This Is The Day

This is the day, this is the day

That the Lord has made, that the Lord has made

I will rejoice, I will rejoice

And be glad in it, and be glad in it

This is the day that the Lord has made

I will rejoice and be glad in it

This is the day, this is the day

That the Lord has made

Welcome & Opening Prayer – Jessie Button

Good morning church!

I am Jessie Button and I am the worship minister here at Azle Christian Church. Our hope is that everyone who is with us in person and online knows that they are loved by God and they are loved by the people here at Azle Christian Church. All are welcome and all are beloved.

We like for everyone to know a few things before we begin worship every week.

(1) First, if you are new to our church, we are so glad you are here! There is information in the bulletin about getting connected to our weekly eBlast newsletter or Realm, which is like our church social media. You may also fill out an information card so we can get to know you more and care for you.

(2) Second, we love our children here in worship and we always welcome them here. There is a kids corner in the back if your children need a space to move around. There is also a nursery available if you’d like.

(3) Finally, our liturgy is posted each week on the website if you would like to follow along with our service.

May we open up this time of worship with a word of prayer:

God in Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit – May what we do in here this morning guide all that we do throughout this week. May we be your disciples who seek to show everyone who you are. Amen.

Every move I Make

Every move I make

Every move I make, I make in You

You make me move Jesus

Every breath I take, I breathe in You

Every step I take, I take in You

You find my way Jesus

Every breath I take I breathe in You

Every move I make

Every move I make, I make in You

You make me move Jesus

Every breath I take I breathe in You

Every step I take, I take in You

You find my way Jesus

Every breath I take I breathe in You

(La la la-la la-la-la)

Waves of mercy

Waves of grace

Everywhere I look

I see your face

Your love has captured me

Oh, my God this love

How can it be?

How can it be, Lord?

Every move

Every move I make, I make in You

You make me move Jesus

Every breath I take I breathe in You

Every step I take, I take in You

You find my way Jesus

Every breath I take I breathe in You

(La la la-la la-la-la)

Waves of mercy

Waves of grace

Everywhere I look

I see your face

Your love has captured me

Oh, my God this love

How can it be?

How can it be Lord?

Waves of mercy

Waves of grace

Everywhere I look

I see your face

Your love has captured me

Oh, my God this love

How can it be?

How can it be Lord?

Waves of mercy

Waves of grace

Everywhere I look

I see your face

And your love has captured me

Oh, my God this love

How can it be?

How can it be Lord?

Litany of Faith – Chris Piercy

One: This is the day that the Lord has made!

All: We will rejoice and be glad in it!

One: From sunrise to sunset, God is for us.

All: Praise God!

One: From birth to death, God is with us.

All: Praise Jesus!

One: With every breath we take, God is in us.

All: Praise the Holy Spirit!

One: This God we worship is with us every step we take and every move we make.

All: This God is the air we breathe.

Scripture Meditation

Our scripture meditation for today is Romans 12:1:

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for God.”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Today is our final sermon in our sermon series – Why We Do What We Do: Reflecting on the Meaning of Worship.

We’ve been talking about the hats we wear every day and putting our God hat first; how worship is about God being the center of all we do in here.

We talked about why we gather and sing songs and read scripture. We talked about being ecumenical and inclusive and being free to ask questions to grow spiritually in our lives.

Today is about taking all of this from worship – our focus and communion and songs and scripture and our inclusive, welcoming attitude and freedom to ask the right questions – and using it to guide us with every moment throughout the week.

Because if what we do in here doesn’t guide us when we step out there, what’s the point? How will the world out there SEE and FEEL and KNOW the importance of why we do what we do here in worship?

Let us reflect on this as we prepare for the sermon and our time of prayer:

Pastoral Prayer

The Lord be with you. And Also with you. Let us pray.

Emmanuel, God with us – May your presence be known to us so we know we’re not alone during difficult times. May you guide our every step to be a map for how we may love those around us. Send us to do your will, O Lord. Thank you for your teachings and showing us the way from the Word, Jesus Christ.

Holy Creator, God for us – Reveal your ways, O Lord, that we might bring healing and hope to our church, our community, and our world. Where there is brokenness and shame and hurt, may we show those around us there is a new life for them to live where there is freedom to be who they are.

May we create a new world on earth as it is in heaven where all of your children are loved and cared for.

