First Love Church
These podcasts are messages that were preached at First Love Church in Ocala, Florida. We hope that you are encouraged and inspired by what you hear. We are a non denominational, egalitarian church that practices a generous orthodoxy. Find out more about our local congregation online at firstlovechurch.org.
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First Love Church
Embracing Gratitude: Transforming Life with Love and Peace
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
Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.
Speaker 1:This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the Revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, florida.
Speaker 1:And the Christ in us greets the Christ in you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for the light and the beauty that you are and that, as we come together, we expand our light and our ability to love and to see people as they are and to welcome them into the presence of the Lord.
Speaker 1:It's our joy, an absolute joy, to be with you this morning and to consider together the word of life, the word of the Lord, and one of the things that we do when we're together is we allow ourselves to be formed by other thought, by higher thought, by the words of Christ, who remind us what it is like to be a people who are deeply loved by God. What if everything that we did in our life was out of the source of love? Our world would be another place. It would be the kingdom here right now, and so one of the things that we do together is that we learn how to be people 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 expand our ideas and to expand our understanding of what is available to us right now.
Speaker 2:Well listen, I'm so glad all of you came to church today, but I am especially glad my cousin Kenny and Ria are here.
Speaker 1:I love the collective.
Speaker 2:They usually come from all the way from Jacksonville, Illinois, and I like when they stand up. Yeah, it's very nice, so I got them on my cousin's on parade, but now that they're retired they come to you from not just, but they might be from the Bahamas, it might be from whatever. So we are just grateful to have you and to have everyone.
Speaker 1:We could go around the room and say how grateful we are for all of the people who are here, all of them. Yes for Vince, yes for every single one. I've looked at you and I'm saying I'm grateful for all of you, from Vince, who drove up from early this morning, and grateful for everyone who makes the drive and who says this is where I want to be. And so I'm again not just grateful, we're talking about something that I am really excited to share with you this morning, and I think that maybe feels overused, because every time I'm here I'm happy to share with you. But sometimes the text challenges us on a different level and while I find this text challenging, it feels so good, it feels like, yes, this is right, this is what we've come for.
Speaker 1:So this morning, when we go to the text oh, before we go to the text, I would like us to pray St Francis' prayer together as we move into unity and into the bond 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 me sow love when there is hatred. Let me sow love when there is injury, pardon when there is doubt. Faith when there is despair. Hope when there is darkness, light.
Speaker 1:And where there is sadness. Joy, o Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand and to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life amen it has been a prayer of ours continually over the past few weeks, and perhaps this is an invitation for us to live like this.
Speaker 1:But, lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Very often we want peace around us, but we want everybody else to do the changing. I want you to not behave like that so that I can have my peace, and this invitation is make me the instrument of peace. Let me so live in the peace of jesus christ, that everywhere I go, there can be peace, there can be bridges built, there can be things that allow for peace among all people, and so I'm grateful for that. We go this morning to Colossians, chapter 3. And in this particular text this morning, I know that we're all aware that Thanksgiving is coming quickly.
Speaker 1:Many of you are making your lists and your plans and setting your menu, and I remind you that Thanksgiving is something that is a mark of someone who knows that they are loved, being able to say thank you, being able to express gratitude. That thanksgiving is something that is a mark of someone who knows that they are loved, being able to say thank you, being able to express gratitude, and it is not just reserved for one day. In fact, it is a lifestyle choice, it is an ethical choice, and we see this as we follow Jesus over and over again. Jesus demonstrated to us, and in fact, the words of the people that witnessed him said and he gave thanks, and he gave thanks, and he gave thanks. So giving thanks was a practice of Jesus who shows us what it's like to really live.
Speaker 2:You know we're going to talk about these practices today and sometimes they can go right over our heads or sometimes we can maybe not fully understand how that they're really useful to us. And so I want you to kind of think about, you know, the idea that when we get a word from the Lord, it's advice that we're turning down. In some cases that doesn't sound wise. When I put it like that, does it? Do you really want to turn down advice given to you by the Creator? And I think what happens to us is we wouldn't literally do something like that, but we kind of get it in our head that what you're saying is too good to be true, or my experience has shown me that I can't have peace. So what you do is you exalt your opinion or your experience above God's word, and so essentially we say God, you're lying.
