June 14, 2026 - “Is Anything Too Wonderful for the LORD”

June 14, 2026-OVUMC 10:30 Spirited Traditional Worship

Pastor Sang Park

The Scriptures are Genesis 18:1-15.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

That's not the wise man, those did his wisdom, or the strong man, loads of disgrace. Let's not the rich man, those did this, richness.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Thank you, choir, for this wonderful and uplifting music. Always Welcome. Good morning. Yes, those greetings sounds a little bit awkward, right? Good morning, first. This is the day God has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. I welcome each and every one of you on this muggy Sunday morning. It is good to be here in God's house. It's good and poor. And we welcome those who join us through live stream, uh, online service. Here is the place where we join together online and offline in worshiping God. I hope and pray all of you find the joy and the excitement in the presence of God around us. Please take a moment to grab uh the friendship dash that you may find uh at the pew. And please uh if you were write your name with your information so that we may recognize your presence today. And thank you for all the visitors we have. Thank you for your time with us. Reverend Mike Reverend Mike.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Please stand as you are able for our choral android. God meets us in surprising yet ordinary places, under a tree in the smile of a stranger, and a refreshing breeze that comes just at the right time. God fulfills God's promises in surprising yet ordinary ways, in an unexpected act of kindness, and providing just what we need at just the right time, and sending someone to listen when we feel alone. Beloved, as God shows up among us, may we meet God and our neighbors with open hearts, minds, and hands, ready to encourage God's miraculous work. Lord, open our lives to receive your blessings that we may share together in the joy, wonder, and laughter of God's miraculous works all around us.

unknown 7:21

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 11:23

Amazing grace, how sweet a sound that saved the rich like me. Oh my once was lost, but now I am found with blind but now I see I can see the I can see the nose laying yourself the haunts, raising up the prohibit. You take a belly, you take a weakness, set your dress up in touch the place, take this hard, I'll be your best dog, no one, you would have been waiting for sweet dog, that's great, too, like me. A sweet hut, that save the red like me. But now I have life, but now I see a baby, a sweet a hut-to-p. That big like me. Oh I want a lot, but now I have done. What's life, but now I see Oh, I can see you now. I can see the love in your eyes, laying yourself down, raising up the prohobie.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

And let us greet each other in the name of Christ with the passing of the peace. We have heard you call us the love of Christ until all the world adores his sacred name. In your name, we will hunger and thirst for righteousness. We will show mercy. We will be peacemakers. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us that we might bear the fruits of the Spirit. Give us the gift of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fruitfulness, gentleness, and self-control. For you are a mighty God who has created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. Forgive us when, like Abraham and Sarah, our faith is weak and we are filled with doubt and hopelessness. We believe, help thou our unbelief. Forgive us when our actions and interactions with others do not glorify the Christ we proclaim. Forgive us when we do not love you with all of our heart and mind and strength. And we do not when we do not love our neighbor as ourselves. Help us to seek your forgiveness and the forgiveness of those we have wronged. We pray for our hurting world. We pray for peace in Iran, Ukraine, Lebanon, and all places on the globe where war rages. We pray for the sick and their caretakers. We pray for those who mourn the loss of loved ones. We pray for those with addictions and for their families. We pray for those who struggle to put food on the table and a roof over their head. We pray for those who have not yet come to know the joy of life in your name. We pray for the people in situations that we know that for you in our hearts and with our spoken word. We give you all these prayers in the name of the crucified and risen Christ. Taught us to pray together. 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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Will the ushers come forward at this time to receive our morning offering? Lord, we thank you for these gifts that have been given with glad and cheerful hearts. And we pray that you will bless these offerings, that they will be of service to this world through the ministry of this church, that in us people will see the love that you have for them and your love for the world. We ask you these prayers in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. And our hymn is 593 Here I Am, Lord. Maybe seated? Our scripture today is from the book of Genesis, verses one through fifteen. The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Marm as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground. He said, My Lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on, since you have come to your servant. So they said, Do as you have said. And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, needed, and make cakes. Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, Where is your wife Sarah? And he said, There in the tent. And one said, I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age. It had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I have grown old and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure? The Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh and say, Shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old? Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the same time I'll return to you in due season, and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied, saying, I do not laugh, for she was afraid. He said, Oh yes, you did laugh. And uh point of interest, the word for laugh in Hebrew is Isaac. This is the word of God for the people of God.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

