All posts for the month September, 2021

Genesis 2 – Sermon Manuscript

PLEASE NOTE: These are the notes I use to preach from, if you would like to hear them in context, please watch our YouTube channel.

Man and Woman

Genesis 2:4-25 (page 1)

-Muslims believe paradise will be a huge garden with riches immeasurable, each man will be rewarded with 70 beautiful young women.

-What does paradise look like to you?

-Muslims believe paradise is just part of a spirit world for those who are have believed in Jesus during their time on earth.

-Buddhism doesn’t believe in paradise, but instead in the “land of bliss” some argue that only men will reach this land

-Many people in America seem to act as if this land is paradise, they keep building your domain as big as you can, working their tails off to be the best version of themselves they can possibly be!

-The Bible gives us a different view to paradise, but can be summarized as: God’s people, in God’s land living under God’s rule & blessing. Once again, we see Genesis serving as the foundation for the whole Bible!

  1. Creation Retold (4-14)

-“These are the generations” serves as the beginning of a section in Genesis

–6:9 Noah, 10:1 Noah’s family, 11:10 Shem, 11:27 Terah, etc.

-Every other instance is of people, this is of the created order, the beginning of everything

-We’ve picked up from where we left off last week and zooming in on the 6th day, focusing (again) on the creation of humanity, giving us quite a bit more detail 

-See this beginning verses as setting the stage for the main point of the story

-An error that people make is viewing this as 2 separate creation accounts

-There’s not 1 creation of people, then a separate creation when “Adam and Eve” are created, there is a message that God is communicating through this text (again!) start back with the original audience 

-Lord God – new name for God (Yahweh Elohim) last chapter was just Elohim, Yahweh is His covenant name that He gives to His people, the holy name that was unutterable by God’s people 

-Moses is telling us something about what God is doing/working in his creative acts, so early on in the creation of the world before plants were created, before rain fell from the sky, before there was a human to take care of the ground (tilling, planting, cultivating)

-Text tells us that the watering/care of the earth was done from water under the ground

-It’s at that point that God forms the man “of dust from the ground.”

-Said last week that unlike the previous creation, animals are created from that which was already created

-God then breathes into him the “breath of life”

-This is a two-fold act of creation, first the man is created bodily/physically, then God breathes into him 

-Again, we’re going to be approaching Genesis from a biblical theology perspective, so another place this pops up is Ezekiel 37 where the prophet is taken to the valley of dry bones, and points us to the ultimate reality that unless God awakens human creatures they are walking around as people who are dead (Eph 2:10)

-Then we get to a specific location out of all of the creation that God is going to bestow his special blessing upon – Eden. 

-Typically referred to as the garden of Eden, but I hadn’t noticed until digging in this week that man doesn’t work/till the ground until the Fall in Genesis 3, so tilling the earth is part of the Fall, not part of the creation, if you look at vs. 9, a better description would be the ORCHARD of Eden.

-Eden is described as ‘in the east” east of what? Again, original context, east of where Moses is writing from, the Promised Land of Israel. 

-Also looks like Adam was created from the ground somewhere outside, then Eden was created as a place for Adam, Adam is brought in and put there.

-Then notice some descriptions about the garden:

-“pleasant to the sight.” Just as I encouraged you last week, have you ever thought about why things are beautiful? They have no intrinsic evolutionary advantage! Have you ever been to a westward facing beach when the sun’s setting? Waves rhythmically kissing the sand, each second you see a new color in the sunset. Or been in the mountains of Colorado as the sun is rising?

-Even music! I was a music guy for 10 years before I came here, people get emotionally invested in music! Again, there is no intrinsic value to it, no evolutionary advantage, but we still have it! 

-God literally baked beautiful artistry into the created order. Food can be beautiful to look at! If you’ve ever been to a hibachi grill you know what I’m talking about. Food there becomes a work of art! That creativity comes from a creative God.

-2 trees are singled out for specific attention:

-The tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

-First, these trees are in the middle of the garden. I read some really interesting things about the garden, their significance and purpose this week. One person said that was done so the middle of Adam’s world was not himself, but life, the very presence of God. Tied into that looking at some of the Hebrew words used (specifically in 3:22, which we’ll study next week, says if you eat of the tree of life, you’ll live forever”) One commentator argues this should be translated as “perpetual life” meaning regular eating of the fruit counteracts the effects of aging. Here’s what’s crazy – even science today would argue that’s true! There are some foods we can eat that help our bodies remain in good health, let’s be honest though, they generally don’t taste as good as the foods that kill us! I still remember listening to one pastor who shared his love for bacon, got confronted by a member in his church because bacon will kill you, and he said “Fine! I’ll go to heaven and hang out with Jesus full of bacon!” We’ll look closer at the second tree in vs. 17, all I’ll say now is “good and evil” is used throughout the Bible as a merism, referring to all knowledge, not JUST good & evil

-Last thing from this section is the description of waters and fine metals. Eden is viewed as the source from which all life flows out – look at the language: “flowed OUT OF Eden” Since water is required for life, Eden is the source of that life. While we often read this as a geographical location, it’s more meant to say ALL life finds it’s source in Eden, 4 waters spreading out to cover the 4 corners of the earth. We also see the fine stones/metals that were there. 

