Fully Equipped for the Future- February 2, 2025

my friends even before we were born God knew us God has always been with us and so it is our privilege at this time to be able to say thanks be to God for God ha forgiven us on all of God's people said thanks be to God [Music] Amen glor and to thehost as it was in the [Music] begin to share what we believe in the Apostles Creed if you will please join me now I believe in God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and Earth and in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the

Virgin Mary suffered under pontious pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven from s on the right hand hand of God the Father Almighty from then he shall come to judge the quick and the dead I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholic Church the communion of saints the Forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life Everlasting amen please be seated [Music] walk cl to the am weak th Jus me God be

[Music] sa I to Jesus is my to the [Music] my my [Music] Jus walk close to the to the [Music] one of the most precious things about worshiping the Lord together is that we can join in prayer together you will note on the back of your bulletin that there are names that continue to remain there um where these individuals have ask for your prayers so if you will you may not know exactly what is going on but I guarantee you that God does so if you will in faithfulness hold those names before the Lord in prayer when you

go about your prayer life I would encourage you that if you have a prayer of Thanksgiving certainly the Apostle Paul reminds us that we should always approach the throne of grace with Thanksgiving in our hearts thankful for all of the many blessings that we receive every day from our Lord one of them being here today the gift of Life what a gift this is that we may be thankful for the opportunity to worship freely it is also important that we pray for one another in times of need so if anyone here has a particular prayer

request or would like like to have their name added to our bulletin please contact the church office as well I would like to acknowledge that every one of us came here today with prayers in our heart and we know that the Holy Spirit of almighty God is already searching our hearts and our minds praying on our behalf what a what a precious thought that is what a peace and a joy so I invite you now to please join me in the prayers of the people of God let us pray Oh Holy Father we thank you for this day this gift that you have given

to us we thank you for calling each of us to this Community of Faith to live out the expression of our gifts and talents that you have given to us Lord we pray that we might lift one another up that we might grow closer together as we share your love with one another dear God I must admit that most of us this day come with heavy hearts for many reasons but one being that our nation and the world experienced on our televisions this last week as we watched as 27 victims were involved in an airline crash in Washington DC at Ronald

Reagan National Airport report and then just a few days later Lord our souls were broken again our hearts were broken again as we observed a medac plane crash to the ground killing one on the ground and seven in the plane Lord we know that there are many who lost their homes many who were injured all these families Lord grieving for their lost and love their loved ones we pray that you Will Comfort them we also pray for the First Responders the air traffic controllers the FF FAA and the NTSB investigators and all who have

been personally impacted by these horrific events oh Lord be with them be with us all as we pray for them and for their families we pray for safety for all who are traveling dear God be with with us that we might have your your watchful eye that you will watch over us all we pray for those who are experiencing illness as well those here in our church family who need your healing touch be with them heal their bodies Lord we pray for those who are having surgery or are recovering from surgery keep them hopeful give them your

peace and knowledge of your presence with them and dear God we do pray for the Lost we pray for the lonely we pray for the grieving in this world we pray for the anxious the abused and the depressed heal them all Lord surround them with your peace and Grace and supreme assurance that you will not leave them that you are there guiding those who care for them Lord we thank you for all of this and we pray for your guidance for those who are in positions of authority making decisions on behalf of others and we ask Lord that we might be

your instruments of peace and hope as well we pray all of this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus the one who taught us all 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 when We Gather it is

with joy in our hearts that we recognize that we have the opportunity to participate in building God's kingdom here through this church and through our denomination by the giving of our tithes and our offerings so if the ushers will please come forward [Music] all Iain [Music] I have count spent [Music] and you're my you're the best you're my joy my and I you [Music] [Music] Lord as yours toess by what I right Jesus you're my home you're the best you're Joy my and I [Music] you to know the power of your

life and you know you in your to you in your death KN you Jesus you you're my you're the best you're my joy my you're my you're the best you're my joy my you're my all you're the best you're my joy my rightous and I love you yes I [Music] all [Music] will you please join me in a prayer of dedication Lord we do thank you for the opportunity to return to you a portion of what was yours to begin with we thank thank you Lord for the opportunity to participate in what you are doing here in this church we pray that these our

tithes and offerings will be multiplied that they will be used to serve you by serving others for we thank you for this and pray all of this in Christ's name amen please be seated our new testament reading today is taken from Paul's letter to the Church of Corinth so I will be reading from 1 Corinthians 1: 4- 25 I ask that you hear now the word of the Lord I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace God the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus for in every way you have been

enriched in him in speech and knowledge of every kind just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ he will also strengthen you to the end so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ God is faithful by whom you were called called into the partnership with his son Jesus Christ Our Lord now I appeal to you brothers and sisters by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you be in agreement

