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[Music] well good morning and welcome to brambleton presbyterian church's worship service our virtual worship service we are so glad that you were here this morning please join me as i open our worship surface in a word of prayer gracious and loving god this is the day you have made we will rejoice and be glad in it i humbly ask now that you will bring us together though we are separated by these screens lord please bring us together in a community of faith gathered we are open and receptive please fill our hearts and our minds with the wisdom and the hope that will empower us to move forward boldly from this moment filled with faith in our lord jesus christ we pray all of these things in his name amen alrighty now let's join our worship team [Music] ladies [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] your grace is enough great it is [Music] [Applause] salvation [Music] remember your children your problem is [Music] enough [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] your grace is enough your grace is enough your grace is [Music] [Music] is enough for me [Music] thanks dave good morning everyone today's scripture is taken from jeremiah chapter 29 verses 4 through 13. this is god's word for god's people thus says the lord of hosts the god of israel to all the exiles whom i have sent into exile from jerusalem to babylon build houses and live in them plant gardens and eat what they produce take wives and have sons and daughters take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters multiply there and do not decrease but seek the welfare of the city where i have sent you into exile and pray to the lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare for thus says the lord of hosts the god of israel do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you and do not listen to the dreams that they dream for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name i did not send them says the lord for thus says the lord only when babylon's 70 years are completed will i visit you and i will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place for surely i know the plans i have for you says the lord plans for your welfare and not for harm to give you a future with hope then when you call upon me and come and pray to me i will hear you when you search for me you will find me if you seek me with all your heart [Music] well thank you virginia and a good warning again to all of you several years ago i decided to go and see my daughter who was at the time living in queens and so i left washington dc at union station i took the amtrak and that train deposited me at penn station in manhattan so i had to get from manhattan to queens and generally what i would do was to take the f subway that was the best way to go however it was never a good time never a good time that f subway was so unpredictable i never knew what to expect when it came to the timing so for instance one time i was standing in the platform and the billboard overhead kept announcing three minutes three minutes the f train is coming in three minutes it announced that for 45 minutes before i finally got frustrated and turned to the lady who was standing there on the platform with me with me we were the only ones left waiting for that train i said what gives it's been three minutes for over an hour she was far more experienced than i was at that time with the f train and she just looked at me and she kind of laughed and she said honey the only thing that is certain about the f train is uncertainty so i suggest you lower your expectations that's what i did and when i did things go so much better and she was right about that when i finally accepted that that leg of my journey manhattan to queens was going to be unpredictable and uncertain i finally stopped stressing about when i was going to get there i was going to get there to my daughter's apartment in this sermon series over the last several weeks i have built been building the case about what it's going to take for us to get there and by there i mean the restoration and the healing the well-being of all people that is so desperately needed in our country right now that's where we're going in 2021 and as i put this particular sermon together for you that chance encounter with that woman on the new york subway platform came back to me i think that what she was calling for relaxing into the uncertainty understanding that the journey forward is going to be uncertain that's exactly the mindset that we need as we forge our way forward in 2021 a couple of examples the shutdown literally happened overnight overnight but the opening is going to be so much more gradual and it's going to probably be a lot slower than any of us would like i mean we are a really good example of that here at brambleton presbyterian church our last regular in-person service was march 8th 2020. seven months later in october it seemed like things were moving in the right direction and what i mean by that is it was safe enough to for us in terms of the spread of the coronavirus to begin worshiping in person again with proper precautions in place which we carefully put in place but it only lasted for a month in less than a month the rates began to climb and we your leaders felt it was best for us to go back online so that we could do our part in slowing down the s spread of the virus and so as christmas was coming upon us and we were all hoping to be in person on christmas eve it didn't happen the shutdown was overnight but the re-opening is going to be gradual and there's going to be a lot of uncertainty involved the tribalization and the dis in disunity in our country where we are right now in this regard has been growing for decades and we have certainly begun to understand that the bridges that we need to build to bring us back together it's not one bridge it's many bridges except that those bridges don't yet really exist we