Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (02:30):
Please join me in the caudal worship. Friends, be doers
of God's word and not merely hearers of the word.
For if any are hearers of the word and not doers,
they are fooling themselves. Our faith is practiced by how
we live, not by what we hear. In affirm those
(02:52):
who look to God's word and follow it, who are
not merely hearers who forget.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
But do who act.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
They will be blessed by their doing. Friends, let us
be doers of God's word and not merely hearers of
the word. Faith that is pure and holy before God.
Is this to care for the poor and marginalized in
their distress, and to live according to God's word instead
(03:23):
of the world's desires.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Us so sime we ranis time to schools that press
(04:52):
ess son son sons stays.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Some so.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Steep star.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Steps studio still start.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Yes, let us pray, Father God, We come together today
with thankful hearts. You are so good to us. We
(06:18):
thank you for your amazing power and work in our lives.
For your goodness and the many blessings you bestow on us.
We are thankful when you bring us hope in the
toughest of times. Strengthening us for your purposes. Thank you
for your great love, mercy, care, and grace that we
(06:40):
see in our lives daily. As we prepare to praise
and worship you today, we ask you to clear our minds,
help us open our hearts to all we will hear today.
Help us focus on you even as we pray the
prayer that you taught us, our father, who are in heaven.
(07:02):
Hollow would 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
(07:27):
Thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory Forever.
Amien spat.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
S so, so, so, but s.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
And s.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Stage sites.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
Let us join together in prayer.
Speaker 7 (09:43):
During this time, Oh God, that set aside to remind
us of all your blessings. Help us to rediscover how
good and generous you really are. You have blessed us
so much that we sometimes just take it all for
grant at it, forgetting that you really are the source
(10:04):
of all our blessings. We pause now to acknowledge you
as the giver of all that we have, and to
thank you not only with our lips, but with our
hearts and our actions as we give our tithes and
offerings to you.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
Amen, let me see it.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
S als chasing all measures.
Speaker 6 (12:52):
Raspresto, Please be seated.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Good morning. It is good for me to be back
with you. It's been since the last of March Palm
Sunday of last year, and want you to know that
you continue to be in my thoughts and in my prayers.
We pray for Dr Tim Moore, your interim pastor. We
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pray for your staff, and pray for you. God has
good things in store for your future. God's timing may
not always be our timing, but know that God's timing
is according to his will and He has good things
in store for you. If I might take just a
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moment for in room pastoral privilege, let me catch you
up just a little bit on what I've been doing.
And basically I've been taking care of grandchildren. We have
a new granddaughter now five months old, Jesse. She lives
with her parents, my son and daughter in law in
Lexington and one of my responsibilities in quasi retirement is
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that I keep her on Tuesdays along with my wife, Debbie,
and then on Mondays they go to Cincinnati and take
care of my four year old grandson who's growing up there.
So I wanted to share that with you. I've preached
back at my home church in Midway, Kentucky, where I
was raised long ago. I've filled the pulpit at our church,
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Calvary Baptist Church, and I appreciate so much the pastor
that we have there, Monte Stalins, and I am so
grateful to be with you this morning. Let me share
with you if I might, as we go to God
in pray, something that we have shared before. It's just
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a way for us to formulate our prayers, knowing that
even when we can't verbalize prayers, God the spirit certainly knows,
certainly knows our thoughts. But we have used the acronym
of acts as you recall adoration, where we praise God
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for whom God is as many characteristics and attributes. So
reflect on that, if you would, we pray in confession
we give thanks for the Lord Jesus Christ who died
on the cross so that our sins might be forgiven.
And we know that if we confess our sins, thank
the Good Lord, He's faithful and just to forgive us
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our sins. And then we're thankful, thankful for the innumerable
blessings that God bestows upon us, as you were said
in his prayer, those that some times just take for granted,
we give thanks for them, and then we come in confession.
You have many prayer requests. Let me mention just three.
(16:11):
We've been asked to pray today for Jim Isaac, for
Joe Barnett, and for Sherry Dudley. And you have own
individuals that you know for whom we want to pray.
I have a special request. My sister, who lived in Atlanta,
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lost her husband about six weeks ago. Jim, my brother
in law, had battled Parkinson's for fifteen years, and he
died the day after Father's Day. And this time last weekend,
we had been in Atlanta for Jim's funeral. So I
would ask that you would especially remember Nancy, my sister.
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She's with us now in Kentucky for a while, and
that you, as you think of other people who have
lost loved ones, would ask God to help Nancy and
folks you know, find the new normal, the new normal
that God has in store for you. With that, let's
pray together for a moment if we might, Gracious God,
(17:19):
giver of all good gifts, we give thanks, first of
all in adoration for the gift of yourself. We acknowledge
you as a God of love, one who not only
loves us, but cause upon us to love one another
and to love others. Thank you for your love, oh God,
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Thank you that you are creator and redeemer and friend.
In adoration we come to you this day, God, for
your love. We also come today in confession. Even when
we try our hardest and give it our very best shot,
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we don't always live or think the way your people
ought to live or think. But enable us, o God,
to encourage one another to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ, who,
though he was tempted in all respects like we're tempted,
he did that without sin. And if we'll confess our sins,
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and we take just a moment to do that now
that you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
So for things we've done which should not have been done,
for thoughts we have had which should not have been thought,
for acts which we should have committed, but did not commit.
