Philip L. Shore, Jr. - "A Contract of Joy" (July 11, 1971)
MP3
Loading the media player...
Transcript
- Download transcript as:
-
Text
-
PDF
-
WebVTT (includes timecodes)
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 0:04 | |
| (uplifting music) | ||
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 0:48 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 2:16 | |
| - | Beloved, let us offer unto God now | 2:29 |
| our prayer of confession. | 2:32 | |
| Almighty Father, we do recognize our need of confessing | 2:36 | |
| our sinful ways, | 2:41 | |
| because we often have not taken upon ourselves | 2:44 | |
| the yolk of obedience. | 2:47 | |
| And when we have taken it, we did not take it with joy, | 2:50 | |
| as the scriptures have taught us. | 2:54 | |
| We really have not loved thee with all our heart, | 2:58 | |
| mind, soul, and strength. | 3:02 | |
| We certainly have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. | 3:06 | |
| We confess unto thee that we often have sought | 3:11 | |
| to reap the fruits of success without toil. | 3:14 | |
| We have tried to make our way through life | 3:19 | |
| by appropriating unto ourselves the achievements of others. | 3:22 | |
| Through the storms of life, we sometimes have attempted | 3:29 | |
| to stand on our feet without spending time on our knees. | 3:33 | |
| We have taken too lightly the threat to thy people | 3:38 | |
| which evil has posed. | 3:44 | |
| And we carelessly have allowed men of small vision | 3:47 | |
| to make great decisions for mankind. | 3:51 | |
| Oh God, we have sinned against thee, | 3:57 | |
| and are not worthy to be called thy children, | 4:00 | |
| But thou, oh Lord, have mercy upon us. | 4:04 | |
| Spare those who confess and repent of their sins. | 4:08 | |
| Restore us according to the promises | 4:13 | |
| declared in Jesus Christ, | 4:16 | |
| that we may henceforth praise and glorify thy holy name. | 4:19 | |
| Amen. | 4:24 | |
| The scriptures offer comfort to those who are contrite, | 4:27 | |
| who wish to be better than they are, | 4:34 | |
| who like to be the way Christ is, | 4:36 | |
| who want forgiveness. | 4:41 | |
| And we are offered what is called the water of life. | 4:44 | |
| And Jesus said, "He who comes to me | 4:47 | |
| will never thirst, | 4:52 | |
| for the water that I give him will be within him, | 4:54 | |
| a spring of water, welling up unto everlasting life." | 4:58 | |
| May it be so for each of us. | 5:04 | |
| And because we have been forgiven, we are grateful. | 5:09 | |
| Let us now express our gratitude to God | 5:14 | |
| by joining together with heart and voice | 5:17 | |
| in praying our unison prayer of thanksgiving. | 5:20 | |
| Let us pray. | 5:23 | |
| Almighty God, the giver of every good and perfect gift, | 5:25 | |
| we give you thanks for this day and your love. | 5:30 | |
| We thank you for friends who cheer our souls, | 5:34 | |
| for honest toil which challenges our best, | 5:38 | |
| for parents and home, | 5:42 | |
| for the hills, the valleys, and the plains, | 5:44 | |
| for the sea that is wonderful in its stillness | 5:47 | |
| and wonderful in its storm. | 5:51 | |
| We are grateful for the changing seasons | 5:53 | |
| and all the beauties and mysteries of nature. | 5:56 | |
| We appreciate the joy that heightens all life, | 6:00 | |
| and the faith which can sustain us in grief. | 6:04 | |
| We thank you for health and for courage | 6:07 | |
| to be steadfast through illness. | 6:10 | |
| Above all, our Father, we thank for the gift | 6:13 | |
| of Jesus of Nazareth, your son, our Lord. | 6:17 | |
| Amen. | 6:22 | |
| (gentle music) | 6:27 | |
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 7:29 | |
| Let us now hear the reading of the word of God. | 11:51 | |
| The lesson for today is the first 12 verses, chapter 14, | 11:56 | |
| Paul's letter to the Romans. | 12:02 | |
| I'm reading from the New English Bible. | 12:05 | |
| "If a man is weak in his faith, | 12:10 | |
| you must accept him without attempting | 12:13 | |
| to settle doubtful points. | 12:15 | |
| For instance, one man will have faith enough | 12:18 | |
| to eat all kinds of food, | 12:21 | |
| while a weaker man eats only vegetables. | 12:24 | |
