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
The Prayer That Is ALWAYS Answered
What if your prayers have been missing the mark all along? In this thought-provoking exploration of the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, we discover how comparison creeps into our spiritual lives, corrupting even our expressions of gratitude.
"I thank you God that I'm not like..." These words reveal a mindset that separates us from others and from experiencing true divine connection. When we base our thankfulness on being "better than" others, we've already stepped away from love's embrace. Through powerful storytelling and theological insight, this message uncovers how genuine gratitude opens the door to generosity while comparison closes it.
The ancient Jesus Prayer—"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me"—emerges as a profound spiritual practice that cuts through religious complexity. This simple prayer, described as "the prayer that is always answered," invites us into authentic relationship with God beyond performance and pretense. Discover why the Greek word for "sinner" actually means "one who has erred," removing the weight of moral condemnation and opening space for transformation.
A remarkable encounter in a Crate & Barrel store demonstrates how sacred moments appear in the most unexpected places when we remain aware of divine presence. A man questioning his faith receives an unexpected answer through a "chance" meeting that proves God hears our doubts and questions—even those asked from our beds rather than church pews.
This message challenges religious hierarchies and invites us into a new awareness: everything is sacred, every person bears God's image, and mercy flows through us when we recognize our connection rather than our separation. Like breath itself, prayer becomes not an obligation but the natural rhythm of life with God, awakening us to holy moments hidden in plain sight.
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. This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the Revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala Florida.
Speaker 2:Would you guys like to welcome my mom and dad as they talk about God Cool.
Speaker 1:Goodbye, everybody.
Speaker 2:It's rough sometimes when Tom preaches our whole sermon Right before and now we've got to get up here and just riff for a few minutes. But thank you, tom, that was very powerful. He gave me something a while back. I don't know if you remember it, but something you printed out. I mean, this further confirms his nerdness, but he printed me this thing on his 3D printer. There you go, but it's like this little tree. It looks like a tree but it's spiral. It fits like another tree, fits inside of it perfectly, and you can pull it out and put it in. And so I'm there in my room going, I'm supposed to be working and it's just cool. Every time it just goes right back in place.
Speaker 2:So who's the nerd? All right, but I thought about that when you were talking about how, because that's really really what. Unless you talk to Heather, you know that's what our message is about Love and gratitude. So you only stole the message. Thanks, you know, but it is. We hope today that your takeaway would be that connection and how love and gratitude work together in such a powerful way in our lives, or maybe you might be able to find out today why some things aren't moving and progressing the way that you'd hope in our lives. Maybe we've stumbled in some areas in that, and so we want to just kind of connect you with that today.
Speaker 1:We do and we just are so grateful again for the presence that you brought this morning, for the light that you already have, and we're asking the Holy Spirit this morning to re-enchant the text, to be able to expand your imagination or the way that you've heard this. I think something that happens sometimes to us, or possibly could happen, is that we've heard this beautiful text before and so we decided that we already heard it and we already know everything about it. And what we're invited into is mystery. It's the beauty of the communion table that we participate in every week. It's the idea that we could look at stars and also look at moss, and that everything can testify to us of a creator who is madly in love with us and invites us into beauty. And so this morning we are asking that you would in fact open your own spirit and allow the spirit of God to open the eye of your understanding, that inner eye to be able to say is there something that I could understand or be enlightened in, that would equip me to be more loving toward myself and toward the world? I want to read a few verses for us this morning.
Speaker 1:In 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 17 through 19,. Never stop praying. I mean, if we just hung out there, that would be a beautiful invitation. And the invitation is not stopping talking, because that's not always praying. We're not invited just to talk ceaselessly, but to be in conversation with God. Be thankful for in all things, in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus, and do not stifle the Holy Spirit. This verse in inspires us and says we don't use the word stifle a lot, but it means kind of take the breath out of something.
Speaker 1:And so this invitation into spirit is into breath and into even our own breath, paying attention to how we breathe and what that does for us, in allowing us to relax into the presence of God and us to just live in the world around us in a different state than in a tension or in an anxiety. And if you don't know how to breathe, this morning Jen can give you some directions. She's certified in it. So I'm so grateful again for the community this morning. I'm not even joking about that. She really is certified in how to breathe properly and how to breathe into relaxation and into fullness.
Speaker 1:And one of the ways God tells us about God's self is that it is breath, the spirit of God, the breath of God that is given, that allows us to be fully human and fully here. I'm so grateful for that. But I'm also grateful for what it means to be a part of a community, and as we read this text together, there is a unity for also grateful for what it means to be a part of a community and as we read this text together, there is a unity for us in all thinking about the same thing, all of us considering the same thing that there is a spirit within us, that there is a breath within us, that there is an invitation to live completely differently.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I like how the Jewish people teach that it's the breath of God that we breathe in and out, and your first breath and your last breath still speak the name of God.
