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Sermon Preview: The Power of One Hour

I was a nerdy kid. When cool kids ask for presents, they ask for soccer goals, fancy bikes, really cool blue jeans and trips to football camp. They get cool stuff for stocking stuffers at Christmas...I got model rockets and science experiment kits. When I was 8 I asked for a set of Encyclopedias. Like I said, I was a nerdy kid.

Here is the funny thing. Encyclopedias used to be big business. They were expensive. They were also heavy. But you had to have them. When you had to write a report or show any type of knowledge, that was the first place you went. In 1993, Microsoft decided to fix part of the problem. They released Encarta, a CD-ROM based Encyclopedia. It quickly destroyed the competition, but at great cost. Microsoft hired an ARMY of folks with specialized degrees to write and maintain it’s content.

But when was the last time you used a traditional encyclopedia? When wikipedia burst on the scene the whole encyclopedia business changed. Why pay 1100 dollars or even 2000 dollars on a paper encyclopedia? Wikipedia is even more accurate than the Britannica. It does so because it leverages the skills of tens of thousands. Everybody can accomplish more than somebody. Any organization who success and mission revolves around volunteer knows this.

When Moses and the Israelites were called by God to build the tabernacle, the place of His holy dwelling, they were faced with a specific task. And God provided. The hearts of the people were stirred in order to fulfill the mission God gave them.

All whose hearts were stirred and whose spirits were moved came and brought their sacred offerings to the Lord. They brought all the materials needed for the Tabernacle, for the performance of its rituals, and for the sacred garments. Exodus 35:21

As our church grows, we are called to fulfill a specific mission. Tomorrow we will be thinking about one part of that and how each of us giving an hour a month can provide TREMENDOUS power towards what God calls us to do.

See you in church!

Sermon Preview: A Passion for the Harvest

As we enter the second week of Christian to the Core we come to this core concept.

God looks for Men and Women who are share a passion for those without Jesus.

Evangelism frightens people. Something about it gives us the image of the ruddy faced street preacher screaming condemnations at all those around him. It makes us think of folks who (in our mind) often show the opposite of what we feel Christ tells us in the Scripture. As we journey this week into our core concept let's allow the words of Christ to form our idea of evangelism.

Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” Matthew 9:35-38

Two connected concepts really drive Jesus in this section. The first is that of the harvest. Harvest time was a cyclical pattern in the life of the 1st century Jew. Many things revolved around the harvest; religious feasts, local taxes and for most people subsistence. If the harvest was good, life was good that year. If it wasn't...things might get a little tough. Harvests must be brought in the moment they are ready. That brings us to our second concept; urgency. You can't wait and let a harvest pick itself. There is a window in which a harvest needs to be brought in.

As Christians we have an urgency to realize the world is ripe for the message of Christ. The way we carry it matters. Relationships, choices and personal testimony are just a few of the things that matter and will be part of our conversation.

Come to worship this Sunday and let's dive in deep into the word of God.

 

 

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Sermon Preview: Intimacy with God

When I was 10 years old or so I realized I wasn't cool. Until then I don't think it crossed my mind. At that time I instantly wanted to be interested in everything the "cool kids" were. In my neighborhood, that meant sports and sports cards. I had to trade in my Hardy Boys books for a Beckett magazine. In hopes of skipping a few steps in the cool ladder I wrote to a famous sports start asking for his autograph. A few weeks later, what I believed to be a genuine, signed picture from Bo Jackson showed up on my doorstep.

My Father, who practiced the parental strategy I call "brutal honesty", was pretty quick to help me understand this was not really signed and probably sent to anyone who wrote to him. My hopes of getting cooler had to find a new avenue. Me and Bo had a non functioning relationship.

Over the next two months at St. Paul's our entire church is focusing on Christian to the Core in both worship and Sunday morning discipleship. Our sermon this week will be the first in the series and we will be talking about Intimacy with God.

At times we hold God off at a distance and have as much claim to a relationship with him as I did with Bo Jackson. This isn't the relationship God designed us for. Our scripture focus comes from Exodus and talks about the magnificent encounters Moses had with God.

Whenever Moses went out to the Tent of Meeting, all the people would get up and stand in the entrances of their own tents. They would all watch Moses until he disappeared inside. As he went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and hover at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses. When the people saw the cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, they would stand and bow down in front of their own tents. Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Exodus 33:7-11a

What God desires for us is for you and I to have the full relationship He created us for. We work best when we are in a deep relationship with God. In it we are formed in the image of Jesus, turned not into idolaters, seeking after our own desires, but into worshipers...focused on the glory of God. We are called friends of God.

We will spend our morning talking about the essential elements of this friendship. I invite you to come and worship with us.

