What God Starts Is Finished-June 29, 2025

Question

Transcript

Accepted Answer

heat heat

do

you

heat heat

[Music]

good morning my name is Cindy Scott and I will be serving as your liturgist this morning i

would like to welcome you all to the First Presbyterian Church of Mount Dora on this beautiful and yes hot humid

summer Sunday morning we are indeed blessed to be in the house of the Lord

and in the air conditioning it is my pleasure to welcome to the pulpit Reverend Linda Jberg

reverend Jabberg's biography and journey of faith are printed in your bulletin

reverend JB welcome back and thank you so much for being here please take a moment to sign the red

friendship pad located along the center aisle and pass it on so that we may greet one another in Christian love when

we later share in the peace of Christ but before we do that I'd like your

attention to the events listed on the back of your bulletin i hope that you will make plans

to attend and receive the blessings of all the many ministries and activities

that the church has to offer randy would you like to say something

about the special event this afternoon so this afternoon we have a patriotic

concert uh with the help of John Low on drums Casey Cox Janelle Woodyard and

Rick Vale singers if you don't like music come for the ice cream i have

churned 10 gallons true

thank you Randy also following this service please join in the fellowship in Barry Hall which

will be hosted by the mission committee and I know the refreshments will be delicious

and now let's take a moment to share in the peace of Christ by greeting one another with peace be with you and

responding and also with you

please be seated and join me in the responsive reading of

the call to worship that is printed in your bulletin

give thanks to the Lord

god's love and mercy are given daily for each of us

praise be to God who deals so kindly with us

amen [Music]

heat

sing glory to the king of God

who holy strength

Hallelujah hallelujah

[Music]

god of praise and glory hallelu

hallelu hallelu

[Music]

hallelu hallelu

the world cannot contain

it hallelu

Hallelu hallelu

hallelu hallelu

body of bodies wild and free

power in power

hallelu Hallelu

strong and fire still chanted by the temple choir

hallelu hallelu

hallelujah

may the forever

hallelu hallelu

people [Applause] sing praise to God

hallelu hallelu

hallelujah [Music]

[Applause] please be seated

and let's say together the prayer of confession that is printed in your bulletin

forgiving Lord we are such jealous people

we want to make sure that we get

what we deserve

that we are always treated yet we complain when we treat others who

have not worked as hard or as faithful with such love just like in the lesson

we want to know why

you are with us after all we

are merciful and compassionate we do not Count the time but the heart forgive us

Lord when we have been so petty about your love heal and restore us help us

reach out with love and hope to others in the name of Jesus Christ amen

who's it

do I have your attention this is a good time to pay attention

because who's in a position here this morning to judge us or to condemn us

i don't know about you but I can't do that none of us can do that the only one that could do that would be the one that

lived a perfect life the one who was sinless the one who at this very hour

prays for us the one who lived for us the one who died for us the one who reigns in glory now and forever it is

our Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus said "You are forgiven." Believe that and go

in the confidence of God's love and be sure to spread that same forgiveness to

one another amen

glor to the Son and to the Holy

Ghost as it in the beginning

is now and ever shall be

world without end amen

amen

stop by Lord stop by

somebody needs one touch from you Lord

oh stop by lord stop by

stop by Lord stop by

somebody needs one touch from you Lord

stop by Lord

i need thee oh I need thee

i need thee Jesus i'm with thee

somebody needs one touch from you Lord

stop by

somebody needs one touch from you Lord

stop

i need thee oh I need thee

i need thee Jesus i need thee

i've got problems that I cannot solve

stop by Lord stop

stop by Lord stop by

somebody needs one touch from you Lord oh stop

oh stop oh stop oh stop

oh stop by oh stop by oh stop by oh stop

by oh stop by now oh stop by now oh stop

by now oh stop by now somebody needs one touch from you Lord

oh stop by lord stop by

[Music]

thank you thank you thank you

well last when was it two months ago when I was here I made you get out of your comfort zone