are in the midst of designing them and as it is the case in all design work there are often many many iterations of drafts until the people arrive at the design that they can all agree upon the racism that exists in our country it has taken over 400 years to take root and so the healing the understanding the listening the reconciliation that needs to take place that is just and that we do owe this is going to take time and there's going to be a lot of uncertainty and i'm sure frustration as we move our way forward one last example this one was so expiring last wednesday on the day of the inauguration that night for the ceremony the celebration former president george bush said something that captured my attention and it was actually quite inspiring i'm going to quote him he said if every american will love their neighbors as they love themselves our nation will begin to heal i love that and of course that's not something that he came up with on his own he was quoting jesus christ in that very important moment and jesus was very clear on this one of the longest teachings that we have recorded in the new testament was about this very concept jesus was clear that the way we treat neighbors the way we think of neighbors the way we think of them is got to be based upon what we want for ourselves so treating and interacting with others is based upon how we want to be treated and interacted with jesus was so clear that this is one of the keys to the peace and the well-being that we also desire but when we look around it's clear that living into jesus's command is not an easy thing for us to do including many americans my point is has been as i've been laying this sermon series out as we continue to press forward in 2021 uncertainty is ahead we will continue to need to be adaptive and flexible pivoting will still be necessary i heard one leader say it like this when life is uncertain flexibility must be one of your key super powers and so that's the mindset in which we need to move forward we're going to get there but we're going to encounter some uncertainty and some unpredictability and we're going to need to continue pivoting and adapting and being flexible and we are going to need to see treat other people and see other people as we treat and want to be seen ourselves the text for this sermon series virginia just read it it comes from the book of jeremiah jeremiah is a book in the new testament he was one of the most prolific prophets in the life of god's ancient people the text we are referring to in this series is one singular text it's jeremiah 29 just a few verses but these verses are full of the spiritual resources that i believe we need to lean into as we move forward into 2021. so far in the sermon series i've been laying out the big picture the vision god's vision for the restoration and healness that we must seek in this moment today we are going to shift and begin drilling down on the specific actions actionable steps that each of us can take individually and that we as a church need to be taking as well the first that we are going to consider is where to start where do we start in this great and noble and much-needed effort of restoration and seeking justice and well-being and prosperity for all of the citizens in our country we're going to turn to verses five and six and i'm gonna read them to you this is where we're gonna focus our time here this morning verses five and six jeremiah says now that you have the big picture let's get going build houses live in them plant gardens eat what they produce take wives and have sons and daughters multiply where you live and don't decrease and so in a nutshell jeremiah's saying to set things right out there in our society in our communities in our nation to set things right out there they must be right here in our own hearts and in the families in which we reside and why is this well jeremiah builds the case that what we are building in our homes what we are consuming in our homes what the way that we treat the people that we are closest to in our homes reverberates it echoes in the society in which we land live before i was a pastor i was a social worker and i want you to know that i saw this very principle play itself out over and over and over in the lives of the family that i was called to serve so the child who was a bully was more likely more often than not living in a house full of bullies the child who was willing to give her lunch away at lunchtime to the child sitting next to her who didn't have a lunch was the child who was living in a home where it was modeled that giving and helping others is a high priority the child who was disrespectful and unwilling to listen and bucked against every rule was living in a house full of people where those were the norms according to jeremiah the restoration of our nation the well-being the justice the prosperity the shalom that we seek this great work begins first not out there but it begins here in our hearts in our families in our homes centuries later our lord jesus christ reiterated the very same thing he was in a moment where he was speaking to his disciples about what they the work they needed to engage to in order to bring about the restoration that was needed in their day the implementation of god's design and intentions for all people the work that was cut out before them and in that moment jesus said this he said the kingdom of god belongs to all people it grows like a mustard seed however a mustard seed that someone took and planted in a field it is the smallest of all seeds initially but when it has grown it is the greatest of all of the shrubs for it becomes a tree a tree that is so great that there is room for all the birds in its branches it's a beautiful vision of the society that god through jesus calls us to pave for all people when it's right here in our own lives in our own homes it is likely to be right there in our communities in our nation in the world and when it is wrong