Dave's Deep Thoughts - Congratulations, Pittsburgh Pirates!

Here's Pastor Dave McDowell's weekly devotional that he sends out to members of his church. Dave is my brother and serves as the Music Minister at Stewartstown UMC in PA.

It has been said that "good things come to those who wait".

I just never thought that would include an eye patch and a puffy shirt.

I am a fan of many sports.

Not only am I am fan,

I would like to think that I am a loyal fan.

I don't jump ship when my team struggles.

There is something to be said

for going through the rough times with your team.

It makes the good times even sweeter.

If that's true,

then this season is sweeter than an extra spoonful of sugar in southern sweet tea.

Since my childhood,

I have rooted for one baseball team.

While not mentioning any names,

let's just say if my team was on The Dating Game

and was asked what they liked to do in their spare time,

 plundering on the high seas,

and watching people walk the plank,

would rank right up there.

When I was young,

my team did well,

winning two world series titles and several

league and divisional championships.

Even if they didn't win a title in a given year,

you could count on them to be in contention.

It was easy to be a fan back in the day.

Then 1992 came.

The league championship series.

The seventh and deciding game.

Bottom of the 9th inning.

My team was leading 2-0 and on the verge of going to the World Series.

The opposing team scored a run

and had the bases loaded with two outs.

Then the roof fell in on my team.

A base hit scored the tying and winning runs,

the winning run barely beating the tag of the catcher.

That was it.

I don't mean that was it for the year.

That was it for a generation.

Since that fateful bottom of the 9th meltdown,

my team has proceeded to rack up 20 consecutive losing seasons.

To put it in perspective,

no other team in American professional sports,

including hockey, basketball, and football

has ever gone 20 years without posting at least one winning season.

My team has.

That would make them the worst team in all of sports.

To put in perspective how long ago that was.....

"The Silence of the Lambs" was the big winner at the Academy Awards.

Natalie Cole cleaned up at the Grammy Awards.

Johnny Carson made his final appearance on "The Tonight Show"

Kurt Cobain married Courtney Love.

President George H.W. Bush took ill and vomited at a state dinner in Japan.
The city of Los Angeles became more famous for its riots than its movie stars.

To put it in more modern terms,

the last time the guys on "Duck Dynasty" shaved was when my team lost the pennant.

There were babies born in my team's city, 

who have since gone to college 

and have never seen the team win.

The Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox

who have carried two of the longest streaks of not winning the World Series

have since done so.

A lot has happened in my life in those twenty years.

Loss of a parent,

terrorist attacks on the country,

the economic implosion.

I have one less appendix now,

and more gray hair than I care to admit......

But one thing didn't change,

I continued to root for my team.

On Monday, September 9th, in the year of our Lord 2013,

my team won 1-0 for their 82nd win of the season,

thus clinching a winning season.

The earth didn't move that day.

There was no solar eclipse,

and Jesus didn't choose to come back that day.

But on September 9th,

I raised the glass with a group of friends,

with the rallying cry,

"I am not a loser!"

Yesterday, my team won its 90th game

and clinched a spot in the playoffs.

There are things in life

where the only answer is to wait......

and waiting is often not easy

especially if you have a Type A personality like me.

I have heard brothers and sisters in the faith say,

"God helps those who help themselves."

Many quote this well-known phrase as if it was Scripture.

But this phrase is no where to be found in the Bible.

In fact, the sentiment of this phrase is the exact opposite

of the message of the Scriptures.

Time and time again, God's people are called to wait upon the Lord.

That's difficult to understand exactly what that means.

Does that mean we do nothing?

I've known people who are so non-motivated,

their lives are train wrecks.

I think that waiting on the Lord starts with prayer.

Prayer can include an element of waiting,

like waiting for Him  to show you that job you want,

or waiting for Him to reveal to you your future spouse.

But that's not the waiting I think God wants from us.

I have realized that often my prayers

did not reveal a satisfaction with God,

but a dissatisfaction with Him.

I have often prayed my agenda to God,

as if to say that my plans are wiser and better than His.

I have prayed as if I do not trust Him.

I have found that when I pray without an agenda,

my anxieties about life cease.

And when my prayer simply becomes waiting on God,

I come to a place of "being" rather than just "waiting.

Many would say that waiting means doing nothing.

For me, waiting means allowing your soul to grow up.

If you can't be still and wait,

you can't be become all that God created you to be.