and I'm probably going to do that today too sorry so what are your joys and

concerns this morning um that means you have to actually open your mouth and

speak i know it might be a stretch but I know

you can do it because I talked to you before the service began what are your joys and concerns this morning so that

we can pray together choir help me out yes thank you

wow congratulations

he's in the choir so you're a choir widowerower yeah

joys or concerns choir yeah

church thankful for your church family

fantastic yes okay and your husband's first name

jean

anything else war

i assume you'd like it to stop

okay just wanted to clarifying there not have to

put a point on it but yeah anyone yes

thank you

absolutely now that first hymn was marvelous randy

choir you did a great job i was hoping for a little more drum but that's okay

particularly that verse that talked about being wild i was just waiting for you to just you know go look but I but

you people some of you were smiling and others were just dower like you woke up

not only on the wrong side of the bed but maybe in the wrong house i don't know but you look sad

next time I come Randy I'm not going to let him get away with that is that all right we may have to sing a verse over

again just saying okay other joys and concern yes sir

and his first name roger

anyone else yes all right fantastic

anyone else we're going to pray and I'm going to give you an opportunity to pray in

silence so if you've not been silent through the whole week it might seem a little

anxious but just breathe deeply you'll get over it and we're just going to pray

silently before God hear us Lord Jesus as we pray

lord Jesus we thank you for this holy place

we thank you for friends that love us and forgive us and put up with us

we thank you for music that stirs and encourages us for praise and worship

we thank you for special celebrations of anniversaries and births

and we also pray this morning for Jean we ask Lord that you would use the

medical community to bring him health and wholeness

may he make any lifestyle changes that he might need to make in order to

maintain health and grant those around him patience

and encouragement we pray for Roger and for others maybe

even here this morning who have lost a loved one we know there's no timetable on grief

and so we ask that you would hold the hearts of those who have experienced

deep loss we pray Lord Jesus that your comfort

would ease them through the hard hard times of sorrow

and Lord we pray for our world we pray Lord maybe even for our own

families and our community that experiences conflict

lord I pray you know Lord I pray continually that the voices of discord

the voices of violence the voices of hate the voices of bigotry that those

voices would be just simply background noise

and the voices of peace and common sense the voices that say we can coexist

the voices that say we need to respect one another even in our differences lord that those voices may be heard loud and

clear and revered in the common areas of our world

we pray all of this Lord Jesus in your name even as we pray the prayer that you taught us to pray 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 trespasses as

we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but

deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory

forever and ever amen i'd like to invite now our moment for

mission speaker to come forward and I apologize this the Lord's prayer

was for the you that are former Catholics and Methodist this morning

and Episcopalian good morning i'm Elizabeth Long and I'm

the chair of the mission committee and on behalf of the mission committee I want to thank all of you who have

brought peanut butter and jelly and other kid-friendly foods to our food

drive uh it really helps we we take it to Lake Cares and Agape Ministries and

they have special food ministries to the children who are out of school now and

no longer get free lunches or even free breakfastes so it helps with them a lot so thank you so much for for bringing

that uh and it's not too late actually you have one more day you could bring it in tomorrow if you'd like um and I also

want to thank John Sullivan Ron Hannah and LOLer they have uh they will be

taking these supplies to Lake Agopy for us and they have done it many many many

times before taking the things from our food drives um and so that brings up

that uh I would like very much to have some more folks help take stuff to Lake

Cares and Agape and Open Door you never have to drive any farther than Eustace

all of our ministries are within Mount Door and Eustace that we deliver supplies to so if anybody here would be

interested in serving the Lord and helping out our church that way please talk to me or if you can't catch me you

can call the office talk to Brenda when she's here and they'll get the word to me that you would be willing to help

with that and speaking of future drives we have another one coming up starting the day

after tomorrow school supplies we like to collect school supplies that we take

to uh Treadway Elementary most of those kids there are

underprivileged on free lunch and all that sort of thing and a lot of times they don't have supplies and so the

