A New Vision- May 18, 2025

Next. Jesus. [Music] Good morning. It is so good to see everyone able to hear me. Okay. [Music] Sounds like we have rain outside and yet we know it's a beautiful May day. It's so good to see you all. I'm so glad that we can be here to worship the Lord together. I hope that you have not only taken time to greet one another, but I hope you have registered your attendance with us by signing the friendship pad that should be located either on the inside of each of the rows or perhaps even in the middle of the rows. And if you will just

let us know that you are here and if you have any changes to your address, phone number, email, whatever, any way we can get in touch with you, uh please make note of that as well. It is great to see you and I hope that you've taken note also of the many opportunities we have coming up this summer season. Uh things are not slowing down here at First Presbyterian Church of Mount Dora and I hope that you will mark your calendars to get involved. We have coming up um our next uh collo uh shiitakqua chapel

uh lunch and learn that is going to be how to bake an awardwinning pie and award-winning pie baker Emily Lewis will be actually she is a nationally award-winning pie baker is going to share some of the secrets about how to bake an award-winning pie. So I hope you will join us. It is $10 for lunch and you can sign up for that at the uh concierge desk. Also, you'll note that we're going to be starting a book uh the summer book season is here and we're going to be reading Mere Christianity by CS Lewis, a classic. If you have not

read it or if you would like to read it again, we welcome you to join us for that. That will begin in June as will our summer movie series. So, like I said, we've got so much going on and I hope that all of you will consider joining us for that today. We are here to worship the Lord. I am thankful that you are here, that God is here. I am thankful that uh Betty Lip has agreed to be our liturgist this morning. Thank you so much, Betty. And uh we are going to worship the Lord together. I'd like to

begin with a prayer. So I invite you to please join me now. Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, as you once declared, see I am making all things new. So now through your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to your transforming word in scripture and in our worship. Grant us a new vision of the height, depth, and breadth of your trustworthy and true love, that we may be inspired to live as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, reflecting the new creation you have begun in each of us. For this we pray in your name.

Amen. Good morning. I would like for you to refer to your bulletin and let's do the call to worship responsive and it's based on Psalm 148. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise him all his angels. Praise him all his hosts. Praise him sun and moon. Praise him all you shining stars. Praise him and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord. For the commandment commanded and they were created forever. We fix their bounds which cannot be passed on.

[Music] Praising the Lord mighty soul. Heat. Heat. [Music] Praise the Lord. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. be seated and I will do the call for confession. The world often judges by our outward appearances. But Jesus reveals to us a deeper reality. When we fail to live in the new way of love he commands, we distance ourselves from the truth and pretend to possess a righteousness that is only ours through Christ. In this new promise and knowing God's steadfast love is trustworthy and true,

let us confess our shortcomings together, seeking the spirit's new workings within us. And would you join me now in the prayer of confession? Loving God, you call us to your merciful, gracious love, freely given without expectation or strings attached like the unconditional love of a bridegroom. While we are eager to experience your mercy and grace in our own lives, we are quick to make our extension of your mercy and grace continuing for how our own hearts. We would rather not show mercy and have loved us. We would rather

attend to grace to those who will show us grace in return missing the trustworthy and true nature of your soundless forgiveness. Forgive us God and transform our hearts with your amazing grace and unconditional love so that our fishship and your world are transformed. My friends, it is a privilege, is it not, to be able to sit here and know that God knows you and me better than we know ourselves and that the mercy of God's love is truly from everlasting to everlasting. So it is my privilege once

again to remind us all that in Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Thanks be to God. And God's people said thanks be to God. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is coming and ever shall be world without be seated. [Music] God of glory, Lord of love, hear us from your heavenly home above. You're the way, truth, and life. lead us from our earthly strife praise in this receive your holy Master your dear friend. He was with you to the end of God. May we walk forever in your

sight. Lord, [Music] Lord, to you. We give our heart. [Music] Lord forever. by your grave. The time of holy Pray bless our church his holy name joy. [Music] [Applause] [Music] F forever in your sight. [Music] [Applause] [Music] To you we give our to you we give our heart. [Applause] Oh, glory [Applause] for I'm going to switch to this microphone. Hopefully we will not have as much static coming through with this one. It is certainly our our blessing and privilege that when we gather to worship the Lord that we have the

opportunity to join our hearts in prayer together. And so this is a very sacred time, a time set apart so that we might lift our hearts and come before the throne of Almighty God and share our prayers of thanksgiving as well as our prayers of request. And so I encourage you to please search your hearts as the Holy Spirit is already searching your hearts and minds and praying on your behalf and think of those who you know and love that you would like to lift up in prayer. Uh certainly you will note on

