WHAT WE OFFER THE LORD

Transcription

1 WHAT WE OFFER THE LORD Rev. Mark A. Medina August 21, 2016 Jesus said to Satan in the wilderness in Luke chapter 4 verse 8, It is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him. With these words, the Lord established the priority of a faithful and dedicated life. This is our priority as we live out a core value in the Christian life. Worship is the opportunity for us to set aside the time to be in the presence of God and in a community of other Christians. What we offer on the Lord s Day has a lot to do with our hope and desires for worship. When we are here to listen and grow, then we are attuned to what is faithful. Psalm 86 teaches us what we are to be about in praising God everyday. 10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. 11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. 12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. 13 For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. This way of offering oneself in worship and to honor the day of the Lord, is to set aside the day for resting. God rested on the seventh day and we, too, must honor what God has established for us. Many folks today still maintain this practice while others see the day as something other than worshiping in a community of faith. Things have changed in recent years. The prophet Isaiah puts forth a challenge in his writings to those who seek to do their own thing on the sabbath. 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah ) Each one of us is challenged intellectually as well as emotionally in how we are to honor this day. This is a definite test in how we faithfully keep this day for the Lord and to keep it holy. Jesus understood the sabbath as a day of rest and he also knew the day was for his ministry to continue. He was presented many times with opportunities to heal on the sabbath. The Jewish day for sabbath is Saturday and the Lord s day for Christians is Sunday. The gospel lesson from Luke places Jesus in a synagogue teaching to a crowd, when a woman came forward 11 with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Woman, you are set free from your ailment. 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 1

2 The woman praised God because the Great Physician healed her from her condition and she was truly thankful. She was truly grateful. While the Lord healed, there stood the chief priest in the crowd who disapproved of this situation. His attitude toward the Lord was full of outrage and contempt when he said 14."There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day. His concern was more about the healing taking place on the sabbath rather than on the actual healing by the Lord. Jesus replied to the leader of the synagogue concerning the inconsistency of what was being challenged. 15 You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day? The one phrase that comes to mind is: Do as I say and not as I do comes crashing down as the religious leaders were put to shame. After that exchange the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing. They were praising God for Jesus. Today is the Lord s Day. His entire life brings meaning to the sabbath as a time for healing, wholeness, worship and praise. As Christians, we must be open to God s leading as we listen in worship. The best attitude we can have is active listening to the Lord as he leads us in faith and hope. Even in worship, we can have distractions that keep us from listening. It seems we are more attuned to sports scores, stock market reports, texting on cell phones, and use of IPads or kindles than on genuine worship where we are fully present. I remember a number of years back in a worship service when a member of the choir shouted out a loud Yes in the middle of the sermon while punching the air. You might say it s like raising your hand and saying, yes, Jesus. It seems he was wearing ear buds that no one could see and was listening to the World Series as his team (the Kansas City Royals of course) just scored a homerun. He was rather embarrassed while the rest of us just chuckled. He and I had a rather interesting visit after worship. From that point on, I looked to see if he was wearing ear buds in worship. He just smiled! Friends, another aspect of faith that we offer on the Lord s Day is stewardship. Our response to him is in the giving of ourselves through time, talent and money. We give out of gratitude. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth about how one gives. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 7 says 7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Our stewardship is an act of the whole person. The gratitude we have for the Lord inspires us to totally give of ourselves to the Creator. Then we have much to offer to the Lord with our lives. We praise God with all that we are. Friends, the Lord is asking us to give our thanks to him. When we do, we can profess that we praise and honor God with a life of holiness. This giving our all is a real challenge to those who disagree and seek other means to understand the presence of God. 2

3 Praising God and our Savior, Jesus, grants us the opportunities to praise continually with our minds, bodies and spirits. We are grateful to God for our lives as we serve and love the Lord. We are thankful. There is a story that is told by Bruce Larson which you may have heard before. Well there was A conference at a Presbyterian church in Omaha. People were given helium filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. Since they were Presbyterians, they weren't free to say "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord." All through the service balloons ascended, but when it was over 1/3 of the balloons were unreleased. Let your balloon go. [Luke, p. 43] So brothers and sisters, offer yourselves to freely give of your praise to the Lord on this day. What we offer to the Lord today and everyday is everything we have, everything that we are, and everything that we are becoming. May we praise God with thankful hearts. May we give honor to the Lord and Master. So let your balloon go. Praise the Lord! Let me hear an Amen! Praise the Lord! Supporting Scripture: Isaiah 58:9b 14 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 11 The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; 3

