“Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’" 1 Peter 1:16 Holy! What does it mean to be Holy? Simply put, to be holy means to be set apart. Scripture is full of a variety of people and objects that were made holy. They were set apart for a specific and special purpose. Ultimately, the term holy points to God as the one who is qualitatively different or set apart from all of creation. The Creator is holy and set apart from all that has been created. Theologians and philosophers refer to God as the “holy other” and also the “wholly other” that is set apart from creation. This is who God is. Then how are we to apply this verse in 1 Peter that we are to be “holy, as (God) is holy?” A secondary understanding of what it means to be holy is that God, as the holy other/Creator, will set apart someone or something for a special purpose. God, who is holy, sets apart believers for the purpose of spreading God’s love for humanity. We are set apart for the purpose of loving God and loving our neighbor. We are purposed, set apart, to be wholly devoted to sharing God’s love with the world in which we live and in which God created. We are able to do this because of God’s grace through a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Christ died to give us purity and freedom from sin. We strive to live in that freedom and share the hope that it brings to a broken world. We are a major part of God’s redemptive work in humanity. We are to be people who are set apart for the purposes of God. So what does this set apartness look like? What does it look like to be holy? We need to look at Christ as the example of how to live a holy life. It means entering into the everyday places of life and bringing the light of God’s love. It means being set apart to go to people who are far from God, broken, battered, and bruised for the purpose of helping them experience God’s grace. It means loving your neighbor in any way you can and as often as you can. The call to be set apart is the call to love like Jesus loves. This is what it means to be holy. The key to be holy is a longing to be holy. This Sunday we will be talking about the longing of John Wesley, and others in his day, to be holy. To be set apart that God might use them for God’s purposes. In the lines of the Wesley Covenant Prayer (written much later in his life), John Wesley expressed holiness this way, “I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be put to work for you, praised for you or criticized for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service. And now, O wonderful and holy God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, you are mine, and I am yours. So be it.” This should be the longing of our heart, to be holy as God is holy. See you in church this Sunday for more discussion on this topic.

“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!" Revelation 2:4 When I was in fifth grade I experienced my first love. She was a very cute blond with a great smile, good sense of humor, and a kind heart. I thought the world of her and was in love. This first love carried over to the sixth grade, when people were starting to be boyfriend and girlfriend. I could never muster the nerve to ask her out. What if she said no! So my first love was never fully realized since we moved after my sixth grade year. I remember the feeling of my first love. It changed the way I understood my relationship to girls. I remember my first love for Christ. The feeling I felt when I knew for certain that Jesus died and rose from the dead for me. I remember the overwhelming sense of Christ's great love for me, a sinner. I also remember vividly feeling that Christ loved me as I am. The type of love that showed me that I was fearfully and wonderfully made; a treasure. I was in love with Christ and everything was changed. In the Scripture passage above, Christ is wanting his followers, at a certain church, to know they have forgotten their first love. At the beginning Christ was everything to them. Now they were an established church. There were people bringing different ideas into their community. They were drifting and falling away. They drifted so far away that the word Jesus says to send to them is that they don't love him, or others, like they first did. Their relationship with the One who changed everything is changing. Jesus' reminder to the church is a reminder to us today as well. One of the precursors to revival in our life, and our community of faith, is to ask ourselves if we love Jesus the way we first did. Does our heart beat a little faster when we think of Jesus? Does our life reflect our love for Jesus? Are we following Jesus? Is our life radically different and does it reflect our passion for Christ? Have we lost our first love? I hope you will join me this Sunday as we discuss the precursors to revival in our life and in our church. Come and worship your first love. See you in church.