| The man who eats must not hold in contempt | 12:27 | |
| the man who does not. | 12:30 | |
| And he who does not eat must not pass judgment | 12:32 | |
| on the one who does, for God has accepted him. | 12:36 | |
| Who are you to pass judgment on someone else's servant? | 12:42 | |
| Whether he stands or falls is his own master's business. | 12:47 | |
| And stand, he will, because his master has power | 12:52 | |
| to enable him to stand. | 12:55 | |
| Again, this man regards one day more highly than another, | 12:59 | |
| while that man regards all days alike. | 13:04 | |
| On such a point, everyone should have reached conviction | 13:09 | |
| in his own mind. | 13:12 | |
| He who respects the day has the Lord in mind in doing so. | 13:15 | |
| He who eats meat has the Lord in mind when he eats, | 13:20 | |
| since he gives thanks to God. | 13:23 | |
| He who abstains has the Lord in mind no less | 13:26 | |
| since he too gives thanks to God. | 13:29 | |
| For no one of us lives equally, | 13:33 | |
| no one of us dies for himself alone. | 13:36 | |
| If we live, we live for the Lord. | 13:40 | |
| If we die, we die for the Lord. | 13:42 | |
| Whether therefore we live or die, we belong to the Lord. | 13:45 | |
| This is why Christ died and came to life again, | 13:51 | |
| to establish his lordship over dead and living. | 13:55 | |
| You, sir, why do you pass judgment on your brother? | 14:02 | |
| And you, sir, why do you hold your brother in contempt? | 14:06 | |
| We shall all stand before God's tribunal. | 14:10 | |
| For scripture says, 'as I live,' says the Lord, | 14:16 | |
| 'to me, every knee shall bow, | 14:22 | |
| and every tongue acknowledge God.' | 14:25 | |
| So you see, each of us will have to answer | 14:29 | |
| for himself." | 14:36 | |
| (uplifting music) | 14:43 | |
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 14:52 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 15:27 | |
| (congregation speaks indistinctly) | 15:29 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 15:30 |
| Almighty God, we have expressed to you in this service | 15:39 | |
| our thanksgiving for blessings that are present | 15:44 | |
| and blessings that are passed. | 15:48 | |
| All ready now, we come to ask for new blessings, | 15:51 | |
| which we have not yet received. | 15:54 | |
| We left our intersessions for those of our number | 15:58 | |
| who are aware of failure. | 16:03 | |
| For those who have tried, really tried but failed. | 16:07 | |
| We pray for those who, having failed, | 16:14 | |
| tried again and failed again. | 16:17 | |
| Give them vision to see that in this life, | 16:21 | |
| through thee and by thy power, | 16:24 | |
| no failure needs to be final or fatal. | 16:27 | |
| Grant unto them courage and strength to try once more. | 16:33 | |
| We pray for those, oh God, who lead thy church | 16:40 | |
| at whatever level, as layman, as ministers, as overseers, | 16:45 | |
| that in their leadership of men, | 16:51 | |
| they may be following Christ. | 16:53 | |
| We intercede for of those who give leadership | 16:58 | |
| in our government at every level in the political world. | 17:01 | |
| Grant them wisdom enough to be statesman | 17:08 | |
| and strengthen their resolve to put aside cheap politics | 17:11 | |
| in favor of helpful politics. | 17:16 | |
| Grant unto them courage to see the world | 17:20 | |
| as Jesus Christ sees it. | 17:23 | |
| Oh thou, who are the conqueror of death | 17:29 | |
| and the Lord of life, | 17:33 | |
| we remember before thee now our faculty colleague, | 17:35 | |
| Dr. Elias Torah, whose death has made us sad, | 17:39 | |
| but whose academic service has blessed us. | 17:47 | |
| We pray that comfort and a glad memory | 17:52 | |
| may come to his family and to the many students | 17:56 | |
| who studied Spanish under him. | 17:59 | |
| Bless all of us that from his death, | 18:03 | |
| we may derive those thoughts and come to those decisions | 18:07 | |
| which shall make us strong in the Lord. | 18:12 | |
| Oh God, We pray thee to lift our eyes | 18:18 | |
| above the petty technicalities | 18:20 | |
| which often obscure our vision of great issues, | 18:22 | |