Speaker 2:Yah Yah, Yah, Yah. That was your first breath, whether you realized it or not. You were there as a baby and all of a sudden you popped out and you went Yah, and on your final deathbed you were. There's a baby, and all of a sudden you popped out and you went and on your final deathbed you lay there and every breath in between is a gift from God and I really hope that we would kind of connect that just daily connection that you have with breath to be the way that you and I could breathe in and out, a relationship with God to just exist in that dependent way that we are in our next breath, but not in a desperate, striving, confused way. We just breathe. The only thing sometimes that struggle is if you ever get the wind knocked out of you and that's like this isn't right Until that comes back, and I want us to really think about what, wonder if that's the way that we could live in God.
Speaker 1:Devote yourselves to prayer with an awakened mind and a thankful heart. This invitation by the apostle is to be awakened by the Holy Spirit, not to live on an autopilot, but to live engaged in the spirit that is around us and a thankful heart. And we come here to Luke's gospel and this is part of the invitation we have during this season of Pentecost, where we practice and pay attention and we learn the role or how we can connect to the spirit in our lives at all times, that our spirituality is who we are as a person, our expression of our own life and our connection to God and to everyone. And so we meet this portion of the text. And Jesus has had a bunch of people following him. He has his own followers. He's done miracles already.
Speaker 1:And then Jesus told this story to someone who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else. So Jesus told this story to people who thought that they were good. Jesus told this story to people who were confident that the way they believed was right. These are people who were confident that their judgments were the ones that aligned with God, and Jesus knew them. And Jesus told them a story, and I want to tell you the mercy it is to be told the story that could change the way you look at everything. Again, we look at the patterns that Jesus had, and Jesus continually confronted hierarchy. He continually confronted this idea that some are greater than others.
Speaker 1:In fact, it is an inversion, and when you look at this text, you will listen and you will remember the words that Jesus's mother Mary said upon this pronunciation that the Holy Spirit would come upon you and that you would birth this Messiah. You would birth this other way of living. You would birth God among us. And she said, oh, this is going to be good. I'm paraphrasing here, but this is exactly what she said the mighty are going to be thrown down from their thrones, the poor and the cast out, they are going to be lifted up. Remember? This is his mother's song. We go on in a minute and you'll hear, you'll remember. Oh, he heard that from his mama.
Speaker 1:A long, long time ago, jesus told this story to someone who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else. So, essentially, jesus told this story to me because I grew up in the church and since a tiny little girl, it was my intention to live as Jesus lived, and that is for all of us, hopefully, why we are even here this morning. We are all here to be apprentices of Jesus, that we say that Jesus is the one worth following. When Jesus declared for himself I have come, that you would have life and have it to the full Beloved. This is why we gather this morning so that we can learn how to love the world well, so that we can learn how to love the world well, so that we can learn how to love each other well and that we can learn how to love ourselves well. But Jesus told the story to someone who was sure that they were right and other people were wrong.
Speaker 2:I wanted to look at that because you know, your own righteousness is your own way of existing in good standing, and so there are people that are really trying to do what's right, and I would say that, of most all of us here, we want to do what's right, but yet these people that he's telling the story to are scorning everyone else, and that sounds a lot like religious behavior, doesn't it? Have you been around those people that are self-righteous and think they're doing good? And boy, they're rough to be around. They're quick to judge. Now, look around, and are any of those people here today Me?
Speaker 1:I am.
Speaker 2:Isn't that a bummer that you're just here?
Speaker 1:I am here.
Speaker 2:So I think sometimes, when we preach a good message like this, oh man, wish all those people that really need it were here, but all of us here already got it all right, so we didn't need this message. Or could it be that maybe we are these people and so I would hate to miss this message. You go, oh Jesus, oh yeah, that was for somebody else. I can think of a few people. I'll send them the link to the website if you want me to. Or could maybe this be something for us that could be transformative today?
Speaker 1:huh, I'm so grateful for this text this morning and I'm grateful for the mercy of Jesus that tells us a better story. In fact, that's the reason that Jesus came. We had an idea of God, but we had gotten it wrong and Jesus came. Jesus is the perfect image of the invisible God. Jesus did everything and said everything the Father told him. So once we did not know what God was like, but then we saw Jesus and we did, and this is the invitation for all of us to follow this way of love.
Speaker 1:Jesus told this story. Two men went to the temple to pray. Now, there are some things in this story that Jesus does not confront and we should remember this. In fact, when Jesus was talking to his own disciples, this is what he said If you're following me, when you pray, this is how you should pray. When you give, this is how you will give, and when you fast, this is how you will fast. And so Jesus was talking about this way of practicing loving the world and loving each other and loving ourselves, that we commit ourselves to things.
Speaker 2:So two men went to the temple to pray. When you said that when you go to the temple to pray when you fast, those are not if go to the temple to pray when you fast.
