Robert T. Young - "Finding Self - Worth and Acceptance from God" (June 23, 1974)
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| (orchestral music) | 0:03 | |
| - | Okay, (indistinct). | 0:05 |
| - | (indistinct) | 0:12 |
| (orchestral music) | 0:36 | |
| (choir singing) | 8:49 | |
| (orchestral music) | 9:31 | |
| (choir singing) | 10:14 | |
| - | If we say we have no sin, | 13:35 |
| we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. | 13:39 | |
| Therefore, let us offer onto God. | 13:46 | |
| A unison prayer of confession. | 13:49 | |
| Let us pray. | 13:53 | |
| Oh God, sometimes we feel hopeless and afraid. | 13:56 | |
| Does anyone really care about us? | 14:02 | |
| Do our lives really make any difference, | 14:05 | |
| when we look at the whole universe, | 14:09 | |
| when we see many other people who are more talented, rich, | 14:12 | |
| and able than we are sometimes to the reality of our own | 14:17 | |
| impending death sinks into us. | 14:23 | |
| And we are scared. | 14:27 | |
| Is there eternal life? | 14:30 | |
| Is there any eternal quality of life now? | 14:33 | |
| If there is, what is it really like? | 14:37 | |
| Why can't we trust you that everything will be okay, | 14:42 | |
| no matter what, | 14:46 | |
| and yet all the nagging doubts about death and life | 14:49 | |
| are still there, | 14:53 | |
| forgive us our doubts and fears, oh God, | 14:56 | |
| we know that they often make us treat others cruelly, | 15:00 | |
| forgive us for all the evil we have done to others, | 15:05 | |
| in the name of our own anxieties and in Jesus name. | 15:09 | |
| Amen." | 15:16 | |
| And let us in silence for a moment or two, | 15:17 | |
| make our own personal confession. | 15:22 | |
| Let us offer a prayer for pardon. | 15:32 | |
| All mighty God our heavenly father, | 15:36 | |
| who have I great mercy has promised forgiveness of sins, | 15:39 | |
| to all those who with heart to repentance, | 15:44 | |
| and true faith titled unto thee have mercy upon us, | 15:47 | |
| pardon and deliver us from all our sin | 15:55 | |
| confirm and strengthen us and all goodness, | 15:56 | |
| and bring us to everlasting life through Jesus Christ | 16:04 | |
| our Lord. | 16:09 | |
| Amen. | 16:12 | |
| (orchestral music) | 16:16 | |
| (choir singing) | 17:03 | |
| Let us hear the word of God. | 19:37 | |
| As it is contained in the scriptures of the Old Testament, | 19:40 | |
| The book of Genesis 28 chapter verses 10 to 22, | 19:45 | |
| "Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran, | 19:55 | |
| and he came into our certain place, | 20:01 | |
| and stayed there that night, | 20:03 | |
| because the sun had set taking one of the stones | 20:05 | |
| of the place. | 20:10 | |
| He put it under his head and lay down in the place to sleep. | 20:12 | |
| And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, | 20:18 | |
| from the top of it reached to heaven, | 20:24 | |
| and behold the angels of God were ascending | 20:27 | |
| and descending on it. | 20:30 | |
| And behold, the Lords to the above it and said... | 20:34 | |
| "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, | 20:38 | |
| I'm the God of Isaac and the land on which you lie, | 20:45 | |
| I will give to you and to your descendants, | 20:50 | |
| and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, | 20:55 | |
| and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east, | 21:00 | |
| and to the north and to the south, | 21:05 | |
| and by you and your descendants, | 21:08 | |
| shall all the families of the earth bless themselves, | 21:13 | |
| behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, | 21:19 | |
| and we'll bring you back to this land, | 21:26 | |
| for I will not leave you until I have done that, | 21:30 | |
| Of which I have spoken to you." | 21:34 | |
| Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said | 21:39 | |
| "Surely the Lord is in this place, | 21:43 | |
| and I did not know it." | 21:46 | |
| And he was afraid and said, | 21:49 | |
| "How awesome is this place! | 21:51 | |
| This is none other than the house of God, | 21:55 | |
| and this is the gate of heaven." | 21:57 | |
| So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone, | 22:00 | |