4 I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. Luke 13:10-17 (NRSV) 10Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Woman, you are set free from your ailment. 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day. 15 But the Lord answered him and said, You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day? 17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing. 4

5 WHAT WE OFFER THE LORD Rev. Mark A. Medina August 21, 2016 Jesus said to Satan in the wilderness in Luke chapter 4 verse 8, It is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him. With these words, the Lord established the priority of a faithful and dedicated life. This is our priority as we live out a core value in the Christian life. Worship is the opportunity for us to set aside the time to be in the presence of God and in a community of other Christians. What we offer on the Lord s Day has a lot to do with our hope and desires for worship. When we are here to listen and grow, then we are attuned to what is faithful. Psalm 86 teaches us what we are to be about in praising God everyday. 10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. 11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. 12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. 13 For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. This way of offering oneself in worship and to honor the day of the Lord, is to set aside the day for resting. God rested on the seventh day and we, too, must honor what God has established for us. Many folks today still maintain this practice while others see the day as something other than worshiping in a community of faith. Things have changed in recent years. The prophet Isaiah puts forth a challenge in his writings to those who seek to do their own thing on the sabbath. 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah ) Each one of us is challenged intellectually as well as emotionally in how we are to honor this day. This is a definite test in how we faithfully keep this day for the Lord and to keep it holy. Jesus understood the sabbath as a day of rest and he also knew the day was for his ministry to continue. He was presented many times with opportunities to heal on the sabbath. The Jewish day for sabbath is Saturday and the Lord s day for Christians is Sunday. The gospel lesson from Luke places Jesus in a synagogue teaching to a crowd, when a woman came forward 11 with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Woman, you are set free from your ailment. 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 1

6 The woman praised God because the Great Physician healed her from her condition and she was truly thankful. She was truly grateful. While the Lord healed, there stood the chief priest in the crowd who disapproved of this situation. His attitude toward the Lord was full of outrage and contempt when he said 14."There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day. His concern was more about the healing taking place on the sabbath rather than on the actual healing by the Lord. Jesus replied to the leader of the synagogue concerning the inconsistency of what was being challenged. 15 You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day? The one phrase that comes to mind is: Do as I say and not as I do comes crashing down as the religious leaders were put to shame. After that exchange the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing. They were praising God for Jesus. Today is the Lord s Day. His entire life brings meaning to the sabbath as a time for healing, wholeness, worship and praise. As Christians, we must be open to God s leading as we listen in worship. The best attitude we can have is active listening to the Lord as he leads us in faith and hope. Even in worship, we can have distractions that keep us from listening. It seems we are more attuned to sports scores, stock market reports, texting on cell phones, and use of IPads or kindles than on genuine worship where we are fully present. I remember a number of years back in a worship service when a member of the choir shouted out a loud Yes in the middle of the sermon while punching the air. You might say it s like raising your hand and saying, yes, Jesus. It seems he was wearing ear buds that no one could see and was listening to the World Series as his team (the Kansas City Royals of course) just scored a homerun. He was rather embarrassed while the rest of us just chuckled. He and I had a rather interesting visit after worship. From that point on, I looked to see if he was wearing ear buds in worship. He just smiled! Friends, another aspect of faith that we offer on the Lord s Day is stewardship. Our response to him is in the giving of ourselves through time, talent and money. We give out of gratitude. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth about how one gives. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 7 says 7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Our stewardship is an act of the whole person. The gratitude we have for the Lord inspires us to totally give of ourselves to the Creator. Then we have much to offer to the Lord with our lives. We praise God with all that we are. Friends, the Lord is asking us to give our thanks to him. When we do, we can profess that we praise and honor God with a life of holiness. This giving our all is a real challenge to those who disagree and seek other means to understand the presence of God. 2

