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so so so so so so hello welcome to emmanuel i'm pastor nathan erb and we are in week three of our callings for life series today we're going to examine how our callings in life are better understood in the ordinary everyday even mundane things of life rather than the dramatic extraordinary mountain top experiences those moments are good for sure but most of life happens in the ordinary and that's precisely where god locates himself now jesus had mountaintop experiences quite literally but it was on the ground hanging out with real people like you and me that the truth of what he has done becomes real for us and where the church grows by living out those truths in everyday callings speaking of real people and growing the church today we are welcoming some new people to emmanuel a little later pastor timon will install chrissy heiss as our new children's and family ministry director but right now we also want to welcome to our congregation some new members now be sure to stay tuned following the worship service to see all the names and the faces of these new members but right now let's ask god's blessing on them there are going to be some who are welcomed and received during our in-person worship but i know there are some of you worshiping at home right now and so i invite you as well as our current members to consider what it means to be a member of this congregation and of christ's church worldwide brothers and sisters in christ our lord jesus said to his apostles whoever confesses me before men i will also confess before my father who is in heaven but whoever denies me before men i will also deny before my father who is in heaven though we do it imperfectly and inconsistently we do confess jesus to be our lord and savior we are baptized in the name of the father son and holy spirit this is our identity and by it we are united to christ his death for our sins and his resurrection for our eternal life we reject the devil and his works and his ways and all false teaching that would turn us from god's truth we believe the bible to be god's inspired word through which the holy spirit works in us and keeps us in the true faith we intend to hear god's word regularly and receive the lord's supper faithfully we intend to live according to god's word that our thoughts words and deeds would reflect his truth we commit to using our time talents and resources to serve god and his people not only of this congregation but also our community and we pray that god would hold us give us courage and strength to hold steadfast to his word being held in his grace that we would confess christ even in the face of difficulty or death trusting that in all things god works it all out for our eternal life with him if you believe those words and confess christ to be your savior and lord then i acknowledge that you are a member of emmanuel and the larger lutheran church we welcome you as brothers and sisters and we thank god that we all receive his gifts of word and sacrament that we might love and serve god and our neighbors together so for you our new members and our old ones the blessing of almighty god be on you now and forever amen let's tune our ears now to god's word as we hear christ call us to be salt and light in the world good morning i'm steve versman and our reading this sunday is from matthew chapter 5. you are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste how shall its saltiness be restored it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet you are the light of the world a city on a hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven this is the word of the lord hey my friend lee emmanuel family mrs artman here on another lovely sunday morning and i'm so glad to be sharing it with you but there's something really going on in my house today it's as if every little thing i asked my kids to do they suddenly forgot how to do it or to do it or what to do at all and you know what the weird thing is it's really stacking up around here i can't believe what a big difference it makes when all the little people in my house don't do all the little things that they normally do let me show you what i mean come here come here look look look look look look how messy look at this it's a spilled cup just like like somebody doesn't know how to use two hands cabinets are left open there's food all over look at this back counter do you see this it's like every single thing that's been taken out for the last couple of days just never got put away and that's not it that is not the only thing let me show you what else is going on okay so that was the kitchen now i'm over here in the family room do you ever ask your kids or kids do your parents ever say hey take the shirt and put it away in your drawer or here's a stack of socks could you go put these away i know i asked my kids to put their laundry away a lot and it looks like nobody's touched the laundry for weeks look at this look at this again look there's just piles and piles and piles of laundry and toys sitting here i don't know what's going on it's normally so clean in here and now there is stuff all over the place who would have thought that just a little thing like cleaning up laundry could stack up so fast it gets even worse let me show you the last one that no toilet paper so i was like that's okay i always keep toilet paper on the back of the toilet for an emergency right and then look at the back of my toilet no toilet paper no toilet paper it's like i tell everybody and my kids in the house just replace the toilet paper when you're gone and it was gone there was no toilet paper anywhere this is a big deal i had a potty emergency and there was no toilet paper i had to scream through the door help help i need toilet paper and nobody could hear me because i was upstairs i waited a very very long time on top of that did you see the floor look at the floor look at the floor it's like it's like everybody forgot how to throw their trash out it's such a little thing throwing out your trash but when you don't do it it makes a big difference a big deal i was sitting here thinking about everything that happened today and you know what it reminded me of it reminded me of this one time when i was a little girl and my mommy was telling me about how sometimes little people can do little things and those little things can make a really really big deal and you know what now that i'm a mom and i have kids i see what a big deal those little things are when we do little things they can add up to be big things even if it's something like holding the door open for mom while she carries groceries or putting your dishes in a sink or your trash in the garbage replacing the toilet paper those are like turning