| which he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar | 22:05 | |
| and poured oil on the top of it. | 22:09 | |
| He called the name of that place, Bethel." | 22:12 | |
| Not the name of the city was Luz at the first. | 22:18 | |
| Then Jacob made a vow, | 22:23 | |
| "If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I | 22:26 | |
| go and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, | 22:31 | |
| so that I come again to my father's house in peace, | 22:36 | |
| then the Lord shall be my God. | 22:42 | |
| And this stone which I have set up for a pillar, | 22:47 | |
| shall be God's house, | 22:50 | |
| and of all that thou give us to me, | 22:53 | |
| I will give the 10th to thee." | 22:56 | |
| The second lesson is taken from the gospel | 23:03 | |
| according to Saint John the third chapter verses four to 17, | 23:07 | |
| let us rise for the gospel. | 23:13 | |
| "Nicodemus said to Jesus ... "How can a man be born, | 23:22 | |
| when he is old? | 23:28 | |
| Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, | 23:31 | |
| and be born?" | 23:36 | |
| Jesus answered, | 23:38 | |
| "Truly, truly I say to you, | 23:40 | |
| unless one is born on of water and the spirit, | 23:43 | |
| he cannot enter the kingdom of God. | 23:48 | |
| That what is born of the flesh is flesh, | 23:52 | |
| and that which is born of the spirit is spirit, | 23:55 | |
| Do not marvel that I said to you, | 24:00 | |
| you must be born a new, | 24:03 | |
| the wind blows for it wills, | 24:07 | |
| and you hear the sound of it, | 24:09 | |
| but you do not know when it comes or whether it goes. | 24:12 | |
| So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit." | 24:17 | |
| Nicodemus said to him, "How can this be?" | 24:21 | |
| Jesus answered him? | 24:28 | |
| "Are you a teacher of Israel? | 24:30 | |
| And yet you do not understand this, | 24:34 | |
| truly, truly I say to you, | 24:37 | |
| we speak of what we know, | 24:40 | |
| and bear witness to what we have seen, | 24:44 | |
| but you do not receive our testimony, | 24:48 | |
| if I've told you earthly things and you do not believe, | 24:53 | |
| how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? | 24:56 | |
| No one has ascended into heaven, | 25:02 | |
| but he who descended from heaven. | 25:04 | |
| The Son of Man, | 25:07 | |
| and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, | 25:10 | |
| so must the Son of Man be lifted up, | 25:12 | |
| that whoever believes in him may have eternal life ... | 25:16 | |
| "For God so loved the world, | 25:22 | |
| that he gave his only son, | 25:26 | |
| that whoever believes in him should not perish, | 25:30 | |
| but have eternal life." | 25:36 | |
| For God sent the son into the world, | 25:38 | |
| not to condemn the world, | 25:42 | |
| but that the world might be saved through him." | 25:46 | |
| That is the good news, thanks be to God. | 25:53 | |
| (orchestral music) | 26:00 | |
| (choir singing) | 26:12 | |
| Let us a fair amount of faith in unity. | 26:49 | |
| We are not alone. | 26:53 | |
| We live in God's world, | 26:56 | |
| we believe in God who has created and is creating, | 26:59 | |
| who has come in the true man Jesus, | 27:04 | |
| to reconcile and make new who works in us and others | 27:08 | |
| by his spirit. | 27:13 | |
| We trust him. | 27:15 | |
| He calls us to be in his church to celebrate his presence, | 27:17 | |
| to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, | 27:23 | |
| to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen our judge and our hope | 27:29 | |
| in life in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. | 27:36 | |
| We are not alone. | 27:43 | |
| Thanks be to God. | 27:45 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 27:48 | |
| All | Be with you as well. | 27:50 |
| Let us pray. | 27:52 | |
| At our first prayer be one of Thanksgiving. | 28:00 | |
| We do praise and thank God for all great and simple joys, | 28:03 | |
| for the gift of wonder and the joy of discovery, | 28:09 | |
| for the everlasting freshness of experience, | 28:13 | |
| for all that comes to us through sympathy and through sorrow | 28:17 | |
| and for the joy of work attempted and achieved, | 28:22 | |
| for musicians, pirates and craftsman, | 28:27 | |
