Good morning everybody.
Friends welcome to Rev, not a Methodist church.
My name is Bio Body, and I'm 1
of the associate pastors here. I'm so so
glad to see all of you here today
whether you're in person or if you're online,
I'm glad you're here.
I do wanna share before we get started
with worship this more than a couple of
announcements that are important for you to know.
The first is that today, we will be
kick starting a brand new sermon series called
whatever happened to joy. We're gonna spend the
next couple of weeks talking about all the
things that I'm making it challenging for us
to experience joy in the season that we're
in, and the reverend doctor Pete Moon, our
lead pastor will be leading us with this
first sermon about how we can choose joy
in the midst of hard seasons.
I also wanna extend a hello to our
vacation bible school friend, They've got an exciting,
I'm trying to figure out how I wanna
say it. An exciting thing
to an exciting event for you, for, our
children's messages this morning and I promise you
you will absolutely love it.
And thirdly, I also wanna direct your attention.
We have, at the 09:30 hour here at
our church. We have what's called mission in
the middle. It's an opportunity for us at
lovely church to be in mission and service
together for our community. And I wanna direct
your particular attention, in your bulletin to August
fourth. It'll be a time for us to
work with rise of rise on ride of
hunger. Excuse me.
And we will together work to make sure
that we can ensure making meals, and all
things good for those people. We hope if
an all hands on debt kind of deal,
and we hope you all will be able
to come out and join us.
With all things being said, my dear friends
made a lord be with you.
Friend ben invite rise with me and body
your spirit for our call to worship.
Make a joyful noise to the lord all
the lands.
Know that the Lord who made us is
god.
Enter God's gate with thanksgiving and god's courts
with praise.
For the Lord of good.
That fast love
endure forever.
His faithfulness
to all
generations.
With joy, let us adore the Lord by
singing together him number 89,
joyful, joyful, we adore.
And now my dear friends let him join
together in our prayer of common confession.
Gracious Lord,
we thank you for the freedom.
You have given us through the life, death
and resurrection of your son.
As we gather,
we confess at all too often,
we dismiss your joy.
Our sour
dispositions
represent our culture,
instead of your character,
by your grace,
remind us of your goodness
that we may reflect your light and hope
forgive us,
embrace us
cleanse us,
heal us.
We have this in Jesus name.
Amen.
Friends is here, the good news. By God
grace, we have been forgiven.
We I have been embraced
We have been cleansed and we have been
healed.
In the name of Jesus Christ, my dear
friends, you are forgiven.
Glory to god.
Amen. Friends, I wanna invite you all Shane
signs the piece of 1 another, and I'd
love to invite our vacation bible school up
to the front.
Well, good morning, Rum United Methodist church.
My name is Karen Rios, the Director of
children's
ministries.
And if any of you are joining us
online, we would like for you to move
a little bit forward and enjoy this
presentation with our V children.
And if you watch closely, you may be
able to do
all of the motions with us.
Roughly, this past week was vacation bible school,
and it was a pleasure seeing 65
children from kindergarten
through rising second graders come to learn about
about God, and ent him. Do any of
you remember your scripture? Whenever,
I'm afraid.
That's it. Psalm,
abs absolutely. Whenever I'm afraid I put my
trust in use some 56 3.
And so we enjoyed having a wonderful time,
not just learning about up, but doing some
singing and some moving, and we wanted to
present this piece for you today. So Welcome
to Vacation Bible school.
CAMP,
fire red like G.
Come on now See hey, m pete fire,
and like.
Let me here now see hey deep fire.
Break down.
Alrighty.
Oh, no. Thank you so much for enjoying
that wonderful
presentation. Children, you guys can go back and
sit with your parents.
And we thank you so much for allowing
your children to be with us past week.
Please join me in praying the prayer for
illumination.
Lord
open our hearts and minds
by the power of your holy spirit
that as the scriptures are read
and your word proclaimed.
Hear you with joy what you say it
to us today.
Ami amen.