on a light and when you turn on a light it lights the whole room for everybody and when you share that you kind of prove that little acts do big things and when you do that you are showing god that you appreciate him and your family and all the wonderful things he has given you so you don't have to do big things to make a big deal sometimes little things make a huge deal too thanks for hanging out with me again this sun god calls us to be the salt of the earth to season the lives of others with love and service and preserve them by sharing the gospel god calls you to be the light of the world but too often we hide our lights and do not let them shine join me now in our confession we acknowledge that we have not lived as god has called us to live and we confess our sinfulness together lord god you have come into our darkness and exposed our sin by the light of your word we linger in the shadows immobilized and afraid we have not loved you or our neighbors as ourselves and we have sought the preservation of our earthly lives over the eternal life that you give to us forgive us change our hearts and embolden us to answer your callings in faith while light exposes sin it also reveals god's grace while we have not loved and served as we ought christ has his love for you is evident as he serves you in his death and resurrection as a called and ordained servant of the word and by christ's command i forgive you all your sins in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen as with they gladness its light leading on would be been bright so most gracious as with joyful steps they spread save your tool the lowly in the heavenly country thou is what big amazing thing have you done this past week for jesus what was that that's what i thought probably nothing and uh how do you feel about that well you should feel normal we dispelled that myth right the myth of the one great thing in week one that that your goal in life isn't to find one thing god put you on this earth to do because well it doesn't exist i mean possibly you've found your passion and things are going well and that's great but nowhere does god say there is one great thing he's called you to do rather every face you meet every place you go every space you occupy is a potential calling from god and beyond that god doesn't really have any expectations on you to do big amazing great things on some sort of regular basis i mean they sound good don't they it's kind of a good marketing technique do big things for jesus might motivate you or it might just make you feel guilty that you haven't already done those things this is a trick of the devil no not that doing big things for the sake of the gospel in order to love and serve your neighbors isn't the problem it's just that perhaps that's not the calling god has given you and that's okay when jesus gave the great commission to go and make disciples of all nations i mean that sounds like a pretty big calling doesn't it and it's true you're a part of it but that commission wasn't just given to you or to any one person or for only the 12 disciples christ gave this to the church and if you're a part of the church which you are then you're already on mission you're already a part of this commission and what we'll discover today is that you're already doing your part no matter how big or small no matter how glorious or mundane it might seem you see as pastor leininger highlights in this chapter in callings in life the various things god has given you these things are better understood in the ordinary every day even mundane things of life rather than the dramatic extraordinary mountain top experiences those moments are good but 99 of all life happens in the ordinary and what's even more fascinating is that's precisely where god locates himself he is immanuel god with us christ put on human flesh walked the earth for 30 or so years he laughed he cried he ate he drank he suffered he died he rose again now certainly christ had mountaintop experiences quite literally in fact two in particular one his transfiguration where on the mountain god's glory was revealed in jesus so if there was any doubt that he was the son of god well it was put to rest there so amazing was this mountaintop experience in fact that peter wants to stay there pitch his tent and just be there forever but where does jesus direct him to go instead that's right back down to the ground back down to the people who needed to be loved and served and told about jesus and the other the most obvious mountaintop experience of jesus which by the way is kind of the opposite of how we would define such a term as mount calvary on that mountain jesus certainly wasn't on vacation he was hard at work but and forgive me if the sounds crass but even on the cross on that mountain wasn't where jesus was going to stay instead he went not just to the ground after the cross but into the ground you know earlier in jesus ministry he told his disciples this would happen jesus described his his death and burial as as a seed going into the dirt you know a seed sitting on a shelf serves no purpose but only when it's buried completely underground does it complete the cycle and bring forth the new life it was intended to big things big moments mass gatherings all of those are important but for us that's not where we spend most of our time instead we hang out with real people we go through the ups and the downs doing the everyday things for the good of one another those are the callings that you have each and every day and it's in those ordinary moments that god uses them to do something extraordinary his love and provision for his children across the world is done through you changing diapers driving your child to school doing the dishes washing laundry folding it putting it away washing folding putting it away washing folding putting it away those mundane repetitive seemingly mindless tasks or actually real-life callings that matter i've shared this story with a few people in a few different settings and i want to share it with you i heard a pastor friend read something out of this book called every moment holy and i thought what he shared was was really profound so i ordered this book uh it's a book of liturgies or prayers rooted in scripture for some every everyday things right there's there's liturgies in here for days of doubt liturgies and prayers before you serve others and for families and so i was excited to get this and when i was arriving i started to thumb through it and and i started to look at all the various chapters in here and and then i kind of changed my mind i thought this is this is kind of ridiculous this this seems kind of silly i saw things in here like liturgies for washing windows or setting up a christmas tree or a liturgy