Meeting God on the MountainMuskoka Lakes Ministry of Knox, Port Carling & Zion, Torrance
Sunday Feb 28, 2021
Message: Meeting God on the Mountain
Reverend Glynis Faith
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Announcements
________________________________________1) Music in the Sanctuary beginning Tuesday March 2 there will be music in the sanctuary at Knox, Port Carling, and you are invited to come out for an hour to listen, pray and rest in the Lord. This is planned for the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month, unless the public health restrictions change. Pre-registration is required by calling Edie Bard (705) 645-6748. Those registered will be notified if public health restrictions cancel the event.
2) Thursday evenings 7:30 p.m. Lectio Divina group meets via Zoom.
3) Zion is planning an in-person worship service March 14 followed by the annual meeting. More details to come.
4) Knox is planning an in-person worship service March 21 followed by the annual meeting. More details to come.
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Call to Worship
________________________________________On this 2nd Sunday in Lent we light the Christ candle to welcome the Messiah in our presence.
(light the candle saying) Lord Jesus we welcome You and we praise You.
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Prayer of Adoration & The Lord’s Prayer
________________________________________God of grace and glory, to this worried world, you reveal your presence in radiant glory and in gentle whispers, on mountain tops and in shadowed valleys, in classrooms and hospital beds, in homes and churches, in the quiet of nature and on busy streets. Yours is the presence that pushes past our fear to calm us; yours is the love that transforms our doubt with reassurance.
We enter into this time of worship to dwell in your goodness and offer you the praise you deserve.
Fill us with Your presence as we repeat the words Jesus taught us, 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. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. AMEN
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Scripture
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Psalm 22:23-31 (NKJV)
You who fear the LORD, praise Him!
All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, and fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him; but when He cried to Him, He heard.
My praise shall be of You in the great assembly;
I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.
The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek Him will praise the LORD.
Let your heart live forever!
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations shall worship before You.
For the kingdom is the LORD’s, and He rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship;
all those who go down to the dust shall bow before Him,
even he who cannot keep himself alive.
A posterity shall serve Him.
It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, they will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has done this.
Mark 9:2-10 (NIV)
After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.
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Message
“ Meeting God on the Mountain ”
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The Psalmist tells us that “those who seek God will praise the Lord.” This is a common thread throughout Scripture, if you seek God, you will find Him.
Deut 4:29 “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
(The Lord speaking through the prophet Jeremiah…)
Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
James 4:8a “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
We gather, from Scripture, that our relationship with God is our responsibility. There needs to be effort on our part. Through Christ, the veil or wall between humanity and God has been torn in two. By Christ’s sacrifice humanity’s debt has been paid. The apostle Paul tells us that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So, the only thing that can possibly stand in the way of your relationship with God is you.
Lent is a time to reflect on our relationship with God – to ponder our relationship with Jesus – to ask the Holy Spirit to show us anything hindering that relationship and to make the conscious decision to seek God or to follow our own desires. Lent is a time to take action – to seek God with all our heart.
Jesus holds out His hand and invites us to follow Him – to step forward and follow Him up the mountain – to see His glory – to see his interaction with our past and to follow Him back down the mountain with questions and confidence that He will provide you the answers you seek. Jesus holds out His hand to invite you to come up the mountain with Him and meet God.
There are three steps to a mountain hike with Jesus. 1) Accept, 2) Learn and 3) Grow.
The first step is to accept Christ’s invitation. That is the upward movement – walking with Jesus up the mountain, letting Him lead and show you the way. Listen to the invitation ‘Come, all you who are weary and burdened. Come, all you who know God a little, but want to know Him more. Come, learn from me. Come be part of the kingdom of God. Come, receive the Good News. Come!’ Each journey we take with Jesus up the mountain is different, but one thing is always the same – He is there with us, and He will reveal God to us. That is why Christ came – to reveal God to us!
Peter, James and John accepted the invite to go up the mountain with Jesus. I have no idea what they thought their journey was for, but I can say with certainty, what they experienced was NOT what they imagined they would do on that journey up the mountain with Jesus. I can also say with certainty, it is not something they would ever forget. Those are the moments that shape us – the moments that show us something profound – the moments when we see with more clarity (not perfect clarity, but with more clarity) – the aha moments. God was revealed to them on that mountain through the radiant appearance – transfiguration – transformed glorious appearance of Christ. With Jesus was Moses, through whom God gave us His Laws and Elijah the prophet. It was a moment they would NEVER forget.
The lengths God will go through to restore the broken relationship between Himself and His creation is revealed in this moment. John, James and Peter are looking at Moses, the one God called to deliver His people from slavery and bring them into covenant through His Laws. With Moses is the prophet Elijah, declaring God’s word and calling the people to repent and turn back to God, while at the same time pointing to, the One who would come to save them. With Moses and Elijah is Jesus, only Jesus’ appearance is breathtaking and difficult for the disciples to describe. John’s Gospel best describes what they saw, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The disciples see the past, present and future in this moment and they are terrified and confused. Who wouldn’t be? The journey with Jesus up the mountain is about seeking and seeking can sometimes be terrifying – facing the unknown – addressing a fear – looking for answers, but maybe not wanting to hear them. Sometimes we already know the answer in our heart, but we need to have it confirmed.
The second step is about learning. This happens when you stop journeying up the mountain and set up camp. Here you sit and listen. It is a time of fellowship – speaking with Jesus and listening to what He has to say. This is a good place to address the confusion and fear. Around the campfire with Jesus, we ask questions, and we confess our fears and doubts. As we enjoy Christ’s company, we can absorb the truth He speaks to us. Some of you may be familiar with ‘soaking prayer,’ an exercise of prayerfully seeking to soak in Christ’s presence – shutting out the outside noises and responsibilities to allow yourself to listen for the voice of the One who gave His life to give you freedom from sin and life eternal.
