“Seniors’ Sermon, Mt. Nebo”

 

The Gospel lessons for these sermons are found in the books of

Romans Chapter 2: verses 5-8, Romans Chapter 3:23-24; and in Joshua Chapter 24: verse 15

 

Seniors Joe David Turk and Kelsey Coulter

of Central Presbyterian Church, Russellville, Arkansas

Sunday, May 4, 2008 atop Mt. Nebo

 

 

 

Below is the sermon portion of the Mt. Nebo church service, planned, prepared and presented by the youth of our church:

Joe David Turk:

Today, I thought I would start our sermon by reading Romans  2:5-8. “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done, to those who in doing good seek after the glory, honor and immortality that God offers, He will give eternal life; but to those who are self seeking, who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger”. 

 

I wanted to start the sermon that way because I was trying to use that as an example showing that even though each person is different, we all do things, bad or good; and we all are judged accordingly, no matter if we are a little boy or an 89 year old man.  I thought that would be an important way for everyone to enjoy themselves, just knowing what to do and not to do; and to know that no matter what you do, God loves you.

 

I also thought that I would read Romans 3:23-24, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption which came by  Christ Jesus”.  This just emphasizes what I had said already, that even though people might be angry, might hate someone, they still should do the good that they know they should do, and just hope that they see the need and the good in whoever they see.

 

I’m being very brief here; and now I will give it on to Kelsey.

 

 

 

Kelsey Coulter:

When mother told me last week, told me, that I would be speaking this morning I was a tad hesitant. It was not that I was worried about talking in front of people; I was just worried that people wouldn’t enjoy what I had to say. Then she threw in something about how Doug Martin would be very disappointed if I didn’t speak.  So Doug I hope you won’t be disappointed.  To keep it short, I do talk a lot; but I thought this would be my opportunity to show you all what you have helped me to become, and what I want to become in the years ahead of me. And even though I could easily take this time to tell you all about my love for John Wayne and Elvis Presley and such, that’s not exactly the side I want to focus on.

 

My father always told me that I should be a lawyer because I can argue extremely well and I can challenge people on anything.  I’m going to challenge you all today (but I’m going to wait and tell you about that challenge later), first I want to tell you how I accepted that challenge in my life, and how people around me have shown me how to accept that challenge and carry it out in my life.

 

I’m sure a lot of you know that my grandmother passed away this last December, from eight tough years of breast cancer.  It was very hard, it was hard losing her, and I will never forget anything she taught me.  One thing she did teach me was to be an example to the people around me because even when you don’t think anyone is watching you, there’s always somebody there; God’s always watching; The wonderful thing is that my grandmother didn’t even know that I was watching her half of the time. I will never forget how she would always say, “Good morning sunshine”, when my sisters and I would wake up. That’s the first thing she would say.  And she would always say to me, “Hey Doll”.  She said that to me the last time she was in the hospital, I called her a couple of days before she passed away; and she said, “Hey Doll”, and I’ll never forget that. And she always made ridiculously awesome pancakes every time we went over to her house.

 

Her favorite Bible verse was Joshua 24:15: “But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”  She carried that out to an extreme.  She set an example for her children as to what their lives should be, how they needed to please the Lord; and they carried that on to their children.  And that was then carried on to me; and that’s how we live our lives in our house; we serve the Lord.  Without her, I really would have been lost; she gave me a rock of faith.  She told me how to live my life without speaking at all; she set an example that I will never be able to forget. 

 

Throughout your life, you will be faced with choices.  I was recently faced with the choice of what college I should go to, which school would was right for me.  This time last year I wanted to go to Fayetteville. Then different things came up.  I prayed, I thought; I just could not decide where I wanted to go.  I was in the kitchen one morning and it finally just hit me. Tech is where I want to be.   I called my mom, and she was happier than I had seen in a long time.  She was like, “Yes, Tech is good, and she went upstairs, and in the same breath that I said, “I want to go to Tech”, she was up on the computer doing all the registration for me.  And then when I thought about why I wanted to go to Tech, this church was one of those factors.  I’ve learned so much from this church family.  I’m not done learning; there is so much for me to learn.  And I don’t think I could be two hours away from my Payne boys, those three little boys.  I am officially engaged to Walker and Grant, and I’m sure once Charlie gets to the point where he can make complete sentences, that I will get a proposal from him as well. Being away from those boys would not be easy for me; so this church had a lot to do with my decision to stay at Tech.

 

 But although I will be at Tech, I will be leaving my house, which serves the Lord, and I will have to begin a life of my own, to serve the Lord.  And I will have choices, so many choices.  Who I hang out with, what I will do on the weekend, whether I will study or not—those are some of the choices I will be presented with.  I’m going to have to pray, and listen to God and make the right choice which pleases Him, to serve the Lord.  There was a Bible study which I finished up just a couple of weeks ago with some of my friends.  There was a sentence that really hit me from it—“How can you be so stubborn as to think that your Savior would die on the cross for you, but then refuse to speak to you.”  That really hit me—I thought that was the most brilliant thing to think.  Why would you think that your Lord would not speak to you, after everything he’s done for you? You just have to listen to what he says.

 

So, I’m learning to listen to Him.  When I go off to college, I’m going to be living on my own, making my own choices, being very independent; and I need to listen to Him and do the things that would please Him.  It will be difficult and I know that all of you will be behind me in the decisions I make.  My Dad always says, every time I leave the house, “Kelsey girl, remember that you represent not only yourself, but you represent this family.  I’m leaving my house, not necessarily for good; I’ll still make that 7-minute drive home, very often!  But I am leaving, and I’m representing not only my sisters and my parents, and my grandfather, my aunts and my uncles… I am representing this church, and I am representing the Lord; and I am taking that verse, Joshua 24:15 with me, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”; and I’m going out, and in a way, I’m kind of becoming a house of my own and I need to set an example for people watching.  Even when I’m walking to the library to study, (hopefully), or driving to work, people are watching me; and I need to show them what it means to have Christ as a part of your life. I want to set an example that shows the Lord is a good path to follow.  I’m going to try very hard to do that now that I’ll not be living at my house. 

 

To finish up, (I don’t want to keep going on and on); I will be going to Tech this fall.  I will be doing a major that hopefully will help me succeed in the business world.  I would like to do a personal finance kind of thing.  My father always told me that the way I spend his money I need to have a job where I make plenty of my own. I will continue to see all of you; I will still be sitting in the “Coulter pew” up front.  I work at Razorback Video and Tanning and I know that I will occasionally see a few faces there; so you’ll still be seeing me around town.

 

Now I would like to leave you with the challenge that I brought today.  It’s a copy of something I got from Brittany’s Bible earlier in the week, but if you listen to the words; and if you think about it when you leave here, it really is a challenge.

 

“It’s easy to slip into a quiet rebellion, going about life in your own way.  But the time comes when you will choose who or what will control you.  My time has come; has yours?”