Dalton First United Methodist Church Podcast
This Could Be Your Independence Day - Pastor Steven Usry
This Could Be Your Independence Day - July 2nd, 2023
Are the secrets you're harboring hindering your journey to freedom and true happiness? We’re taking you on a poignant journey, one that illuminates the healing power of truth and confession.
We delve into the biblical saga of David and his encounter with truth through Nathan's prophetic intervention. This story is a compelling study of the transformative influence of God's truth and the liberating essence of confession.
Learn More at: daltonfumc.com
This Could Be Your Independence Day - July 2nd, 2023
Are the secrets you're harboring hindering your journey to freedom and true happiness? We’re taking you on a poignant journey, one that illuminates the healing power of truth and confession.
We delve into the biblical saga of David and his encounter with truth through Nathan's prophetic intervention. This story is a compelling study of the transformative influence of God's truth and the liberating essence of confession.
Learn More at: daltonfumc.com
You are listening to the Dalton First United Methodist Church podcast. To learn more about Dalton First United Methodist Church, visit us online at DaltonFUMCcom. We hope that today's message from Pastor Stephen Usry inspires and encourages you.
Speaker 2:I told you last weekend that my wife and I were getting moved this week. Well, a lot of you have been asking. We're actually living under the same roof again. That's good For about the last eight weeks, julie and I. She had to finish out a school year and you know that she retired. We've done something we've never done in our marriage lived apart for a little while, but a couple of nights ago when the semi pulled into Dalton here from that night forward I'm glad to have my wife here with me in town And of course the parlor stage is filled with boxes. I told somebody walking through the kitchen this morning was like a maze, but we'll get settled in. Thank you for your hospitality. We are so glad to be with you in ministry.
Speaker 2:Inside your worship guide this morning, on the very back page, is a message outline. I always provide a message outline for you. There's a pin located in the seat back right in front of you. There We invite you to grab a pin. We're going to be reading scripture. I'm going to be inviting you to fill in some blanks and the circles and things. Maybe you'll learn something new this morning. I hope you do. Most importantly, what might be the most important thing you write on that outline might be nothing this preacher says. It might just be a simple prompting of the Holy Spirit for your life. By the way, choir, thank you And yes, hallelujah, two words, jesus saved. Are there more powerful words on the planet? that could just be two words, than Jesus saves? You know, today we're going to talk about freedom, true freedom. We're going to talk about what it looks like to be really free, not to have baggage, not to be in slavery. I'm so thankful that Jesus saves. You know John Wesley, the person who founded the United Methodist Church. John Wesley said it this way Not only did Jesus save me, he is saving me every moment of every day. Guys, that's how Jesus saves. As we turn to God's word this morning and, by the way, whenever I bring in some you know something to preach with the choir. The choir enjoyed it. They make, they have a good time at my expense. They call it props, i call it metaphors. I think Jesus, jesus, was a master of metaphors.
Speaker 2:I want to tell you about a guy named Dave. Dave carries baggage with him all the time. Now, it didn't used to be that way. Dave grew up in a large family, grew up on a farm had a bunch of brothers, dave, I wish you could meet Dave because you'd like Dave's. Dave had a charismatic personality, good looking guy. Everybody liked Dave, but you'd never known that Dave would end up being great at war. War broke out and he had to be a soldier and he went off and he fought in the war And he came back home, through a series of events, became a national hero. Dave went into politics after he got home And because he was such a winsome guy he rose to fame very quick. And not only that, he had a lot of wealth.
Speaker 2:I mean, things went well for Dave, but the reality was that he was carrying baggage baggage hardly anybody knew about. He would try to hide it, but he was always carrying his baggage. You see what happened when Dave got home from the war. Through a series of unfortunate decisions that he made, dave had a one nice stand and had a promiscuous moment And because of that he decided to try to cover it up, to try to hide it, and so the woman that he had been with he actually had her husband killed, murdered. Dave didn't want anybody to know about it, because if anybody could find out about that of the house of cards, all the secrets that he was hiding, his whole world could come crashing down. You know, in a church like today, showing up to worship, we all look pretty We really do, but the reality is a lot of us can come in hiding our baggage, hiding secrets, hiding things that have been there for us, that we hold on to, that are heavy, they burden us down. They're like a ball and chain, if you will. They're like it's like slavery, right, the secrets that we sometimes hide from others.
