WALKING WITH GOD # 1 Sept. 28, 2014

I want to tell you about an argument that I once had with my late Father. At the time,  I was a teenager who had hair like this(preacher puts on wig). Dad wanted me to get a haircut.  I wanted to my Dad to buy me my first car. So, Dad decided that he would make a compromise with me.   

"John” he said,” If you get your hair cut and keep it short, I'll get you a car."

Well I thought about this, but I didn’t want to lose the hair I loved. However, I remembered from church that Jesus and his disciples had long hair, too.  So I replied to my Dad,” "Dad, I would like to keep my hair long like Jesus and his disciples."

My Dad said that that was acceptable. Then, I decided to press him about buying me a car.  Dad replied, “Well, John, since you want to be like Jesus and his disciples, there is no need for a car."

Well that confused me and I asked, “Why not?”

 

 Dad smiled and then replied, "Well Jesus and his disciples walked."

 

Now, the rest of the story is that I really learned how to do a lot of walking.  The hair stayed.

 

Today, we begin our 6 week sermon series entitled, “Walking with God.”  PAUSE What does God require of us, according to today’s Old Testament reading? Please repeat after me,’ To do justice”…””to love mercy”…… and to walk humbly with our God.”

 

To walk humbly with our God.  This rich biblical image is a wonderful metaphor for our own spiritual  lives  as we journey through the years of our lives.. God...our God is one who wants us to walk with him.  Now sometimes, as we said last week, we are too busy to walk with God because we are running around in circles in our regular , but frantic, daily routines. Many of us don’t feel like we have time to stroll with God,  which is a shame.  Why?  Because God has a plan and a purpose for

each of us to live a rich, full, and meaningful lives of love with God and our neighbor.   But how many of us miss that because we are running around and around in circles each and every single day?

 

So, God’s answer to our frantic culture is His call for us to Walk with Him.  In the next 6 weeks, we are going to explore 2 major ways that we can walk with God.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·       <!--[endif]-->First, if you want to walk with God to a richer and better life, then you have to follow Him.  Jesus’  call to “Follow Me’ is the name of our fall  Small Group series, for which 78 of you have already registered!!!!     SMILE    The adventure of these Small groups will lead us to better understand how to improve the quality of our lives by intentionally walking with  Jesus.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·       <!--[endif]-->Secondly, on Sunday mornings in our sermons, we are going to learn to Walk with God by learning to pray.  Prayer is the intersection between our mortal lives on earth, and our immortal lives on both heaven and earth. Prayer is learning to communicate with God, which is the foundation of any spiritual life. SMILE    PAUSE

 

Now, I want to ask a question. PAUSE   Would please close your eyes, so that I can ask you a question , without embarrassing anyone?  Now, would you raise your hand if you feel like you personally  really understand how to pray, and that you  pray often? PAUSE

 

Okay. PAUSE Not surprising but Most /some of us have a hard time...And I bet all of us could benefit by learning more.

 

So, here is my promise to you:  If you listen to our upcoming Sunday sermons, by the end of 6 weeks you will know how to pray and to pray in such way that it is a joy to you! And this is so easy. Most of us were never taught the easy way to pray, which is so easy, that children can learn it ….and once kids learn it, they love it.

 

So, how does one pray?  Well, the very first step begins with the letter “A”—      “A” for AFFIRMING that God is present and available to us all day, all the time. He longs for us to pray for Him.  Just as good parents long to hear their child’s voice when they have been apart, so God relishes your voice when you turn to Him in prayer.

So—we affirm—THAT GOD IS WITH US.  This is the meaning of one of Jesus’s names, which is “Immanuel”, which  translates from the Hebrew language as  GOD IS WITH US AND GOD IS FOR US. No other religion makes such a claim.  Our Father in heaven and earth is on one hand MIGHTY , MAGNIFICENT, AND MIRACULOUS, but he is also kind, compassionate and close  PAUSE to us.     St. Paul put it this way—saying that God is so close to us that in Him we live and move and exist!!!!  PAUSE Now, of course, God is Spirit, so He may not always be visible to the human eye---but He is present to those who call upon Him. PAUSE

This is what is happening in today’s Gospel reading.  On the first Easter Sunday, after Jesus had risen from the dead---His human body was transformed into  omnipresent Spirit.  So , two of Jesus’ disciples meet  him while walking down the road, but they did not recognize Him.  But He was there—and after our Gospel reading, the Bible tells us that they heard Jesus preach the word, and then they recognized Him.  He was walking with them,  even though they didn’t know it.

Think of the lonely and dark times of your life, when you were figuratively just struggling to take one step after another. PAUSE For me, that darkness was coping with clinical depression. PAUSE  For years and year of my life, I endured seasons of darkness, from which I could not escape.  Oh, I functioned, and sometimes I was surprised that I could  persevere. PAUSE  Well, one day 25 years ago, I prayed to God about my depression, and I felt like he nudged me to seek professional help—which I did.; and it helped. PAUSE

And I am here to tell you, that through prayer and counseling and medication, I slowly began to crawl out of that dark hole, SMILE and then I came into the light of Christ’s love. SMILE  Now, I am no longer dragged down into long bouts of despair.

