PM sermon for 6/10/07

The text this Sunday evening comes from Nehemiah 13:11. Nehemiah asks "Why is the house of God abandoned (or neglected)? He comes from the king a second time after the wall is built and dedicated only to find the high priest, Eliashib, making room in the temple for the foreigner Tobiah. Nehemiah also discovers that the Levites haven't received their portions and have gone back to their fields. The question of Nehemiah begs for a sermon but I want to make sure that I put the text in its proper context before making what some might think are obvious applications to the church.

AM sermon for 6/10/07

My lesson this Sunday continues the series in Colossians (Living Heavenly Values on Earthly Soil) with a look at 3:1-4. This text helps us to focus on things above. Since Jesus has come from heaven, has been made in the image of the invisible God, has died for us, been raised again, then we need to keep our focus on things beyond this age. Look to the age to come, look to our hope.

PM sermon for 5/20/07

This Sunday evening I'm going to do something I rarely do - preach someone else's outline and thinking. It will not be a word for word copy since I don't have a manuscript but the outline clearly comes from someone else. I heard this lesson at the Holy Land Experience in Orlando. I cannot remember the man's name but I do know that he is the chief Bible teacher at the Holy Land Experience. Although the lesson had some elements of allegory in it, it wasn't allegorical nor was it one of those "imitate this guy" type of lessons. It really focused on God's faithfulness in the man's life and how God will be faithful in ours. The text is 1Chronicles 11:22-25. I haven't decided on a title. The text is about Benaiah, one of David's valiant men. He wasn't one of the "three" but he certainly gained a name. The lesson will focus on the last part of v.22 where Benaiah goes down into a pit and kills a lion. I'm looking forward to studying this text and then seeing if my study leads me in the same direction as the speaker I heard. I hope to have more during the week.

AM sermon for 5/20/07

My lesson this coming Sunday will continue the sermon series from Colossians - Living Heavenly Values on Earthly Soil. The text will be 1:24-2:5 and the title will be "A Heavenly Ministry." I wish I had the time to divide this text up into about three lessons. I will probably focus on 1:24-29 and talk mostly about imitating Paul's ministry in trying to get the Word proclaimed. Of course that focus may change as I study the the text this week.

Public reading of Scripture

Paul wrote to Timothy (1Timothy 4:13):

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. (NIV & TNIV)

Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. (NASB)

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. (ESV)

Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. (NKJV & KJV)

It is interesting to me first that the word "Scripture" doesn't appear in this text yet several translations put it in assuming that is what Paul means when he tells Timothy to devote himself to reading. Only the KJV and the NKJV leave it out. I don't have any doubt that we should assume in interpreting this text that Paul is telling Timothy to pay attention to reading the Scriptures publicly to the gathered church.

What I would like to know is why in our fellowship (Churches of Christ for those of you who may not know my background) we did not include this as one of the acts of the assembly? It seems pretty obvious to me that reading of Scripture was approved in Scripture and practiced by the early church (and even in the Old Testament). This is why lectionaries developed. I have the church where I serve now (and churches in the past) read my text for preaching just before the sermon. But I have not talked them into reading a text or text's as part of a pattern.

I have several questions for all of you who may come by.

1. Does your congregation have Scripture reading as part of your worship service apart from reading the text for preaching?
2. What pattern do you use for reading Scripture? Do you use a lectionary or some other way of choosing the text or texts to be read?
3. Was this a part of the congregation's worship service before you came? If not was it difficult for you to have them start doing it? How did you convince them they should have reading of Scripture as a regular part of the assembly?
4. How is the reading working out? Have you noticed a difference in the congregation?
5. Are you working on developing this as a part of your assembly?

AM sermon for 5/6/07

My text this Sunday AM is Colossians 1:21-23. I will be focusing on what Jesus accomplished through his cross. The focus thus will be reconciliation. I will start by looking at our alienation from God. Paul says it's an inward and outward corruption. Our minds and our deeds are evil. Evil here is defined is less than what God wants. In fact we are hostile to God because of this corruption. But God doesn't allow the fact of our alienation to get in the way of his love for us. He sends his son who through his fleshy body reconciles us to God. The focus on Jesus' body is possibly to counteract those who teach that Jesus was just a man and that when he was baptized the spirit of the Christ entered him. And when he died the spirit of the Christ left him. Wright (in his commentary on Colossians) thinks that Paul usually uses the word "flesh" for humans to emphasize their rebellion against God. So God is identifying with weak man by becoming just like weak man (minus the sin). So in the cross man's sin is condemned and reconciliation takes place.