(18:59):
Forgive us, O God, we confess our sins to You,
and we come in thanks. Oh, thank you God. Thank
you for the gift of life itself. Thank You for
the gift of family and for church family. Thank You
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for the gift of Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. We pray,
Oh God, that we would always remember to be grateful.
We are thankful God for You, and we come in
confession supplication. We remember folks today, O God, that are hurting.
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We pray for Jim Isaac and Joe Barnett and Shirley Dudley.
I pray for my sister Nancy today, and I pray
for others who have lost loved ones, family and friends.
Help them to find the new normal as they go
through the process of grief. I pray for this Church
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of God, as you have always been with this church,
as you are with this church now during an extended
time of transition. I pray that, with your guidance and
the encouragement of one another, that they would look to
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the future for the new pastor that You've got in
store for them. So, God, Gracious God, today do we
come to you in adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. Thank you,
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gracious Father for hearing our prayers.
Speaker 8 (21:16):
Suspecting the scene.
Speaker 5 (21:46):
Jost, story, spec.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Scene Bess.
Speaker 8 (22:28):
And stop.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Made as speaks say.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
So.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
The part of the scripture that I want to share
with you comes from One Corinthians twelve, where Paul, in
encouraging the church to get along and to be the
church that God was calling that church at corinth to be,
uses this image of the church as a body of Christ.
I don't think Paul knew about mister potatohead back then.
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I really really don't, But if he had of I
think it would have been a really apt illustration. Good job, Rachel,
I appreciate that. Let me share with you from the
twelfth chapter of what we Know is First Corinthians, and
I will read just some of the excerpts from that chapter,
encouraging you to read chapter twelve and chapter thirteen as well.
(25:19):
Now there are a variety of gifts in the church,
but the same spirit. There are varieties of services, but
the same Lord. There are varieties of activities, but it
is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for
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the common good. Underscore that to each one of you
is given your particular gift or gifts for the common
good Verse eleven. All these are activated by one and
the same Spirit, who a lots to each one individually.
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Just as the Spirit chooses, God chooses you and the
gifts that you have. For just as the body is
one and has many members, and all the members of
the body, though many, are one body. It's that way
with Christ. For in the one Spirit, we were all
baptized into one body. Jews or Greek slaves are free,
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and we were able to be able to drink together
of the spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of
one member, but of many Verse eighteen. But as it is,
God arranged the members in the body, each one of
them as God chose. Then the verse twenty four. But
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God has so arranged the body, given the greater honor
to the inferior member, that there may be know dissension
in the body. He gives us gifts for the common good,
but that the members may have the same care for
one another. Thank you fifth avenue for being a caring church.
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If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member
is honored and rejoice, all rejoice together. Now you are
the body of Christ and individually members of it. I
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hear them periodically, rather high up in the sky, circling
my house, surveying, as it were, the territory. Wild geese
flying information, encouraging one another with their honking, and after
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circling for a while, these wild geese eventually will fly
back across the highway to a lake in another subdivision. Periodically,
I see those wild geese, but I must tell you
that for a while, I didn't pay them a lot
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of attention, really didn't until it dawned on me one
day that the geese and the way that God has
made them might have something to tell us as followers
of Jesus Christ and as a church. I would like
to tell you that this idea was original with me.
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It wasn't. I had a retired minister in our church.
He pastored the same Baptist church for forty years and survived.
His name was Reverend John Wallace, and he came up
to me one day and he called me, preacher. He said, Preacher,
I want to give you something that I read. It
was from Roger Lovett. It was another preacher down in Alabama,
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and it's about geese and what geese can tell us,
and I said, well, thank you, John. I'm always looking
for sermon ideas. And then I looked up what Roger
Lovett had said, and I found out that Roger lovedd
got that idea from another minister because this other minister
had written a book about geese, and Roger loved says
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that one day he was right in the middle of
reading this book about geese and had dawned on him
that the author was not talking about geese at all.
He was talking about the church and what geese and
the culture of geese can teach us about the Body
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of Christ. So for just a few moments on this
September first Sunday, can you believe it's September? Summer goes fast,
is it not. I want us to draw some insights
and lessons from those high flying geese. First lesson is this,
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It's so basic we forget it. Sometimes geese are made
to fly. Geese are made to fly. I didn't pay
attention to those high flying geese for a long long
time because in that lake and that sub division across
the road where I would jog or where I would walk,
there would be all kinds of waterfowl, ducks, and these geese,
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and I never paid them much attention until I recall
one day as I was going past that lake that
there was this honking sound, and all of a sudden,
rising up from the water of that lake were geese
in a wonderful v formation doing what they were created
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by God to do. They were flying high, flying ease,
And so there they were circling over the territory, giving
it a good view, honking and encouraging one another, stretching
their wings, doing what they were created to do in
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the first place, to fly. But as long as they
were on the water with all the other ducks and
domesticated fowl, I really didn't tell that they were wild
geese at all. But when they started to do what
they were created by God to do, to fly, then
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the majesty of those creatures that God created was certainly
made known to me in a magnificent way. Did you,
when you were little ever believe that you could fly? Well?
I did, I really did. Like a lot of other
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kids in my day, I'd come home from school, I'd
grab a snipe, I'd plan myself in front of the television,
turn on the program and listen for that announcement faster
than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able
to leave tall buildings in a single bound. Look up
in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, It's Superman.