Speaker 1:Those are not if it is an invitation An invitation Not if you get around to it, but if you're following this way as a follower, this is what your life will look like. So two men go to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a despised tax collector. Again, jesus loved to show us the ways in which our culture and our system, or our ways of telling what is great and what is not great, is inverted. Jesus began to show us our opposite way of actually seeing, and Jesus came so that our eyes would be healed. One a Pharisee, the other a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and he prayed this prayer.
Speaker 1:I thank you, god, that I am not like other people, for you and I, as we sit and listen to this, we're like, oh, you shouldn't have said that, that should not be how you start a prayer, but I often wonder how much that is the prayer that we pray. We begin comparison, and that begins how we're thankful. I'm thankful. I don't have that idea. I'm thankful that I don't believe that. I'm thankful that I didn't grow up there. I'm thankful. And so this idea, right at the very beginning, confronts something incredibly powerful. Something incredibly powerful.
Speaker 2:You know we laugh about that, but I almost think that's the nature of typical Christian prayer, and it is this very thing that he's confronting, because we may not say, oh, I thank you that I'm better than them. But you know what we do say oh God, I sure am grateful that I'm not homeless. I sure am grateful that I do have that I don't live in that neighborhood. And so we're doing it, aren't we? Maybe it's just got a little spin on it, it's not as arrogant, but I really I'm challenged by this, because when we were talking about this, I realized, you know, that's almost like the formula for which we pray. You look at a bad situation and you go, oh Lord, deliver me from that. And I don't want to end up like that, you know, and I'm so glad that I'm not addicted to drugs, and so let's look, because maybe some of you it's like well, what's wrong with that prayer?
Speaker 1:well, I think we might, might find out there is something that needs to be adjusted in our lives I thank you, god, that I'm not like other people cheaters, sinners and adulterers and again he starts listing things that we believe these things to be wrong. We believe these things to make us separate, and so this invitation that Jesus is offering to us is to re-examine our own hearts and to look for the gratitude and the mercy that's here. I am certainly not like that tax collector. I mean so right ahead. He makes this huge distinction. I am not like that, and I'm sure in his mind he was like because I would never do that to my people, I would never steal from our own folk, I would never and this becomes very political as well, because these are brothers and sisters who then worked for this horrible, oppressive government that only only took care of the wealthy, made people incredibly wealthy and left the rest of the world in dire straits. And so he's beginning to say things like, not like. At least, I'm not like that tax collector. I want to tell you, the rabbis of this time also taught people another prayer.
Speaker 1:I'm sure that Jesus would have confronted it too. In fact, the scripture tells us, if everything that Jesus said and did were recorded, that the world could not contain all the books. And so, again, we use our holy imagination. But there is an ancient prayer and it is I thank you, god, that you did not make me a Gentile or a woman, and the rabbis taught people to pray that this idea that somehow women were so horrible that your prayer should be. Thank you that I am not like that when I remind you that women are made in the very image of God. When God wanted to set things right, he came to a woman named Mary and said we've got to start over, you and me, we are handling this and we're going to show something. And so this invitation is this end of hierarchy, this end of list of comparisons that love comes and love says God and love is what we are all connected to. But this person begins to say this prayer and say at least I am not like any one of these things.
Speaker 2:You know, the shift in this for me is that if I move away from the how this affects me or it's about me, like, oh, I'm glad I'm not, then gratitude can, love, can move in and be to the place where, like Lord, I thank you that, as you're providing for me, you'll provide for that person, holding that sign that you're the same God that feeds me everything. Thank you that you have everything. See the difference between first looking at that, oh well, thank you that I don't have that, and so that's where our gratitude begins and ends and just that it was about me. Or can we look at that and go, wow, that prayer is me. Oftentimes, I am, I'm grateful that I'm just better than somebody else. Well, things aren't going great, but at least I'm not in the hospital bed over there like some of those people.
Speaker 2:I mean, we say this all the time. It's part of almost our culture. And what is the shift is it's not about me, that's a revelation. Write that one down. It's not about me. Got it Now, keep that one, and so my gratitude becomes oh, you are the God of abundance, thank you for your abundance for this person. And when you see that person down the street. How can I share what I?
Speaker 1:have.
Speaker 2:Gratitude opens up generosity, and that love just connects. I know that sometimes it's difficult to hand money to every single person you see, but what if every single person you saw were one of your children, or one of your siblings, or your parents, or somebody that you dearly loved and miss? Would you stop the car then?
Speaker 1:And the truth is everyone is our brother and sister. The truth is, we are all one family because of God.
Speaker 1:If you listen to this prayer that Jesus is saying, this person said, you will also hear a lot of I. I am not like I did this. I fast twice a week and I give you a tenth of my income, and so he's talking about practices that bring us into formation. And he's saying I fast, I do what I'm supposed to do, I give, I have these things.
