October 30, 2011 Holy ConneXions - Service

****The following is a draft of the message for Sunrise UMC on October 30, 2011****

How many of you know who this man is and what did he do that was so significant?

Nobody? What if I threw in his name?

Peter Robinson. Still, no one?

Ok, let’s try someone more familiar, how about this man…

Ronald Reagan. Of course we’ve all heard of Ronald Reagan, known not only for being an actor but also for going on to become the 40^th President of the United States and delivering memorable lines like this…

“Mr. Gorbachev… Tear down this wall.”

Those words had amazing power, didn’t they and not too long after he gave that speech, the Berlin wall did indeed come down. Many attribute that decades of hurt, separation and despair came crashing down into piles of rubble, because Reagan was a great leader, a persuasive orator, and a man who wanted best for all people. But let me tell you something you may not know. I asked you earlier if you had ever heard of Peter Robinson, and you said you hadn’t, but the truth is you have, you just didn’t know his name…Peter Robinson was Ronald Reagan’s speech writer, and he is the one who wrote those words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

You see, when Peter Robinson found out he would be writing Reagan’s address to Germany, he decided to go to Berlin and visit. He was told before leaving that as he prepared to write the speech, he was to stay away from any mention of the cold war and he was not to mention the wall. White House officials said that the German people had gotten used to the wall; it didn’t present a problem for them, so there was no use to mention it. But when Robinson arrived in Germany and began to talk to the people there, he soon discovered this wasn’t the case at all. For most Berliners, the wall represented horrible times, desperate times when families were separated, when many lived in fear for their safety. They wanted the wall removed. So, Robinson went back to Washington and wrote his speech. Many at the White House protested and demanded that he take that famous bid out of the speech. But Robinson refused. They demanded further and took their protest to President Reagan. Thankfully, Reagan understood he had a purpose in this speech…that he wanted to speak to the whole of Germany in his address, not just the West, but the East. Reagan understood the need for the wall to come down. So he overruled his staff and insisted that the speech go forward as Robinson wrote it.

Do you realize how close we came to missing out on one of the greatest moments in American history? Peter Robinson could have had his words edited from the speech, and yes, he could have gone out on his own and held a press conference and said the same words that had been cut out, he – Peter Robinson – could have asked Mr. Gorbachev to tear down the wall. But no one would have listened, because no one knew Peter Robinson. His words only worked because Regan, the right man for the moment, dared to utter them. The catalyst for tearing down of the Berlin wall took two men working together – one bold man on the front lines, willing to take some risk – and one determined man behind the scenes, willing to stand for what was right.

Two men, both willing to serve, albeit in two very different ways – but both serving so that a mission could be accomplished.

Even though this is a modern day example of how various types of service work together for the greater purpose – the principle behind it is as old as the bible itself. Look with me at

Acts 6:1-7

1 Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2 And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4 while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word." 5 What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith

So, let’s get this story straight. The early church is beginning to come together; it truly was a community. They shared all things in common, they ate together, prayed together, really took care of each other. Of course, most in the community were Jewish and had certain customs that they still followed. One of those customs was that the widows within the community would be cared for. Now the community is getting larger, new cultures are introduced such as Hellenists, those who were people who had adopted the Greek language and culture, which meant there were language issues and cultural issues to deal with. At the head of the entire movement are the Twelve Disciples. They are in charge, the pastors of the church, so to speak. They understood that they had a mission and that mission was “go and make disciples” and that is just what they have been doing. They have been out spreading the good news of Christ the Messiah to everyone that would listen and because of that, the church was growing by leaps and bounds. The mission was working great, because the disciples understood what they had been called to do, and they were doing it.

But, suddenly they realized, the mission was going so good that they now had a church community on their hands – suddenly it wasn’t just as simple as teaching about Christ, now there were people who needed to be nurtured and fed, there were communities that needed tending to. They came to realize this when a complaint surfaced – a complaint about church to the pastor? Someone complaining to the pastor about the church?! Surely not, you say! The complaint is that the Greek speaking widows are not being cared for as readily as the Hebrew speaking widows. So the complaint to the disciples is, do something about it.

