“The good news is that God has already declared you enough.”

This is where The Good Life lands, week four of four in the Ten Commandments. Preached September 6, 2026, on Exodus 20:17, on a Communion Sunday over Labor Day weekend. The last commandment is the only one that reaches past the hands and into the wanting. The sermon opens with a genuinely good day lost in about four seconds, and asks what has actually happened when nothing about a life has changed except the comparison.

In the manuscript below:

• The answer researchers keep getting when they ask people how much would finally be enough, and why it holds up and down the scale.

• How one Hebrew word behind “covet” runs from a garden to a field of plunder to a plot of ground where a man dies over a vineyard.

• What Bible Project says we are actually reaching for when we want a neighbor’s things, and why getting them never settles it.

• Why an open hand cannot covet, and three ordinary practices that train one.

Read more

A Methodist Way of Making Disciples

Grace Groups recover one of the oldest Methodist practices. Almost three hundred years ago, John Wesley gathered Methodists into small weekly groups that asked one another, “How is it with your soul?” and watched over one another in love. A Grace Group is that same way of making disciples, brought back for today.

The Five Promises

Our five membership promises are also a simple way to talk about our faith journey:

• Prayers: connecting with God through prayer, scripture, and listening

• Presence: showing up for worship and the life of the church

• Gifts: giving to support the church’s mission

• Service: finding where you are called to serve

• Witness: sharing your faith in word and action

Your Hour Together

Everything for your hour together. The times are a guide, not a rule.

Our Covenant (0 min)

Each time we meet, we say yes to these together.

• Show up. The group is more whole when you are in it.

• Be honest. Tell the truth as best you can. That is enough.

• Keep it private. What is said here is held here. That keeps us safe.

• Give everyone space. Watch the quiet ones in. Make room for every voice.

We Begin (2 min)

We’ll begin with a moment of quiet, and then we’ll pray together.

God of every season, you are constant while our weeks are not. Steady us, and give us honesty and kindness in this hour. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Getting to Know One Another (5 min)

We’ll go around the circle. Share your name, then pick one of these to answer.

• What is a small thing that made you smile this week?

• If tonight’s dinner could be anything, what would you pick?

The Three Questions

These three questions are the heart of our time. We’ll move through them in order, and everyone gets a turn. The smaller questions underneath are just to help, and there are no wrong answers.

Soul Tending. How is your faith journey going? (10 min)

• What is God asking you to pay attention to?

• Where have you been going through the motions?

Now we’ll notice where God has been showing up.

God Sightings. Where do you see God at work in your life? (25 min)

• Where has God used something difficult for good?

• Who in your life is growing right now?

Now we’ll name what we want to hand to God.

Growing in Grace. What challenge are you giving to God? (40 min)

• What is heavy that you would rather not name?

• What is one step you could take before we meet again?

Connect Back (optional, only if time allows): anyone may briefly name something they heard today that stayed with them. Keep it short, for connection, not advice.

We Close (55 min)

We’ll keep a few moments of quiet now, space to allow what you shared and heard, and how God has been speaking, to settle in your soul, so you can carry it into the days ahead.

. . . a few moments of silence . . .

Loving God, thank you for this group and for the trust between us. Keep tending what has begun here. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

McPherson First United Methodist Church · mcphersonfirst.org/gracegroups

“Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s house.” – Exodus 20:17 (CEB)

Here is the good news on this last morning of our series. You do not have to earn your way to enough. In Christ, you already have it. The restless wanting can rest. Come to the table this morning with open hands, receive what God freely gives, and discover that the good life was never out ahead of you. It was here all along.

God, you are more than enough. Quiet my wanting, open my hands, and meet me at your table this morning, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

This is a planning preview shared before the series begins. Sermon focus, scripture, music selections, and worship elements may be adapted or revised as the series develops. Pastors and worship planners are welcome to use and adapt this approach for your own context.

Dates: October 18 through November 22, 2026 · Texts: Joshua through Isaiah, the fall Old Testament arc (Narrative Lectionary 106 through 111)

Joshua stood before a people at a crossroads and said, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” That choice still stands in front of us. Across six Sundays this fall we trace the covenant story of God’s people: Joshua’s bold choice, David’s failure and restoration, Solomon’s plea for wisdom, an outsider washed and welcomed, the prophets’ call to do justice, and a promised kingdom where swords become plows. One question runs through all of it: whom will you serve? The series is an invitation to choose, again and again, to belong to a faithful God.

