(Click HERE to see the FBLive video feed of this service – starts at 8:45, sermon begins at 19:00)
(Click HERE to donate to Lidgerwood Church’s mission and ministries)
1
Mark Wheeler
Acts 2:1-8, 37-47
Fifth Sunday in Lent, 04/03/2022
“Heaven on Earth”
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
2
Create in Me a Clean Heart . . .
Join in as Pastor Kathy leads us in our Call to Worship:
3
4
Hello everyone! Welcome to worship at Lidgerwood!!
We opened singing Psalm 51 – a biblical prayer of confession! When we gather for worship it is appropriate that we gather as a people of contrition! – Especially in this Season of Lent as we prepare ourselves, our minds, hearts, and spirits, to experience the Gospel Good News of God’s love and power in the Resurrection of Easter!
And our Call to Worship continued that Prayer for unity by the Holy Spirit!
Welcome! We are glad you are here with us today!
5-6
- We have – New COVID Guidelines – mask-wearing is totally optional – wear one of it feels safer, and be respectful of distance-keeping when we are not wearing a mask.
“Masks are optional, and respect is required!”
We truly want that no one should feel judged, and everyone should feel safe, so continue to be gentle with each other. Still listening to the Philippians 2:4 passage:
“ in humility, each counting others better than himself; each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.” Philippians 2:4
We are gathered in our church sanctuary – a holy place – and it’s also a safe place – where the divine and the human connect together. Welcome to this holy sacred and safe place today.
CAMERA
Let’s take a second to welcome each other, and those in the room, look at the camera and say HI to your friends who are at home. Tell your loved ones, whoever you can see , “The Lord is with you – and also with you!!”
Welcome to this “gathering” in God’s name. We are assembled in NorthEast Spokane, WA, along with people from all over the world. We are very glad you are “here” with us.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God’s Word.
Our opening song of praise and devotion –– #108 – Come, Christians, Join to Sing!! Please stand and join in this call to worship!
7-9
10
Jesus came as the incarnate Son of God, bridging the gap between us and You, O God. We sing the carols of Christmas. Christ lived to teach us how to live and to demonstrate Your love and mercy to us. As we approach the real work of Christ, at Easter, shine Your light so brightly on us that we will be unable to find any darkness in which to hide. Help us to deny ourselves this sober season so that we might even offer a sample of Heaven, right here on earth … through Christ our Lord, Amen.
A couple decades ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They assured their wives they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, all the salesmen managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding.
All but one!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they landed at their home terminal and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did.
The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight. The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you OK?”
She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, “I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.”
As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, “Mister ….” He paused to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, “Are you Jesus?”
He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: “Are you Jesus?”
Do people mistake us for Jesus? That’s our goal, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life, and grace. Do we live a little like we have Heaven on Earth?
On this 5th Sunday in Lent we jump 9 weeks ahead of ourselves to the story of Pentecost. This is the day, 50 days after Passover, that the disciples were together in an upper room and while they worshiped, the Holy Spirit of God landed on them and empowered them to be the Church. Listen to the glorious way these followers of Christ demonstrated for the world what it means to be a corporate collection of Christians offering a foretaste of the full Kingdom of God: Acts 2:1-8, 37-47 …. ----
11
22 “Therefore, 1 When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, & it filled the whole house where they were staying. 3 They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated & rested on each one of them. 4 Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit & began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.
12
5 Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven. 6 When this sound occurred, a crowd came together & was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 They were astounded & amazed, saying,“Look, aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language?”
And, skipping down to verse 37…
13
37 When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart & said to Peter & the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Repent & be baptized each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, & you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you & for your children, & for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
14
40 With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!” 41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them.
15
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. 44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need.
16
46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
I opened this message with a story about how we, as individual Christians, personal believers in Jesus as the Son of God who came and died for our sins. Next, let me bring us together into a setting of corporate worship. If we can display the likeness of Christ as individuals … how much more so as a worshiping community?
Steve Goodenberger, the former music minister at First Presbyterian Church, downtown, almost 25 years ago, gave me an ode he wrote about how we, Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church, can share a foretaste of heaven on earth as we come together and worship. His piece is entitled: Worship Is a Rehearsal for Heaven.
When we sing, when we pray, when we focus on God, we are preparing for a time when the rafters will ring with full-throated glorious singing from all the nations. We will all join together in singing the “Hallelujah Chorus.” Handel will conduct it the way he really meant it to be sung. The rest of us won’t argue about tempos and how big an orchestra is appropriate. Then we will join in as people from Zimbabwe sing “O Sifuni Mungu”. Then we will sing a Latin cant of Kyrie Eleison together. We will join as we sing a Russian anthem of salvation. We will all clap along to a blue grass style of Brush Arbor song. Jamaicans will stand next to rap musicians. Irish Catholics will join hands with Protestants. We will all joyfully join in singing a hard-rock chorus of praise. (And we will love it!) Gabriel might join in and improvise on his trumpet. The Latinos will start a mariachi rhythm, and we will all sing a great song of praise to the Creator, while snapping our fingers and letting our bodies join in the dance. Then Bach will lead us in the Magnificat. Then he will make a modulation and bridge into the key for “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”. All the hosts of heaven, including us, will sing. Then, we will sing “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus” (in Korean!). Only there, instead of a dancer from Knox Presbyterian Church spreading his hands beneath the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ will open His arms, we will see the scars on His hands, and all of us will bow down before Him, not just a handful of dancers.