Now, they could have very easily fixed it and said, ok, we will try to be more careful – we will take more time to hand out the food ourselves, we will personally see to it that the widows get their food…we will just make sure we are in the office from the hours of noon-6 every evening so we can make sure that gets done.

But, thankfully, we had some very mission minded disciples and they quickly understood that if they made such a promise to personally address the problem and make sure the widows got fed, then that meant from noon-six, while they tended the office – they would not be out spreading the good news – which, remember, was the mission to which they had been called. Feeding the widows, while an important obligation of the church, was not the mission. So, they said, well, if we tend to this ourselves, it will take away from the mission and we can’t have that, for the mission is our sole purpose.

So, to meet the obligation to care for the widows, they called forward seven special servants from among the lay members of the church. Not just any men, but men of good standing, men of the Spirit, and of wisdom, and had a commonality with the widows (Hellenist themselves) – and they assigned to them the task of nurturing the church so that the disciples could continue to carry out the mission of making disciples for Jesus. In other words – they assigned some to serve behind the scenes as caregivers to the church community – and those called to serve on the front lines, going out and preaching and teaching and bringing the good news of Christ to a lost world, were free to keep doing that, without worrying about the church community being taken care of.

By now, some may ask, why is this Holy ConneXion of Service so important within the church? Because folks, it is the only way that the mission of the church can be fulfilled.

I have the opportunity to visit a lot of different churches. One of the things that I have found out is that there are three kinds of churches out there. Do you know what makes the difference? A willingness of the people to serve!

The first one is what I call The Zombie Church. (And no, this is not a term I coined because of Halloween). You know what a zombie is – it is a body that has the outward appearance of life, but inside, it’s just a corpse. This type of church is one that cares more about feeding their widows, tending to their needs, than spreading the good news about Christ. It is a church which has lost its mission and now only cares about itself. For example, let’s say the minister has received the complaint that the widows were not cared for and the minister says, well, let’s find someone else to care for them because I am busy fulfilling the mission to take Jesus to the sinners. In the Zombie Church, the people will respond, "No! Those sinners out there should be coming in here with us. Pastor, you don’t have time to go chase them down – you need to be out visiting and feeding and nurturing our own people – we are more important!" This type church may have a structure that resembles this:

In the Zombie Church, the mission of the church no longer exists because the people have decided they are most important, not spreading the good news. That church is doomed to a slow and painful death. Why, because the people only want to someone to serve them – they don’t want to serve God.

The second type of church is The Maintenance Church. This type is one in which there are a decent amount of volunteers to keep things going but none of them are willing to really be “responsible” for any of it. Let’s look at it thorough our Acts scenario lenses. The minister of the Maintenance Church might say, "Well, I am called to go out and take the gospel to the sinners, I don’t really have the time to nurture and take care of everyone in the church without giving up the mission." The people in the Maintenance Church might say, “Oh we understand Pastor, that’s why we’ve got some volunteers to come assist you, that will save some time so that you can still squeeze in some preaching and teaching and saving sinners.” This is type church is sometimes referred to as the Institutional Church and has a structure that mostly looks like this:

The Maintenance Church continues to function, but has minimal impact in the Kingdom of God, because everyone is simply volunteering to assist to meet the needs of the people and then hoping the pastor has enough time and energy left over to fulfill the mission. This church too is doomed to simply linger because while the people want to help, they don’t really want to serve if it means taking responsibility for anything. This is the category into which most churches fall.

The last type is the vibrant one – The Thriving Church. The Thriving Church is one in which there is a vibrant and lovingly nurtured community which is growing every day because every day there is a dedication to completing the mission of taking Christ to the lost sinners. If we take our biblical scenario to the Thriving Church, it goes like this… the minister is approached with the issue that the community is not being nurtured, the minister then says, "I understand that nurture is very important, who can we call to take care of that so that I can continue to serve the mission of reaching outside the church." So the leaders gets busy and they find people who are of good standing, who are spiritual and caring and wise in the ways of Jesus and they recommend them to serve in the nurture of the community. Those lay people rise up to serve and they take on the responsibility to nurture the community and the minister and the others who are called to go outside the church and witness to the lost can continue unhindered. The thriving church then has a structure like this:

They now are doing two good things:

1) they are meeting the obligation to nurture and love one another in the community and 2) they are fulfilling their mission to go and make disciples.

