Traditional Worship 3/13/22

Just so you're not worried and thank that. We don't know what we're doing up here. But sometimes, we don't. We're going to swap the ministry of music and the hymn. So don't think I messed up when we go into the hymn.

Oh, that's my last name comes from Psalm 34, the first aid versus. Let's hear this word from God. I Will Bless The Lord at all times is praise. Shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble here and be glad to magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Let them and be radiant. So, your faces shall never be ashamed. This poor soul cried and Was Heard by the Lord and was saved from every trouble. The angel of the Lord encampeth around those who fear Him and delivers them. Oh, taste, and see that the Lord is good. Happy. Are those who take refuge in him? And from the New Testament, 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. Verses 16 to 21.

From now on there for we regard no one from a human point of view, even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view. We know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away. So everything has become new. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ. God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their transgressions against them and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors of Christ since. Is making his appeal through us. We entreat you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin. So, that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. This is the word of the Lord. God. Let us pray. May all of our thoughts this day. O Lord be honorable to you may our worship be acceptable and may your words only your truth. Be what? We remember this day for Christ's sake. Bomb in.

In the many years did Cecily and I have had the privilege of living with and serving alongside my side people in East Africa. We've learned a lot about their life as their Traditions, their ceremonies, how they do things. One unique thing that Moss I do is they go through passage about you. One of the passage events is becoming a warrior. If your email. Of time, when your prowess is is exalted, and your strength is is exalted as well, and get you do war games in this kind of think. It used to be many years ago that there was intertribal Warfare. Now, not so much, even though some Clans don't quite get along with each other. Nevertheless. They still continue a tradition when some plans meet together, and we've seen this, even in modern day playing out in politics, when opposing leader. Don't want to debate something Bell in Acton this little tradition, when two clans of Warriors are coming together. They're in their full regalia with spear and and shield. And they meet each other. You don't know what's going to happen. But one of the leaders of the warrior group on one side will reach down and pick up a clump of green grass. The other leader will do the same and as they approached each other and their men behind them. They extend their Shield hand whether it's right or left. They extend their Shield hand with the grass to there. Counterpart. What a powerful image of vulnerability of peace. Incredibles, sign leaving themselves open, perhaps that someone else in the other Clan might run them through with a sphere. Or perhaps the other man might attack, but no, they trust and they believe in their action of bringing. Peace.

Today were talking about becoming about being. What's this connection last week. We talked about being transformed today or talk to you about being reconciled be reconciled. It, remind Josh of that the earliest, part of our scriptural Journey, where the people of Israel are told the name that Moses received from God. I am who I am simply in the Hebrew be. It's the, it's the verb be to be in. It means existence, it means being It's the essence. And we have in our our day and age, we have gone through many folks in Psychology that have told us that there is that in herself. So I'm going to call it the ego that drives all that we do. That is the the center of what makes us do this or say that or act this way. And that's what being in Christ impacts the very core, the very essence of our being and God changes us as we saw last week and as we're beginning to see this week, as we look at 2nd Corinthians, But if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation. If any person is in Christ, that one is a new creation. There's a new creation that Essence changes. The way that we talked about the other week about living, according to the flesh, know that has changed and actually in the text that we read today, when it was translated, human point of view factual Greek. There is Kaka Sharky which we talked about the other day, according to the flesh, everything going against away from God, that is been changed because of what Christ has done about transformation. And in that transformation, not only does he give us new life, life, eternal, and right here in abundance. So begins the process of sanctification and changing other things in and threw us in Christ in Christ. This is one of Paul's important phrase. We are in Christ being in price for Paul recalls for him, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It is God's. Action for us, which brings us to the foot of the cross and compels us to die, to self, to no longer be according to the flesh, but to be changed and moving. According to Christ. We die to self. It is God, who comes and does this work in and through us, and essentially, we are completely New Creations. Any y'all liked Garden here in Florida or in the past and some people, we do Cecily, Cecily can make piles. Oh my God, that woman can make piles in the yard worn out to make a pile and go to the backyard and I'll be a dozen more piles. I have to pick up. We like to Garden least. I have a big organic garden in Tennessee. Can you know that you know the sea are, you could have seen you put on the counter, put in a baggie and it's just going to stay a sea bat. That seed has to give up being a c to be a plan. It after it loses its identity, as a seed and become something else. Something green, something that produces fruit or flour or chlorophyll or auction, if it changes, it's completely different. That's what the the rider here, polish, trying to get across it. And it uses a phrase, Akai naked pieces. It's a hard to translate but it's it's his idea of a new creation, New Creation.