Speaker 1:But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying oh God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner. This prayer, in fact, is an ancient prayer and it is offered to us by desert fathers and mothers, and it's from the beginning of our Christian faith. This prayer that says, in fact, the desert fathers and mothers mix this with another prayer that is there and we offer it on a regular basis. It is a transformative prayer to us. It's a beautiful prayer when you're practicing your breath.
Speaker 1:Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner. This recentering of mercy, beloved God is merciful. God is love. Love is merciful. If it is without mercy, it is without God. It is just how it goes. Mercy is in fact part of this expression, or this fullness of God, and the tax collector does not even lift his eyes. And this idea of contrition, this idea of sorrow I recognize that what I have done has harmed someone else. We see this personal reflection, this prayer that says I am not better than them, at least I am not like. And then he's got his list of everybody. He's at least not like. He just looks at this and goes I have caused harm and I am asking for mercy. Be merciful to me.
Speaker 2:When we were preparing the study and we were talking about. You know what the actual definition of the word sinner is in this verse?
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, In the little program that I use because I don't speak Greek, it tells you what the Greek word is. You could even read it if you. That's what I mean. I don't know the symbols, but I have a computer that does really beautiful things and kind of helps with this, and it flagged this particular word as a confusing word to translate, and so I'm always looking at things that are confusing. It's like when you know the rule but then there's an exception, and so you kind of have, in order to speak the language, you have to also know the exception on why it doesn't work.
Speaker 1:And in the Greek this idea of sinner is a more understandably translated I am one who has erred, I am one who has made a wrong choice. In the Greek it has no moral connotation. It doesn't mean I am a slob or I am less than I am a snail. It doesn't mean anything like that. It means, in fact, I realize that I have erred from the path, I have made a wrong choice, and I think that that's so important because it is a prayer of reflection. I have made a choice that has harmed someone else. It is a prayer of paying attention to personal accountability and to looking at what my actions have done, and so, as he begins to pray, he offers a prayer for mercy.
Speaker 2:And I think it's important to note that because you know, we look at the Pharisee and that's supposed to be the religious one and that's the one everybody would have said in that culture. That's the one doing it right. And then we would say that, you know, diametrically opposed, then it's a sinner. But this is a person who clearly knew the prayer. It's the same prayer that, uh, nicodemus said you know, when you know lord have mercy on you know when you know Lord have mercy on me, you know that and it's, and it's probably the greatest prayer. You know you don't need to be a Pharisee. You can leave today from church knowing the greatest prayer ever.
Speaker 1:When this is the prayer that Jesus always answered. I had a little book when I was tiny. I love books, I still have books, but this, the spine of the book, said the prayer that is always answered. So, as a little person, I was like I would like that book please.
Speaker 2:I would like to know the prayer.
Speaker 1:I would like the magic. I would like, whatever is happening, could I please have that book? And I convinced someone to buy it for me and I was so disappointed. I just want to tell you I was disappointed because this is the prayer that was in there Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God have mercy on me, a sinner.
Speaker 2:That's it. That was the entire book, and I was like I don't want that.
Speaker 1:It was a marketing scheme beloved, but it was the truth and I tell you today, it is the truth, this is the prayer that is always answered. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. This is the prayer that is always answered. If you want your prayers to be answered, beloved, condense them into this prayer. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.
Speaker 2:And I think that we can get really convoluted in dogma and doctrine. And did I confess this right and did I believe this? I remember one woman came to our church and she was visiting and she said while I'm here, pastor, I'd like for you to pray for us because we can't seem to sell our house. It's been five months and she was a little old, sweet lady can't seem to sell our house. It's been five months and she's a little sweet lady. And she goes tell me where I have entered into sin, tell me where I've missed God because he's not selling my house.
Speaker 2:And it broke my heart because we do, we teach those kinds of things. That boy, if you don't just get it just right, god's up there. Check. No, you know, like the IRS, you're not getting your money back now. You didn't fill that form out Instead of the God of love who's just you know. And so I think that for us to get that shift and so for us to be able to just talk with that woman for a few minutes and say I don't believe God's like that at all. In fact, sometimes it can feel like he's forgotten us and the whole time. You know, there's a plan that's so much greater, like maybe waiting until the market gets better or whatever, or maybe just sometimes the market is what it is and you bought a house and now you're going to wait and it's not you know.
Speaker 2:We tend to want to put some kind of blame on God or put you know or give some kind of value and credit to the devil, as if the devil has all this power and he can go around. There's one devil and an omnipresent God, so I don't think the devil is going around trying to keep your trailer from selling. If he's one devil, he's probably spending his time at the White House or the Kremlin or somewhere on a path in between the two. He's not in Dunnellan Church. Come on, and let's don't give him that kind of power.