the back of your bulletin uh we always have this little box on the top right hand side that has the names of individuals who have requested that they be placed in your prayers. So, please, if you will, take this home and and remember all of these individuals as you go about your prayer life today and throughout this week. Um, we also need to remember Joyce Whitbeck who uh went into the hospital recently. Uh, we want to keep her in our prayers. I also heard from Cindy Cody who did have surgery and

is home I understand asking for no visitors at this time but certainly has appreciated all of your prayers. And will you please also continue to pray for Ron Hannah who recently um had a fall and is recovering at home as well. I know every one of us here brought prayers with us this morning and we will take an opportunity to offer those up to the Lord in silence as well. So I invite you now to please join me in the prayers of the people of God. Let us pray. Oh holy one, you spoke your creative word in the beginning and

throughout the ages and your voice continues to guide and shape each of us. You called the first disciples and in their struggles to discern your will, you revealed your ongoing purpose. Even now, we invite you to guide us in your purpose for our lives and for this church. We seek your wisdom and we seek to live your abundant life. May your word for us be like a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Knowing your love is true and trustworthy and that your covenant endures. We pray for all of our friends

here in this church and in our community, for our families, and for all of those in this world. Lord God, we do lift up to you those who have had surgery and are now recovering. Those who are facing the prospect of some kind of medical procedure. Be with them Lord. Comfort their fears. Guide the doctors, nurses, technicians, everyone who looks after them. And we pray Lord for those who need your healing touch. Whether the healing is physical healing, relational healing, spiritual healing. Lord, we

know and wish to to know your peace and presence in our lives. We thank you for this, Lord. And we pray for those in this world who are facing war and violence. We pray that you will send to them peace and and people who can make a difference and and Stop the wars, stop the fighting, stop the violence. We pray that we might be your deliverers of peace and care and love as we thank you for the many blessings that you provide for each of us. We pray for those who are mourning the death of their loved

ones. Comfort them, Lord, be with them and help us to know that you are always with us. We thank you for this and we pray all of this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the one who came to give us peace and eternal love. For we pray as he taught us how to pray by saying, "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 and the power and the glory forever. Amen. My friends, just as God pours out new blessings without measure, it is certainly our privilege to be able to participate in what God is doing here in this church and through our community by the giving of our time, our talents, and our treasures. So, at this time, we invite the ushers to come forward for the collection of our tithes and offerings. Ezekiel saw the wheel up in the middle of the air. Ezekiel saw the wheel in the middle of

the air and the little wheel run by faith and the big wheel run by the grace of God. A wheel in a wheel, way in the middle of the air. Some go to church to sing and shout way in the middle of the air. Before six months, they're all turned out way in the middle of the air. If you want to sing that holy song way in the middle of the air, you'll have to sing your whole life. Way in the middle of the air. Ezekiel saw the wheel up in the middle of the air. Ezekiel saw the wheel in the middle of the air. And the little wheel run by

faith and the big wheel run by the grace of God. A wheel in a wheel way in the middle of the air. There's a little wheel turning in my heart. There's a little wheel turning in my [Music] heart. In my heart. In my heart. There's a little wheel turning in my heart. There's a little song singing in my soul. There's a little song singing in my [Music] soul. In my soul. In my [Music] soul, there's a little song singing in my [Music] soul. Some go to church to sing and shout way in the middle of the air.

Before 6 months, they're all turned out way in the middle of the air. If you want to sing that holy song way in the middle of the air, you'll have to sing your whole lifelong way in the middle of the air. Ezekiel saw the wheel way up in the middle of the air. Ezekiel saw the wheel way in the middle of the air. And the little wheel run by faith and the big wheel run by the grace of God. A wheel in a wheel way in the middle of the air way up there. Ezekiel saw the wheel up in the middle of the air.

[Applause] [Music] Praise [Music] God. Praise him. Sing. Will you please join me in a prayer of dedication? Let us pray. Generous God, receive these gifts that we place before your throne. Do more with them than we can ask or even imagine, furthering the holy work of your new kingdom in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who revealed to us the truth of your loving commands. We thank you for this, Lord, and pray this in his name. Amen. Please be seated. Our scripture reading today is taken from the book of Acts. I must tell

you if you have not read Acts, you are missing out. This small book in the middle of our New Testament tells the history of the origin of the Christian church, the movement that took place. It is filled with all of the action, all of the intrigue, all of the the love. It is an amazing book. And if you have not read it, I encourage you to make a point tonight when you go about your biblical study, get your Bible and start reading Acts. We are going to be reading today from Acts 11:es 1-8. And I ask you to hear now the word

of the Lord. The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them." Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story. I was in the city of Japa praying and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where