-Biblical theology: where else in the Bible do we see a land with a river flowing through it and precious metals being found in it? Revelation 21-22. 

-The Garden in Eden is being described as a temple where God’s people can live in perfect relationship with Him. Now we know what’s coming next week, so we today can long for that ‘Paradise Lost’ to quote John Milton, but we’re getting a little bit ahead of this story!

-This garden/orchard has boundaries (it wasn’t the whole earth) and it’s specifically created FOR the fulfilment and enjoyment of the man. (enjoyment because the trees were “pleasant to the sight”) not mere pragmatic value. Let’s look at the man

  • The Man’s Role (15-17)

-Remember Adam was formed/fashioned somewhere else, then brought to this garden that was specifically created for him to flourish.

-The word translated “put” in vs. 15 is from the word we saw last week: rest. Connotation of “settled” so just as God rested from his work, so the man is rested/settled into his garden.

-Then the man is given a job: to work and keep the garden.

-Garden of Eden isn’t an all-inclusive resort, sipping an Arnold Palmer in the sun being waited on by the animals. Work is good! Work is a gift from God. Work means we join with God in the ordering of the creation. Some people translate that “work” as “serve,” or “worship.” Throughout the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Bible) it’s used to describe how we work and worship in the service of the Lord. Do you view your work as worship?

-We know that we live “east of Eden” today and our work is much much harder than it was intended to be, but work is still a good thing. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” Your work is meant to be an act of worship to God – we join with God in bringing order to the chaos around us, we all should be contributing to the furthering of good and human flourishing and fighting against the darkness. But I’d take that a step further and tie in some NT ideas to be salt and light in your various vocations. Take some time this week and think about this question: how can I use my job to worship God and point others to Him? Maybe it’s setting a reminder on your phone to pray a couple times a day. Maybe it’s bringing your Bible and reading it during lunch. Maybe it’s as simple as being a hard, reliable, and dependable worker who works hard to get along with everyone with whom you work. Whatever it is, God has sent you to your job to be his witness. 

-I think it’s also true that our work, when we find the unique ways God has wired and gifted us, our work ends up feeling more like rest.

-Second word: keep. Guard, observe, watch over. Most often used for keeping God’s commands and obeying God’s Word. Once again, there’s this pictures that God through Moses are painting in these opening chapters of Genesis that are laying the foundation for how we as humans are meant to operate and view the rest of the created order. God creates the world perfectly for us to flourish, then we join with him in continuing to push back against the chaos, darkness, and disorder, working/serving and keeping the world He created. 

-But what does the keeping mean without a command? Two-fold, first a positive, then a negative.

-Positive: surely you may eat of every tree. Negative: at least every tree except one. One leads to life, one leads to death. That’s the same theme we saw throughout the Psalms: 2 ways to live, one leads to life and one leads to death. So many of the themes we see in the Bible and our world today are seen in these opening pages. If humans were to choose to eat from the forbidden fruit, in that day they will die. They will experience separation from God, physically and spiritually.

-This is all background to focusing on the man. The stage is set, the garden is prepped, the work is given, the command is in place (both positively and negatively) and then the drama continues because there is a problem.

  • The Man’s Helper (18-25)

-First instance of “not good” Remember I shared last week, tov maod, but in this case God uses my motto for Hebrew: lo tov – not good! Even living in paradise in perfect communion with God and every tree producing fruit in abundance isn’t enough for the man. 

-Think of how caring this God is. Contrary to other world religions where humanity is created to do the work of the gods, God partners with us in continuing to carry out His task. Not left to our own devices or ideas to try to figure out what we should be doing in the world. He gives us food, a job, provision, and now he’ll go above and beyond in giving the man a “helper fit for him.” Before we talk about the contemporary significance of that, let’s walk through the whole section.