Speaker 2:Sometimes there's just a thing that's going down, you know, and it's a little struggle, and so in the middle of that, can I see love? Can I be grateful? Oh, thank you that I'm in this house. That I can't afford. Thank you that somehow we're going to get to the next paycheck and I know I'm going to be all right, and I just thank you that I can invite all the people that I love to this place, because I have a roof, and so now we're just going to enjoy it and I miss that whole. I wish I was like somebody else that won the lottery, or someone else that maybe they pray better, and so now their bills are met and we miss that whole thing. Is is where I can stand right now is from a place of gratitude and love, and it will be absolutely everything that you need for that moment. You're not going to be lacking anything, not one of us and not any situation, and it's the grace and the glory of God, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:We 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:Learning the Jesus Prayer can help in many, many ways and, in fact, starting in September, we'll have it on the, in an email, and then on Facebook too. But we're going to start a course in meditation and prayer because we need to be reminded of what it means to be people If we're devoted our whole lives to prayer. If we are to never stop praying, then we need to learn how to pray in such a way that allows us to do laundry and to take care of our babies, or to plant gardens or to go to work. And how do you live fully connected to the Spirit of God, to God who is love, god who is everywhere, and how do you stay in the consciousness of prayer and in this conversation? And one of the ways is through the Jesus prayer, through this prayer that says Lord Jesus Christ, son of the Living God, have mercy on me Whenever you find your mind has been somewhere else, probably in the painful past or the fearful future. But when you can take a breath and you remind yourself I am right here in the car right now, I am safe, and then you say this prayer, you remind yourself Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me. You will begin to see yourself and the world differently and it will cost you something beloved. I just want to remind you. It will cost you something.
Speaker 1:Jesus is speaking in this story and telling us if you think that you're just going to pray and you're better than everybody else. Again, this story is very much like the story of the Samaritan those that you think that are good might not be the ones that you should be following, these people that are actually demonstrating it. In fact, I've talked about it quite a few times, but we had a beautiful dog named Max. That wasn't beautiful. When we met him, he was in a terrible condition by the side of the road, and when I saw him I was so horrified. My prayer was Jesus, have mercy on that dog, send someone. Thank you for laughing, because that is why we pray. We watch the terror around us and we say do something.
Speaker 1:We are the mercy, beloved Everywhere we go, we are the mercy, we are the grace. Now, we can't do everything all the time, but we can do something, and this invitation into doing something might cost you your yes, your dog free home. Because I prayed for mercy and I did hear again within myself, not audibly you are the mercy. Oh, I was hoping for someone else's mercy. I was hoping someone else would devote their life and take care of that. It is one of the reasons why we gather together as a church community too, because we can be merciful together. This Wednesday, we will do outreach together food outreach. There are people in our city who are hungry, beloved. This should not be Now. We cannot feed everyone, but we can feed some. And together, when we gather our resources together, when we go to these places and we say this is the food that we're offering today, it is in fact a mercy and we are becoming people of mercy.
Speaker 1:The invitation, in hearing that you are the mercy, is that you would also be merciful to yourself, that you would also receive the mercy. Like this person who prayed and said I need mercy, I am also reminded. There's a beautiful story and there are so many. All the stories kind of tied together when you listen to this invitation. That thankfulness and that love cause us to offer prayers.
Speaker 1:I'm so grateful for Thomas's beginning of the service. What he's reminding us that this is how thankfulness is expressed is in love, in love for everyone. This is the truth. Beloved, you are separated from no one. Everyone is invited into the kingdom of God, into the family of God, to the table that Jesus set for us, and so this illusion of separation or the illusion of hierarchy, where some are loved and doing better and some are not, jesus is inviting us to heal our eyes and to say what is mercy calling us to do, to be merciful to ourselves, but to recognize there is no separation you know, one of the greatest things, I think, that uh moves your, you know the, the, the mark in your spirituality is awareness.
Speaker 2:That first you just become aware that you have this need, you know, and you kind of be awakening to what's going on, because sometimes we just get in our path, we're doing our work, we're doing our thing, we have our interests, we have our stuff and and so our heads, because sometimes we just get in our path, we're doing our work, we're doing our thing, we have our interests, we have our stuff, and so our heads so down, we just miss this invitation to walk with God.
Speaker 2:So there's this awareness that has to come, and I think that prayer without ceasing is not just an exaggeration. There could be a life that you have, but we live a life outside of God, and so we have our kernel life, we have this, and so you know the awareness that it's not like, oh man, I got to give up my fun and my stuff and then have this God thing. You know that really that's where the fulfillment of who it is to be a human being lies, you know. But we have to have kind of the awareness that we need that and that you know that our prayers, our breath can be just throughout the day, and one of my favorite gifts I give to Heather is the gift of being able to pray in the car.
Speaker 1:I do that for her, that's so nice of you Because I love her so much. I'm so glad we're all aware of that. That.
Speaker 2:I will drive and sit your way. That causes her to cry out to the Lord.
Speaker 1:Oh Lord, it's intercession on a regular basis. I'm not sure it's a gift.