And I was enthralled for the next half hour to
sometimes hour about the escapades and the adventures of Superman.
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And as soon as that was over, I would rush
into the kitchen. I would find the largest dish towel
that I could find for my mother's pantry. I would
pin it on the back of my shirt and go
out in the yard and start running down the hill
as fast as I could, believing that if I ran
fast enough, if I did this often enough, if I
really believed in myself enough, that one day I would
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be able to fly. Did you ever think that you
could fly? Well, I didn't, because nobody ever said, look
up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane.
It's Bobby. He's Superman. Now. They said something like, look
over there in that yard, that weird kid with a
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dish towel draped around his shoulders running down the hill
for the twenty fifth time today. He's never going to
be Superman. But there's a sense of ladies and gentlemen
from a figurative perspective, where I did finally learn how
to fly only with the encouragement of loving family, my parents,
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church members, teachers, coaches. I learned through my life to
get off the ground just a little bit. Because you see,
to be able to fly is really a metaphor for
discovering your gifts, who you are, whom God created you
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to be, and to live out those gifts to fly?
Have you ever in a metaphorical sense, dare I say
a biblical sense? Have you ever learned how to fly?
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The Danish theologian Soaring Carikee Guard tells a story about
a flock of high flying geese way up in the heavens,
and one day they looked down and saw some domesticated
geese in a pen in a barnyard. And one of
the high flying geese said, I feel so sorry for
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those domesticated geese. I'm gonna fly down there and I'm
going to teach them how to fly. And so this
high flying goose swooped down, got into the pen, looked around.
Something strange happened. He kind of liked the food they
had down there, and he liked the comfortable living and
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the climate was a whole lot better, and he started
to get it home. And then several days later he
heard the honking of the flock of geese of which
he had been apart, up in the sky, and he
decided that he would fly, But he couldn't get off
the ground. He had become domesticated. And rather than this
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high flying goose who was created by God to fly,
rather than that goose teaching those domesticated ducks and geese,
they taught him, and he kind of lost his purpose
for being well over. In the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians,
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the apostle Paul writes about a church that had forgotten
how to fly. Now, most of the churches that Paul
established and founded were flourishing. They were doing great. But
the Church of Corinth was floundering, and it was failing
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because the individual members were acting like individuals, were never
working together as a team. They forgot what it meant
for them to be the people that God had called
them to be. They forgot how to fly. They were
having identity crisis. They needed to go back and check
out their flight manual. You are to be my followers,
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go and teach all nations. Be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
some area Judea, to the ends of the world. Did
you know that every Sunday that you good people come
to worship and open up your bulletin or worship guide,
that your flight manual for whom God is calling you
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to be is right there in the bulletin. I checked
it out. Worship God wholeheartedly, love one another, unconditionally, help
people meet Jesus, help each other become more like Jesus.
Love our hurting world. From the geese, may we always
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learn a very important lesson, and I think you do
it well. Discover your gifts, remember what God is calling
you to do as a church, and Fly's the second
lesson that we can learn from those high flying geese.
(37:46):
For the most part. Have you noticed while geese never
fly alone, for the most part, you don't see them
flying solo. They fly in a formation, not just any formation,
but a the shape formation. Do you know why they
fly in that V shaped formation? Because the goose that's
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in front when they're in that V shaped formation makes
it possible for that flock of geese to fly with
seventy one percent more efficiency than if a single goose
will flied alone. Seventy one percent better if they work together.
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And there have been studies done about the blue geese
originated up in Canada, who can fly, believe this or not,
seventeen hundred miles to the coastlands of Louisiana and can
do it in sixty hours and sometimes even forty eight.
Do you know why? Because they fly in formation and
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cutting that swath of air resistance provides uplift for all
the other geese in behind, and they fly together. When
Paul was riding over One Corinthians twelve, he was trying
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to convince that church you need to fly together, you
can't do it alone. He uses this other image that
we've talked about today. The church is the body of Christ,
and God's given us a lot of different members in
the body, but not for the purpose for those members
to go solo, but to be connected, as the ear
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and the eye, and the arms and the legs and
the parts of the body are connected to work together,
not to fly solo, but to be a team. When
those geese are flying in that pattern, when the lead
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goose gets tired, and you know, if you're on a
seventeen hundred miles track, you got to get tired right,
But as soon as that goose got tired, he would
drop back find another place in the V formation. Someone
else would come and take the point in the V
and stay there until that goose got tired, and then
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fall back, and another would come. Each and every one
of the geese in that V shaped formation would do
his or her part, and as a result, they did
things together that they could never even imagine doing a part.
They worked together as a team. Alex Haley, who gaves
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that wonderful, wonderful historical novel Roots, had a matto by
which he lived, and at his funeral the manto was
on the front of the program, and it was essentially
this find the good and praise it. Now, there's been
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a lot of reasons why Alex Haley could have found
the bad, but he lived life in such a way.
Find the good, the connectedness of black white of all people.
Find the good and praise it, he said, and learn
how to fly together. Could it be that you and
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I could become even more effective as the church as
a team if we would remember the importance and the
strategy of a V shaped formation and do our part,
be connected and fly. There's no lesson about goose, geese,
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goose and geese. They take care of their fallen Geese
can be traveling in that V shaped formation, and if
one goose becomes ill, if one goose gets shot out
of the sky and has to go to the ground,
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at least two of the geese will drop out of
the formation and go and stay with that fallen goose
until that goose either recovers and they go back again,
or until the goose passes away. Geese take care of
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their falling. In Corinth, the people were so hung up
for a while on themselves, but they didn't take care
of each other. You can read about it in the book.
