The Temple of God- February 23, 2025

I'd like to begin my message this morning with a little riddle there once was a perfect man who met a perfect woman and after a perfect courtship they had a perfect wedding and their life was together of course perfect until one snowy Christmas Eve when this perfect couple were driving down a Winding Road and noticed someone at the road was in distress being the perfect couple they stopped to help there stood Santa Claus and with a huge bundle of toys needing to be delivered to all of those waiting

children and so as a perfect couple they volunteered to share their perfect time to deliver these toys to all these children but as they were driving off there was a horrible accident and two of them were killed only one remained can you tell me who you think survived this horrible accident well the question can be answered Santa Claus of course because there is no such thing as a perfect man or a perfect woman okay come on now you all believe in Santa Claus I see the truth is the truth is that there

really is no such thing as a perfect man or a perfect woman or a perfect church or a perfect family because as I mentioned earlier and the Apostle Paul informed us all in his letter to the Church of Rome we all sin and fall short short of God's expectations of us it is amazing how God continues to work with us work within us to help us to become more the people that God intended for us to be as I mentioned Corinth was a corrupt city filled with all kinds of Temptations perhaps just as many as The

Temptations that all of us are filled with and encounter in our everyday lives even today even especially now that we have access to all of the information via the Internet and Via television and all of our streaming devices and every single device we can come up with we have access to all of The Temptations that are out there I was impressed one time when I saw a story about a very well-known Pastor Rick Warren he's the the pastor of Saddleback Church Community Church in 2011 he C came out and shared with his

congregation that he had sinned against God and His temple of God his very body because he recognized that over the previous three months he had gained 90 pounds pound he knew that this was not healthy for him it was not being a good Steward of the body that he had been given and so he began to make changes and he did this publicly with all of this huge congregation that he has not only in California but it's broadcast all around the world he said that he gave up carbonated drinks those sugary drinks he

gave up Dairy and fast food and that he began to work out twice a day he said that many people in his congregation came to him and said we'll join you and he thought wonderful because all of the statistics say that if you want to lose weight and get in shape it's best to do it with other people who can encourage you and you encourage them and so the church began to implement what they called The Daniel Plan maybe you heard about this it became something that was known worldwide at the end of the first year

it is reported that 15,000 people had registered for the program and 250,000 were lost a success story might you say now as we are talking about spiritually rebooting Our Lives I think it's important for us to take stock of all of the gifts that God has given to us including our physical life the bodies that we have been given the minds that we have been given the relationships that we have been given in this life take stock of what God has given to you you and I are part of this we have been fully equipped by God to accomplish

what the Lord would like for us to do at this place in Mount Dora Florida at the First Presbyterian Church with all of our family of Faith here to encourage one another we are called to use our gifts and our talents now we've talked about the many Ministries here at this church these are not Ministries that those people are doing those are Ministries that we are called to do and yes we do have elders and yes we do have deacons but there not the only one that can do the ministry of this church it needs all of us and every

one of you has been given the gifts and the talents to implement what God wants to do through this church in this church now some of you may say but I don't know anything about that particular Ministry or that particular Ministry that may be so but you have interests you you have gifts you have experience and you have intelligence and you have creativity all of these being gifts from God that we can learn how to do the ministry of Christ here in this place I would encourage you to look at the list of Ministries that your church

is engaged in and if one of them seems a bit interesting come talk to me or talk to one of your elders or talk to a Deacon and say tell me about this ministry I think I might like to learn about it now if you've got experience great but if you don't if you have curiosity and interest you too can learn to do the ministries of this church as we do this spiritual reboot in our life it's important for us to realize that we all have a place in what God is doing at all ages by the way so many times I will hear I did that when I

was young and now I'm older and I just don't do that anymore well maybe so but no matter what your age God has something for you to do in the life of the church in Psalm 139 we read I Praise You Lord For I was fearfully and wonderfully made yes that is David singing his praises to God but how we can also sing those very same Praises if you think about your mind if you think about your body if you think about your life that God has given to you should we not all be praising the Lord for we are fearfully and wonderfully made so that

we might use the uniqueness that God has given to each and every one of us I I remember when I was younger I learned about the fact that snowflakes every single one of them is unique it was the most amazing reality I ever learned in my life I I grew up in St Louis Missouri and in Indiana where we had snow not Florida but we had snow and we had snow and I looked at these snow drifts and thought every one of those snowflakes is different it is unique what an amazing Miracle God creates I look out at you and I know

every one of you is different and unique that God has made you fearfully and wonderfully I look at the world and realize that every single person God created is uniquely wonderful and God made you to be his masterpiece and we my friends have been asked to be stewards of all that God has given to us stewards of our time stewards of our talents our gifts stewards of our Treasures stewards of everything that God has laid out before us now Paul wrote two letters that we have in our scripture there's also second

Corinthians and in chapter five we read therefore my friends if anyone is in Christ he or she is a new creation the old things have passed away and the new has begun we serve a lord of New Creation you and I we are in Christ Our Life Is defined by Jesus Christ that is our ident now the old has passed away but the new has begun we are reborn renewed by the Holy Spirit of almighty God living within us now there's a a story about a couple that was on a cruise ship and as they were traveling along they noticed that

the waves were getting a little bit rougher and they looked out their port window and noticed that the sky in the the distance was black and they thought oh a storm is coming and we haven't had breakfast yet let's order let us order breakfast to be delivered to our room so they called down they asked to have breakfast delivered and the steward brought it to them and they said well thank you we want to have breakfast in our room because we see that there is a storm brewing outside and we know things

are going to get rough and the steward smiled and said oh that the storm oh that's long past that's no longer around us we're beyond that now it's like sin in our life the storm is passed Jesus has paid for your sins and now you can relax and know that God is going to be with you helping you as we move on in our life as we realize that we each of us are considered to be God's Masterpiece not because of anything that we have done certainly but because God created us to be these New Creations in Christ Jesus it says so we can do the

good things that he planned for us long long ago my friends don't be afraid about a spiritual reboot you may be thinking I have done so many things that I should not have done God loves you God forgives you and you are still Christ Masterpiece so let's thank God for helping us let's thank God for coming to live within us and let's look forward to sharing in this journey together will you please say a prayer pray with me Lord God we do thank you we thank you for New Beginnings we thank you for working with

us helping us to grow and to change and to accept the Forgiveness that we all have received we thank you Lord for this and most of all we thank you for your love may we live in your love and may we be free to give it away every day for this we pray in Christ Jesus our lord amen GL my [Music] this is my story this is my PR my is my my friends I know facing an uncertain future can be frightening but it is so important that we realize that we walk this path with the Creator we walk this path with one

another and we can support each other as we live out these days glorifying God with all of our energies all of our gifts all of the talents God has given to us