Friends, this is why we have stricken from the Sunrise vocabulary the word "Volunteer" and use the term "Servant" instead. Volunteer implies we have an option whether or not to serve. The life of a follower of Jesus does not allow that option - only how we will serve.

Over the last few weeks, a group has met, prayed, and discerned those we believe God is raising up as leaders. Their purpose will not be to do the ministries and mission of Sunrise, but rather, to organize and lead you, Servants of God in the various avenues of service. Just like it took Ronald Reagan and Peter Robinson working together to get the Berlin wall torn down – so it takes both types, leaders and servants to create a vibrant and Thriving Church.

So, the question before us is, into which category do you think Sunrise falls? I am very happy to report we are not a Zombie Church – we are far from it. So, that leaves us with either the Maintenance Church or the Thriving Church. That takes some thinking. On one hand, we are probably one of the most service-oriented United Methodist churches around. That shows we aren't really a Maintenance Church. But we need to also consider how many new people have been brought to Christ lately. Does it match up with the Thriving Church? So, we can conclude we still have some work to do, don’t we? When the Acts church figured out how to meet their obligations while still keeping their focus on mission, they continued to spread and the number of disciples increased greatly. That formula is still the one that the Spirit implants in the heart of all churches that seek to live fully into its calling. When we do, we are all of these Holy ConneXions become second nature to us.

October 23, 2011 Holy ConneXions - Gifts

****The following is a draft of the message for Sunrise UMC on 10/23/2011****


Good morning Sunrise! I am Tim Roberts and I have the great joy of being the pastor of such a warm and loving church here at Sunrise. One of the joys that I a pastor has is seeing children grow. Though I’ve only been here a little over a year, I am astonished to see the growth of some. Like Evan, who I think has doubled his height, and Jake, whom I would not dare to pick on anymore. But even more than those are the ones who were just born or about to be when I came here. Marleigh, Carter, and Eva are the three that I have had the honor of baptizing over the last year. I can’t think of anything that is more special than to be a part of God marking one as His own. Each time we take part in the sacrament, we, as the church, do something; do you recall what that is? We covenant together to help raise these children to know and love God and to know what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It is easy to say we’ll do that, but when we really think about it, that usually requires a life change for us.

Today, we are continuing with a series of messages that are tools to help us live out this life transformation. I call this Holy ConneXions because often we need some device to remind us of who we are and to strengthen our love of and for God. This series is also serves as our stewardship campaign, because I tend to have a very broad view of stewardship. It’s not just about money, but also about our prayer life, our presence within the community of faith, our serving others, and our witness of our faith. But today, we are going to consider the money aspect, that is our gifts.

Watching babies grow up is a wondrous thing. Somewhere, usually around nine months or so, one of the greatest things happen – they start to form words, like “mama” or “dada.” Those words are probably the most precious sounds to a parent. We encourage them to say them often (although we aren’t so filled with joy when they utter them at two in the morning). Still, we are excited to hear them start to expand their vocabulary. Soon they pick up the words, cookie, cracker, and juice. Then, another word sneaks in. At first, it seems to be a rather innocuous word, but the implications are great. I hear parents, siblings, grandparents, friends teach this word to the child, not realizing the damage the word can cause. Do you know to which word I am referring? – “Mine.”

Think about that for just a moment. The concept of that word, mine, has impregnated itself into just about every area of our lives. We claim things as ours and do our best to make sure everybody knows that this stuff is ours. My mom would put “Roberts” on the bottom of butter containers when we would take food to my aunt’s house for Mother’s Day. I am no better! If you were to look, I believe “Roberts” is etched into this remote that I am holding. Why? Because it is mine! I bought it! I know it can be like some of my books that wander off from my office and seemingly can’t find their way back. Maybe I am the only one, but I rather doubt it.