This week we are starting a new sermon series entitled “Revival.” We’ll be using Adam Hamilton’s book "Revival" as a resource, and several of our groups will be offering the ability to follow and journey along with us as we examine the path John Wesley took on his way to reviving a nation. I have my own hang-ups about the word “revival.” I experienced the wonder and the excitement and also the silver-tongued deception that can come along with “revivals.” I’ve been to the places where the Holy Spirit was being “poured out.” I went to a seminary known for the revival that happened on its campus. And now, now that I don’t have to deal with the idea, it is one that is easier to put up on the shelf. Deep down, if I’m honest, I can admit that I don’t like that word. To me, it smacks of judgment and saying that what I am doing is not enough – that what I am doing is dead or dying and needs to be revived. Revival literally means to bring back to life, after all. At the very least it implies to me that what I am and how I am is not good enough. Then, Pastor Tim started preaching on 2 Chronicles 2:14, “If my people, who are called by my name, would humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.” He asked us to start praying for revival. To pray twice a day for that at 7:14 a.m. and 7:14 p.m. I had to take that word, that idea, those experiences off the proverbial shelf and actually deal with them. Do you know what I found? That when I humble myself, and pray, and seek God’s face, that I can see I really do need to be revived. I want more. More than what I’ve settled for. Don’t you? The best way I could think to sum this up and entice you to join us on Sunday was to share a Poem/Prayer with you from the book "Guerrillas of Grace" entitled Let Something Essential Happen to Me . I hope you enjoy it – but more than that, I hope you join in asking God to revive us once more that something essential could happen in us. “O God, let something essential happen to me, something more than interesting or entertaining, or thoughtful. O God, let something essential happen to me, something awesome, something real. Speak to my condition, Lord, and change me somewhere inside where it matters, a change that will burn and tremble and heal and explode me into tears or laughter or love that throbs or screams or keeps a terrible, cleansing silence and dares the dangerous deeds. Let something happen in me which is my real self, God. O God, let something essential and passionate happen in me now. Strip me of my illusions of self-sufficiency, of my proud sophistications, of my inflated assumptions of knowledge … O God, let something essential and joyful happen in me now, something like the blooming of hope and faith, like a grateful heart, like a surge of awareness of how precious each moment is, that now, not next time, now is the occasion to take off my shoes, to see every bush afire, to leap and whirl with neighbor, to gulp the air as sweet wine until I’ve drunk enough to dare to speak the tender word: “Thank you”; “I love you”; “You’re beautiful”; “Let’s live forever beginning now”; and “I’m a fool for Christ’s sake.” Now, not next time, NOW is the occasion, the chance we have to ask, to beg God to do something essential in us. To ask God to revive us once more. To pray. To be humble. To seek his face so that we can find peace and salvation and restoration. I want to live, to truly live again in Christ. Don’t you? Do you want to be revived?

“23 For this is what the Lord himself said, and I pass it on to you just as I received it. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took a loaf of bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 1 Corinthians 11:23-24 Growing up I remember the tags on Christmas presents very well. In my house they were always the ones that had “To:” and “From:” printed on them. The person wrapping the gift would choose an appropriate sticker/tag and write who it was to and then who it was from. I absolutely loved those stickers when I was a kid. My love for them was not because it allowed for me to clearly identify to whom I was giving a gift. No! I loved those stickers because they clearly identified for me what gifts I would be receiving. I would go through each year and look at all the tags and count up how many were for me. I wanted to know exactly how many of those gifts would be given to me on Christmas morning. It is a little ironic for me that the three words in the title of this article are words Jesus used when instituting this remembrance of himself in Holy Eucharist (Communion). Jesus said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Those three words have been prominent in my understanding of Holy Communion, since becoming a Christian. I love these three words. I understood from the beginning the incredible act of God’s grace revealed and evident in communion. This act of remembrance is given for me so that I can participate in Christ as a part of Christ’s body, the church. It is nothing that I have done, nothing I could earn, nothing of which I am even deserving. It is given for me. What beautiful words. These are important and beautiful words because they indicate the manner in which communion is administered. We don’t take communion, we receive it. Communion is a gift of remembrance given for us by the one who gives us the gift. We receive the gift that has been given for us in order to remember. Jesus offered and gave his life for us. An atonement for our sins when we could not atone for them ourselves. This gift was given to us when we least deserved to receive it. Yet that is what we are called to do, receive. Every time we serve communion it is a gift that is given for you. It is an opportunity to share in Christ’s life, ministry, death, and resurrection. An opportunity to remember and to receive. After all … it is given for you. I hope you will join us in church this Sunday as we receive the gift given to us. See you in church.