and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose for it has been made clear to me by Chloe's PE people that there are quarrels among you my brothers and sisters what I mean is that each of you says I belong to Paul or I belong to Apollos or I belong to sephus or I belong to Christ has Christ been divided was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and gas so that no one can say that you were

baptized in my name I did baptize also the household of stephanus beyond that I do not know whether I baptized anyone else for Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel and not with eloquent wisdom so that the Cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power Christ the power and wisdom of God for the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God for it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment

of the Discerning I will thwart where is the one who is wise where is the scholar Where is the debator of this age has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world for since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom God decided through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who believe for Jews ask for signs and Greeks ask for wisdom but we Proclaim Christ crucified a stumbling block for Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles but to those who are called both Jews and

Gentiles Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God for God's foolishness is wiser than any human wisdom and God's weakness is stronger than any human strength this ends our reading of God's holy word may God add to our understanding and application of its wisdom in each of Our Lives will you join me in a prayer of preparation let us pray Lord we do thank you for the preservation of these words for our hearing this day and now Lord I do pray that the words of my mouth and that the meditations the thoughts of each of our

hearts will be acceptable in your sight oh lord for you are our strength and Our Redeemer and it is in Christ Jesus we pray these things amen we in the church are God's people called to worship as a community now as a community our purpose is to support one another with the love of Christ to lift up one another just it always happens doesn't it but here's what I found usually at the beginning of the year most of us like to make New Year's resolutions but here this day the first Sunday of February not only is it Groundhog's Day

which I understand by Authority that the groundhog saw his shadow and there will be what six eight more weeks of winter which in Florida I'm not sure what that means but I can guarantee for you that God has a lot more plans for us than six to eight more weeks and that's why I want to talk with you in this reboot series about what God is Planning for us and I thought what better better way for us to look at what God God has planned for us than to examine one of Paul's letters to a church very much like ours

in a community similar to ours the Corinthian Church I named it that we are going to be seeking God's help to reboot our spiritual lives now let's talk about what reboot means because that is a more recent term certainly any of us who have a computer or an a an iPhone a smartphone you probably have called customer service at some point and while you were on the phone with them they said well I would like for you to do something unplug your computer let's wait 15 seconds and then plug it back in

and let's see if that takes care of the problem that is called rebooting your computer because what you are doing is you are giving the electrical circus a a jolt to get back into the order that it used to be in when it was working properly for us to reboot our spiritual lives I'm talking about each of us taking a moment at this time perhaps sometime later today in prayer to shut things down to think and pray about what in my spiritual life Lord needs change what needs to go back to be the way you

intended for me to live out my life how may I shut down and restart again help me Lord to reboot my spiritual life well American inventor and businessman Thomas Edison knew something about this now as you probably know Thomas Edison is well known for his uh inventions with electrical power which was in its infancy during his day as he was working with electricity he developed the light bulb he developed the phonograph he developed Motion Pictures it was amazing the kinds of things these inventions that Thomas

Edison came up with Thomas Edison's Factory or facility was in West Orange New Jersey and at one point the entire facility was destroyed by fire after the fire Thomas Edison came back and walked through all of the charred damage and looking around at what would be in today's dollars about a million dollars worth of equipment and Reporting equipment just damaged and gone he said he was 67 at the time he looked around and he said there's value in disaster all our mistakes are burned up now we can

start a new rebooting is like that for all of us as we know sin and fall short of God's expectations and things that we say or things that we left unsaid or things that we do or things that we should have done and didn't do we all fall short of what God would like for us to do with our lives rebooting gives us the opportunity to stop to take note of what God wants us to do to ask for forgiveness to Revel in God's love which includes forgiveness which many of us don't realize in this month of February

with Valentine's Day and all this talk about love we're not just talking about a sentiment or just that warm cozy feeling of love God's love is agape love it is unconditional love and that love of God is an action it is something that lifts up and cares for those around us it is something that forgives people when they do something wrong to us it is God's love That Forgives us for being sinners in our life it is an unconditional love that God gives to us in this time of rebooting we need to focus on that going to the Lord and

saying I know I have really been going the wrong direction in the way I spend the time that you have given to me in the way I have treated those around me in the things that I have said or done forgive me Lord help me to go in a right direction to be the person that you created me to do help me to reboot to be that person that you made with the gifts and the talents to use to serve you in this life rebooting in our life can happen have a purging effect now if there was a church that needed to reboot it was the church in