Speaker 2:I don't think that's a good place to sit to trust some experiences you've had, and I want you to understand I think I've done this in the past. That's why I share this with you. I'm confident that I've looked at my experience and I said but I just don't think that's going to be applicable to me, I don't think that's gonna really help me, and I've come to realize that I'm the one that needs changed, not god. And if I can listen to these things as they're being instructed to me and these practices, and if I can, just all right, I'll do it.
Speaker 1:I don't see how bathing in the river seven times is going to take away my leprosy, 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 cure himself, goes and asks for help, and then the word comes to him and says go to the river and dip seven times. And I'm sure that was an enormous disappointment Because we want something that is big or flashy or immediate. But I want to tell you, the first time Naaman dipped, he was healed. And let me tell you why Because he chose the obedient way. The first time Now, it took till the seventh time till his skin actually cleared up and we saw a manifestation of that. But the very first time now, it took till the seventh time till his skin actually cleared up and we saw a manifestation of that. But the very first time you choose to obey, you choose to walk in love, you choose to follow god's path, the healing is already there, the miracle has already been provided. And so I remind you that the practices allow us to be formed, to build the muscle, to build the response, to build the faith, to build the hope. That to build the response, to build the faith, to build the hope that is allowed to us In Colossians, chapter 3, put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your creator and become like him. This is the invitation for all of us Renewal, transformation, resurrection, the miraculous, this is available to all of us. And then this becomes our choice, as you learn to know your creator and I want to remind you that this takes a lifetime Learning to know your creator, living in the creation that testifies. This is an invitation for us, for a life of learning, for us to sit and be able to say I have a teacher, I have a guide, I have a love who shows me how to be in this world, in this new life.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter if you're Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free. Christ is all that matters and he lives in all of us. This verse is so beautiful in reminding us that whatever identifier that you have had that says that you are separate, that thing no longer matters. You are one with Christ, you are one with God's family. So where before we would say the civilized and the uncivilized, let's put a line there and say we're not going to cross that, and Jesus is saying no, that line is erased.
Speaker 1:All of you, whether you're uncivilized or not and I think that really refers a lot to like children, small people, teenagers in particular, feel like in the uncivilized category, and then we just want to embrace them and say no, no, we're one in Christ. Those beautiful people, in their way of expressing things, is welcomed in the body of Christ, is welcomed in our midst. And so, I remind you, we don't have, typically, people that we say are barbarians, or at least not on a regular basis. They're also welcomed here.
Speaker 1:But I remind you, to these first century listeners, they would have been shocked that you included the barbarians. I mean, they would have just been irritated at the fact, like you've gone too far in this inclusion thing, beloved, like we can include them, but the barbarians often don't even wear clothes and so we're going to invite them to our tables like naked and wild, like that. And the idea is yes, because we're not looking at the things that divide us, we are looking at the spirit that unites us, and the spirit is christ spirit who lives in all of us you know there's a principle and and it is that you know if you forgive, you yourself will be forgiven.
Speaker 2: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 that principle is is really uh, moves out into other areas, like this like, if you exclude, you, yourself will be excluded. And it's not so much that God's going well, you know you excluded some people, so I'm going to exclude you. What it really means is, if you can't, within you, accept that idea of including people, you will find a reason why you are excluded. It is really within you that this trap is set. You know it's not. You know, know god going better. You know you better adjust some stuff or otherwise. I'm gonna get you.
Speaker 2:God is for us, but he's showing us in these practices how we can trap ourselves. Because I know I've known people that have had horrible atrocities happen to them and but they have committed some horrible things as well and unwilling to forgive themselves for the things that they have done, because they weren't going to forgive the things that were done to them. And so we feel like we're releasing somebody else, but we're releasing ourselves and the idea of allowing that grace to come to others means it will come to you as well. And boy do I ever need that grace. Am I the only one? Help us out.
Speaker 1:Since God chose you to be the holy people that he loves. I just remind you that you are the holy people that God loves. You are. Everyone is actually for God, so loved. The world that he gave.