The Look and Feel

The altar holds one static design for the whole series rather than changing week to week: a household threshold, an open doorway, echoing the “as for me and my house” of Joshua 24:15. The palette is warm and grounded, deep blue and stone and lamp-gold. Practically, this is a deliberate choice for a six-week fall stretch when staff capacity is thin. One build, no weekly reset, and the image stays in front of the congregation long enough to do its work.

Under consideration for the launch Sunday: a covenant-renewal moment, or a written “whom will you serve” reflection card people carry home. Both are still pending a look at what the worship team can actually carry. Series graphic and worship slides come from our Church Media Squad request.

How the Arc Is Shaped

This is one series with an internal hinge rather than two series wearing one name. The first half, Joshua and David and Solomon, is about choosing and keeping. It closes on November 1, All Saints, where the sending turns the congregation outward. The second half, Naaman and Micah and Isaiah, is about widening and fulfilling, and it opens November 8 on New Member Sunday, where the door widens to let people in. The turn is felt in the worship itself. It is not branded or announced.

Week 1: October 18 — Choose This Day

Scripture: Joshua 24:1-15 · Type: Decision · Promise: Witness · Series launch, Laity Sunday

Joshua rehearses everything God has done, then sets a choice in front of the people. Faith is not inherited on autopilot. It is chosen. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” becomes the congregation’s own declaration and launches the series. Laity Sunday sits well here: the choice belongs to the whole household of faith, not to the person in the pulpit.

Hymns / Organ

• A Charge to Keep I Have (UMH 413)

• O Jesus, I Have Promised (UMH 396)

• Lift High the Cross (UMH 159)

• Jesus Calls Us, O’er the Tumult (UMH 398)

• Lord, I Want to Be a Christian (UMH 402)

Contemporary / Praise Team

• Firm Foundation (He Won’t) by Cody Carnes

• Cornerstone by Hillsong

• I Have Decided to Follow Jesus

• Christ Be Magnified by Cody Carnes

• This I Believe (The Creed) by Hillsong

Week 2: October 25 — Create in Me a Clean Heart

Scripture: 2 Samuel 12:1-9; Psalm 51:1-9 · Type: Formation · Promise: Prayers

Nathan’s parable corners David, and David’s “I have sinned” opens into the honest ache of Psalm 51. Grace meets us with truth, and truth makes restoration possible. The covenant survives our failure because God is faithful, not because we are. The Bathsheba backstory gets narrated rather than read aloud, so the reading itself stays on Nathan and on David’s response.

Hymns / Organ

• Depth of Mercy (UMH 355)

• Change My Heart, O God (TFWS 2152)

• Spirit of the Living God (UMH 393)

• Just as I Am, Without One Plea (UMH 357)

• O for a Heart to Praise My God (UMH 417)

Contemporary / Praise Team

• O Come to the Altar by Elevation Worship

• Clean by Natalie Grant

• King of My Heart

• White Flag by Passion

• Mercy by Matt Redman

Week 3: November 1 — Ask for Wisdom

Scripture: 1 Kings 3:4-15 · Type: General · Promise: Prayers · All Saints, Communion, Daylight Saving ends

Given something close to a blank check from God, Solomon asks not for wealth or victory but for a discerning heart to serve the people. Faithful leadership begins on its knees. All Saints names the people who kept covenant before us, Communion is the covenant meal, and the sending turns the congregation outward toward the second half of the series. Three things land on one Sunday here, so the planning work is keeping the service from feeling crowded.

Hymns / Organ

• God of Grace and God of Glory (UMH 577)

• For All the Saints (UMH 711)

• One Bread, One Body (UMH 620)

• Sing with All the Saints in Glory (UMH 702)

• For the Bread Which You Have Broken (UMH 614)

Contemporary / Praise Team

• Holy Forever by Chris Tomlin

• Remembrance (Communion Song) by Matt Maher

• Death Was Arrested by North Point Worship

• I Will Rise by Chris Tomlin

• Behold the Lamb (Communion Hymn) by Keith and Kristyn Getty

Week 4: November 8 — Washed and Welcomed

Scripture: 2 Kings 5:1-15a · Type: Invitation · Promise: Presence · New Member Sunday

Naaman, a foreign general, is healed only when he humbles himself and washes in the Jordan, and he gets there on the word of a captured servant girl and his own servants. God’s covenant widens to the outsider, and the people God uses to widen it are the ones with the least standing in the room. On New Member Sunday the door opens and we welcome new members into the household of faith.