I was. I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of of the earth. wild beasts, reptiles, and birds. Then I heard a voice telling me, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat." I replied, "Surely, surely not, Lord. Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth." The voice spoke from heaven a second time. Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. This happened three times and then it was all pulled up to heaven again. Right then, three men who had been sent to to me from Cesaria stopped at the house where I was staying. The

spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me. And we entered the man's house. He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, "Send to Japa for Simon who is called Peter. He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved." As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said. John baptized with water, but you will baptize with the Holy

Spirit. So if God if so if God saved them sent them the same gift of the spirit for those of us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ who was I to think I could stand in God's way when they heard this they had no further objections and praised God saying so then even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life. This ends our reading of God's holy word. May God add to our understanding and application of its truth in each of our lives. Will you join me in a prayer? Lord, we do thank you for the

revealing of your will through the reading of this section of the book of Acts. And Lord, we do pray that the words of my mouth and that the meditations of each and every one of our hearts and our minds will be open to the movement of your spirit working in our lives. For we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, there is a saying that vision without execution is simply hallucination. When you think about it, anytime a group gets together and wants to establish a a an organization or a business, they first will probably start

with a vision statement. Why do we even exist? What is our ultimate purpose? That should be our vision statement. Then once you have the vision statement, then you move on to the mission statement. Now we know our ultimate purpose. What are we going to do about it today? Our mission. Now, Leonardo da Vinci who was brilliant and did many many things actually had something to say about this that is definitely worth our taking note of. He said, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. If you are unable to simplify your

purpose to a few sentences, your concept is at risk of not being understood. Now I think about when I was younger and I was working in sales for u McGra Hill for instance. One of the things you were encouraged to do and for any of you who who has have ever been in sales, you probably knew that you needed to nail down your elevator speech. That was taking the vision and the mission of the organization that you were representing and selling the service or product and you needed to reduce that to an elevator

speech. Something that you could say in very few words that someone who asked you on the elevator, "So, what do you do or what do you sell?" And you could tell them very quickly. they could grab it and understand and make a decision whether they even wanted to know more about it. Well, Walt Disney World, as I think most of us would agree, is a very successful organization. When Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida opened in 1971, they had a huge celebration, of course, and at that celebration was Walt

Disney's wife, Lillian. Walt had passed away five years prior to the opening of Walt Disney World. Lillian was sitting with Walter Kronite at that celebration and Walter leaned over to Lillian and said to her, "Wouldn't it have been great for Walt to be here to see this today?" And Lillian turned to Walter Konhite and said, "If Walt had not first seen this, you would not be seeing it today. how true those words are. In fact, when you walk around Disney World, you will see posted all over the place little

quotes from Walt Disney. Such as, "If you can dream it, you can become it." Walt knew the power of vision. Walt knew that if you could see it in your mind, if you could see the potential, then it could become a reality. Now, there's a a quote that has gone around for many years. It says, "If your vision is only for a year, then plant wheat. If your vision is for 10 years, plant a tree. But if your vision is for a lifetime, plant it in people. Now there is definitely a difference between human wisdom and

vision and God's vision. A godly vision is always at the right time. It is always for the right place, for the right church, for the right person. God's vision for you and for your life is perfect. A godly vision promotes faith and a relationship with God rather than fear and uncertainty of the future. A godly vision will motivate you to action. And a godly vision may even require that you take some risks and truly step out in faith trusting that God has your back. I once heard, "How do you know if you are following the Lord's

will?" And a person said, "Have you ever tried steering a parked car?" The point being that we must step out in faith trusting that God will lead us. And if we're going the wrong direction, the power of the Holy Spirit will come along and say, "No, no, no, no. Here, over here, over here, over here. There you go. Now you're headed in the right direction." In Acts 11:17, we read this morning. So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could

stand in God's way? That old joke, if you want to make God laugh, make a plan, I think reminds us that our ways, our ways of thinking are not God's ways of thinking. And certainly, I believe Peter understood that in this particular case. Today's scripture really does point us to something that we deal with very much in this day and age. Something that has been um in modern nomenclature called tribalism. It is that something that's recognized by sociologists as a very real fact that we people tend to

gravitate to people who are like us. You see it in elementary schools all the time. Kids who like what someone else is doing or playing with will go there because they have a similar interest. Your friends be become the people who are like you and you develop and reinforce those relationships over time thereby creating what would be called a tribe. Tribes are formed by common hobbies, interests, views, even perhaps the way we dress. Does that person fit into your tribe? You could probably figure that

out right away. In St. Louis, one of the common, if you ever meet someone from the city of St. Louis, where Michael and I come from. One of the common jokes is if you want to know where someone was from, just say, "Where'd you go to high school?" Because the high school tended to identify the tribe of where that individual came from socioeconomically and perhaps even politically. Which brings us to even another one of those tribes, the tribalisms that exist in today. How quick we are to put people in boxes. Are

you a Democrat or are you a Republican? Or perhaps you're one of those strange people that considers themselves to be an independent and nobody knows what you believe. how quick we are to try to identify people and thereby remove from them any individual any individual characteristic. It is it is dangerous for us to do so and I believe it is not pleasing to what God has said to us as his children as his believers. For we know that God so loved the world, the world, all the world, that he sent his only son, our