Speaker 2:I heard about this book and it's called Post Secret, and it piqued my curiosity so much I had to go find out about it. So I went to a local bookstore and while I was at the bookstore I pulled it off the shelf. Literally, the book Post Secret is covered in, like you know, just a brown paper bag looking thing Post Secret. I don't know if you've ever heard of this book before, but I'll tell you that it's amazing how people can make money off a book. Just come up with an idea and you can make some money off a book. And here's the idea for Post Secret.
Speaker 2:A guy in 2004 decided that he would send out 3,000 postcards Randomly all over America. He sent out 3,000 postcards and he basically said I'm inviting you to share a secret with me. There was some rules. He said I'm giving you a postcard And he said I'm going to ask you to take that postcard, tell a secret, and it must be anonymous. You can't put your name on it, put a stamp on it, mail it to me, make it brief, make it legible, make it creative. That one simple idea people, 3,000 people getting postcards in their mailbox and them then telling their secrets anonymously turned into not only one book but several post-secret books. If you pick up this book, you would just see that the book is filled with postcards of people telling their secret.
Speaker 2:So I'm standing in the middle of a Barnes and Noble and I start reading this book. I start reading some of the secrets that are there. There are two kinds of secrets those we keep from others and those we hide from ourselves. I just start rolling through this book. I don't like it when my husband looks into my eyes. He might see my secrets. And as I start rolling through this book, an amazing thing happened. I was turning page after page after page and then, all of a sudden, there was a napkin in the book A Joe Lug napkin, the little coffee shop.
Speaker 2:Somebody had written on that napkin.
Speaker 2:As I sit here in books a million and I read this book, i watch all the people come in and out and I wonder if they have some of the same secrets that I'm reading about. I'm standing in the middle of a bookstore reading a book about secrets and I realize that somebody slipped a napkin in there and they're wondering about their secrets. And then I did exactly what you would have done. I said I wonder if there are more napkins in this book. I began to just roll through the book and I began to find napkin after napkin for people sitting in a Joe Mugs coffee shop. I'm sitting here reading these books with my best friend. It's one of the best days ever. I love her more than life and I really hope one day she gets the happiness she deserves. I would cut myself again if it wasn't for her. I love you, cara. Ps. Never take one day, especially a day, with a true friend, for rent. As I rolled through this book and I found card or note after note, it made me realize how many people have secrets and how they really wish they could share those secrets. I have so many secrets, i don't even know them all. Some are lies, some are truths. One day they will all come out, i just don't know when. I want to be free. And then, on the other side of this little note, 2 Corinthians 5, 7, we live by faith, not by sight. We have access by faith into this grace and rejoicing the hope of the glory it go. Guys, i found about eight napkins in this book and a holy moment kind of happened for me in the middle of the Joe Mugs sparring a book's a million right. I began to realize how many people carry their baggage and their secrets So many people. Old Dave boy, he was keeping his secrets. He didn't want anybody to find out. I want to talk to you this morning about that statement that Jesus made in John, chapter eight. When Jesus said and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free, what Jesus was really talking about was himself. Truth has a name and his name is Jesus. And Jesus saves us from bondage and he saves us from our baggage and he saves us from our secrets. He longs for us to be free. When Jesus said you have the opportunity, you have the chance to know the truth, and the truth will set you free. It's this understanding that God wants us to be free. And what Jesus was proclaiming was that, the dream or the hope of freedom. It was actually the opportunity, the reality that you can truly be free.
Speaker 2:But by now you probably figured out that guy Dave I was talking about. He's that Old Testament character, right, king David right. And David was a winsome fellow, but when he had Bathsheba's husband murdered he was in bondage. He was no longer free. By the way, the Bible calls David a man after God's heart, so we're talking about somebody that was really close to God. You can be very close to God and make mistakes and find yourself in slavery and in bondage.
Speaker 2:You know, in 2 Samuel, chapter 12, we get the story of Nathan the prophet coming to David, coming to tell him a story, to confront him about the sin in his life because God had revealed it to the prophet. And if you read that account it's almost like it doesn't have all the emotion that you had to be there in that moment between a prophet talking with a king about the king's sin. But if you just roll over a few pages over to Psalm chapter 51, you see where David pinned a song asking God for forgiveness after Nathan the prophet had come to him. You realize that room where they had met was filled with emotion. Why? Because when the prophet showed up to talk to David about his sin, david knew. David knew his sin. David knew his baggage. He was hiding it all that he could, but he knew it.