| make us unwilling to see justice triumph on our campus, | 18:27 | |
| in our nation, or in our world, | 18:32 | |
| without our having made a significant contribution | 18:35 | |
| to its victory. | 18:38 | |
| And in that spirit, we pray for peace on Earth, | 18:42 | |
| for wisdom to know how to avoid war. | 18:46 | |
| Give us the mind and the spirit of the prince of peace. | 18:51 | |
| We make our prayer in the name and in the spirit | 18:57 | |
| of him when he taught his disciples | 19:02 | |
| and all men to pray, saying, | 19:05 | |
| our Father who art in heaven, | 19:09 | |
| hollowed would be thy name, | 19:12 | |
| thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth | 19:14 | |
| as it is in heaven. | 19:18 | |
| Give us this day, our daily bread | 19:20 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses | 19:23 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 19:26 | |
| And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 19:30 | |
| For thine is the kingdom, and the power, | 19:35 | |
| and the glory forever. | 19:38 | |
| Amen. | 19:40 | |
| - | Once again, one verse from Romans | 19:59 |
| and the passage you've heard. | 20:01 | |
| If we live, we live for the Lord. | 20:04 | |
| If we die, we die for the Lord. | 20:07 | |
| Whether therefore we live or die, we belong to the Lord. | 20:10 | |
| Let us pray. | 20:15 | |
| Almighty God, our Father, | 20:19 | |
| in the quiet and beauty of these moments, | 20:22 | |
| may there be for each of us, a voice that is heard within, | 20:25 | |
| a voice not our own, a voice not given for human ears, | 20:30 | |
| but thine own thought revealed to us. | 20:35 | |
| Amen. | 20:39 | |
| When Paul wrote those words we now call | 20:45 | |
| the 14th chapter of Romans, | 20:47 | |
| he was trying to encourage a harmony among a people, | 20:51 | |
| the people of the Christian way, | 20:54 | |
| who had some conscientious disagreement | 20:57 | |
| about the details of that way. | 21:00 | |
| The chief source of disagreement | 21:03 | |
| seemed to be the understandings | 21:05 | |
| about what might and might not be eaten. | 21:06 | |
| But for Paul finally declares, | 21:10 | |
| for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, | 21:13 | |
| but justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. | 21:17 | |
| Indeed, he has stated his thesis better already | 21:24 | |
| in those words that said, if we live, we live for the Lord, | 21:26 | |
| if we die, we die for the Lord. | 21:30 | |
| Whether therefore we live or die, we belong to the Lord. | 21:32 | |
| The essential matter is the nature of Lordship | 21:39 | |
| over our lives. | 21:43 | |
| Father Thomas Merton, in his book, | 21:46 | |
| "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander," said, | 21:48 | |
| "I have the immense joy of being man." | 21:52 | |
| And he capitalizes those three letters of the word. | 21:56 | |
| "I have the immense joy of being man, | 22:00 | |
| a member of a race in which God himself became incarnate. | 22:03 | |
| If only everybody could realize this, | 22:09 | |
| but it cannot be explained. | 22:13 | |
| There is no way of telling people | 22:16 | |
| that they are all walking around shining like the sun." | 22:19 | |
| The truth of Father Merton's statement | 22:26 | |
| confirms our suspicion that the human person | 22:29 | |
| does not automatically either is best, | 22:33 | |
| his wisest, or his holiest, | 22:36 | |
| nor is most fully awake. | 22:40 | |
| What he finally becomes determines, | 22:43 | |
| depends not so much upon the accidents of his birth | 22:46 | |
| or his environment, | 22:50 | |
| as upon the nature of the contract he makes | 22:53 | |
| with the life-giving elemental forces of the universe. | 22:56 | |
| A contract of placid mediocrity | 23:02 | |
| will lead to the "Hollow Men" of T.S. Elliot, | 23:05 | |
| whose only monument will be a thousand miles | 23:08 | |
| of (indistinct) highway | 23:13 | |
| and an equal number of lost golf balls. | 23:15 | |
| The contract of self love will create a ravaging man, | 23:20 | |
| who, when the contract is finally run out at last, | 23:26 | |
| is left without assets. | 23:29 | |
| A contract with power as it own goal | 23:32 | |
