Servant Leadership- April 6, 2025

Well, good morning. It is so good to see you all. Welcome to First Presbyterian Church of Mount Dora. I'm so thrilled to see all of you who have been here regularly and also to welcome some of you who are visiting with us and those of you joining us on Facebook or YouTube. It is wonderful to be in the house of the Lord together. I hope that you have taken a moment to look at the announcements on the back of your bulletin. You can also find

announcements on our church website. Um, I in particular want to draw to your attention that this afternoon you will want to come back to the church at 4 o'clock as we will have our spring concert. And I have heard all about it and it sounds like it's going to be amazing. So, you will not want to miss it. So, please make sure that you are here at 4:00 this afternoon for our spring concert. And of course, we have many other things going on in the life of the church. And uh Jan Cobb has something that she's going to come up

here and share with us in just a moment. I would like to begin by mentioning to you while Jan comes on up that we have a I won't let you sit down, Jan. If you look in your pews, you will notice that there is a red friendship pad. If you will, please sign the pad and pass it down the row so that everyone gets a chance to register their attendance with us and make sure that we have the latest information, latest email addresses, phone numbers, and so forth so that we can keep you apprised of what's going on

here at First Presbyterian Church. Jan, you're up here. What do you have to say? Hi everyone. I'm Jan Cole and um I'm up here representing Presbyterian Women and one of our mission drives. Um, we actually sell flowers. If you remember, we did poinsettas at Christmas time and then every spring at Easter time, we sell the Easter liies that decorate the church so beautifully. Um, that money, every every penny of it actually goes toward the missions that we support. And so today, what I'm trying to do today is

to get you to take a look at your back of your bulletin. And on the back, you're going to see in the very far corner there's an advertisement um or a notice about selling and buying of flowers. You'll see that there's a QR code on there. I think everybody by now probably knows what a QR code is because everybody has one of these little pieces that you carry around with you all the time and every once in a while they ring during the service. And um last Sunday I talked to the first service about actually

completing um doing your order online. We're trying to do online because It's actually very much easier for us and also for the office. Um, we also have this problem when we have handwriting analysis that have to be hired to actually come handwriting. We all know that you guys are much better at dotting the eyes and crossing the te's than the first service people. But there's still this problem of taking those vowels and consonants and trying to put them together and we still can't read well. So we're asking

you to actually either go online to the giving that's in our website for the church or else just use the QR code here and actually order your flowers. This year it's liies tulips or hi and please remember to let us know who you're or memorizing and if you would like to take them home after the service or if you would like us to give them to a shut in. We really appreciate your help and it really helps the missions that the Presbyterian women are supporting this year. Thank you. Thank you so much Jan

for helping us with that. I would like to also draw to your attention that in your pew racks is a new card. It's a a Presbyterian blue card. I believe that's what we call it. Uh that lists all of the committees that your session has put together to organize the the mission of our church. And we feel quite certain that there is probably one of these committees that lights your fire that makes you think, "Wow, I could do that." I I hope that you know that your gifts, your talents that God has given to you

are needed here to be the church. So I encourage you to take a look at this and see if there isn't something on there that you feel is of interest to you and then we would love to have you participate in the life of the church by participating through one of these ministries of the church. So, and feel free to take this home with you. So, you can stick it up on your refrigerator or put it next to your your bedside so that you can remember to contact the church to participate in one of the committees

of the church. I would like to also thank our liturgist this morning who happens to be a really great guy, know him personally. I'd like to thank Michael Loyal, my husband. Thank you so much, Michael, for volunteering to be liturgists today. We are blessed to be here in the house of the Lord together. Think about it. God is here with us. And so, we may certainly worship the Lord and give God all the glory with our worship. So, I would like to begin with a prayer and I'd like to invite you to join me. So, let us pray together. Let

us pray. Oh holy God, with anticipation and expectation we gather in this place for worship. We listen for your healing word and we wait for the light which guides our lives. Open before us now the way that leads to life as you would have us live it. And teach us to follow that way no matter what the trials, no matter what the stumbling blocks. Help us to remember that you are there by the power of your Holy Spirit helping us to live out our lives no matter how difficult life may become. We thank you for this promise

