(Click HERE to see the FBLive video of this service – starts at 3:00, sermon begins at 28:00 – audio quality is better than last week – however music is completely missing!!)
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Mark Wheeler
Genesis 12:1-4
02/05/2023
“Fully Embracing God’s Miraculous Call Together”
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
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Welcome to worship, friends – let’s join in as Pastor Kathy leads us in our Call to Worship – from Psalm 122 – intermingled with some Prelude of Praise Music – I Surrender All and Glorify Your Name
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Good morning Friends! Welcome worship at Lidgerwood!! Shalom Aleichem!
As we begin our time together today, let’s start with a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped make last Sunday’s Worship and Potluck Lunch and Congo Meeting happen so smoothly (and warmly!). You are an awesome church to work with!
And isn’t it nice to be in a relatively balmy 28* (instead of last week’s 8*) weather.
Speaking of “heat” – anyone who wants to learn how to help keep our current boiler/furnace working – you never know when someone “else” might not be here to keep us “warm” – I will give a walk-thru lesson on our system after worship today! We have had to re-light the pilot every few days to keep the boiler running, We are also adding water to the system every few days because the mysterious leak seems to be getting worse…. Thank you to all who try to help with portable space heaters and mittens….
Today’s sermon is the 4th in a 4-part series that started a week late, and then was gifted with an interlude by our Presbytery’s Missional Expeditor, Rev Katie Stark, before resuming again last week. So as we start today I want to say 2 things and re-cap, before we read today’s Bible story and un-pack it for today’s message.
1st: 2 things: Thank you; thank you. The 1st goes to Kathy Sandusky for preaching while I was in Alaska with Brianna and her family a month ago. She started off our new year with a BANG on January 1!
The 2nd goes to Katie Stark for preaching in the middle of this series, about being a people whose lives are enacted by their Abram-like faith! I have heard lots of positive reflections on Katie’s Gospel message.
That covers the 2 things … now for a quick re-cap of this series.
We began this series by reading the story in Genesis about how God called a man named Abram and gave him a vocation that had been unheard of – to, at the age of 75, leave his homeland – Ur of present-day Iraq – and go to wherever God would eventually tell him to stop – Canaan of present-day Israel, and there God would make his name great, would give this childless retiree a family and a nation, and eventually, from among his descendents, a Blessing to the whole world.
How do we fully embrace God’s miraculous call together?!
Welcome, friends, from around the world, to this worshipping community!
Let’s take a second to welcome each other, those in the room and across the globe, to a moment of Sabbath in God’s presence and peace, and with others whom we love and with whom we grow together. Tell your loved ones, whoever you can see , “The CALL of Christ be to 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.
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Choir –! Thank you leading us in worship with this Sunday’s Choral Anthem – : “Remember Me”
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Listen in as Pastor Kathy opens our Prayer time in Confession and Thanksgiving
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13 Gloria Patri
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- 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?
17 We pray this in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: [The Lord’s Prayer]
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Let’s prepare to receive a Word from our Majestic God by singing a PRAYER of Devotion and Praise – that also calls His followers to offer ourselves to Him together – Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah – #634!!
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Lord Jesus, we are now five complete weeks into the New Year – past the Annual Meeting, at Super Bowl, and almost to Valentine’s Day – what have we done to make things right with our families, or to succeed at work or school, or to discover how we fit into Your glorious plan so far? On THIS day, dear Lord, help us to set our sights on Your purposes for us as a church, as Your corporate Body of Christ, and to fully embrace Your miraculous call together. Embracing miracles seems impossible … to do so with complete and utter trust in Your desire to see us successful seems even more impossible; so help us accept and do the impossible. It is by the Word of Jesus Christ that we pray this prayer. Amen.
Sermon #1 was titled: Embracing God’s Call, and we looked at how we accept God’s call on our lives. Sermon #2 was called: Embracing God’s Call Together, and we examined the gift of corporate calling – God calls LPC and all its members into mutual ministry. Sermon #3 was entitled: Embracing God’s Miraculous Call Together, wherein we discovered that the God who calls us still performs miracles and therefore empowers us to accomplish that to which He calls us!
All 3 of those sermons used Genesis 12:1-4, God’s call of Abram, as our scripture study. Today, week 4 of 4, I invite you to turn to … Genesis 12:1-4 as we build on those previous messages and today talk about Fully Embracing God’s Miraculous Call Together! —
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- The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
- “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
- “And I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you.”
- So, Abram left as the Lord had told him ….
Abram and Sarai, in contrast to the resistant, mistrustful world presented in Genesis 1-11, are responsive and receptive to God’s call. They fully embrace the call and venture forth into the unknown future trusting only in the promises of God. Remember that before this passage we don’t know that Abram ever even heard of God the Creator of the heavens and earth. All we know is that God spoke up and Abram heard, recognized, and obeyed!