| will lead to a bleeding of the great powers from human life. | 23:36 | |
| The contract we make is our own. | 23:41 | |
| No other makes it for us. | 23:44 | |
| It is not forced upon us. | 23:47 | |
| It is our own. | 23:49 | |
| While the sun shines upon all without choice of favorite, | 23:53 | |
| and magnetic lines of force | 23:59 | |
| affect life without discrimination, | 24:01 | |
| and the cosmic rays come upon us all without choice, | 24:05 | |
| every man walks in that shower of spiritual influence | 24:09 | |
| that it chooses to be responsive to. | 24:14 | |
| Therefore, it is not every man that walks | 24:19 | |
| in the holy shower of the influence of God. | 24:22 | |
| It can't surprise us then, I think, | 24:28 | |
| that not every person shows forth joy | 24:29 | |
| from his face, not even all those of us | 24:34 | |
| who claim to be practicing Christians. | 24:37 | |
| Our joyous faith is pretentious and unreal | 24:41 | |
| until we have entered into a contract of joy | 24:45 | |
| with God in Christ. | 24:49 | |
| Let me give you two very simple examples | 24:53 | |
| of contracts not entered into. | 24:56 | |
| I think you'll see more clearly what I'm trying to get at | 25:01 | |
| in this concept of a contract of joy. | 25:03 | |
| The first example has to do with a man | 25:08 | |
| a friend of mine reported to me. | 25:11 | |
| This man is a superintendent of a small Sunday school, | 25:14 | |
| and a Sunday school in which they still have | 25:19 | |
| what some of you may recall the opening exercises. | 25:21 | |
| In the earlier days, almost every Sunday school | 25:25 | |
| began with opening exercises, | 25:27 | |
| where all the members of the school gathered together, | 25:30 | |
| whatever the age may have been. | 25:33 | |
| And the superintendent led the mornings devotions | 25:35 | |
| before the classes were assembled individually. | 25:38 | |
| The superintendent was speaking before the opening assembly. | 25:43 | |
| And he spoke in very low, discouraged, | 25:47 | |
| pessimistic, sepulchral tones, | 25:51 | |
| and gave this little speech. | 25:55 | |
| "My friends," he said, | 25:59 | |
| "I decided a long time ago | 26:02 | |
| that if there's one thing this Sunday school really needs, | 26:06 | |
| its enthusiasm." | 26:12 | |
| The other example has to do with another man, | 26:17 | |
| a friend who is quite well along his profession, | 26:20 | |
| and who, at one time, was elected the state president | 26:25 | |
| of his professional society. | 26:29 | |
| But the man has a characteristic attitude toward life, | 26:32 | |
| it seems to assume that the worst is happening | 26:35 | |
| and is going to continue to happen, | 26:38 | |
| and the whole universe was created | 26:41 | |
| just to constitute a continuing affront to him personally. | 26:43 | |
| All bad things come to him. | 26:48 | |
| Nothing good is in prospect. | 26:51 | |
| I had some misgivings about his going to preside | 26:54 | |
| over the annual meeting of his professional society. | 26:56 | |
| When he came back, I inquired how it went. | 27:01 | |
| And he had one of those voices too, | 27:04 | |
| and he said, "Phil, it was marvelous." | 27:06 | |
| He said, "I presided, you know, | 27:12 | |
| and I started off by telling several very funny stories." | 27:16 | |
| He said, "You know, I have a very keen sense of humor." | 27:22 | |
| Now, the first of these men, I must maintain, | 27:30 | |
| had no contract with enthusiasm. | 27:34 | |
| And when he spoke about wanting it for his church school, | 27:39 | |
| he spoke with a degree of falsity. | 27:42 | |
| The second man, a man I am certain | 27:45 | |
| would not have known a joke had he met it | 27:48 | |
| in the middle of the big road. | 27:49 | |
| He had no familiarity with humor, | 27:51 | |
| much less a contract with humor. | 27:54 | |
| Likewise, there are those of us in the Christian Church | 27:58 | |
| who claim the great joyous Christian faith, | 28:02 | |
| and yet, have no real acquaintance | 28:06 | |
| with what that faith is nor the joy that arises out of it, | 28:10 | |
| for we have not made that contract, | 28:15 | |
| that contract with Christ. | 28:18 | |
