"It pays to advertize' with Nancy and Randy Campbell

PRELUDE:               

PROCESSIONAL: Thy Word    

CALL TO WORSHIP:
ONE: Every week we re-enact the story of God's boundless love and celebrate the reality of God's presence.

ALL: Such a God! Our God is good! God is with us forever!
ONE: The light coming from our candles reminds us that God's light shines into the dark places in our lives and our world, lighting our path and illuminating our minds.

ALL: Such a God! Our God is good. God is with us forever!
ONE: Every week our ears and hearts are filled by the music of our band and the song of our choir, a reminder of how God gifts us with talents that can glorify God.

ALL: Such a God! Our God is good! God is with us forever!
ONE: Now look at the most important part of the church — us, the people. It is here that God is most alive, weaving us into a community of faith, teaching us how to live, challenging us to do far more abundantly than we could imagine by ourselves.

ALL: Such a God! Our God is good! God is with us forever!


OPENING HYMN:           

OPENING PRAYER:     Lord, You are an awesome God, and You love us very much. Thank you for sending Jesus and calling us together to celebrate His work. Please take away the road blocks that stop us from coming into Your presence, and fill in the pot holes that slow us down and make the way bumpy. Help us to worship You this morning. Amen.

ANNOUNCEMENTS, BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES:

PRAYER OF PRAISE & THE LORD'S PRAYER: Thank you Lord for the opportunity of worship, for the freedom to be amongst Your family meeting together in Your house, and in the warmth of Your embrace. Thank you that in worship we can put aside the uncertainties of this world and rest upon the certainties of Your kingdom, for Your promises are not changeable as those of a politician might be, but immovable and eternal. Thank you that we can bring to Your feet all the hurts and fears that trouble us, and leave them there, knowing that Your strength and assurance are all that we require. Thank you that as we draw near in worship, we are transported from a world of concerns and fears, to a place where we can be at peace in Your presence, find healing, wholeness and refreshment. Thank you Lord for the opportunity of worship. 

And in the words Jesus taught us, let us pray together: 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 and ever. Amen.

PRESENTATION OF OFFERING:             Offering Received:
Offertory Hymn: 

Offertory Prayer:
Living God, Your love for us is so unfathomable. Open our ears to the cries of Your neediest children. Open our eyes to see human injustice. Open our minds to think about compassion in all circumstances. Continue to increase our willingness to give so that we may lead lives fully focused on ministry to others. We give these offerings in gratitude for Your guidance and love. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING:          
HYMN:                                  #103     0 Lord, Thou Art My God
MEDITATION:             It Pays To Advertise

This morning we read responsively the first 13 verses of Psalm 145. It's a
song of David — a song of praise. Perhaps you're wondering what the
connection between Psalm 145 and the title of this meditation is. I hope it will all become clear and you will see the connection of this Psalm and the words "it pays to advertise."


I grew up with the King James version of the Bible. It's what I used to
memorize the weekly verses designated by my Sunday School teacher. When I was still in Elementary School i really didn't understand all that I read and memorized, but as I matured, the cloud of misunderstanding and confusion started to dissipate and the passages began to make sense. Here in Rockburn we chose the New International Version for our pew Bibles. This version is written in a modern text and is more easily understood.

It's the version we read this morning. However, I'm going to reread the first 13 verses of the Psalm in an even more easily understood text in order to discover exactly the point David was trying to put across.
"Always I will praise you, my God and my king, and I will bless your name.

Bless you, 1 will say every day and I will always praise your name. Clearly the Lord is great and we can never praise him enough. We will never know how great he really is! Down from father to son people will say what wonderful things you have done. They will tell each other how powerful you are. Everyone is talking about your glory and your beauty. I will keep thinking about the wonderful things that you do. Famous are the things that you have done. People talk about them. I also will say what great things you do. Good things are what everybody remembers about you. They all sing about how kind you are. How full of grace and mercy is the Lord. He is slow to become angry and is full of kind love.

It is the Lord that is kind to everybody. He shows his mercy to everything that he has made. Joining together, everything that you have made will praise you, Lord. Your saints will bless you. Kingdom of glory is where you rule. People talk about it and about how powerful you are.

Let everybody know the powerful things that you have done, and the
glory and beauty of your kingdom. Many years, even for always, will your kingdom remain. You will always rule over it."

These verses show us how awesome God is. Everything we think, say or
do leads us to the discovery that God is truly an awesome God. Whenever a sermon is preached or a hymn is sung, it always is for the glory of God. What's the use of a tongue if it doesn't speak or sing the glory of God's kingdom?