Today's first scripture reading is from the book
of Philippians,
chapter 1 versus 1 through 11.
This may be found on page 953
of your pew Bible.
Paul expresses love to the church at Philip
in Greece.
The first congregation he founded on the European
continent.
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus.
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who
are in Philip high
with the bishop and dea.
Grace to you, and peace from God, our
father in the lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my god every time I remember
you, constantly praying with joy. In every 1
of my prayers for all of you because
of your sharing in the gospel from the
first day until now.
I am confident of this.
That the 1 who began a good work
among you will bring it to completion by
the day of Jesus Christ.
It is right for me to think this
way about all of you because you hold
me in your heart. For all of you
share in god's grace with me, both in
my imprisonment,
and in the defense and
confirmation of the gospel.
For God is my witness,
how I long for all of you with
the compassion of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer that your love
may overflow, more and more with knowledge and
full insight to help you determine what is
best.
So that on the day of Christ, you
may be pure and blame.
Having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes
through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise
of God.
The word of God for the people of
god.
Thanks speed to god.
You know, as we mentioned earlier, today, we
are beginning the Sermon series on joy, and
I'm I'm half tempted to say after those
kids saying. And after Daniel, you'd led us
in that joe, we could just kinda drop
the microphone at this point.
But where there's more to be said, And
we're gonna turn to the fourth chapter, of,
the book of Philippians as we listen to
Paul's words speaking to us
about the wonder and the power and the
possibility
of joy even today. Invite you to hear
these words starting in the fourth verse.
Rejoice in the lord always. Again, I will
say
rejoice.
Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The
Lord is near.
Do not worry about anything, but in everything
by prayer and sup simplification and with Thanksgiving.
Let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God which surpasses all
understanding will guard your hearts in your minds.
In Christ Jesus.
Finally, beloved.
Whatever is true.
Whatever is honorable.
Whatever is just,
whatever is pure,
whatever is pleasing, whatever's is commendable, if there
is any excellence and if there is anything
worthy of praise,
Think
about these things.
Keep on doing the things you have learned
and received and heard and seen in me,
and the god of peace will be with
you.
This is the word of God for the
people of God.
Thanks speed to God.
Will you pray with me?
Lord God, we give you thanks this, Dave
for our vacation bible school for their smiles,
for their laughter or for the joy that
radiates from their souls.
And it is our prayer that as your
word is open and pro proclaimed that we
can continue this testimony that there is yet
possibility in a challenging world.
That we can be living vessels of this
joy of which we speak. Open your word
to us today and speak to each and
every 1 of us.
Before we ask it through Christ Jesus our
Lord.
I'm amen.
Well, like we said, we're beginning this summer
sir... The second part of our summer sermon
series on joy, on this Sunday as we
begin the week. This is also the week
where we will be beginning the 20 24
summer
Olympics. And to kinda bring all that together,
I was reading a story this week
about Jim Caitlin Or.
And I think she can help us get
started with us. Now, Caitlyn is not going
to be in the upcoming
Olympics. Though at 1 point, Caitlyn, was considered
the best gym ness in the world, finishing
even ahead of simone bile.
It's a fascinating story which I saw on
Npr this week or heard on Npr this
week.
She started out very young,
but she got caught up sort of in
the gym
machine. It was all work and pain in
progress and
evaluation and competition. So she just pulled out
for a season.
But then she encountered the gym coach from
Ucla,
Valerie Condos field or better known as Coach
Val.
And Coach fell approached her, and she asked
her when was the last time
you actually loved gymnastics.
And Caitlyn went back and basically said, I
think that was back when I was 11
years old.
It's been... And since that point, she had
just been kinda grinding it out. So Coach
Val decided she need to treat her as
a human being, recognize your value as a
human before being an athlete.
And the result was,
several years later, she went to Us ucla.
She worked with Coach val. And in 20
19,
Caitlin scored a perfect 10
on a floor
routine.
And it was all on a video is
on a Youtube video that went viral. I
checked it this week. 245000000
views on this on this
floor routine.