Holy Spirit, God in us – may you be near to us with every breath we take. Where we are weak, make us strong. Where we are hurting, bring us relief. Where we fall short, pick us up by your grace to be who we are called to be.

And hear us as we pray the prayer your son taught us:

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

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 and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

RESPONSIVE HYMN

Take my life and let it be consecrated to Thee

Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise

Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love

Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee

Take my voice and let me sing always, only for my King

Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from Thee

Take my silver and my gold, not a might would I withhold

Take my intellect and use every power as You choose

Here am I, all of me, take my life, it's all for Thee

Take my will and make it Thine, it shall be no longer mine

Take my heart, it is Thine own, it shall be Thy royal throne

Take my love, my Lord I pour at Your feet, it's treasure store

Take myself and I will be ever, only, all for Thee

Here am I, all of me, take my life, it's all for Thee

Why We Do What We Do: Reflecting on the Meaning of Worship

Why Do We Worship Daily?

When God appeared to Moses out of the burning bush in Exodus 3, God said to Moses:

“Don’t come any closer. Remove your sandals from your feet. You’re standing on holy ground.”

When you enter someone’s house as a guest, it’s often customary to remove your shoes so you don’t bring in mud or germs. It’s a sign of respect of being a guest in their home.

For some churches or synagogues or mosques, it’s also customary to remove your shoes before you enter a place of worship to pray.

For the ground you are standing on is HOLY.

Now, Moses has been walking this ground for 40 years. I mean, it isn’t that the ground just suddenly became holy. The ground didn’t just change. It’s just that Moses suddenly becomes aware of it.

The ground he has been standing on has always been holy. He just now becomes aware of its sacredness.

The word – SACRED – is another word for HOLY that means “set apart.”

When we go to someone’s house for dinner, it’s a time set apart to be with that person or with a group of people. We take our shoes off out of respect. We break bread and drink wine together. We leave feeling overjoyed and refreshed for the time we spent together.

When we come here to worship, it’s a time set apart to be together. We break bread and drink wine together. We gather together to sing and read scripture and hear a good word.

When we’re not just “going through the motions” in worship and we are here to give God our hearts, we find something we needed, something holy, something sacred, something set apart.

The meaning behind why we do what we do is what makes the ground we are standing HOLY.

But is the ground itself holy, or is it because God made Moses aware that this is a moment set apart from all other moments?

In this sense, are we standing on holy ground simply by BEING AWARE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD?

Is it possible that every place you go to throughout the week is holy…and we Just. Haven’t. Realized. It?

Romans 12:1 says:

When we first started this sermon series, I put on a bunch of different hats to represent all the different aspect of our lives that we are trying to juggle. Then, we have our God hat which keeps us close to the king, our most important hat.

It’s not that we don’t have other things going on in our lives, but when we treasure God first, our lives have so much more meaning. Our other hats have purpose when we leave this place.

Charlie Hall says, “Let what we do in here fill the streets out there.”

Worship doesn’t stop when we leave this place. The ground we are walking on doesn’t have to stop being holy when we go home or to work or to school or to the grocery store or to the soccer field or to get our haircut or to the restaurant or anywhere we go.

It can be like a road that lights up with every step we take. Everywhere we go and everything we do is sacred when we are paying attention.

There has been a lot of arguments in recent years over certain things drawing our attention away from church or worship.

For a while, people were complaining about sports drawing our attention away from God and attending worship.

Some people like to blame what entertains us from drawing our attention away from God, whether it be watching television or being on our phones or YouTube or Social media.

There’s some truth to this when we become addicted to something and we forget what’s really important, but worshipping God also shouldn’t put us in a “bubble.”

We don’t live in the freedom of God’s grace to be put in a box.

Being a Christian and wearing our God hat doesn’t mean we don’t have other hats to wear. It just changes how we wear them.

When I was a pastor in Florida, one of the most memorable experiences I had was after the memorial service of a 42 year old man, Tommy, who had died of lung cancer. A bunch of us met up after Tommy’s memorial service to tailgate at the Florida Gators vs. Alabama Crimson Tide game. Many of the church members were Gators fans, but Tommy was a stupid Alabama fan.