teachers end up having to buy notebooks and crayons and things for their kids in their class so if you uh I think the

list was in the newsletter and I'll probably get something in the bulletin soon about what we would like to collect

for the school supplies drive and I hope I said everything I was going to say i'm sorry I didn't have any little jokes

like my cousin Cindy Scott i should have I should have That's a great plus i'm

gonna do that next time thank you very much

will the ushers please come forward as we prepare to be generous and give our

thanksgiving to God through our offering

oh Lord my God when I in awome wonder

consider all the worlds thy hands have

made i see the stars

i hear the rolling thunder thy power throughout

the universe display

blessings my soul my savior God to thee

how great thou art how great thou art

and sings my soul my Savior God to thee

how great thou art how great thou art

and through the woods and forest plains I wonder

and hear the birds sing sweetly in the

trees when I look down from lofty mountain

grandeur and hear the brook

and feel the gentle breeze then sings my soul

myior God to thee how great thou art

how great thou art then sings my soul

my Savior God to thee how great thou art

how great thou art and when I think

that God his son not sparing sent him to die

I scarce can take it in

that on the cross my burden gladly bearing

he led and died to take away my sin

then sings my soul my Savior God to thee

how great thou art how great thou art

then sings my soul my Savior God to thee

how great thou art how great thou art

in Christ shall come

lift out and take me home

what joy shall fill my heart

then I shall bow in humble adoration

and their proclaim my God how great thou art

and sing my soul my Savior God thee

how great thou art how great thou art

and sings my soul my Savior God to thee

how great thou art how great th

How great thou are

[Applause]

praise God bless

praise him all

praise him above the host

praise the father son holy Ghost

lord Jesus we bring these gifts to you we leave them with you there are no strings attached

we give them to you for your glory here in First Presbyterian Church here in Mount Dora here in the greater area of

Florida here in the world use them to point people to your son Jesus and all

God's people said "Amen

now I hope I haven't forgotten anything have I forgotten anything Randy are we on track okay

i have a story that I want to tell you and I all week I try to figure out how

it fit into the sermon and I couldn't figure it out but I want

to tell you the story anyway and so at the end of the service if you tell me how it fits in let me know okay if you

can figure that out so apparently in Montana there are golf courses on

stateowned property and so the the state of Montana put out

a little pamphlet for golfers golfing on state lands and it it it talks about

what happens if you encounter a bear on the golf course and it gives three great

suggestions that you've got bears here don't you

yeah so I mean this is very

evident for all of us here even in Florida so the first thing is that um

golfers should wear noise producing devices like little bells on their

clothing so that it warns bears that you are there and therefore they can ignore

you and and leave you but nothing loud so that it's startling okay little bells

okay sewed on all right you got that the second thing is always carry pepper

spray or bear spray always carry that in case you do encounter a bear i think

that that's pretty good but the third thing I hadn't thought of before and that is to watch for signs of bear

activity such as being able to recognize the difference between black bear and

grizzly bear droppings because if you see and I'm trying to be

nice here okay droppings if you see you know what I'm talking about right okay

so if you see those on the golf course you know there's been a bear there so it's good to know the difference between

black bear and grizzly bear dropping so black bear droppings are smaller that's

important to know and they contain berries and they sometimes contain

squirrel fur fur okay grizzly bear droppings contain bells

and they smell like pepper spray

i just I thought that was important for you all to know that this

all right i should have saved that Tom for the middle of the sermon but I couldn't figure out where to put it

so I do before I read the scripture text I do have a question for you and I've already prompted the choir what have you

ever started that you weren't able to finish

the laundry my jokes for this afternoon's concert

oh gee well you know what we're old we won't remember you can do it again they'll go

"Oh that was a great joke never heard that one before." Anything else you've never

started

you start Oh

anybody else started sewing something never got Yeah yeah

anybody else

i knew I could count on you guys i knew it i just knew it how about any of you

you ever started something that you weren't able to finish no

because they're all good

piano lessons yeah

they should pay you extra money Randy for being funny i think so yeah

your sermon do I hear an amen

all right i need your help for this sermon when I go like this and don't knock my wonderful fan over when I go

like this I want you to say back to me "What God starts God finishes."

