Scripture Lesson: Matthew 6:24-34

Sermon Transcript for May 4, 2008

By Pastor Bob Coleman

This morning I want to share with you scripture that makes some connection with what we have been dealing with. If you are a guest here this morning, we are in a capital campaign. But it is more than just the raising of the money; it’s a stewardship principle. But we spoke three weeks ago that God had given us all the faith that we need; what we tend to do is not live in that faith. Then we talked about what it means to sacrifice; literally sacrifice ones life as Christ did for all of us and how we can never match that sacrifice. But God calls us, at times, to step forward in ways that may be uncomfortable or challenging. And last week we talked about freedom--freedom from guilt, freedom to live in Christ, freedom not in the boundary of the country’s lines, the demarcation geopolitically, but of the freedom of the kingdom of Jesus Christ with Christians everywhere.

And today we talk about fear. After those three, why fear? Because we have to recognize fear is a natural part of who we are. In fact, it’s a good thing in the right location and the right proportion. We need to be fearful of crossing the street and not looking both ways. We need to be fearful, as my grandson has yet learned, to not climb too high because he will fall one of these times no matter how much we watch him. And then he’ll remember that. And it will be the right kind of fear. Be cautious enough but not to lose one’s daring and adventure for life.

Fear is a good thing. But fear factor, when it becomes dominating and controlling, is that which will block us from living life, from looking forward, from moving forward. There are people today who are fearful because of our economy. “Oh, it’s going to happen. Are we in a recession? What’s going to happen? Why should we even have a capital campaign,” a couple of people have implied, “with everything as it is? We won’t get enough.” I said, “We will get what we need to get.” The issue isn’t for us to be fearful but to say, “God, what do you wish? What can I do? What is it in my situation that I can do to be faithful to you?”

But the fear factor creeps in no matter what we try to do. And I want to read to you a scripture where Jesus is teaching to his disciples. It’s in the 6th Chapter of Matthew. It’s in what we call the “Sermon on the Mount”. It’s a collection of teachings. Maybe it wasn’t all given at one moment of time. But Matthew has collected them together and Jesus goes from where He says, “Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where rust and rot will destroy it, but treasures in heaven.” At the end of that package, he has sort of a tie-it-all-together statement. And then most Bibles will stop there. In the 6th Chapter starting with the 24th verse I want to start where it transitions from the previous story to “do not worry”. Let’s hear what Jesus has to say, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” And Jesus means in this context, “You can not serve both God and money.” Then moving on Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them! Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow? They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you? Oh you of little faith! So do not worry saying, ‘What shall we eat’ or ‘What shall we drink’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans want after all of these things and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them.” And now Jesus builds the foundation for us, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all of these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Jesus is not saying, “Don’t plan for your family and yourself for food, clothing and the basics.” But to worry about them, when they become the highest priority… We are concerned about gas prices, yes. We’re concerned about the cost of food, clearly. But it doesn’t hold much comparison to those countries where rice is their staple and to spend 80 percent of what they earn in a year on food alone and the cost of rice has doubled and tripled in some place in recent time. Whatever we think we have as a pressure doesn’t compare.

But it is not so much for a comparison, it’s to say ultimately we do have to trust, do our part, work well in preparation taking care of our family and providing the basics. But beyond that lets not worry about those things because what God has is a greater dream for us. We think having nice things, having a house, a wonderful house that we dream about. We talk about the American dream of having this but God has greater dreams for us. He has a dream that we sometimes ignore that’s relevant to who we are going to be today and tomorrow in Christ’s spirit.

The dreams that we have, many people have good dreams and some have nightmares. But I want to tell you a story about a girl. Her name is Susie. Susie was told that she could have and dream anything she wanted. So she began to dream and think, “Oh, I could do this or I could do that”. And she began to collect little objects that she would place in a box. And these objects would represent this dream or that dream. The issues of the dreams at this point are not important because she collected those items and began to focus on them as much as the dreams. And then put them in her box and put them in the box to close them up and slide them underneath her bed. And every day before she’d go to bed, she’d pull out that box and remind herself of her dreams. But then she became fearful and the fear factor set in. And she said, “What if somebody breaks into my home and steals my box and steals my dreams?” She took them then and put them in a lock box in the bank. So now she has to drive to the bank with the key when the bank is open, go in and have them assist her in opening the lock box so she can pull out her box and look at her objects which remind her of her dreams. And then she closes it back up and goes home content thinking, “All my dreams are safe.” Did her dreams ever become true? No, because she never lived in what could be. She always lived in what she hoped would be.