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Somebody would say, I like the preaching of Paul. I
belong to Paul. Other people said, I think he's too old.
He doesn't have a very nice looking physical appearance. I
like Simon Peter better. He walked with Jesus. And somebody
else said, well, I don't belong to Paul, and I
don't belong to Simon Peter Deciphus. I like a Poulus.
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He is a fluent speaker, and he preaches short sermons,
and I like that a whole lot better. And Paul
was saying to them did Paul give you gifts? Did
Sephus call you to be the church? Does a Poulis
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really give you the power you belong to Christ? He
said something for you to always remember. Finnel characteristic that
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I want to mention about geese, and to me this
might be the most fascinating one of all. They not
only remember that they're created to fly, not only fly
in formation to help each other out, they not only
take care of their falling. Incidentally, in the time I
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was here and since I've been gone and come back again,
you good people do an amazing job of taking care
of each other. Let me say that again, even when
you don't have a senior pastor or full ministerial staff.
I have watched you good folks, found out about you
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good folks taking care of people when they were sick,
when a loved one died, when there was a tragedy.
God bless you Fifth Avenue Baptists for doing just that.
Keep on keeping on taking care of you're fallen. Well.
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This last characteristic is that geese always keep their eyes
on the horizon. Have you ever seen some high flying
geese and they'll fly over a lake and maybe they'll
peer down and there'll be a fish down there or
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something that they would want to eat that's down there,
and they would do a dive. It's amazing. There's a
name for it. It's called hiffling. And when one of
those those geese will whiffle, they actually turn their bodies
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upside down as they drop down to get bread for
the day and water for the day and make sure
they can get through the day. But the amazing thing
is they turn their bodies one hundred and eighty degrees
in such a way that they always keep their eyes
on the horizon. Amazing. They do that so they will
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not lose perspective, because even a goose knows that life
is more than just daily food and daily water. There's
a future out there too. They keep their eyes on
the horizon. One day, some people ask Jesus what's the
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greatest commandment? They're six hundred and thirteen laws and commandments
according to the Old Testament, and I wonder which one
Jesus was going to prioritize. And without hesitation, he said,
love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength,
and mind, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.
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Keep your eyes on the horizon. Be my witnesses, share
my love, follow me. He said, keep your eyes on
the horizon. And if you will do that, the apostle
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Paul said, you can do it by understanding that God
wants to show you a more excellent way. It's found
in the next chapter one Corinthians thirteen. I will show
you still a more excellent way. Because love is patient,
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love is kind. Love is not jealous or boastful. It
is not irritable or reasonful. It is not arrogant or rude.
It does not rejoice in the wrong, but it rejoices
in the right. It bears all things, believes, all things, hopes,
all things endures all things. Love never ends Church. Love never.
Speaker 5 (48:38):
Ends.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Well, I'm sure if it's not this week, it won't
be too long when I'll get up early in the
morning and look out in our backyard and hear the
honking of those wild geese. And while I will be
amazed at this incredible gift of God's creation, I will
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be thinking more about Geeze. I'll be thinking about the church,
because we're created to fly people, and to work together
as a team to fly in the formation and to
help each other out, to take care of our fallen,
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and above all to keep our eyes on the horizon,
to turn our eyes upon Jesus or Him of invitation.
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This morning is a Him that growing up we would
always sing after communion. It's a communion hymn. It's Blessed
be the Tithe of the binds, and that's going to
be our hymn of invitation this Lord's Day, Sunday morning.
A lot of you will will know the words, especially
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the first verse, but we'll sing all three verses today.
It's four to twenty six in your hymnal and as
we sing, just be open to how God might be
speaking to you to join a church, to accept Christ
as savior, if you've fallen out of the formation for
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a while, to get back in the formation and keep
your eyes upon Jesus. You respond today as a spirit leads,
Let's stand Blessed be the Tithe of the bines.
Speaker 5 (50:53):
Six time.
Speaker 4 (51:14):
S F S, SH S, S S T.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
Participation in worship service on this first Sunday in September,
this Sunday of Labor Day weekend. I hope that you'll
find some time to be with family and to be
with friends, and to get ready as falls in full
fleeme to fly as God calls you to fly, so
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good to be back with you. All receive now this benediction,
for it is the benediction of Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
who go before you, who follow after you, who watch
over you, who guide you in the way, and who
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at the last will lead you safely home. Oh man.
Speaker 3 (54:02):
As ass. But now I care not, But you may
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think of.
Speaker 4 (55:27):
Say a m M M.
Speaker 3 (56:20):
M M.
Speaker 4 (56:46):
E d N
Please join me in the caudal worship. Friends, be doers
of God's word and not merely hearers of the word.
For if any are hearers of the word and not doers,
they are fooling themselves. Our faith is practiced by how
we live, not by what we hear. In affirm those
(02:52):
who look to God's word and follow it, who are
not merely hearers who forget.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
But do who act.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
They will be blessed by their doing. Friends, let us
be doers of God's word and not merely hearers of
the word. Faith that is pure and holy before God.