Jump translated, a new creation from a new creature. Some, a brand new creation. The idea is that there is a complete different. Completely change something, new brand new. Stick thing that comes to my mind to think about. This is the birth of our children and while that's been a long time ago, some of you met my son, Jacob the other day, redhead one of his babies. They had home birth and we had the IV and so we were able to be there. Just a couple hours after that baby was born. Remember I catch, you know, being on Cecily's test first unit? Within the few first few seconds. Looking at Mama. It's like wow, she was a watermelon Smuggler to go and then we got a baby. Unbelievable. It's just a radical change, a newness of Life, A New Beginning. This is the concept of New Creation. A new creation. Paul goes on in and uses language to identify this in a special way. He uses the idea of an article before the word old and it does, is it gives us a clue that it's not just one thing but it's all old things are passed away. All the old things, all the old things have become new and then he says, with an exhausted sprays look-see behold. It's like this. A new thing.

A new creation. A new creation. Well reconciliation and being reconciled comes to us in this text and it it's something that God does and so I want us to think about just a few things as well as we think about what it means to be changing in these verses. He uses that word reconcile. The reconciliation five times in those six versus that's pretty important. So we need to think about it just a little bit. First reconciliation is one-sided. It's one-sided, the scripture said all this comes from God. This is God's doing, this is not some machination of human. Scheming, it's God doing something. God. Enables. God supplies. God, provide God is the one who gives the ability for me to forgive even my enemy. It's one-sided. God. Does this work? He did the work on the crust and because of that, he feels us a new with this Holy Spirit, which allows us to carry. The ministry of reconciliation forward. Reconciliation is one shot at all. This is from God. Secondly reconciliation precedes Often by difficulty or even by conflict the perceived by difficulty or contact. The very word reconcile implies that something's out of whack. Something has gone wrong. There has been an offense. There has been a hurt.

Somebody popped my balloon. There's something not right and in that we know as human beings, that that is not a straight shot line. Can making things, right? When someone has hurt you to the core of your being, when you have been offended. When you have been physically wounded. You can fill in the blank. It doesn't change instantaneously. It is a journey. It's a process. But what we see in that is God's process of making us, right? Even in our fallen State. We are in able to buy his power, through the Holy Spirit to make those steps toward reconciliation towards being made, right? And I'll bring it to the third, the third idea, reconciliations always a promise. It's always a promise, it remains a promise. And yes, it's already but it's not yet. We get a glimpse of it, but we live in the world in which we do and we know the rotten things that happen. But we also know that God is enabling us to bring his kingdom on Earth as it is in heaven. So we know that God is empowering us to be ministers. Agents of his reconciling love and grace to the world. Be reconciled. Yes, we know it is an end goal. We know that it will all be. Alright, the lion will lay with the lamb. The child will sit with the serpent. There will be in the Peaceable Kingdom of God, on that day, the day of the Lord, we know that's coming, but right now here in the muck in the mire. We make Little Steps toward that in the church. The Community of Faith is tasked with being the ambassadors to Christ making God's appeal to the world. To be reconciled first to God. And then to one another. Reconciliation is both vertical and horizontal like the the beams of the Cross reconciliation. First is God to human. It's God. The human God makes us write God. Forgives us. God enables us to be right with God. And once that occurs God, empowers us again to human-to-human make things right with one another.