What God starts God finishes

what God starts God finishes

all right you got it so now we turn to Philippians

um the first chapter um verses 1- 11 it's in your Pew Bible

page 1671 paul writes

"Paul and Timothy servants of Christ Jesus to all God's holy people in Christ

Jesus at Philippi together with the overseers and deacons grace and peace to

you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ i thank my God every time I

remember you and all my prayers for all of you i always pray with joy because of

your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now being confident of

this that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until

the day of Christ Jesus

paul didn't say that but you know that was a paraphrase it is right for me to feel this way

about all of you since I have you in my heart and whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel all

of you share in God's grace with me god can testify how long for all of you how

I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus and this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more

in knowledge and in depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is

best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit

of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of

God

god said "Let there be light." And there was light god said in the Old

Testament "A virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son." And hundreds of years later Jesus is born to the Virgin

Mary jesus told his disciples to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit and on the

day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended on all 120

what were Jesus' last words on the cross it is finished it is finished the work

of atonement the work to redeem the humankind from sin it was completed on

the cross what God started God finishes so what has God started in you

what has God started to do in you when you first said yes to God's offer of his

love and grace what has he started in you he has started to redeem you he has

started to restore you back to your original specifications

he's um started in you even as you have lost love and affection in your life

even as if you maybe had a lack of emotional support as a young child

maybe even um the no one here has a narcissistic personality i'm just

absolutely sure of it but um you may know somebody

even if you have narcissistic personality traits low self-esteem shame over something

that you have done in the past and you've never forgiven yourself for

um unhealthy need for other people's approval maybe it's abuse that you have suffered

either physical sexual or emotional or sometimes financial abuse sometimes

vocational abuse whatever you have in your past God is in

the process of healing those things if sometimes you feel lost in your

brokenness remember this promise god promises

to restore us or set us back to our original specifications to the image of

God he promises to do that and what God starts God finishes

he promises to redeem and restore us he promises in all of our brokenness to

replace it with the character of God he promises that patience and

perseverance and joy and self-control and gentleness kindness faithfulness and love the light he's promised us a life

that will glorify God and will bring joy to us

that's what he promises now sometimes that promise is like working on a jigsaw

puzzle sometimes the picture wins and we begin to see little faint images come

together as we put colors together in the jigsaw puzzle where I live there's probably a jigsaw puzzle going on every

floor of the building I live on and sometimes

it's just a bunch of blue sky and people are working three or four people work on this thing sometimes the sky wins

sometimes the puzzle wins sometimes you're just left with bewilderment and frustration but God

promises to finish the puzzle

paul says later in the book of Philippians chapter 2:13 "For it is God who works in you to will and to act

according to his good pleasure." What God starts God always finishes

so how how does God do that work in us how does that transformation happen with

us within us what how does God finish the work that he starts in us when we

come to him and say "Yes I accept your offer of grace and forgiveness."

I think it's right there in those first 10 verses of Philippians prayer duh

prayer is a way that God transforms us it's an open door between us and God

it's like walking into a cavern and but most of the time we only walk like three

or four steps into that cavern where there's still light behind us um and it's it's called simple prayer and it's

not meant to uh imply any lack lack of quality in prayer but simple prayer is

Lord bless Uncle Joe's big toe because he's got gout simple prayer or Lord

bless I'm sorry I apologize for this but Lord bless the Steelers

you know I'm sorry amen I got an amen yeah so simple prayer

is where we ask God for things we ask God for things and that's perfectly fine

but it's only walking a few feet into that cavern of prayer what God wants us

to do is to go beyond simple prayer and start praying transformational prayers

we have a new resident her name is Bonnie at Westminster Winter Park bonnie

is legally blind she's hard of hearing but her hearing aids work and she's lost

taste and smell i mean talk about one's life suddenly getting very small and yet

Bonnie is probably the most positive joyful person that I've met at Westminster Winter Park so Bonnie said