Hymns / Organ

• In Christ There Is No East or West (UMH 548)

• Wash, O God, Our Sons and Daughters (UMH 605)

• Help Us Accept Each Other (UMH 560)

• There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy (UMH 121)

• Take Me to the Water (TFWS 2103)

Contemporary / Praise Team

• Come As You Are by Crowder

• Jireh by Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music

• House of the Lord by Phil Wickham

• Good Grace by Hillsong UNITED

• Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me by CityAlight

Week 5: November 15 — Do Justice, Love Kindness

Scripture: Micah 1:3-5; 5:2-5a; 6:6-8 · Type: Justice · Promise: Service · United Methodist Women Sunday

Micah cuts past the question of what offering would finally satisfy God and lands on the heart of the covenant: do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God. A promised ruler from Bethlehem points ahead toward Advent without arriving there yet. United Methodist Women Sunday fits the week, since this is a congregation that has been doing justice through its women’s ministry for generations.

Hymns / Organ

• What Does the Lord Require (UMH 441)

• Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service (UMH 581)

• When the Poor Ones / Cuando el Pobre (UMH 434)

• Let Justice Roll Like a River (TFWS 2253)

• For the Healing of the Nations (UMH 428)

Contemporary / Praise Team

• Build Your Kingdom Here by Rend Collective

• Same God by Elevation Worship

• Do It Again by Elevation Worship

• God of Justice (We Must Go) by Tim Hughes

• Hosanna by Hillsong

Week 6: November 22 — When Swords Become Plows

Scripture: Isaiah 37:1-7; 2:1-4 · Type: General · Promise: Witness · Christ the King finale, Sunday before Thanksgiving

Under Assyrian threat, Hezekiah turns to God rather than to despair, and Isaiah lifts the congregation’s eyes to the end of the story: a mountain of the Lord where nations beat their swords into plows and learn war no more. The covenant’s end is the reign of Christ and the peace of God. The Assyrian siege of chapter 36 gets narrated rather than read. Christ the King closes the series and hands off to Advent 1 the following Sunday.

Hymns / Organ

• Crown Him with Many Crowns (UMH 327)

• O Day of Peace (UMH 729)

• Rejoice, the Lord Is King (UMH 715)

• All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name (UMH 154)

• Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (UMH 203)

Contemporary / Praise Team

• Is He Worthy by Shane and Shane

• All Hail King Jesus by Jeremy Riddle

• Prince of Peace by Hillsong UNITED

• Tremble by Mosaic MSC

• Worthy by Elevation Worship

How the Series Builds

Six sermon types carry the six weeks: Decision, Formation, General, Invitation, Justice, General. The two General weeks are Solomon and Isaiah, both of which do more teaching than turning, so the type fits the work each is doing. The membership promises land Witness, Prayers, Prayers, Presence, Service, Witness. That leans on Prayers and Witness and leaves Gifts out entirely, which is a deliberate call rather than an oversight: the Five Promises series immediately before this one spends a whole week on Gifts, so across the full fall the congregation gets all five amply.

The music was screened against our Music Tracking log to rest the hymns and praise songs we have leaned on recently, which is why some obvious fits are missing. A handful of the 10:15 picks will be new to the congregation. The plan is to keep it to one or two new songs per service rather than asking people to learn five at once.

A Few Planning Notes

The series was scaffolded late, past its usual concept window, and the frame came second. The Narrative Lectionary readings were already mapped, but the original working title treated these six texts as a study in leadership. Reframing to the covenant question of Joshua 24:15 gave the arc something that holds across all six texts and lands naturally on Christ the King, and it turned a series about biblical leaders into a series about the congregation’s own choice. That reframe is the single most useful piece of planning work in the whole series.

Three of the read-aloud ranges are narrowed from the full lectionary text, weeks 2, 3, and 6, with the surrounding narrative summarized by the reader instead. Long readings that require backstory tend to lose a congregation before the sermon starts, so we tell the setup and read the turn.

As For Me and My House follows Five Promises, our five-week walk through the membership promises, and the handoff is intentional. Five Promises closes on Exodus 19 and 20, the covenant at Sinai. This series opens on Joshua 24, where a later generation renews that same covenant. The congregation arrives at Joshua’s question having just spent five weeks learning what covenant living actually looks like.

“... or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.” – Exodus 20:17 (CEB)

One Easter our communion table nearly ran dry. So many people kept coming that the servers ran out of bread and juice, more than once, and we had to keep bringing more. I have never forgotten it. The table didn’t run short because people stopped coming. It ran short because they wouldn’t stop coming, and there was still room and still more to give.