Speaker 1:God is love, and God is wildly and passionately in love with you. So because you are these people, you are sons and daughters of God, you must clothe yourself with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. And again, here the teacher is reminding us that it is mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. This kind of list reminds you of the list that talks about what the Holy Spirit looks like when 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 not put itself first. This sounds like this continual beautiful picture that says this is who you are. You might have thought, or someone told you you were angry and disappointed, but actually you are a person clothed in love. Actually you are full of gentleness and patience. You may have just been not practiced in that yet, and this is a beautiful invitation for us to learn a way of living to who we really are you know this church.
Speaker 2: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 journey together? Some of you are less willing to go on the journey with me, but we're on this journey and and I can tell you that, as I'm practicing that love towards people, it is absolutely changing me, you know. And so we look at this. Oh my God, there's this big list. I got to be tender hearted, merciful, kind Boy. That's going to be a full-time job for me. But you know, what I've needed every moment and every day of my life is I've needed that tender kindness towards me. And I tell you what, as rough as I am on other people, I'm more rough on myself, and you are as well. So if we can begin to practice this change you know I have in my lifetime kids were little last 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 a pastor of a church.
Speaker 2:And I looked at it and the guy was like a retired age guy and I thought to myself this is going to go one of two ways. I'm a 30-something-year-old guy that'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 car and left. But this is the kind of rage and 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, or you know as if I don't understand what we're talking about.
Speaker 2:But fast forward to just. I think it was yesterday or the day before Heather and I were in Orlando and these people were behind me. This person was laying on the horn for me to get over and just tailgating me like this and get over, get over because they needed to get around. And so I got over and they were so busy yelling at me that they didn't realize that I was getting over because the lane was ended in one car length up. So thankfully, that person who was needed to be around me so bad and was so angry and normally would have engaged me in kind of a thing I just thought, oh, I feel so sorry for you that you're out here and you need to get around, so bad that you don't even see that need you have has no end, that has no future for you. It is a literal dead end what you're trying to do and I love that.
Speaker 2:God just allowed me to see that in my peace and, furthermore, gave me the grace to not go. Hey, I told you so in the window, adam. I put my head down and just said let the lord deal with them and and I was able to be free from something that used to control me. I literally would go out in traffic and how my day went totally depended on someone else. If they drove perfectly for my judgment, then I would have a good day, but if not, I'd have a story to tell everybody for the next.
Speaker 2:This big jerk got in my way, you know, and all this, and we allow ourselves to be pulled into that energy and that place. Or we can decide. I can always be a distributor of grace and of kindness and be the kind of person that exudes that. And what happens when I share that? It comes back to me. That's the kind of person that exudes that. And what happens when I share that? It comes back to me. That's the kind of people I attract and I'm around, and even when someone is so opposed to it, it becomes so ridiculous. Why would we want to be those kind of angry people? Why? Why? For that momentary satisfaction of flesh that follows behind it Hours, if not days, of shame and regret? Or could we walk in a place where we are distributing the very grace of god to people around us?
Speaker 1:there's no comparison make allowance for each other's faults, which is very different than judge each other's faults or bring some kind of condemnation for each other's faults. Just make allowance for it. I mean, what would that look like in your day if you just allowed people to have their faults and you just say I built my day with plenty of allowance, with the allowance for someone to be having their bad day? What would that look like in your marriage if you just made allowance for each other's fault? What if, on a regular basis, we didn't have to correct faults, we didn't have to tell someone their faults, we could just make an allowance for it? And this is a way beloved to live in peace. This is a way to live in Christ. This is a way to live ascended in our thoughts. Just make an allowance for it. Build into your life an allowance for people to be on their own journey, for people to be as they are without needing to be changed by you.
Speaker 1:Make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Just go ahead and forgive them. Just right, then forgive them. Remember the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others and, above all, clothe yourself with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. This is, in fact, the highest of all the virtues love. Love is the way God is love, and Jesus showed us how to live and embrace our humanity and to thrive. And this way, this is the way of peace, that love binds us all together in perfect harmony.