to me early on as we were getting acquainted I've learned to say yes to God before he asks the question

saying yes to God before God asks the question that's transformational prayer

that's walking into that cavern deeper into the presence of God transformational prayer would be instead

of saying "Lord my boss is horrendous please get him another job

that's an honest prayer but a transformational prayer would be Lord help me look at my boss in a

different light teach me how to pray for my boss teach me how to change so that I can

accommodate and be more respectful to a boss that's not very respectful to me do

you see the difference um simple prayer would be Lord I need a parking space close to the store

transformational prayer would be Lord thank you that I can walk and that

you're giving me some exercise today to walk further to the store and thank you that somebody else has that closer

parking space and I don't have to be um Kathy Bates in fried green tomatoes when

she rams into the car that took her parking space yeah transformational prayer changes us

um

I'm I'm looking through somewhat of a fog today not only normal fog but I had

some eye minor eye surgery and so my eyes were a little puffy and and I wear these purple glasses to hide the purple

and the yellow that is all around my um raccoon eyes this morning

so yes prayer transforms us transformational prayer transforms us

walking deeper into that cavern of a relationship with Christ but the second thing and just rest easy this is only a

two-point sermon okay so I'm not going to go to six points so you're good to go here the second thing that this

scripture text tells us about the ways that God finishes the work in us is

through the church through the church um Paul starts this letter off to the

saints to the elders to the deacons the congregation that assembles and works

together in the city of Philippi uh Paul if you read the book of Acts and

any of his letters Paul almost always traveled with other Christians i only

know of one instance where Paul traveled by himself usually Timothy Silas Luke

somebody is with him as he journeys from one city and one area of the

Mediterranean to another the the church is an incredible force

of transformation just a little history right now in the first century there were incredible

boundaries to friendships amongst people in the first century there would have

been race that would have been a dividing point u social status would have been a dividing point for people uh

wealth or lack of it was a huge dividing point education culture Romans Grec

Grecians I mean um huge difference there religion do you remember what a a Jewish

man would pray twice a day morning and night he would pray adamantly "Thank God

I'm not a gentile a slave or a woman." That was his prayer twice a day that

tells you a lot about the divisions in the life of this first century church

there was no no social force in the ancient world that bridged the gaps

between those differences none whatsoever christianity was the only

social force that bridged those gaps think about the church at Philippi it

was made up of Lydia who was a wealthy businesswoman it was made up of a a woman who was

enslaved by businessmen who exploited her demon possession for their own

financial gain it was made up of a bluecollar jailer and his entire

household that's what made up the early church it just divided it just brought divisions of culture divisions of social

standing it just brought all of those things together under the lordship of Jesus Christ the church one Lord one

salvation one baptism a pagan wrote a a pagan historian in the first century

wrote "Behold how these Christians love one another." Maybe that's the

application for the um bear dung

what is the evidence that there are Christians on the golf course

they love one another the church and today's barriers we've

got Democrats of all kind democrats aren't even agreeing with each other republicans are not agreeing with each

other we've got um libertarians we've got independents we've got the Green Party and there's a whole bunch of

others that are probably popped up and around and they can't agree with one another we've got all of that happening

we've got the division of race in our country we've got the division of of anybody here have Native American in

their background anybody Native American that's the only guy that can say that

his ancestors have always lived here the rest of us all came by relatives

migrating here from other parts of the world and yet culture and where we were

born and where our parents were born continues to be a source of polarization

and division what social force can bind all of those things together it is the

church it is the church under one Lord one baptism

so how does God use the church to transform us he uses it to bring us unity it bring us loyalty and it uses