Is this to care for the poor and marginalized in
their distress, and to live according to God's word instead
(03:23):
of the world's desires.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Us so sime we ranis time to schools that press
(04:52):
ess son son sons stays.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Some so.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Steep star.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Steps studio still start.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Yes, let us pray, Father God, We come together today
with thankful hearts. You are so good to us. We
(06:18):
thank you for your amazing power and work in our lives.
For your goodness and the many blessings you bestow on us.
We are thankful when you bring us hope in the
toughest of times. Strengthening us for your purposes. Thank you
for your great love, mercy, care, and grace that we
(06:40):
see in our lives daily. As we prepare to praise
and worship you today, we ask you to clear our minds,
help us open our hearts to all we will hear today.
Help us focus on you even as we pray the
prayer that you taught us, our father, who are in heaven.
(07:02):
Hollow would 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
(07:27):
Thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory Forever.
Amien spat.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
S so, so, so, but s.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
And s.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Stage sites.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
Let us join together in prayer.
Speaker 7 (09:43):
During this time, Oh God, that set aside to remind
us of all your blessings. Help us to rediscover how
good and generous you really are. You have blessed us
so much that we sometimes just take it all for
grant at it, forgetting that you really are the source
(10:04):
of all our blessings. We pause now to acknowledge you
as the giver of all that we have, and to
thank you not only with our lips, but with our
hearts and our actions as we give our tithes and
offerings to you.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
Amen, let me see it.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
S als chasing all measures.
Speaker 6 (12:52):
Raspresto, Please be seated.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Good morning. It is good for me to be back
with you. It's been since the last of March Palm
Sunday of last year, and want you to know that
you continue to be in my thoughts and in my prayers.
We pray for Dr Tim Moore, your interim pastor. We
(13:37):
pray for your staff, and pray for you. God has
good things in store for your future. God's timing may
not always be our timing, but know that God's timing
is according to his will and He has good things
in store for you. If I might take just a
(13:58):
moment for in room pastoral privilege, let me catch you
up just a little bit on what I've been doing.
And basically I've been taking care of grandchildren. We have
a new granddaughter now five months old, Jesse. She lives
with her parents, my son and daughter in law in
Lexington and one of my responsibilities in quasi retirement is
(14:21):
that I keep her on Tuesdays along with my wife, Debbie,
and then on Mondays they go to Cincinnati and take
care of my four year old grandson who's growing up there.
So I wanted to share that with you. I've preached
back at my home church in Midway, Kentucky, where I
was raised long ago. I've filled the pulpit at our church,
(14:43):
Calvary Baptist Church, and I appreciate so much the pastor
that we have there, Monte Stalins, and I am so
grateful to be with you this morning. Let me share
with you if I might, as we go to God
in pray, something that we have shared before. It's just
(15:04):
a way for us to formulate our prayers, knowing that
even when we can't verbalize prayers, God the spirit certainly knows,
certainly knows our thoughts. But we have used the acronym
of acts as you recall adoration, where we praise God
(15:25):
for whom God is as many characteristics and attributes. So
reflect on that, if you would, we pray in confession
we give thanks for the Lord Jesus Christ who died
on the cross so that our sins might be forgiven.
And we know that if we confess our sins, thank
the Good Lord, He's faithful and just to forgive us
(15:48):
our sins. And then we're thankful, thankful for the innumerable
blessings that God bestows upon us, as you were said
in his prayer, those that some times just take for granted,
we give thanks for them, and then we come in confession.
You have many prayer requests. Let me mention just three.
(16:11):
We've been asked to pray today for Jim Isaac, for
Joe Barnett, and for Sherry Dudley. And you have own
individuals that you know for whom we want to pray.
I have a special request. My sister, who lived in Atlanta,
(16:32):
lost her husband about six weeks ago. Jim, my brother
in law, had battled Parkinson's for fifteen years, and he
died the day after Father's Day. And this time last weekend,
we had been in Atlanta for Jim's funeral. So I
would ask that you would especially remember Nancy, my sister.
(16:55):
She's with us now in Kentucky for a while, and
that you, as you think of other people who have
lost loved ones, would ask God to help Nancy and
folks you know, find the new normal, the new normal
that God has in store for you. With that, let's
pray together for a moment if we might, Gracious God,
(17:19):
giver of all good gifts, we give thanks, first of
all in adoration for the gift of yourself. We acknowledge
you as a God of love, one who not only
loves us, but cause upon us to love one another
and to love others. Thank you for your love, oh God,
(17:47):
Thank you that you are creator and redeemer and friend.
In adoration we come to you this day, God, for
your love. We also come today in confession. Even when
we try our hardest and give it our very best shot,
(18:10):
we don't always live or think the way your people
ought to live or think. But enable us, o God,
to encourage one another to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ, who,
though he was tempted in all respects like we're tempted,
he did that without sin. And if we'll confess our sins,
(18:32):
and we take just a moment to do that now
that you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
So for things we've done which should not have been done,
for thoughts we have had which should not have been thought,
for acts which we should have committed, but did not commit.
(18:59):
Forgive us, O God, we confess our sins to You,
and we come in thanks. Oh, thank you God. Thank
you for the gift of life itself. Thank You for
the gift of family and for church family. Thank You
(19:19):
for the gift of Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. We pray,
Oh God, that we would always remember to be grateful.
We are thankful God for You, and we come in
confession supplication. We remember folks today, O God, that are hurting.