and we praise your holy name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Good morning. Our call to worship is located in your bulletin and we will repeat it or recite it responsibly. God of justice and peace, bring your dazzling light into our hearts and spirits this day so that we might see the glorious opportunities we have to serve you. Help us to see that following your men to feed the hungry, bring nourishment to those who thirst, offer clothing to those in need, visit the sick and those in prison, and welcome

the stranger. Any activity of volunteering and service is an act of privilege and joy. As we represent your love to the world, we praise you for the light of your son Jesus Christ who boldly bids us to bring your love and peace to all who are in need in this world. Amen. [Music] Take me to the Lord. Great. God will help the world to give Yes. into shall [Music] we justice rolling Blessed mighty rightous to us and redee. God is holy to the world that [Music] God living the world as the words of the

earth to God Please be seated. Please join me in our prayer of confession in which we will say in unison. Merciful God, we get so caught up in our own lives and needs that we fail to see others for whom we might provide some help and relief. You challenge us to feed those who are hungry and to quench the thirst of those who are ask This is the people who are sick, alone, who are inrisoned or in conditions of hopelessness and poverty that they seek out and reach out to those who are marginalized to always bring your words

of healing and love. We have failed in these steps. We ignore the opportunity. And we treat them as us, oh God. Forgive us. heal our wounds of grief and selfishness. Let us hope the reign of Christ can be made and we can be part of his glorious kingdom of peace and compassion in Jesus name we pray. Amen. My friends, it is always a privilege to remind us that God made you. God loves you. God wants for us to have a life filled with fullness and joy and peace. And so it is always a privilege to remind each other that in Jesus Christ

we are forgiven. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. Glor to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it in the beginning is now shall be world without end. My friends, if you will now, let us join together in proclaiming what we believe with the Apostles Creed. I believe in God the Father Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontious Pilot, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The

third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into he and siteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From whence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, 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] Oh, [Music] Yes. And [Music] sing of God. [Music] Glory of God. [Music] We are [Music] redeemed. We are redeemed when we go. [Music]

in Christ receive his grace. We are redeemed just by [Music] grace. [Music] Praise God. [Music] Jesus Christ of God through his praise to all who will [Music] be sweet. I was [Music] But [Music] now I see the [Music] The sweet [Music] [Music] Thank you so much choir. It's beautiful. This this time in our service is a holy time. Holy literally means different than anything else in the world. the time when we come together and unite our hearts in prayer. Think of what we are doing. Do not diminish the significance of what we

are doing here. We dare come before the throne of Almighty God, creator of everything, our creator, and share our deepest thoughts of thanksgiving as well as prayers of request or even fear and hope. And so this is a special time. I would like to draw to your attention that we do have a special prayer concern section on the back of your bulletin in the top right corner. And of course, any of you are welcome to call the church office if you would like to add a name for this as well. And we're also thankful that Nancy

Sullivan has continued to send out our prayer chain, making us all aware of special prayer requests and needs from our congregation. as well as members of our family and our friends as well. Thank you, Nancy, for doing that. So, it is special for us to be able to hold before the Lord these our prayers and I know every one of us brought prayers with us today to this worship service and we will take time for you to offer those in silence as well. So, let us begin with the prayers of the people of God. Will you please

join me? Oh holy God, we do thank you for asking us, imploring us to come to you to share in prayer. What joy and what a privilege it is. And yet we also know that you already know every prayer of our heart before we even put it together in words. And we thank you, Lord, that your Holy Spirit searches our hearts and our minds. And Lord, we do lift up to you this day our prayers of thanksgiving. We thank you, Lord, for opportunities to be able to serve you through caring for our families, caring for our families, our

um our community, caring for those around us who are in need. And Lord, we also bring to you our prayers for those that we have read about or have seen on television. We pray in particular for those who have lost everything by the devastating tornadoes that we have seen ravage the homes and land across this nation. Be with them, Lord. Give them hope. Help them to find the peace that you are with them. bring to them the help that they need. We also continue to pray for those who have lost so much in the

earthquakes. Be with them. Lord, please comfort those who have lost their loved ones and who are fearful of what the future might hold. We pray for those who are in areas of this world experiencing war. Oh, dear God, we pray for peace. We pray that you might move the hearts of those who can make a difference in policy as well as decisions about whether to continue with war. Lord, we do thank you for being with each and every one of us. We thank you for the healing that we know has taken place in this congregation.