Speaker 2:Remember earlier when I said you might be getting some advice and there's going to be a tendency to want to tell us why this is not going to work. There's going to be a tendency to 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 humanity that we would rather justify why we're going to continue in the path of destruction, other than really humbling ourselves and deciding that man, with some adjustment and really such a slight course correction now in a long haul, can change your direction so drastically. Do you see what I'm saying? Over time? And so sometimes we think, oh, my god, it's too overwhelming if I was to change. What if we changed one thing about making allowance or just for our spouse, or kindness, and wanted to move in this area? What would happen for you to surrender to God in that area is that we begin to see God's manifesting in our life in that area, that God will be showing up in such a great way, and that's what you and I need.
Speaker 2:So, instead of us telling why this won't work, what if we just say, all right, you're the one who gives the direction and offers this practice, and I will choose to go out there. And you know that, naaman, he had to go in that water. He's a rich guy coming from another land and I've seen the 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 go and that's what God's asking you and I Humbly that we would bite our tongue and be gracious to other people, but watch what it does, the miracle that it does in you.
Speaker 1:I just want to be mindful of the fact that you just mentioned. It's not much of a river by our standards, and I want to tell you that I've never made a river Dennis has never made a river, but our space where we occupy it was in the Midwest, and the Mississippi is quite a river. That was not created by us, but again that becomes our standards. One time we were in Israel and someone said something about the Jordan River. We were like we couldn't find it, and they were like you must have you crossed over. We're like there was a creek, and they were like no, that was the Jordan River, but our frame of reference was the Mississippi. And so we were like we never found it. We never found it, and then so we had to go back and find it and then change the way that we thought about the river and we're like well, here it is.
Speaker 1:And so sometimes in our lives the same thing happens, where your culture says to you this is what it is. And so allow another framework to come to you, Because this verse says let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. Beloved, if we can encourage you with anything, be a people of peace, Be a people who live in peace, who create peace, and the scripture is reminding us this is the peace of Christ. This peace can guard your heart, For, as members of one body, you are called to live in peace.
Speaker 1:Now, this would have again been to the original readers. These people were barbarians and to tell them they were called to live in peace would have been astonishing, because these were people of war, these were people who based everything on conquest and this idea of you are called to be people of peace. You are called to one body. You are called to unity, you are called to love. You are called to live in peace and always be thankful. Here we are again and this is why, with great joy, I remind all of us that this is the practice. If you thought the other things were the practice beloved, this is the practice Be thankful.
Speaker 1:Make it your practice to be thankful. There's a little proverb that says this. It says gratitude turns what we have into enough. So, when you find yourself in lack of anything that you can say, this is what I'm going to choose the path of thankfulness that will allow me to see the abundance. That will allow me to see what is not here.
Speaker 2:You know, thankfulness is such a, you know, gratitude, it's such a path of transformation for us. You know, it's really one of the only practices that really can get you out of your ego, because our ego kind of uh looks at, um, uh, you know ourself and how we're feeling and how, and we get kind of so self-centered, you know, in that world, and we don't even realize 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 tell you, there's a few people. I talk to a lot of people on a regular basis. I check in with people, and there's certain people I can check in on them and they wouldn't tell me if all their limbs had fallen off. Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine.
Speaker 2:And then there's other people that just can't wait to tell me all the horrible things that are going on in their life and they just they can rehearse, and so I'll find myself kind of playing pong with them. They'll throw it at me and I'll go yeah, but can you thank God for this? And they'll go, yeah, but you got 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 you got a car, you can drive there, you know, and I'm just and I got off the phone after a couple of minutes and I'm like that was tiring man, you know, and they're trapped.
Speaker 2:And you might be trapped in that place and you might say to me no, there is nothing that I can be thankful for, there's nothing good in my life, and I gotta tell you that I understand that you're trapped, but if you could do this practice of looking, is there anything that you're thankful for? You know, you, you get to live in florida. It's green year-round, yeah, but it's so freaking hot and it's humid, you know. At least you're not frozen inside a glacier somewhere. Can you find something? You know what I mean and what will happen. And I'm being silly, but I'm being serious, because that trap that you're in is terrible for you and it's terrible for us that are around you, because you are dragging us down like a millstone. For god's sake, would you find something to be joyful?