There is a problem with this mentality though. Is it really mine? Well, that becomes a theological issue. Psalm 24 starts off by with this assertion:

Psalm 24:1

The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

What? It’s not mine? How can that be? I bought this stuff with my own money? I mean, my house is mine – my name is on the deed (well, along with Wells Fargo). So, it is mine, right?

Well, let’s think of it another way. Who used to own that property? Go far back – back before the Indians. God – who created this land. Who will this land be passed on to – far into the future. God – who created this land.

Who has heard the old adage, “He who dies with the most toys (or stuff) wins!”? I thinks if we were to put this into a proper theological framework it would go like this: “He who dies with the most stuff – is still dead – just like the ones who died with nothing.”

Consequently, what does this say about all our stuff? Ultimately, what do we possess? Nothing. It’s God’s stuff – always has been, always will be. Humbling notion, isn’t it. So, where does this leave us? It leaves as stewards of God’s possessions.

What is a steward? The biblical understanding of a steward is:

One who “oversees” the possessions, business affairs, property, servants, and the training of the children of an owner or master.

Armed with this definition, let’s take a few moments to consider how this relates to Gifts as a Holy ConneXion.

The media is filled with financial experts that offer advice to help us get ahead. From the meek Clark Howard, to the outrageous Jim Cramer, to the faithful Dave Ramsey, each has a well thought-out formulas and methods to bring about financial stability. Yet, many seem to so far in debt, they are barely able to squeak by.

So, when a pastor begins speaking about tithing, it sounds like another bill, another obligation in a mountain of debt.

Even for those who aren’t financially struggling, the word tithe resonates as a four-letter word (which, by the way, it’s five). Our culture views money as a private matter. I have heard numerous times that when I have spoken about money, I have gone from “preaching to meddling.” Yet, it is something that must be addressed, because it can be a major interference in our connexion with God. I know this may cause some to be a bit uneasy, but please bear with me as we look at what the bible has to say about this issue.

The term tithe, which means “tenth” is a concept that first appears in Genesis 14, when Abram (later known as Abraham) had defeated Kedorlaomer and those kings who sided with him. As Melchizedek, King of Salem and priest of the Most High God, came and praised him, Abram gave to him a tenth of everything he had. It was his way of honoring God by putting God first. He gave it to support the work of the temple in caring for people and worshiping God. Even today, removed from this event by several millennia, the concept of giving to the church remains the same. But, many have a problem with the idea of giving a tenth to the church.

Likewise, many believe the church speaks too much about money. Yet, Jesus spoke more about money, possessions, and giving than about prayer. Why? Jesus knew that we would be challenged by money, possessions, and our incessant desire to acquire more rather than to give.

In Matthew 6, Jesus is addressing how those who don’t know God run after material things as he says:

Matthew 6:32

32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But, to us he says:

Matthew 6:33

33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

This understanding of the relation between giving and receiving becomes most apparent in Paul’s second letter to the Church at Corinth, which is a follow-up, a reminder to the Corinthians about what they previously promised to do.

2 Corinthians 9:6-8

6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

You see, while the Old Testament teaches about the tithe – that is the giving of 10%, the New Testament speaks more about our attitude towards giving and why giving is important.

For many, tithes and offerings are seen as our part of keeping the church running. It is seen as meeting the budget to pay the pastor and staff and paying the utility bills. For many churches, this may be true. But brothers and sisters, it can be more than that – it must be more than that

Video Clip from Pay It Forward

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kMkR7vizCYM

The teacher’s question was this:

“Think of an idea to change our world - and put it into action!”

What if the idea was referring to the church budget? Would it be just about the maintenance of an institution? Or would it be about the transformation of the world?

Friends, that’s the vision that God is laying out before us here at Sunrise. I envision the day when each Sunday, a good proportion of our time together was celebrating the transformation of lives that we witness on a daily business. I can see the day when additional staff, such as a youth pastor, Christian Educator, is not only needed but almost overworked as lives and families are being strengthened by God’s love. I can imagine the day a new building is rising out front because of the lack of space our current facilities provides. I can envision the day that we are the home base for many mission and ministry groups because we are living out the promise of being a blessing to the world because we are blessed by God. I can see all of this, and more, brothers and sisters, because we are not that far from this being a reality. The teacher said to “Think Possible.” We know it is possible, because that’s what comes with being faithful followers of Jesus.