I was at Tommy’s house watching the football game when Johnny Manziel and the Texas A&M Aggies beat Alabama and I’ll never forget the kids from the church looking at me funny because they hadn’t seen their pastor scream and celebrate like this before. I’m pretty sure I kissed Tommy’s bald head when that happened.

One of the last times I talked to Tommy he told me he knew he couldn’t climb the stairs at the stadium to be able to go to the game with his family. I had said at his memorial service that now he was free from this cancer and would be able to climb those stairs to his seat.

At this tailgate, of course, his death was still fresh on many of our minds and we missed our friend, our family member. Some of his friends who didn’t attend our church were asking me questions about God and life and death while college students were taking shots right next to us.

That tailgate – while we were drinking beer and laughing together – was also a holy moment of remembering our friend and processing our grief and learning to live in the freedom of God.

We were worshipping God at a sporting event. And the ground at that tailgate was holy.

Worship – true worship – is a way of life that is more than Sunday morning services.

I talked about worship being a way of life once with a few teenagers. One of the teenagers had been arrested and put into rehab for drug use. She said to the whole group:

“When I was in rehab, they told us that to become better we needed to find a higher power to rely on, to help us out. So, my friend and I decided that our higher power would be the singer, JIM MORRISON.”

I said, “Oh, so how’s that working out for you?”

“Pretty good.” She said.

In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul goes to Athens to proclaim the good news of Jesus. Paul found Athens to be a “city of idols.”

One idol in particular really caught Paul’s eye. He found an inscription on an altar that said, “TO AN UNKOWN GOD.”

Admist all the idols and craziness going on in Athens, the people there recognized that there was something MORE that they needed. There was some God, some deity that was worthy to be praised. They didn’t know WHAT was worthy to be reflected, but they knew there was some unknown God to be worship.

The point is that we are all worshipping something – some “higher power” – throughout every moment of every day but what sets apart a particular time and place is when we have the awareness that God in Christ in the Holy Spirit is present in our midst and will help us when we are crying and in pain.

After God tells Moses he’s standing on holy ground, God tells him He has heard the cries of the Israelites and He has heard their pain and He wants to use Moses to set them free.

Worship – everyday worship – is being aware of the cries and the pain of the person next to us.

It’s God using us at a tailgate to help process their grief.

It’s reaching out to a friend to eat lunch and check up on them.

It’s messaging a person who is hurting and letting them know you are thinking of them.

It’s sending a card to someone to let them know they are not alone.

It’s taking our shoes off when we are next to someone and recognizing that entering into their world is showing them that God hears their cries and they are loved and there is a new life for them to live.

Church can be taking your everyday, ordinary life – what you are already doing – and making it more meaningful by making deeper connections with what’s around you.

It’s seeing the people in your life as people who need to be loved.

It’s seeing the back porch in your life as the beauty of God’s creation sent to us to be adored.

It’s seeing the everyday situations in your life as opportunities to walk and grow with God.

Sitting in traffic suddenly becomes an opportunity to pray.

Watching the football game suddenly becomes an opportunity to bond with your loved ones.

Relaxing on the beach with friends suddenly becomes a time to adore all that God has done to create this beautiful landscape.

Working with that annoying co-worker, Bob, suddenly becomes an opportunity to learn about what makes him tick so you can see him the way Jesus does and show him grace.

Don’t worry about when people aren’t in church because they have other commitments because if we are the church, this place is with us wherever we go.

I once went to the home of the piano player for the church I was serving at the time. I loved our piano player, Marty, and I talked to her often, but I didn’t know her husband much, Jim.

Jim spent most Sundays at the golf course. He was laughing and cursing as he told me some of his life stories and we talked about college football. Then he stopped and said, “You know what, preacher, the preacher before you always made me feel guilty for playing golf on Sunday mornings. He would give me a hard time whenever I did come to church so I didn’t want to go anymore at all.”

He said, “But you have never done that. Here I am cursing up a storm and you haven’t made me feel the least bit like I can’t be myself.”

I said, “That’s great, Jim. I mean, if you can’t be yourself, what’s the point?”

Jim later joined the church and he was there more Sundays than he was at the golf course. His brother and his wife joined the church too and they were there most Sundays too.

When we needed tools for our youth mission trip, Jim provided all of the tools, and showed our students how to use them.

All it took was me taking my shoes off and showing Jim he is loved right where he is for who he is.

This dramatically changed the course of his life.