| It was God in Christ that brings us the lasting joy. | 28:22 | |
| Now, when it comes to us, this releasing contract of joy, | 28:27 | |
| out of which a man can speak his bold security, saying, | 28:33 | |
| if we live, we live for the Lord, | 28:37 | |
| if we die, we die for the Lord. | 28:40 | |
| Whether therefore we live or die, we belong to the Lord. | 28:43 | |
| It must begin, I think, with a discovered Lord | 28:50 | |
| with whom we enter into covenant. | 28:56 | |
| Now, here, let us see that already, | 29:00 | |
| we and all men are subjects to the Lords we have accepted. | 29:01 | |
| And our minds, our bodies, and our spirits | 29:08 | |
| already genuflect to the altar of some God. | 29:11 | |
| For persons, as practicing humans, | 29:17 | |
| there is available a whole galaxy of Lords. | 29:20 | |
| And every man chooses from the galaxy his own Lord, | 29:24 | |
| even if by the process of elimination | 29:28 | |
| or in adoption by prior defaultings of faith. | 29:30 | |
| Each person chooses a radiant shower | 29:35 | |
| within which he will walk. | 29:39 | |
| Every person here, consciously or unconsciously, | 29:42 | |
| has decided upon a Lord of some kind | 29:46 | |
| to whom is yielded that loyalty, | 29:49 | |
| which is the last one he would be willing to surrender. | 29:53 | |
| Paul must have known that until the rivalries | 29:58 | |
| of the various groups of Christians | 30:01 | |
| were submerged in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, | 30:04 | |
| they would continue to separate the Christian brethren. | 30:09 | |
| He was therefore calling upon them | 30:13 | |
| to come to this contract of joy | 30:15 | |
| in which the Lordship of Christ was fully acknowledged. | 30:19 | |
| Until that point, they would live in relative aimlessness. | 30:23 | |
| But from that moment, they could be locked in commitment. | 30:28 | |
| It has been fascinating to all of us, I am sure, | 30:34 | |
| to see how the great space program | 30:37 | |
| has been able to aim in secure trajectory | 30:42 | |
| these vehicles that carry men and machines | 30:47 | |
| to the various parts of our nearby universe. | 30:51 | |
| It is remarkable to us who are totally layman | 30:56 | |
| that such trajectories can be forecast and maintained. | 31:00 | |
| In one of the early, one of these space shots, | 31:07 | |
| a spaceship going toward Venus | 31:11 | |
| was guided by being locked-in upon the star, Canopus. | 31:14 | |
| As long as the sensing machinery | 31:20 | |
| sensed this light from Canopus, | 31:25 | |
| the spacecraft could keep its course. | 31:28 | |
| If it lost this one lone star in the vast universe, | 31:32 | |
| it lost its way going toward Venus. | 31:37 | |
| It was locked in commitment. | 31:41 | |
| It made its way unerringly | 31:44 | |
| because it was pinpointed in that relationship. | 31:46 | |
| It is likewise by the pinpointing of life | 31:51 | |
| in relation to a chosen Lord | 31:54 | |
| that we get away from an aimless wondering | 31:56 | |
| in this world of our lives, | 31:59 | |
| and come to an assured, and dependable, | 32:01 | |
| and hopeful direction. | 32:05 | |
| Dr. Paul Tournier, in his book, "The Adventure of living," | 32:09 | |
| tells of seeing a friend rise from prayer | 32:13 | |
| and then of hearing him say, as he rose, | 32:15 | |
| "I understand now. | 32:19 | |
| What I have to do is to write my name | 32:23 | |
| at the foot of a blank page, | 32:25 | |
| on which I will accept whatever God chooses to write. | 32:27 | |
| I cannot predict what he will put on this blank page, | 32:34 | |
| on this blank contract, as my life proceeds. | 32:38 | |
| But I give my signature today" | 32:42 | |
| That life, surrendered to the Lord in a contract of joy, | 32:48 | |
| is one whose problems are not immediately solved, | 32:53 | |
| but one which seeks, hopes, discovers, | 32:57 | |
| loves in new intensity and fresh joy. | 33:02 | |
| Dr. Tournier continues by saying, | 33:09 | |
| "The surrendered life is also an adventure. | 33:12 | |
| Because it is always only alert, listening to God, | 33:16 | |
| to his voice, and to his angels. | 33:20 | |
| It is an absorbing puzzle, | 33:23 | |
| an exciting search for the signs of God." | 33:26 | |
