
anything.
It's just going to be like.
You know you get to have asweater, but maybe you'll go
outside and sit on your porchand maybe you'll listen to the
bird or to the cicadas or towhatever it is that is happening
.
Maybe it's your neighbor's dog,who never shuts up.
What a blessing that is, youknow, to be able to say, well,
look at that animal who'sconstantly praising.
Or, you know, maybe it's awoodpecker who is doing some
(42:25):
kind of reconstruction onsomething that you didn't know
anything about.
But I hope that you will take amoment to allow nature to
witness to you, to re-witness toyou the beauty and the
diversity that is our world andhow we can enjoy all of the
goodness that is heaped uparound us.
We're about to togethercelebrate Holy Communion and I'm
(42:46):
so incredibly grateful for thistime that we get to say what do
we do, to be grateful forthings we bring to remembrance.
We think of Christ, who showsus how to live, shows us, in
generosity, what to do.
One of the things that you getto participate in is giving
offerings, giving tithes, sayingthis is what I'm going to do to
(43:07):
support the things that arehere.
We and you take care of eachother, take care of your
neighbors, invite someone toyour Thanksgiving table who
doesn't usually come or who maynot have a place to be.
What would our world look likeif all of us expanded our
ability to be able to say whocan we bring into the table or
into this place, to be able tosay there is enough and there's
(43:28):
beauty for everyone?
Speaker 2 (43:30):
you know, I I just believe that it's allowing god
to help us see things correctly.
What?
What is that?
That we get in this idea?
We don't deserve to beinconvenienced, or we don't?
You know, I don't need to havethis happening to me, you know,
and we just decide that wedeserve that, whatever this
thing that we have conceived inour head, and everyone else pays
(43:53):
that price.
You know, when heather wastalking about that idea of the
uh lane of, it's not yourbirthright.
You know, recently I went into arestaurant and they just
weren't responding to me and Istood there so long that other
people came in the line after meand when the person finally
(44:14):
turned around, they took theother people's order and I'm
like do you know what I wantedto do and what I've done in the
past?
I've explained to everybody theorder and how lines work and I
made it weird for everyone.
But I was in a hurry and reallyin my mind I judged that I
(44:35):
needed this.
And the thing is that when weallow that hurry to be the
justification for why, or we canrecognize one of the greatest
practices that we can do in ourlives is eliminate hurry, is to
recognize that that alone is thecause for so much pain.
(44:58):
Do you know that?
Something that we heard a storyrecently that has been grieving
Heather and I, but it's beenpart of our conversation for a
couple of months now.
But there was a young hockeyplayer I think he was around 19
or something and he had justgotten his big 60 million dollar
contract and he went to go tohis sister's wedding, him and
his brother and they decided togo biking.
(45:20):
So they put their biker helmetson and their their bikes and
they went around out in thehills or whatever, and they were
going on a bike trip and whathappened was some cars were
slowing down to go around themand a guy three cars back
couldn't see what was going onbut had no patience to wait
their turn, was clearly in ahurry, flies around and mowed
(45:43):
over that young hockey playerwith all that potential and his
brother and and not to mentionthe hockey player's wife, was
several months pregnant withtheir first child, and so that
life was taken away.
And I could see I've done thatin the past just tromped on the
gas, and I don't know what'sgoing on around here, but I have
(46:05):
got to get where I'm going toget and that place that we put
ourselves on.
We don't deserve it anymore.
You know what ended uphappening when they ended up
getting my order last, but myfood came out first.
How did that happen?
And I ended up getting to whereI was going seven minutes early
.
(46:26):
So it turns out what I wasconvinced was stealing my time
did not steal my time, but mybelief that I have to get
somewhere and I've got to keepthis schedule, and how that
could drive me potentially to dosomething so horrific and so
(46:46):
unchangeable, so devastating,because I'm driven by a spirit
other than the spirit of loveand peace, you know.
And?
And so what if somebody elsegot to go in a line before you?
Wouldn't that be terrible?
Or wouldn't it be loving andkind if we can allow these
practices that we're talkingabout to really begin to affect
(47:11):
our everyday life?
You know, these are the thingsthat we're going to do, and some
of you say, oh, I do that kindof thing all the time.
Do you To the people in yourhome?
Or is that where all thateffort is pulled back and now I
say whatever I want to say anddo whatever I want to do?
Speaker 1 (47:31):
god help us, amen, and he will and give us the
grace the invitation is to mercy, the infinite mercy of god,
that we would be merciful withourselves, that we would be
merciful with ourselves, that wewould be merciful with the
world, that we would have thesepractices of generosity that
lead to gratitude, that lead toother people being able to be
(47:52):
grateful, and I am so.
I'm just encouraged by youreminding us to ruthlessly
eliminate hurry from our life.
I think that goes right alongwith that first verse that said
make an allowance for everyone'sfaults.
That will help with your hurry,because you knew this person
wasn't going to be able to getthere on time anyway, right?
Or you knew they weren't goingto be able to help you with the
tech.
Lord, have mercy, christ.
(48:13):
Have mercy, lord.
Have mercy when we have to dealwith electronics.
Let the peace of God rule yourheart and mind through Christ
Jesus.
There is a test that all of usgo through.
Beloved, I have a lot ofgenerosity.
I feel like I do, at least whenI'm measuring myself.
I have generosity toward people, do not have generosity toward
the electronics, and I need tojust look at this kind of thing
(48:36):
and go.
This is the way that I get tolearn and get to establish a new
spiritual practice in myself,but in everything we do.
We should give thanks.
In everything we do, and thiswill motivate us and give us the
strength that we need for allof the jobs that we get to do.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
I would just like to interject.
If we had maybe the idea thatwe could expect, I'll probably
call tech support and they willspeak with an accent that I have
a hard time understanding.
Or I'll call tech support andthey'll tell me to go to the
website.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
And I've already gone to the website.
That's why I'm calling.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
But I will still be kind and loving to that person
as they do their job.
We're going to need some helpwith that, so that's why we're
going to communion.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
Yes To the table of the Lord, to this beautiful
sacrament that reminds us thatevery good thing that we have
need of is given to us by God'sincredible love.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about us, visit us
online at firstlovechurchorg.
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