-Remember back in Genesis 1, God is the one naming the creation, so He calls light “day” and darkness “night”, expanse “Heaven,” dry land “Earth” waters “seas” 

-The man is called to name the animals God created. Think of this beautiful parade of all creatures great and small being trotted in front of him, and he gets commissioned from God to name them all. It’s almost as if God is showing off and sharing everything He made! Just as God naming His creation shows his rule/reign over that creation, in this case God is sharing that rule/reign with the man. 

-Prophet/priest/king – This is God giving the man a kingly role. Priest is found in the “Serving and keeping” just like the priests are to serve and keep the temple, prophet is obeying and keeping the commands of God. 

-Despite this man naming everything, there was no creature made that was a helper fit, or corresponding to him. Which means God’s final act of creation here is to bring relationship to the human race. 

-Last week I shared that men and women together are created in the image of God, one gender by itself is insufficient in imaging God into the world. 

-First time the proper name is used is in this verse. “The man” is called Adam. (thought to be pointing back to the ground, the adama from which he was taken)

-God is going to perform surgery on Adam to create his helper. Literally in the Hebrew God takes from Adam’s side – some have argued God took his WHOLE side and fashioned woman from her, but rib also works. 

-God leads the first ever wedding ceremony, bringing the woman to the man, and the man cannot believe it! He breaks out in song, leading to his progeny attempting to use song to woo women from that point forward.

-Says “Woah, man!” I mean, WOMAN. Just as “Adam” is similar to adama, woman is isha man is ish. They correspond to each other. Man and woman are interconnected, that is the way God has intended men and women to function. We are not completed with just 1 gender, God created us for community.

-This section ends with what one commentator described as “leave, cleave, and weave.” 

-Leave: a man shall leave his father and mother. A new family unit is formed in marriage that didn’t exist before. Does not merely mean physical separation, as in this context the new couple would often move back in with his parents to carry on the family trade.

-Cleave: (hold fast) the primary allegiance moves from your immediate family to your new spouse

-Weave: become one flesh. Your life completely changes! At our overseer meeting this week we were sharing how our lives were radically different before we were married. Hate to share this, but some of our overseers cooking skills are limited to the buttons on the microwave – some of them needed to be single longer!

-Ends with both man and woman being “naked and were not ashamed.” More than just lack of clothing, nothing is hidden from each other, there is complete understanding, care, concern for each other with no shame of being “found out” or “exposed” to be something you’re not. No facades, no trial in their relationship, a state we won’t ever fully experience until we’re in eternity.

-So what does this section mean for us on this side of the Fall, yet redeemed people?

–Gender roles – This passage appears again in 1 Timothy 2 with Paul’s description of roles/function in the church. Can’t dig in too far – but I am a convinced complementarian, meaning there are distinct roles/gifts for men/women in the church to fulfill. Just as there is distinction in the rest of creation (light/dark, sea/land) there is distinction between men & women that sets the stage for how we are to fulfil our cultural mandate:

-“helper” may not be the best word for us today because we tend to view it as subservient to, can be thought of as companion, or counterpart. Eve fills in where Adam is lacking, and Adam fills in where Eve is lacking. But it’s also important to know that throughout the OT this word ezer is most often used in connection with God as our helper, or companion

–Cultural mandate – John Frame: “Man’s responsibility to fill and subdue the earth is sometimes called the cultural mandate. That language brings out the fact that man’s task is one of turning the earth into a habitat for man, one suited to the needs and purposes of man. This task involves not only the cultivation of crops for food, but also the arts, sciences, and literature, by which human life becomes more than mere subsistence. And at the deepest level, man’s labor has the goal of bringing praise and glory to God. So he is to structure his life and culture according to God’s standards.”

Basically, man is to extend Eden’s borders to fill the whole earth

–Blessing in/through the church. Adam’s role sets the stage for authority for all humans: prophet, priest, king (authority, presence, control) Now the church is meant to recapture that same call of prophet as we speak God’s Words to each other, priest as we implant ourselves among each other in a specific place, and king as we work hard as for the Lord and not for man bringing God’s ordering out of the chaos into our various spheres of influence.

-“creation itself was not complete until there was community, Adam needing eve before humanity was whole. God never works with individuals in isolation, but always with people in community.” Peterson, A Long Obedience, 177 

-One of the ways we are a blessing is by working hard for God, as Col. 3:23 reminds us “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” A little Monk named Brother Lawrence decided to live this way, using everything he did as a means of blessing others and God. He described this pursuit in a letter saying “I decided to sacrifice my life with all its pleasures to God. But He greatly disappointed me in this idea, for I haver met with nothing but satisfaction in giving my life over to Him.” 

