Call to Worship
Good morning! I’m Nancy Robbins and I am an elder here at Azle Christian Church. To those here in the sanctuary and those joining us online: we are so glad you’re here!
This morning, we will sing songs of worship, pray together, hear from scripture and one another, as we move toward the pinnacle of our service: the table of our Lord, where we will take the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of our most Gracious Host, Jesus. The purpose of our time together each Sunday is to bring our hearts closer to the heart of God, so I invite you to participate in as much or as little in our prepared liturgy as your spirit is willing.
We welcome all sounds and smells from the youngest to the oldest among us. The Kids Corner is in the back for anyone who needs to move around and play to worship God this morning. There is also a nursery available. We know that the energy and spirit of children can be different than adults and we consider that a gift.
There are information cards in the pew in front of you—if you are a guest, or if you have moved and have not updated your info with the church, please fill it out and drop it in the offering plate when it goes by later in worship.
For those watching online or for those who would like to follow along, our liturgy for every service is posted on our website before the service begins.
Sunday School is at 10 AM each week. We have two adult classes—one in the parlor, and one in the seekers’ room. We have an older kids class that meets in the MUB, and a younger elementary class that meets behind the sanctuary.
DWM is today, at 1 PM in the fellowship hall.
Lenten Lunch each Thursday 11-12:30 in the Chapel for a devotional and lunch.
On March 5, the church will celebrate its 140th birthday as well as paying off its mortgage! Emerson will preach and there will be a party after service.
If you or someone you know would like to receive home communion, please call the church office or you can comment below in the livestream.
You can find all this information in your weekly eblast, on Facebook, in the insert in your bulletin, and on our calendar on our website. If you have an event with no graphic please contact Emerson or speak with him after the service.
Today, we begin our Lenten series: Seeking: Honest Questions for Deeper Faith. We have lenten devotionals for you to take home to guide your personal practice this season. Please pick them up on the table in the back and the table just out this door by the nursery.
Let’s pray to turn our hearts toward God for this hour.
Spirit of truth, open to us the scriptures, speaking your holy word through song, through the bread and cup, and through offering ourselves, and meet us here today in the living Christ. Amen.
Litany of Faith
One: Happy are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered.
All: Happy are those to who the Lord charges no injustice, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
One: When we acknowledged our sin to you, and we did not hide our iniquity; you forgave the guilt of our sin.
All: You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.
One: Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the LORD.
All: Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
Pastoral Prayer
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Good morning friends. I am Emerson and my Pronouns are he/him and I am the Minister to Youth and Children here at Azle Christian Church. Please join me in prayer.
Gentle One,
In the midst of all the world’s noise,
We struggle to hear the whispers of your care.
“Come and rest,”
You beckon.
Our never-ending lists,
Days too short,
Pressures so high,
They make us weary.
Whether our labor is paid,
Or the search for work is our toil.
Whether we tend with care to the needs of our loved ones at home
Or gift time to the collective cries for justice,
There are so many ways we grow tired.
Reaching out,
Patient and inviting.
“Come and rest,”
You beckon,
Again and again.
To trust in You is to remember limitations,
Release control,
and let our earnest offerings be enough.
You do not ask any one person to lift the burdens from the world.
The Sacred labors of life
Belong to all of us and none of us.
For everything that doesn’t get done…
For all that we desire to protect but cannot…
For every hurt we cannot tend…
Fill us with a deep assurance,
Of your presence that abides in all things.
You abandon no one in their struggle.
Let your Sabbath be our renewal
Of mind, of body, of spirit.
In the name of our brother and redeemer Jesus, who taught us to pray…
Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
Sermon
Matthew 4:1-11
4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. 3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ” 11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
Hi! It is such a joy to be with you all today. My name is Rev. Allison Lanza, she/her. I am a Disciples of Christ pastor and the co-founder and co-executive of Be The Neighbor. We are a Disciples related service learning mission trip ministry with 10 sites across the country focusing on things like eco-justice, refugee welcome, hunger relief, anti-racism, homelessness and housing justice and more. Our mission is to equip people to live lives of love, service and justice because we believe that when we all love our neighbors in the model of Jesus our communities will be made whole again and our world will look more like the world God dreams of.