And you could just look at a couple
of the comments and you can realize why
it scored a perfect tent. When she is
out there, you can see this joy.
Just radiating
out for her from her as she dance
as she did her routine. And you get
those the feeling that the reason for her
10 was not just because of the precision
of her movement
is more the joy that radiate out of
her soul as she did it.
Well, I'm not sure how many recovering gym
we have in the room this morning, but
I'm pretty sure most of us.
Can relate to Caitlyn.
So the next couple weeks we're going gonna
be asking this question together is a church.
Whatever happened to joy
Whatever happened to joy. I mean, given all
the events, particularly of the last couple of
weeks,
We have been drinking out of the fire
hose of breaking news.
It would not be surprising. If you and
I find ourselves in the same place as
Caitlin,
or biblical speaking as the widow searching for
the lost coin of what we could call
joy. Same and at the risk of overs?
Doesn't it feel sometimes in our day,
like joy,
joy has just been sucked out of the
room.
You know, years ago, when I flew for
the navy, you need to know that we
You sort of... When you flew for the
navy, you sort of lost your first name.
Everybody just called you by your call sign.
And when I think of our contemporary state
of affairs. I think of 1 particular man
I flew with for a couple years. His
call sign was
black cloud.
Black cloud. I know I tell you what
Black Cloud on every bit of his name
when he walked into the room Everything was
wrong. Everything could go south. This could have
yeah, but have you thought about...
And I think about him many years ago
and I can't picture a smile on his
face.
And here's the thing. Every single 1 of
us today,
We know a black cloud. And if we're
honest,
We may recognize that we may be seeing
black cloud
in the mirror.
But see, the good news literally
is that there is hope
See, we're open up the the book of
Philippians for these next couple of weeks.
And 1 of the primary themes of the
book
is joy.
And we see it right out of the
gate this morning
when we open up the fourth chapter
Paul says to his church in Philip or
to the church in Philip, and he says
to us today these words.
Rejoice in the lord always.
I say it again, rejoice.
And,
I think these kids who are up here
for bible will do they not help us
to think about joy. In fact, this week
earlier, I met with all the kids 1
day, and I said, yeah, I'm gonna talk
about joy in my sermon this week, can
you help me?
So I put them all together in front
of the the fireside side setting. I said,
give me a picture of joy. You can
see that picture in your bulletin right now.
Raised hands. And. I wish you could see
some of the kids funny faces or making
funny faces in there. And if you can't
see that look on the email, but the
it's a great picture to get us thinking
about it.
Well, Philippians is this beautiful book. This powerful
book. And this fourth chapter brings it all
home with I think some of Paul's most
inspiring words.
And we could preach an entire sermon series
on the fourth chapter of Philippians, but this
morning, I would like to focus on 1
verse, more particularly.
4 words
in 1 verse.
You did hear it where Paul said,
the lord is near.
In fact, let's say that together. The Lord
is
near 1 more time. The Lord is near.
Paul reminds us that's why you and I
can yet have joy, but I don't wanna
leave this. Let's not leave this as some
nice bumper sticker.
Dive into this little bit.
Because what Paul has set up for us
with these words
are several layers, several
foundations that build up to those wonderful
4
words.
So let's unpack the layers a bit.
See, first of all, Paul is reminding us.
We can rejoice in the Lord
because God is still running the universe.
We can rejoice in the Lord because God
is still on the throne. God is still
in charge.
You know, earlier this week, Lin and, my
wife Lin and, were sitting down, we having
dinner, and we were watching the news and
Like I said earlier, it was just like,
drinking out of this frustrating fire hose. I
was trying to drink out of it take
it all. It just wasn't working. And 1
of the things I do and I don't
have a church meeting during the week because
I often do some work workout in the
garage, and I I, Like, turn up the
music. Well, years ago, my son law, Gave
me a subscription to spotify.
You all have Spotify others. It it to
me, it's says what you type in a
song. It's there right away. You type in,
anything and you get a playlist right away.