Let’s bring it in focus by looking in hindsight. Who was here and helped start Sunrise?

[Allow response]

For the majority of us, we are here because of the faithful and trusting response of someone else.

The question for this morning is, what about tomorrow? What does the future hold for Sunrise, for the community, for the world? If the church is going to be an agent of transformation of the world, then we must be willing to invest in it.

But, let’s put this in the proper perspective – as a Holy ConneXion. Let’s go back and look at our focus verse – 2 Corinthians 9:7:

2 Corinthians 9:7

7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

The Holy ConneXion of giving is not about giving out of duress nor out of guilt. Instead, it is giving out of sheer joy for God and how God will use our faithfulness for transforming lives.

The Holy ConneXion of giving is also not predicated on a mandatory percentage. Tithing is something we strive for and grow into as our lives are changed by God’s love.

Next Sunday, we will begin passing out our ConneXional Stewardship packets. In each packet, there will be two different cards. One will be an Estimate of Financial Investment and the other will be a Estimate of Investment of Prayer, Presence, Service, and Witness. For both of these, we will ask that you take time and earnestly pray about your response so that you will give what you have decided in your heart.

The Holy ConneXion of giving is simply giving back to God, because God gave His all to us.

October 16, 2011 Holy ConneXions - Presence

***The following is a draft of the message from October 16, 2011***

Good morning Sunrise! I hope everyone has had a good week. Friday evening, my family did something a little bit outside the norm. Karen, Emily and I went with a couple of friends of ours, one being another Methodist pastor, on a Ghost Walk of downtown Salisbury. If it wasn’t odd enough for three Methodist pastors to be doing this, then let me let you know that our tour guide was a retired Lutheran pastor. Maybe it’s because as pastors, we often encounter the dead (at least in some worship services) or that it just that time of year to get our “spooky fix” for the year, but we had a really good time! It turns out that Salisbury, as with any old historic town, is filled with stories about people encountering the presence of something that isn’t natural. Their tales range from hearing unexplained sounds, to visually witnessing some type of apparition or movement of some object that spans beyond human comprehension. While I remain a skeptic of the presence of ghosts, I remain fervent in my belief in this term Presence.

Last week we began this new series, which serves as part of our stewardship campaign, called Holy ConneXions. The idea for this came about as I have been trying different methods and appliances to improve our cell phone connection at home. It seems that no matter where we live, our house is also situated in a technological black hole. Communications signals are either non-existent or weak at best. As I began attempting to find a remedy to this incessant problem, I began to discern that this is a spiritual problem for many as well. For whatever reason, sometimes we find ourselves in places where our communication and relationship with God is either absent or weak at best. So, I began looking at the different disciplines to help improve our spiritual connexions – these are: Prayer, Presense, Gifts, Service, and Witness. Now some of you might recognize that these are the elements that are part of the membership vows that one takes when they decide to be a part of a United Methodist community of faith. Unfortunately though, they often seem to be relegated as just about church membership, but in fact, they are devices that can make a dramatic impact on one’s own spiritual life.

This first aspect we considered was Prayer. Building on what we learned last week, I would like to ask for someone to pray for this our time together.

[Allow someone to pray]

As we look at these five methods of connexion, we can see that four of them are asking for a commitment to time. Time spent in prayer; time spent in some type of service, time spent in spreading the Gospel, and the one that we will be looking at today, time dedicated to Presence.

A few years ago, my wife and I were at a school awards program. As the principal was giving a speech about the importance of attendance, she said, “I cannot tell you how many times I sit in my office and look at children who are not there.” Of course, as soon as I heard her utter those words, all that came to mind was that infamous line from the movie, The Sixth Sense, “I see dead people.” Now, I know she didn’t mean what she said in that way. Actually, she was just trying to reiterate the point that attendance is directly related to how well students perform. I understand that and I whole-heartedly agree, but it just struck me as funny and to a certain degree, ironic. Presence is a good indicator of the maturity and health of a relationship.

