Lathem Postell: Well, good morning. Sam Jones Methodist Church. I've got half of mind to just stop talking and let them come do all that worship for us again. Oh, well, you didn't have to say it that loud. That was that was incredible.
Holy Spirit certainly is here. Thank you all for leading us in that. As I have promised to do throughout this month, I wanted to update you first as we get started this morning on our Being Sam Jones initiative. Hopefully, you found in your bulletin again one of these inserts. If this is your first time here with us or maybe your first time in August, I wanted to explain it just a little bit.
I'm not going to go through the full spiel. If you weren't here week 1, go back, find our stream for that. You'll get kind of the the full spiel on on what we're doing with this. But the the short version of it is this, that that moving forward, we want to to give the church the opportunity to to be the church. My hope for us as a church is that when someone walks into our building, right, it's obviously my job as pastor to get up here and to proclaim the gospel, tell the good news of Jesus.
What my hope is is that for us as a church, that the moment someone comes in the door, that they don't have to wait until the sermon, that the moment they walk in, they encounter people who are telling them, whether through words or deeds or smiles, about the love of Jesus. And so, this is giving you, the church, the opportunity to be the church, which I think is vitally important. So, again, we're gonna do this every year. Right? Life changes and maybe you can do something 1 year that you can't do another.
We just wanna give you the opportunity to be serving God in that way. So so up till now, we've had 2 Sundays already. This is our 3rd Sunday in August that we've been doing this. Our update on numbers is this. I've told you we need 86 people serving in one area once a month to really make Sundays happen well.
So that's kind of our goal is 86, people serving on Sunday mornings. So far, we've had 60 inserts turned in, so which is great. A few of those are for non Sunday morning service opportunities, which are just as important. Right? Wednesday night supper, bible studies, things like that.
So if you take those out, we've had 49 inserts for Sunday morning. So for the math people, I know you're trying to do the quick math out there, that's over halfway there. That's over 50%. The the math is, I think, exactly like 57%. So that's good.
2 Sundays, we're halfway there. We're over halfway with our inserts. So I encourage you, if you haven't already or if this is your first time hearing about it, consider filling one out. Again, they should have been in your bulletin. If if not, there should be some extras.
Come find me. I'm happy to get you one. Best thing to do is to to prayerfully kinda take that home. Think about it. See where God maybe asking you to serve.
Bring it back next week. Put it in the offering plate. If you brought it this week and you forgot to put it in the offering plate, come put it on the altar. You can drop it by my office, give it to anybody on staff, and we'll make sure it gets to the right place. And then after this month is over, after we've kinda gone through this initiative, we're gonna have folks from our staff follow-up with you so that you can you know, we're not just gonna come ask you to serve as a leader in the kids ministry and not have told you what to do.
Okay? So you don't have to be afraid of that. We're gonna have a training session or or some sort of way to help you know what to do to empower you, to equip you, to to do that role. So thank you for prayerfully considering that. If you have any questions, I didn't say, youth and kids are still and always are are areas of biggest need.
So if you're kinda on the fence, don't know where God is leading you, perhaps this is God leading you to to click or check, kids or youth. But but thank you so much. If you have any questions, come and and find me. We're also continuing, as I alluded to, throughout this August month, we're continuing this series that we are calling return. This is a month just of returns.
It's a month school's finally back in session. Right? I think some of our last stragglers finally went back to school this week. I know there were a couple of private schools that went back this week. Our own Sam Jones Learning Center, which is on the 2nd floor of this building here, they were back in session.
It was great to see all of the little ones. It's always exciting to have them running around, crying and screaming, and and just having fun and learning together here on our our campus every day. I mean, they're here Monday through Friday, so it's just wonderful that they were they were back. And with all of that, just brings back the the return of routines and and sleep schedules. Things are finally starting to to feel a little bit normal.
Summer's a great time, but it's also a weird time where things are off kilter right. And and you know things are almost back to normal because we're 13 days away from God's football team, kicking off in Atlanta against Clemson. Yeah. I got a good reaction to that in the 1st service too. Maybe I need to bring up Georgia a little bit more, a little bit more often.
So, things are finally getting back to normal and returning. And with all of that, as I've told you, my hope is that if if everything else is going to be returning, maybe we should take some time, and hopefully you have, take some time taking stock of of our own spiritual lives as well. What does it look like for us to not just return to school, not just to return to routines, but to return to God? What what would it look like if all of us return to God? And so that's what we talked about the 1st week.
And last week, we said, look, if you're going to do that, if that's gonna be a priority of yours, you're gonna have to turn away from sin. If you want to return to God, you you you gotta turn from sin. And so over the next 2 weeks, what we're going to talk about is some spiritual disciplines, some practices that I believe, if we will be faithful to them, they they will help us return to God. And so this week we're going to start with a practice, hopefully, you're familiar with, just the spiritual discipline of prayer. And so if you have your bibles with you, I invite you to go ahead and turn to our scripture for today.