Growing up in Fort Worth I have always had such admiration of your congregation- you all have had some amazing pastors over the years and you do such good in the community and for your neighbors, so It is such a gift to be here with you the next few weeks.
Let us pray
Holy one, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts point us towards you and your unconditional love. Amen
Are any of you American Idol fans? I don’t always stick with those talent competition shows to the end, but I do like watching the auditions. I love watching the excitement and the nerves and the hope as people begin something new. This season, if you saw it-there was one audition on the first night that captured me.
Who are you, Katy Perry asks. LL-Lucy Love she replies.
Then she starts kind of acting out a bit. She has over the top energy and lots of clearly practiced jokes. Her song was good-ish. Had I been a judge I might not have picked her to go on to Hollywood-she had a good voice but the notes seemed kind of forced with a lot of awkward big choreography-I would have said-maybe practice and come back next year.
But then, when she finished, Lionel Richie says to her, do you know who you are? That if you stripped away all of that extra stuff you put on (you know all of that stuff she thought she needed to do to be someone who might get a golden ticket) if you stripped all that away and were just you-there is an artist in there.
That is when you see her face shift-she becomes really her for the first time-not acting a part.
Now, Lionel Richie asks, who are you
Then she starts to tell the story of her life. It has not been easy. She had a dad who was absent and a mom who was in and out. She grew up poor and now is trying to raise two young kids on her own.
When the rest of life was immeasurably hard, singing got her through. It gave her confidence and comfort and sanctuary and strength. It helped her believe in herself. It was the one thing she knew to be true and good about herself that no one could take away from her-she was a good singer.
Now, she knows who she is. They show a picture of one of the walls in her bathroom at apartment that she has covered with index cards with affirmations written on them to remind her who she is when she forgets-I am kind, I am strong minded, I am not my past, I am light, I cannot quit because I am providing for my babies.
They come back to her in the audition room, they invite her to sing again. This time she sings not from who she thinks others want her to be, not from whom she thinks she has to be to be successful, not from her fear-she sings from her heart-from who she knows she is. And it is powerful and beautiful and she gets that ticket to Hollywood.
Before she can start, to be successful, she has to get really clear about who she is and who she is not going to be in this next chapter of life.
Who are you? Who are you going to be?
I have a 4 year old son, and everyday since he first started daycare, I have whispered in his ear in the morning a reminder to him of who he is-I say to him, Spencer Davis Lanza, this is what I know to be true-you are kind, and smart and brave and loving and you are loved unconditionally by me and so many friends and family and you are loved even more by God-this is the day the Lord has made-rejoice and be glad in it.
I want him to know, before his day begins, who he is. So when the other voices start to ring in his ear pushing him to make bad choices or doubt himself and his goodness, he will hear my voice ringing in his heart with this truth-no this is what is true-you are loved.
Who are you? Who are you going to be?
For Be The Neighbor our board recently spent time clarifying our vision and values and mission.
We value love for all people and creation, being anchored in and moved by our faith, building community and living as neighbors, affirming the dignity and humanity of all. We wanted to make sure we are really clear-especially if push ever comes to shove-who are we are and who we are not. What motivations are going to drive us. In a world with a million options of what to do in every 24 hour period-what are we going to say yes to-and what are we going to say no to.
We wanted to be really clear about what values and mission would help us decide.
Who are you? Who are you going to be?
That is what Jesus is asking himself in our story today. Just before our scripture, in Chapter 3 of Matthew, Jesus is baptized by John, his cousin. Most folks think he is probably about 30 years old at this point and he is ready, he thinks, to start his next chapter. When he comes up out of the water, the skies open up and the spirit of God descends as a dove-you are my child, my beloved, the one I love with whom I am well pleased.
God tells him who he really is-you are my child, my beloved.
