John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16: Langford Community Worship 7/28/2013

Summerfest is in full swing, and today we had the community worship.

I've been doing a series called Country Gospel, and today's sermon was "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16.

If, as the songwriter says, "I learned everything I needed to know from John Cougar, John Deere, JOhn 3:16", what is it that we as small town people have learned?

Listen in.

What we learn from John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16

Humble and Kind: Thoughts for Mother's Day

When I first heard Tim McGraw sing "Humble and Kind," it sounded like Mom talking to me.

Not that Mom's voice was that deep, but that I had heard the wisdom in the song coming from her.

"Don't get to big for your britches"  Always stay humble and kind.

I knew the door was always open and the lights were on.  Mom's house was home in the truest sense of the word.  A haven, a refuge, a place where I was always welcome and safe.  A place where Love reigned.

Although my mother has been gone for 26 years, I still hear her voice in my head, guiding me. 

We learn so much at our mother's knee, don't we?

Lori McKenna says this about writing the song:

It was a school day at my house. I took my kids to school, and then I went back home ... and I was sitting in my dining room, and I look out my window. I have guitars all over my house, so I can fiddle around. We call them "spaghetti days" at my house, because if I end up sitting there all day and writing, then I can’t cook anything for dinner except spaghetti, because I can do it real fast, in, like, 10 minutes.

I was thinking about what we want the kids to know, and honestly how they don’t always listen to the things we say. I just thought, "I’m going to write it down." Honestly, it’s a very simple song, and it’s really just this list of things that I wanted to make sure we told them, in this rhyme form. I was lucky that the chorus made as much sense as it did. I did write it in that one sitting; it took me a few hours, but it was a lucky day. https://theboot.com/tim-mcgraw-humble-and-kind-lyrics/

Apparently, hearing your mother's voice in this song is the whole point!

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that much of what we learn at our mother's knee is what she learned from not only her mother, but from her faith.  Those women who mothered through teaching Sunday School and VBS, and serving in various ways in the church and community (and if she was lucky, women pastors, although my mother and I didn't have those role models).

I was talking about this week's sermon, and someone said, "Aren't mothers humble and kind?" 

We learn to be humble and kind from Jesus.  And from the examples of women who follow him.

I selected the Christ Hymn from Philippians 2 as one of the texts for this Sunday:

Though he was in the form of God,

        he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.

But he emptied himself

        by taking the form of a slave

        and by becoming like human beings.

When he found himself in the form of a human,

       even death on a cross.

Therefore, God highly honored him

        and gave him a name above all names,

   so that at the name of Jesus everyone

        in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow

            that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Talk about humility!  And the great love and kindness God shows be becoming one of us! Jesus reminds us that he is humble and kind and encourages us to lay our burdens on him in Matthew 11:28-30:

 “Come to me, 

all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, 

and I will give you rest. 

Put on my yoke, and learn from me. 

I’m gentle and humble. 

And you will find rest for yourselves. 

My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.”

Our final text for Sunday is Paul's encouragement to the Philippians at the end of his letter( 4:4-9):

Be glad in the Lord always! Again I say, be glad!  

Let your gentleness show in your treatment of all people. 

The Lord is near. 

Don’t be anxious about anything; 

rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, 

along with giving thanks. 

Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding 

will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.

From now on, brothers and sisters, 

if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, 

focus your thoughts on these things: 

all that is true, all that is holy, 

all that is just, all that is pure, 

all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise. 

Practice these things: 

whatever you learned, received, heard, or saw in us. 

The God of peace will be with you.

Always stay humble and kind!

Tim McGraw's official video imagines the global impact if we were all humble and kind.  Well worth watching.