It'll also be up on the the screen behind me as well. We're gonna be reading, from the book of Philippians, chapter 4, just 2 2 verses, verses 6 through 7. Let's hear what the apostle Paul says. Here's what he says. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Will you pray with me? Loving and gracious God, we do give you thanks for this wonderful day. We give you thanks for our opportunity to worship you, Lord, for this time to just come and hear from you. So Lord, speak to our hearts and minds.
May all the things that that are preoccupying us, may we just lay those aside for for 20 minutes. And Lord, may we listen to you. For it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. I have been privileged to know my wife, Cammie.
She loves when people look at her, so I won't try to look at her, even though I know where she's sitting. I've had the privilege of knowing her for 12 years, which is hard to believe. And when I really when I say knowing, we've been together for 12 years. I think we've known each other for a little bit longer than that. I'll whisper and say, please don't tell her that she's put up with me for 12 years.
She doesn't I don't want her to get smart on me. But, but we've been together for for 12 years, and we had the the great I'll I'll say, you know, any anytime it's your story, it's, you know, you see it as a blessing. We had the the blessing, even though it was difficult to to start out a lot of our relationship as a long distance couple, which may not sound like a blessing, but but I think it it strengthened us. We are a little more than a year apart in age, but because of where birthdays fell, I was young for my grade, she was old for her grade. We we were 2 years apart in school.
And so, after we'd been together for about a year, I went off to college at Young Harris. Many of you know that. And and she stayed around to to finish high school. And and so we entered into a season where where we had to to communicate pretty well in order to maintain our relationship. If we didn't, it meant that the relationship was gonna fail.
And so we were fortunate. We lived in the time our relationship was in the time of smartphones and iPhones, and so it was very easy for us to communicate through text or call if we wanted to. We went old school a little bit, and would write letters sometimes to each other. And so we did our best to communicate, to to try and make our relationship work, and and it has. We're we're still together today.
And what we found in that, it's not surprising, right, is how important communication is to a relationship. I can look out and I see many of you, and you have relationships that have lasted much longer than 12 years. Some of you going on 20, 30, 40, maybe even some 50 year relationships, And and though they're not always easy, what I imagine if you were to come up here and talk about it, you would say similar things. That the only way to to make those work is communication. Love is a powerful thing.
It's something we all seek and desire. There's something just kind of innately in us, people made in God's image. God is love. Right? We we seek after love.
And and I believe, again, if we kind of got our collective wisdom together, we would say, love is a lot like a living creature. It's a lot like a flower, maybe. It will only grow if it's properly fed and watered. Communication is that nourishment. It is the the water.
It is the the food source. It is the the fuel for healthy relationships. It's why what I'm about to share with you is so sad. This idea that that communication is at the heart of every single healthy relationship. I I don't think if you were to find a healthy relationship, you would find one without communication.
And and and so here's some some statistics I found that are sad. There was a survey conducted in 2021 by the Pew Research Center that asked a nationally representative group of people in our country, asked about their prayer habits. And what they found was that less than half of the country says they pray daily. 45% was the exact number. 45% of people say they pray daily.
That's down from 58% in 2,007, 55% in 2014, and and maybe most astonishing, 32% say they never pray. But only 45% of people say they pray daily. Again, think to those really important relationships in your life. Would your relationship be what it is today? If if you said something like, yeah.
Well, we're together, but we never, you know, talk. Or, yeah, we're together. We we we check-in once a week. I imagine that if this was the tactic that you tried to take, the relationship would have ended long ago. So the question is, why do we try to take that tactic with our relationship with Jesus?
I'm not saying all of us do. Right? We we might have some some prayer warriors in here. I'm not saying all of us do that, but statistically speaking, a lot of us do. We proclaim ourselves as followers of Jesus Christ, and I believe that we're genuine in that, but we don't take any time to see what our master might be saying.
We know on one side that communication is the hallmark of every good relationship, but when it comes to the most important relationship in our life, we seem to forget it. Common refrain becomes I don't have enough time or or this got in the way or or I just don't know how to do it. Friends, if we're serious this month about returning to God, I think we have to return to prayer. And Paul knows this too. Right?
He's writing here in this passage of scripture that we read. He's writing to the church in in Philippi, and when we get to chapter 4, it's the last chapter of this book. He he does what he's doing in a lot of his letters. So if you go and read a lot of Paul's letters, he has a purpose for why he's writing, and he explains that pretty clearly. Most of the time, it's to correct some sort of bad theology or practice that's happening in a particular church that he loves.
