April 13, 2008 - Sermon Discussion

 This coming Sunday we will look at Lord’s Day 25 which begins the section on “The Sacraments.” The 4 questions and answers are below.

Here are some questions I’m considering:

How would a complete stranger to the Christian religion view the sacraments?

What do they mean? What do we understand them to mean for us?

What do they do? Why do we do them? Do you believe in them? If so, what…?

What would you say concerning the sacraments if someone asked you about them?

Do we really think about these things outside of the service that they are found in? And does it really matter?

What are you thoughts on them? Send me a note or publish a comment. Are there any other questions you have?

I’m planning on moving toward the point of “signs and seals” and what that means. Not sure how yet… but I’ll get there in the next few hours.

Question 65

Since then we are made partakers of Christ and all his benefits by faith only, whence does this faith proceed?

From the Holy Ghost,^a who works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel, and confirms it by the use of the sacraments.^b

Question 66

What are the sacraments?

The sacraments are holy visible signs and seals, appointed of God for this end, that by the use thereof, he may the more fully declare and seal to us the promise of the gospel, viz., that he grants us freely the remission of sin, and life eternal, for the sake of that one sacrifice of Christ, accomplished on the cross.^a

Question 67

Are both word and sacraments, then, ordained and appointed for this end, that they may direct our faith to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, as the only ground of our salvation?^a

Yes, indeed: for the Holy Ghost teaches us in the gospel, and assures us by the sacraments, that the whole of our salvation depends upon that one sacrifice of Christ which he offered for us on the cross.

Question 68

How many sacraments has Christ instituted in the new covenant, or testament?

Two: namely, holy baptism, and the holy supper.

^a a     Eph. 2:8, 9; Eph. 6:23; John 3:5; Philip. 1:29.

^b b     Matt. 28:19, 20; 1 Pet. 1:22, 23.

^a a     Gen. 17:11; Rom. 4:11; Deut. 30:6; Lev. 6:25; Heb. 9:7–9, 24; Ezek. 20:12; Isa. 6:6, 7; Isa. 54:9.

^a a     Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27.

Historic Creeds and Confessions. 1997 (electronic ed.) (Article 12). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

September 16, 2007 - Morning Sermon

Heidelberg Catechism

LORD’S DAY 2

3 Q. How do you come to know your misery?

A. The law of God tells me.

 

4 Q. What does God’s law require of us?

A. Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22–

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

 

5 Q. Can you live up to all this perfectly?

A. No. I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.

 

The Catechism begins its short look at our Misery… Sin… Guilt. And boy are we deep in it.

We learn about our misery through God’s Law. And then we see the summary. And then we’re told we can never live up to it perfectly. That I will always put God out of the picture, that is I will hate Him.

What’s the use…

What can we do?

Nothing!

What can we pay?

Nothing!

How hard should we work at obeying?

Hard. But it won’t get you anywhere.

 

What’s the use? Again!

Why should we go on living if we can never rise up to following God’s Law and obeying Him?

We should go on living in order to bring glory to God. To know that we are His children. The sheep of His pasture. We were bought at a price. Christ died for us. He delivered us from our misery, sin, guilt. And because of that, we are to try to live a life that obeys the commands.

There’s the catechism… and my sermon in a nutshell.

August 19 sermons

Hey, back after our vacation. It was good!

This Sunday I’ll be preaching on Psalm 79 in the morning and Psalm 145 in the afternoon.

Psalm 79 is a “dark” psalm mixed with a tinge of hopefulness, pointing to a Saviour in God. Amazing psalm!

Psalm 145 is an acrostic. Focused on praise. Again a filled psalm with wonderful imagery. Hope and blessing. Celebration and praise.

July 29, 2007 Morning Sermon

This coming Sunday I will be preaching on Psalm 66. It is a hymn of praise given by a thankful and excited psalmist who has been saved from certain doom. Saved not by his doing, but by the mighty hand of God.