That is the picture of God’s economy: not scarcity, but enough that keeps overflowing. Tomorrow we gather around that table, and contentment has a strange way of turning outward there. When you finally believe you have enough, your hands relax, and everyday generosity becomes natural, sharing freely because you are no longer afraid of running out.

God of the overflowing table, free me from the fear of not enough. Fill my open hands, and make me generous, because in you I already have more than enough. Through Christ I pray. Amen.

Wednesday night I got to the church at 6:16 for the launch of our fall Grace Groups session, which started at six.

The chairs were already set out in rows. The handouts were printed and stacked on the table at the front, next to a cup of markers. Somebody had written “Welcome to Grace Group” on the whiteboard. Someone else had opened in prayer and was partway into the first question. Nine people had come, and by the end of the night all nine had said yes to the whole semester.

I sat down and listened. At the end I wrapped things up. So I did have something to do that night. It just wasn’t any of the work that made the night happen, and closing is the easy end of it.

The thing I’d been at closed around noon, two hours away. I organized this group. It was on the calendar that night because I put it there. I got there for the last part of it.

Earlier that same day I said to myself that I tend to decide something and then go do it, and that I’ve never been good at equipping other people to do it instead. Nobody asked me. I’m still working to figure that out, a whole ministry career in.

Then I drove home and walked into a room other people had already opened.

Those two things sat next to each other for most of a day before I noticed they were next to each other.

I’d like to tell you they’re connected. That the confession was wrong, or that the room proves I’ve gotten better at this than I think. I don’t actually know that. It’s just as possible that good staff made a Wednesday work in spite of me, which is a different thing than being equipped by me. Nobody who set out those chairs was thinking about my development.

What I can say is that the chairs were set, and I didn’t set them.

I’m still bummed I missed the start.

Share

“Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s house.” – Exodus 20:17 (CEB)

If coveting is the disease, gratitude is the cure, and it is more practical than it sounds. Coveting keeps the eyes on someone else’s yard. Gratitude turns them back to your own and notices what is already there. You cannot covet and give thanks at the same time; the two cannot share the same breath.

This is not pretending everything is perfect. It is the deliberate practice of naming what is real and good right in front of you, the roof, the meal, the person across the table, the morning you woke up to. Try it tonight. Before you sleep, name three things you already have. Do it again tomorrow. Slowly, gratitude rewrites the story from “not enough” to “look at all this.” That quiet shift is most of what contentment is.

God, turn my eyes from what I lack to what you have already given. Make gratitude my habit, until “enough” becomes the truest word I know. In Jesus’ name. Amen

“... or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.” – Exodus 20:17 (CEB)

Here is the insight that changes everything. We almost never actually want the thing. We don’t want our neighbor’s house; we want the security we imagine living there would give us. We don’t want their success; we want the feeling of having finally arrived. We are not chasing the stuff. We are chasing a story about who we would be if we had it.

That is why getting the thing never satisfies. The story was never true, so the ache returns, and we go looking again. But it also means the cure was never about acquiring more. The thing we are really hungry for, to be secure, to be enough, to be loved, is something only God gives, and gives freely. Today, when you want something badly, ask what you are really reaching for. You may find God already holding it out to you.

God, underneath all my wanting is a hunger only you can fill. Stop me from chasing stories that were never true, and satisfy me with yourself. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

“Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s house.” – Exodus 20:17 (CEB)

The Bible tells one story about wanting, over and over. In the garden, the fruit looked good, the desire grew, and the hand reached out. See, desire, take. A man named Achan saw treasure he wasn’t to touch, wanted it, and took it. A king named Ahab saw his neighbor’s vineyard, couldn’t stop wanting it, and took it, ruining a life to get it.

The tenth commandment names that pattern and stops it at the source. Notice it runs see, then desire, then take. By the time it reaches your hand, it is almost too late. The place to interrupt it is earlier, at the desire, before the wanting hardens into action. That is why God goes after the heart. Guard what you let yourself dwell on, because today’s quiet desire is tomorrow’s decision.

God, you know how quickly wanting becomes taking in me. Meet me at the source. Guard my heart before my hands ever move. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

These worship elements are an early draft being shared as a preview for the upcoming service. The final version used in worship may be adapted or revised. Pastors and worship leaders are welcome to use and adapt these for your own context.