Speaker 2:She has an imaginary brake in the car and she uses it and she cries out to Jesus and I go. Thank you, lord, you're welcome. No, I say that so many times in traffic. Heather will go. Oh, jesus, lord, bless them. Oh, jesus, lord, help them. And I'm going, oh, go. Oh, jesus, lord, bless them. Oh, jesus, lord, help them. And I'm going. Oh, those sons, you know, or I use the Lord's name but it's in the wrong way, you know. You know start damning people and whatnot. And so I'm so grateful for her.
Speaker 2:And it's brought an awareness for me that I have polluted, destroyed, missed a holy moment, because I have been outside of God and outside of any kind of gratitude. So I'm just how dare you get in front of me instead of thank God that I'm not walking to Orlando? I can't believe this traffic. You know, on the turnpike, man, they're doing construction. You gotta leave an extra 20 minutes. Do you realize that you can get to Orlando in an hour and a half and then get on an airplane and go all around the world? Oh, poor you, you waited 20 extra minutes. But I mean, it's a perspective, right, because when we're entitled, we get a little bit on the outside of that that, and then this guy's in my way and then I've got and I just miss. But if I can have an awareness of god's presence, oh yeah, god's present. I better watch my tongue. I better not, and not that he's ready to squash us, but that I miss this. Holy you know. Are you going to bring that stuff in the middle of church? You better not. And church can be in my car, so let's don't bring that stuff in there. But we have to first have an awareness that God's presence is here and that we can bring God's presence to traffic, we can bring that to our jobs, we can bring that to the places that we get so frustrated in. And just change my awareness. Where can I be grateful? In the middle of my new one? Is man, I just?
Speaker 2:It's so hot here in Florida. Oh, I love you people and I love my calling of God, but really I have to be in Florida in the summer. You couldn't call me somewhere? You know a little cooler, so feel sorry for me. It's so awesome. Clothes are stuck to me.
Speaker 2:And then somebody said something recently. Do you realize that? You know the sun is, this is a star, and so there's a star out in the universe and you're you're gravitationally stuck to this rock that spins around it at just the perfect distance where it makes life exist, and you can be warmed and not freeze to death. If it was just a little further out, you'd freeze to death. A little closer you'd burn to death. But we're right in this sweet spot that God placed us in, and now a star burst with nuclear explosions and doesn't melt my face off but causes me to have warmth when I go outside. I am, I'm warmed, and light comes from stars for me. Or I hate Florida, it's freaking hot around here. I mean, lord, change our perspective. Right, and then we become grateful. But I have to become aware that, oh, I am a sinner. Oh, oof, I do have. Nope, not me. Praise God, I got it all together. Oh, helpless, pharisaical attitude.
Speaker 1:I tell you this this sinner, this brother who has erred not the Pharisee returned home justified before God, for those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Jesus is reminding us not to look to power, not to look to force, not to look to domination, but to look to love as the ultimate power. And for us to be able to say how do we engage? That is, through practices of our own gratitude, practices of paying attention. Pastor Dennis mentioned, you know, the car can be church and what is church? Church is an acknowledgement of the sacred and beloved. Everything is sacred, everything is sacred and the difference in how we decide something is sacred or something is profane is how we use it, the meaning we give to it.
Speaker 1:I have bulls in my house that are beautiful. Some of them belong to my grandmother and I have so much memory and meaning to them and when I use them it brings me joy that I can continue this hospitality and I love them. And I have other bulls in my house and you have them too, prayerfully, and they have a little handle and you can flush them and I am grateful for them. But I do not invite the same kind and you know who decided that those bulls were? There were us.
Speaker 1:We decide what is sacred and what is profane and for us, as people of God, we must remember that everything is sacred, every person made in the image of God, every beautiful plant and moss and insect. And that's a learning place for me, beloved, because I would consider some insects profane and some of them, I believe, do not belong anywhere near me. And again, I'm learning, we're all learning this idea of what does it mean to live in mercy, to live with each other and to live in the presence of love. It means paying attention to the spirit and being awakened and not saying I am better than we are going to soon go to the communion table and just just this past week I want to go ahead I just want you to share something because I'll put you in the spot a little bit.
Speaker 2:But uh, just the other day we were in Atlanta getting some business done for Catherine, and Catherine and Heather wanted to run into the store real quick to check on some stuff for themselves and all of a sudden it opens up into this opportunity. And I see it over and over again with Heather that she gets these amazing opportunities, these stories, and we get to hear them every week or every other week when she remembers to share them or whatever, but they're happening all the time. And the thing that repeatedly has happened over and over is these individuals, will you know like? She'll call somebody that appears to be someone that is unhoused and she'll call them brother and they'll stop and look. Why would you call me brother? Why? Because people recognize when they receive dignity, and I believe in this situation, if you don't mind telling the story a little bit, but this individual just receives this dignity. Now you can either go well, I'm going to try that whole dignity thing that Heather does. I'm going to go and cry like a bull, but I'm going to make it, I'm going to try or I can just begin to shift something in me.
