“Be the Bridge”

“Be the Bridge”


Date: March 26, 2017

1
Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church
Asheville, North Carolina
26
March
2017
Youth Sunday
Sermon:
Be the Bridge
Luke Shealy, Makahla Stout
Mark 12:28
34
Hebrews 13:1
3, 5
7, 12
16
Music
led by Isabel Parker
,
along with: Owen Gast, Hannah Engels,
Emily Frye
,
Paige Kemper
, Kaegan Parks
LUKE:
Las
t fall, I had the opportunity to travel with other students from my school, to Denmark.
Our flight was from Atlanta to Copenhagen.
The
flight started out well, but about the time
we were reaching the Atlantic Oc
ean the speakers crackled, letting all the passengers know
that we were heading back to Atlanta because of “technical difficulties.”
Well
, I turned out
that those technical difficulties involved electrical components that had almost caught on
fire!
Two
hours later, after some maintenance, we were back in the air over the ocean
in the
same plane that had almost caught on fire the first time
! It
was about that time when I
realized maybe I should have
abandoned the plane w
hen it was back on the ground.
Le
t’
s
just say,
I was thinking a lot about what the flight attendants said to us before taking off:
In
the event that the oxygen masks drop, please secure your own mask before helping others.”
Today’s
texts remind us that before we can give of ourselves,
we must first seek to have a
firm foundation. As Christians our oxygen mask
our firm foundation
is our faith.
We
must trust that God will provide the oxygen.
Once
we have that mask on; then, we can
wholeheartedly devote ourselves to helping others.
Well
, how can we best do this?
How
can we secure our mask “of faith” and help people with theirs as well?
MAKAHLA:
“What
does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with
your God.”
Jesus
lived this every day
. Jesus
taught us about it
over and over again
throughout our Bible.
Love
God and love your neighbors
.
Trust
God and trust others.
Give
all we can to God and give all we can to one another
.
In
essence, be a bridge of connection
and hope between God and each o
ther.
Our
passages talk
about the importance of trusting and giving.
The
definition of trust is to
rely on the character, ability, strength or truth of someone or something.
Essentially,
we are
called to
trust
ourselves, our neighbors, our leaders, an
d our God,
so
that we are able to
2
give
our time, service, money, compassion, forgiveness, acceptance, and love.
These
days, it feels like we are doing the opposite of trusting and giving.
Life
is hard and full
of different types of adversities such as los
s, illness, unemployment, grief, injury, divorce, or
even a new adventure where we don’t know the outcome.
It’s
so hard for us to fully trust
and give because it requires us to completely let go and lean into an unknown outcome.
We
often use fear, appreh
ension, and indifference as a reason to not take action.
Not
only this, these days we’ve been led to believe that separation
driven by hate, fear, lies
and division
is the answer.
But
it’s not.
Now
is NOT the time to be separated
.
Jesus
teaches tha
t in order to survive in this wilderness,
we
must NOT divide ourselves with
walls but instead unite ourselves through bridges.
In
order to
trust
and
give
, it takes faith:
faith
in God and faith in one another.
When
you give
a person something, you gi
ve it to them because you trust them;
and
when you trust
someone, you’re willing to give them what you have because yo
u’ve put your faith in them.
Alone
we are like one drop, but united we are like an ocean.”
ISABE
L
(sung)
:
Bind us together Lord
Bind us to
gether with chords that cannot be broken
Bing us together, Lord
Bind us together with
l
ove.
~
MAKAHLA
:
What
does trust look like?
LUKE:
What
does it take to really trust God and trust one another?
MAKAHLA
:
This
past January, I attended the Preside
ntial Inauguration in Washington D.C.
While
there,
I was a part of many historical events: including attending the actual inauguration and
being surrounded by some of the world’s top leaders.
Not
to mention getting caught up in
the chaos of a violent ri
ot that broke out on the same street where we were eating lunch!
While
those events were unforgettable, the most astounding one came the day after the
Inauguration,
when
I witnessed 500,000 women, men and children march on Washington.
People
of different
backgrounds, races, genders, and ages came together to stand in
solidarity for human rights.
What
made this even more astounding was to hear that more than three million other
people were not only marching across the country, but around the world!
During
a time of

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