| In man's contract of joy, | 33:33 | |
| there is something beyond simply having a commitment | 33:36 | |
| that comes in the assurance of a companionship, | 33:40 | |
| an unfailing companionship that shall be | 33:44 | |
| our priceless possession throughout life. | 33:47 | |
| Paul, as he addressed his first letter | 33:52 | |
| to the congregation at Corinth, | 33:53 | |
| told his friends, "It is God himself who called you | 33:57 | |
| to share in the life of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. | 34:02 | |
| And God keeps faith." | 34:06 | |
| In our contract of joy, we are joined by the Lord himself, | 34:10 | |
| who in a very wonderful way, | 34:15 | |
| needs us for his own satisfaction | 34:17 | |
| as we need him for our fulfillment. | 34:20 | |
| Today's man needs to know this most assuredly, | 34:24 | |
| for the characteristic man of our times walks in loneliness | 34:28 | |
| unless he has the assurance of a companionship | 34:32 | |
| outside the visible companionship of family and friends. | 34:35 | |
| Dr. Harlow Shapley, in his book, "Of Stars and Men," | 34:42 | |
| makes this point quite clearly concerning | 34:46 | |
| our place in the universe, | 34:48 | |
| saying that we are not alone, | 34:51 | |
| but live in the midst of millions, | 34:54 | |
| even billions of habitable planets, | 34:56 | |
| some of which you are no doubt like our own | 34:59 | |
| and have creatures liken to ourselves. | 35:02 | |
| In his book, he speaks also of the fourth adjustment, | 35:07 | |
| referring to man's first idea that he himself | 35:12 | |
| was the center of all the universe, | 35:16 | |
| and moving from that point | 35:19 | |
| through the various stages of discovery, | 35:20 | |
| until man finally has realized | 35:23 | |
| that not even the sun is the center of his universe, | 35:25 | |
| nor even the sun's galaxy, | 35:30 | |
| but this is a small corner of a vastness, incomprehensible. | 35:33 | |
| The fourth adjustment brings us to that understanding. | 35:38 | |
| But I believe there's a fifth adjustment, | 35:43 | |
| a going beyond this, that says, for man, | 35:46 | |
| while I might not be the center of the universe, | 35:53 | |
| I am a part of focal concern | 35:57 | |
| on the part of God my creator. | 36:00 | |
| And of all the things, and all the persons, | 36:05 | |
| and all the creatures of the universe, | 36:08 | |
| I have as much of the concern and love of God as any. | 36:11 | |
| And I am in his living care. | 36:16 | |
| It is out of this kind of understanding that joy may arise | 36:22 | |
| because you and I may know we are really somebody | 36:26 | |
| in this universe, not left alone as items | 36:30 | |
| or bits of flotsam upon the waves of uncontrollable events, | 36:35 | |
| but important to the eyes of God, | 36:40 | |
| and given a destiny to fulfill. | 36:43 | |
| The surrounding companionship of the creator God | 36:46 | |
| and of the Holy Spirit, the living Christ, | 36:50 | |
| is always for his own good. | 36:53 | |
| The uprooted man cannot expect to flourish | 36:58 | |
| in a more than a rootless plant can expect to live. | 37:01 | |
| But when man is firmly implanted in the assurance | 37:05 | |
| of the reality of God and of his own importance | 37:08 | |
| in that economy of God, | 37:11 | |
| he may find his companionship, and out of that, | 37:14 | |
| discover rootage and develop his joy. | 37:18 | |
| It is marvelous, I think, to have a discovered Lord, | 37:23 | |
| more marvelous to have discovered | 37:27 | |
| the unfailing companionship of that Lord. | 37:30 | |
| But these two things are quite insufficient without a third, | 37:33 | |
| as you would understand. | 37:37 | |
| In the wisdom of God, the contract of joy in Christ | 37:40 | |
| does not leave us simply to be glad, | 37:44 | |
| forever reminding the world of how good it is | 37:47 | |
| to be in the kingdom. | 37:50 | |
| We are not left just to sing hallelujahs, | 37:52 | |
| and give testimonies of what God has done for us, | 37:54 | |
| and the joys that being so much better off | 37:58 | |
| than those who have not arrived at this state. | 38:00 | |
| For those who accept the Lord, the Lordship of Christ, | 38:05 | |
