I am so excited to be back with you guys today. If we've not met my name is Lindsey. My husband and I have been in Cody for about five years, and we are thrilled to serve you guys in the midst of transition. It is so wonderful to hear how you have worked together over the last season as you have waited for a new pastor. I'm so excited for what the Lord has in store for this congregation moving forward.

Today we're going to be looking at a story in Matthew about the birds, as I shared with the kids. I'm excited for us to jump in and look at the word 'worry' together.

We live up the Southfork about eight miles, and we live on a well. I didn't anticipate living on a well when we moved to Cody. I would have much preferred to have...I don't know...normal water. When we bought the house they said it's on a well, I said I don't know what that means, they said you don't have a water bill. Cool! That sounds great!

Do you all know what the word 'amen' means? Truly. It means truly. So, when Jesus says 'Amen, amen,' He's saying 'truly, truly, I say unto you.'

I was talking with a friend the other day, and she mentioned the fact that I always pray that prayer before I preach. And, I told her "Sometimes I switch the words around when I open my Bible to read, I will pray, 'Lord, may the words of your mouth, the meditations of your heart be acceptable in my soul.'

In other words, may I read this word and welcome what You have to say.

The last time I preached I talked about how deep is the love of Christ. Today the question is how wide is the love of Christ. In the summer of 1992 I was filling in for Maury Campbell in Powell. He went to the Gulf War. I preached on John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

That sermon had 2 points:

1) The extent of God's love;

2) The intent of God's love.


The extent of God's word is that God so loved the world. That is also the width of Christ's love.

I looked up the definition in the dictionary of the word 'world,' and there are two of them. Two definitions:

1) The Earth together with all of it's countries, people's, and natural features.

2) All of the people, societies, and institutions on the Earth.

Both definitions use the word 'all.'

Of course God loves the world - God created it!

I love Genesis Chapter 1. I like to read the creation story. When God creates the world and then looks at it, and says 'it is good.' I think what God is saying when He says, 'it is good,' is that God enjoyed that. "I really enjoyed making the world. Look at this! Wow!" He was patting himself on the back...

My name is, Greg Dimler, I'm a member here at this church and...it's my turn to give a message.

Did you hear that Forrest Gump passed away? When he arrived at the pearly gates St. Peter was there to greet him. "Welcome Forrest," Peter said. "We've been expecting you. We are quite busy and we have a test - 3 questions."

"Okay, let's hear them." says Forrest.

Question 1: What two days of the week start with the letter 't'?

"That would have to be today and tomorrow," says Forrest.

Peter replied, "That's not quite what we were thinking, but we'll take it."


Question 2: How many seconds are in a year?

"Well," says Forrest, "that's a tough one, but I would have to say twelve."

"Twelve! How'd you come up with twelve?"

"Well," says Forrest, "There's January second, February second, March second..."

"Okay," says Peter. "Number 3: What is God's first name?"

"Why that's the easiest question of all," says Forrest. "It's Andy!"

"How'd you get Andy?" Says Peter.

And Forrest sings, "And He Walks With Me and He Talks With Me, and he tells me that I am his own..."

I have to confess when I spoke with Jan and told her I would do my part and give a message I was secretly hoping that we would have a new pastor! And, I would not have to be standing here.

But, I guess God had different plans.

Not long ago I was challenged by a podcast I was listening to - to meditate upon the four aspects of the love of Christ and that is found in Ephesians chapter 3.

1) How wide;
2) How long;
3) How deep.

I have prepared a sermon on how high and I've already delivered it, not here, but this one is going to be on the depth of Christ's love. And then, next week I'll do one on the width of Christ's love. Let me warn you that if we talk about the width of Christ's love we cannot avoid politics. I won't be able to.

Anyway, I'm going to approach the depth of Christ's love in two ways:

1) The depth of Christ's love as it comes in me and into me.
2) Secondly, the depth of Christ's love as it is in Him.

The depth of Christ's love in me and you - He knows me and you. He knows me in the deepest recesses of my heart. Psalm 139 says, "You perceive my thoughts from afar."

And verse 139:4 says, "Before a word is on my tongue you oh Lord know it."

Have you ever spoken a word that you haven't thought of yet? Sometimes we say things without thinking, don't we?

It's never the sound guys fault, it's always the person up here's fault. But, don't we always look at the booth first? Isn't that an odd thing.

Hey, thanks so much for having me back. I've missed you guys and it's fun to be here.

Today if you have your Bibles you can go ahead and open up to Psalm 84.

My family decided to rent out our home this summer through Air BnB. We knew that we were going to be traveling for about six weeks when we mapped it out on a calendar. And, we just thought, why don't we throw it up, we're not coming back to Cody for six weeks, and see what happens. We were able to, surprisingly, rent it out for a bulk of that time, which is a lot of fun. But, can I tell you we didn't really know what we were doing? As soon as that first person booked, and we started packing and we realized these are friends coming to hang out for a while. These are complete strangers coming into our home. And, it kind of changed our perspective. It really changed the perspectives of our kiddos. Our oldest, Olivia, said, "I don't want strangers in my room messing with my things."

And, we actually had to talk in great detail about what would be left out invisible, what could be used, and what would need to be locked away in the shed. Because a home is an intimate space, if we're honest, isn't it? It was not something we had considered when we put our home on Air BnB. Of course we knew people would be staying in our home, but the intimate nature of having someone sleep in my bed, sleep in kids' bed. See pictures on the wall was a feeling we just weren't anticipating.

We packed up almost all of our belongings, put them in the shed we have in our front yard, and left the house for about 5 and a half weeks. Quite quickly we began to be homesick we started to miss the place we call 'home'.

A home is more than a place where we lay our head, it's a safe space, it's a place with memories...

The Cross and the Sword