Speaker 2:You know there is I want to say it this way I think in every one of us there is this internal GPS, this thing about us that God has wired us to know what is right and what is wrong. Every one of us can. You've known this, even from the time you were a child. I think about like a GPS, because I don't know if you know how your GPS system works. Boy, are you like me? Sometimes you say where do we, how did we get anywhere before there was GPS? right, you know, your GPS uses some, some static points, some points of reference where it knows, and it builds everything out from there. Your GPS will locate you based upon those key points. See, guys, i want to suggest to you that God's word, the Bible, and God's path for us in his plans have established what is true and good and right, what is wrong and what is right, and internally, even as a child, we know when we're messing up. Case in point, i'll be confessional Fig Newtons. Fig Newtons don't mean anything to you, but let me tell you my quick story.
Speaker 2:Okay, i was about eight years old and we were going to go visit my daddy's parents. I'm sorry, i never had, i never knew my grandmother, my daddy's dad, the man that I called Paul Paul. We were going to Paul Paul's house and Paul Paul lived as poor as anybody I'd ever seen. Paul Paul lived poor. Paul Paul didn't have food like we had in our house. He didn't have a bathroom like we had in our house. You probably seen that kind of poverty, right. And so we went to go visit Paul Paul, who lived out in the country. We were there all day into the night because we didn't go visit Paul Paul that much.
Speaker 2:And as a little eight year old, when a day started waning on we got later and later in the day I got so hungry. There were no restaurants out in the country and Paul Paul wasn't going to be cooking us food. And so, as a little eight year old, my stomach started growling and I was so hungry I had to have something to eat. And I looked at the pot belly stove, the little wall right above it, and sitting on top of that pot belly stove was a box of Fig Newtons. I said Paul, paul, can I have some Fig Newtons? He said yeah. I said, son, go get them. My mom said no, no, no, no, no, no, we you're not going to eat his Fig Newtons. No, no, no. Well, i'll cut to the chase.
Speaker 2:When they all slipped out of the room getting ready to go to the car, i knew what was right and I knew what was wrong And I slipped up there and grabbed me some Fig Newtons. I snuck out of the house, i hid them underneath my daddy's car seat so I could have them on the ride hauling no-transcript. Oh, by the way, let me pause here and tell you that I didn't know the beating that was gonna come my way yet. Okay, i didn't know that those thick newtons would all be a form of bond-bitter slavery for me. Oh boy.
Speaker 2:So when we got we were on the way home from the country I was sitting in the back seat. I did probably what any eight-brilliant eight-year-old would do I announced that I was going to go to sleep. It could have been a long day. Mom and dad, i'm going to go to sleep now on the back seat. And I laid across that back seat and I stuck my hand under that seat, ready for a feast. And as I grabbed the hole of those thick newtons and they started making all that noise, oh my goodness. My mama said what you got back there? Huh, they're eating me in there Also.
Speaker 2:The fight did the same. Not only had I disobeyed my mother and my father, had I done that which I knew was wrong, but I had stolen from my grandfather, right, my papa. I don't know, i don't know how he did it, but, like Indiana Jones, my daddy was hitting all kinds of targets while he was driving down the road with his whip you know, with his belt. I got I some of your. You've been there before. Right, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:Guys, i want to suggest to you that we all know right from wrong, and David knew that he was wrong. And Nathan comes in. Nathan tells him a story and if you know the story, out from that, finally the truth comes out. You got your pen. Listen, i'm going to talk to you about you want. You want to really experience freedom. This can be your freedom moment. How does it happen? I'm going to go fast, okay.
Speaker 2:The first one is this you submit to the truth about life. The reality was, david was not willing to submit to the truth about his error until somebody finally brought it to him. He was not willing to do that. Now, the truth of the matter is he was a student of God's word. The Bible says in Psalm 19, the law of the Lord remember, i don't want to underline these words is perfect, reviving the soul though decreasing. The Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the fart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight to life. There's your GPS system. God's word is perfect, trustworthy, right and clear. And so David knew that right. He knew God's word. He knew that he wasn't supposed to kill, but he did anyway because there was a fig Newton. He wanted right. He did it anyway.
Speaker 2:The Bible says this your decrees are my treasure. They are truly my heart's delight. I am determined to keep your principles, even forever, to the very end. In order to really keep the principles of God, you've got to know the principles of God. So here's the question how well do you know this book? How well do you know God's word that's in this book? Are you a student of this book? Are you a disciple who is constantly studying this work? Could you say God, your decrees are my treasure. I delight in them. You got your pin.