| accept also employment. | 38:09 | |
| It was not rhetoric that Christ used | 38:13 | |
| when he said that a man, | 38:16 | |
| to attain the ultimate goal of life, | 38:17 | |
| must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow him. | 38:20 | |
| And the following of Jesus is not a sentimental journey | 38:25 | |
| of sweetness and light, | 38:29 | |
| through glades of beauty and across galleries | 38:31 | |
| of shimmering joy. | 38:34 | |
| The following of Jesus means to walk in the pathways | 38:38 | |
| where human necessity treads, | 38:42 | |
| going into the dark alleys of human despair, | 38:45 | |
| ferreting out the cause of the human defeat, | 38:49 | |
| living in the midst of the problems of mankind's soul, | 38:52 | |
| and exposing oneself in behalf of the least | 38:58 | |
| and neediest of all. | 39:01 | |
| Being employed in the work of Christ | 39:05 | |
| means to identify ourselves with humanity | 39:08 | |
| in its most critical requirements, | 39:12 | |
| where we sense our oneness we have | 39:15 | |
| with those who are deep in their sins, | 39:17 | |
| as much as we sense our oneness with Christ himself. | 39:20 | |
| And therefore, as Christ did, we apply ourselves | 39:26 | |
| to the cure of humanity's ills. | 39:31 | |
| The Christian person can never say in good conscience | 39:34 | |
| of any problem posed by humanity's condition, | 39:37 | |
| I don't want to get involved. | 39:43 | |
| No, he is automatically, by his choice of Lord, | 39:46 | |
| involved in seeking the remedies of human loss. | 39:50 | |
| That is to say, seeking to bring about this redemption | 39:54 | |
| and salvation of all mankind. | 39:57 | |
| He knows too that his worship is hollow | 40:01 | |
| unless it forms a prelude to his service. | 40:05 | |
| Bishop Roy Nichols said, | 40:09 | |
| "Worship, church organization, committees, | 40:12 | |
| are all just preparation. | 40:16 | |
| The important thing to do is to get to the work. | 40:18 | |
| If you never get to the job, | 40:21 | |
| the preparation is unimportant." | 40:24 | |
| The contract of joy in Christ | 40:27 | |
| does not leave us simply to be glad. | 40:30 | |
| For when we accept him, we accept employment. | 40:33 | |
| What then? | 40:39 | |
| What then? | 40:41 | |
| Here we come again to the words | 40:43 | |
| we have heard several times already. | 40:45 | |
| If we live, we live for the Lord. | 40:48 | |
| If we die, we die for the Lord. | 40:49 | |
| Whether therefore we live or die, we belong to the Lord. | 40:52 | |
| For you and I, in our places, | 40:56 | |
| as we enter into a contract of joy, | 40:58 | |
| enter into the companionship and the service of our Lord. | 41:01 | |
| I cannot think of a better way | 41:06 | |
| of trying to bring this to focus | 41:08 | |
| than to tell of a little known incident | 41:11 | |
| in the long ago years, | 41:13 | |
| that took place in the cold winter climate of New England. | 41:17 | |
| No, perhaps it wasn't there really, | 41:22 | |
| it took place partly in Boston, partly in South Carolina. | 41:24 | |
| It had rootage in England and in the continent of Europe. | 41:30 | |
| But it came about when, in the year 1693, | 41:35 | |
| a little colony in South Carolina, | 41:41 | |
| beginning to be established | 41:44 | |
| and realizing the need to grow and develop, | 41:47 | |
| sent word to friends in Boston saying, | 41:50 | |
| we have here no teacher, no preacher. | 41:53 | |
| We need one to come and give us guidance for our souls. | 41:57 | |
| Would you please send us someone here to give us leadership? | 42:02 | |
| When the word came to Boston, the people gathered together | 42:10 | |
| and gave solemn thought and prayer to the matter, | 42:15 | |
| and did not decide to send a minister down to lead | 42:18 | |
| and assist these people in South Carolina. | 42:23 | |
| Instead, they decided to gather together | 42:27 | |
| a whole additional group of people, | 42:30 | |
| a number of families who would go down | 42:33 | |
| as Christian friends and servants | 42:36 | |
| to be a part of the community life of these people. | 42:39 | |
| And so, they banded together and again, | 42:43 | |