| and for all who work in form and color and sound, | 28:31 | |
| to increase the richness of life, | 28:37 | |
| for the likeness of Jesus in ordinary people, | 28:40 | |
| that forbearance, courage and kindness, | 28:45 | |
| and for all obscure and humble lives of service, | 28:49 | |
| for all these great and manifold joys, | 28:53 | |
| we give the humble and hearty thanks. | 28:57 | |
| That our second prayer be one of intercession, | 29:02 | |
| for all who need us, | 29:05 | |
| oh God, who has formed us for fellowship with one another. | 29:09 | |
| We pray for all who need us, | 29:14 | |
| for all who are underfed and starving, | 29:17 | |
| for all refugees, for the victims of oppression, | 29:21 | |
| injustice, cruelty and racial prejudice, | 29:26 | |
| for all who are frustrated for the sorely tempted. | 29:33 | |
| And for those who fall, | 29:39 | |
| for little children and youth who are neglected, | 29:43 | |
| and I've never known what it is to be cared for and loved, | 29:47 | |
| Lord, hear our prayer. | 29:53 | |
| And let our third prayer be one of supplication | 29:56 | |
| for ourselves. | 29:59 | |
| Oh God, who rules the world, | 30:02 | |
| some everlasting to everlasting, | 30:04 | |
| speak to our hearts when courage fails, | 30:07 | |
| and men faint for fear and the love of many grows cold, | 30:11 | |
| and there is distress over the nations upon the earth, | 30:17 | |
| keep us wrestle you can steadfast in the things that cannot | 30:22 | |
| be shaken, bounding and hope, | 30:26 | |
| Knowing that our labor is not in vain in the | 30:28 | |
| restored our faith in the omnipotence of good, | 30:35 | |
| renew the love that never fails, | 30:39 | |
| and make us to lift our eyes and behold beyond the things | 30:43 | |
| which are seen in temporal, | 30:47 | |
| the things which are unseen and eternal. | 30:50 | |
| And rather than then our two special prayers at this time, | 30:57 | |
| the first is prayer of Thanksgiving and supplication for our | 31:03 | |
| organist who leaves us after this service. | 31:06 | |
| And the second is an announcement with a prayer | 31:12 | |
| following that Calvin Bryce Hoover, | 31:14 | |
| the James B. Duke Professor emeritus of economics, | 31:20 | |
| died last night or during the night or early this morning, | 31:25 | |
| joined the faculty in 1925. | 31:30 | |
| He was 20 years chairman of the department of economics, | 31:33 | |
| nine years, Dean of the graduate school, | 31:37 | |
| and all a servant of the government, | 31:40 | |
| for years and years and years. | 31:43 | |
| I am glad to tell you, though that death came as a friend, | 31:46 | |
| and not as an enemy. | 31:52 | |
| So let us have two prayers now. | 31:56 | |
| Hero God a special prayer of Thanksgiving, | 31:59 | |
| and supplication for Joyce painter, | 32:02 | |
| I would assist in chapel organist, | 32:05 | |
| who today demits her office and leaves our fellowship, | 32:09 | |
| or what she has brought to her work in playing, | 32:15 | |
| teaching and conducting. | 32:19 | |
| She has made us her debtors. | 32:21 | |
| Moreover, she has grasped the eternal truth, | 32:25 | |
| that, "Heaven is music and hell is noise." | 32:29 | |
| Go with that and keep us in grateful remembrance, Arbor. | 32:34 | |
| And almighty and eternal God with whom lived the spirits | 32:43 | |
| of those who depart hints, | 32:46 | |
| we commend unto thy gracious mercy and protection. | 32:49 | |
| Calvin Bryce Hoover, grant unto him eternal rest, | 32:53 | |
| and may perpetual light aluminate him in thy presence, | 32:59 | |
| this day and forevermore. | 33:06 | |
| And now let us sum up all our prayers corporately | 33:11 | |
| in the words which Jesus taught his disciples. | 33:14 | |
| "Our father who art in heaven, | 33:18 | |
| hallowed be thy name, | 33:21 | |
| thy kingdom come, | 33:24 | |
| thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, | 33:26 | |
| give us this day, | 33:30 | |
| our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, | 33:32 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 33:36 | |
| and lead us not into temptation, | 33:40 | |
| but deliver us from evil for thy is the kingdom, | 33:42 | |
| and the power and the glory forever." | 33:46 | |