We can go through all the things of, of our culture, and our worlds and the different practices. We do human side and we should do that. Like I remember, I remember playground. I'm sure you do know, I got wish to fight playground, you know, Russell around the arm wrestling around with his guy and, you know it we're all dirty and bloody lip whatnot. And the teacher comes out and says, Now, y'all make up. y'all shake hands and, you know, makeup and so, you know, we're like Okay, I didn't really want to do it cuz he just punch me out and, you know, that we're still. Let us finish this little knock-down-drag-out. Thank you, but no, the teacher made us so we wouldn't get a note going home to the parents or get him. Honest in practice is self-control or all those things that you don't want. So you confirm, that's the worldview in a simple way of being reconciled, but powerful and broad sweeping. God. Brings the Peaceable Kingdom Here and Now closed, it's close to us. Close to us. Part of that idea. I think last for Less Sunday. I think I've talked about a little bit about Isaiah 40:31 those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. That word renew in Isaiah chapter 40 31 in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that were there is kind of lie. So which is reconcile is the word were using and Paul in 2nd Corinthians. So what we have here, we have Isaiah using this words and it gives us a clue as the newness that Paul is getting it in Isaiah's case. It means an exchange, they will renew. It has this this connotation of change out of ass whopping whopping the old in the broken and the worn out in the tattered and worn. Giving that and Heaven, God change it. He exchanges it for something completely new.

My daddy and I are his birthday is tomorrow up in heaven, and I'm thankful for him. But he taught me a lot of things. One thing about mechanics, like to build things, and one time, we are rebuilding an old Jeep and the car trying to get her from rusted bolt. Loose. I was 18 and I was really strong and I wasn't so smart.

And dad says, hey you need something, you know, WD-40 or blaster on that and I don't need that. I get that wrench and I pulled out as hard as I could and it broke the wrench broke. Alright, I'm in trouble.

Come out. Dad's like you should have used the Rest loser. Like I know, I know. I'm sorry. Daddy's, I don't worry about it. Just go down to Sears and, and swap it in there, some of the old-timers and workshops remember this anymore, but I like, what? So, I have to go all greasy. And I'll go down to Sears and I'll hand them. This broken rich in the salesman goes to the counter and fix a brand, new one up and gives it to me and says, have a nice day. I know received no finger fill out nothing. It just was like lifetime guarantee.

Wow, that's amazing. I came back. I was pretty happy in the bed. Don't break. That one cannot do the job. It was supposed to do anymore because it's broken and I just exchanged it and I got a brand-spanking-new wrench.

Exchange God exchanges. God takes what we have as in The Flash and changes it to a life in the spirit to being with and through Christ. In our lives, an agent of reconciliation in the world.

Wait, we can't kid ourselves.

Reconciliation is not easy. It's hard work. And it's difficult. Working for peace. It's difficult, but we are free to serve God in those ways making making a way.

Forgiveness, especially forgiveness of those who don't like us or who might even be our enemies and in the heezy.

But church, we are given a supernatural power. We are given Holy Spirit power to do this work. It is not on our strength that we alone do this work. This is God's business and we simply have to go back to the in Christ. If I am truly, in Christ, if I have given myself fully over to God that I can't. My life is nothing. I have done to Christ everything. I am everything. I do all that I pursue. Is devoted to the glory of God when God comes in and can do powerful and amazing things and it is a journey. It's a step. It doesn't happen all at once. But oh, Christmas tree red and Isaiah chapter 6. We read verse 9:6, we read about the Prince of Peace. The wonderful counselor. Jesus, the one who ushered in a new way of living, a new way of being to show us the way. And in 1st John, the scriptures remind us to let us walk even as Christ walked today. Is the simplest one that that Paul put out for his be reconciled to God, so that we can be reconciled one with another. This is a call of the Christian Community. And when has it ever been needed more than today? Like, we've got work to do. Let's take that task and go forward on him a response as we stand.