So I walked out of this frustrating night
with the news and walked out of my
garage. I typed into my spotify,
our God reign.
Now instantly, about 30 songs came up and
now I need to listen to that. So
I sat there working in the garage. Our
god rains by about the fifth or sixth
song. Okay. I got it.
Right?
I got it.
But I need that reminder.
That no matter what
our god reign.
You know, in a deeper way earlier this
week, I had that reminder with Pastor Keith.
We're we're gonna be talking about that in
the prayer concerns, but pastor Keith Ed,
pastor of our partner church
died this past week. I had the privilege
of being with him. Just a few days
before his death.
And together, as pastors, we remembered the words
of Psalm 46.
God is it's our refuge and our strength,
and ever present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth
give and the mountains fall into the heart
of the sea.
There's a river who streams make glad the
city of God. God is within or she
will not fall. God will help her it
break day. And then the famous words in
verse 10,
be still
and know that I'm God.
I needed that reminder, and I certainly found
it in psalm 46.
But there is the first layer that we
all need to hold to. In all the
events of the world are, God rings. And
if we could hold on to that somehow,
There's a foundation upon which
we can yet build
a living testimony to the joy of which
we speak.
But it keeps going. That's first layer. Our
God rains,
but there's another part of it. Our God
rains and
our God is
Good.
We're gonna speak a lot more about this
next week.
But in important detail to the book of
Philippians is that when Paul wrote these words,
when Paul tells you and me to rejoice,
he is in miserable circumstances. He's he's in
prison.
And yet he's writing about joy.
Now, Paul is there in part
because of bad
leadership.
He's dealing with leaders of the local synagogue.
Who have likely ins indicated his imprisonment.
He's dealing with roman authorities at the beginning
of seasons of persecution of the church
He's dealing with leaders in his individual church
that have are fighting against him.
So the point is he's surrounded by bad
leadership.
And yet, he calls us to rejoice. And
what he does, is he says,
put your perspective meditate upon different things.
Because those good things are of God.
Did hear this wonderful words.
He says, whatever is true.
Whatever's noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.
Think of these things.
With the implicit reminder
that we think about these things,
because these things are of God,
Our god is good, lovely,
true,
admirable,
lovely, praise worthy noble.
You see we can rejoice because at the
foundation, it is true.
Our God rains.
But on top of that,
our god is good,
and our god is love.
And now on these 2 layers, we can
place those beautiful 4 words.
The Lord is near.
It's a beautiful and inspiring aspiring thing.
That hopefully inspires joy in you
that this God
who reign as God who is good. That
god knows your name.
In my name. He knows everything you're dealing
with.
Every struggle, every sin, every doubt, all of
it is all there
and yet. He's not going anywhere.
He knows your name. He has called you
by name. This says come to be all
who labor and every. I will give you
rest.
See, the lord
of which we speak today is not an
imp force of the universe,
but a personal 1.
Who has come to you and to me
through the person of Jesus Christ.
And as such,
the lord is near.
That's what he Jesus meant when he said
the kingdom of God is near.
He's reminding you that the resources of the
living and loving and all powerful god are
abundantly available
to you.
And to me, despite what our I see
in the world
But let's not overlook 1 of the most
beautiful resources for joy
that we so often overlook.
God himself.
You know Dallas Willard
spoke a lot about this with a reminder,
He puts it kind of simply,
but offers a reminder that we often forget...
We often forget God really is happy.
God is full of contagious
joy.
The God didn't send up there on the
throne with his stern look upon you and
upon this creation. That God isn't coiled in
the kingdom as a snake ready to strike
those who do wrong.
But god,
exists certainly in h.
God certainly
existed all that glory.
But in all of that God exists
enjoy.
Do you remember what Jesus said in the
book of John, spoke about the father's love.
And then he said, I have told you
this so my joy may be in you.
And your joy may be complete.
Do you see that friends?
The God who's running the universe
is good.
The god who knows your name is running
the universe is good.
And the god who knows your name is
a God of cons joy.