This is an important place to be during the season of Lent. Spending time in prayer – purposefully listening – addressing sins that lessen your relationship with God and committing to seeking God’s call in your life and to honouring that call.
Some people give up something for Lent, but what if we committed something instead? What if we decided to commit 10 minutes everyday to reading Scripture and 10 minutes to prayer? What if we devoted each Lenten season to taking our Bibles in hand and climbing up the mountain with Jesus? That is something to think about!
The more time we spend journeying with Jesus, the more we understand the depths of God’s love for us and the closer our relationship becomes.
Finally, we head down the mountain. Coming down the mountain is as important as going up it. Jesus not only calls us to COME, but He calls us to GO. We come down the mountain with a little more insight and understanding than we had when we went up, but we also come down with more questions. This is a time of growth and sharing!
The disciples saw Jesus in His glory – they saw the truth before them. They trusted in Him, but were still unsure what it all meant. One day they would share what they had seen and learned to enable others to know and understand. One day they would be called to GO and share the GOOD NEWS, but on their way down, Jesus instructs them not to share this until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
Of course they had questions! What does Jesus mean by rise from the dead. Which is a funny question after they have just witnessed Jesus transformed and speaking with the great Law giver and the great prophet. But questions are good.
We come down the mountain with questions, which should send us on a mission to learn more. We also come down the mountain with new insight. As we come down the mountain we have grown a little more in our faith. We don’t yet have the pieces all put together, but we have a few more pieces placed into the puzzle.
If our mountain trek was a success, we now have grown a little, we have new insight to apply in our personal faith journey and we have something to share.
Jesus came to reveal and share God’s love with the world. With each step along our faith journey, with each trek up and down the mountain God is revealed to us with greater clarity, and we are called to share our journey of faith with others to encourage them along their mountain treks.
Friends, if you seek God with all your heart, you will find Him. If your seek God with all your heart Jesus will take you on a trek up the mountain to see what your heart desire. If you seek God with all your heart through prayer and reading His Word, the Holy Spirit will reveal to you the vastness of God’s love for you as well as anything separating you from receiving the fullness of God’s peace and joy in your life.
This is a season of reflection and repentance that leads to the fulness of God’s joy in you. My prayer for you this week, is that you will make that commitment to seek God with all your heart and open your Bible to begin the trek up whatever mountain Christ has placed before you. May this be a time of questioning, insight and growth in your life, and may the joy you find reflect the love of God to everyone around you.
Please pray with me: Nurturing and gracious God we thank you for Jesus and for the mountain treks that help us to see Your glory revealed. Lord Jesus, our Saviour, we thank you for calling us to ‘come,’ for the patience You have as we take each step in faith; up the mountain and then back down to live out our faith. Holy Spirit of the Living God we ask You to continue encouraging, challenging, enlightening and delighting us. Father, Son and Holy Spirit grant us peace, joy and love throughout this season of Lent. AMEN
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Prayers of Thanksgiving & Intercession
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God of life, God of love:
You created us and set us in relationship with each other—in families and neighbourhoods, communities and countries, cultures and nations.
We give you thanks for all the supportive relationships which bring meaning and encouragement to our lives, and have meant so much in times of isolation.
Help us contribute what we can to sustain the wellbeing of our community for all who call it home. God, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
God of our faith & our future,
there are so many pressures on homes and families today. Draw near to those who are struggling in economic difficulty and those burdened by the challenges to health and happiness this winter. Work with parents and children, freinds and next-door neighbours who face conflict their relationships to create solutions that express mutual respect and resolve tension. Help our congregation support families, whatever their size or situation, as well as people living on their own, to know your love. God, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
God of mercy and forgiveness,
You call us to live together in peace and unity. We pray for our neighbourhoods and our nation. Where people are divided and bitterness turns into resentment, show us how to work for reconciliation. As the pandemic stretches on, we pray for all those whose skill and dedication is needed to support our common life.
Wherever we can, may we offer words of encouragement and appreciation so others know much they matter to you and to us all.
God, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
Today we give thanks for our church family and for the years of worship and witness offered here. So much has changed for us over this past year and we pray you will bless our leaders who have to think carefully and creatively so congregational life continues. Guide us all with your wisdom and insight so we find ways to reach out to each other in support and friendship. Open our eyes to opportunities to reach out beyond our own fellowship as agents of your healing and hope for we offer ourselves to you in Jesus’ name, AMEN
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Commission & Benediction
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Friends, open up your Bible and begin the next trek up the mountain with Jesus. And as you come down the mountain . . .
May the hand of God uphold you, the life of Christ guide you, and the presence of the Holy Spirit fill you with hope. Amen.
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Support the Work of Knox and Zion in 2021
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DONATIONS TO ZION, TORRANCE
Mail cheques to Zion Presbyterian Church 1046 Torrance Rd, Torrance, ON, P0C 1M0
E-Transfers to zionchurchpc@gmail.com No security question required
Pick up ~ Please call the office (705) 765 3797 to arrange pick up
DONATIONS TO KNOX, PORT CARLING
Mail cheques to Knox Presbyterian Church Box 283, Port Carling, ON,
P0B 1J0
E-Transfers to KnoxChurchPC@gmail.com No security question required
Pick up ~ Please call the office (705) 765-3797 to arrange pick up
Thank you for your continued support!