We pray that you will be with those who are recovering from various medical procedures. Be with them. Help them to get stronger. And be with those who continue in physical therapy. You have made our bodies amazing the way they seek to be healed and to return to strength again. Dear God, we do thank you that you have promised to be with us always and we seek to be your servants as we share the good news of your love with those around us. We thank you, Lord, that that Gloria Gray has experienced such joy as she

heard about a special fundraiser in honor of her daughter, Amanda, that they wave that they raised $135,000 for charity. Lord, we thank you for this, Lord God. We also pray that you will be with those who are your new disciples. We pray, Lord, for Carter that you will be with her as she is being baptized this day. We pray that we will take responsibility as you have asked us to to care for the smallest, the least, the youngest of these who are just being introduced to your love and your gospel message.

May we always reach out to those around us who are new disciples, whether they are children or whether they are fully grown adults. We thank you for this privilege we have in serving you in this your kingdom, Lord. For we pray all of this because we are so privileged to do so as our Lord and Savior taught us 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, we know that the world All it contains belongs to the Lord our God. And so it is once again our privilege to choose what of God's blessings that we have received, our time, our talent, and our treasure to return to the Lord's service. So at this time, I would like to invite our ushers to please come forward for the collection of our tithes and offerings.

[Music] [Music] How beautiful that served the wine and the bread and the sons of the Earth. How beautiful the feet that walked the long dusty road and the hill to the cross. How beautiful. How beautiful. How beautiful is the body of Christ. [Music] How beautiful the heart that bled that took all my sin and bore it instead. How beautiful the tender eyes that chose to forive and never despise. How [Music] beautiful. How beautiful. How beautiful. How beautiful is the body of Christ. And as he laid down his

life, we offer this sacriice that we will live just as he died. Willing to pay the price. willing to pay the price. How beautiful the rad waits for her groom with a light in her eyes. How beautiful humble hearts give the fruit of your lives so that others may live may live. How beautiful the fear that bring the sound of good news and the love of the king. How beautiful the hands that serve. the wine and the bread and the sons of the earth. How beautiful [Music] How beautiful. How beautiful. How

beautiful. Oh, how beautiful. How beautiful, beautiful is the body of Christ. [Applause] Praise the moon of blessings. Praise him all creatures. Praise him. Praise father, son, and holy ghost. Will you please join me in a prayer of dedication? Let us pray. Oh, holy God, we do thank you for the opportunity to be able to return to you these our tithes and our offerings. And we do pray, Lord, that they will be used in service to your kingdom, that they might care for the least of these, that they might be used to continue to

build what you are bringing to us in this part of the world, that we might serve you and serve others as well. We thank you, dear Lord, and we pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. This morning's scripture lesson is taken from the Gospel according to Matthew. Matthew 25:es 31- 46. The uh Bible page numbers are listed in your bulletin if you would like to open them in our brand new Pew Bibles. So, please feel free to do so. You may follow along silently as I read aloud. Hear now the word of the

Lord. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him. And he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, "Come you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me

something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in? or needing clothes and clothe you. When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The king will

reply, truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. Then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in. I needed clothes and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. They also will

answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you? He will reply, "Truly I tell you, whoever did not do this for one of the least of these, they did not do it for me." Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal 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 of preparation, please?

Lord, we do thank you for these ancient, beautiful words preserved even for our hearing here at this time in history in this church. We thank you, Lord, for this. And now, Lord, I do pray that the words of my mouth and that the meditations of each of our hearts and our minds will be acceptable in your sight. Speak to us now, Lord, for it is in Christ's name we pray these things. Amen. Well, from the time we are very little bitties, we learn how to sort things. If you think about a baby's toys, oftentimes they are multi- bright

colored blocks and shapes. And we encourage these children to learn how to place them into categories. I remember when I was a little girl, I had a bag of marbles and I loved to feel how they would feel when I would shake the bag. And then I would dump the marbles out on my bed and I would start to separate them by color. And I would pull all of the green and the purple ones, my favorite colors, over to the side and put the colors I didn't like so much, over here. From the earliest stages, we learn