Verse 4 of the Psalm says: "Down from father to son people will say what wonderful things you have done. They will tell each other how powerful you are." God is not only awesome, but he is powerful, and those aren't the only attributes of God.

God is admirable and praiseworthy. God is wisdom, Infinitude, Trinity and Holiness. God is Just, God is Sovereignty and God is Faithfulness. All of these attributes of God must be passed on to future generations, and they must be passed on to anyone who hasn't found God and His amazing grace.

Isaiah 40:31 says "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their
strength. They will soar on wings like eagles." This verse reminds me of a
children's message I heard while on vacation a couple of years ago. It was about God wanting to recharge us when we're out of power. The pastor held up a cell phone and told the kids that it was dead. He explained that he was on the phone with a friend who had a difficult problem, and they talked for such a long time that his cell phone died. He couldn't call anyone or receive any calls, and so now he had to recharge his cell phone. He explained that our souls are a little like his cell phone. Sometimes life brings trials and tribulations which can take a lot out of us, making us feel rundown. We can get to feeling so tired or depressed that we just want to curl up and sleep for a year. So what we need is a recharge.

The pastor's point was that all of us are like his cell phone. When we're
starting to feel worn out or depressed by life's struggles, that's when we really need to plug into God the most. We plug in by praying, by reading our Bible, by going to church — these are the things that will recharge us!

It takes a while to recharge, but if we're patient, if we're faithful to the
Lord and if we pray, we will find that our lives will most certainly have been recharged!

Sometimes, when you need to recharge, relaxing with a newspaper,
magazine, or even browsing on the Internet or watching TV can get our minds off our problems. But interspersed with the news and the articles and stories are pages, paragraphs, pictures and pop-ups telling me what toothpaste will make my teeth whiter. There are ads that tell us the wonders of probiotics, prebiotics and Omega 3, and if we don't get these products we will not be healthy and fit. We can buy shoes for only $39.99 a pair. We can call a 1-800 number and get our meals for a week delivered to our door. And the list goes on and on and on.

There are want ads — people looking for mechanics, accountants, baby-
sitters or a place to rent or buy. There are ads for people looking for lost dogs or cats. There are ads for people looking for love. All of these advertisements are in the papers, magazines, Internet, radio and television because the people who place them are looking for more business. They spend the money to advertise in the hope that they will make more money — it pays to advertise!

So if it pays a businessman to advertise, I wonder whether we could
follow his example? What do we have in this church that is worth advertising?

If you were to start a headline advertisement for Rockburn Presbyterian
Church, what would you select — our singing, our band, our good fellowship, our efficiency, our cordiality — what?

I wonder, too, what we would have on that "Want" page! Would it be,
"Lost — sixty minutes every Sunday morning," or "Wanted — young people," or "Strayed — our enthusiasm," or could we advertise, "Found —away  to better living," or "exchange — for your spare time a chance for better development," or "Free — a bit of encouragement and a cure for the blues."

You know you can only advertise what you have in stock. It's poor
business, very poor business, to advertise what you don't have and then try to substitute something else. But we have everything we need to advertise and it's always it stock — we have God. We have God's love and His grace and His Word. We have the faith to go out and share our knowledge of God with those who have not found Him yet.

A market research interviewer was surveying people in the grocery store
after they picked up their bread. One man picked up a loaf of Wonder Bread, and the interviewer asked him, "Sir, would you be willing to answer a couple of questions about your choice of bread?" The man responded, "I'd be happy to."

"Fine," the interviewer said. "The question I'd like to ask you is this: Do you feel that your choice of Wonder Bread has been at all influenced by their advertising campaign?" The fellow looked shocked and said, "Of course not. I'm not influenced by that sort of thing at all!" "Well then," he said, "could you tell me just why you did choose Wonder Bread?" The man replied, "Of course I can. It's because it builds strong bodies in eight ways!"

Whether you realize it or not, advertising gets through to people in one
way or another. We have so much to share. Our relationship with God is important to use. Remember what Isaiah said, "Let everybody know the powerful things that you have done, and the glory and the beauty of your kingdom." This is something we can advertise, because it's always in stock, and it pays to advertise!

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, as we come to the end of our time together,
we thank you for what has been accomplished here today. May the matters discussed serve as a catalyst to move us forward and cause us to advance and see growth in all areas of our lives. Help us to take this moment of worship and connection with you into the week ahead. May we carry Your love in our hearts always. Amen.