Verse 22 suggests that once reconciliation takes place Jesus presents us as holy, without blemish, and without reproach. Reconciliation is not just for salvation but also for sanctification. We are to be set apart as the holy people of God.

Some see in verse 23 a condition - our faithfulness. We need to remember that conditions and merit are two separate ideas. The gospel is given without merit because merit is gained by Jesus Christ on the cross and in the empty tomb. The gospel is proclaimed with conditions so that we might identify with the Gospel. This verse deals with one single condition after we have entered into the body of Christ.

It is fitting that these verses follow the wonderful portrait that Paul paints of Jesus in 1:15-20. Jesus came into our world to show us the way back home. He is the only one who could reconcile us to God. He is truly the complete one.

Sermons for Today

Both sermons went off well. One of the elders told me the AM lesson was a keeper. The AM sermon had a couple of glitches in the PowerPoint (actually we use Media Shout for the auditorium presentation but I create the slides in PowerPoint - actually Open Office and then convert to PowerPoint), The first glitch occurred when one of our media guys zoomed in for a slide. I had a map of Asia Minor with Colossae identified and the map was a little on the small side. So Doug zoomed in with the projector. I don’t know what everyone thought about Doug’s actions but I thought it was cool. Anyway, then the slides wouldn’t advance. But eventually they started. On the slide for the invitation when I clicked for the last bullet point to come up, all the other bullet points disappeared. Somewhat disconcerting. I’m getting to where glitches don’t fluster me as much.

The PM went without glitches. I thought that the fonts I used were too small. The song leader (himself a retired preacher) said just before the final song, that he thought it was a very inspirational lesson.

No texts for this week. We are headed to VA to visit Lisa, Dan, Nathan, Jeremy, and Derek. On the way up and the way back we will visit Pat’s folks (Lon and Jeanne Mohundro - Grandy and Nana) for lunch. I probably won’t post much next week since we will be gone most of the week. I guess I’m going to have a blogfast like Brian. Are you supposed to drink water on a blogfast?

PM Sermon for 4/1/07

Sunday evening's sermon will follow my pattern for choosing a text from our daily Bible reading schedule. I've chosen 1Samuel 17 and will call it "Faith Without Restraint." I want to make sure that I just don't moralize about having faith but want to show the passage in God's movement toward redemption in Jesus Christ.

What I see in the passage is that David has trust in a God who doesn't need our resources to deliver us. In fact if we have trust in our resources (like Saul and his army) then when we come up against a stronger opponent then we give up. Our God is able to deliver without our weapons in unconventional ways. God often sets our standards upside down and choses things that we would never think of.

This will be a good follow up sermon for our campaign. By the time I step into the pulpit for this sermon we will have already begun our follow up for our contacts. I'm sure we will find some of them don't really have any interest. We need to trust God and not let our defeats stop us. He is able to give the victory so we press on.

AM sermon for 4/1/07

I don't think I will plan an April Fool's sermon for this next Sunday. Instead I will begin my sermon series on Colossians. I'm going to start with the idea that in order for a Christian or a congregation to "Live Heavenly Values on Earthly Soil" it must begin with a faithful church. I will start with Paul's introduction, 1;1-2. Paul address his letter "to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae."

Paul sees them as a faithful congregation doing the Lord's will. For those of you who remember reading Gene Getz's book, The Measure of a Church, Paul's introduction and prayer often contain clues about the church's maturity level. For Getz the three words were faith, love, hope. All three of theme are present in Paul's prayer for them (1:4-5). However, these three will be saved for the next sermon where I will talk about the characteristics of a faithful church. I just mention theme here to establish that this is a mature and faithful congregation.

Not sure just yet what direction I'm heading for this lesson. I will begin study tomorrow and see where it takes me.

Next Quarter Sermons for AM

This next week I will begin a sermon series from the book of Colossians. The theme for the year is Keep Your Eye on Heaven in 2007 and the theme for this next quarter is "Living Heavenly Values on Earthly Soil." I choose the title and the book of Colossians because of 3:1-4 where Paul tells them to keep their minds on things above. Here are my titles:

Living Heavenly Values on Earthly Soil
1. Begins with a Faithful Church 1:1-2
2. Characteristics of a Faithful Church 1:3-14
3. God Brought Heaven to Earth 1:15-20
4. The Results of Heaven coming to Earth 1:21-23
5. A Heavenly Ministry 1:24-2:5
6. Walk with the One from Heaven 2:6-7
7. Leaving Behind Earthly Values 2:8-23
8. Keep your eyes on heaven 3:1-4
9. Putting to death Earthly Practices 3:5-11
10. Putting on Heavenly Virtues 3:12-17
11. Heavenly Households 3:18-4:1
12. Presenting Heaven to Outsiders 4:2-6
13. Heaven's Fellow-workers 4:7-18