how to separate things. I remember when our children were young. You may remember the show, the PBS show Sesame Street. It still is on. And I remember if if you watched it, you probably learned the little jingles that each of the characters would sing. The one that stuck with me was one of these things is not like the others. One of these things doesn't belong. Can you tell which thing is not like the other by the time we finish this song? And then our children would say that one. That one right

there. Think about it. Matching and recognizing differences is all about of human learning to categorize to put things together, to put concepts together, to begin the process of critical thinking that becomes so important for us as we grow into adulthood. Human learning is the process of acquiring this kind of knowledge and skills through the experiences that we have through observation and interaction with other people. Now, very different than machine learning or as we're learning so much about

AI, it is very different because those use algorithms. They they do not really learn but they take data and they make predictions from what they are given through that data so that they might operate within the boundaries that are set for the machine. What makes us unique and human is that as we learned in the beginning and literally the beginning if you go to Genesis chapter 1:27 we are told so God created mankind in his own image in the image of God. He created them male and female. He created

them. You see, our very very human, uniquely human capacity to create something new comes from the one who created us, that we were given this special ability. And with that ability, we have been given the gifts of empathy, caring for someone else in their situation. Maybe not experiencing it exactly, but having empathy for what they are going through and wanting to help in whatever way we possibly can. This is called emotional intelligence. Now many of us are aware of IQ being so important, the ability to

learn. But with IQ, we also as human creatures have EQ, emotional intelligence. That's what separates us from the machine that we take this God-given gift of self-determination and decide to care for somebody else. this ability to to critically think about how I might take what I have been given and make someone else's life better. In our scripture this morning, we talk about separation. We separate God from the devil or Satan or evil. We separate good from evil. We separate black from white. We separate the Florida Gators from the

Houston Cougars. I thought I would get more of a response out of that one. When you think about it, we all separate things in our life every single day. In verse 32, we read, "Then all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, which do you think you are? What is the difference between a sheep and a goat? in our flock in this church. What is the distinguishing factor? If there was a flock of sheep or goats here in this room, could you

separate who belongs in which of those groups? How would you decide which was which? What criteria would you use? Well, I think probably the most obvious criteria that we use in the world is the criteria of appearance, right? I mean, think about it. People have made a lot of money on on courses and consulting and writing books. I think about uh dress for success. If you want that job, that important job, that highpaying job, then you better look the part. It's about appearances. We see obvious appearances,

uh, male and female. We see appearances of a rich person versus a poor person. And certainly, we see differences of appearance by nationalities that are evident to us. We tend to base a lot of the decisions we make, don't we? Based on appearances, but Jesus doesn't distinguish between the sheep and the goats in this way. What Jesus uses is a criteria for whether you are sheep or goats. perhaps very similar to what we would use for whether someone is our friend or our [Music] enemy. Let's think about that a minute.

What what is your criteria for if someone is considered a friend for you? It's usually do you like them and do they like me? Are they fun and enjoyable to be around? Is it a good thing to have them around? Now, the enemy usually is someone that is not good to have around, that we're either fearful of their presence or it just does nothing for me. These kinds of criteria are human criteria. How we recognize someone as a friend or an enemy. And yet Jesus turns that on its head as well. When Jesus says, "Love your

friends," and the world says, "Hate your enemies." But I say, "Love your friends and love your enemies." We see right from the very beginning that Jesus is turning things around and on their heads from the way the world would have us think. In this world, we learn that if you do this kind of behavior, expect to get that kind of result. But Jesus is telling us that according to God's kingdom, it is totally different than that. Jesus criteria he lays out for us in this scripture. And I would like for

you as I read it, I'd like for you to take a look at the cover of your bulletin today because there was a lot of thought and effort that went into choosing the pictures on your bulletin cover. I hope that you recognize some of the people in these pictures. These are pictures of members of our congregation or friends of our congregation who have done things in our congregation and outside of our congregation. And I'd like for you to look at that as I read to you Jesus criteria for being separated sheep from goat.