Welcome

Welcome to worship at McPherson First United Methodist Church. Whether you have been here every week or this is your first time through the door, we are so glad you came. This is a holiday weekend and the last Sunday of a series we have walked together, and this morning we gather at the Lord’s table. We are a church learning to live with open hands, and one of the five promises we make here is gifts, returning to God a portion of all we have received. There is a place for you here, exactly as you are. Come and worship.

(8:30 only, transition to the Call to Worship) I invite you to join in our responsive call to worship as you see the words on display.

Call to Worship (8:30 only)

Leader: In a world that always says “more,”
People: we come to the God who says “enough.”
Leader: Not enough as scarcity, but enough as fullness.
People: We have a God who provides, a table that is spread, a life that is full.
Leader: Lay down the restless wanting and come.
People: We come with open hands to the God who is more than enough.
Leader: Come and worship.

Welcome Your Neighbor

Following Jesus draws us toward people, not away from them. Take a moment to turn to those around you, the familiar faces and the new ones, and offer a genuine welcome. This is what witness looks like, a community warm enough that someone wants to come back and find out why.

We started this series with an open door, so finish it the same way. You don’t have to convince anyone. Just open the door: “Want to come with me?”

Please stand, welcome your neighbor, and then remain standing as we join together in song.

Opening Prayer

The music has gathered us in. Will you pray with me, using the words on the screen?

All: Generous God, our hands are so often clenched, around our worries, our wanting, our need for more. As we worship, loosen our grip. Open our hands to receive what you have already given, and open our hearts to you. Meet us at your table this morning. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:17 (CEB)

(Read by a lay reader, seated. The reader introduces themselves and the passage before reading it.)

One last time we hear from Exodus, where God gave a freed people the shape of a good life. We come to the final commandment, the one that reaches the deepest, into the wanting of the heart.

Listen for what this command guards against, and notice that it speaks not about your hands but about your wanting.

Hear now Exodus, chapter 20, verse 17.

Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s house. Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox, donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.

Leader: This is the Word of God for the people of God.

People: Thanks be to God!

Pastoral Prayer

(On Communion Sunday the Lord’s Prayer is prayed within the Great Thanksgiving, per the UMC communion order, and is not repeated here.)

Online and in this room, you are invited to pray. If you have a request for our prayer team, fill out a prayer request card from the pew rack and drop it in the offering plate, or share it in the Church Center app, and someone will pray with you this week.

God of all good gifts, we come to you honest this morning. So many of us are tired of wanting, worn down by the sense that we never quite have enough. Quiet the restlessness in us. And for those whose need is not imagined but real, the family that is short at the end of the month, the neighbor without work, the ones who genuinely lack, move us to be part of your provision.

(brief pause)

We thank you for these weeks together in your word, for the door you opened and the life you have shown us. As we come to your table, remind us that in you we already have more than enough. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Invitation to Give and Check-In

Everything we have comes from God before it is ever ours, and our giving is simply returning a portion with gratitude. We don’t give because the church needs it. We give because generosity is how we loosen the grip of more, and because our gifts let this church love this town all week long.

If you give faithfully, month after month, thank you. Your steady generosity quietly sustains everything we do. And if this is the first time you have given here, welcome, and thank you for joining in.

There are three simple ways to give. You can place your gift in the offering plate as it passes, give online at mcphersonfirst.org/give, or use the Church Center app, the easiest way to give right from your phone.

However you connect with us, let us know you’re here. You can check in on the Church Center app, at mcphersonfirst.org/next, or on the attendance pad as it comes down your row.

Ushers, please come forward to receive this morning’s offering.

Holy Communion: Invitation, Confession, and Pardon

Leader: Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another. This is Christ’s table, not ours, and there is room for everyone. Come, not because you must, but because you may; not because you have it all together, but because you long to be made whole. We confess our sin together now, using the words on the screen.

All: Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have wanted what is not ours and overlooked what we already have. We have grasped when you called us to open our hands. Forgive us. Free us from the restless wanting that never satisfies, and turn our hearts back to you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(brief silence)

Leader: Hear the good news: Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; that proves God’s love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
People: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
Leader: Glory to God. Amen.

Holy Communion: The Great Thanksgiving

Leader: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Leader: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.
Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. You made us and gave us a good world, full of enough. When we reached for more than we needed, you did not abandon us. You brought a people out of slavery, gave them a life shaped by your commandments, and led them toward a land of abundance. And when we still could not be satisfied, you gave us your very self in Jesus Christ.