Corinth and we know that because Paul left us with two very detailed letters about certain things that that church needed to tend to first of all he begins by encouraging them telling them that they have been given every gift that they need that through the Lord Jesus Christ they have the capability to be the Church of Jesus Christ but he says but you are fully equipped but you are squandering the gifts that God has given to you you are going the wrong direction Corinth was a Cosmopolitan City first of all it was

not too unlike Mount Dora Orlando or even Miami you might say for many many of our scholars believe that there were anywhere from 100,000 to 600,000 people in Corinth at the time that Paul establish this church now Mount Dora at least according to the 2023 census had about 177,000 people but I bet it's much larger than that now Orlando had 321,000 and Miami 456,000 not a whole lot different than Corinth Corinth was a tremendously diverse Community the population included Greeks and Italians and Jews

and many other nationalities from all over Asia Minor very similar to some of the makeup that we are seeing in the diversity here in Central Florida there was a significant transient population there of athletes and Spectators groupies you know philosophers in industrialists and Merchants and artists perhaps even like our art fair today going through town bringing their thoughts their expertise Corinth was a cultural center for many things but one of the things it became known for was their worship

because Corinth worshiped Aphrodite in fact Aphrodite the Goddess of love was served by 1,000 prostitutes in the temple you see their form of worship certainly was quite different from what we would call worshiping God this kind of sexual exploitation was the community that Paul was ministering in and the community that was influencing those who became members of the first church of Corinth Paul had friends there as he left who establish new churches who contacted him and said Paul you've got to get back here because we have

problems there are quarrels going on there are factions being developed the church is breaking apart people were dividing themselves they were dividing themselves up into factions those by baptism I was baptized by Paul I was baptized by Apollos I was baptized by Christ Christ or they were saying I am more better educated than you I have greater wisdom than you do I have greater wealth I have worked in Commerce for many years they were dividing themselves up by pitting themselves against one another one scholar said that corinth's

ideal was that of Reckless development of the individual now I'd like to focus on that just for a moment because unfortunately this one hurts because of our American ideal of the rugged individualist that we sometimes think that the most important thing for us is to achieve whatever I can achieve without any guard rails without any other guidance in Corinth the merchant they wanted to make as much money as they could by any means that they could the man of pleasure surrendered to any form of sensual

pleasure the athlete the athlete became the very best athlete that they could and would show off their athletic prowess you see it was all about me all about me without any consideration for the other certainly Paul would have had to say something about this sharing what Jesus teachings were that it is not all about us it is all about God and we should be thankful for what we are enabled to do with the life that God has given to us as we go throughout this reboot series as we continue to look at First

Corinthians and second Corinthians I encourage you to go ahead and read these two letters that Paul wrote and I would encourage you to stop unplug sometime today and pray allow God to speak to you to help you to think about your life examine your life and I would encourage you to make a priority list where are you now in your life what are the most important things in your life I would like to recommend to you some scripture on that that we find in the Book of Revelation and Ephesus that says return to your

first love when we unplug and plug back in so that everything is back in order we should first of all return to our first love our first love being Jesus Christ Our Lord and then make your priority it list pray for help because we know that our wisdom is not God's wisdom as Paul revealed to us we need to pray for God to help us by the power of His Holy Spirit to or organize and order our life and I would like to recommend that we all reach out and get to know somebody in this church or invite somebody to

this church and not just your friends and your group but somebody that you don't really know that well I know we all like to sit in the same row I can tell where you're going to sit every time we come into church most of you anyway what is your seat in the pews but maybe sometime shake it up a little bit sit in a different PW maybe even on the other side sit next to someone that you really don't know that well and just say hi my name is Brenda I'd like to get to know you what what is your name I've been coming to church

here for several years and I don't even know you what is your name let us stretch ourselves let us get to know one another so that we might truly be the Church of Jesus Christ and certainly I encourage you to take seriously what Paul said that you have been given all the gifts that we need to be the church that God is creating here I've said it before but Paul is bringing it up so I want to say it again we have been given everything we are fully equipped he says to be the church let's not ignore this think about

what your gifts and your talents are and how they might be used in the many ministries of First Presbyterian Church Church of Mount Dora and if you're not sure what those are we call them committees but I think they should be called Ministries because that's what they are get a copy of our annual report you will see that we have listed there all of the committee structure that your session has put together there is a place there for you to get involved to use your gifts and talents you don't have to be in charge we just need for

you to be there to express what God has given to you what God wants you to bring to this church and to life and then pray talk to God let's let God fill us with the hope and the joy and the purpose that we are all looking for my friends will you join me in a prayer let us pray Lord God we thank you for for giving us numerous opportunities to reboot Our Lives to get them back on track so that we might become the people that you created us to be and become the church that you would bless.