7 Praising God and our Savior, Jesus, grants us the opportunities to praise continually with our minds, bodies and spirits. We are grateful to God for our lives as we serve and love the Lord. We are thankful. There is a story that is told by Bruce Larson which you may have heard before. Well there was A conference at a Presbyterian church in Omaha. People were given helium filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. Since they were Presbyterians, they weren't free to say "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord." All through the service balloons ascended, but when it was over 1/3 of the balloons were unreleased. Let your balloon go. [Luke, p. 43] So brothers and sisters, offer yourselves to freely give of your praise to the Lord on this day. What we offer to the Lord today and everyday is everything we have, everything that we are, and everything that we are becoming. May we praise God with thankful hearts. May we give honor to the Lord and Master. So let your balloon go. Praise the Lord! Let me hear an Amen! Praise the Lord! Supporting Scripture: Isaiah 58:9b 14 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 11 The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; 3

8 I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. Luke 13:10-17 (NRSV) 10Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Woman, you are set free from your ailment. 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day. 15 But the Lord answered him and said, You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day? 17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing. 4

9 WHAT WE OFFER THE LORD Rev. Mark A. Medina August 21, 2016 Jesus said to Satan in the wilderness in Luke chapter 4 verse 8, It is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him. With these words, the Lord established the priority of a faithful and dedicated life. This is our priority as we live out a core value in the Christian life. Worship is the opportunity for us to set aside the time to be in the presence of God and in a community of other Christians. What we offer on the Lord s Day has a lot to do with our hope and desires for worship. When we are here to listen and grow, then we are attuned to what is faithful. Psalm 86 teaches us what we are to be about in praising God everyday. 10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. 11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. 12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. 13 For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. This way of offering oneself in worship and to honor the day of the Lord, is to set aside the day for resting. God rested on the seventh day and we, too, must honor what God has established for us. Many folks today still maintain this practice while others see the day as something other than worshiping in a community of faith. Things have changed in recent years. The prophet Isaiah puts forth a challenge in his writings to those who seek to do their own thing on the sabbath. 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah ) Each one of us is challenged intellectually as well as emotionally in how we are to honor this day. This is a definite test in how we faithfully keep this day for the Lord and to keep it holy. Jesus understood the sabbath as a day of rest and he also knew the day was for his ministry to continue. He was presented many times with opportunities to heal on the sabbath. The Jewish day for sabbath is Saturday and the Lord s day for Christians is Sunday. The gospel lesson from Luke places Jesus in a synagogue teaching to a crowd, when a woman came forward 11 with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Woman, you are set free from your ailment. 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 1

10 The woman praised God because the Great Physician healed her from her condition and she was truly thankful. She was truly grateful. While the Lord healed, there stood the chief priest in the crowd who disapproved of this situation. His attitude toward the Lord was full of outrage and contempt when he said 14."There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day. His concern was more about the healing taking place on the sabbath rather than on the actual healing by the Lord. Jesus replied to the leader of the synagogue concerning the inconsistency of what was being challenged. 15 You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day? The one phrase that comes to mind is: Do as I say and not as I do comes crashing down as the religious leaders were put to shame. After that exchange the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing. They were praising God for Jesus. Today is the Lord s Day. His entire life brings meaning to the sabbath as a time for healing, wholeness, worship and praise. As Christians, we must be open to God s leading as we listen in worship. The best attitude we can have is active listening to the Lord as he leads us in faith and hope. Even in worship, we can have distractions that keep us from listening. It seems we are more attuned to sports scores, stock market reports, texting on cell phones, and use of IPads or kindles than on genuine worship where we are fully present. I remember a number of years back in a worship service when a member of the choir shouted out a loud Yes in the middle of the sermon while punching the air. You might say it s like raising your hand and saying, yes, Jesus. It seems he was wearing ear buds that no one could see and was listening to the World Series as his team (the Kansas City Royals of course) just scored a homerun. He was rather embarrassed while the rest of us just chuckled. He and I had a rather interesting visit after worship. From that point on, I looked to see if he was wearing ear buds in worship. He just smiled! Friends, another aspect of faith that we offer on the Lord s Day is stewardship. Our response to him is in the giving of ourselves through time, talent and money. We give out of gratitude. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth about how one gives. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 7 says 7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Our stewardship is an act of the whole person. The gratitude we have for the Lord inspires us to totally give of ourselves to the Creator. Then we have much to offer to the Lord with our lives. We praise God with all that we are. Friends, the Lord is asking us to give our thanks to him. When we do, we can profess that we praise and honor God with a life of holiness. This giving our all is a real challenge to those who disagree and seek other means to understand the presence of God. 2