Do you think our world is any less resistant or mistrustful today? I know that my vision is pretty near-sighted, but I would guess we live in a society that is MORE resistant and mistrustful to the things of God! So Abram’s story forces us to ask which side of that resistance-response continuum we live on. Yeah, we’re in Church, so we know the right answer is to Embrace God’s Call … but do we FULLY embrace it? Or just with our heads, but not our hearts or our lives?
Here’s the thing, though. Abram and Sarai were not left all alone in their trust. God did not expect them to rely on their own human reason, their own strength, their own cleverness, logic or resourcefulness. God always journeys with them! And God promises to provide them with whatever they will need!
And, through His Holy Spirit presence, for all who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, God will never leave us nor forsake us, either! OK, we live in a resistant world, and we want to respond with receptive hearts and lives. God is present in this room to help. God is there in the hospital ward to give strength. God is at the Tax Office, at our homes, in our lives, because He loves us. He loves us so much He sent His one and only Son to die for us, so that whoever believes and receives Him as Lord and Savior will be allowed to live forever in the presence of this same God Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth!
One of the things we experienced 1st-hand last June while wandering the Israeli countryside and exploring the archeological excavations in Israel is that the history of the People of God, from its very beginnings, is the history of a unique guidance – and this is true every time we read through the Bible – the history of a unique guidance made possible ONLY because God was with them. All along the way God shows up and makes promises, directing the eyes of the people toward the future which holds Jesus Christ on its horizon, revealing the truth to them.
They believed that! That’s why they could FULLY Embrace God’s Miraculous Call. Do we BELIEVE that same truth?
It is God’s presence and God’s purpose which provides the motivation and the direction for Abram and Sarai’s faith journey. The command to “go from …” is immediately followed by God’s declaration: “I will …” The fulfillment of the promises made to Abram and Sarai, and through them to the whole of God’s People, and through them to all of humanity, rests entirely with the One who is speaking in Genesis 12! Those who respond are to live in TOTAL reliance upon God!
We are on a Journey of Faith together. God is calling us into ministry in the 21st Century! That means there’s a command to “go from …”; and that command is immediately followed by God’s declaration: “I will …” The future ministries of LPC depend fully on God. But when we respond, we need to FULLY embrace God’s Miraculous Call Together!
There is a principle of Biblical community at play here. We discover 5 essential qualities of a biblical understanding of community in this Abram and Sarai story of Call:
- The divine initiative: God acts 1st by speaking a powerful and creative word into a particular and concrete situation. It is God’s Call!
- There is a communal character to God’s Call and of God’s salvation – He calls communities together. We embrace God’s Call Together!
- The central significance of God’s continual guidance and faithfulness. We embrace God’s Miraculous Call Together!
- The trust and obedience required of the people responding! – We Fully Embrace God’s Miraculous Call Together.
- The commission: God’s people play a key role in the fulfillment of God’s redemption-hope for everyone! – Matthew 28, “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have told you … and I will be with you to the end of the age.”
The Journey of the people of God is never an aimless wandering but it is a journey-towards! The New Testament calls it a following of “the Way”, and Jesus calls Himself the Way, the Truth and the Life. We are set on a road to a future beyond all our hopes, a future full of promise. As a people responding to God’s Call, trusting in God’s promise, and participating in God’s mission, we are a people with a 2,000 year Christian history, and specifically a 116-year ministry at LPC, and so, confident of God’s faithfulness to guard, preserve, guide and persevere, we look at LPC, the next Hundred Years.
Let’s Fully Embrace God’s Miraculous Call Together … every day! Amen.
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Receive our tithes and offerings as symbols of our very lives and livelihood, given as response to Your life given for us! Bless it, and by it bless the world around us. In Christ’s name, Amen.
– Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; or click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)
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25 As we prepare for the sacrament of Holy Communion – and as Pastor Kathy comes forward, and our Communion servers come to the front – we come to this Table in humble prayer – in the Presbyterian Church we invite all who call Jesus their Lord and Savior to this Table which is not ours – it is God’s – if you are not yet baptized, but have come to a saving faith – talk with me or one of our Elders right after worship – as our Servers distribute the trays with the bread and cup, note that each tray has both COVID-safe self-contained elements of bread and juice, and individual cups of juice and bread in the middle – depending on which way you want to be served , take the appropriate cups. And while the elements of bread and juice are being served, we will pray by repeating the words on the screen – just keep singing until Julie brings us to a close and Pastor Kathy leads in the Communion service> Communion Song #821 – Lord, Have Mercy Upon Us!
26-28 Expedition Song #635 – He Leadeth Me!
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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.”
31 Announcements
- Thursday Bible Study –very Thursday at 10am, here and on Zoom
- Breakfast Fellowship – This Saturday, Frankie Doodles at 9am, here at 8:30 for a carpool/caravan
- Presbytery Summit – Also this Saturday, starting at 9:30 on Zoom!
Resources:
Journey of Discovery Bible Study: The Call of a Witnessing Community; 2005; P. 9-10.
Wheeler, Mark; “Fully Embracing God’s Miraculous Call Together”; Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church; 02/12/2006.
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