Speaker 2:You know that vessel thing is powerful. You know, because there's mixing bowls we have and we mix our food in it but we're not going to go. Well, those are dirty, so I'm going to use the toilet. We recognize that bowl is something else. And what if you recognized? I mean, I was so convicted when you said that, what if I recognized? Every single person is that vessel, preciously, holding their spirit and the spirit of the Lord and the value that changes from that? Because we treat people like they're garbage vessels and we dump most of the time on the people we say we love the most.
Speaker 2:I had this early on in the ministry. Heather and the kids confronted me. They said why are you so nice to people at the church and not to us? And I was like, well, you know, you're my family, I get to be real with you and they go. Well, we don't want real, then we want Pastor Dennis from church. He's nice, come on now. That ought not be. But we miss and I didn't realize, the precious vessels that were in my home. Help us, lord, be aware. Do you mind sharing that, catherine? We went to.
Speaker 1:Atlanta. It was unplanned, and I think that every time there's something unplanned not on your calendar, lord be aware. Do you mind sharing that? Catherine, we went to Atlanta. It was unplanned, and I think that every time there's something unplanned not on your calendar, you should be aware. Oh, there's possibly a sacred moment coming up here and interruption is really holy. But we were in Atlanta, so that's our usual stopping ground and we had time before an appointment. And so I said well, let's go in here.
Speaker 1:And Catherine needed a spatula, something very important, like a spatula beloved, a particular spatula that wasn't going to break when she used it in high heat, but she needed a spatula. So we'll go into the store to get a spatula. And so that was our intention. We're going to go in the store. And so I looked around and I didn't see what I needed. And so a clerk said how are you? And I said oh, I'm great. And I said I was confident that your store had them, but I don't see them. Could you help? And he responded yes, so he came back moments later and he said I found it. We don't have it in the store, but do you have it? I'll send it to your house, and um, and then. So I said, oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:We began to say something else and then I said it's been one of those weeks. Now, at that point this is an intersection. We can all go on or we can be curious, and the Holy Spirit is curious. How can I listen, how can I be a part of this? And I said what kind of week was it? And he said one of those weeks where you doubt God, where you doubt your relationship with the world, where you don't know anything. That's right. And I said, oh, I've had those weeks too. And right there we made a connection. Not I'm better than you, I am, because I am not doubting God. This week, and sometimes, beloved it is that it is this week it was on days when we believe this on days when we are in agreement with this.
Speaker 1:But he began to share a little bit about his pain in the middle of the store while we were going there for the spatula, and he said I doubt God. He goes, my life just is not adding up. And he said it's painful to doubt God when that is what you believed in. I said I know, and we began to talk. He said that he felt like he was in a storm and I said I was just reading this scripture. So I began to tell him the story where Jesus goes onto a boat with a bunch of other people and he takes a pillow. And they had pillows in their store. And I said I don't know how you don't think about this all the time, with all these pillows around here. Well, jesus selected a pillow and took one for a nap. Beloved, that's a good Sunday sermon for you. Sometimes what you need is a nap. We see this even with the prophet Elijah, who's complaining about everything. And God said you know what you do? Go down to the brook, take a little rest. I'll send the birds. They're gonna feed you, you know, to take a nap and take a rest sometimes. There's just goodness in this. But I said to this man here's the hope for us. Jesus was on a boat with a pillow and his friends said to them aren't you, like, worried that we're going to die? They woke him up. He was having a nap on a pillow with aren't you worried? We're going to die.
Speaker 1:And I began to think the past couple of weeks about this is what humanity looks like. We are so angry and frustrated that it doesn't look like God cares about us. I mean, he's sleeping on a pillow and I am in the middle of a storm. I don't like that kind of God. I want a God who's up and as panicked as I am. No, we don't, beloved. No, we don't. But that's why they're angry. They're angry that it doesn't seem like God is doing what God should be doing, when we're all gonna drown and they're frustrated and Jesus gets up and speaks to the wind and the waves and the whole thing stops. And I'm thinking he probably thought I could have gotten another 20 minutes. We're not gonna drown, I'm here, you know. Jesus was literally in the boat.
Speaker 1:So anyway, I begin to explain this to my friend that I have met at the Crate and Barrel and so we were there looking for. And he goes. That's good word, that's good word to me. And he begins to tell me a little bit about his situation. Again. There's other people in the store, we're all doing this. And I said oh, I said I, I just know that God is absolutely fine with you doubting him. I said it enters into conversations. Bring him your questions, bring whatever. And then he looked at me and goes who are you? Just a person in the store? And he goes. No, no, he goes.
Speaker 1:I was asking God, laying on my bed, a whole bunch of questions, and he goes. And now you come to my store. Where are you even from? We'd already driven six hours. And then he just looked at me and he said can you hug me?