Amen. Yes. And today we have a special person in our tower who happened to celebrate this morning the eighty-eighth birthday. May we celebrate his birthday together? Ronor? His eighty-eighth birthday. Ronor set a high standard for whole congregation. And he kept himself in good shape physically and spiritually, and serve the choir, especially serve the Lord. So God blessed me. Let us pray. God, we thank you for this time of worship, for your presence around us, among us, in our hearts and minds. Let your word, as we share, be blessed. To those all who hear this voice. Let the word of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts be accepted in your sight. Our Lord, our rock, and our redeemer. Amen. How many of you love the old, older story in Genesis? You know. I love this story. This is older story. But you know what? This is written in the book, Hard Genesis. Which means in the beginning. Even though it is older story, we may think, oh, I know that. I heard that. I think this is a story. Bringing on inspiration. Encounter. To bring on a new beginning. So if you think oh saying what you say this morning on all the story we all know. Oh, this is time for break. Yeah. You can be relaxed. I hope you hear some story. Ooh, to putting you the sense of new beginning. This is the story in Genesis. It was the hardest time of the day. In that desert. Abraham sat in the shade at the entrance to his tent. Because it is impossible to walk outside. You know, perhaps taking a nap is the only recipe. He was drowsily watching the heat waves rise from the horizon and perhaps nodding off when these three travelers show up unbidden. It was hard for anyone to be traveling at the time of the day, especially in the desert. Under the sunshine, it might feel like a hundred or a hundred and twenty. There would be no humidity though in desert. We know it's hot. And I remember when I was in California, I was uh uh leading the young adult, some 30s, 40s with their children. And we have a special retreat at Palm Spring in the middle of a desert in California. It's awesome. We reserved a huge caser with multiple, several rooms and poor outside. But it was the first week of August. Palm Spring. Can you imagine? The temperature I saw in the town terries 120. And I asked, why you reserve this palm spring resort in the middle of summer? Because it is cheap. Nobody would come. So we go all inside and enjoy the fantastic air conditioning. And even in the night we jumped in the pool. It's hot. Well, Abraham was living in that desert. So it's it's kind of awkward. You know, somebody is traveling, walking around in the middle of daytime. That's really something unlikely. But the Bible tells us in verse one that it really leads. The Lord appeared to Abraham. And I was touched. Yes. In our journey of life, when we feel like it's okay just to relax under the tree. Since twenty-four years ago, God called him and gave him a promise. However, have you the pioneer, the first settler in God's name, to go into that unknown territory. And he did. We know that after twenty-four years, that fresh promise has been redeemed out. He had a difficulty with Sarah to keep that promise fresh. From the beginning it was ridiculous, you know, the promise. So the Bible cares when these strangers came and brought that unlikely abrupt announcement in the middle of that good feast lunch. So here is some curiosity. Huri is a kind of sense of meditation. Perhaps there's a sense of problem. What God wants to do in our lives as we hear this story. As we say, okay, God, don't say that. Like I said, I said she laughed at herself. She don't want to take this seriously. She laughed. Actually, Abraham laughed at Himself everywhere in the previous chapter, Genesis 17. So both of them laughed at this. Like all of us. Yes, we have been through that ups and downs in our lives. And now we're okay. We're now perfectly okay to live this life in this way and slowly disappear. back to our ancestors. We don't want any big surprise. We don't want any big challenge. That's what I hear this story in a context which is in verse one reads that the place where Abraham greeted this stranger was beneath the oaks of memory. I feel like it's interesting. Under the oak trees like we are living in Oak Island, there are many oak trees. It's not Mamre, it's oak island or Yupon Beach in old names. But in the Bible this is a place with rich imagination. It's a biblically significant place as this is the first place that Abraham was circumcised in Genesis chapter 13. And this is the place Sarah Abraham and his son Isaac will be buried. Even you know this is the place that Abraham first built his altar to the Lord in Genesis chapter 13. That's the archetype of the worship in the Bible Mamor is a place bringing us some kind of curiosity what would happen what God will start doing something extraordinary. You know in ancient Near East culture the hospitality is a sacred duty because in that area people live like a nomad. Biblical scholar says there are three different groups of lifestyle nomad one is traveling with camera they can go anywhere called Bedouin. And the second group those who have a relatively small size of cattle like sheep and goats and the people of Israel typically those people they travel from one where to the other where they can find the water or oash they are ongoing travel but they just have that short distance they can manage. And then third group are living in the town with big oashes they settle down in that area raising relatively big cattle like a cow but there is underlying virge what we may call built up over the generations by those lifestyles of normas well we are all normal we are surgeoners or pilgrims as we live one day at a time you don't know what's gonna happen down the road we just come here expecting we would be good until next Sunday as this is the place of where spring water you can reserve your thirsty you may not go wrong way without God we are nomad metaphorically so Abraham practiced that hospitality as he initially offered okay just take it easy under the tree I will bring you some fleshly baked bread and you leave flesh and then go on if you will but as we read the story Abraham did more than that I would say he practiced extravagant radical hospitality you may remember we are radical Christian but I would say this morning we are practicing radical hospitality which is very extravagant he said honey let's prepare the bread for these three strangers and then he ran to the cater and ordered his slaves to cook with a very young and good cattle with typically six months to one year is good and tender meat you would enjoy. With all this story we can understand with that cultural background we call nomad tradition that is very important as we take ourselves yes we are also nomad this is not our place permanent we are pilgrims to travel on the move all the time but the story turns around lead us into deeper level in verse nine when one of the strangers says when I return back next year your wife said I will have a son again that's ridiculous how many times you fear God is ridiculous even this morning as you come to worship in this place don't you think it's a little bit ridiculous to be here someone wrote a book called the apocalypse of God is the one who often does something we may think likely God does some stupid thing but you know what? But his word never fails he did that and accomplished his promise I love this story because here is good news that is anything there in our life too wonderful for our God you may say same that's okay stop there I'm good my life is good I would not have big ambitions like that I have no big dream with God but in on the line with our spirit there is a kind of sense that it's enough no way no hope I know I'm too old it's okay just go this way and peacefully disappear I would not complain like Abraham and Sarah at the age of ninety nine but I read this story God's new beginning this is a story of Genesis God comes to our lives and wants to change our sense of kind of disappointment or shame as we sometimes wake in the middle of night and ask ourselves is this all how many of you ask yourself in this course of life is this all?