| Amen. | 33:51 | |
| (truckling sound) | 33:55 | |
| - | Grace to you and peace from God our father, | 34:16 |
| and our Lord Jesus Christ. | 34:24 | |
| Our youngest child eight year old Andrew, | 34:28 | |
| ordinarily can hold his own with his older brother, | 34:33 | |
| and two older sisters, | 34:37 | |
| recently however, he and his older brother, | 34:41 | |
| ten-year-old Robbie, really headed out. | 34:43 | |
| They deferred, discussed, argued, | 34:49 | |
| and (indistinct) then really became quite angry, | 34:54 | |
| with each other. | 34:56 | |
| Finally, Robbie stormed off to his room, | 34:58 | |
| and all was quiet in the house. | 35:00 | |
| Shortly thereafter, I went into my room, | 35:04 | |
| and there on my desk was a scribbled note, | 35:06 | |
| and second grade printed letters. | 35:09 | |
| "How do you think I feel?" | 35:13 | |
| We've all asked that question. | 35:21 | |
| We've muttered it deep inside. | 35:23 | |
| We've mumbled it under our breath. | 35:25 | |
| Haltingly ask it of a very trusted friend, | 35:28 | |
| breathed it longingly to a husband or to a wife. | 35:32 | |
| How do you think I feel? | 35:37 | |
| Tired, weary, confused, frustrated, hurt, lonely, sad, | 35:42 | |
| anxious, uneasy, plain scared or frightened, worried. | 35:48 | |
| We ask it when we're down and out or searching for an answer | 35:55 | |
| or when we're looking for a clue to real meaning, | 36:00 | |
| or when we're hoping that someone, | 36:04 | |
| maybe even someone with a capital S will come, | 36:06 | |
| and show us the way. | 36:10 | |
| How do you think I feel seldom? | 36:13 | |
| Do we ask this question when we are up or confident, | 36:16 | |
| or certain or sure, or when we know or when we feel good, | 36:20 | |
| it's a question for those even eight years old, | 36:27 | |
| seeking a will and a way. | 36:31 | |
| Victor Franco once wrote, | 36:34 | |
| "The person who has a why to live for, | 36:36 | |
| can bear with almost anyhow." | 36:39 | |
| Now you can see, | 36:43 | |
| I hope the connection between the sermon topic, | 36:44 | |
| and Andrew's note and Jacob's dream and Nicodemus is such | 36:47 | |
| and John's affirmation. | 36:52 | |
| Finding acceptance and self-worth from God, | 36:55 | |
| acceptance and self-worth are to be found, | 36:59 | |
| they are God's gift to us. | 37:02 | |
| How do you think I feel? | 37:05 | |
| A question for then, a question for now, a question for, | 37:07 | |
| and from each of us. | 37:10 | |
| Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran and he dream, | 37:14 | |
| and the Lord said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, | 37:18 | |
| your father, | 37:21 | |
| I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, | 37:23 | |
| for I will not leave you until I have done that, | 37:27 | |
| of which I have spoken to you." | 37:30 | |
| God's initiative. | 37:33 | |
| God's promise the why for which to live, | 37:34 | |
| Nicodemus asked Jesus, | 37:40 | |
| "How can a man be born when he's old?" | 37:41 | |
| Jesus replied, "Unless one is born of water and the spirit, | 37:44 | |
| he cannot enter the kingdom of God, | 37:47 | |
| the Son of Man must be lifted up, | 37:49 | |
| that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." | 37:53 | |
| And the question and the prayer of confession, | 37:57 | |
| can we really have that quality of eternal life? | 38:01 | |
| What is it? | 38:06 | |
| Can we have it now? | 38:07 | |
| And then John continues with his great affirmation, | 38:09 | |
| "For God so loved the world, | 38:12 | |
| that he gave his only son, | 38:16 | |
| that whoever believes in him should not perish, | 38:19 | |
| but have eternal life." | 38:22 | |
| For God sent the son into the world, | 38:23 | |
| not to condemn the world, | 38:26 | |
| but that the world through him might be say, | 38:29 | |
| God's initiative, God's promise the life or witch to live, | 38:34 | |
| God's eternal answer to our continuing cry, | 38:41 | |
| I am with you and we'll keep you." | 38:46 | |
| I don't know who selected these as two of the lessons for | 38:50 | |
| this Sunday and Pentecost. | 38:53 | |
| I don't know why they're reasons. | 38:56 | |
| I do know that I'm glad they come together. | 38:59 | |
