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.