Truly I tell you, those who knew I was hungry and gave me food, those who knew I was thirsty and gave me drink, those who welcomed me into their home, those who came to visit me when I was sick or visited me in prison or jail. As often as you do this to the least of these, you have done it to me as well. The criteria, you see, for determining the difference between a sheep or a goat is not what school you went to or how much money you have. It is how you treat the other. Now, if you can do it kind of in a sly sort of way.

I know it's hard with pews, but sort of look over your shoulder at the others around you here because we are asked to care for the others. Of course, you all can look right at the choir, these others behind me as they can look out at you as you are others for them. We have others all around us in our families as well as our church in our communities. There are others everywhere. Now when I was well several years ago I decided to go back to school to get my PhD in leadership. And while I was in my coursework, some

of the first things you learn are the predominant theories of who is and what makes a leader. And I thought I would share these with you because it has something played out in our scripture today. First of all, there are five basic theories of who is a leader. The first one is the great man theory of leadership. Sorry ladies, we were left out of this one. This one originated in the 1800s and the idea was that a leader is born to be a great man leader and that whoever they are leading will recognize

that leadership in them. But this particular form of leadership kind of fell by the wayside as we started to learn that the other kinds of leadership theories come into play such as what leadership traits we need in our leader and that these kind of traits can be trained. They can be something that someone acquires into their leadership. And for those of you who have been asked to be a leader of a committee or or whatever a club and you kind of approached it with trepidation, I think this gives you encouragement

because the other theories that follow are that you can learn to be a leader. Everyone can learn leadership skills. The kinds of leadership skills that really do matter. the behavior that a leader carries with them to lead others in the way that they need for them to go. The leadership theory though that was predominant especially while I was in school and I believe still is one of the most uh welcoming and comforting forms of leadership is called transformational leadership. As I learned about transformational

leadership, it was the leader who recognizes the abilities, we say gifts and talents in the church, but the abilities of the people that they are leading and they seek to make them the very best employee or whatever their particular skill set is to bring that out in them. And I thought, of course, that's first Corinthians 13. It is the whole model of love that you see people with God's eyes and love them into being the very best that they can be. Transformational leadership is all about this. And one of the theories that came

out of transformational leadership was called servant leadership. Robert Greenleaf in the 1970s showed that servant leaders were able to bring about the very best results from the people that they were leading because they cared about them and they were right there serving them as their leader. Servant leadership is that crazy form of leadership that Jesus was modeling for us throughout the New Testament as he was leading his disciples and teaching us that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. That Jesus turned

everything upside down, turned it onto its head. that we are to serve one another. And certainly, didn't Jesus model this for us? There is a verse in John that I think really brings this home to us, his disciples. John 13:12-17. when Jesus was with his disciples and he did something very strange. He got down, he took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, took a bowl of water, and washed his disciples feet. And he said when he had finished washing their feet, he put his clothes on and returned to his

place and said, "Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am." Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. In the church, we have many symbols of

what God wishes for us to do and how we should live. But the one that I feel most represents this message is this little stole. Of course, we we wear colors for the lurggical season. We are in Lent, so I'm wearing purple, which is the color of Lent. But you will see pastors wearing these stoalls. And it's not just to make them look pretty. It is because this represents the towel that Jesus took off, wrapped around his waist, knelt down in front of his people, and washed their feet. This stole is to remind me and you

that this is what we are all about. We are to serve one another just as Jesus served us. And the most important thing for us to remember is as often as we do this, even to the least of these, we do so to our Lord. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. Will you join me in a prayer? Lord God, we do thank you for reminding us of how you would have us live in this world, knowing very well that the world looks at us strangely because your ways are not our ways, not the world's ways. But we do pray that each of us here will

listen to your Holy Spirit guiding us, helping us, showing us the opportunities that we have in this life to serve the least of these around us. We thank you for this and we pray all of this in Christ's holy name. Amen. [Music] to be our Christ to you. We are We are together on the road. We are here to help each other. I will hold the price for you. I will hold my hand to I will with you. I will share [Music] your sing together. My name to you. [Music] Well, now it begins. Now we once again have that opportunity to take what we

have heard this day by the power of the Holy Spirit out into the world to change the world to make a difference to show God's love to everyone that we meet. Let us go now in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.