And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

All: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Leader: Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. He healed the sick and ate with sinners. On a hillside with not nearly enough, he took five loaves and two fish, gave thanks, and there was more than enough, with baskets left over. On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” When the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: “Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Leader: And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as we proclaim the mystery of faith:

All: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

Leader: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and juice. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood. By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet. Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever.
People: Amen.

Leader: And now, with the confidence of children of God, we pray together:

All: 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 into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Holy Communion: Receiving

(Lift the bread and break it.)

Leader: Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all share in the one loaf.

(Lift the cup.)

Leader: The cup over which we give thanks is a sharing in the blood of Christ. These are the gifts of God for the people of God.

Servers, please come forward.

Leader: This is an open table. You do not have to be a member of this church, and you do not have to have it all figured out. If you are hungry for God, there is a place for you here. Come down the center aisle, receive a piece of bread, dip it in the cup, and return by the side. The cup holds unfermented grape juice, so all may share. If you would rather receive a blessing than the bread and cup, simply cross your arms, and we will pray for you. And if you are worshiping with us online, you belong at this table too; hold your own bread and cup, and receive with us where you are.

Friends, the table is ready. As the ushers direct your row, come and receive.

Prayer after Holy Communion

Generous God, you have fed us at a table where there was more than enough. Thank you for filling our open hands with your grace. Now send us out content and free, released from the grip of more, ready to share what we have received with a hungry world. In the name of Jesus Christ, who is our enough. Amen.

Will you please stand as we sing together?

Benediction

You came in this morning with a quiet list of everything you lack. Go out knowing that in Christ you already have enough, and that enough is meant to overflow into open-handed generosity. Love boldly, serve joyfully, lead courageously.

The God who is more than enough goes before you. The Christ who fed you at this table walks beside you. The Spirit who frees you from the grip of more lives within you. Go in peace. And all God’s people said, Amen.

“Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s house ... or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.” – Exodus 20:17 (CEB)

Notice that the commandment keeps saying “your neighbor’s.” Coveting is almost always comparison. We were doing fine with our own home, our own job, our own life, until we measured it against someone else’s. The neighbor’s house looked bigger. The neighbor’s vacation looked better. And suddenly what was enough an hour ago feels like not enough.

We carry a thousand neighbors in our pockets now. Every time we scroll, we are handed someone’s highlight reel and invited to measure our ordinary Tuesday against it. No wonder we feel behind. Comparison is the thief that slips in and steals contentment we already had. Today, when you catch yourself measuring your life against someone else’s, name it for what it is, and gently look back at what is actually yours.

God, free me from the trap of comparison. Let me stop measuring my life against everyone else’s, and receive the one you have given me with gratitude. Through Christ I pray. Amen.

I invite you to connect with the voices of the Bible, and today we listen to the last of the Ten Commandments in Exodus, chapter 20, verse 17.

“Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s house. Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox, donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.” We usually call this the commandment against coveting. And at first it seems like the odd one out. The others govern what we do: do not kill, do not steal, do not lie. This one governs what we want. It reaches past our hands and into our hearts.

And that turns out to be the point. Many readers of scripture have noticed that this final commandment goes back to the root of all the others. Before anyone steals, they first covet. Before anyone betrays a marriage or tells a destructive lie, the desire comes first. The tenth commandment names the seed that all the broken commandments grow from.

The Bible tells this story from the very beginning. In the garden, the first temptation follows a pattern: the woman sees that the fruit is desirable, she desires it, and she takes it. See, desire, take. That same pattern runs all through scripture. A man named Achan sees treasure he is not supposed to take, covets it, and takes it, and it brings disaster. A king named Ahab sees his neighbor’s vineyard, cannot stop wanting it, and arranges to take it, destroying a life in the process. See, desire, take. The tenth commandment is the garden temptation in miniature, named out loud and warned against.

But here is the deepest insight in this commandment, and it is strangely freeing. What we covet is almost never really the object itself. We don’t actually want our neighbor’s house, or car, or life. We want the good life we imagine that thing would give us: the security, the status, the sense that we have finally arrived. We are not chasing the stuff. We are chasing a story about who we would be if we had it. And that is why getting the thing never satisfies. The story was never true. There is always a better house, a newer version, a neighbor one step ahead.

So the commandment against coveting is not God trying to shrink your life. It is God trying to free you from a race that has no finish line. Coveting is exhausting. It keeps the eyes always on someone else’s yard and never on the gifts already in your own hands. The antidote is not a clenched jaw and more willpower. The antidote is gratitude, the slow, daily practice of noticing what you already have, and contentment, learning to say the word that our culture has almost forgotten how to say: enough.