The psalm sees the thankful poet crying out to the whole earth to praise the Lord. Look at all His awesome deeds. Don’t they point to a God? They do! But the earth doesn’t respond.

Next the psalmist calls to Israel, prodding them to remember the things that God has done for them. How He has saved and rescued them. How He has not let their foot slip. And how He has put them into a place of abundance.

Finally, the psalmist vows to the Lord to bring an offering. To bring praises and thanks to Him for all He has done. And then the psalmist cries out to all who will hear the deeds that God has done for him.

And we shout out with the psalmist “Give praise to the Lord for His love is never failing!”

We celebrate the profession of faith of one of youth, David D. And we celebrate Lord’s Supper. Give praise to the Lord for His love is never failing!

June 17, 2007 Afternoon Sermon

The afternoon sermon will focus on Psalm 42 and 43, which is a continuation of 42.

Psalm 42 is the first psalm in Book II of psalter. It’s opening line is well known, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”

I look forward to your comments on these two psalms.

June 17, 2007 Morning Sermon… Continued

The sermon will focus on Mark 6:30-44, where Jesus has compassion on the large crowd that he encounters on the otherside of the lake.

The sermon outline (with questions) is this:

What is the definition of compassion (σπλαγχνίζομαι)?

How does Jesus demonstrate compassion in our text?

In his life?

How does God demonstrate compassion to his children? Israel? Christians?

How should we demonstrate compassion?

Fathers?

Husbands?

Leaders?

Why is compassion important?

June 17, 2007 Morning Sermon

This coming Sunday is the last sermon on the Spiritual Gifts as listed in Romans 12. It is on Compassion People.

I’m rethinking how to go about this last sermon… Look for more on this later today or tomorrow.

Anyhow, for those who are interested, here is the list of attributes for a compassion person.

Characteristics of a Compassion Person

• Has tremendous capacity to show love.
• Always looks for good in people.
• Senses the spiritual and emotional atmosphere of a group or individual.
• Is attracted to people who are hurting or in distress.
• Takes action to remove hurts and relieve distress in others.
• Is more concerned for mental and emotional distress than physical distress.
• Is motivated to help people have right relationships with one another.
• Loves opportunities to give preference or place to others.
• Takes care with words and actions to avoid hurting others.
• Easily detects insincerity or wrong motives.
• Is drawn to others with the gift of compassion.
• Loves to do thoughtful things for others.
• Is trusting and trustworthy.
• Avoids conflicts and confrontations.
• Doesn’t like to be rushed in a job or activity.
• Is typically cheerful and joyful.
• Is ruled by the heart rather than head.
• Rejoices to see others blessed and grieves to see others hurt.
• Is a crusader for good causes.
• Intercedes for the hurts and problems of others.

Problems of a Compassion Person

• Tends to be indecisive.
• Is often prone to take up another person’s offense.
• Is easily hurt by others.
• Empathizes too much with the suffering of others.
• Affectionate nature is often misinterpreted by opposite sex.

June 10, 2007 Afternoon sermon

This Sunday afternoon I had hoped to have a ground breaking ceremony at the new church site. But after some wise and thoughtful advice that plan is “on ice” until later this month or early next. Early (!) because we go on holidays for the 8th and 15th of July.

So this Sunday afternoon I am going to tackle another psalm. In this case, Psalm 54. This is a short psalm, written by David. The structure is elegant. And the content is relevant. There is certainly something to be said for the structure of various psalms. From a purely linguistic and stylistic point of view one can see the power of God working in it and through the writers.

Putting that up beside the arrangement of the psalter by those who put it together, one can only point to the majesty of God.

Psalm 54 is a prayer for deliverance from enemies who want to have David killed. The prayer is framed by David’s cry for vindication in verse 1 and his statement of assurance that he will look in triumph on his foes in verse 7. A confession of confidence (verse 4) centres the prayer.