Now, let me ask you a question, have you ever known a person who has been present in body, but that’ s it? You can be talking to them and then you realize that they haven’t heard a word you were saying? There are probably a lot of wives who would be nodding in agreement. The problem with this lack of attention, this absence of emotional presence can become habitual – and when it does, it begins to strain the relationship.

In the movie in which I mentioned a few moments ago, Bruce Willis’ character has become so caught up with his work and current situation, that he is late to a special dinner. Watch what happens.

(Clip from The Sixth Sense where the couple meets for their anniversary dinner)

Now, there is a big twist to this story, the premise holds true – his lack of presence with his wife has strained the relationship.

Friends, our inept attitude about our being in God’s presence can be just as devastating. I invite you to look at a particular passage of scripture with me this morning: it’s Exodus 33:7-11.

Exodus 33:7-11

7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp; he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each of them, at the entrance of their tents and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. 10 When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and bow down, all of them, at the entrance of their tent. 11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then he would return to the camp; but his young assistant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the tent.

I want to go back to the beginning of the passage and read a small part of it again, alright, let’s read this together:

Exodus 33:7

Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp.

Stop.

When did Moses do this? In the past. See, it says he “used’ to take the tent. Now, I know that the whole Bible is pretty much written in past tense, but this part implies that this section is removed from the rest, which is true – I want you to later read for yourself chapter 33 in its entirety and you’ll understand.

The section just before this passage and that right after it in this chapter is describing how God is no longer allowing such an intimacy to take place. Why, because the people no longer had the right attitude about being in the presence of God. In verse 3, God says this:

Exodus 33:3

3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, or I would consume you on the way,

Now why would God be that harsh, saying that basically if He stays with his chosen people, He will destroy them? What has angered Him so much? It was the people’s attitude of presence. If we look back up to verse 10, we see it says:

Exodus 33:10

When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and bow down, all of them, at the entrance of their tent.

But not now. Their attitude has turned them away from God and turned it on themselves, and we know this because of what God finishes up saying about them in verse 3,

Exodus 33:3

"for you are a stiff-necked people."

Stiff-necked people. Have you ever met someone like that? They are people who think so highly of themselves that they consider all others are beneath them. The people described in this passage won’t even acknowledge the omnipotence of God. So, they have severed their intimate connection with God.

There is another consequence of their stiff necks. Moses had had a relationship with God where he could go speak with God face-to-face, but because of the self-serving attitude of the people rather than a God-seeking attitude, the best he could do is see the back-side of God as He passed by…the back-side!

Think for a moment folks, when we pull out a picture of our loved ones out of our wallets, what is the picture of? Their back-side? No, it’s a picture of their face – am I right? Because it is their face that we fall in love with; it is their face that we can see the depth of their love for us; our eyes meeting their eyes; filling that longing of our souls to be in communion with one another. If you get a picture of someone’s back-side, they are probably expressing some resentment of you.

I am afraid that far too many Christians have fallen into this same rut that these early people of God. They have forgotten what it means to be truly present in worship – that it is not about their taste and preferences or what they can get out of it, but it is a time to bow down before God and recognize Him for who He is, LORD, Creator, the Almighty.

For many though, they don’t come to seek God’s face, but God’s hands. In other words, they come looking for what they can get from God. They look at what they have – what else can God give. Now, God does have much to give, but the problem is many start focusing on the gift rather than the Giver. So they become stiff-necked as they just come to expect without ever acknowledging the Giver.

But friends, it doesn’t have to be that way. Our God is one how yearns to reconnect with those who have severed their relations with Him. So, the more we engage in these Holy Connexions, deliberately and intentionally engaging in strengthening our relationship with God, the more our heads bow and God is honored. Soon, we began to recognize God’s presence is another way of God saying to us “I love you.” Likewise, we also begin to realize that our presence in worship is another way of saying to God, “I long to be in your presence LORD. It is here that I feel your grace, your mercy, your power, and your majesty. It is here LORD, the world makes sense.”

This morning, as we begin to close out this time of worship, I want to invite you to begin the discipline of raising Jesus up and we humble ourselves before him. I invite you to kneel down at your seat, bow your head in humility as we enter into a time of prayer and Holy Connexion.

[PRAYER]