Scriptures: Psalm 67, Revelation 21:10,22-22:5 and John 14:23-29
Message; “Moving Day”
Psalm 67
(1) May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, Selah
(2) that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.
(3) May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you.
(4) May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth. Selah
(5) May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you.
(6) Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us.
(7) God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.
Revelation 21:10,22-22:5
(10) And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
(22) I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. (23) The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. (24) The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. (25) On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. (26) The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. (27) Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (22:1) Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb (2) down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (3) No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. (4) They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. (5) There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
John 14:23-29
(23) Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (24) He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
(25) “All this I have spoken while still with you. (26) But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (27) Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
(28) “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. (29) I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.
This is the word of God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
Have you ever heard about the absent minded professor. One day he and his wife were leaving church. The professor confronted his wife: “Ah-ha! So who is absent-minded now? You forgot your umbrella and left it in church, but I remembered mine and I picked up yours, too.” His wife set him straight: “That’s fine, dear, but the trouble is, neither you nor I brought an umbrella to church today!”
The next morning his wife reminded her absent minded husband: “Now, don’t forget we’re moving today. If you come to this house this afternoon it will be empty.” You guessed it, the professor forgot until he came home from school to find the house empty. He mumbled to himself, “I wonder where we were moving to?”
As he walked back outside, he saw a little girl and asked her, “Did you see a moving van here today?”
“Yes,” she replied.
Then he asked. “Would you happen to know which way it went?”
The little girl took his hand and said, “Come on, daddy, Momma said you’d forget.”
Moving is hectic, even if you do remember. And as everyone of you knows, It seems like every time you think you’re finished packing, you find something else to pack or haul or load. It’s like the stuff sits in the room and multiplies while you’ve got your back turned.
Bonne and I have been married 49 years come August 18th and in that time, we moved 5 times in our first 4 years (I think). Every one of those moves was an experience. And nothing changed, except the amount of stuff we had to pack and unpack. Each time we moved it presented us with different challenges. But over the years there is one thing that hasn’t changed. With every move you need a new set of keys.
Our gospel reading today talks about God’s Moving Day and the Keys to experiencing God’s movement in our lives. In the gospel of John the 14th chapter verse 23, Jesus says: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
God wants to move in with you. Jesus wants to take up residence in your home and in your life. God wants to be a permanent part of your family. So that you and all around you will pray and sing as the Psalmist: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us” (Psalm 67:1). So that you can be certain when you make your final move, from this life to the next, your new address will be in the “Holy City”we read about in Revelation 21 and 22. Today God wants to establish a new address and all that He requires is a new set of keys. Love and obedience.
Today let’s talk about those keys. Last week’s message we learned about the key of Love, in the message I titled: “The Pathway of Love”. Today let’s consider the key to Obedience.
Obedience requires three key things we need to be doing. Preparing, Welcoming and Honoring.
The first key is PREPARING.
You really can’t do anything without some preparation can you? Well it’s especially important when you move. Every time Bonne and I have moved, we’ve sort of developed a certain method. And the very first thing we do is sift through everything and get rid of all the junk. You can take it all with you but why would you want to?
In PREPARING for God to move in with you, you have to weed through everything because if you don’t, those helping you move will pack everything up, including the trash. In our spiritual lives. If we are going to live a life in peace and. the abundance that Jesus wants and promised, then we have to get rid of the junk.
That’s a major key in PREPARING for God to move in with us. We have to unload the junk of our past, the old hurts, the old guilt from old sins that have never been confessed and repented. We have to let go of the baggage of those old hurts we have caused and the ones we have received. We have to pack and unpack.
If you’re going to have a long term guest or a new member of the family you prepare. The spare bedroom gets cleaned out, the house gets cleaned up and all residing with you must prepare for a change in everyday routines.
In preparing for God to move in. Get rid of the junk in your life. Leave it at the cross. Leave it at the altar. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so you could pack up your burdens and take them with you. He died so you could leave that trash behind. While you’re PREPARING for God to move in: use the Keys of repentance and confession. Let go of the garbage in your life. Get rid of it.
OK, so after you’ve spent some time PREPARING. Now it’s time for the second key: WELCOMING.
This brings to mind a story I read. A moving van was standing in front of a suburban home. The husband and wife were busy tidying up the front yard when a woman who lived at the other end of the block approached them. She smiled and said very sweetly, “Welcome to our neighborhood. Here is a fresh pie I have made to help welcome you to our street.”
The couple looked back and forth at one another with a kind of awkward embarrassment. After a few nervous moments the wife spoke up. “I don’t know quite how to say this, but we’ve been living here for almost three years. You see, we’re not moving in, we’re moving away.”
You know, some people are always welcome. And then there are people who are always welcome to leave. I think she fell into that category. Our relationships with others round us will change, and some will be left behind. We all know how to make people feel welcome. So it’s not just what you do, it’s having a welcoming attitude.
For example, if you knew you were going to have someone stay with you for a few days, you’d very conscientiously make a place for their clothes and belongings in the spare bedroom, wouldn’t you.
If you knew they were going to be there for a month, you’d make more room.
But still, they are really only a guest. And the spare bedroom is sort of treated like a motel room. This person may even be invited in as an intimate friend, helping to solve the family problems. But until that guest becomes part of the family, the guest room will be just that, a guest room, a motel room of sorts, temporary.