Here is where it touches your ordinary life. Sometime today, you will feel the pull. A screen will show you a life that looks better than yours. A number will tell you that you are behind. When it comes, you might try a small experiment. Instead of asking, “What do I still want?” ask, “What do I already have?” Name three things. The pull does not disappear, but it loosens. And in that loosening, you may discover that you have been rich all along, and that contentment, not acquisition, is where the good life has been waiting for you.

That is the freedom this commandment offers, a God who is more than enough. Thanks for connecting with the voices of the Bible.

This is part of the Voices of the Bible series from Andrew Conard. Each week we explore the scripture passage for the upcoming sermon, helping you encounter the text before Sunday morning.

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“Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s house.” – Exodus 20:17 (CEB)

There is a quiet ache most of us carry and rarely name: the sense that we would be content if we just had a little more. A little more money, a little more space, a little more recognition. We get the thing we wanted, enjoy it for a week, and then the horizon moves again. Somehow we are still reaching.

The last commandment names that ache. Do not covet. It is the only commandment that goes after our wanting rather than our doing, because God knows the wanting is where everything starts. This isn’t God scolding us for enjoying good things. It is God noticing the treadmill we are on, the one with no finish line, and gently offering to help us off. The first step is simply to admit we are on it.

God, you see the restless wanting I rarely admit out loud. Quiet it. Teach me to want you, and to receive the rest as gift. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A note for readers: I preached this manuscript at the 10:15 AM service. Pastor Chantel Makarawa, our Associate Pastor, preached her own message at the 8:30 AM service. Sharing this version here for subscribers who want to read along with the series.

“The good news is that God has never stopped mending what we tear.”

This is week three of The Good Life, four weeks in the Ten Commandments. Preached August 30, 2026, on Exodus 20:12-16, five short commands in a row that are every one of them about the person next door. The sermon opens on an ordinary block on an ordinary evening where nothing dramatic happens, which turns out to be the whole point, and then pulls a single thread to watch how fast a street stops feeling like home.

In the manuscript below:

• Why most of these commands run only two or three words long, and how much weight each short line carries.

• What “honor your father and your mother” actually protected in the ancient world, and who it protects now.

• How the harm that unravels a neighborhood today runs through arrangements rather than villains, and why that makes it so easy to be part of.

• Where John Wesley got his first rule, and the point at which the gospel refuses to let us stop there.

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A Methodist Way of Making Disciples

Grace Groups recover one of the oldest Methodist practices. Almost three hundred years ago, John Wesley gathered Methodists into small weekly groups that asked one another, “How is it with your soul?” and watched over one another in love. A Grace Group is that same way of making disciples, brought back for today.

The Five Promises

Our five membership promises are also a simple way to talk about our faith journey:

• Prayers: connecting with God through prayer, scripture, and listening

• Presence: showing up for worship and the life of the church

• Gifts: giving to support the church’s mission

• Service: finding where you are called to serve

• Witness: sharing your faith in word and action

Your Hour Together

Everything for your hour together. The times are a guide, not a rule.

Our Covenant (0 min)

Each time we meet, we say yes to these together.

• Show up. Come each week. Your presence is part of the gift.

• Be honest. Bring your real self, questions and all.

• Keep it private. Keep confidences. Names and stories stay in this room.

• Give everyone space. Share, then leave room for the next voice.

We Begin (2 min)

We’ll begin with a moment of quiet, and then we’ll pray together.

Holy God, your grace arrives before we ask. Let us receive it here, and let it make us honest and unhurried with one another. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Getting to Know One Another (5 min)

We’ll go around the circle. Share your name, then pick one of these to answer.

• What is your go-to comfort food?

• What is a hidden talent or odd skill you have?

The Three Questions

These three questions are the heart of our time. We’ll move through them in order, and everyone gets a turn. The smaller questions underneath are just to help, and there are no wrong answers.

Soul Tending. How is your faith journey going? (10 min)

• Where is your faith more honest than it was?

• What has been hard to bring to God?

Now we’ll notice where God has been showing up.

God Sightings. Where do you see God at work in your life? (25 min)

• Where did you see God provide something you needed?

• What good thing happened that you had nothing to do with?

Now we’ll name what we want to hand to God.

Growing in Grace. What challenge are you giving to God? (40 min)

• What would you like prayed for that you rarely ask about?

