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February 10, 2009

Isn't she a doll? Bless her heart!
Anyway, today was a snow day...and Art is in Phoenix at a pastor's meeting. A nice chance for me to catch up on my blogging (and do some chores, correct papers, we have our food and clothing distribution today - wait a minute, let me look at little Tziporah one more time - ahhh...ok Maryellen, back to work).
When we were part of Open Bible Standard Churches, the first Sunday in February was "Women's Sunday" and since my birthday was right around then, Art would honor me by letting me pick out the songs and deliver the message. The tradition continues, and last Sunday I preached in our little chapel. For those of you who couldn't make it (LOL) here's the transcript of my 2009 Sermon, entitled - Don't Fret!


I was planning to preach on the end times. “The End of the World - RU Ready?” In Children’s Church we’ve been working with a song based on Revelation Chapter 4, and Revelation is such an interesting book. It reads like a supernatural disaster movie, which is most likely why the “Left Behind” books and movies did so well. But I am not doing a series, like Pastor Art, I only have one morning, and I decided that was too big a bite to chew. If anyone is really interested, or maybe even worried about that topic, we could make it our Bible Study on Wednesday evenings. This morning I’m going to preach out of Psalm 37 and I’ve entitled this message, “Don’t Fret.”
The book of Psalms is like a treasure chest. So many of our songs come from the Psalms. In Ephesians 5:19, Paul tells us to speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, to sing and make music in our hearts to the LORD. It’s no surprise that the book of Psalms is in the very heart of the Bible. If you take your Bibles and open to the middle, you will be in the Psalms, depending on how many pages of introduction, or maps, glossary, etc the publisher has added; you will at least be very close. (Lets open to Psalm 37 - page 553 in the pew Bibles - which by the way were donated to us by the Kirtland AFB - God bless Derreck, Kyle, and all the other service men and women from our country, fighting for - working toward freedom and peace.)
The first words you see are, “Do not fret…” What does “fret” mean? (worry? fear? anxiety?). Don’t Worry - Don’t Worry - Be Happy? Wasn’t there a song like that a few years back. If I remember correctly, it wasn’t the kind of song you’d hear in Church. And of course, we shouldn’t take scripture out of context. So lets continue reading…Ah verse 4. Now that’s a great verse! A verse you’d see on a calendar, greeting card, little daily devotional. “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.” I think that is one of those dangerous verses. One of the reasons you hear some people say…”oh I was Christian once” or “I tried the Jesus way, but it just didn’t work for me”
Pastor Art is preaching a series from Matthew - Jesus’s sermon on the mount which you can read in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. In Matthew 7 verse 7 is another on those “dangerous” verses - “Ask and it will be given to you”. There are a lot of verses like those - promise verses - that if taken out of context sound like God is some kind of Genii in a lamp - rub the Bible real hard and make a wish. Those verses are dangerous if we don’t continue to read…back to Psalm 37. Commit, Trust, Wait Patiently, Do Not Fret…Jesus echoed that in His sermon (He is after all, the real author of the Psalms, the whole of the Word of God) Matthew 6:25 Do Not Worry, verse 28 And why do you worry? Verse 34, Therefore, Do Not Worry!”
So if we aren’t supposed to worry about stuff, how are we supposed to deal with all our problems - relationships, annoying co-workers, demanding bosses, bills, broken cars - don’t get mad, don’t worry, but rather trust, wait, do good, be just, delight in the word of the LORD. When I look at Psalm 37 I pull out promises, instructions, and warnings. That verse 4 is really nice. I can memorize that one. Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart. Some versions of the Bible even say that He will give you all your heart desires (umm, 50 people in church every Sunday - new buildings, roses and tulips and trees - a nice new bus, recording equipment, salvation for all those names on my ’hit list’, a yellow mustang and a cruise to Alaska). But wait a minute…what does “Delight yourself in the LORD means?” Are you delighted to be a Christian? Does it delight you to read the Bible every day? And what about all those instructions? Trust - Do Good - Commit - Wait Patiently - Refrain from Anger - Be Righteous, and not wicked. (You can read for yourselves what it says about what’s going to happen to the wicked). But lets look at verse 16. Seems to be saying we shouldn’t expect to be rich…rather we should be content with what we have, 'cause the wicked rich are doomed. And then verse 39...He is their stonghold in time of trouble…trouble? Yes, we will have troubles. Jesus never promised us a life free of troubles. His promise was Peace in the times of trouble. When we feel weak and broken, He promises to be our strength. When we fail, He will not give up on us. When we wander away, He is there to welcome us home with open arms, He will pick us up clean us off and set us on the right path again and again and again. Do not fret. Do not worry…Trust, Wait Patiently, Do Good. Let’s finish by going to Matthew, listen to what Jesus has to say…Matthew 6:25ff (page 960 in pew Bible).
And now, let’s declare our faith before taking communion…and ask yourselves… Do You Believe, Can you Trust? Or would you rather go on fretting.