| Centuries, separate Jacob from Nicodemus, | 39:02 | |
| and centuries separate Nicodemus from us. | 39:06 | |
| But the question is still there, | 39:10 | |
| Oh God, how do you think I feel? | 39:12 | |
| How do I find acceptance? | 39:16 | |
| How do I find self-worth from God? | 39:18 | |
| How do I discover my why to help me bare my how, | 39:21 | |
| when it comes? | 39:27 | |
| We do need to discover our why. | 39:31 | |
| Again, Malcolm Boyd, | 39:33 | |
| the Episcopal priest campus minister writer, | 39:37 | |
| recently took a slow trip across this country, | 39:41 | |
| interviewing people of all kinds of a real cross section, | 39:44 | |
| of working people, scholars, executives, students. | 39:48 | |
| He said, "A rabbi." In New York said that, "He found people | 39:54 | |
| yearning desperately to believe." | 39:57 | |
| The rabbi said, | 40:01 | |
| "People are saying, give me faith, | 40:02 | |
| you're long with this, | 40:05 | |
| there is a knowing awareness of realities of anxiety | 40:06 | |
| and of disgust." | 40:11 | |
| A nun in Los Angeles, | 40:15 | |
| a teacher in a parochial school summed, | 40:17 | |
| up the feeling of many today when she said, | 40:19 | |
| "Underneath the surface." | 40:22 | |
| People are saying, "You don't really care about me. | 40:25 | |
| You can't actually understand, | 40:28 | |
| because you don't feel as I feel." | 40:30 | |
| In order to care one has to have some deep empathy. | 40:34 | |
| Yet people merely pretend to communicate, | 40:37 | |
| instead, they are insensitive, | 40:41 | |
| deeply troubled searching for their real self. | 40:45 | |
| Insensitive, deeply trouble searching for self. | 40:53 | |
| And then board concludes his article, | 41:00 | |
| in the Christian century by saying, | 41:02 | |
| "The present American crisis calls for a moral, | 41:03 | |
| and spiritual fire." | 41:08 | |
| Right here, on this campus at this university, | 41:12 | |
| in this chapel in mine now almost 12 months, | 41:19 | |
| in this job I have seen and heard and come to know, | 41:24 | |
| many who are insensitive, deeply troubled, | 41:28 | |
| and searching for self. | 41:35 | |
| And how often is it that the first two, | 41:37 | |
| are the result of the third? | 41:40 | |
| How often are we deeply troubled and insensitive? | 41:42 | |
| Because we're really searching for our own true selves, | 41:46 | |
| searching for self calls for some kind of reflection, | 41:52 | |
| reflection upon who one is and upon one's relationship | 41:55 | |
| to God, the kind of reflection that goes as, | 41:59 | |
| Kierkegaard once wrote, | 42:01 | |
| "Reflection must not so much move or mollify or reassure, | 42:03 | |
| or persuade as it must awaken awaken." | 42:09 | |
| Awaken us to acceptance and to self-worth from God. | 42:13 | |
| The kind of self-worth that can say out loud and positive, | 42:18 | |
| I am words and feelings like those expressed, | 42:22 | |
| in popular singer, writer, Neil Diamond in his song. | 42:28 | |
| "I am." Which says, "I need, I want, | 42:32 | |
| I care, I ache, I weep." | 42:37 | |
| "I am"... I said | 42:40 | |
| "I am "... I said | 42:42 | |
| "I am"... I said to no one there | 42:44 | |
| And no one heard at all, not even the chair. | 42:47 | |
| "I am"... I cried | 42:51 | |
| "I am"... said I | 42:53 | |
| And I am lost and I don't even know why | 42:54 | |
| "I am "...I cried | 42:58 | |
| "I am"... said I | 43:00 | |
| And I see and hear people young and old, | 43:03 | |
| today's struggling to say this and crying to be heard. | 43:06 | |
| "I am, I am important, I am real, I am me, I am somebody, | 43:09 | |
| I am worth something, I am okay, I am a value, | 43:14 | |
| listen to me, hear me, "I am, I am." | 43:18 | |
| Thoreau once wrote, | 43:24 | |
| "Most people lead lives of quiet desperation." | 43:25 | |
| As I read God's word from Jacob to Nicodemus, | 43:33 | |
| I am convinced that God does not want any of his children, | 43:36 | |
| you or me or anyone else, | 43:40 | |
| to live a life of quiet desperation, | 43:42 | |
| but to live a life of positive affirmation. | 43:45 | |
| Virginia Harrar has written a very insightful book, | 43:49 | |
| entitled "People making." | 43:52 | |