My team grew up this year,

after many years of waiting.
After many years of trying quick fixes,

someone in the team's hierarchy took the time

to wait and see what needed to change in order for the team to win.

Good things do come to those who wait upon the Lord.

Now I just hope I look good wearing an eye patch and a puffy shirt this October.

Argh!

Wait for the Lord;

Be strong, and let your heart take courage;

Yes, wait for the Lord.

                                Psalm 27:14

Sunday Worship Scripture Commentary - September 29

September 29 Sermon – “Have You Read It for Yourself?”

II Timothy 3:10-17

Unlike the other letters of the Apostle Paul which are addressed to whole churches, the Pastoral Letters were written to specific individuals including Timothy and Titus. In our

II Timothy reading for today, Paul reminds young Timothy that all scripture is inspired by God.

The key word in this passage is “inspired.” It literally means, “God breathed.” The scriptures are alive because God has breathed life into them. The word, “inspired” is probably not the best word to use since it doesn’t convey the deeper meaning that God has breathed life into the scriptures.

What can the scriptures do for us?

1) V. 15 – It can make us wise not merely in terms of factual knowledge but living according to God’s purposes.

2) V. 16 – It can teach and rebuke us. Rebuke is a negative word but the scriptures do help us to live the way God wants us to live.

3) V. 16 – For correction (improvement)

4) V. 16 – Train you in righteousness. Righteousness is a combination of God’s goodness and justice.

The result of all of the above is to make us complete (V. 17.) This means that we will live out who God created us to be.

Matthew 7:24-29

In today's Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus concludes his teachings on the Sermon on the Mount with a short parable about a storm where one house is able to remain standing and the other house falls down. By obeying God's Word, we will be able to stand against any storm.

Matthew’s Gospel is divided into five sections reminding us of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament to show that Jesus is the new Moses and even greater than Moses!

The Sermon on the Mount reminds us of Moses on Mt. Sinai.

The parable of the two houses are a warning that we need to obey God’s Word so that we can withstand the storms of life.

“Built on a rock” was referring to the Temple which had been built on a rock. Instead of the rock being the Temple, Jesus will build his church on the confession of faith (Peter.)

Sermon (September 22) - "Are You Ready to Grow In Your Prayer Life?"

    

     Imagine this as your assignment. You are to transform the entire world, not just make it a better place, but to totally change it for good.

     You are just beginning your assignment and you know that there is no time to waste.  The world is filled with disease, sin, hate, corruption, despair, and great inequity. And it’s all up to you to change it. Are you ready to begin your mission? What will be your first move?

     Would your first move be to spend the night in prayer? That’s what Jesus decided to do. He made prayer a priority from the very beginning of his audacious divine assignment to transform the world.

     It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t have a “to do” list of a thousand things that needed to get done.  At the top of that list was that he needed to carefully select a group of individuals who would follow him every step of the way in fulfilling his mission. They would learn from him, serve in his name, and carry on the mission long after he would be gone.

     With time of the essence, Jesus chose to do something that would characterize his ministry from this point forward. He would pray.

     But why did Jesus need to pray to God? Wasn’t he divine? Wasn’t he the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity?

     That’s all true. But Jesus was also fully human, fully divine and fully human both at the same time. I know it’s confusing, but it’s why we light the two candles on top of our altar every Sunday morning. The one candle represents Jesus and his full divinity and the other candle represents Jesus and his full humanity.

     And because Jesus was fully human, like us, he needed to rely on prayer. He needed to set aside time in a noisy world so that he would be able to hear God’s voice. He needed to take time to think and pray before taking his next big step. He needed to consult the One who had sent him, especially with so much on the line.

     And Luke, the gospel writer tells us that after that night of prayer, Jesus was ready to chose twelve people who would become his inner circle of disciples; Simon whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot.

     Today, our focus is on growing in our prayer life. Are you ready to grow in your prayer life?

     One of the reasons that prayer is so important is because we were all meant to have a relationship with God. Prayer is what enables us to have a conversation with God where we listen to what God wants to say to us and where we share our thoughts with God.

    I like that definition of prayer. Prayer is having a conversation with God. If prayer is having a conversation with God, then it’s something we can do on a regular basis. The Apostle Paul tells us to “Rejoice always and pray without ceasing.”