here it is likely to echo and ripple out there in all the wrong ways as well in order for us to go where god is calling us to go we start in our own lives in our own families jeremiah in this passage essentially lays out four questions for us that we can ask of ourselves and our family members to determine whether or not we are headed in the right directions in the right direction it's they're very simple questions what am i building what am i planning what am i consuming how am i treating the people closest to me and friends jeremiah does not mean for this to be a theoretical exercise in these verses he is challenging each and every one of us to get down on our knees and take an inventory a prayerful inventory of what our hearts what's in our hearts what's in our homes what's flourishing inside of each one of us what's flourishing in our homes and so those are broad categories but jeremiah is calling us to get very specific and to ask questions that sound like this do i treat the people that i encounter the way that i want to be treated when i come upon people in the world do i see them as adversaries or do i immediately see them as neighbors do i only listen to the people that agree with me does my family is my family known famous for making sacrifices for people in need am i planning the truth or am i planning a lie what am i consuming what am i binging on am i binging on social media am i consuming at high volumes what the news has to say every night or am i consuming god's word and when it comes to words what about your own words my own words are my words healing or are they harmful do i build up or tear down when i speak recently i read something very powerful about president abraham lincoln's words he's been referenced a lot in the last several months appropriately as someone who had an extraordinary ability to bring a calm presence a uniting presence in the midst of a very disunified country the time when we were in the civil war he's known for his diplomacy and his calmness and his great skills at bringing what is divided together in a united way uniting divided people what many don't know or at least what i didn't know is that president lincoln had a very hot temper and so one of his biographers mentioned that one of his strategies for dealing with his hot temper was hot letters his hot letters were diatribes angry blistering diatribes that he wrote aimed at his particular opponent or adversary in whatever moment he was in and so when he got into a situation where he felt his anger coming up instead of letting it spew he would write these hot letters and then he would put these hot letters aside and it was only after his anger subsided that he would go back to that opponent and bridge the way forward after he died several decades someone found a stack of his hot letters i read in this article and apparently at the bottom of every single one of his letters was a signature statement never signed never sent and then he put his initials i was so inspired when i read this i thought this is exactly the kind of thing that we should be modeling in our homes we should be extending this kind of temperance and restraint in our families and in our homes we should be sending our children out into the world with this sort of perspective very powerful what are we building what are we planning what are we consuming what am i building what am i planning what am i consuming in my own life and in my family how are we doing how are we doing now please understand when you partner this passage with the rest of the biblical narrative it is clear it is not up to us to set the standards for the answers that we give right now in our culture there is a very popular and i believe dangerous idea afoot and it is that personal preference is the arbitrator of truth and so each one of us gets to decide what is true and what is not true and what is right and what is not right that doesn't work we can't organize our society based upon that kind of thinking so popular but it's dangerous and all we have to do is look around our nation to see that it's not working the standards by which we must arrive at the answer to the questions that jeremiah is posing in this passage are set by god and they are recorded in the biblical narrative and they are available for all people to read to take in and to understand just a couple of examples of what the biblical narrative has to say about this subject from the old testament and proverbs lean not unto your own understanding in all your ways seek god let god direct your path forward lean into god's direction for your life one time in the new testament jesus was being tested by his arch enemy satan on this very subject listen to what jesus said i must live according to every word that comes out of the mouth of god friends if this is jesus's approach to his own life his conviction about his own life what makes us think that we can do anything less finally one last thing that jesus said good people bring good things out of the good that is stored up in their hearts evil people bring evil things out of the evil that is stored up in their hearts in our own lives in our homes we must be diligent about storing up what is contained in god's biblical narrative in the bible in the holy scriptures bringing this together having the right leaders in our elected positions is absolutely necessary it's very important but hear me on this our elected officials cannot accomplish the work that must be done in this country on their own they cannot do it we've each got a role to play and we must each bring our very best to the work that needs to be done and i promise you our very best is leading the way in building and planting on god's intention god's principle for our lives as it's laid out in the scriptures and why is this when we go back to what jesus said to his disciples jesus said it is god's kingdom it is life arranged according to god's values and intention it is god's kingdom that is big