uses the church to demonstrate sacrificial compassion we find support for one another irregardless of our race

or where we were born irregardless of who we are or where we came from it

supports us it encourages us it offers forgiveness we are a people of

compassion we are Jesus to each other sharing our

joys multiplies them and sharing our suffering lightens the burden of those

things even in our conflicts with one another and I know no conflicts here i

know that but some churches have conflicts but even in conflicts if they're dealt

with with biblical wisdom if they're dealt with with respect and humility it can help to transform that church to be

more like Jesus so we need to get over our petty differences about colors on

walls or carpet or whatever get over our petty differences i had someone come to me complain once because I was putting

bullets in the bulletin to to distinguish one thing from another

she didn't like that so she needed to make sure I knew that she didn't like that we need to get over these petty

differences we need to open our arms to strangers we need to invite other people to sit in

your pew now listen to me here okay i mean you

can cancel I'm supposed to come back next month you can cancel that if you want after this okay i'm just saying i

mean it could be i have a feeling that you know when Jesus went into the temple

and he overturned the money changers tables you know that that wasn't just

um a quiet moment in the temple that was rancerous i mean that was violent that

was he had a whip that he fashioned and that he used it was a horrible

experience for people who are used to the temple with money changers i wonder

today not this church because you know you guys are perfect but I wonder if in

some churches if Jesus were to walk into that church would he not overturn pews

would he not overturn pews that people claim to be their own personal family

pew i've known church I've served churches where pews have been saved not

only for living family members but for dead family members

their whole family used to sit there now half of their family is no longer alive

here uh and yet they're still saving nobody can sit in that pew because Uncle

Horus used to sit there who died 27 years ago i wonder if Jesus wouldn't come in and

overturn some pews because people are treating his house as if it were their

own and not the house of God um somebody once said to me and it just

stuck "Am I willing to be uncomfortable so somebody else can be comfortable?"

Am I willing are you willing to be uncomfortable so somebody else can be comfortable

are you willing for pe for songs to be sung that you don't necessarily care for

but somebody else it might really touch their heart are you willing for that song to be sung are you willing for

drums to be in the sanctuary although you may not care i don't understand why people don't care for the drums i am in

love with drums but anyway but other people really feel that it brings them

closer to God are you willing to be uncomfortable so somebody else can be comfortable

that's the church that transforms people so we need to listen to each other really listen particularly in our

differences we need to pray for each other not just Lord you know bless everybody so they

would have the same opinion about this that I have but Lord change me that I might be more

respectful in my dialogue with others find common areas even in the midst of

conflict common areas where you can build a nest and say "Yes we disagree on this but we agree here." And let's dwell

there for a while where we agree you know comfort is not the main goal of

the church that may surprise you but comfort is not the main goal of the church

transformation is the main goal of the church are we being transformed are we

different today than the day that we first welcomed Jesus into our life how

are we being changed that's the goal of the church

what God starts and one thing that you need to remember

is that not only is he changing you but he's also changing other people maybe

not the same way as he's changing you maybe not at the same time maybe not in the same season of their life but God is

working to change all of us into a person that is more like Jesus Christ so

how is God completing his work amongst us he does it through prayer he does it through the church us being Jesus to one

another so if you get discouraged in your failures if you get discouraged in your

brokenness or you get discouraged with somebody else's brokenness remember this

god who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion even if it takes a lifetime because what God starts

God finishes and you better sing this next hymn with a smile on your face

[Music]

heat up here

happy

joy to

My heart all

Jesus

oh my god [Music] [Applause]

in trous

[Music]

take away our soul

and the great

[Applause]

mighty

and I glory

to God

and my heart

and praise the Heat heat heat

listen

to these words wherever we go God is sending us wherever we are God put us

there for a purpose christ who indwells us has something he wants to do through

us wherever we are and be confident of this that he who began a good work in

you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus

what God starts God finishes and all God's people said "Amen