Sermon Preview: A First Word on Last Things

I am pretty odd. I know that. I like bigfoot. I could eat catfish every meal. My favorite book of scripture is Revelation.

Yep, that book. The scary one. The one the ruddy faced street preacher always hollers about.

This month I begin a series at St. Paul's called "Leaving Left Behind Behind". I am hoping to really show how Revelation doesn't serve as an escape plan, but an exercise in continually focusing on Jesus Christ as the center of everything.

There is hesitancy surrounding the book of Revelation and many times it is simply ignored...which then creates greater hesitancy. It is important because how Revelation has influenced our own lives, how we think about mission, politics, and so much of popular culture revolves around ideas that have been brought about through people reading it. The last few years have been a pattern of predictions of the end and we are coming up on a pretty big one in just a couple of months.

G.K. Chesterton, a british writer and theologian said this...”Though St. John saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators”

With that, let's jump into the scriptures

4 Then I looked, and, oh!—a door open into Heaven. The trumpet-voice, the first voice in my vision, called out, “Ascend and enter. I’ll show you what happens next.”

^2-6 I was caught up at once in deep worship and, oh!—a Throne set in Heaven with One Seated on the Throne, suffused in gem hues of amber and flame with a nimbus of emerald. Twenty-four thrones circled the Throne, with Twenty-four Elders seated, white-robed, gold-crowned. Lightning flash and thunder crash pulsed from the Throne. Seven fire-blazing torches fronted the Throne (these are the Sevenfold Spirit of God). Before the Throne it was like a clear crystal sea.

^6-8 Prowling around the Throne were Four Animals, all eyes. Eyes to look ahead, eyes to look behind. The first Animal like a lion, the second like an ox, the third with a human face, the fourth like an eagle in flight. The Four Animals were winged, each with six wings. They were all eyes, seeing around and within. And they chanted night and day, never taking a break:

Holy, holy, holy
Is God our Master, Sovereign-Strong,
The Was, The Is, The Coming.

^9-11 Every time the Animals gave glory and honor and thanks to the One Seated on the Throne—the age-after-age Living One—the Twenty-four Elders would fall prostrate before the One Seated on the Throne. They worshiped the age-after-age Living One. They threw their crowns at the foot of the Throne, chanting,

Worthy, O Master! Yes, our God!
Take the glory! the honor! the power!
You created it all;
It was created because you wanted it.

 

Sermon Preview: Prized Possesions

This last week, as Hurricane Isaac prepared to make landfall, Louisiana was getting ready. Storms aren’t new to us and anyone who lives on the coast certainly has a routine they go through as they prepare to live home. I know I have talked to Meredith’s Dad before, since her family lives South of Houston in Clear Lake about what he does.

I was thinking about what I would do if Meredith and I had to evacuate. What would I take with me? Certainly Meredith and Emma, our feisty 12 lb dachshund would go...but what besides that? I asked other’s the question on Facebook and heard many of the same things. Pictures, treasured possessions, memories.

People choose to take what reminds them of past life, items that keep the past in the present.

But the wonderful thing about Christ, he cares not about past...but possibilities.

Here the words of the Apostle James, who church tradition tells us was the half brother of our Lord Jesus Christ

James 1:17-18

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁷ Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. ¹⁸ He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

²² But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. ²³ For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. ²⁴ You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. ²⁵ But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

God wants us to be perfect in holy love so he can set us up for a certain purpose. He wants to change our hearts and lives, to get us set up in a perfect environment so we can thrive for ourselves and for the lives of others.

We are a first offering to the world. Pointing towards the eternal goodness of God. Healed and then sent off. An example of what he wants to do for the whole world.

He isn’t focusing on memories of his prized possessions but on the possibilities of his prized possessions.

Sermon Preview: Dismantling Judgement

Matthew 7:1-11(NLT)
“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. ² For you will be treated as you treat others.^[a] The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.^[b]

³ “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye^[c] when you have a log in your own? ⁴ How can you think of saying to your friend,^[d] ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

⁶ “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy.^[e] Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.

⁷ “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹ “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? ¹⁰ Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! ¹¹ So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

How often have we found judging people to get us in trouble? How often have you felt the brunt of unfair judgement? Our own human attempts at judging others take us out of the type of righteous and holy living God calls his people towards.

What if Christ's call to not judge was a call to a greater reliance on the Holy Spirit and the provision of prayer?

Jesus tells us the standard that we use in judging will be the standard by which we will be judged (7:2). We aren't called to judge, but to live as righteous people and to call others to righteousness. Where we once pointed out others flaws, as we journey towards holiness as a Christian community we are looking for people to help us attempt to take out the planks we each carry.

Join us on Sunday at 9:45 at St. Paul's for worship and a time of reflection on dismantling judgement.

Sermon Text: Download Dismantling judgement