     I used to have trouble with that phrase, “pray without ceasing.” How is that even possible? Maybe you have heard someone say something like, “It’s been a year since she died, and there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of her.” It’s when I hear people say things like that that I realize that it is possible to pray without ceasing. We tend to think about the people and the things in our lives that we hold dear to our hearts. Someone once said that prayer is simply practicing the presence of God.

     So how are you doing at practicing the presence of God in your life? If prayer is meant to be that natural and easy, then why do we sometimes struggle with prayer?

     A while back, Penny and I went to one of those huge home improvement stores. We were buying window blinds.

     We had a particular color, style, and price range in mind and we were getting frustrated because we couldn’t seem to find exactly what we were hoping to find. Just when I thought we found the right type of blinds, Penny would say something like, “I like this a lot, but it’s way too expensive.”

     Annoyed that she wasn’t going to just buy it, I said in a not so loving voice, “Well, I told you that this type of blind over here is probably our best choice.” And she would say, “No, we need to keep on looking.”  “But we’ve already looked up and down this aisle,” I said very impatiently.

     Just then, we heard what seemed like a voice from heaven saying, “Can I help you?” We both looked up. There, standing on some scaffolding directly above us was an employee who had been stocking the upper shelves. She had been there the whole time and we didn’t know it. She had to have heard every word of our conversation and she probably enjoyed listening to our little husband and wife argument over which blinds to buy. At least we didn’t say any bad words during our disagreement!

     Before we knew it, this employee had climbed down from the scaffolding and said, “I think I know what you’re looking for.” Just like that, she helped us pick out the right kind of blinds and at a really good price. She smiled and sent us on our way as happy and satisfied customers.

     I wonder if this is how our prayer lives are sometimes. We go about our day to day activities and when we hit a snag, we don’t even think about looking up for God to help us. And all the time, God was listening in and waiting for us to finally ask for help.

     What are some ways that can help us look up more often and grow in our prayer lives?

     I think the first way is to actually schedule prayer time into our daily calendar. I can’t imagine beginning my day without some sort of prayer time. Spend a few moments before you get started with your day and invite God to guide and lead you in all that you do. We don’t exactly know what the day may hold for us, but we do know that God wants to guide us through each moment. We also know that God has the best in mind for us.

     The second way to look up more often and grow in our prayer lives is to pray existing prayers. Spontaneous prayers are wonderful but so are prayers that have been prayed by other people. You may even want to pray the opening prayer that is found in the Sunday 9:00 am bulletin each week. Try praying that prayer each morning before beginning your day. That prayer will remind you of our Sunday worship theme and it will also be a source of strength for you during the week.

     A third way to look up more often and grow in our prayer lives is to remember the ACTS acronym for prayer. You can include these four letters all into one prayer or you can have prayers for each individual letter. It’s really simple.

     The letter “A” stands for adoration. Prayer is a great opportunity to offer our adoration and praise of God’s love and faithfulness in our lives. During the day, you may just want to pause and say, “Dear God, I adore and praise you for who you are.”

     The letter “C” stands for confession. It’s good for us to confess to God where we have sinned and where we have not been the person that God has called us to be. Just remember, when we confess our sins, God stands ready to forgive us and help us to begin anew. God is gracious and forgiving.

     The letter “T” stands for thanksgiving. This is probably one of my favorite aspects of prayer because there are so many things for which to be thankful. As these moments of thanksgiving come to your mind during the day, just say a prayer of thanks to God for these blessings.

     The letter “S” stands for supplication. Supplication is when we pray for others and ourselves. When we say that we will pray for someone, I like to pray as soon as possible so that I won’t forget. And don’t forget to let God know of your own needs. God loves us and cares about us.

     The acronym, “ACTS” can help us to look up more often and grow in our prayer lives.

     Bob and Marty Lambert, members of our church, have a powerful testimony about how prayer made a difference in their family relationships. Let’s watch.

  

     I invite us to turn to our commitment card today. It’s on prayer and you can see the various commitments that are listed there. I’m going to read these possible responses. You can choose more than one of these responses.

·       Today, I’m not ready to make a commitment to pray.

·       Beginning today, I will pray when I am in a worship service.

·       Beginning today, I will pray every time I am facing a difficult decision.

·       Beginning today, I will try to pray daily.

·       Beginning today, I will pray daily, using a devotional guide.

·       Beginning today, I will pray daily, remembering the ACTS approach to prayer shared in the sermon.

·       Beginning today, I will pray daily, setting aside fifteen minutes for daily devotional time.