I to confess that my take on joy
over the years
has changed a bit. In the past, I
I thought about joy, I've taken inspiration and
still take inspiration.
From a great poem written years ago
by Ella Wi hitchcock Will, and She embraces
the sailing
imagery
as we think about our lives. She says
this and I quote.
1 ship drives east
and another drives west,
with the self same winds that blow.
Tis the set of the sales
and not the gale
which tell us the way to go,
Like the winds of the seas are the
ways of fate as we voyage along through
the life
tis the set of a soul
that decides its goal
and not the calm of the... Or the
strife.
Do you see the imagery she's offering?
We can't control the storms. We can't control
the winds. We can't control the circumstances that
come our way, but we can set our
sails. Right?
We can set our sales for joy. It
reminds us that you and I do have
some
agency in our lives.
Dare we say for joy.
I can make forward progress
even if I can't control the storms.
And there is so much truth to that.
But here's the other part of it. Years
of life and ministry have reminded me that
sometimes.
There are seasons of life for you and
for me, where we can't even get to
the mas
to set the sales.
I love the phrase I choose joy, but
the reality of lying for reminded me and
others, how often We just can't bring it.
We can't choose joy at that point.
We can't get to that love in that
wonder.
We can't just rejoice. I say again rejoice.
But he... There's the beauty of Paul.
He doesn't just command us to have joy.
He invites us
to cast our gaze upon who god is.
We may not have the strength
to raise our sails up on the mas,
but see we can look to Jesus.
The author and the perfect of our faith,
so that his joy may be raised up
in us to do what we cannot do
on our own.
And you see, Paul brings all this together
with that beautiful verse
and a closing image.
He says this and I quote.
Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation by prayer and petition
with Thanksgiving presenter your requests to God.
And the peace of god which transcend all
understanding will guard, hold that will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Say, Paul tells us to rejoice.
And Paul says do not be anxious about
anything.
But then he gathers all of this power
these words
under an image.
Actually, it's a military image.
He speaks of the peace of god,
guarding you, guarding our hearts.
Guarding our minds in Christ Jesus.
It's almost as if he's saying the peace
of god is a century
standing watch over us, guarding over us as
we live as we deal with the challenges
of life that the peace of God is
avail, to stand over us as we sleep
standing guard watching.
I find that to be an incredibly helpful
image.
Could Paul says don't be anxious about anything.
But what do you do
when it's 10:11
o'clock a night midnight in and in your
mind is just
spinning.
Can't get to sleep. What do when you
wake up at 2 in the morning 3
in the morning,
and your thoughts are just off to the
races.
Maybe it's not a Pan,
but I tell you what it's better and
count sheep.
What if this image could be true?
What if it's true?
That in my sleep,
in my anxiety,
in my worries,
in my anxious spirit. In my spinning thoughts,
there is god's peace.
Standing guard over my soul.
Even though it feels like my life is
in a spin cycle.
God's peace standing guard over you and me.
Well, friends, so what has happened to joy?
Can you relate to our Gym miss Caitlin
No?
With all the news you've seen in the
last couple weeks does it feel like you're
turning into black cloud.
Well, let's spend some time together with Paul
and joy Philippians summer because you know what?
Good news is joy hadn't gone anywhere.
In fact, Paul says joy in the Lord
is near
And our God is still a god of
cons joy.
Our God reign. Our God is good, and
our God knows your name.
But as you go forth this week and
turn on another week of breaking news and
as you also look at the Olympics this
week.
Let's remember this lesson.
And let's claim God's peace as it stands
guard over you and me.
In the name of the father and the
son and the holy spirit.
I'm amen.
In response to the word proclaimed, I invite
you to stand and sing together these words
from Philippians 4 that you'll find in the
middle of your bulletin.
Please stand and join in singing rejoice in
the Lord.
As we remain standing let's together, say what
we believe using number 887
in your him.
Let's offer these words together from the eighth
chapter of Romans.
Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ.
Cell tribulation or distress or persecution or famine
or naked or peril or sword.
No.