If you are new to our church, I don’t like to use the word “visitor.”

Visitor implies you’re just visiting or passing through.

When someone is new to our church, I prefer to use the word, “guest.”

Being a guest sets the mentality that we are to be hospitable to everyone who comes into this place.

We roll out the red carpet for our guests and make sure they know they are welcomed. We show them the customs of our house and how to get better acquainted. We welcome them as part of our family, like the prodigal son, who has finally returned home.

And we continue this sense of hospitality wherever we go.

Evangelism is showing people the love of God. And the best sense of evangelism is not standing on the street corners or coming to someone’s house uninvited.

The best sense of evangelism is radical hospitality. It’s taking off our shoes and seeing the ground is holy when we are with another person. It’s knowing that loving one another is seeing the face of God.

It’s going out of our way to show someone that “better is one day in this house than thousands elsewhere,” as it says in Psalm 84.

In the book Praise Habits, David Crowder, talks about how much he hates the automatic urinals. He says he arrives at this toilet and the red dot is starting at him. He says sometimes the toilet flushes before he is done with his business and he’s like, “Am I really here? Maybe I’m not here.” He rambles on about his existential experience with this automatic flusher.

It’s a totally random, funny story about a toilet – of all things. But then he has a picture of this little, red dot on the urinal that says, “You are here.”

Then, he goes on to state, “Better is one day in your house than thousands elsewhere.”

Better is one day with our God even when we’re staring at the red dot on the disgusting toilet.

What he means is that no matter the circumstance our day is better because God is with us. Even in the messiness of life.

Better is one day with our God even when we’ve had the worst day burying our friend.

Better is one day with our God when we’re at the soccer game or the golf course or at work or the grocery store or tailgating before a football game.

Better is one day with our God even when we’re stuck in traffic.

Better is one day with our God than even listening to Jim Morrison.

Better is one day with this God who hears our cries and our pain and sends us to set his people free.

Better is one day with this God who loves us in spite of all our failings and imperfections.

Better is one day with this God who is radically inclusive and welcomes everyone to THIS table.

Better is one day with this God who is present with us in the Word, Jesus.

Better is one day with this God who is the very air we breathe.

Better is one day with this God who created the beautiful world around us.

Take your shoes off. And see that the ground you walk on wherever you go this week is holy.

That’s why we do what we do.

Amen.

SONG

How lovely is your dwelling place

Oh, Lord Almighty

For my soul longs and even faints for You

For here my heart is satisfied

Within Your presence

I sing beneath the shadow of Your wings

Better is one day in Your courts

Better is one day in Your house

Better is one day in Your courts

Than thousands elsewhere

One thing I ask and I would seek

To see Your beauty

To find You in the place Your glory dwells

One thing I ask and I would seek

To see Your beauty

To find You in the place Your glory dwells

My heart and flesh cry out

For You, the living God

Your Spirit's water to my soul

I've tasted and I've seen

Come once again to me

I will draw near to You

COMMUNION

Oh how I love Jesus

Sharing Our Resources

There are many ways to support the ministries of Azle Christian Church. You can give online on our website, on Venmo, use the QR code in your bulletin, or place it 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.

INVITATION

If you would like to dedicate your life to Christ or become a member of Azle Christian Church, you may come forward after the benediction or speak with me after worship.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

A few announcements for this week before our benediction:

You can find information about our weekly activities, such as Sunday School, our Ukulele Group, and our prayer group, and our calendar in the bulletin or on our website.

Our congregation planning meeting is right after church. If you would like to help serve or lead or help us plan what we are doing this fall, join us for this planning meeting in the fellowship hall. Lunch will be provided for everyone.

Also, tomorrow at 9am we need as many bodies as we can get to help prepare the brochures for the golf tournament to mail.

If you or someone you know needs a visit OR has a prayer request OR would like home communion, you may contact the church office or contact me directly.

BENEDICTION:

Please rise in body and spirit for the benediction, the final song, and the doxology. Receive this blessing:

Next week we are starting a sermon series called the Sermon on the MOUSE where we will be exploring Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount through the lens of themes in Disney films. This should be a lot of fun for the whole family!

Until next week……

May you realize that the ground you are standing on is holy wherever you go.

May you connect with the people you are with every day and find new ways to show them God’s love and hospitality.

May you pay attention to where God is sending you next. Amen.