I really love preaching a series from a book. Colossians is always a favorite. I've come to believe that the church in Colossae was actually a quite mature congregation, even more so than the church in Philippi. I don't think that the things Paul mentions in 2:8-23 were present in the congregation as they were on the horizon. Paul is warning them about trends that were headed their way (or possibly present in a small way). Anyway, I think it is the perfect NT book to talk about living the Christian life here on earth while keeping your mind on heaven.

No Sugar Tonight

No sermons this week. We have a campaign by Heritage Christianity University. They are bringing 16 students and 6 adults (actually the students are adults but this is the way we distinguish the two). Stephen Guy is will be speaking Sunday through Wednesday. See you all next week.

application for John 1:43-51

As part of my sermon preparation I always go to SermonCentral.com and check out what others have done with the text. Actually what I really do is to see if they have any good illustrations. I tire of the ones I find at the various illustration sites because they are too trite. Sometimes I find personal illustrations in someone's sermon that really fit.

I typed in John 1:43-51 at SermonCentral.com and got about 100 sermons. I don't go through every one, I just read the short synopsis and then decide if it's worth viewing. I noticed something as I perused the titles and synopses, most the sermons were about evangelism. I figured that evangelism would be the application for this passage but I don't think that evangelism is the main point of the passage. It seems that John the Apostle is writing about Jesus and his entrance into our world. He gives several titles for Jesus - the Word, son of God, son of man, king of Israel, messiah, rabbi, lamb of God - all of which are designed to help us understand who Jesus is. This chapter is about the disciples coming to the realization that Jesus is the one they've been waiting for. He's here! Now that they know that what do they do? They go and get someone and bring them to Jesus. That is the application of the passage but not the main point of the passage. Jesus is the bridge for heaven and earth, and we on the earth should tell others about this bridge.

My insight for John 1:43-51

John's account of Jesus calling his apostles of course differs from the Synoptic Gospels. Instead of Jesus calling them and they leave their nets, the ones who will become the apostles go and get each other. Once they meet Jesus and become convinced of who he is, they go get someone else.

When Nathaniel meets Jesus he is immediately confronted with a man who knows him - "Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit." Nathaniel is confused by Jesus' pronouncement of his character. And so Jesus goes further - not only do I know you but I saw you under the fig tree. This is enough for Nathaniel, Jesus is indeed the Son of God and the King of Israel. Both are messianic terms. Jesus then tells Nathaniel he will see greater things that just being told where he was sitting. Jesus then alludes to the dream that Jacob saw on his way to Haran where he sees a ladder between heaven and earth.

Some interesting ideas pop up in the text. Compare Nathaniel's encounter with the pre-resurrected Jesus to that of Thomas' encounter with the resurrected Jesus. Jesus asks a similar question, just because you've encountered me personally do you believe? With Nathaniel he says that more will be coming. With Thomas he says that others will believe in spite of of not seeing. Of course Jesus asks the blind man who now sees (9:35) and the disciples (16:31) if they believe.

Although these are interesting insights into the text I want to stay with our theme "Keep your eye on Heaven" with the lesson. So my focus will be on 1:51, Jacob's ladder. It seems that in this text the disciples are encountering Jesus who in John's Gospel is portrayed as the one coming from heaven and believing in him because they are convinced that he is the messiah. Even though Jesus is speaking to Nathaniel while alluding to Jacob's ladder, it appears to me that the allusion is for the other disciples and the readers as well. So then we may ask the question as the disciples should have asked the question - how is Jesus the bridge between heaven and earth? I'm going to suggest 4 ways that Jesus becomes the bridge.
1. He is two natures - one divine and from heaven, one flesh and from the earth (1:1,14)
2. He is come to teach us of heaven - they call him rabbi (1:38), he tells Nicodemus that he came to tell us of heaven (3:12)
3. He is the fulfiller of God's plan - the one of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets spoke (1:45)
4. He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (1:29) - If Jesus forgives us our sin then we can fellowship heaven

Not sure where to take this for an application but will mull that over.

My insight for Joshua 1-2

This has been a hectic week here in Mt. Dora. I've been spending time working on our campaign (one week from this Saturday) plus I've done chapel for elementary school. Eddie and I are going to a robotics competition Friday. One of our members (a teacher at the Bible school) is entered. We are going to encourage him.