Speaker 2:I want to suggest to you, if you're going to submit the truth about life, it really means understanding how much you value God's truth in his word. My view of truth will determine my value of truth. If you really think this is the inspired word of God and this is the truth, you will go to this book over and over again because you know that it is life and it is truth and it is there for your freedom And if it's maybe some good words or if it's maybe a little bit inspired, you won't really go back over. So your value, your view of truth, will determine your value of truth. You will have freedom.
Speaker 2:It starts with submitting to the truth about your life that every one of us have baggage and that every one of us have messed up and every one of us have been a people that have fallen and have sinned. But not only that. Write this one down. Number two we must show up with the truth in our line. We must show. This is where you get honest. The first one is being able to say, okay, i have baggage, i have some stuff in my life that holds me back. That is my bondage. But showing up with the truth means you actually start unzipping it right And you start saying, okay, i'm going to deal with the junk inside my baggage.
Speaker 2:Nathan shows up And if you remember the story, nathan begins to tell David a story. David gets furious at the story that's told him, but then Nathan looks at him and said that person, that story King, is you. The amazing moment here is that David doesn't deflect, he doesn't ignore what's just happened, he doesn't try to distract, he doesn't try to deny it. The very first words after Nathan says when Nathan says the man in that story is you King, the very first words I have David's mouth are I have Is David's response. This is where he begins to unpack. I almost said there's relief in it. There's relief when he's finally been found out that God revealed to the prophet. It's almost like he can finally say, okay, yes, i've messed up. He finally shows up with the truth.
Speaker 2:By the way, by the way, this thing about our baggage and our secrets and our sin is the easiest thing to do is to keep them secret, and the easiest thing to do is let them isolate us from other people. That's exactly where David was When, finally, nathan was able to bring that to him. David confessed his sin and he found forgiveness. This is where freedom happened for David. The Bible says it this way in James 5.16, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed By the way. That's in the Bible and we can read that scripture. All we want but a lot of people don't want to really do that Hard to confess your sins to one another.
Speaker 2:As a pastor, across all the years I've been a pastor, i've met a lot of folks who came to join the church, the Methodist Church, from a Catholic background, and I learned at one point I had so many people in a new middle class I had to go study the Catholic Church. I was like, wow, i need to know more, right. But here's what I learned. I learned that many folks who grew up with a Catholic background they're used to confessing their sins. They do it regularly. They confess their sins all the time bids. They do it to a priest, they do it to the professional, they do it to that person.
Speaker 2:By the way, that is not the idea that James has here. James says confess your sins to one another. The idea that James says is that we would confess our faults, our baggage, our secrets to one another that we may be healed. You see, god could have sent to David a dream to confront him of his sin and his baggage. God could have sent an angel. No, no, no. You know what God did. God sent Nathan. He sent a prophet. Nathan had to look at somebody with skin and flesh on and say, yes, i committed murder. You want to talk about submitting to the truth? Okay, i have baggage. And showing up to the truth? Okay, i will confess my baggage. This is how you get free, if you really want to get free right. Forgiveness comes from God, but healing often comes from God and community.
Speaker 2:The most beautiful thing to me about this story is, right after Nathan, after David says yes, i have sin. Nathan's immediate response back to him is and God has forgiven you of your sin and you surely will not die. Nathan's response back to him was this gentle response to tell him that he had been forgiven. Parable 2813 says this if you hide your sins, you will not succeed. If you confess and reject them, you will receive mercy. You might want to note here there's a warning and there's a promise in that scripture If you hide your sins, you won't succeed. If you hide your baggage, if you hide your secrets, you won't succeed. That's the warning. But here's the promise If you confess and reject them, you will receive mercy.
Speaker 2:This is the beautiful picture of what it looks like to really be free of your baggage and of your sins and of your secrets. By the way, i put a little phrase in there Sin breaks the cycle of a secret. David had been hiding that secret and hiding that secret and hiding that secret, but when he finally confessed it, it breaks the cycle of saying oh, i'm just going to hold it and hide my secrets. I said three things You submit to the truth. You show up with the truth. I've got baggage and I'm going to unpack my baggage. You confess your sins. You will really be free. That's what freedom looks like.
Speaker 2:But here's another third thing that I think this passage teaches us You speak out with the truth. In your friend's life, you speak out with the truth. So God sends Nathan to the king. How hard would that have been to confront him about murder and about adult. This must have been an incredibly hard moment. I'm sure Nathan said are you sure it's going to be me or you're sure that I'm the one that's got to go? God sends Nathan. This took all the courage.