11 Praising God and our Savior, Jesus, grants us the opportunities to praise continually with our minds, bodies and spirits. We are grateful to God for our lives as we serve and love the Lord. We are thankful. There is a story that is told by Bruce Larson which you may have heard before. Well there was A conference at a Presbyterian church in Omaha. People were given helium filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. Since they were Presbyterians, they weren't free to say "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord." All through the service balloons ascended, but when it was over 1/3 of the balloons were unreleased. Let your balloon go. [Luke, p. 43] So brothers and sisters, offer yourselves to freely give of your praise to the Lord on this day. What we offer to the Lord today and everyday is everything we have, everything that we are, and everything that we are becoming. May we praise God with thankful hearts. May we give honor to the Lord and Master. So let your balloon go. Praise the Lord! Let me hear an Amen! Praise the Lord! Supporting Scripture: Isaiah 58:9b 14 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 11 The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; 3

12 I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. Luke 13:10-17 (NRSV) 10Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Woman, you are set free from your ailment. 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day. 15 But the Lord answered him and said, You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day? 17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing. 4

13 WHAT WE OFFER THE LORD Rev. Mark A. Medina August 21, 2016 Jesus said to Satan in the wilderness in Luke chapter 4 verse 8, It is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him. With these words, the Lord established the priority of a faithful and dedicated life. This is our priority as we live out a core value in the Christian life. Worship is the opportunity for us to set aside the time to be in the presence of God and in a community of other Christians. What we offer on the Lord s Day has a lot to do with our hope and desires for worship. When we are here to listen and grow, then we are attuned to what is faithful. Psalm 86 teaches us what we are to be about in praising God everyday. 10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. 11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. 12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. 13 For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. This way of offering oneself in worship and to honor the day of the Lord, is to set aside the day for resting. God rested on the seventh day and we, too, must honor what God has established for us. Many folks today still maintain this practice while others see the day as something other than worshiping in a community of faith. Things have changed in recent years. The prophet Isaiah puts forth a challenge in his writings to those who seek to do their own thing on the sabbath. 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah ) Each one of us is challenged intellectually as well as emotionally in how we are to honor this day. This is a definite test in how we faithfully keep this day for the Lord and to keep it holy. Jesus understood the sabbath as a day of rest and he also knew the day was for his ministry to continue. He was presented many times with opportunities to heal on the sabbath. The Jewish day for sabbath is Saturday and the Lord s day for Christians is Sunday. The gospel lesson from Luke places Jesus in a synagogue teaching to a crowd, when a woman came forward 11 with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Woman, you are set free from your ailment. 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 1