Speaker 1:In the middle of the crate and barrel selling spatulas, he's questioning God on his bed at home. I drive up from Florida to Atlanta, we start talking and he said can you hug me? And I said absolutely, it would be my joy. And I touched the side of his face and I said beloved. And I touched the side of his face and I said Beloved, god loves you just as you are.
Speaker 1:And he stepped back outside of his hug and he said why did you say that to me and I said Because that's what the Father said, and he hugged me like we had been long lost, brother and sister, and I just began to speak a blessing over him that in your doubt, you are welcomed to bring it to the father. And that is the same for all of us. In our questions, we are welcomed into the presence of God, there is a feast prepared to us and every one of us is at the table, welcomed at the table. This is the hope for the whole world that God would gather us in his arms and say welcome home, beloved. There's food for you here, there's provision for you here, there's hope for you here. He asked for an email later and my email is from a long time ago, from 30 plus years ago. My email is Pastor Dennis's wife, because that's what people just referred to me as. Years ago I didn't have a name, I was just Pastor Dennis's wife but that is the email.
Speaker 2:Well, they called you Hester sometimes.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it was yeah, it was not my real name, but, yes, pastor Dennis' wife, and he looked at that and he started laughing. He goes aha, I see it, I see it now, and I said, this is the hope of Christ for all of us, this invitation, Every one of us recognizing the sacred, recognizing. We all have questions. All of us have questions. Do I belong? Is God going to hear me? Have mercy on me, a son who is erred?
Speaker 2:He was struggling. He shared about how his deacon said well, the place for you to see God isn't on your bed and what else? That's a bunch of weird doctors. Yeah, they said that you couldn't, you can't.
Speaker 1:His problem was when he was talking to God. They said you can't ask God questions from your bed, you have to be on your knees in the church. And I was like, brother, don't bring that to me, because I've read it a lot and I've got to tell you how many times. In fact, even the psalmist said I'm speaking to you from my bed, I am talking with you, and how will we be in continual prayer if we can't ask God from the best? Well, your deacon just needs to read the Bible a little bit. Yeah, that's all.
Speaker 2:And she wasn't reading.
Speaker 1:I wasn't mean. I was just like, yeah, just have a read. She needs to read a little bit.
Speaker 2:But I want you to know that religion tells you that.
Speaker 1:Here's how you create this sacred Right.
Speaker 2:And then the Spirit of God says oh, you want a sacred, just give me a room in the crate and barrel, just give me an aisle, spatulas aisle, you know, spatulas is where you'll meet up with him. And so the, the holy and the sacred for us can either be this thing that you try to create and with your religious beliefs and your behavior, that never gets there, or you can just open up god, and the message that that is is just so beautiful is that you know what, what makes that man cry? The, the religious order that he's got to do more. He's got to do more and it's insurmountable. Or the message that broke his heart was your love, just the way you are. And the difference is one is so disempowering that we're paralyzed to do anything different, and the other message is so empowering that in the middle you just begin to change from the inside out. You know, and that is the power of the living God. And so let's remember that, that our gratitude.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to tell you, you know, I have entered stores with a different attitude, like I can't believe they don't have the thing that I want. I mean, I can't believe that the meeting we have is late and now I got all this time. Or you know, what am I going to do with all this time? Or I don't have enough time, or whatever, and we're all in this thing. But how many of those opportunities, sadly, we may miss because we have our own agenda? We're just not aware. So ask the Holy Spirit help me be aware when there's a holy moment here. Help me be aware when you want to do something fun.
Speaker 2:I've been with people new to the church that share a message like this and they go. I was at work and they start talking about God. I started saying stuff I didn't even know. I knew they're like what's that about? It was so amazing, it was so fun. And you just see, there's a joy when we hook up with the spirit of the living god and there's such a burden when we try to do it in that religious spirit and with that religious energy I remind you from the verse of colossians and we're going to go to holy communion.
Speaker 1:Devote yourselves to prayer with an awakened mind and a thankful heart. Jesus said this to us Wake up, thou that sleepest.
Speaker 2:This was Jesus, who loves a nap, you got all King James on us.
Speaker 1:I did. Anytime you get an ist or a thou, wake up thou.
Speaker 2:You got a King James every once in a while.
Speaker 1:Everyone who is living life on autopilot. Engage. That's what the Spirit is offering to us. Devote yourselves to prayer. Jesus is reminding us that there will be times of fasting. It should be a part of our lives that there will be times of giving and practicing. Tithing and offering is something that we do in taking care of each other and in taking care of the plan that God has to bring the kingdom here. But the invitation is to give up hierarchy, to give up things that will promote ourselves without promoting the whole world. This beauty and this invitation is that all of us thrive. The table is made ready so that everyone can meet. This is the table of the Lord, this is for us. This practice, this initiation, this reminding, this holy embodiment, this is the table that has been set for us and we're invited in. We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon. If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg.