Speaker 2:You know, if we were truthful, every one of us has blind spots. Every one of us have things in our world that we might not see as being things that are our baggage or that pulled us back, every one of us. We need other people sometimes that come to us and speak the truth about our life to us. You know, what kind of blind spots are you talking about? I'm not talking about silly stuff. I'm not talking about personality. I'm not talking about the way you laugh or talk. I'm talking about serious stuff I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:You know, if you saw your friend explode with anger and temper, is there a chance God might want you to speak into your friend's life Truth about the destructiveness of that behavior? What if you saw a friend being insensitive to their spouse? Might God want you to be a voice of truth to your friend? If you saw somebody going down a path that you knew was going to lead to destruction? is there a chance that you would be the source of truth into their life. Ephesians 4 says it this way instead, as we lovingly you might want to circle that word as we lovingly speak the truth, speak the truth of the love, lovingly speak the truth, we will grow up completely in our relationship to Christ, who is the head. I don't know if you've ever been called to do that. I certainly have been called to do that.
Speaker 2:Go to somebody and to speak the truth about the destructive things that I see going on in their world. And, by the way, this is a balancing act truth with grace. Right It needs to have, it's an attitude and it's a heart position. You must do it the right way. We must hold truth and we must hold grace in balance whenever God calls us to be that kind of voice in people's lives. If you don't have truth and grace in balance, then you'll cut corners because you're afraid of the truth. Or if you don't have grace and do it in a loving way, there'll be condemnation therein. The Bible says it this way. And open rebuke is better than hidden love Wounds from a friend think Nathan and David. Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy. The reality is, nathan and David knew each other. They weren't strangers. They knew each other very, very well.
Speaker 2:By the way, if God ever calls you to go share a very hard truth with somebody, know this relationship is key. You have got to know them and them. know you and trust you. Pastor Stephen, how do you do that? Just a couple of pointers, and I'm going to go fast. How do you do this? If God ever calls me? maybe God's putting somebody on your mind right now that you love and you care about, and that maybe he's calling you to be the Nathan to them, to go to them and speak to them about this thing that you think is hard or is destructive for them. How do I do that, pastor Stephen? Just a few points.
Speaker 2:You get real clear about the issue. You don't need to go talk about five things or 10 things. You're going to talk about one thing. What is the issue that you feel like God would have you talk to them about? You ask God if you're the one to address the issue. Maybe. If, by the way, if your attitude is, oh yes, i'm ready to go talk to them up and won't deliver them for a while, you're probably not the right person, that they're going to be talking to them, right, but if you are really reluctant to be able to do this, maybe maybe it's you. Thirdly, you address the issue in person and in private. That's always a given in person and in private. Fourthly, you are gentle and you are honest.
Speaker 2:I love going back to Nathan. Nathan's got to go talk to the king. He doesn't come right out with it, he says, king, can I tell you a story? And he tells him a story. That's the way for him to tell the heart and honest truth. And then, lastly, you follow up. You don't unload and abandon. Well, just go in there and let that moment be that moment. Know, you circle back, and this is where a lot of people drop the ball. You circle back at a later time to say how are we doing, how's our relationship? Because that was tense, that was tough. That circling back is very important. You know, put a little freer at the bottom of your outline And I just wonder if God's put somebody on your heart that you know is carrying baggage and bondage and in slavery because of something they're doing or something that's going on in the world.
Speaker 2:If maybe God would use you to set them free. Maybe you would pray that for your Lord I love, and you just fill in their name too much not to get involved. Give me the courage, wisdom and the grace to speak the truth and wrong. Wow, i shared a big message with you today and we're at 12 o'clock in its communion time. My hope for you is that, as we come to receive holy communion today, that you would be reminded that this meal is a meal of freedom. It's a meal that we are reminded that grace and truth. You want the greatest picture of grace and truth. Just look at the cross of Calvary, and when that cross you will find grace, and when that cross you will find true. So if there's a place in your heart today where you need to submit to the truth or show up to the truth, or maybe God's calling you to speak out with the truth to somebody else, i pray that you would not only hear God's word today, but that you would be able to obey.
Speaker 1:God's word today. Thank you for listening to the Dalton First United Methodist Church podcast. If today's sermon resonated with you, we encourage you to share it with someone who might benefit from the message. Join us for worship and stay connected at daltonfumccom. God bless, and see you next week.