for the changing of diapers and not only was there one liturgy for diapers there were two now i almost set this book on my shelf resigning it just to be decorative and then i decided i should read one just to give it a fair shot i i chose the diaper one just to see what it was all about and i was amazed in fact i was a bit embarrassed because after reading it i i found myself with wet eyes so i'm going to read it for you now and i've read this enough now that hopefully i'll be able to control myself but but who knows and even though we in our household have been out of the diaper phase for quite some time now and perhaps many of you are too i i still think you'll find it relevant and significant to what we're talking about today so here it is a liturgy for changing diapers part one heavenly father in such menial moments is this the changing of a diaper i would remember this truth my unseen labors are not lost for it is these repeated acts of small sacrifice that like bright ragged patches are slowly being sown into a quilt of loving kindness that swaddles this child i'm not just changing a diaper by love and service i am tending a budding heart that rooted in such grace-filled devotion might one day be more readily inclined to bow to your compassionate conviction knowing itself then as both a receptive receptacle and reservoir of heavenly grace so this little act of diapering though informed sometimes felt as base drudgery might better be described as one of ten thousand acts by which i am actively creating a culture of compassionate service and selfless love to shape the life of this family and this beloved child so take this unremarkable act of necessary service o christ and in your economy let it be multiplied into that greater outworking of worship and of faith a true investment in the incremental advance of your kingdom across generations open my eyes that i might see this act for what it is from the fixed vantage of eternity to see o lord how the changing of a diaper might sit upstream of the changing of a heart how the changing of a heart might sit upstream of the changing of the world amen almost almost here's something to ponder anyone who has ever done anything big or small had someone early in their life changing their diapers changing a diaper is not a glorious task by any means but it is part of a glorious and divine calling to love even when things stink or get messy we heard jesus say from our readings this morning that you and me we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world salt and light are two common ordinary everyday things we probably don't think much about each day unless they're absent right sipping chicken noodle soup before salt's added is quite a different experience than eating it after it's pretty bland and it's pretty rare that any of us are absolutely without light of any kind for any considerable amount of time even if the power goes out at night and it's overcast at the same time there's always a little light shining through somewhere if you've ever experienced the complete absence of light though you know it and you feel it what's my point well life would be drastically different if we didn't have these normal everyday run-of-the-mill mundane elements in our life they are ordinary but they are extraordinarily important now there's a lot of different ways we can think about the salt that jesus talks about there are dozens of interpretations on what exactly jesus means but for today we'll focus on just one now when you hear jesus talking about salt your mind probably goes right to table salt right the stuff in your kitchen the stuff that makes food taste good and preserves it sodium chloride this chemical compound is extremely stable and it wouldn't be able to lose its saltiness even if it tried salt does what salt does and if it loses its saltiness well perhaps it wasn't salt in the first place now interestingly the greek word used for lost its flavor is mo raino which means to become foolish in fact we get the english word from the same word so it's possible that jesus is doing a bit of a stand-up comedy routine here when he's teaching what it means to be disciples it's impossible and quite ridiculous to think that salt could lose its saltiness salt does what salt does it flavors and preserves so if we interpret jesus teaching in the same way a disciple will do what a disciple does he flavors and preserves flavors by sprinkling love and compassion while at the same time serving his neighbor and preserves by sharing the gospel of jesus the good news that we are saved by christ's righteousness completely covering us and savoring us for eternity and in the same way you are light it's ridiculously impossible for a city on a hill to remain hidden to this day we even have a term for this light pollution especially prevalent in big cities like chicago or new york where even if you're miles away and out of range to see the buildings at night with your eyes you know it's there because of the aura of light surrounding it and jesus says no one lights a lamp in their house just so that they can try and hide it under a basket no rather you set it up high on a stand on purpose so that the light might light the whole house salt cannot help but be salt and do what salt does light can't help but be light and do what light does a disciple of christ cannot help but be a disciple of christ and do what christ does and what does christ do he serves he loves and serves his people the people that god put in his path regardless of their occupation or status or condition christ's work on earth is not necessarily what we call glorious certainly it wasn't glamorous it was the opposite but but jesus did all those things with joy for what lay on the other side of it all christ's suffering and death was done out of love for you now this chapter from this book and i highly encourage you to read it and if you don't have the book to get it this chapter diapers and sippy cups i think is essential for understanding the whole of the book and the lesson it aims to teach that our callings all begin and for the most part stay in the ordinary you can take heart that although christ had all of heaven as his glorious home and and though he could have simply stayed there he didn't he deliberately entered our world he became a part of his creation he took on flesh and lived among us and with us sure i suppose in in one way the son of god could have just snapped his fingers and done what he needed to do but he didn't instead he did what was necessary for us to live with him forever he didn't come and and get right to business he took his time he lived he laughed he cried he taught he ate he drank he cared for he loved he died he rose he did he does life with us and to this day where