We have some dreams here at Grace. And this is my box; this is not Susie’s box. But this is my box of which it’s become empty. What did I do with the dreams here of the church? Oh, I put them over here on the altar. These are the dreams that I was thinking of when I was trying to summarize. Some are dreams yet to be fulfilled. And those are, for example, if we look at the picture of the church itself since 1965 and even well before that in another location. Generation after generation had dreams and they saw a picture of what the outside of the church should look like. And they began to build and plan and they added. And we’re getting ready now to add something else, to finish the Schrader second floor so that it will be a fulfillment of that dream.

But you know, the outside of the church really holds nothing sacred in it. It’s only an image. It’s like baptism as we had today. Baptism is an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace. The outward side of the church is just the shell. It’s what happens within the church, what happens to people, to the youth, the children. And so I chose to have a picture following this of, guess what? People—children, youth, our Confirmation class—this is our dream! These are the ones of which God gives us the greatest dream possible. Here are the lives, here are the ones who may be born to your church or that are brought in to your church. And God says, “Here is the fulfillment of my kingdom on earth if you will see these people as dreams to be lived out.”

And so I thought this would be the most representation of what we are talking about. Will our dreams come true? With God’s help they will. We also talked about the next slide which is other children. Our children’s ministry, our preschool and all the other influences we have. Which, by the way, isn’t just the children who come here but it’s those who are teachers and who are parents who are influencing the lives of the children in their own homes and their classrooms. Think of that as people who are parents and teachers are encouraging them to grow in their faith in this church. They are witnessing to the children that they have in their care. So it isn’t just the ones in the four walls of this church.

I think the next picture shows an example of older children because adults constantly need nurturing and encouraging and helping them to fulfill the dreams of their life. But even as we mentioned earlier with the death, part of the dream to fulfill is the columbarium. Some people have said, “Why do we need that?” The answer, I think, is simply so that we will not forget the past. That we have a place that you can go to say, think of the people who were here before, this represents who they were and who they still are because their spirit is with God. But the physical reminder, the columbarium, is simply a quiet place for us to recognize that someday someone else will remember us in that way when our dream has been fulfilled.

So these pictures are indeed, as the next one I think shows just a picture of the church itself, is our dreams will come true as long as we don’t keep them in the box but we place them in God’s hands and recognize that as we are faithful to listening to God’s spirit they will be God’s dreams. We listen to God’s call and the will of God in Jesus Christ.

So, the fear factor, we live with it. But we live beyond it. For Jesus says, “Do not worry about the things of this world. They will come together. But keep your eyes on the righteousness and the kingdom and then all things will be met.” Someone said, “What if we don’t reach our goal?” I said, “The goal is essentially artificial. It’s what we want to do with the goal. Whatever we receive, God will help us to use to accomplish the dreams that God has for us.”

I want to ask Chet Pietras to come and share with some instructions. We are going to tie and commit together both the commitment cards, and if you are guests and visitors with us for confirmation just enjoy and sit. We are not expecting a response from you. But Chet has some instructions. And the ushers will be passing out commitment cards. They are in bundles. And he will give you further instructions and with a prayer we will prepare this way.

Good morning! In the service we come to the moment when we will receive your opportunity to make a commitment for the Hand-in-Hand campaign. As the ushers distribute the bundles, please take a card and an envelope. It is hoped by now you have prayerfully considered what you believe God is leading you to do. Remember we are asking you not to change your current support to Grace United Methodist Church. This is a new commitment starting in June for three years. If for whatever reason you can’t do or do not want to make a commitment to the Hand-in-Hand campaign, please fill out a card indicating so and know it is okay. In a week or so those from whom we have not heard will be receiving a call from our committee. We hope you will participate with a sacrificial gift. If you have questions you may meet with Bill Oakes, Pastor Bob or myself so that we may help you with the right answers.

Please now join me in a stewardship prayer, “Almighty God, we thank you for all the gifts you have given us—our lives, our loved ones, all that we have and all that we are. Most of all we thank you for Jesus, your Son and our Redeemer who came among us to show us the way to eternal life. Jesus was the perfect steward of your gift, showing that complete trust in you is necessary. And that giving of self is the most important part of following Him. May the offerings of our time, our talents, and our material resources be made in the same spirit of sacrifice that Jesus taught us by His life and death for us. Amen.”

E-mail Comments to: Pastor Bob Coleman