Why will we be so ready to sing so many kinds of music, so many languages, so many physical stances for worship? Because we will be in the presence of Jesus Christ! Our desire will not be to find the music that best pleases us, but to use whatever means we have to please the Lamb on the throne. Even if we don’t know the music or the language or the style, we will join in, because performance will not be the purpose! Thunderous adoration of our Savior will be. We will be one! People from all nations, all tribes, all languages, all musical styles will have a single focus. My quietest, most intimate utterings of individual faith will also be heard, and Jesus Himself will look around past all the millions of people and catch my eye, and acknowledge my praise.
This is powerful stuff. No one could experience this kind of worship without being changed. The devil will do anything to keep us from experiencing this depth of adoration here on earth. He works hard at getting us to take our focus off the One we worship – on to styles or forms of worship. If we start arguing about which style of worship is most appropriate, we lose track of the whole point of worship – to get the focus off us, and onto Jesus Christ!
Steve reminds us that our worship experience is about Jesus! And that when we truly worship in spirit and truth, the hungry world outside will crave the taste of the completely satisfying and wonderfully delicious bit of Heaven on Earth we have here.
If we claim to know Jesus, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It’s actually living the Word of God as life unfolds day to day. A friend told me just last week, “My circumstance is my calling.” Wherever and whenever we find ourselves, that is where God calls us to be His disciples, and to represent Heaven on Earth!
Referring back to the blind girl selling apples … know that you are the apple of God’s eye, even though you, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stops what He is doing and picks you up, and He picks me up, on a hill called Calvary, and He pays the full price for our damaged fruit.
That is the great reason to gather for worship and rehearse for Heaven.
17
We need to experience a little Heaven on Earth in such a way that our friends will ask us what makes the difference … and then we can say, “Come to Church with me, and see.”
Great God of Creation, we worship You in spirit and in truth.
Lead us into our 2nd hundred years of worship and prayer from this sanctuary.
Prepare us for Your coming Kingdom and everything You would have us do and be here at LPC. We want our worship to be a rehearsal for heaven.
Confirm Your direction with joy and hope.
In Jesus’ authority. Amen.
CAMERA
Our first Choral Anthem in over two years!!! Choir – lead us in heavenly worship! – “With Wine from the Vineyard!”
18-20 Pastor Kathy, lead us in Prayer: Let’s come to the Lord in prayer –
- what are some praises, thanksgivings, adorations we want to offer?
- Is there a person or a situation you want to lift to our Lord for His answers and grace?
21 We pray this in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: [The Lord’s Prayer]
22
Like the earliest Christians, we are here in this place because of the commitment and faith and generosity of others who shared the Good News of the Gospel in their time.
So we turn now, in our time, and share our faith and our commitment through generous giving to support the ministry of this church in Christ’s name. Let us gather our gifts together and offer them to God in gratitude and praise.
Gracious God, as we sit in Your holy place we feel Your bright Spirit surge within us.
We are on fire with the knowledge that we may be Your witness to the world.
Help us speak in languages that others will understand.
Ignite within us a need to share the abundance of our lives.
We lay before You our gifts of faith, hope, and love.
We pledge to give more of our time, more of our hearts, and more of our material possessions,
that we may serve Your greater good. Amen.
– Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)
Communion Song #687 – Shall We Gather at the River –!
23-25
26
CAMERA
Communion – Pastor Kathy will lead our Communion – and our Deacons will serve you the elements! Note, there is both the self-contained Communion cups, and our good old fashioned broken bread and poured cup. Please take which ever feels safest/ most meaningful to you. (If you take the self-contained – both the wafer and the juice will come on the first tray, if you want the other, a second tray with the cup will be delivered.
Expedition Song #103 – Ye Servants of God, Your Master Proclaim –! We began today with confession of sin, and we close with a call to faith!
27-30
31
We continue with this benediction: May we Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
And give glory to God, today, and forever! Amen.
And as we do that: “May the Lord bless you and protect you;
may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”
32-33 Announcements
Resources:
Dietterich, Inagrace T.; Sign; Foretaste; Instrument; Center for Parish Development; Pp. 9-11.
Goodenberger, Steve; Worship Is a Rehearsal for Heaven; Whitworth Institute of Ministry; 1998.
Hauenstein, Ron; Spokane Fatherhood Initiative; “My circumstance is my calling.”
Velarde, Nancy; sent me the anonymous story about the blind apple merchant and the Christian salesman.
Wheeler, Mark; “Heaven on Earth”; Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church; 03/25/2007.
https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/2792/worship-elements-may-23-2021
lidgerwoodpresbychurch 