Right? And so, but but when he gets to the end, it's almost as if he he says to them, well, while I've got you on the phone, I've got a couple more things to say. It's maybe not related to why I wrote to you, but but I think it's important. And so it's these final exhortations, and and that's that's what he's doing here. He says, oh, yeah.
By the way, here's one more thing for you, and here again what he says in verses 6 and 7. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. A fantastic piece of advice. Just kind of a thrown in piece of advice. Right?
While I've got you, here's some wise words for you. They're strong, and they're only made stronger when you realize where he wrote them. You may know this, but but Paul wrote to the people of Philippi from prison, either while he was imprisoned in Rome or imprisoned in Ephesus. And so for me, that that increases the strength of his words. If there was ever a situation in which to be anxious, the one Paul is writing from is the one.
Yet it's from prison that he tells them, don't be anxious, or in other translations it says, to not worry about anything. Because the the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. It's no coincidence then that he's using this this idea, this image of guarding your hearts and minds. Right? Remember, he's being guarded, but what he's saying is sure, my body may be guarded, but my heart and mind are guarded by 1 person and 1 person alone.
My savior, Jesus. This is what prayer does. It gives us the ability to say, sure, my circumstances may be terrible, but my heart and mind are focused on Christ. Sure. Does he expect that everybody in Philippi will end up where he does?
No. No. But he knows that their life will be challenges. He knows that their life will be difficult, and he knows that it is prayer that will get them through it. As he's ending his letter, he's like, right.
As hard things come, don't forget the importance of prayer. I think he's saying the same thing to us today. I heard a great quote years ago about worry. Right? He's connecting prayer and and worrying together, and so it's just great great quote about worry.
I don't know. I tried to look and see who is the first person to say it. It's attributed to this person, to this person, to this person. So if you've heard this and you know exactly who it was, it was the first person to come and tell me. But but but here's the quote.
Worry is a form of practical atheism. Think about that for a minute. Worry is a form of practical atheism. It demonstrates for us a lack of faith and trust in god. Strong words, but I think there's truth to it.
Right? That worry is a form of practical atheism. If you proclaim yourself as a follower of Jesus, do do you not believe he is who he says he is? Do you not believe God will do what he says he will do? Do you not truly believe that that he is the Messiah, that he came and lived and died and was raised to new life that we might have life eternal.
Right? Do you not believe that Jesus cares about you? That Jesus knows you? That he wants to be there for you? And before you answer that question, before you try to get to the bottom of that, I'll ask you another one.
How often do you pray? Right. Because the answer to the question of, do you believe Jesus is who he says he is, can be answered by the question, how often do you pray? I've often ascribed to to the line of thinking in my life that that what you believe will be demonstrated by what you do. What you believe will be shown to be true by what you do.
So the true answer to that question, do you believe Jesus is who he says he is, is gonna be answered by the question of how often do you pray. Right? Because if God is who he says he is, if Jesus has done what he has said he has done, if all of these things are true, why would we not talk to him constantly? If he really can conquer death, why would we not take all of our problems to him? Paul is imploring us.
I am imploring you to say, look. If you want to truly return to God, you have to return to prayer. And luckily, as he does this, in these beautiful two verses, he gives us just a few pointers, a few tips of how we might could do that. There's a lot of them in the short amount of verses, but there's 2 in particular I want to highlight for us today. And the first pointer is this, about prayer.
Is that Paul tells us we need to approach prayer with thanksgiving. That might seem like an easy one, but but can you truly comprehend how much of a blessing it is that the creator of the universe asks to talk with you? Sometimes we can take those easy things for granted. Can you believe that God, having all of the responsibility and weight of maintaining and sustaining the world says, please come and talk with me? Look at any successful person in the world, and and and successful people will often tell you, you know, here's my my regimen.
Here's my routine. There's there's articles all the time in in magazines, or there's videos about what does a successful person's schedule look like. And you'll see that it may not be this exactly, but it'll start with something, you know, wake up at 4:45, coffee at 4:50, workout at 5 o'clock, breakfast at 5:30, conference call at 6. And you can kinda go down the the line. Right?
And and usually from 4:45 till 8, 9, 10 o'clock at night, their schedule is full. They have absolutely zero time for anything, other than the thing that they are laser focused on, which is making sure that that whatever they do is successful. Usually that's that's some sort of business, or product, or anything like that. Right? They don't have time for someone to walk into their office, an employee perhaps, and and say, I I just, you know, my my my mom died, and and I don't have really know what to do.
Right? No. Successful people, they don't have time for that. There's beauty in the fact that the one who created everything, not just one business, not just one product, no. The god who created the world says, come and talk with me.
Come and pray to me. Come and sit with me. We should give thanks that God hears our prayers, that God invites us to pray, and that God wants us to pray. We should give thanks that our relationship with God isn't one-sided. For it isn't just about the fact that we need to hear from God.