Speaker 1:over, so we're going to make allowance for your well let me finish because I'm on a roll here. I'm pastoring right now and what we're going to do is we're just going to be grateful for you wherever you are. Well, no, but we're going to.
Speaker 2:We're going to talk about this because we're going to try to help you, we're going to pray for you, but we get to go home and be happy.
Speaker 2:You're staying in this mud and I want you out of there because I love you. And so here's what I'm challenging you at If you could recognize that this one gift of gratitude can get you out of your ego, because it forces you to think of something else and someone else. It forces you to think of a source outside of yourself. I'm thankful for the sun, I'm thankful for cotton candy, something that is outside of your creation that I'm thankful that that you know there's birds, that you know. The only time I'm ever happy is if I hear a chirp, chirp. Well, thank God, buy an app that plays chirp chirps 24 hours a day. Find something that can get you outside of that trap, and that's what gratitude will do. And it's a practice. I'm not good at things until I practice 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're saying you know, I'm sick of me, I'm sick of being negative. Well then, here's the deal. Grab a hold of this truth that has been there your whole life, but you just didn't realize how life changing it is for you to just look around.
Speaker 2:You know, heather and I, we had somewhere to go the other day, but both of us were just sitting in our front room and we realized that we talked to each other after I said why were you hanging around the front room? So we had to leave. And Heather said, and I asked her and she said she goes. I couldn't stop staring at our kids Now they're adults now, but they were talking and they weren't yelling at each other, they were laughing and they were telling stories and one was getting louder than the other and we were just going look Look at this. Oh man, this is so special. How many of you come in and out of the house and you pass by those miracles that are your children?
Speaker 1:Or your spouse.
Speaker 2:Especially for you.
Speaker 1:Yes, what a miracle, what a miracle. May the Lord be praised. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:No, you're so right If we can celebrate or we can find some things you know on that song earlier you missed the cue on there. I did, I did. Or we can find some things you know on that song earlier. You missed the cue on there. Or we can go. Thank God I have a wife who can beautifully sing and sometimes catches those cues.
Speaker 1:No, most of the time not, but I'm just saying, can we turn that, do we?
Speaker 2:have to constantly dwell on the negative and stay trapped in that misery.
Speaker 1:We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today. If you're finding this episode meaningful, pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today. If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend? This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church and the continued work of our podcast, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg, reminding you to like, follow and subscribe.
Speaker 1:This is the beautiful invitation that we see as the following of the practices that Jesus gave us.
Speaker 1:Where gratitude turns what we have into enough, the practice of gratitude allows peace to reign in our hearts. Gratitude doesn't mean that you're happy that this is this way, I mean, but there is a thing to be able to say where is the peace that I can access right now? Where is the remembrance? In fact, we use a word in the English language and when you trace the word back, it is this we say thank you, and actually the word in its beginnings came from the word when you received something. You would say I'll think of you, and that has evolved into thank you, and thank you right now means nothing. It really kind of doesn't. I mean, our machines say thank you, 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 fact that you have prepared a table for me.
Speaker 1:I will think of the fact that I am invited to this feast. I will receive the feast that you gave us. So when someone does something for you and you choose to say thank you or you rehearse that instead of how someone has offended you or someone has brought fault to you, what can we be thankful for? Sometimes, all we can be thankful for is that God loves them, and that's a good place to start, like when somebody is very difficult with you. Just I'm grateful that the Lord loves them, I'm grateful that there is mercy, I'm grateful that they have a savior and you can start. Just I tell you that it is a beautiful practice because once you start, the Spirit will begin to like bubble up in you and you will remember the things that you can be grateful for and always be thankful and let the message about Christ in all of its richness fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom that love gives, that God gives, and counsel each other with all the wisdom that love gives, that God gives, that Jesus gives, Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual God to song to God with thankful hearts. Again, this is the invitation into a practice of thankfulness, into a practice of gratitude, into a practice of hope.