is christ to be found well he locates himself in ink on a page water in a basin simple bread and wine through these ordinary elements god makes you glorious and christ is found in diapers and sippy cups he's found in hugs and band-aids and kissed boo-boos he's found in hard workers and honest employees he's found in good sportsmanship and valiant efforts he's found in all those things because he's found in you or rather you are found in him and because you are in him you are glorious because christ can't help but be who he is our glorious righteous loving kind forgiving savior and lord amen every week as we worship god together there are certain things we do or say the same almost every time the apostles creed is one of them we say these same words and if you grew up in church that that used the historical liturgy well chances are that you're confessing this creed your whole life which is a lot of time for some of us we use the same words not because we can't rewrite it or that there aren't other ways of confessing the triune god that we believe in but because these words have been spoken and confessed by millions of christians over the centuries not only are we united in the words that we speak but in christ who died and rose for all of us so let's profess our faith together again using the apostles creed please join me i believe in god the father almighty maker of heaven and earth and in jesus christ his only son our lord who was conceived by the holy spirit born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified died and was buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of god the father almighty from thence he will come to judge the living and the dead i believe in the holy spirit the holy christian church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen it is my great pleasure to introduce to all of you the newest member of our team here at emanuel our new director of children and family ministries mrs chrissy heiss so welcome to emmanuel she will be installed along with her husband chuck at our worship services this weekend and she will also then be officially installed as a part of our team so welcome again maybe just say say hi to everyone wave there so they all know you're here all right yes hi everyone i'm so glad to be here at emmanuel and to be serving the children and families of our church our school and the community important invisible god only wise in light in accessible eat from our eyes most blessed was glorious the ancient of days almighty victoria thy great name we praise great father of glory your father of light thy help us to see this let us pray for the whole people of god in christ jesus and for all people according to their needs heavenly father we thank you for the privilege of serving as your masks in this world and to be used as your instruments for good we are blessed that you touch so many lives through the seemingly ordinary tasks that we accomplish each day planting and harvesting food driving trucks patrolling the streets teaching children coaching teams running businesses creating music and constructing highways continue to make your love and presence known through the ordinary things that we do each day lord in your mercy hear our prayer heavenly father help us to live each day as your redeemed and beloved people and to share your love with others in our various callings and vocations inviting them to come and see jesus who loves us and gave himself for us all lord in your mercy hear our prayer heavenly father we ask for your healing in the lives of those who are sick or suffering in body mind or spirit especially herbert breirley shirley burnett erica saran jim keerley jan liebenow robert milo amy morgan jeff shakitano jack wine and those that we name in our hearts trusting that your word accomplishes the purpose for which you send it whether now or in eternity we trust you to bring your healing purposes to completion in all lives lord in your mercy hear our prayer heavenly father fill the leaders in our community our state our nation in our world with the light of your compassion and your truth as they seek to bring unity and peace to a strife-torn world lord in your mercy hear our prayer into your hands o lord we command all for whom we pray trusting in your mercy through your son jesus christ our lord who lives and reigns in communion and love with you in the holy spirit one god now and forever amen lord remember us in your kingdom and teach us to pray our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom in the power and the glory forever and ever amen we are thankful to god for our newest members and for chrissy heist our new director of children and family ministry and the calling that god has given her to serve our families i also want to let you know february 17th this year is ash wednesday today in our church calendar that well it marks the beginning of lent and the journey to the cross in the empty tomb so we're currently working on on a few options that day for worship in the imposition of ashes i know how important that is to so many but for now please know that we will have in-person worship at 3 p.m and 7 p.m so two services on ash wednesday 3 p.m 7 p.m and the evening service will be live stream for those who will be worshiping at home so you can tune in then or or any time after emmanuel is called and committed to sharing the good news of jesus christ your gifts and offerings to the church help us continue to do just that through our ministry to the community of course there are several ways that you can give your offering to emmanuel and we're thankful of course for anything that you're able to joyfully give you can learn more by going to give.emanualcl.org we'd also love if you filled out a connection card capture either the qr code below or visit connect.emanualcl.org sign in and just let us know that you were here we are so glad that you were with us to worship today if there was something that you heard in our service that was meaningful to you or something that you think someone else might be blessed by hearing by all means share this worship service with others and as you think about ways to share the good news in the upcoming weeks may the light of christ break through the darkness and may god's face shine on you and bring you his eternal peace in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen have a blessed week spend today in a conversation in the mirror face to face with somebody less than perfect i wouldn't choose me first if i was looking for a champion in fact i'd understand if you picked everyone before me but that's just not my story who you are he knows i'm not meant to just stay quiet out of nothing he knows he calls me is i don't need my name in lines so so so so so so so you