In reading through Joshua 1-2 I noticed that God says "be strong and courageous" several times. Joshua has been given the task of leading the Israelites into the promised land. But they don't just waltz in and start living there. They must first conquer the land in order to enjoy the benefits of the land. The inhabitants are being punished by God due to their sin (Gen.15:16). I've noticed what I see as 3 reasons for Joshua to be strong and courageous.
1. God promised that the land would be theirs (God is always faithful to keep his promises)
2. God promised to be with Joshua and with Israel (even when the circumstances suggest otherwise)
3. Blessings await them in the promised land after the battle (it is a land flowing with milk and honey)

Application will be that we are headed for a promised land as well. Only we don't have to conquer the land. Along the way we must fight in order to enter that land. I plan on using 2Corinthians 10:1-6 to show that our battle is spiritual and that in that battle our booty is someone's soul. Our battle is what we call evangelism.

Then I will remind them that in less than a week we can all engage in that battle with our spring break campaign with the Heritage Christian University students who will be coming to door knock with us in the community. Everyone can have a role to play regardless of their gifts. What they need to do is trust God and "be strong and courageous" for the battle.

PM lesson for March 11, 2007

On Sunday evenings I'm preaching on texts taken from our daily Bible reading schedule. This week I'll be preaching from Joshua 1-2. The title will be "Be Strong and Courageous." God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous several times in this text as he prepares to lead the Israelites into battle to conquer the land. I plan on relating the text to our efforts in evangelism. I will probably liken Joshua's physical battle to our spiritual battle. We should trust in God's power in the battle and not just on our might. We have a spring break campaign the following week (March 18-21). Heritage Christian University will be sending 16 students and 6 adults. We will have some door knocking and preaching every night. I hope to encourage the congregation in our evangelistic efforts through the sermon.

AM Lesson for March 11, 2007

My text for March 11 will be John 1:43-51. The Title will be "Bridging Heaven and Earth." Since our theme for this year is "Keep Your Eye On Heaven in 2007" I thought this would be a good lesson about Jesus who came from heaven to bring both heaven and earth together. As background I will bring in Jacob's dream where he sees the ladder between heaven and earth. I don't know that I've ever preached on this text but I'm looking forward to bringing out how Nathaniel was probably under the fig tree contemplating the passage from Genesis where Jacob has his dream. This part of the chapter is about the disciples spreading the news that they've found the messiah. Jacob's ladder shows that the purpose of the messiah was to bridge heaven and earth together. Haven't decided on a direction just yet.

Theme for 2007

Our theme for this year is "Keep Your Eye On Heaven In 2007." The text for our title is Colossians 3:1-4. I have divided the year into four quarters (imagine that?!). The first quarter of lessons are focused on God as the one who possesses heaven. The first month the focus was on the Father. The second month I'm focusing on Jesus as the Son of God who came from heaven to make it possible for us to go to heaven. The third month I will be focusing on the Spirit who also was sent from heaven to us to help us get on the right path to heaven. The second quarter is "Living Heavenly Values On Earthly Soil." I will be doing a sermon series from Colossians. I think that Paul helps the Colossian congregation to overcome difficulties here on earth by keeping their minds focusing on heaven above. The third quarter is "Revive my Longing for Heaven." Mount Dora has been doing a revival theme in September for the last few years so I thought I would keep that theme alive. In September I will have a handout that has a scripture and thought for every day of September. I'm calling it "30 day challenge." I know it's not original (40 days of purpose, 40 days of whatever) but a lot of people really liked it last year when I did a 30 day challenge of "Reviving my Love for God's Word." The final quarter will focus on the second coming, judgment, and eternity. So there you have the year in summary.

Welcome

This is my new blog designed to help me become a better preacher. I'm going to post each Monday (Lord willing and me willing) my title, text, and where I am headed with the sermon for next Sunday. Those who you who wish to share something with me about this text are quite welcome to do so. Please share thoughts, insights, exegesis (like you have time), illustrations, statistics, stories, or whatever you feel like sharing that might help me develop a sermon. If you have a sermon outline and want to send it to me as an attachment, please feel free. I never use someone else's outline in the pulpit for two reasons. One is it would be wrong (images of lawsuits for plagiarism come to mind). Two, I have a difficult time preaching someone else's outline. I have my own thought patterns and must outline my sermons my way (I did it my way - I knew knowing Frank Sinatra's music would be helpful one day). I will also attribute anything I use to the proper person. I hope I can interact some during the week with those of you who do comment on the text. Thanks in advance for your insights and comments.