Then, with these words ringing in his heart, he enters the wilderness. When we get to our story today-it has been 40 days-which is Bible speak for a really long time. 40 days in the wilderness.
40 days trying to figure out what this next chapter is going to be, who he is going to be in it, worried ( I imagine, I would be) can he really do this, does he know how to do this, how does one even start bringing the kindom of God to earth, making this broken world on earth as it is in heaven? 40 days being not just fully God but fully human- hungry, tired, alone. That voice that broke open the heavens is starting to feel like a dream from a long time ago. 40 days, a long time, seeking, asking God and himself the hard questions.
Over the next 40 days, in our time together in worship, from now until Easter, we are going to be joining Jesus in this seeking. Joining with Nicodemus, and the Samaritan woman at the well, and Mary and many of the other faithful throughout time and history who have found themselves in the wilderness seeking-who am I? Who are you God? Who am I supposed to be as your child, your disciple? What does it even look like to live a faithful life in all of this broken hard world and life?
Maybe you are seeking in your own life right now. Maybe you are beginning something new- maybe something you chose-a new relationship, a new job, a new dream…maybe something you would have never chosen-new grief, a new diagnosis, a new phase of life that you don’t want to be in.
Maybe you are seeking God-feeling distant from God and wanting to find that connection again, rethinking or questioning what you have always believed, constructing or deconstructing or reconstructing your faith and who you might be called to be in this time and place.
As a church, Azle Christian Church, this is an important time of seeking you are in, You are just beginning a new phase in your ministry together. Who are you going to be? Who is God calling you to be in this time and place? How are you going to do it?
It is in this seeking, near the end of these 40 days, when Jesus has been in the wilderness for a while and he is exhausted and hungry and afraid and that voice calling him God’s beloved is starting to sound like a far off echo- that Jesus starts to hear other voices trying to tell him who he might should be in this time and place-if he wants to be successful, if he wants to have it all, if he wants to just be safe-maybe he should try this other way.
It’s always when we are at our breaking point-exhausted, afraid-that temptations to listen to voices we know aren’t in our best interest are strongest-right? It’s when we start listening to what others think might be best for us-and not to what our heart and the spirit of God says to us-because what we are doing doesn’t seem to be working-and maybe they are right. It’s in the middle of the night that we start typing our symptoms in google and listening to web md and thinking its worst case scenario-have a headache-it’s probably cancer, you’re probably dying -just might be true. It’s when depression and anxiety overwhelm us that we start trusting that lying voice in our head that tells us we were never good enough. It’s when churches are shrinking or in crisis that they start listening to consultants and schemes who tell them if you try these 3 easy steps your pews will be filled with young people again and the offering plates overflowing-even if those ways or those goals were never the goals of God or who God called them to be.
The tempter, who comes to Jesus, is tricky. The voice is believable, it quotes scripture as rational. What it suggests isn’t in and of itself bad-Your hungry it says, I bet you could just ask God to turn these stones to bread. You are afraid. This ministry, doing what God has called you to do, might be dangerous, might turn people against you, might even, like the prophets before you, put your life at risk, this voice says. The voice plays on what I imagine is Jesus’ fear that this isn’t safe, his nagging doubt if he can really trust God to be there for him by saying-why don’t you just test it out-jump off this building-see if God catches you. See if God will really protect you? We all kind of want this right-we have this hope, even if we know it's not how we believe God works, that maybe if we just pray hard enough, are faithful enough, are God’s beloved enough-that God will put this bubble around us to protect us and the people we love from any harm. I have definitely said those middle of the night prayers. But no, theologian Debbie Thomas says, “If the cross teaches us anything, it teaches us that God’s precious children still bleed, still ache, still die. We are loved in our vulnerability. Not out of it.”
The voice plays on Jesus’ ego and pride-do you want fame, fortune, everyone to listen to you-just follow me-I can get you all of that.
