Tuesday, Jan. 18th...
Bible Study @ 7:00 CANCELLED due to floor refinishing.
Thursday, Jan 29th...
Senior Adventure to Billy Graham Library. Leave church @ 9:00 AM THERE IS STILL ROOM FOR MORE PLEASE LET JULIE OR PASTOR JOHN KNOW NLT WEDNESDAY. IS YOU WISH TO GO.
Choir Practice @ 7:00 PM
Sunday, Jan 23 rd...
9:15 Sunday School Opening
9:30 Sunday School
10:00 Worship
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM All Church Ministries meet for planning. These are most important so PLEASE plan to attend if you are on one of these committees.
2:00-2:30 Cemetery, Bd. of Edu., & VBS
2:30 - 3:00 Property & Nursery
3:00-3:30 Finance, Fall Festival & Children's Church
3:30 - 4:00 Golden Age, Christmas Decor/Programs & Retreat/Conference
4:00-4:30 Pilgrim Youth & New Year's Eve
4:30- 5:00 Greeters & Easter Decor/Programs
5:00-5:30 Ushers & Office/Directory
5:30-6:00 Supper
BLOWING ROCK RETREAT WEEKEND
This will be August 12-14 this year and reservations must be made by March 6th. Please pray about going on this wonderful retreat. Margaret Truell will have more information in a few weeks.
CHURCH BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK
Tuesday, Jan. 18th ... Clara Bell Yarbourough & Terry Kinley
Wednesday, Jan. 19th ... Naomi Everhart & David Johnson
Friday, Jan. 21.st ... Clint Leonard
Saturday, Jan 22nd ... Geri Leonard
Sunday, Jan 23rd... Teresa Allen
THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT
For the week of January 16, 2011
How often in life we are asked this question, “Please explain yourself.” It may have happened first in our lives when a parent or other adult felt we not behaving in a proper manner, which is, of course, to mean behaving in an adult manner. Remember wanting to reply, “I’m only a kid!” and then daring not to?
I remember once when I disagreed with my superior about a decision to be made and he challenged me with the words, “Explain yourself, but, remember who you’re talking to.” He was my boss, and the vice president of the company, however, the question was one that had to do with production scheduling and that was my job, so I blurted out, “Okay, but you remember why you hired me.”
Well, I didn’t get fired and I learned a good lesson. We should always be ready to “explain ourselves” and, perhaps more importantly, have a solid position from which to argue.
In our Bible readings for this week I came across the best singular response that we, as Christians, can offer when we feel the need or are asked to explain ourselves. It is Genesis 42:18 (NLT) where Joseph is talking to his brothers who have recently come to Egypt looking for food. “On the third day Joseph said to them, “I am a God-fearing man. If you do as I say, you will live.”
“I am a God-fearing man” was explanation enough. Because Joseph was a God-fearing man, he could be trusted, even as God is trusted. It may well be from this event (my personal guess) that we place our hand on the Bible when giving sworn testimony in court and say, “So help me God.”
But what about all the other interactions we have each day with all sorts of people, some of whom may not be very nice. Can we say that our behavior is the result of our being Christians, God-fearing people. I can’t help but wonder what a wonderful place this world could be, if every person’s action could honestly be attributed to the solid fact that he or she is a ”God-fearing” person, a follower of Jesus, a disciple of the Christ.
Sermon for Sunday, January 16, 2011
OVERCOMING OUR CIRCUMSTANCES
An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World, #3
John 1:43-51
The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”
48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar grew up in Yazoo, Mississippi. Most of us might consider that a disadvantage. Not Zig. He says it’s an asset. He says you can go anywhere in the world from Yazoo, MS. Jesus was not from Yazoo, MS. He was from Nazareth in the region of Galilee. Nazareth got the same kind of respect from the rest of Israel as a small rural town in the deep South does in the U.S. But, you know what?
Jesus proved you can truly go anywhere from Nazareth. It’s not where you hail from nor even how gifted you are in the long run of life all that really matters is what you have inside. This is the third message in our series, AN UPBEAT WORD FOR A DOWNBEAT WORLD
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Last week we saw how an African-American child, Wilma Rudolph, from a poverty-stricken family with a paralyzed left leg became an Olympic champion. We’ve noted that we live in a God-invaded world. And we reminded ourselves of the significance of our baptism. When we were baptized, we were clothed with the Spirit of Christ.
This week our theme is “overcoming our circumstances.” LIFE IS HARD. That’s where we begin.
Maybe you heard the true story about the fellow who was taking care of an errand in another town. When it was time to head home he discovered that his car wouldn’t start because it was out of gas. A passerby told him there was a service station a half mile away, so he took a gas can from the trunk and trudged the distance in the sweltering sun.
The attendant at the service station filled his two-gallon can, and he lugged it back and poured the gas into the tank. But when he tried to unlock the car door, it wouldn’t open. Just then, he noticed an identical old car parked a short distance away. That was his car. He had filled a stranger’s gas tank.
Wearily he walked back to the station. The attendant suggested helpfully, “You know, instead of walking back and forth to fill the tank from the can, you could put a couple of gallons in the tank and then drive the car here.”
People can be so helpful, can’t they? We joke about it, but life is hard. Sometimes it drives all of us to our knees.
Pastor Ed Dobson leads one of the largest churches in the U.S. In 2000, this pastor of a growing, active ministry was diagnosed with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
It is a degenerative, fatal disease, and there is no cure. Pastor Dobson says that he was never angry over his diagnosis. He takes his cue from the example of a young woman in his church who was widowed twice at a young age.