SPEAKER_02 54:51

Even though it's okay are you okay if we say this all and God tells us this morning is anything too wonderful for the Lord God can do something you may not expect he will bring that promise that you may live the rest of life without it and my friends this story tells us that God expects something beyond our ordinary expectation for rest of our lives I'm thinking about that when I was middle of 50 around 52 53 first time ever in my life I feel like okay I'm okay I don't need to worry about bringing any mirrors on the table it's huge to get relieved from that burden of life and the pressure of survivor as an immigrant and I feel like I'm good thank God I'm okay you know what since then I had many difficult times asking myself is this all is this all I have dreamed for is this all I have strive for is this all the life I prayed for we may say yes but God say no no I have a promise for you I have another dream awesome for you because I called you as my people as you are the descendant of Abraham we are the church the church is the people and I believe we are the people who may dream something wonderful we are the people who may think something awesome even though people say oh we don't need that we don't need to take that burden we don't need that surprising I promise let's make our life comfortable and easy after all we are the community of retirement I want you to live the life of God's power the spirit that God brings you and invite you to a new journey in Genesis the new beginning that's the reason why I love this story so let's ask ourselves is there anything in our life we may think is anything too wonderful for God and is there any room for me to dream to start to join God's laughter to be shared around the people you may encounter it could be a stranger it could be your old friend or when we lead in Genesis chapter 21 verse 16 Sarah declares join me I have this big laughter my son's name is Isaac meaning laughter friends join me to laugh in God let's laugh yes we laugh this goster that is not from me that is not because of me but because of God we will laugh in the days to come in the name of Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit Amen so as everybody's getting up here to um get ready to play for you guys and lead out we're going to be doing a pass it on we're gonna be doing something a little bit different than what we do in the hymn book but we're gonna repeat a part of our song if you've ever been to camp you know what part we're going to be doing and I want to hear Praise God from everybody really loud okay um so you'll see where we have it um where we come back and you'll come after it says I'll shout it from the mountaintop we're gonna be saying praise God the second time okay all right everybody stand up is awesome in a way God is ridiculous I hope you live that ridiculous life still dream on to find something extraordinary something wonderful to your age who cares my age yet I am God's people God is awesome and there is nothing too wonderful for God go in peace and to live that life wonderful in God and all God's people says Amen