Lord Jesus, to die for their sins, our sins, everyone's sins, that whoever trusts in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life. This is not a political statement. This is a statement of unconditional love. Now, we know that tribalism, we've seen it all around us. We watch it on the news all the time. Can become toxic when the tribe identity starts to become if you do not belong in group X but you're in group Y, you are somehow less than human, less than of any value and definitely not

someone that I would want to interact with. Now I do not believe this. I try not to believe this, but I think there is a message here that certainly challenges my understanding of reality and perhaps it challenges yours today. And I think it really is the beauty of this scripture for us today because we found that Peter Peter was changed when the Holy Spirit came upon him. He saw the vision of the Lord when that sheet was lowered down to him and he saw all of these creatures that he had been trained that

you do not eat them because they are unclean. And the Lord said, "Take, eat." Challenging his beliefs that he had grown up understanding. And he defended himself before the Lord. And God called him on that. Do not call unclean what God says is clean. If that sheet were low lowered in front of you in in your sleep this evening and you saw on that sheet perhaps challenges for you, maybe it's that unwed mother or that tattooed teenager or that snottyfaced kid sitting in the corner or perhaps a a group of Muslims

worshiping. and God said to you, "These are the people you should reach out to and love." What what would we say? Oh, no, no, no, no, Lord. No, don't don't ask that of me. But certainly that was the challenge for Peter. And when he went back to his tribe in Jerusalem, all of the other circumcised men, meaning they were all Jews, good Jews, and they knew that he had eaten with Gentiles, meaning non-Jews. First of all, what was so horrific about that was Gentiles didn't know how to do ceremonial washing to

become clean before they would eat anything. And here was Peter and these other men eating with them. How dare he do that? How dare he break the trib's rules? But after Peter explained that the Holy Spirit was the actor in this, that it was the Lord God Almighty that gave him this vision. Who are we? We who also receive the grace of God by the Holy Spirit coming into our lives and forgiving us. Who are we to say that that is unclean? The end of the story certainly is one that ends with celebration as

they realize quickly that it is God who chooses where we go, who we talk to, who we should love and care for. So what what does this mean then for us, you and me today, tomorrow, the next day? What does God want of us? What is the message in in this scripture for us today? I say it every time. May we appropriate this wisdom into our lives. But what does that mean? How does that live out? It means that when when you're at Target or Walmart or wherever and and the cashier is covered with all those

tattoos all over their arm, perhaps you say, "What what is Tell me about that. What What is that all about? What does that design mean to you?" Or you can use the one that I've said before when I saw a young man covered with tattoos and all I could think was did that hurt when you had that done? And the guy said, "Maybe just a little bit, but not too much." And then he went on to explain how it reminded him of his brother who had died. And then he said, "And then this one, this is this is about my mom." And then he

showed me a real pretty flower. And and he started then taking apart all the tattoos and explaining. All of a sudden, I had this wonderful opportunity to talk to this young man that I probably would have not talked to before. Or perhaps when you're out walking, you're over at Donnelly Park and you see an older gentleman sitting on the park bench. Perhaps going and sitting down next to him and saying, "How are things going for you today and listening to his story?" being Christ for someone in this world, pushing the

envelope, stepping outside of your tribe, your comfort zone, and showing the love of Jesus to someone else. Think how God can use you in this world. The Lord has a vision for you, for me, for this church. May we grab hold of that vision. And may we step out in faith knowing that God's love will be seen and felt in everything that we do and everything that we say in the name of Jesus. Will you say a prayer with me please? Lord, we do thank you. We thank you for being with us, for guiding us, for challenging us even this

day. May we be bearers of your love to this very hurting and needy world. We thank you for this privilege, dear God. And we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. [Music] Jesus. He has to use this microphone. Well, my friends, as we go out this day, what a privilege we have that we go with

the Holy Spirit, the power of the universe that can show us the way and show us the people who need God's love today. So, let us go out today rejoicing in our heart. Let us go in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Thank you.