These verses are part of larger series where...you know we like to think of Jesus as a person who is on a pretty even keel, but the fact of the matter is fully human, just like us. And, events have an impact on His emotions. And, he goes through stages just like us. There are times of anxiety, there are times of joy, there are times of uncertainty; and it's important for us to recognize that within Him. We also see an ongoing series in this stretch of Matthew where Jesus is addressing a lot of different topics. You kind of have to bear with me on that. I'm going to read from Matthew 11:16-30. That last bit of that passage, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light,” we often hear read a funerals. It's certainly relevant, but oftentimes we don't have the time to talk about what He exactly means by that. From the beginning of life, life is filled with stressors. Anxiety producing moments. Be it a child being away from his or her parents for the first time, be it the fear of trying something new like riding a horse on a wicked trail, be it a life-threatening illness, or the fear for a child. Every stage of life seems to have it's own unique stressors. And those stressors can create a number of different responses within us. You might become excited to face a new challenge, or you might become anxious or depressed. You might try to self-medicate with drugs or alcohol. You might lose interest in what are normally your favorite things. You might want to lock yourself in your room and not come out. The smallest thing might set you off. You might have big mood swings. One moment you are quiet the next moment you are highly agitated. Or you might respond by trying to over-perform. Having four jobs and living on nothing but...

How many of you here like to garden? I love to garden actually, and I was talking to my daughter not too long ago because we live in an apartment right now. It's the first time in a while that I have not had a place to have a garden. So we're scheming. We do have balconies - we're going to try to do something. But, it's just different. I grew up in Oklahoma and I've lived a lot of my life in the mid-west in a lot of small towns, and I still follow that trap - I don't lock my car. About the only time I remember having locked my car was during harvest season. If you didn't lock your care you might come out and find a bunch of zuchini's someone stuck in there because they have too much in their garden too. My question is how does your garden grow? How does it grow? The gospel today brought us two short parables. They were stories about seeds. The parables themselves are about the kingdom of God. They are about that amazing reality that is all around us. They start with these words, "The kingdom of God is like..."

So, to understand them we have to understand what we're thinking about. This first one was about a farmer who scattered seeds into a field. He lives his daily life, he goes about his chores whatever they may be in the moment. While he tends his garden and works in that garden there is nothing more he can do - if you think about it. Suppose the neighbor came and asked, "How does that garden grow?"

How does your garden grow?

Many of our Christian hymns and Christian contemporary music was and is inspired by scripture, life's trials, and God's presence throughout...

Although I grew up in a nominally faithful home, I didn't personally come to faith in Jesus Christ until I was in my middle teens. And, shortly thereafter, I became fixated on that passage I just read for you from 2 Chronicles. God appears to Solomon early in his reign and says, 'Ask of me whatever you want me to give you.' And Solomon responds give me wisdom and knowledge.

Young and foolish as I was I thought that would be a good thing to ask for, so I too, prayed for wisdom and knowledge; and in some small ways God has responded. But, the problem is there is only one real path to original wisdom, and usually (certainly in my case) the path to wisdom leads through countless mistakes, and setbacks, and troubles, and poor choices, and reversals, and false starts.

To pray for wisdom is to pray for a rocky road. Knowledge can come through an education - either a formal education or an informal education. Anyone with a modicum of intellect and a little self-discipline can acquire a lot of knowledge. But, wisdom, often only comes through walking life's paths with all of its various twists and turns and what they can teach you. Wisdom can even be increased by accompanying other people on their paths. Walking through their twists and turns with them as well. If you do that and pay attention, you are exposed to a lot of wisdom. As you set with others in their moment of crisis. But, wisdom is rarely found on an easy path. My point being...

A few weeks ago we were working on the bulletin for during this ten commandment series, as you know, often-times I've been putting a reading in the bulletin from the catechism. One Sunday I had given the reading from the catechism to Kelley to put in the bulletin and I asked her to read it. See if it reads right, see if you understand what's going on there and she read it, then she was very quiet. She was actually rather somber and I said, "Well what do you think?"

And she paused and she responded saying, "Well now I feel truly terrible. I feel guilty. I have real trouble doing this thing that this confession is telling me I need to do."

And, of course, she's not alone in that. If you seriously read the commandments, if you seriously read the commentary on the commandments from the Westminster Shorter Catechism; you can't do that without sooner or later coming away feeling convicted. There are things you have been doing that are not in compliance with those commandments. Which is a good place to be, but it's a terrible place to stay.

When we think of why the commandments were written we remember the people of Israel had just escaped slavery down in Egypt. They are out in the wilderness, they're kind of a rabble. They don't have any real rules yet. And, I got to thinking about that this week...have you ever seen on the news news-coverage or images of refugee camps? Have you ever seen a refugee camp on the t.v.? They're chaos! Even the ones that people have set up...

If you were ever curious about who and what is the Presbytery of Wyoming...anybody...shout out? All of you and every other part of the 26 churches that make up the Presbytery. You all are the Presbytery of Wyoming. Greetings from your brothers and sisters across the state. I want you to do what I did with the kids for a brief moment. In this passage in Ezekiel I want you to think about being there. I'm going to give you some context. It's about 600 BC. Nebuchadnezzar was about to destroy what remained of Jerusalem. Your holy city. You and your people have been utterly defeated. The last of the living march east to Babylon. That's the scene and beginning of our first lesson in Ezekiel. We know Nebuchadnezzar was a real person. Someone with a raging temper who ordered terror and destruction. As the encounter between Ezekiel and God, which is our actual Bible text today. We know that there is truth in this moment for us today. We don't know in history books whether this happened, right? And, I don't think it really matters. We have the authority of scripture telling us this prophet Ezekiel in his time was faced with utter destruction was brought this message. Showing Israel dry bones being pilled back together. I couldn't help the other day as I was driving back to Casper to have a little bit of a flashback to my time in a church camp in Oklahoma called Falls Creek. I'll be honest, I can't say that I loved all of those experiences...