| And it, she has the words of my declaration of self esteem. | 43:56 | |
| I am me in all the world, there is no one else, | 44:03 | |
| exactly like me. | 44:09 | |
| There are persons who have some parts like me, | 44:12 | |
| but no one else adds up exactly like me. | 44:16 | |
| I own everything about me, | 44:21 | |
| my body, including everything it does, | 44:23 | |
| my mind, including all it's thoughts and ideas, | 44:27 | |
| my eyes, including the images of all they behold, | 44:31 | |
| my feelings, whatever they may be. | 44:35 | |
| Anger, joy, frustration, love, disappointment, excitement, | 44:38 | |
| my mouth and all the words that come out of it. | 44:46 | |
| Polite or sweet, rough, correct, or incorrect, | 44:50 | |
| my voice loud or soft and all my actions, | 44:55 | |
| whether they be to others or to myself, | 45:00 | |
| I own my Harrar, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. | 45:06 | |
| I own all my triumphs and successes, | 45:12 | |
| my failures and my mistakes. | 45:15 | |
| I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do, | 45:18 | |
| I have the tools to survive to be close to others, | 45:22 | |
| to be productive and to make sense, | 45:26 | |
| and order out of the world of people and things outside me, | 45:28 | |
| I own me and therefore I can engineer me. | 45:32 | |
| I am me and I am okay. | 45:36 | |
| Finding acceptance and self word for self worth from God, | 45:42 | |
| finding and I am, | 45:47 | |
| the kind of I am that can say with Valery Pa nov, | 45:52 | |
| the Russian Jewish ballet artist who with his wife was, | 45:55 | |
| just free to go from Russia to Israel and said, | 45:59 | |
| "As he was leaving Israel with God's help, | 46:03 | |
| I will dance again in Israel." | 46:05 | |
| (sighing) | 46:10 | |
| The I am that can say yes to life, | 46:11 | |
| as did the med student that I know, | 46:14 | |
| he learned some three years ago, | 46:16 | |
| that he has an incurable disease. | 46:18 | |
| He continued his med school studies, | 46:20 | |
| and plans now to specialize for the next three or four years | 46:22 | |
| and was married recently. | 46:26 | |
| He said, very simply to me, "I want to do all that I can, | 46:29 | |
| as long as I can." | 46:33 | |
| The I am of the mother of the 11 year old daughter, | 46:36 | |
| who has leukemia. | 46:40 | |
| That was just discovered. | 46:43 | |
| I was by the other day and the mother said, | 46:45 | |
| "We're just thankful for every day." | 46:50 | |
| Or and I am like the Duke freshmen last year | 46:56 | |
| who literally blew it, his first year here, | 46:59 | |
| and is going to have to be out for at least a semester. | 47:02 | |
| One night in March, | 47:07 | |
| he had a very dramatic and a very personal experience | 47:09 | |
| with God in Christ. | 47:13 | |
| He now believes in Christ and in the worth, | 47:15 | |
| and value of his own person, | 47:17 | |
| he will be back and by the grace of God, | 47:19 | |
| and with his own new self image life, | 47:22 | |
| will be more meaningful to him now. | 47:26 | |
| The kind of, I am that can say, | 47:29 | |
| I may believe that life is mysterious, | 47:31 | |
| but dear friends in Christ life is not meaningless, | 47:37 | |
| acceptance and self-worth come from God, | 47:45 | |
| as we first as soon responsibility for our own lives. | 47:47 | |
| Your life is yours. | 47:56 | |
| Mine is mine in a very real sense, | 47:58 | |
| your life belongs to everyone, and yet it belongs to no one, | 48:03 | |
| but you and surely whether you're young or old, | 48:06 | |
| there are many, many important decisions, | 48:10 | |
| you're yet to make about your own life. | 48:12 | |
| As you make these decisions and move through life's | 48:15 | |
| experiences ahead, | 48:18 | |
| that may suggest that you be man enough or woman enough, | 48:20 | |
| to assume responsibility under God for your own experiences. | 48:23 | |
| When you succeed or helpful or do something good, | 48:29 | |
| or beneficial or meaningful accept the praise, | 48:33 | |
| and the affirmation that comes to you and be grateful. | 48:36 | |
| And when you fail or wrong or miss the mark, | 48:42 | |
| or make a serious mistake, | 48:47 | |