I became a changed man, for the good, SMILE as Jesus worked in me to heal me,  and as He continues to walk with me, everyday. SMILE And as I rejoiced about this powerful emotional healing, I came across this very powerful poem, which you can find at the top of page 5.

“Foot prints in the sand “ has been around since the mid-1930s, and this poem has resonated with millions of Christians and Jews.  For those of you not familiar with it, the poem describes a person who is walking with God on a beach.  While walking, the person sees  scenes from her life flash across the sky.  Well, this upset the person because during the lowest times of suffering and sorrow,  she could  saw only one set of prints in the sand, which she assumed to be hers.  Where was God during those times?

But God then replies that the one set of  footprints were actually His, when He carried her through those dark times.  

That is my story. PAUSE And I know that that is the story of many of you here in this room.  So, if God has walked with you through your own  dark times, or if you wish to believe that God will walk with you ,  today and tomorrow, then I invite you to stand ; and join me in proclaiming this good news, as we , together,

Pre Game: Walking with God Sermon Sept. 21, 2014

I imagine that most of us, at one time or another, have felt like the fella in our video.   In fact, I know that many of you here today, and  many other parishioners feel like this one an ongoing basis.       Of course, all the overwhelming  demands faced by working families with stresses out many families.

·       But even the unemployed find that their time evaporates too quickly.

·       But believe it or not, retired folks do, too: Projects around the house, paper work are often deferred, thereby stacking up the  necessary work needed to run a household.

The rock group, known as “The Who,” probably speak for many of us, when they sing about returning from a QUOTE  “busy day, knowing that there has got to be a better way.”  UNQUOTE

Are we missing something here?  PAUSE  I wonder if some of us are unknowingly missing a key ingredient in life????? PAUSE

Have any of you ever cooked up a recipe, and left out a crucial ingredient?  Back when I was single, I remember an occasion when I was house sitting and I decided to make myself some chili for dinner.   Now I was born and raised in Cincinnati—and Cincinnati is the self-proclaimed chili capital of the world. 

·       There are chili parlors on every corner; and 90% of Cincinnati natives grow up loving chili.

·       So, the night I was cooking, I got together the ground beef, the beans, tomatoes, green pepper, salt, crackers, & cheese.

·        But I looked all over that kitchen, and for the life of me, I could not find any chili powder. I had never been sin such a house.  This was an outrage.

·       Well, I was too lazy to go to the store, so I found some hot sauce, which I used as a substitute.

·       Once it  finished cooking, I tried eating the concoction. PAUSE    Oh, was that horrible!!!  It was inedible !!!!!!!!!.

·       Chili without chili powder is not chili. Rather, it’s merely hamburger stew.

·       Without the missing ingredient, my recipe was incomplete and unsatisfactory.

Well, the same is true for our Christian recipe for happiness.  For most of us a missing ingredient from our lives, which adds all the spice to life—and that missing ingredient is prayer.

·       Now, I am not referring to quickly prayer before dinner or a cry for help in times of desperation.  I am talking about taking some time to speak to God, and to listen to Him.

This is what is going on in today’s Gospel. Martha is a good hearted faithful and generous hostess; but she is also like the fella in today’s video. So, Jesus called out to her to slow down, to speak to Him and to listen to him, which is what prayer is for us.

Prayer improves all of life. There are many reasons why one should pray, but today I would like to look at 2—the 2 “P”s: physiology & priorities----

Scientists have demonstrated through hundreds of scientific studies that prayer has strong physiological benefits. Many of these studies have demonstrated that people who pray live healthier and longer lives.

·       Prayer results in increased levels of the dopamine hormone, which contributes to our state of wellbeing and joy.

·       Studies have demonstrated that half of all doctor visits for depression, high blood pressure, migraine headaches, and the like, are all prompted by undue stress. Therefore, when prayer alleviates stress, we simultaneously reduce the risk of disease.

One reason that prayer can reduce stress is through the 2^nd “P,” which is priorities. 

·       You see, there is just too much to do in life…and we cannot do it all. If we try to do everything, then our lives will fall out of balance and we become overstressed.

·        However, if we choose the priority of praying, God can guide us in making decisions on how to use our time, which can result in a more harmonious and balanced life.

Come walk with God and He will lead you to a more balanced life.    This is what Paul is saying in our first reading today, when he wrote,” When you make decisions, you will feel peace as you live out God’s plan. So, be guided by this sense of peace when making decisions about what to do in daily life. Follow God’s guidance and you will find more peace.”   Wow. Think of that.  PAUSE

Do you want to how to do this for yourselves?  Well, you are in luck.  Next Sunday, we begin our 6 week  “Walking with God” program which will help you to do just that.

·       On Sunday mornings through Nov. 2, we are all going to learn a simple, yet powerful,  way to pray.  Many of us do not pray because we don’t know how, or we have forgotten how. Prayer is so simple that children can do it, and we can learn to do it as well, thereby following God to more peaceful and harmonious lives.

·       Also, as most of you know, we will have an accompanying weekly Small Group series, we will learn to let God lead as we walk with Him.  And as we learn to let Him lead us, then we will follow Him  to a  life so much richer than you have now, for your great joy and His great glory.

So, stop spinning around in circles.  Join us as we all learn to walk with each other as we follow our guide, our savior and friend, Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.