enough and expansive enough to provide well-being and justice and prosperity and shalom for all people there is no scarcity in god's kingdom the work before us this year won't be easy and as i said there will still be a lot of uncertainty in the work that we must do however i believe we are headed in the right direction and i believe through our faith in the lord jesus christ we will get there we will last week i mentioned that january is the time in brambleton presbyterian church in which we renew our faith portfolios if you are new to our church and you don't know what a faith portfolio is it is simply an annual pledge four commitments that we encourage every member every regular attender online or physical to make annually commitments that will enable us to understand and implement god's kingdom values here in our families and then to be empowered to move into the world echoing out and calling others around us to do the same thing now is not the time for any christ follower to sit back and wait for someone else to make it happen each one of us is necessary and so friends i want to encourage you to engage to engage deeply in the life of this church join with us make the faith portfolio commitment with us this church is here to help you understand and live into what god is calling us to plant and build and consume in our lives we are stronger together we are stronger together united we cannot be divided through our faith in the lord jesus christ we will help this nation to rise up please join us [Music] bless the lord [Music] worship his holy name [Music] it's time to sing your song again whatever [Music] even go [Music] [Music] worship his own [Music] oh my soul i'll worship your holy [Music] your name is great and your heart is ten thousand reasons bless the lord o worship his holy name sing like never before [Music] game [Music] and on that day when my strength failing the end draws near and my time has come still my soul will sing your praise 10 000 years and then forever worship his holy day sing my never before oh my soul i'll worship your holy [Music] worship his holy day seemed like never before [Music] worship your holy [Music] lord i'll worship your holy name [Music] sing like never before oh my soul i'll worship your holy name [Music] worship your holy name worship your holy name [Music] friends on wednesday we had the blessing of witnessing one of the hallmarks of our democracy the inauguration of a new president please join me in praying for our new leaders and for our government gracious god we thank you for the peaceful transfer of power that occurred last wednesday president biden has already demonstrated qualities that our country really needs right now honesty empathy and most importantly deep faith we must not fool ourselves into thinking that these qualities alone will result in a successful administration only faith in you and prayer can do that we ask you to protect president biden give him good health and restful nights keep his family safe help him to know when to stand firm and when to compromise we pray the same for vice president harris may they always seek you first help the leaders of the senate house and all levels of government to put the people's needs ahead of political power and personal gain you have entrusted the least of these to their care president biden cannot lead this nation on his own and so god we pray for the church we cannot expect the nation to heal when even the church of jesus christ is divided help the people who call you lord and savior to discern what is true and just according to your word and to reject everything else you know the plans that you have for this nation god plans to prosper us and give us true hope and a future so that we can be a blessing to the world in jesus name we pray amen [Music] do not adjust your sets it is still january 24th and this is the announcement portion of the worship service i had to move from my previous location in my huge apartment because the sun was coming in the window and i was starting to fade away so here's what i have for you today the first thing is i'd like to ask you to reserve february 7th which is sunday at 10 45 a.m for the annual church meeting we'll hold it visually virtually on zoom and we'd love for you to attend you'll find out what's going on in the church currently and more importantly you'll find out what we're projecting ahead for 2021 my next request is that you submit your faith portfolios as you know the finance team uses the a portion of that portfolio to determine what the budget should be for 2021 and this time i think it's really important as well for you to let us know how you'd like to serve and where you'd like to help in the church the session i will look at those paid portfolios or at least get information about that section and we'll reach out to you and ask you to serve and help keep this church going the third thing is i really would like to ask you to continue to pray for our church and to pray for our government president biden vice president harris and leaders at every level are really facing a challenge in getting their arms around this pandemic getting the vaccine distributed and getting as much of the nation vaccinated as soon as possible um i think they could really use our prayers and our support so i ask you to keep them in mind at this time thank you and have a great week bye dear friends we are so pleased so honored that you joined us for worship today it's important and it's empowering i do encourage you to put our annual meeting on february 7th on your calendars we're going to be talking a lot about moving forward in the year to come in the life of our church and now receive this benediction may the love of god the father almighty the fellowship of jesus christ the risen son the empowering presence the abiding presence of the holy spirit fill you with peace and hope in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit go in peace amen [Music] you