“After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.” “Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.” John 21:15 Have you ever had someone ask you this same question? Do you love me? The answer is revealing to be sure. There is something even more revealing than the words one uses to answer the question however. Even more important than saying the words are the actions preceding and following the question. Remember, when Jesus asked this question to Peter he already knew the answer. Jesus knew that Peter loved him. Jesus had walked with Peter, taught Peter, eaten with Peter, and called Peter the rock upon which he would build his church. Jesus knew that Peter loved him. I believe Jesus was asking Peter if he loved him in order to help Peter understand the type of love Jesus required. A love of action and not just words. Peter followed Jesus and professed his belief in Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah. Peter fulfilled Jesus’ commands and did whatever Jesus asked of him. Jesus needed for Peter to now be the leader of the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus would be going to sit at the right hand of God, the Father, and he would need Peter to love him beyond following him. Every time Peter answered the question in the affirmative, Jesus asked him to do something. Jesus wanted Peter’s love to be demonstrated by feeding his lambs and tending his sheep. Jesus desires that his followers show their love for him by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the poor and widowed, visiting those in prison, and loving their neighbor everywhere. This is what love for Jesus looks like. As we wrap up our series "How to Change the World," we will look at how to stay in love with God. John Wesley instructed the people called Methodists to engage in works of piety and works of mercy. Acts of piety draw us to a greater love of God through the practice of spiritual disciplines. They strengthen our love of Jesus by spending time with Jesus through prayer, Scripture reading, fasting, and worship. We also strengthen our love of Jesus by growing our love of neighbor through works of mercy. Whenever we help someone defeat poverty, injustice, or inequity in their life we are offering them mercy and love. The more we love our neighbor through works of mercy the more we demonstrate our love of Christ. In my own life I have rarely, if ever, asked someone if they love me. I can either see their love for me or I cannot. Jesus knew Peter loved him. Jesus also wanted Peter to show that love by leading his church forward in spreading God’s love. After Jesus ascended to heaven, Peter demonstrated his love for Jesus the rest of his life. I look forward to continuing the discussion of how we are called to stay in love with God as the third simple rule for changing the world. Be sure to join us this Sunday.

I want to share with you some changes that you will notice this Sunday during worship. After nine years of service, Michele Pruyn has decided to retire from leading our 9:45 Contemporary worship service. Last Sunday was her last Sunday leading at 9:45. I want to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Michele. Michele is one of the most talented singers and directors I have ever worked with. Our music program is one of the reasons I love being the Senior Pastor at St. Andrew’s- this is because of Michele’s leadership. The thing I love best about working with Michele is how she brings the best out of the people she works with and leads. I am truly excited that Michele will continue leading our Traditional music program and am thankful for all her years of service to Christ and St. Andrew’s! Here’s to many, many more. Michele will continue to provide excellent direction to our 8:15 and 11:15 Traditional services. Please make sure to let Michele know how much you love and appreciate her. Michael Mobley will be serving as our Interim Worship Leader for our 9:45 service. I want to take this opportunity to say welcome to Michael . Michael has been working with the student ministry praise band on Sunday nights for two years now. He is a student at USF and is on staff at The Wesley Foundation at USF. Michael plays guitar, piano, and drums and has led worship at the Warren Willis Camp, Seminole Heights UMC, and several other churches. Michael has agreed to serve as the Interim Worship Leader at the 9:45 service as we begin the search for the permanent worship leader. This Sunday will be Michael’s first Sunday. Please make him feel welcome. This Sunday we will continue our series “How to Change the World” by exploring the second simple rule, Do Good! I have a friend who lives in Jacksonville who demonstrated the true meaning of doing good for me. I want to wait to share this story with you on Sunday, but I will tell you it involves his willingness to be selfless and generous. When Jesus told his disciples that anyone who wants to be great must become servant to all, Jesus knew that we would be tempted to want the place of honor. This is why he turned the worldview of his disciples upside down. He told them that even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. This is the example that Christ gave to us in loving God and living for God. We first have to understand the world we live in and make sure that our life glorifies God. We then need to do everything in our power to do no harm to people in our life, especially brothers and sisters in Christ. This week we will learn the importance of doing good. I look forward to sharing the call to do good with you this week in worship. See you in church.