14 The woman praised God because the Great Physician healed her from her condition and she was truly thankful. She was truly grateful. While the Lord healed, there stood the chief priest in the crowd who disapproved of this situation. His attitude toward the Lord was full of outrage and contempt when he said 14."There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day. His concern was more about the healing taking place on the sabbath rather than on the actual healing by the Lord. Jesus replied to the leader of the synagogue concerning the inconsistency of what was being challenged. 15 You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day? The one phrase that comes to mind is: Do as I say and not as I do comes crashing down as the religious leaders were put to shame. After that exchange the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing. They were praising God for Jesus. Today is the Lord s Day. His entire life brings meaning to the sabbath as a time for healing, wholeness, worship and praise. As Christians, we must be open to God s leading as we listen in worship. The best attitude we can have is active listening to the Lord as he leads us in faith and hope. Even in worship, we can have distractions that keep us from listening. It seems we are more attuned to sports scores, stock market reports, texting on cell phones, and use of IPads or kindles than on genuine worship where we are fully present. I remember a number of years back in a worship service when a member of the choir shouted out a loud Yes in the middle of the sermon while punching the air. You might say it s like raising your hand and saying, yes, Jesus. It seems he was wearing ear buds that no one could see and was listening to the World Series as his team (the Kansas City Royals of course) just scored a homerun. He was rather embarrassed while the rest of us just chuckled. He and I had a rather interesting visit after worship. From that point on, I looked to see if he was wearing ear buds in worship. He just smiled! Friends, another aspect of faith that we offer on the Lord s Day is stewardship. Our response to him is in the giving of ourselves through time, talent and money. We give out of gratitude. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth about how one gives. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 7 says 7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Our stewardship is an act of the whole person. The gratitude we have for the Lord inspires us to totally give of ourselves to the Creator. Then we have much to offer to the Lord with our lives. We praise God with all that we are. Friends, the Lord is asking us to give our thanks to him. When we do, we can profess that we praise and honor God with a life of holiness. This giving our all is a real challenge to those who disagree and seek other means to understand the presence of God. 2

15 Praising God and our Savior, Jesus, grants us the opportunities to praise continually with our minds, bodies and spirits. We are grateful to God for our lives as we serve and love the Lord. We are thankful. There is a story that is told by Bruce Larson which you may have heard before. Well there was A conference at a Presbyterian church in Omaha. People were given helium filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. Since they were Presbyterians, they weren't free to say "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord." All through the service balloons ascended, but when it was over 1/3 of the balloons were unreleased. Let your balloon go. [Luke, p. 43] So brothers and sisters, offer yourselves to freely give of your praise to the Lord on this day. What we offer to the Lord today and everyday is everything we have, everything that we are, and everything that we are becoming. May we praise God with thankful hearts. May we give honor to the Lord and Master. So let your balloon go. Praise the Lord! Let me hear an Amen! Praise the Lord! Supporting Scripture: Isaiah 58:9b 14 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 11 The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; 3

16 I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. Luke 13:10-17 (NRSV) 10Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Woman, you are set free from your ailment. 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day. 15 But the Lord answered him and said, You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day? 17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing. 4

17 WHAT WE OFFER THE LORD Rev. Mark A. Medina August 21, 2016 Jesus said to Satan in the wilderness in Luke chapter 4 verse 8, It is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him. With these words, the Lord established the priority of a faithful and dedicated life. This is our priority as we live out a core value in the Christian life. Worship is the opportunity for us to set aside the time to be in the presence of God and in a community of other Christians. What we offer on the Lord s Day has a lot to do with our hope and desires for worship. When we are here to listen and grow, then we are attuned to what is faithful. Psalm 86 teaches us what we are to be about in praising God everyday. 10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. 11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. 12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. 13 For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. This way of offering oneself in worship and to honor the day of the Lord, is to set aside the day for resting. God rested on the seventh day and we, too, must honor what God has established for us. Many folks today still maintain this practice while others see the day as something other than worshiping in a community of faith. Things have changed in recent years. The prophet Isaiah puts forth a challenge in his writings to those who seek to do their own thing on the sabbath. 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah ) Each one of us is challenged intellectually as well as emotionally in how we are to honor this day. This is a definite test in how we faithfully keep this day for the Lord and to keep it holy. Jesus understood the sabbath as a day of rest and he also knew the day was for his ministry to continue. He was presented many times with opportunities to heal on the sabbath. The Jewish day for sabbath is Saturday and the Lord s day for Christians is Sunday. The gospel lesson from Luke places Jesus in a synagogue teaching to a crowd, when a woman came forward 11 with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Woman, you are set free from your ailment. 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 1