·       Prayer will be a priority in my life, growing to include the following:

     I will surround my family and friends with prayer. I will surround my church with prayer. Through prayer, I will find strength, power, and direction to face the week. Through prayer I will trust God with my life, my family, my job, my finances, and my immediate and eternal future. Through prayer, I will learn to love God with all my heart and to love my neighbor.

     I want to give us a couple of minutes to be in quiet and choose one or more of these options that best describe where you are in your prayer life. I’m going to fill out my card and sign it and I invite you to do so as well. Just take a minute or two. I’ll give you enough time.

     When you’ve completed your card, you can tear off your copy to take home with you and we are invited to place the other half in one of the covenant baskets nearest you. There are baskets down front here and there are baskets up in the balcony.

     I want you to know that we will give these cards utmost care. We’ll have somebody who is very trustworthy collect the cards just so that we can be aware of the commitments that are being made today.

     I think we’re ready. May God bless you during this sacred time of commitment.

Sunday Worship Preview - October 6

Sunday, October 6 - (9:00, & 10:30 Services) & Wednesday, October 9  (6:30 pm Casual Service @ Crossroads, 2095 Fair Avenue)

Sermon - "It's a Privilege to Be Here!"

Features - 20th Sunday After Pentecost; World Communion Sunday; & 4th Sunday of Church-Wide 40 Day "Committed to Christ" Focus

Scripture - Hebrews 10:19-25 & Luke 19:45-48

Theme - If we want to be committed to Christ,there are six vital areas in which we need to give our time and focus. Each of these areas will help us to become faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. One of these areas is in our commitment to worship on a weekly basis.

Sermon (October 6) - "It's a Privilege to Be Here!"

     

     We have been spending these past few weeks focusing on some very basic components of what it means to be fully committed to Jesus Christ in our daily living. During this time we are looking at six key areas and we’ve already looked at the importance of prayer and bible reading.

     Today, we focus on the very important topic of worship. The title of this sermon says it all. “It’s a Privilege to Be Here!” It IS a privilege to be here. There’s just something very special about gathering every week as the people of God to offer our worship and praise.

     It doesn’t matter if you worship in a small rural church with 40 or so people or if you worship in a great big cathedral with lots of high church rituals or if you worship in a multi-purpose auditorium that has loud guitars and high end technology or if you worship in a large county seat church like the one we are in today. What matters is that we make worship with the Body of Christ one of the very top priorities in our commitment to Jesus Christ.

     This past June at our West Ohio Annual Conference session at Lakeside, Ohio, Dr. Elaine Robinson, Academic Dean and Associate Pastor of St. Paul School of Theology at Oklahoma City University told us that she often visits local churches. And one of the questions she likes to ask church members at each of the churches she visits is, “Why do you go to church.”

     And she said that people usually give her these types of answers… “I come to church to see my friends” or “It’s how I get spiritually fed,” or “I love to hear our choir and the great music.”

     And Dr. Robinson said that while all of those are nice answers, rarely does she hear someone say what should be the most important reason to attend church. The reason we should be attending church is to worship God! Somehow, we have made going to church about us and we forget that it’s really all about God and offering our worship to God.

     Even if the sermon isn’t all that great, or our friends are out of town, or the music is so-so, the most important thing about being in this place every week is that we have the incredible opportunity to worship the one who is our Creator and our Redeemer.

     Jesus himself made worship a top priority in his life and ministry.  Jesus followed the Jewish Shema which says to worship the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength.  Jesus was known to worship regularly in the local synagogue and he traveled to the Temple in Jerusalem on feast days throughout the year. Worship was very important to Jesus.

     In fact, one of the rare times that we read about Jesus being angry was around this topic of worship. This was from our scripture reading this morning when Jesus entered the Temple and drove out the money changers. Jesus was upset that God’s own people were trivializing worship. Instead of God being at the center of worship, they were making other things more important.

     I’d like to offer three reasons why weekly worship is one of the things we can do to help us be fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. There’s a reason why it makes it in the top six things along with prayer and reading the bible.

    The first reason why weekly worship should be a top priority is because it provides us with a sense of community.

     Worship in church reminds us that God did not create us only to be autonomous individuals. God created us to be in relationship with one another, and it’s important to gather as a community to focus our minds and hearts on God.

     As crucial as individual devotional practices are, they are no substitute for worshiping as a community. Just as worship is enhanced by our individual devotional practices, those practices are enhanced by our corporate worship.