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?” Luke 14:28 Several years ago my parents took their granddaughters to lunch. It was meant to be a treat and a time to spend some quality time together. They enjoyed a nice meal together and good conversation between them. I believe that my parents even splurged for some dessert, like grandparents do. At the end of the meal the server brought the check and laid it on the table saying, “I will take this when you are ready.” As soon as the server had left one of my daughters looked at my dad and said she wanted to pay the bill. My dad assured her that it was his treat, but she insisted. She got out her little purse and, after rummaging a bit, pulled out two quarters and set them on the table. “There you go! I’ve got this!” she exclaimed. In the above story my daughter had not counted the cost. She did not fully realize, at about 4, what it took to be able to pay the full price of the meal. Her heart was in the right place, but she was unable to pay the cost. I believe that our journey of faith is similar at times. We have the right heart and we set out with good intentions, but we have not counted the cost. Consequently, when the bill arrives we are unable to pay up. An example of this is when there is a brokenness in a relationship. Usually, we enter into relationships with the right heart and intention. We pour ourselves into the relationship desiring for the best. When the other person lets us down or disappoints us we get angry. We desire to offer grace, but we end up offering anger and judgment. Grace is a costly endeavor. When Jesus tells the parable of the tower builder it is in the context of counting the cost of following him as a disciple. Jesus was asking his followers to consider the cost of following him on their life. He tells them, “… none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” (14:33) There is a cost to following Jesus; it is a costly endeavor. Jesus is telling them to surrender everything they possess. Surrender your family, your house, your job, and your self. This is the most difficult aspect of surrendering to follow Jesus, surrendering your selfish desires. This Sunday we will be talking about the first simple rule, do no harm. The greatest challenge in “do no harm” is surrendering your ego. As author Rueben Job states, “To abandon the way of the world and follow the way of Jesus is a bold move and requires honest, careful, and prayerful consideration.” I hope you will join me as we continue our message series “How to Change the World.” See you in church.

"My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. 10 And all of them, since they are mine, belong to you; and you have given them back to me, so they are my glory!” John 17:9-10 Some things in life are subtle and others are glaring. I was in a store recently that had a sign instructing you how to use their soap dispenser. The sign was very small, blended in with the wall, and was placed under the soap dispenser in such a way that it was nearly impossible to see. It became a little humorous watching person after person try to figure out the soap dispenser, not one of them seeing the sign. I was in another store that has a sign as well, but this one was different. This sign was placed directly above the soap dispenser, was 12 inches high and 12 inches wide, and was bright red. In big letters the sign read, “Use soap and wash your hands!” There was a serious difference in the two signs. One was subtle and appeared to be something we didn’t really need. The second one was glaring and left people a very clear instruction. I feel like this is the world we live in today. There are constant messages being thrown at us all the time. Some are subtle and others are glaring. Students in school receive subtle messages that you have to dress a certain way to fit in. Adults receive subtle messages that they have to drive a certain car to be considered successful. There are thousands more subtle messages we receive every day from the world around us. There are glaring messages as well. The world we live in sends glaring messages that position, fortune, and notoriety are the signs of success. Poverty, homelessness, and struggle are the signs of those to whom success has been elusive. The world bombards us with messages every moment of every day and some are subtle, while others are glaring. That’s what I love about Jesus! In the Scripture passage above, Jesus is very clear. In this prayer to God, the Father, Jesus says, “My prayer is not for the world…” The world are all those who have yet to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus has a different prayer for them. Jesus came to save the world, but here he is focusing on those who believe in him in this prayer. The difference in how Jesus delineates between the world and those whom God has given him is glaring. Jesus prays for those who believe in him saying, “…so they are my glory.” The world are those who do not believe in Jesus and those who believe in Jesus are His glory. Other translations read, “…in them I am glorified.” A big difference indeed. This Sunday I am looking forward to exploring the following question with you, “Is Jesus Christ glorified in me?” as we begin our new message series “How to Change the World”. Be sure to join us this Sunday.