18 The woman praised God because the Great Physician healed her from her condition and she was truly thankful. She was truly grateful. While the Lord healed, there stood the chief priest in the crowd who disapproved of this situation. His attitude toward the Lord was full of outrage and contempt when he said 14."There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day. His concern was more about the healing taking place on the sabbath rather than on the actual healing by the Lord. Jesus replied to the leader of the synagogue concerning the inconsistency of what was being challenged. 15 You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day? The one phrase that comes to mind is: Do as I say and not as I do comes crashing down as the religious leaders were put to shame. After that exchange the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing. They were praising God for Jesus. Today is the Lord s Day. His entire life brings meaning to the sabbath as a time for healing, wholeness, worship and praise. As Christians, we must be open to God s leading as we listen in worship. The best attitude we can have is active listening to the Lord as he leads us in faith and hope. Even in worship, we can have distractions that keep us from listening. It seems we are more attuned to sports scores, stock market reports, texting on cell phones, and use of IPads or kindles than on genuine worship where we are fully present. I remember a number of years back in a worship service when a member of the choir shouted out a loud Yes in the middle of the sermon while punching the air. You might say it s like raising your hand and saying, yes, Jesus. It seems he was wearing ear buds that no one could see and was listening to the World Series as his team (the Kansas City Royals of course) just scored a homerun. He was rather embarrassed while the rest of us just chuckled. He and I had a rather interesting visit after worship. From that point on, I looked to see if he was wearing ear buds in worship. He just smiled! Friends, another aspect of faith that we offer on the Lord s Day is stewardship. Our response to him is in the giving of ourselves through time, talent and money. We give out of gratitude. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth about how one gives. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 7 says 7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Our stewardship is an act of the whole person. The gratitude we have for the Lord inspires us to totally give of ourselves to the Creator. Then we have much to offer to the Lord with our lives. We praise God with all that we are. Friends, the Lord is asking us to give our thanks to him. When we do, we can profess that we praise and honor God with a life of holiness. This giving our all is a real challenge to those who disagree and seek other means to understand the presence of God. 2

19 Praising God and our Savior, Jesus, grants us the opportunities to praise continually with our minds, bodies and spirits. We are grateful to God for our lives as we serve and love the Lord. We are thankful. There is a story that is told by Bruce Larson which you may have heard before. Well there was A conference at a Presbyterian church in Omaha. People were given helium filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. Since they were Presbyterians, they weren't free to say "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord." All through the service balloons ascended, but when it was over 1/3 of the balloons were unreleased. Let your balloon go. [Luke, p. 43] So brothers and sisters, offer yourselves to freely give of your praise to the Lord on this day. What we offer to the Lord today and everyday is everything we have, everything that we are, and everything that we are becoming. May we praise God with thankful hearts. May we give honor to the Lord and Master. So let your balloon go. Praise the Lord! Let me hear an Amen! Praise the Lord! Supporting Scripture: Isaiah 58:9b 14 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 11 The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; 3

20 I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. Luke 13:10-17 (NRSV) 10Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Woman, you are set free from your ailment. 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day. 15 But the Lord answered him and said, You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day? 17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing. 4

21 WHAT WE OFFER THE LORD Rev. Mark A. Medina August 21, 2016 Jesus said to Satan in the wilderness in Luke chapter 4 verse 8, It is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him. With these words, the Lord established the priority of a faithful and dedicated life. This is our priority as we live out a core value in the Christian life. Worship is the opportunity for us to set aside the time to be in the presence of God and in a community of other Christians. What we offer on the Lord s Day has a lot to do with our hope and desires for worship. When we are here to listen and grow, then we are attuned to what is faithful. Psalm 86 teaches us what we are to be about in praising God everyday. 10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. 11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name. 12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. 13 For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. This way of offering oneself in worship and to honor the day of the Lord, is to set aside the day for resting. God rested on the seventh day and we, too, must honor what God has established for us. Many folks today still maintain this practice while others see the day as something other than worshiping in a community of faith. Things have changed in recent years. The prophet Isaiah puts forth a challenge in his writings to those who seek to do their own thing on the sabbath. 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah ) Each one of us is challenged intellectually as well as emotionally in how we are to honor this day. This is a definite test in how we faithfully keep this day for the Lord and to keep it holy. Jesus understood the sabbath as a day of rest and he also knew the day was for his ministry to continue. He was presented many times with opportunities to heal on the sabbath. The Jewish day for sabbath is Saturday and the Lord s day for Christians is Sunday. The gospel lesson from Luke places Jesus in a synagogue teaching to a crowd, when a woman came forward 11 with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Woman, you are set free from your ailment. 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 1