     Sometimes people will point out to me that they can grow in their faith without going to worship. And they say how they pray and read their bible on their own. And that’s all important to do those things privately, but then I ask, “But what do you make of the scripture that we read this morning from the Book of Hebrews?” 

     You’re home alone reading through your bible and then you read a scripture like this which says, “Do not neglect to meet together as is the habit of some, but encourage one another.”  The bible itself talks about the importance of corporate worship, about meeting together, about encouraging one another.  How do we do that? We worship together.

     Each week, we gather together, we worship, and then we are sent out with a benediction, a blessing to be the people of God out in the community and in our world.  Worship is a drawing in and a sending out. It is what forms us into a community of faith, a family of God.

      Often times, when I send a personal welcome note to first time worship guests, I’ll write, “Thank you for helping us to worship God together this past Sunday.” There’s something very special when God’s people make a commitment to gather each week to worship God.

     Have you seen that popular sign message that you often see in front of church buildings. It will have the letters, “CH” at one end and “CH” at the other end. And then it has the question, “What’s missing in church?”

     UR! 

     I read about a tavern near a college campus. It was a favorite hangout for many of the students. As Parents’ Weekend approached, they posted a sign that said, “Bring your parents to lunch. We’ll pretend we don’t you know.”

     One of the local churches just across the street from this tavern countered with a signboard that read, “Bring your parents to church. We’ll pretend we do know you.”

     The good news is that we don’t need to pretend that we know each other because whenever we gather in this place for worship, we know who we are. We know that we are a community, called to be the people of God.

     Today is World Communion Sunday. It’s a Sunday each year when churches all around the world celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Communion as a way to remind us that we are part of a much larger community of people who are seeking to be followers of Jesus Christ.  Regardless of our country or language, together, we form the church of Jesus Christ.

     Weekly worship reminds us that we are a community of God’s people.

     The second reason why weekly worship is to be a top priority is because it is about celebration. We gather in worship to lift up and celebrate all that God is doing in the life of our congregation. God is at work in our church and weekly worship provides us that time each week to celebrate what God is doing in and through us.

     We sing opening hymns and songs of praise. We offer our prayers of joy and thankfulness for what God has done and is doing.  Worshiping together helps us to celebrate.

     And thirdly, weekly worship helps us to connect.  Whenever we gather for worship, we connect with God. We remind ourselves that God truly is the Lord of us all. Just as we need one another, we need God’s active presence in our lives, and whenever we gather, we remember that Jesus is the One who has brought us together. Worship helps us to connect with Christ in a very real way.

     Weekly worship helps us to be a community. It helps us to celebrate. And it helps us to connect with Christ.

     I invite us to turn to the commitment slip that can be found in your bulletin today. If you need a bulletin, raise your hand, so you can have one. We’d like each person to have a bulletin this morning. If you take out the commitment slip, notice that it is about worship attendance and you can see the various commitments that are listed there. I’m going to read these possible responses. You can choose more than one of these responses.

·        Today, I’m not ready to make a commitment.

·        I will attend worship three to six times a year.

·        I will attend worship once a month.

·        I will attend worship twice a month.

·        I will attend worship three times a month.

·        I will attend worship four times a month.

·        As my health permits, I will never miss worship.

·        Worship will be a priority in my life, growing to include the following:

     I will be passionate about worship as a true priority of my life. Bad weather, sports, or holidays will not keep me from attending worship. I will prepare the day before, so that I can arrive at worship without last-minute rushing. I will warmly greet those who sit around me. I will surround my friends and family with worship. Through worship I will seek to find strength, power, and direction to face the week.

     I want to give us a couple of minutes to be in quiet and choose one or more of these options that best describe where you are in your prayer life. I’m going to fill out my commitment slip and sign it and I invite you to do so as well. Just take a minute or two. I’ll give you enough time. When you choose your commitment options, indicate the corresponding commitment numbers on the right part of the slip where you can include your name.

     When you’ve completed your slip, you can tear off your copy to take home with you and we are invited to place the smaller half in one of the covenant baskets nearest you. There are baskets down front here and there are baskets up in the balcony.

     I want you to know that we will give these commitment slips our utmost care. We’ll have somebody who is very trustworthy collect the commitments just so that we can be aware of the commitments that are being made today.

     I think we’re ready. May God bless you during this sacred time of commitment.