• Where do you sense God asking for more trust?

Connect Back (optional, only if time allows): anyone may briefly name something they heard today that stayed with them. Keep it short, for connection, not advice.

We Close (55 min)

We’ll keep a few moments of quiet now, space to allow what you shared and heard, and how God has been speaking, to settle in your soul, so you can carry it into the days ahead.

. . . a few moments of silence . . .

Faithful God, we leave here carrying less than we brought. Thank you for taking the weight. Walk with us this week. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

McPherson First United Methodist Church · mcphersonfirst.org/gracegroups

“Do not kill.” – Exodus 20:13 (CEB)

Here is the good news this morning. God is not a distant rule-maker. God dreams of a neighborhood where every life is guarded, every promise kept, every word true, a place where you belong and are safe. And God is not waiting for the world to build it. God is building it, here, through ordinary people like us. Come this morning and be part of it.

God who makes us neighbors, thank you for a place to belong. Make me a neighbor worth having. Meet me as I worship, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

A while back I was part of a funeral for a woman who had lived in care facilities since she was a child. Eighteen people came, mostly other residents and the caregivers who had shared her days. They were not her blood. They were the ones who had always shown up, who noticed when she was having a hard day. A whole community built not from family ties but from faithfulness. That is the neighborhood God imagines.

All week we have walked through the commandments that hold a community together. Saturday is a good day to ask: who are my people, and am I one of theirs? One way to live this out is the practice of justice and advocacy, showing up for a neighbor who needs someone in their corner.

God, you place the lonely in families. Make me someone who shows up, and lead me to the people I am meant to walk beside. Through Christ I pray. Amen.

I came into my office in the middle of June and the air conditioning was working. Cool air, after all this time.

A few times through the day I stood there, not quite able to take in what was happening.

This began as a line item. Then a vote, then a dumpster in the parking lot, then a spring of crews and blocked hallways.

By June the meetings had gone small. The Monday construction meeting at eight went fine. One week the conversation with our facilities lead was about the graphic display for the new HVAC, the screen that shows which thermostat governs which room. That is what the end of a long project sounds like. Not a ribbon. Somebody working out how to draw it.

The sanctuary got there before my office did. The last Sunday in May was my first Sunday back in the pulpit after annual conference, and the new air conditioning made the sanctuary a different place. Cool air the whole hour, in the room the congregation gave toward. The office caught up sixteen days later.

I think I had been waiting for an event, some morning I could point at. What happened instead is that the weight went out of it before the air came in. The day before the office cooled, I could already feel the load starting to lift. A project you carry for months does not hand you a moment. It stops being heavy, and you notice the quiet where the weight used to be.

Which is probably why I stood there and could not take it in. I was watching for the wrong thing.

The order is right, though. The people who gave toward this system sat in cool air first, in the room they gave it for. The office comes later, and it should.

The system runs now whether or not anyone stops to notice. That seems like the point.

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“Do not testify falsely against your neighbor.” – Exodus 20:16 (CEB)

This commandment was first about a courtroom, where a person’s life could hang on whether their neighbors told the truth. But it reaches into every conversation we have about people who aren’t in the room. The rumor we pass along. The story we shape to make ourselves look better. The detail we leave out on purpose.

A community runs on being able to trust what people say. When truth erodes, everything erodes with it, and the people hurt most are the ones with the least power to defend themselves. Telling the truth about your neighbor is an act of love, especially when a lie would be easier or more interesting. Today, guard your words about the people who aren’t present. Speak about them the way you would want spoken about.

God of truth, guard my mouth. Let me speak about others with honesty and care, and let me defend the truth about those who cannot defend themselves. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“Do not steal.” – Exodus 20:15 (CEB)

Stealing is more than shoplifting. It is any way we take what isn’t ours, the credit that belonged to a coworker, the time we owe an employer, the wage withheld from someone who earned it, the corner cut at a neighbor’s expense. Every act of stealing, large or small, chips away at the same thing: trust. And a neighborhood without trust is just a collection of locked doors.

The commandment assumes something beautiful underneath it: that your neighbor’s belongings, and your neighbor’s security, matter to God. A just community is one where people can leave the porch light off and still feel safe, where what is yours stays yours. Today, notice the quiet ways we take. And consider the opposite of stealing, which is not just leaving things alone, but generosity, actively adding to your neighbor’s good.

God, make me trustworthy with what belongs to others. Turn my instinct to take into an instinct to give, so that trust can grow where I live. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.