RWJ/Pottersville UMC 07/01/12 Sermon - "My Hope and My Prayer"

Sunday 07/01/12 RWJ/Pottersville UMC

Sermon Title: “My Hope and My Prayer”

Scripture Lesson: 2^nd Corinithians 8:7-15   

Gospel Lesson: Mark 5:21-34

          Good morning brothers and sisters! I greet you in the name our risen Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Let me start by saying what an honor and a privilege it is to be worshipping with you today in this house of the Lord. I want to especially take a moment to thank all of those who greeted me, helped to prepare the parsonage for me and my wife Melissa, and who have been resources for me when I had questions or needed information. We both feel treated great, and I can already see the realities of the love of Christ in this congregation! Further, I am incredibly humbled and privileged to be your new pastor, and am so overjoyed to be serving your church.

          Just a little bit about me before I start my sermon. I will give my whole testimony at some point, but instead of hitting you with everything about me at once, I will tell you just a little bit about me today. I am originally from Northern Illinois, and I have to admit that I am a big Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bears fan. I moved to New York when I was elementary school with my mother Susan, who then married my step-father Mike. I went to High School down in Orange County, and met my beautiful wife Melissa at Potsdam College, during my five-years of college there. From Potsdam, I became a permanently certified social studies teacher, and taught full time in different school for a few years. I also have been an active tutor for twelve years, and still tutor for the Ithaca City School District when I am not up here. In getting into teaching to help the kids more than to teach the kids, I felt called to work with kids and their families more closely. As a result, I left teaching and was a social worker for four years at a non-profit organization in Ithaca, NY. In continuing to tutor I have had great opportunities to minister, and I often work with children that have extremely high needs, which my social work and mental health work experience has greatly helped me to do successfully. This all culminated in my call to ministry. Regarding my call to ministry itself, I have just finished my second of four years of seminary studies at the Northeastern Seminary and Roberts Wesleyan College. Just a little bit about the Northeastern Seminary, we are very evangelical and very biblical. I am excited to be part of a new evangelical crop of clergy that has studied at Northeastern. I will be attending the United Theological Seminary starting in August over the internet for my last two years of school, and will need to go to school in Dayton, Ohio one week a semester for the next 4-semesters. I will also hopefully be officially a licensed pastor in the next couple of months, as my paperwork and college transcripts are being processed. So, for the next two months my dear friend and our Adirondack District Superintendent Bill Mudge will be pre-consecrating our Communion elements for us. By the early fall I will be able to perform all sacramental duties in this church, as well marriages, funerals, and etc. I will also be available Monday’s in the church office from 9:00a.m.-4:00p.m., and will be here from Friday nights to late Monday afternoons.

          So, once again I will give a fuller testimony at some point, and I just wanted to take a few moments to tell all of you a little bit about myself. Today’s sermon came to me, when I contemplating a month ago what to give my first sermon on. I mean after all what do you tell a church that you are pasturing the very first Sunday you preach? This is a good question isn’t it? While thinking this over, one night our good friend Dottie came over to our house in Cayuga County. Dottie is a very dear friend of Melissa and I, and she has been attending a Methodist Church for years. We often would go to dinner at Dottie’s house, and like a good Methodist she had a lot of food. After all isn’t that a big part of being Methodist? We like our covered dishes to pass do we not?

          When Dottie came to visit, she seemed upset. I asked Dottie what was wrong, and she told me that she had some concerns with her church pastor. I certainly won’t mention the specific church or the pastor, but I will say that Dottie seemed disillusioned with the pastor. In fact, one time Dottie was not in church for 9-months due to various health problems, and Dottie said that the pastor of church never called or visited her once. As a result, anger and hurt built in her about this, and another time she didn’t attend church for 3-months. As Dottie was talking, I said to her, “you know what Dottie, I think you feel unloved by your pastor.” She then said, “wow Paul I think your right, I do feel unloved by my pastor.”

          I can say brothers and sisters that unfortunately I have attended churches in my life where I felt the pastor didn’t care about me, when they actually could have. As a result of all this, I wanted this first Sunday to tell you that it is “My Hope and My Prayer,” that this whole congregation, present and not present will feel loved by me. I very much already love all of you, am concerned about your well being, your health, and your individual ministries to serve our Lord. As read in our scriptures this morning, the love and grace of Christ, and the healing of Christ will be my biggest ministerial hopes and prayers in my time here. With this said my first five sermons will be a series on ways we can challenge our local church and our larger Methodist church in times of great uncertainty and change to be more faithful, more loving, and more biblical.

          This first message is further called “My Hope and My Prayer,” because as your new pastor there are many hopes and prayers I have for this church, this community, and for the spreading of the life saving gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s my hope and my prayer that we will hear many giggles of many children in this church soon. That we will one day have a large and vital Sunday school program. That your new Pastor Paul, will one day not only be your pastor, but God willing will also one day be your youth pastor.