(19:49):
We pray for Jim Isaac and Joe Barnett and Shirley Dudley.
I pray for my sister Nancy today, and I pray
for others who have lost loved ones, family and friends.
Help them to find the new normal as they go
through the process of grief. I pray for this Church
(20:11):
of God, as you have always been with this church,
as you are with this church now during an extended
time of transition. I pray that, with your guidance and
the encouragement of one another, that they would look to
(20:32):
the future for the new pastor that You've got in
store for them. So, God, Gracious God, today do we
come to you in adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. Thank you,
(20:54):
gracious Father for hearing our prayers.
Speaker 8 (21:16):
Suspecting the scene.
Speaker 5 (21:46):
Jost, story, spec.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Scene Bess.
Speaker 8 (22:28):
And stop.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Made as speaks say.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
So.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
The part of the scripture that I want to share
with you comes from One Corinthians twelve, where Paul, in
encouraging the church to get along and to be the
church that God was calling that church at corinth to be,
uses this image of the church as a body of Christ.
I don't think Paul knew about mister potatohead back then.
(24:51):
I really really don't, But if he had of I
think it would have been a really apt illustration. Good job, Rachel,
I appreciate that. Let me share with you from the
twelfth chapter of what we Know is First Corinthians, and
I will read just some of the excerpts from that chapter,
encouraging you to read chapter twelve and chapter thirteen as well.
(25:19):
Now there are a variety of gifts in the church,
but the same spirit. There are varieties of services, but
the same Lord. There are varieties of activities, but it
is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for
(25:42):
the common good. Underscore that to each one of you
is given your particular gift or gifts for the common
good Verse eleven. All these are activated by one and
the same Spirit, who a lots to each one individually.
(26:04):
Just as the Spirit chooses, God chooses you and the
gifts that you have. For just as the body is
one and has many members, and all the members of
the body, though many, are one body. It's that way
with Christ. For in the one Spirit, we were all
baptized into one body. Jews or Greek slaves are free,
(26:28):
and we were able to be able to drink together
of the spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of
one member, but of many Verse eighteen. But as it is,
God arranged the members in the body, each one of
them as God chose. Then the verse twenty four. But
(26:54):
God has so arranged the body, given the greater honor
to the inferior member, that there may be know dissension
in the body. He gives us gifts for the common good,
but that the members may have the same care for
one another. Thank you fifth avenue for being a caring church.
(27:14):
If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member
is honored and rejoice, all rejoice together. Now you are
the body of Christ and individually members of it. I
(27:36):
hear them periodically, rather high up in the sky, circling
my house, surveying, as it were, the territory. Wild geese
flying information, encouraging one another with their honking, and after
(28:00):
circling for a while, these wild geese eventually will fly
back across the highway to a lake in another subdivision. Periodically,
I see those wild geese, but I must tell you
that for a while, I didn't pay them a lot
(28:22):
of attention, really didn't until it dawned on me one
day that the geese and the way that God has
made them might have something to tell us as followers
of Jesus Christ and as a church. I would like
to tell you that this idea was original with me.
(28:43):
It wasn't. I had a retired minister in our church.
He pastored the same Baptist church for forty years and survived.
His name was Reverend John Wallace, and he came up
to me one day and he called me, preacher. He said, Preacher,
I want to give you something that I read. It
was from Roger Lovett. It was another preacher down in Alabama,
(29:05):
and it's about geese and what geese can tell us,
and I said, well, thank you, John. I'm always looking
for sermon ideas. And then I looked up what Roger
Lovett had said, and I found out that Roger lovedd
got that idea from another minister because this other minister
had written a book about geese, and Roger loved says
(29:27):
that one day he was right in the middle of
reading this book about geese and had dawned on him
that the author was not talking about geese at all.
He was talking about the church and what geese and
the culture of geese can teach us about the Body
(29:47):
of Christ. So for just a few moments on this
September first Sunday, can you believe it's September? Summer goes fast,
is it not. I want us to draw some insights
and lessons from those high flying geese. First lesson is this,
(30:08):
It's so basic we forget it. Sometimes geese are made
to fly. Geese are made to fly. I didn't pay
attention to those high flying geese for a long long
time because in that lake and that sub division across
the road where I would jog or where I would walk,
there would be all kinds of waterfowl, ducks, and these geese,
(30:32):
and I never paid them much attention until I recall
one day as I was going past that lake that
there was this honking sound, and all of a sudden,
rising up from the water of that lake were geese
in a wonderful v formation doing what they were created
(30:53):
by God to do. They were flying high, flying ease,
And so there they were circling over the territory, giving
it a good view, honking and encouraging one another, stretching
their wings, doing what they were created to do in
(31:15):
the first place, to fly. But as long as they
were on the water with all the other ducks and
domesticated fowl, I really didn't tell that they were wild
geese at all. But when they started to do what
they were created by God to do, to fly, then
(31:36):
the majesty of those creatures that God created was certainly
made known to me in a magnificent way. Did you,
when you were little ever believe that you could fly? Well?
I did, I really did. Like a lot of other
(31:57):
kids in my day, I'd come home from school, I'd
grab a snipe, I'd plan myself in front of the television,
turn on the program and listen for that announcement faster
than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able
to leave tall buildings in a single bound. Look up
in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, It's Superman.
And I was enthralled for the next half hour to
sometimes hour about the escapades and the adventures of Superman.