| be willing to accept the criticism which you are do. | 48:49 | |
| Most of us don't want to do either of those, | 48:54 | |
| we fight off praise and we cannot accept criticism. | 48:57 | |
| We blame mother or father or our grandparents, | 49:01 | |
| or we blame a poor home situation, | 49:04 | |
| or we said, "Well, I came from too good, a home situation." | 49:06 | |
| Or we bring out blame our older, | 49:09 | |
| or younger brothers or sisters, | 49:12 | |
| are we blame our place in the family. | 49:13 | |
| I was the second or the fourth or the third or the first | 49:15 | |
| child, or we say, | 49:18 | |
| "While I was an only child." | 49:19 | |
| Or we blame poor teachers or unkind friends, | 49:23 | |
| are we say, "We had no religious training as we grew up." | 49:27 | |
| Or we say, "Oh, I had too much, a too strict, | 49:30 | |
| a religious training." | 49:33 | |
| You name it there is always someone or something, | 49:34 | |
| that you can project or blame all of your mistakes, | 49:38 | |
| and all your failures on. | 49:42 | |
| But we fool no one least of all our real selves, | 49:45 | |
| all of the above and more to have influenced you, | 49:54 | |
| but you are you and you are responsible for you, | 49:57 | |
| in the very popular book on transactional analysis. | 50:01 | |
| "I'm okay you're okay." | 50:04 | |
| Dr. Thomas Harris says a word there that seems urgently | 50:06 | |
| important for us to hear. | 50:10 | |
| He writes, "No matter what has happened to you in the past, | 50:12 | |
| there comes a point where you are responsible, | 50:15 | |
| for what happens to you in the future." | 50:18 | |
| Let me repeat that. | 50:21 | |
| "No matter what has happened to you in the past, | 50:23 | |
| there comes a point where you are responsible | 50:26 | |
| for what happens to you in the future." | 50:30 | |
| Jesus said, "You must be born a new, | 50:33 | |
| you must begin a new." | 50:37 | |
| And God said to Jacob, | 50:39 | |
| "I am with you and we'll keep you wherever you go." | 50:41 | |
| God, do you know how I feel? | 50:48 | |
| Acceptance and self-worth from God in the second place, | 50:54 | |
| come when we live lives of integrity and integrated person. | 50:56 | |
| A whole person and authentic person, | 51:01 | |
| one who has a sense of his or her own self-worth, | 51:04 | |
| is an integrated person. | 51:08 | |
| And among other things, | 51:09 | |
| that means one who lives with integrity. | 51:11 | |
| Jacob replied to God, "If God will be with me, | 51:14 | |
| then the Lord shall be my God." | 51:17 | |
| We have some real problems here, though. | 51:21 | |
| As we seek to live lives with integrity, | 51:25 | |
| we speak often of the need for, and the place of integrity. | 51:28 | |
| Politicians do, preachers do, professors do, parents do. | 51:32 | |
| We talk of integrity at great deal, | 51:38 | |
| and yet it seems that we see very little of it practiced. | 51:40 | |
| Think in your own mind for just a moment now of the climate | 51:49 | |
| in which you and I are living in this country. | 51:52 | |
| I contend that the climate of immorality, | 51:57 | |
| that is loose morals, broken moral standards, | 52:01 | |
| and the climate of immorality that is no moral convictions | 52:05 | |
| and no moral standards of right or wrong, | 52:09 | |
| has never been more corrupt, | 52:11 | |
| and the life and history of this country, | 52:14 | |
| when and all of American history, | 52:17 | |
| can we read about the lying, the cheating, the deception, | 52:20 | |
| the hypocrisy, the double-talk, | 52:23 | |
| the pretense about right and justice, the indecency, | 52:25 | |
| the manipulation of persons and laws and traditions. | 52:29 | |
| When can we read of it in the same degree, | 52:32 | |
| as it is taking place today, the buying off of people, | 52:35 | |
| either their cooperation or their silence, | 52:39 | |
| the breaking it and entering, | 52:41 | |
| the burglarizing and wiretapping, | 52:43 | |
| all in the name of the party, | 52:45 | |
| are all because of national security, | 52:47 | |
| are all because someone gave the orders, | 52:49 | |
| and who pray, tell us today, "Gave those orders." | 52:52 | |
| One example of the heartbreak of this law that this lack of | 52:56 | |