          It is my hope and my prayer that we continue to cling to our historical faith that we practiced for 2,000 years. It is my hope and my prayer that we acknowledge the authority of the Bible, the sovereignty of almighty God, and the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. It is my hope and my prayer that I might be able to reach people in this community in the name of our redeemer Jesus Christ. That during my ministry here were can hear people right here in this community say, “I am a new creation, and I am a life that was changed in Jesus Christ.” It is my hope and my prayer that our nation has a great awakening of a revival that reinvigorates our church, our historic faith, the wayward nature of our nation. Billy Graham once referred to the Methodist Church as a “Sleeping Giant,” and said imagine what would happen if that giant awoke?” It is my hope and my prayer that in this church we will have fresh encounters with the risen Christ that we will renew our faith in almighty God, and that we will continue to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.

          It is my hope and my prayer dear brothers and sisters that I will be a central part of this community and your church family. It is my hope and my prayer that I will be much more than just a Sunday morning preacher, that I can be invested in your lives, in this community, and in the ministries of this church. It is my hope and my prayer dear brothers and sisters that we will one day have church dinners. It is my hope and prayer to have many of you over to the church parsonage to visit. It is my hope and my prayer that you can say that we have a new pastor who doesn’t always do things perfect, that might have corny jokes, that is a broken sinner, but that he is here to serve me and this community. It is my hope and prayer that we as family can change hearts and lives in a world that knows him not. In a world that does not know Jesus Christ and desperately needs to repent and be saved in His name. And brothers and sisters if we ever needed Jesus as a nation, I would argue that there is no better time than now! It is my hope and my prayer that we all grow in faith while I serve this church, and it is my hope prayer that I learn much more from you than you will ever learn from me. In the end, if you remember nothing else about this first sermon I am giving, remember this: that I am here to serve and love you, because this is the way of our Lord Jesus. I want to be here when you’re suffering, when you’re sick, and when you need to be ministered to, and am a pastor who welcomes your fellowship.  Lastly, it is my hope and my prayer that all of you know that I am here to grow your worship and your traditions, not to change them. I am excited to continue the traditions and worship that you all have practiced for many years. It seems this church has a rich history, and instead of trying to change that history, I seek to add to it, learn it, and become part of traditions, your family, and your community.

          I want to close this message with a story. This is a story about a rich father, who lived in Pennsylvania around the time of World War II. The father had a wife, but she passed away, leaving him with just his one beloved son. The father being so wealthy did have a butler, but the father still loved his son more than anything. The father wasn’t shocked when his son announced his intention to enlist in the army and fight in World War II. Reluctantly, the father sent his son to fight. While away his son excelled in the army. He was a leader, but mostly was a servant to his fellow soldiers. He was also the first to volunteer, and loved his brothers in arms so much, that one day he dove on top of a hand grenade that suddenly flew into the vicinity that his military unit was in. Realizing that there was enough time to throw the grenade back at the enemy, he dove on the grenade and sacrificed himself so that everyone else may live. The war then ended a few months later. The father in Pennsylvania as you can imagine was in mourning, as he had heard the news shortly after his son had died. In the late fall of that same year, one day the father had a knock at his door, and it was one of the son’s best military friends. He told the father that the son was the bravest soldier that had ever seen, and that he sacrificed himself for everyone else. Fancying himself an artist, one night of low military activity this soldier drew a grease pencil picture of the son, and wanted to make sure that the father had it.

          The father once again being immensely wealthy, took one of his multi-million dollar Pablo Picasso paintings off his wall above his mantle, and then framed and put the drawing of his son up. It wasn’t much to look at, but it really did look like his son, and he was pleased with it. That winter, the father completely grief stricken by the loss of his son, died. His last will and testament called that all of his possessions and belongings be auctioned off, and that the money be donated to various charitable causes. The father also requested a man in his will that he knew who was an auctioneer to oversee this auction. The auctioneer was given some special instructions that no one else had. Allowing a couple of weeks before the auction, wealthy and prominent people for all corners of the globe came to this auction to buy up the expensive art work and the riches of the father. The auction then began, and the first item to be auctioned, as per the will, was the grease pencil picture of the father’s son. Everyone in attendance seemed frustrated as no one wanted this cheap grease pencil drawing of the son. The butler, who was still working for the father’s estate through the end this auction, assured everyone that after this piece of art sold the real riches would come. So the bidding be began, $500 dollars… nothing, $300 dollars… nothing, $100 dollars nothing. The auctioneer also having had know the son seemed frustrated that no one would buy the picture of the son. The auctioneer then said will no one bid on this drawing? The bidders of the auction seemed determined to have the item tabled, skipped, and not auctioned. Just before this happened though, the father’s butler said, “excuse me auctioneer, I know I am not part of this auction, but I did really love the father and I loved his son.” If it is ok with the rest of the folks who are here to buy the father’s riches, I was wondering if I might bid on the drawing of the son? The group quickly agreed, and the butler bid $20 dollars.  The auctioneer than did his normal routine of “going once, going twice, sold!” Upon say sold and hitting his gavel, the auctioneer then suddenly and unexpectedly said, “well thank you for coming folks, this concludes our auction.” The wealthy bidders from far and wide were furious and said, “But we haven’t even gotten to the real riches yet.” The auctioneer then said the special instructions I had from the father’s will were very clear. He said it says here who ever receives my son, gets everything. You see brothers and sisters when we receive the son; we get all of the riches of the father.