(32:20):
And as soon as that was over, I would rush
into the kitchen. I would find the largest dish towel
that I could find for my mother's pantry. I would
pin it on the back of my shirt and go
out in the yard and start running down the hill
as fast as I could, believing that if I ran
fast enough, if I did this often enough, if I
really believed in myself enough, that one day I would
(32:41):
be able to fly. Did you ever think that you
could fly? Well, I didn't, because nobody ever said, look
up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane.
It's Bobby. He's Superman. Now. They said something like, look
over there in that yard, that weird kid with a
(33:02):
dish towel draped around his shoulders running down the hill
for the twenty fifth time today. He's never going to
be Superman. But there's a sense of ladies and gentlemen
from a figurative perspective, where I did finally learn how
to fly only with the encouragement of loving family, my parents,
(33:26):
church members, teachers, coaches. I learned through my life to
get off the ground just a little bit. Because you see,
to be able to fly is really a metaphor for
discovering your gifts, who you are, whom God created you
(33:50):
to be, and to live out those gifts to fly?
Have you ever in a metaphorical sense, dare I say
a biblical sense? Have you ever learned how to fly?
(34:11):
The Danish theologian Soaring Carikee Guard tells a story about
a flock of high flying geese way up in the heavens,
and one day they looked down and saw some domesticated
geese in a pen in a barnyard. And one of
the high flying geese said, I feel so sorry for
(34:33):
those domesticated geese. I'm gonna fly down there and I'm
going to teach them how to fly. And so this
high flying goose swooped down, got into the pen, looked around.
Something strange happened. He kind of liked the food they
had down there, and he liked the comfortable living and
(34:56):
the climate was a whole lot better, and he started
to get it home. And then several days later he
heard the honking of the flock of geese of which
he had been apart, up in the sky, and he
decided that he would fly, But he couldn't get off
the ground. He had become domesticated. And rather than this
(35:22):
high flying goose who was created by God to fly,
rather than that goose teaching those domesticated ducks and geese,
they taught him, and he kind of lost his purpose
for being well over. In the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians,
(35:46):
the apostle Paul writes about a church that had forgotten
how to fly. Now, most of the churches that Paul
established and founded were flourishing. They were doing great. But
the Church of Corinth was floundering, and it was failing
(36:11):
because the individual members were acting like individuals, were never
working together as a team. They forgot what it meant
for them to be the people that God had called
them to be. They forgot how to fly. They were
having identity crisis. They needed to go back and check
out their flight manual. You are to be my followers,
(36:37):
go and teach all nations. Be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
some area Judea, to the ends of the world. Did
you know that every Sunday that you good people come
to worship and open up your bulletin or worship guide,
that your flight manual for whom God is calling you
(36:59):
to be is right there in the bulletin. I checked
it out. Worship God wholeheartedly, love one another, unconditionally, help
people meet Jesus, help each other become more like Jesus.
Love our hurting world. From the geese, may we always
(37:25):
learn a very important lesson, and I think you do
it well. Discover your gifts, remember what God is calling
you to do as a church, and Fly's the second
lesson that we can learn from those high flying geese.
(37:46):
For the most part. Have you noticed while geese never
fly alone, for the most part, you don't see them
flying solo. They fly in a formation, not just any formation,
but a the shape formation. Do you know why they
fly in that V shaped formation? Because the goose that's
(38:06):
in front when they're in that V shaped formation makes
it possible for that flock of geese to fly with
seventy one percent more efficiency than if a single goose
will flied alone. Seventy one percent better if they work together.
(38:28):
And there have been studies done about the blue geese
originated up in Canada, who can fly, believe this or not,
seventeen hundred miles to the coastlands of Louisiana and can
do it in sixty hours and sometimes even forty eight.
Do you know why? Because they fly in formation and
(38:53):
cutting that swath of air resistance provides uplift for all
the other geese in behind, and they fly together. When
Paul was riding over One Corinthians twelve, he was trying
(39:16):
to convince that church you need to fly together, you
can't do it alone. He uses this other image that
we've talked about today. The church is the body of Christ,
and God's given us a lot of different members in
the body, but not for the purpose for those members
to go solo, but to be connected, as the ear
(39:38):
and the eye, and the arms and the legs and
the parts of the body are connected to work together,
not to fly solo, but to be a team. When
those geese are flying in that pattern, when the lead
(39:59):
goose gets tired, and you know, if you're on a
seventeen hundred miles track, you got to get tired right,
But as soon as that goose got tired, he would
drop back find another place in the V formation. Someone
else would come and take the point in the V
and stay there until that goose got tired, and then
(40:22):
fall back, and another would come. Each and every one
of the geese in that V shaped formation would do
his or her part, and as a result, they did
things together that they could never even imagine doing a part.
They worked together as a team. Alex Haley, who gaves
(40:50):
that wonderful, wonderful historical novel Roots, had a matto by
which he lived, and at his funeral the manto was
on the front of the program, and it was essentially
this find the good and praise it. Now, there's been
(41:13):
a lot of reasons why Alex Haley could have found
the bad, but he lived life in such a way.
Find the good, the connectedness of black white of all people.