In all these things, we are more than
conquer
through the 1 who loved us.
We are sure that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principal municipalities,
nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the
love of god.
In Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thanks speak to god.
Amen.
Let us please be seated.
Perfect
needs
on
as Pete mentioned, we have 2 pastor concerns
to share,
pastor Key from Coin,
community church did die this past week. I
know there's been some information that has been
going around about his funeral plans, but
they are still not set fully yet. So,
stay tuned for more information
about that,
also, as you'll see in your Bulletin Carolyn
Mitchell, another member of our church also died
this past week.
So we pray for
for her and for her family as well
as the family of,
Pastor Keith.
Please join me now in prayer.
Oh gracious and
joyful God.
We come to you
this day.
First with 2
sorrow,
sorrow
inter intersections that we lift up to you
this day.
We pray for
Michelle Edmunds
We pray for her family.
We pray for the family
of Carolyn
Mitchell.
Especially for Ryan Mitchell and all of his
family during this day
as they all grieve losses,
and deaths and their families.
We pray for their comfort
and for their peace during this time.
We remember this day, o lord that you
are indeed near.
You are near as we walk through the
valley of the shadow of death
and you are near each of us
throughout our lives,
and we thank you.
And praise you
that you are always near and that we
can never be separated
from your great love
in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
We are reminded this day, oh god that
you are also a God of joy.
And we pray that you would help fill
each of us
with your divine
joy.
And we acknowledge that there are circumstances
in life
and in the world around us that can
take our joy away from us, but we
pray that you would help each of us
to choose joy.
No matter what circumstances
that we may face.
We pray for our world.
We pray for peace in the midst of
conflict.
We pray for anyone who is suffering in
any way and mind, body or spirit for
their healing and for their strength.
And now in the silence of our hearts,
we also lift up to you.
Any personal concerns that we may have this
day.
Here our prayers o God.
In the midst of whatever circumstances
we may face in the midst of whatever
anxieties we may have. We present our
petitions to you this day oh God and
pray that you would hear them,
and that you would guard our hearts and
minds and fill us always with your joy,
and with your peace.
We praise you, we glorify you always o
god.
Re that you are always the year.
As we ask all of this in the
name of Jesus Christ our Lord who taught
us to pray together,
our father,
who are in heaven.
Hall it b thy.
Thy kingdom of home,
thy will be.
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us the stay our daily bread
and forgive us our tres
as we forgive those who tres against us
and lead us not to temptation,
but deliver us from you,
for thy is a kingdom
and the power
and the glory forever.
Ami amen.
And now I'd like to invite our usher
to come forward that we may continue to
respond to the word read and pro proclaimed
with the giving of our ties and our
offerings.
Let us pray.
Oh, god, we give you thanks for this
day.
We remember this day that you are the
ruler and the king of all
creation.
We remember this day that you are good,
and that you are close and near to
each 1 of us You know us by
name, You are our God, and we are
your people, and we rejoice
and praise you this day.
We give you thanks for
vacation Bible school this past week. We give
you thanks for all of the adults who
served our children this past week. And for
all the children that were in our midst
and for the joy that they shared with
all of us. Us.
We thank you for all of our many
gifts and blessings,
especially those that remind us of your joy,
and your peace that is always with us.
Bless these gifts that we return back to
you bless them and use them that they
make instruments of your joy and peace in
the world around us. We ask all of
this in the name of Jesus Christ, our
lord.
A amen.
Our final Ham is number 07:15
rejoice. The Lord is king. We will sing
verses 1 free 3.
Well, friends, Sunday is here, but Monday's is
coming.
And on Monday, the breaking news will be
there all the challenges of life will be
there, and all of it, it will come
your way, but I invite you to remember
that which we have pro proclaimed this day.
The Lord is near,
and the lord who is near is good,
and the Lord who is near who is
good is overall.
And this god is a God of joy.
Let us hold on to that truth as
we meet the challenges and joys to come
our way and go now in the name
of the father, and the sun and the
holy spirit as all god's people say.
Amen.