It's the fact that God wants to hear from us. It keeps us near the heart of God. And when we realize that, we see it's a privilege, a privilege for which we should give thanks. So approach prayer in your life with thanksgiving. Never miss the awe of what it is.
The second point I think Paul wants us to see, what I hope you'll see this day about prayer is this, is is that the effectiveness of prayer isn't in the result. It's in the process. Let me let me say that again. That's a lot of words. Prayer the the effectiveness of prayer isn't in the result, but it's in the process.
Notice the formula that God that that Paul gives us. Right? Paul says, present your request to God, and then may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds. A and then B. Right?
Did you miss what was missing in the middle of that? Paul doesn't say this. He doesn't say, present your request to God, wait to see the answer, and then when you get what you want have peace. No. Paul is saying it's not the answer that gives us peace.
It's the process of presenting ourself before God that does. You see, Paul knows something that we can easily forget in our mindset when when we start to only see things through our eyes. Right? Paul knows that God is not a magic genie. That when problems in our life come, it's time to go and rub the lamp and have the genie come and fix things for us.
Yes. God wants to hear our problems, and I believe in all my heart that God can do something about them, and that he does want what's best for us. But Paul is promising us, he's reminding us that this peace of God does not come in receiving those things we want. Peace comes when we receive what we need, and what you need is not the answer to your prayer. What you need is the person who answers them, which is Jesus.
Peace comes from the knowledge that as we present ourselves before God, he truly does hear us. That he cares about us. That he loves us, and that he's with us. It's why the peace that comes is beyond all understanding as Paul says it. Because if you ask anybody, as Paul's writing this letter, the world would tell him he's crazy to have peace and joy.
He's writing from prison. Paul, your prayers have clearly not been answered. You you realize you're still behind bars. Right? But he says, no.
I can have peace, because prayer is not about what I'm asking about. It's who I'm asking it to. There is nothing more freeing, there's nothing more peaceful than the presence of God. My hope and prayer for you is that your relationship with God is better now than it's ever been. My hope for you as your pastor is that your relationship with God is better today than it was yesterday, than it was the day before, than it was last Sunday, the Sunday I got here.
Right? I hope that you're always growing closer to Jesus. But if you're in a rut, if that's just not true, right, if you've, throughout this month, which is why we're doing this right, if you've looked at your life and you said, I'm not as close as I want to be. God hasn't left me, but I've left him. I've followed other idols.
I've followed other gods. I've done other things. Yes, I still follow him, but but I've gotten a little bit away. If that is you, I hope you will receive the gift of what Paul is giving you today, that there is a way back to God, and that way is through prayer. If you want to return to God, you gotta start talking to him again.
It's true with any relationship. True for for me and my wife. Right? If we had not had a chance to talk in the last 12 years of our life, in the last 5 plus years of our marriage, we probably would not still be together today. It's true for all relationships, romantic or otherwise.
Right? When you stop talking, when you stop communicating, it ends. Why do we do that with Jesus? Stop trying to make what we know to to not be true in any other relationship in our life. Stop trying to make it be true with your relationship with God.
Instead, return to being a praying people. As as Paul's letter as he's kind of leaving, hear his closing remarks. Don't forget to pray. In the middle of life circumstances, don't worry, because you can pray. Don't worry, because the God who hears you is with you.
If you want to return to God, return to prayer. Let's pray together. Loving and gracious God, Lord, we are so thankful for who you are. We're so thankful that even as you carry the weight of the world and sometimes we use that metaphorically, Lord, but but for you it's real. As you carry the weight of the world, of of the universe, as you carry the weight of our sins to the cross, as you carry the weight of what it means to be God, Lord, you still invite us into your presence.
You you don't shut the door. You don't say you don't have time. You don't say that you're busy. Lord, no, you invite us to your throne. And as you rule over all of creation, you look at us and ask what's wrong.
God, help us to be a people that return to your invitation. For some of us, Lord, it's been a long time since we have kneeled at your throne. It's been a long time since we have brought to you our cares and concerns. It's been a long time before we laid our heart at your feet. So, God, I I pray for each person here, those watching online now or or later, whenever they're seeing this, because we know that your prayers go throughout time.
Lord, we just ask that you remind us of your calling, your invitation to pray. Because, Lord, it's no worry that it's no wonder that there's so much worry, so much anxiety in our lives, Lord. It's because we haven't come to see you. Help us, God, to return to your heart. Help us, God, to return to prayer.
Help us to pray continuously as your scriptures tell us to do. Because, Lord, we know that when we do that, we will get peace. Not peace like the world sees it, but, Lord, a peace that passes all understanding. God, we desire your peace because we desire you. Make us to be praying people because we know that praying people make praying people.
For it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Amen.