The confession of confidence is one we use even today. “Note well - God is my helper; the Lord sustains my life!” If we believe this as David did, then we are to live out that victory in our lives.

The victory that David expects in verse 7, “For He has delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.” Our sins have been forgiven. We stand victorious. The devil has been vanquished. The events of Revelation have been carried out. And we stand on the threshold of the New Heaven and the New Earth.

That is the picture of this psalm. That is the hope and profession we have. And how then should we respond? With thanksgiving and praise on our lips and acts of love and devotion upon our hands and feet to the God who sent His Son Jesus Christ.

June 10, 2007 Morning Sermon

Spiritual Gift - Administration

This is one of those interesting gifts. Someone who is good at office work. Not really. An administrator is one good at projects, long term planning, visioning, leading, delegating, watching out for the big picture. When an administrator gets going on something they enjoy, they work at it hard and they make sure the job gets done.

There are things I don’t like about ministry. There are other things I love about it. The things I do like, I work at them hard. But there is always so much other stuff to do, you can’t put all that time into the things you love. A minister is almost like being a “jack-of-all-trades.” And when that happens, they master none.

There is something about being all things to all people in ministry. But that can be a depressing thought after a few years of serving… at least for some it would be.

I’m an administrator. I don’t get to use this gift very often. And it can be frustrating for me. Especially when I have to keep my mouth shut or when I can’t be “the leader” in charge… which is often.

We have been blessed with several administrators in our church. Not all of them see things the same way or see us going in the same direction. It’s almost like controling a chariot with 10 horses leading out in 10 different directions. Hard to control. Hard to steer. You have to get a few pointed in the right direction, and then a few more close to that direction, and then the rest will either get pushed along or will eventually point themselves there. Or worse, they will be dragged behind.

The texts I’m planning on using are Judges 4, the story of Deborah. Matthew 8:5-13, the centurian with great faith. Luke 16:1-15, the shrewd manager.

Here are some characteristics and problems with administrators.

Characteristics of Administration

• Is highly motivated to organize that for which he’s responsible.
• Expresses ideas and organization in ways that communicate clearly.
• Prefers to be under authority in order to have authority.
• Will not take responsibility unless delegated by those in authority.
• Will assume responsibilities if no specific leadership exists.
• Especially enjoys working on long-range goals and projects.
• Is a visionary person with a broad perspective.
• Easily facilitates resources and people to accomplish tasks or goals.
• Enjoys delegating tasks and supervising people.
• Will endure criticism in order to accomplish the ultimate task.
• Has great zeal and enthusiasm for whatever he is involved in.
• Finds greatest fulfillment and joy in working to accomplish goals.
• Is willing to let others get credit in order to get a job done.
• Prefers to move on to a new challenge once something is completed.
• Writes notes to self.
• Is a natural and capable leader.
• Knows when to keep old methods going and when to introduce new ones.
• Enjoys working with and being around people.
• Wants to see things completed as quickly as possible.
• Does not enjoy doing routine tasks.

Problems with Administrators

• Becomes upset when others do not share the same vision or goals.
• Develops outer callousness due to being a target for criticism.
• Can regress into “using” people to accomplish own goals.
• Tends to drive self and neglect personal and family needs.
• Neglects routine home responsibilities due to intense interest in “job.”

Afternoon sermons…

I have started a new series of sermons in the afternoon services. I’m working through a variety of Psalms. I started with Psalm 19 last Sunday (May 27). This week it’s Psalm 139.

From now until early September I will be taking requests from people to preach on a psalm of their choosing. Here is my bulletin announcement on this… which requires a little bit of work from you, “the picker.”

If you have a particular favorite that you would like to be preach on, please contact me… but you have to be willing to tell me why you like this psalm, what you get from it for your daily life, as well as provide at least a couple of songs to go with the psalm or to be put into the service. I look forward to hearing you on this… or at the very least you will appreciate hearing my picks throughout the coming months.

Drop me a line if have a pick you want to hear explained more.