It’s really things we all want right-food when we are hungry, guarantees of safety when life is scary, a financial cushion, people to know and respect us. None of these things are necessarily bad on their own-but it’s the motivation behind them that is the problem. The voice is asking Jesus to make decisions based on hunger, fear, doubt that God is trustworthy, his own ego and pride. Jesus stops the voice each time-no I will trust the voice of God-not your voice. I will trust that what God told me about who I am is true-that I am God’s child, that I am loved. I will trust that God will not abandon me. I will trust God.
And when the voices left, there was God, in the wilderness, showing up for Jesus as angels with bread and rest and love-reminding him and reminding us that there is nowhere, no situation, no wilderness, no pain, no fear, where God won’t be with us…Where we can’t trust God to stand beside us… Where God’s love won’t get the loudest and last word.
Jesus practiced this trust in these 40 days and then he began his ministry, and when the hunger and fear and pain of being human was made real to him, when he was doubted and cursed and even killed, these 40 days taught him how to trust God’s way of love even when it wasn’t the easy way-to trust that even when it seemed like death and hate had won-not to give up-to know he hadn’t been abandoned-to hear these words ringing in his heart-you are my child, I love you, I will not leave you.
Listening to and trusting God’s voice that calls us beloved and calls us to love-usually isn’t flashy, or showy, It’s not big choreography and personality like Lucy Love had in her first audition-it’s not pews overflowing or your church making the news for your big event. It’s that quiet strength she found in her second song when she sang from what she knew to be true. It’s 2 or 3 gathered in prayer, bringing casseroles or door dash after the diagnosis, quietly helping neighbors to have food to eat week after week when the paycheck can't stretch the whole month, advocating for God’s justice and welcome and love for all of God’s children, which is all of us, even when it's not the politically popular thing to do. Even when it doesn’t benefit us. It is that quiet breath we take before choosing to do the right thing, the loving thing, even when it's not the popular or easy thing.
So who are we friends? Who are we going to be?
When life gets hard, when we are exhausted and afraid and hungry-for food, for safety, for a change-whose voice are we going to listen to? Whose voice are we going to let guide us?
This Lent, these 40 days, are our time in the wilderness, a time to practice listening to and trusting God’s voice and God’s way for us-even when it's not the easy way. It is a time to seek out what the still small voice of God is speaking in our world and our lives today…so that when push comes to shove and we find ourselves in the wilderness of life that just comes to all of us as part of being alive-we know how to respond-no, that is not who I am or who I am called to be. This me, this is us.
These are the words of truth I hope you hear ringing in your heart the next time you are afraid, the next time you are seeking, the next time the voices of fear or quick fixes or us vs. them or ego try to tempt you to do or be something or someone you are not, this is the voice, that voice that opened up the skies and spoke to Jesus so long ago, that I hope you can hear speaking to you, Azle Christian Church
(enter your name here)
This is what I know to be true.
You are God’s child, God loves you. God is so pleased with you.
This is who you are.
God will always show up for you, even in the wilderness of hunger and fear and pain
God’s love and life will get the last word-for you and for our world.
Friends, This is the voice we can trust to guide us.
Amen.
Sharing Our Resources
There are many ways to support and resource the ministries of Azle Christian Church. You can give online on our website, on Venmo, or in the offering plate as the deacons come by during our final song. You can also put in a prayer request card or information card in the plate.
Benediction:
Please rise in body or spirit for our benediction, the final song, and the Doxology.
Receive this blessing:
As you leave this place,
may God bless you with seeking.
Seek out the hungry.
Seek the weary.
Seek the good in every person you pass.
Seek out the hopeful.
Seek the faithful.
Seek God in each of us.
As you seek and as you wonder,
may you find what you are looking for.
In the name of our loving God,
who is always seeking us,
go now in peace. Amen.
Podcast blurb
Strange things happen on mountains in scripture. Moses receives the law of God and his face becomes too dazzling to look at. Elijah hears the voice of God in a surprising way. And in this instance, too, Jesus and his disciples have an encounter that defies understanding. What does it mean? What is it all for? Is it so wrong to want to stay on top of the mountain?