This Sunday will be the first Sunday of 2016! I hope you are having a Merry Christmas season and a Happy New Year. It is the tradition in the United Methodist Church to participate in a Covenant Renewal Service. We will be sharing in this experience this Sunday. From the very beginning God has entered into covenant with his people. A covenant is a commitment made between two parties. The most popular covenant in our time is a marriage. In marriage one spouse commits to spend their life with the other. There are vows and symbols. I had dreamt about my wedding day long before it happened. I planned, prepared, worked with others to make sure we had everything we needed. And when the day came I was truly ready. I had the perfect dress, the flowers, Kevin had his tux, the church and all three pastors that helped to officiate were all there and ready to go. I can’t imagine showing up unprepared. I encourage you to prepare for Sunday, for making or renewing a covenant with God. In this covenant we are not equal with God, rather we acknowledge our place in God’s kingdom. Below you will find the words to the Wesley Covenant Prayer. I encourage you to read them, pray about them. What parts have been easy this year? What parts are still difficult? How can God increase in your life so that it is possible to live up to your part of the covenant? I am praying for you as we prepare for Sunday together. May God do a mighty work as we renew our commitment to God together. I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you, exalted for you, or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing: I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6 (NLT) Today is the day! Merry Christmas! It was a day that had been foretold many hundreds of years prior to its occurrence. It was a day that the people of God longed for and eagerly anticipated. Perhaps even a day that many wondered if it would ever come. Through all of the anticipation and long expectation for the coming Messiah there was still belief. Today as Christians across the world celebrate the birth of the Christ child, let us remember what joy would have been experienced that first Christmas morning. The prophet was right. Their waiting is over. God has been faithful. The Messiah, our Savior, is born. Hallelujah! Glory to God in the highest! My favorite telling of Christ’s incarnation is found in The Gospel of John. John writes, “In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God…the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.” John 1:1, 14 I love this telling because it reminds us that our Savior has always been our Savior. Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity and He was and is and always will be. What we celebrate at Christmas is the in breaking of the Divine in human form. The Word being born in the form of a baby who could not even speak a word. This is what amazes me. The way God the Father chose to save me, and you, was through the birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of the only Son of the Father. That God, the Father, through Jesus Christ, the only Son, shows that much love and grace toward me is beyond my ability to comprehend. Perhaps it is our inability to comprehend the fullness of God’s love for us that prompted The Apostle Paul to write, “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Ephesians 4:19 It is my prayer that this Christmas we will all experience the love of Christ and be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. May you live in the promises that come with the birth of the Christ child, today and forever. On behalf of your Pastors, Lay Leaders, and Staff at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

"All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished." Luke 2:18 (NLT) Advent is a time of preparation and expectant waiting. Preparing for the coming of the Christ child. Preparing our hearts, minds, and lives for God breaking into the world. It is a time of expectant waiting, not knowing the fullness of what God will bring for all humanity. It is a very special time. Christmas is one week from today. It is the culmination of the expectant waiting of Advent. The Christ child is born and the shepherds and others know the Good News of great joy for everyone has arrived. The angel was right. The child is born. The star led them right to him. For unto us a child is born and the shepherds could not keep quiet. Luke says they told everyone about what they had experienced. The waiting was over! The most amazing thing about the shepherd's story for me is the reaction of those who heard it. Luke tells us that "all who heard the shepherd's story were astonished." The story is amazing for sure. There also had to be something about them that made the story astonishing. I am sure that their faces lit up, their voices got excited, and they became more animated. They were sharing a story that literally changed them. All who heard it were astonished. So how do we tell the story? Do we tell the story? The move from Advent to astonishment is a journey from introspection to proclamation. We prepare ourselves for Christ's birth, waiting expectantly for the day to come, and then we are to do as the shepherd's did and tell everyone; to proclaim the Good News of great joy. So who will you tell this Christmas? Who will you take from Advent to astonishment this Christmas? I pray that this Christmas we can all astonish people with the story of what God has done for us!

St. Andrew’s Justice Ministry would like to introduce you to Jesid Acosta. Jesid is our new HOPE representative working with St. Andrew’s and other Brandon congregations. Jesid is a native of Ecuador and moved to Florida while a teenager. He recently moved to our area from West Palm Beach, Florida. Jesid is a graduate of the same High School as Pastor Tim (just a couple of years after) and earned his bachelor’s degree at Florida State University. He is very enthusiastic and has a lot experience in volunteer work with migrant students in the school system. He is now working to engage congregations in Hillsborough County to make our community fairer for everyone.