Speaker 1:I was sitting with some people that we were doing a project with and we were going to be served. This was not in this country, but we were going to be served what was loosely I would say lunch Loosely. It was a sit down time. We got some water and then there was this stuff served and literally I will tell you that it made me feel nauseous just looking at it and I thought I would have better never even seen this than actually try it. So we just started together. I gave my friend a little look and we started this and we're like isn't it so wonderful that we get to be together? Yeah, Isn't it so wonderful that we have a moment to sit down in the chairs and rest? And what delicious water this is. And we refuse to comment on what this was. I will tell you what it was. It was a piece of pig fat that had not been cooked but was cut in a cube like a brownie, but was the pig fat that was still gelatinous and moving, but that was served to us for lunch and so we can all go.
Speaker 1:I'm fasting it's a religious practice, but this idea is no matter what happens, you can find things to be grateful for and what it did. So then what happened was my friend and I kept going back and forth. I would say just to be together is so beautiful, Just to feel the breeze is beautiful, Just to sit for a moment and think let's talk about how grateful we are. And then other people started catching on, because they also saw what we were served and they were like oh, let's think about the fact that we are so fortunate that we have the strength to be able to do this good work Instead of going. What are we going to do with this? This is unedible. We can find ways to, and I will, without hesitation. I tell you that we left with so much strength, not because we had been nourished by food, but we had been nourished by fellowship that was brought on by thankfulness and beloved. That is true for you, no matter where you find yourself.
Speaker 1:The practice of finding something, even if you cannot find anything good. With that, there's other things around you. And the awareness, the bringing ourselves into the awareness. I will think of you, I will think of God, who gives us every good thing that we need to enjoy.
Speaker 1:And whatever you do or say, I've looked in the original language too, and it does. It is this wide whatever you do or say, that's kind of everything beloved You're doing and you're saying that's kind of everything beloved You're doing and you're saying, Do it as a representation, as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks through him to God, the Father, in everything that you do. What if the folding of the laundry that is already clean, that you haven't folded and put it away yet? What if you could do that out of thanks to God? What if all of the tasks that we do, we do it because we're giving thanks to God? What if all of the things that we do we have the strength to do because it's an opportunity we have, that we get to use our bodies to move in this way, that we get to use our energy on behalf of others?
Speaker 1:There is an invitation into newness of life through the practice of thanksgiving. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. This is the intention of the blessing you receive from God and then you give it away. You receive with open hands every beautiful thing and then you become a person who is a conduit of love, of thanksgiving, of mercy, everything. You will be enriched so that you can always be generous. Generosity always leads us to gratitude. It is just a natural part of this. Dennis mentions and it's coming up here, but he mentions all the time that no one is ever more generous than on Thanksgiving Day. You are so full of dinner that when anyone comes Thanksgiving Day just after you've eaten.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, not before the meal has been served, just after You've already eaten your fill, and then someone else comes and there's still food and you're like, 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 you are so full. What if we could always be so generous with love and mercy and peace and grace and our gifts, because we realize we've received them? And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. This generosity produces gratitude in the world around us. They might not thank you, but they will thank God, who gives us everything and allows us to be people who are radically generous, incredibly thankful and full of God's peace.
Speaker 2:You know what I want for us as a church and I think it would be pretty hard for you to be a part of this church and not sign on to this but that you're going to do some of the practices. You're going to be a kind of a Christian that does some of these practices. You know, because you know we're challenging on them. Do them and watch what God does. You know that we're just generous with what we got. Now I may not have a lot, but whatever I have, you know I told you guys a long time ago not to pat myself on the back, but something we decided to do. Every time we see somebody on the 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 do without, but we get a stack of fives every month, at the beginning of the month or every few weeks, and we stick them in the little cubby of the car and you know that they've never run dry. I mean we might get to the last one 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'm going to bring joy to people, I'm going to bring kindness? You know, and maybe you yourself wouldn't run out? You might get right to the brink sometimes, but you're not going to run out. That's God's principle.
Speaker 2:I want you to think about that. There's things that we've decided back to us being this church that practices good behavior when we drive, uh the uh. There's something that I have done my whole life. Maybe I learned it from my family of origin. I bet you you've done it in the past. If you don't still do it. When somebody cuts you off, you might have a name for them. You don't know them, but isn't it interesting how a name rose up out of you for them and you gave them a name? Let's all at once tell what our no no, wait no I bet you you have some names for people I have.