| with long preparation and much prayer, | 42:46 | |
| they made themselves ready to go to South Carolina. | 42:49 | |
| They went, a great church was formed. | 42:55 | |
| It served the people there many years | 42:59 | |
| until the whole colony was transplanted | 43:01 | |
| by their desires to Georgia. | 43:04 | |
| The church went with them and became the mother church | 43:06 | |
| to great citizens of the Southland, | 43:10 | |
| many of whose names you would know if I were to call them. | 43:12 | |
| But this is not the part of the story I want in your minds. | 43:16 | |
| There is just one sentence out of the record | 43:19 | |
| of that translation of these people | 43:21 | |
| from Massachusetts to South Carolina | 43:24 | |
| that I want to stick in your thoughts, | 43:28 | |
| one little line written as their own diary | 43:31 | |
| of what was going on. | 43:36 | |
| It says very simply, | 43:38 | |
| December 5th, 1695, | 43:40 | |
| the church for Carolina set sail from Boston. | 43:46 | |
| December 5th, 1695, the church for Carolina | 43:54 | |
| set sail from Boston. | 44:00 | |
| The flock set forth unafraid | 44:03 | |
| because they had long ago entered | 44:06 | |
| into a contract of joy with their Lord, | 44:08 | |
| and now were willing to follow his own guidance, | 44:12 | |
| and taken to themselves risks that were here involved. | 44:15 | |
| And so, in joy, they set sail to be | 44:20 | |
| the church for Carolina. | 44:25 | |
| Could I then ask more or less of you and me | 44:30 | |
| than to make this same kind of contract of joy, | 44:35 | |
| to discover the Lord, to know his companionship, | 44:41 | |
| to be in his employ, and to set sail | 44:46 | |
| to be the church for your place, for your Carolina? | 44:50 | |
| Let us pray. | 44:58 | |
| Heavenly Father, with those words | 45:04 | |
| of assurance in our minds yet, | 45:07 | |
| if we live, we live for the Lord, | 45:10 | |
| if we die, we die for Lord. | 45:12 | |
| Whether therefore we live or die, | 45:15 | |
| we belong to the Lord. | 45:16 | |
| May we enter into or renew our deep contract of joy | 45:19 | |
| with thee, through Christ our Lord, | 45:22 | |
| to thy great glory, to our own good, | 45:26 | |
| to the service of a people beloved, | 45:30 | |
| in Christ's name we pray, Amen. | 45:33 | |
| (uplifting music) | 45:40 | |
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 46:25 | |
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 47:13 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 48:02 | |
| (gentle music) | 48:13 | |
| (uplifting music) | 50:45 | |
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 51:05 | |
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 51:27 | |
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 51:36 | |
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 51:49 | |
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 52:15 | |
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 52:31 | |
| (uplifting music) | 53:37 | |
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 53:58 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 54:08 | |
| (choir sings indistinctly) | 54:15 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 54:25 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 54:30 | |
| ♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 54:36 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 54:43 | |
| - | Almighty God, we come here now | 54:50 |
| to dedicate ourselves and our money | 54:53 | |
| to the one who was willing to endure | 54:56 | |
| even the cross with joy, | 54:59 | |
| praying that we may accept whatever sacrifices | 55:03 | |
| are necessary in our lives to accomplish great things | 55:06 | |
| for thee, in Jesus' name. | 55:11 | |
| Now, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. | 55:19 | |
| (gentle music) | 55:24 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 55:29 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 55:36 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 55:45 | |
| (bright music) | 56:07 | |
| (microphone squealing) | 56:39 | |
| (footsteps thudding) | 56:56 | |
| (people chattering) | 57:03 | |
| (people chattering) | 57:26 |