| integrity can bring. | 53:00 | |
| It seems to me, | 53:01 | |
| is seen in the comments of one of those, | 53:02 | |
| who has been involved and has admitted his involvement, | 53:05 | |
| namely Jeb Stuart Mag ruder, | 53:08 | |
| who was just recently sentenced to serve from 10 months | 53:11 | |
| to four years. | 53:13 | |
| He says that, "Since he has admitted his own guilt, | 53:15 | |
| he has seen confusion in the faces of my children, | 53:17 | |
| heartbreak in the face of my wife, | 53:24 | |
| contempt in the faces of my children." | 53:29 | |
| And on another occasion, Magruder is quoted as having said, | 53:36 | |
| "Somewhere in the midst of all my ambition, | 53:40 | |
| I lost my moral and spiritual compass." | 53:44 | |
| And the mother of two teenage daughters, | 53:52 | |
| I saw at the AAA Office, | 53:54 | |
| the World Travel Agency Office just the other day, | 53:55 | |
| and she says, | 53:58 | |
| "How can I talk to my two teenage daughters, | 53:59 | |
| about living alive of right as against wrong?" | 54:02 | |
| Integrity right, honor, good justice. | 54:08 | |
| I wonder if these words ever again will have real meaning | 54:13 | |
| to us in this country. | 54:16 | |
| Then after thinking through and struggling through | 54:19 | |
| with this question, | 54:23 | |
| I'm convinced that we're not able to control the lack of | 54:26 | |
| integrity in another person, | 54:29 | |
| but we do have the power, | 54:34 | |
| at least the possibility of controlling the presence, | 54:38 | |
| and the practice of integrity in our own lives. | 54:43 | |
| Again, you are responsible for being a person of integrity. | 54:47 | |
| And so am I. | 54:54 | |
| To know acceptance and self-worth be a person of integrity. | 54:57 | |
| In the movie, | 55:07 | |
| the autobiography of Jane Pittman, | 55:08 | |
| she talks about how she and her own black people, | 55:13 | |
| were always looking for a son to be born, | 55:19 | |
| who would deliver them. | 55:22 | |
| Back home she said in this movie, | 55:25 | |
| "When a baby was born, | 55:29 | |
| we'd all gather around and we'd wonder is he the one?" | 55:30 | |
| Is he the one? | 55:35 | |
| My dear friends in Christ, | 55:42 | |
| I'm here this morning to tell you again, | 55:45 | |
| the good news that the one, | 55:47 | |
| who can give acceptance and worth to your life, | 55:50 | |
| and mine has come, has already come. | 55:53 | |
| He is the God who revealed himself to Jacob and said, | 55:56 | |
| "I am with you and will be with you wherever you go." | 56:01 | |
| He is the God who revealed himself to Nicodemus in Christ | 56:06 | |
| and said, "You must be born a new." | 56:10 | |
| We say, "God, do you know how I really feel?" | 56:15 | |
| And God says, "The one has come to you." | 56:23 | |
| Listen, "For God so loved the world, | 56:27 | |
| that he gave his only son, | 56:34 | |
| that whoever believes in him should not perish, | 56:38 | |
| but have eternal life." | 56:44 | |
| Acceptance and self-worth have come from God, | 56:50 | |
| in the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit. | 57:02 | |
| Amen. | 57:08 | |
| (orchestral music) | 57:38 | |
| (choir singing) | 58:04 | |
| (orchestral music) | 1:00:30 | |
| (choir singing) | 1:01:00 | |
| (orchestral music) | 1:04:52 | |
| (choir chorusing) | 1:05:38 | |
| - | Here, we offer and present onto the Lord, | 1:06:48 |
| our silver and our gold, | 1:06:52 | |
| the symbol of ourselves to be at a reasonable, | 1:06:55 | |
| holy and lively sacrifice unto thee through Jesus Christ. | 1:07:01 | |
| Our Lord. | 1:07:08 | |
| Amen. | 1:07:10 | |
| (orchestral music) | 1:07:14 | |
| (choir singing) | 1:08:01 | |
| (orchestral music) | 1:10:33 | |
| (clearing throat) | 1:10:44 | |
| Until God's gracious, mercy and protection. | 1:10:45 | |
| Do we commit you? | 1:10:50 | |
| May the blessing of God come upon you abundantly, | 1:10:52 | |
| may it keep you strong and tranquil in the truth of his | 1:10:58 | |
| promises through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 1:11:03 | |
| (choir singing) | 1:11:15 | |
| (ringing bell) | 1:12:21 | |
| (orchestral music) | 1:12:35 |
Item Info
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