But the minute we welcome others as family, the whole concept of the room changes. It’s no longer our room that we’re letting them use. The guest room suddenly becomes their room. We move all traces of our stuff out of the room so they can have it and make it theirs.
When we welcome the Holy Spirit, the presence of Jesus and the Father, into our lives; when God takes up residence in our hearts our lives become the dwelling place of God.
It’s no longer our room. The residence is no longer a motel room. With the help of Christ, we’ve cleaned it up. We’ve moved all of our junk out of it. God who loves us, makes His home in our lives. And we become a part of his family.
Now the sad truth is, that we can maintain the relationship of God as a guest. We do that every Sunday that we do the kind of head bob acknowledgment to God. Or we can invite God in as part of the family. We are God’s family, joint heirs of the Kingdom, with Christ, but only if we accept that offer. Otherwise, God just remains the polite guest. And our lives are just a motel room for God to spend the night in. You see, it’s all in the WELCOMING.
We’ve been PREPARING AND WELCOMING, Now we come to HONORING.
Honoring is more than asking what you’d like to eat. Or how about a cold drink? Honoring is letting your guest choose what to watch on TV. Honoring them is turning over the remote control.
When our children were still living with us that would seemed to be the last thing my kids ever wanted to do for their siblings. And yes for their parents also. Honoring is to give up control. To be obedient to someone else’s wishes.
So too, in our relationship with Christ, honoring is equivalent to obedience. The two words are synonymous, especially when we’re talking about God, or the 10 Commandments. When God says: “Honor your father and your mother.” It’s not only means honor them but respect, obey and bring honor to your parents through your actions and your respect.
That’s definitely what Jesus means in this passage. He said: “Those who love me will obey my teaching.” That’s Honoring. That’s Obedience. There’s no other word that sums it up better. If you love me, you will do my will. The proof of our love is our action, our faithfulness, our obedience. And that obedience has a consequence Jesus said: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him”(14:23). If we are obedient and faithful God promises to move in with us.
It’s almost as if you were moving in with your earthly parents. It comes with a new set of rules. To honor their hospitality we need to prepare and be welcoming to the changes in our lives. To obey is to honor.
But the opposite is also true. Jesus said: “He who does not love me will not obey my teaching”(14:24). They’re welcome to leave.
Tuesday was primary Election Day and I hope all of you took that opportunity to vote. Because our country and the faith we claim has been given a black eye because many of our elected people did not obey Christ’ teachings. Our credibility, our integrity and our faithfulness have been called into question by overzealous, self-righteous people who have forgotten what we as a people and nation stand for and what we’ve fought and died for. They have not honored God or country or the people they supposedly represent.
Their action’s stand in direct opposition to every Christian teaching. And, especially to what we’ve read today. From a Christian perspective, the end never justifies the means if it means forgetting who we are, and who we represent and to whom we belong.
You and I are called to honor God in all that we do. It’s not enough to be preparing or even welcoming, we have to strive so that everything we do can be seen as a way of Honoring, Obeying God.
The Good News is it’s “Moving Day”. God wants to dwell in our lives. God wants to take up residence in our hearts. God wants to be with us always. And the key to that relationship is simple: PREPARING, WELCOMING AND HONORING GOD. Let God move in to your heart, your home, your life.
God wants to move in with you. Jesus wants to take up residence in your home and in your life. God wants to be a permanent part of your family. So that you and all around you will pray and sing as the Psalmist: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us” (Psalm 67:1). So that you can be certain when you make your final move, from this life to the next, your new address will be in the “Holy City”we read about in Revelation 21-22. Today God wants to establish a new address and all that He requires is a new set of keys. Love and obedience.
It’s “Moving Day”. Time to Move.
In His Service,
Pastor Joe
Listen To Audio: Sermon 20220522
Listen To Audio: Service 05222022
Call to Worship:L: We come this morning full of ourselves:P: Our concerns, our plans, our opinions, our schedules.L: In this moment, help us empty our minds of the relentless ‘I’ and make space for YOU.
P: Enable us to put down our priorities; to set aside our assumptions and schemes.
L: Open our hearts to recognize your love in action in our lives.
P: Reassure us of your divine vision, and let us rest in your unending care.
Prayer of Confession: In Your perfect love You lay down Your Life for us. We have sinned in our thoughts and imaginations. We have allowed our emotions to lead us astray. We have permitted our actions to be living contradictions of Your will. Forgive us our sins and have mercy on us. Receive our penitence and transform it into repentance. Amen.
ANOUNCEMENTS
Pastor Joe will be available at the church on Thursday Mornings from 10:30 to 12:30. If you need to speak to him, contact Pastor Joe at 570-267-4570 (cell) or Email: joe.s.travis@gmail.com
Loose change goes to General Fund.
CareNet (Baby Bottle) ends today.
Sunday School starts at 8:30am
Choir practice will be on Thursday at 9:00 A.M.
Victoria Day (Canada) Monday, May 23
Memorial Day (USA) Monday, May 30
Newsletter Deadline – Tuesday, May 31st, 2022.
If anyone has a family member graduating from nursery school to college, or in the service, please let Carolyn White know, so we can announce in the June newsletter.
Please mark your envelope if you are contributing to the piano repair fund.
The Franklin Hill Cemetery Association voted to raise the prices of graves effective June 1, 2022. Please see Marcia Perkins if you are considering buying graves.
Hymn Sing on Sunday, June 5 at 3:00. Please invite others.