Speaker 2:Look at this idiot. Oh, can you believe it? You know, know. And my wife has been practicing something for a while and I'll ask my kids unrehearsed what if dad was getting ready to call somebody an idiot? What would mom call them?
Speaker 1:Beloved child of God.
Speaker 2:What you heard, that across the room why? Because it's a practice in our car and you know what rises up in me now when these people come out.
Speaker 2:Oh, look at the beloved child of God and I can see that that's God's child and maybe God's child's impatient. Maybe God's child needs to work on some things. But it's not my job. It's God's job to deal with that. So I can turn loose of that. I don't have the need to drag them out of the car and teach them the truth of traffic anymore. I want to allow that to be in the hands of the one who actually can handle that.
Speaker 2:Somebody say amen, don't turn me off because I'm preaching real good. Don't tell me why this is not going to work, because I'm telling you these practices change you and they bring an abundance in your life. Because we laugh in our car now, instead of creating that atmosphere where, where it's cringe and all the passengers are wondering if you're going to turn the car into a bridge and punishment and kill everyone in the car. You're so angry and enraged you're terrifying to be around. I'm preaching to somebody, if not to my children about me, or can we allow love? Because I'm not just talking about me. Unfortunately, there's a lot of people that carry around that kind of range and just one little thing sets us off. What if we could carry around the abundance of love where just anything will set that off. Grace would be shared and handed to those people that clearly need it out there, because they have not yet learned how to drive to my standards, so they need God's grace.
Speaker 1:We talked about this a few weeks ago, but Dennis and I wrote a sign, one of those ones that are on the side of the road, that they can change. They can tell you the lane is closed, they can tell you there's traffic ahead or there's a detour. But this one said the lane is not your birthright, let them merge. And I love that so much. We've been laughing at this idea of sometimes, when we're doing something, we feel like it's our birthright, beloved. I want to remind you of what your birthright is. You are a child of God, your what your birthright is you are a child of God.
Speaker 1:Your birthright is belovedness. Your birthright is worthiness. You have every good thing because your Father in heaven has given it to you, and so our birthright is to know that the source of everything that we have need of and this verse 12,. So two good things will result from this ministry of giving the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met and they will joyfully express their thanks to God, and, as a result of your ministry or your giving, they will give glory to God, for your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the good news of Christ Beloved. Gratitude is good news. Being able to find something to be thankful for is good news. The ability to be able to say we get to be together and remind ourselves of things to be thankful for or things to be aware of that we are gifted.
Speaker 1:Last night I hope that you got to see the moon. I hope that you went into your room and the moon was so bright. You just noticed the beauty of that light on the floor because the moon was there. Now the moon is there all the time, beloved. We just don't see it, and sometimes during the year, you know this is the last. This is like the autumn moon, where the solstice comes next and then we're gonna. You know that things are gonna change in the atmosphere, but last night's moon was so beautiful and I hope that you are able to see that. I hope that when you go outside in the evenings it's gonna be cold.
Speaker 1:I looked at my app, which is awesome, and the next couple of days, sweater weather exciting for us. It's full fall. Don't panic like don't get out your boots or mittens or anything. It's just going to be like. You know you get to have a sweater, but maybe you'll go outside and sit on your porch and maybe you'll listen to the bird or to the cicadas or to whatever it is that is happening. Maybe it's your neighbor's dog, who never shuts up. What a blessing that is, you know, to be able to say, well, look at that animal who's constantly praising. Or, you know, maybe it's a woodpecker who is doing some kind of reconstruction on something that you didn't know anything about.
Speaker 1:But I hope that you will take a moment to allow nature to witness to you, to re-witness to you the beauty and the diversity that is our world and how we can enjoy all of the goodness that is heaped up around us. We're about to together celebrate Holy Communion and I'm so incredibly grateful for this time that we get to say what do we do, to be grateful for things we bring to remembrance. We think of Christ, who shows us how to live, shows us, in generosity, what to do. One of the things that you get to participate in is giving offerings, giving tithes, saying this is what I'm going to do to support the things that are here. We and you take care of each other, take care of your neighbors, invite someone to your Thanksgiving table who doesn't usually come or who may not have a place to be. What would our world look like if all of us expanded our ability to be able to say who can we bring into the table or into this place, to be able to say there is enough and there's beauty for everyone?