Find the good and praise it, he said, and learn
how to fly together. Could it be that you and
(41:36):
I could become even more effective as the church as
a team if we would remember the importance and the
strategy of a V shaped formation and do our part,
be connected and fly. There's no lesson about goose, geese,
(42:02):
goose and geese. They take care of their fallen Geese
can be traveling in that V shaped formation, and if
one goose becomes ill, if one goose gets shot out
of the sky and has to go to the ground,
(42:23):
at least two of the geese will drop out of
the formation and go and stay with that fallen goose
until that goose either recovers and they go back again,
or until the goose passes away. Geese take care of
(42:46):
their falling. In Corinth, the people were so hung up
for a while on themselves, but they didn't take care
of each other. You can read about it in the book.
(43:06):
Somebody would say, I like the preaching of Paul. I
belong to Paul. Other people said, I think he's too old.
He doesn't have a very nice looking physical appearance. I
like Simon Peter better. He walked with Jesus. And somebody
else said, well, I don't belong to Paul, and I
don't belong to Simon Peter Deciphus. I like a Poulus.
(43:30):
He is a fluent speaker, and he preaches short sermons,
and I like that a whole lot better. And Paul
was saying to them did Paul give you gifts? Did
Sephus call you to be the church? Does a Poulis
(43:52):
really give you the power you belong to Christ? He
said something for you to always remember. Finnel characteristic that
(44:15):
I want to mention about geese, and to me this
might be the most fascinating one of all. They not
only remember that they're created to fly, not only fly
in formation to help each other out, they not only
take care of their falling. Incidentally, in the time I
(44:37):
was here and since I've been gone and come back again,
you good people do an amazing job of taking care
of each other. Let me say that again, even when
you don't have a senior pastor or full ministerial staff.
I have watched you good folks, found out about you
(44:58):
good folks taking care of people when they were sick,
when a loved one died, when there was a tragedy.
God bless you Fifth Avenue Baptists for doing just that.
Keep on keeping on taking care of you're fallen. Well.
(45:24):
This last characteristic is that geese always keep their eyes
on the horizon. Have you ever seen some high flying
geese and they'll fly over a lake and maybe they'll
peer down and there'll be a fish down there or
(45:45):
something that they would want to eat that's down there,
and they would do a dive. It's amazing. There's a
name for it. It's called hiffling. And when one of
those those geese will whiffle, they actually turn their bodies
(46:05):
upside down as they drop down to get bread for
the day and water for the day and make sure
they can get through the day. But the amazing thing
is they turn their bodies one hundred and eighty degrees
in such a way that they always keep their eyes
on the horizon. Amazing. They do that so they will
(46:30):
not lose perspective, because even a goose knows that life
is more than just daily food and daily water. There's
a future out there too. They keep their eyes on
the horizon. One day, some people ask Jesus what's the
(46:51):
greatest commandment? They're six hundred and thirteen laws and commandments
according to the Old Testament, and I wonder which one
Jesus was going to prioritize. And without hesitation, he said,
love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength,
and mind, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.
(47:17):
Keep your eyes on the horizon. Be my witnesses, share
my love, follow me. He said, keep your eyes on
the horizon. And if you will do that, the apostle
(47:42):
Paul said, you can do it by understanding that God
wants to show you a more excellent way. It's found
in the next chapter one Corinthians thirteen. I will show
you still a more excellent way. Because love is patient,
(48:08):
love is kind. Love is not jealous or boastful. It
is not irritable or reasonful. It is not arrogant or rude.
It does not rejoice in the wrong, but it rejoices
in the right. It bears all things, believes, all things, hopes,
all things endures all things. Love never ends Church. Love never.
Speaker 5 (48:38):
Ends.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Well, I'm sure if it's not this week, it won't
be too long when I'll get up early in the
morning and look out in our backyard and hear the
honking of those wild geese. And while I will be
amazed at this incredible gift of God's creation, I will
(49:09):
be thinking more about Geeze. I'll be thinking about the church,
because we're created to fly people, and to work together
as a team to fly in the formation and to
help each other out, to take care of our fallen,
(49:37):
and above all to keep our eyes on the horizon,
to turn our eyes upon Jesus or Him of invitation.
(49:58):
This morning is a Him that growing up we would
always sing after communion. It's a communion hymn. It's Blessed
be the Tithe of the binds, and that's going to
be our hymn of invitation this Lord's Day, Sunday morning.
A lot of you will will know the words, especially
(50:19):
the first verse, but we'll sing all three verses today.
It's four to twenty six in your hymnal and as
we sing, just be open to how God might be
speaking to you to join a church, to accept Christ
as savior, if you've fallen out of the formation for
(50:43):
a while, to get back in the formation and keep
your eyes upon Jesus. You respond today as a spirit leads,
Let's stand Blessed be the Tithe of the bines.
Speaker 5 (50:53):
Six time.
Speaker 4 (51:14):
S F S, SH S, S S T.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
Participation in worship service on this first Sunday in September,
this Sunday of Labor Day weekend. I hope that you'll
find some time to be with family and to be
with friends, and to get ready as falls in full
fleeme to fly as God calls you to fly, so
(52:52):
good to be back with you. All receive now this benediction,
for it is the benediction of Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
who go before you, who follow after you, who watch
over you, who guide you in the way, and who
(53:16):
at the last will lead you safely home. Oh man.
Speaker 3 (54:02):
As ass. But now I care not, But you may
(55:15):
think of.
Speaker 4 (55:27):
Say a m M M.
Speaker 3 (56:20):
M M.
Speaker 4 (56:46):
E d N
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