The woman stated at her second husband’s funeral, “I have chosen not to ask why. I don’t want to waste what limited energy I have on a question for which I don’t think I’ll get an answer.”
That widow showed a lot of spiritual maturity. This is a hard world we live in and we don’t know why. Some day we will understand. St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face…” But right now it’s a mystery. I guess people expect their pastor to tell them why pain and suffering come to our lives, but I don’t know the answer. Neither do I know why some people find healing for their sufferings and others do not.
A young woman suffering from multiple sclerosis and cancer wrote a letter to the television’s 700 Club. As many of you know, this is an upbeat show that focuses on people who have “experienced God’s blessings.” Co-host Sheila Walsh was impressed with this particular young woman’s perspective, and began a regular correspondence with her.
One letter from this young woman particularly changed Walsh’s outlook on the question of suffering. --- The young woman complained that the 700 Club always showcased people who were healed, marriages that were restored, happy stories and miracles. But that’s not always realistic, she said.
“What about people like me,” the young woman wrote, “(people) who are dying and still love God?” Yeah. What about people like that? There are more than you might imagine.
I don’t understand why some people experience devastating misfortune, but I can tell you this: The people I admire most in this world are people who learn to “play hurt.” That’s a sports term, of course. Athletes know about pain and injury.
It’s part of the business. Many of them deal courageously with their misfortunes by playing through them. They could use their injuries to slack off and take it easy, but somehow these champions refuse to do so. They “suck it up,” in sports talk, and give their best in spite of their misfortune.
Robert Conklin wrote a book more than a decade ago titled “Think Yourselves to the Riches of Life” in which he gave some sterling examples of athletes playing hurt.
One of them was Bill Emmerton, who in his late forties decided to run 125 miles through Death Valley. He started in the heat of 106 degrees, got thirty miles out, and encountered a sandstorm so severe it blew him off his feet and bounced him fifteen feet along the road. Undaunted, he kept going until he collapsed from sulfur fumes. Following him in a camper, his wife, Norma, thought, “Dear God, this is it.”
She soaked his clothes in water, massaged his legs, and three minutes later Emmerton was on his way again. The temperature reached 135 degrees. He finished with the toe of one shoe cut off to allow for the free flow of blood.
“It was like running through hell,” he exclaimed. But he finished this remarkable test of his endurance.
The reason this kind of story is important to us is that there are saints of God who play hurt every day of their lives. They could shake their fist at God. They could slough off in meeting their responsibilities. They could grow bitter and take out their misfortune on others. But they hang in there, and they trust God, even when they do not feel God’s presence. And in their struggle, they find strength they did not realize they possessed. There are some right here in Pilgrim Reformed Church.
Otto Dibelius put it this way, “God does not lead His children around hardship, but leads them straight through hardship. But He leads! And amidst the hardship, He is nearer to them than ever before.”
These people who persist despite heavy burdens are champions, heroes, and the sad thing is that we never recognize them. Life is hard. It is especially hard for some people.
Let’s face it. We do not start life equally. We are born gifted or not so gifted. We may have healthy genes or defective one. We may start off in a place called Yazoo or one called Nazareth.
You can almost hear the sarcasm in our scripture for today. A man named Philip has just encountered Christ and been won over to him.
He, in turn, reaches out to a friend, Nathanael, and tells him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
“Nazareth!” Nathanael asked. “Can anything good come from there?”
“Come and see,” said Philip.
Here is today’s “Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World.” It doesn’t matter where you start out. It doesn’t matter what obstacles you have to overcome. You can be a champion, a winner, a hero, by trusting God with your pain and never giving up.
A man named Pesach Krauss wrote a book titled, “Why Me: Coping With Grief, Loss, and Change.” In it, he describes the torment of his youth.
As a boy he was forced to have the lower half of his right leg amputated. This was harder on his soul than it was on his body. He felt somehow incomplete. Like any young man he desperately wanted to fit in. Thus he pushed himself to achieve. Wearing a prosthesis he participated zealously in athletics. He refused any pity. Through sheer determination, Krauss made the gymnastics team his sophomore year and earned a letter.
Later, he remembered the first day he wore the sweater to school. The kids stopped their chatter and turned to stare at him a hush came over the room. And then an amazing thing happened. In unison, all his classmates rose. They began to clap their hands and they cheered.
Pesach Krauss writes, “I’m not ashamed to tell you that on that day, standing there in front of my classmates, the tears I cried were the sweetest tears of all. For the first time I had a glimmer that I could be a whole person even if a part of me is missing.”
I have a feeling that many saints of God are going to receive that kind of reception when they enter the gates of God’s kingdom. Their wounds won’t show, then. The missing limbs will be restored.
The thread-bare clothes will have been exchanged for glorious spiritual garments. The heavy hearts will be overflowing with joy. They’ll only be recognizable because of the gold crowns on their heads.
These are Christ’s champions. Heaven’s heroes. People who have triumphed over a multitude of disadvantages, handicaps, and heartaches and have never given in or given up.
I hope you will never have to endure unimaginable suffering. But, even if you do, there is hope on the other side.
But Christ’s champions aren’t just people. Often they are his churches. Churches that go through a period when things look bleak, where there has been turmoil, yet they choose to press forward toward the goal that God has for them. Will you be counted among them? They too, choose to be counted among the champions of God. I’m convinced that Pilgrim has chosen to be such a church, a champion of God.
For the God who has invaded our world and invaded our lives at our baptism and collected you to be this church, will never forsake us.
An upbeat word for a downbeat world.
Amen
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