Speaker 2: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 be inconvenienced, or we don't? You know, I don't need to have this happening to me, you know, and we just decide that we deserve that, whatever this thing that we have conceived in our head, and everyone else pays that price. You know, when heather was talking about that idea of the uh lane of, it's not your birthright.
Speaker 2:You know, recently I went into a restaurant and they just weren't responding to me and I stood there so long that other people came in the line after me and when the person finally turned around, they took the other people's order and I'm like do you know what I wanted to do and what I've done in the past? I've explained to everybody the order and how lines work and I made it weird for everyone. But I was in a hurry and really in my mind I judged that I needed this. And the thing is that when we allow that hurry to be the justification for why, or we can recognize one of the greatest practices that we can do in our lives is eliminate hurry, is to recognize that that alone is the cause for so much pain. Do you know that?
Speaker 2:Something that we heard a story recently that has been grieving Heather and I, but it's been part of our conversation for a couple of months now. But there was a young hockey player I think he was around 19 or something and he had just gotten his big 60 million dollar contract and he went to go to his sister's wedding, him and his brother and they decided to go biking. So they put their biker helmets on and their their bikes and they went around out in the hills or whatever, and they were going on a bike trip and what happened was some cars were slowing down to go around them and a guy three cars back couldn't see what was going on but had no patience to wait their turn, was clearly in a hurry, flies around and mowed over that young hockey player with all that potential and his brother and and not to mention the hockey player's wife, was several months pregnant with their first child, and so that life was taken away. And I could see I've done that in the past just tromped on the gas, and I don't know what's going on around here, but I have got to get where I'm going to get and that place that we put ourselves on. We don't deserve it anymore. You know what ended up happening when they ended up getting my order last, but my food came out first. How did that happen? And I ended up getting to where I was going seven minutes early.
Speaker 2:So it turns out what I was convinced was stealing my time did not steal my time, but my belief that I have to get somewhere and I've got to keep this schedule, and how that could drive me potentially to do something so horrific and so unchangeable, so devastating, because I'm driven by a spirit other than the spirit of love and peace, you know. And? And so what if somebody else got to go in a line before you? Wouldn't that be terrible? Or wouldn't it be loving and kind if we can allow these practices that we're talking about to really begin to affect our everyday life? You know, these are the things that we're going to do, and some of you say, oh, I do that kind of thing all the time. Do you To the people in your home? Or is that where all that effort is pulled back and now I say whatever I want to say and do whatever I want to do?
Speaker 1: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 with ourselves, that we would be merciful with ourselves, that we would be merciful with the world, that we would have these practices of generosity that lead to gratitude, that lead to other people being able to be grateful, and I am so. I'm just encouraged by you reminding us to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our life. I think that goes right along with that first verse that said make an allowance for everyone's faults. That will help with your hurry, because you knew this person wasn't going to be able to get there on time anyway, right? Or you knew they weren't going to be able to help you with the tech. Lord, have mercy, christ. Have mercy, lord. Have mercy when we have to deal with electronics. Let the peace of God rule your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1:There is a test that all of us go through. Beloved, I have a lot of generosity. I feel like I do, at least when I'm measuring myself. I have generosity toward people, do not have generosity toward the electronics, and I need to just look at this kind of thing and go. This is the way that I get to learn and get to establish a new spiritual practice in myself, but in everything we do. We should give thanks. In everything we do, and this will motivate us and give us the strength that we need for all of the jobs that we get to do.
Speaker 2:I would just like to interject. If we had maybe the idea that we could expect, I'll probably call tech support and they will speak with an accent that I have a hard time understanding. Or I'll call tech support and they'll tell me to go to the website.
Speaker 1:And I've already gone to the website. That's why I'm calling.
Speaker 2:But I will still be kind and loving to that person as they do their job. We're going to need some help with that, so that's why we're going to communion.
Speaker 1:Yes To the table of the Lord, to this beautiful sacrament that reminds us that every good thing that we have need of is given to us by God's incredible love. We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon. If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg.