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by mikethestrand on September 26, 2021  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Relationships, Sermon, Theology, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on September 26, 2021

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2021/09/26/genesis-2-sermon-manuscript/

Genesis 1 – Sermon Manuscript

PLEASE NOTE: These are the notes I use to preach from, if you would like to hear them in context, please watch our YouTube channel.

Chaos to Creation

Genesis 1:1-2:3

INTRO

-Why are we studying Genesis? 

-Serves as the foundation for the rest of the Bible and our lives. If we understand the purpose/reasons/rational behind the beginning of the book, the rest of the book will start to make sense

-Imagery/ideas that are begun in the Genesis will see fully fleshed out in Revelation

-There has been a lot of ink spilled on how to interpret Genesis, fun stuff worth discussing, but not what we’re going to be focusing on through our study

-These chapters deal with so many of the issues we’re facing today: what does it mean to be human? Who is God? Why do bad things happen? Where did things go wrong? How did we get here? How are the 2 sexes supposed to interact with each other?

-What I would like to propose to you as the purpose of the Bible from beginning to end is: worship. Genesis 1 is meant to demonstrate why God is superior to all the other false gods people have created, we’ll see that explicitly on day 4, thus God alone is worthy to be worshipped, praised, and glorified.

READ/PRAY

-We are storied beings. All of us have a story we use to frame everything that takes place around us.

-How do you think of yourself? You are a product of your story! You’re the athletic one, you’re the smart one, you’re the musician, you’re the finance guy, the boss mom, whatever it is, all of us have built up some kind of narrative in our minds about who we are why we’re the way we are.

-I think the most obvious example of this is spending time with your family! Don’t you have a tendency to revert back to how you were in high school? Same issues come up, same jokes are told, same stories are brought back to life

-That’s just a little example, think of how stories have affected cultures: George Washington chopped down a cherry try “I cannot tell a lie.” Columbus: “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Who “discovered” America? Weren’t there already people here?

-Founding of the city of Rome: Romulus and twin brother Remus founded Rome on the site where they were suckled by a wolf as orphans.

-Out of the competing stories that were enacting and affecting the cultures around them comes the one true story.

-By referring to the Bible and this narrative as a story, does not mean it’s untrue! I wholeheartedly believe the events recorded here actually happened! Just as much as I believe the story that I was born on October 12, 1988 in Lake Forest hospital, just outside of Chicago-land. I don’t remember it, I know I’m here, I know that’s my story, I believe it to be true, just as I believe the events written down by Moses here in Genesis 1 are a true account of what happened.

-With that said, nothing explicit in this text to tell us who the author of Genesis is: tradition tells us Moses wrote the first 5 books of the OT (Pentateuch) and I haven’t seen an argument to convince me otherwise! As Heb. 1:1 reminds us “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets” One of those prophets was Moses!

-Over these next 3 weeks as we look at the beginning, I want to remind us what we in the EFCA believe regarding the beginning. We’ll come back to it again, so you don’t need to memorize this, but this is what our SOF says.

  1. In the Beginning (1-2)

-Verse 1 serves as the title to this whole book (Genesis is the Greek transliteration of “beginning”), verse 2 tells the background of what’s going on, and when we get to verse 3 that begins the narrative telling what God did.

-It’s important to note how carefully crafted this first section is. Verse 1 has 7 words, verse 2 has 7×2 words. God is mentioned 7×5 times. In this context, 7 refers to completion/perfection.

-This verse has some profound theological truths that I want us to realize:

-In the beginning. There was a time when there wasn’t anything. God has no beginning or end, that just blows my mind, because all of us have a beginning, but no end. It almost feels like “once upon a time,” but this one is telling us how everything came to be.

-God. The subject, the main part, the focus of these first 7 words (in Hebrew) is Elohim-God. What is the first thing we learn about God?

-created. This Hebrew word means “making something new.” New City Catechism Question 2: What is God? God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in his power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth. Nothing happens except through him and by his will.

-All these things are deep, rich theological truths from just the first verse!

-Need to talk about the first rule of hermeneutics: the text cannot mean today what it didn’t mean when it was originally written. There is meaning, purpose, and intent to the words of the text. Always, always, always begin with the meaning to the original audience.

-Space travel wasn’t a “thing,” very limited in their scope of planet earth, so when we come across words like “heavens and earth.” We generally think of the 8 planets (RIP Pluto), stars, galaxies, and a big blue ball spinning around the sun. When the original audience heard these 2 words they thought: sky and land. Sky is everything above, land is everything below. They weren’t dumb, they just didn’t have the same grasp of some of these things we’re blessed to witness today.

-Similarly, vs. 2 uses some words they would understand differently than we do: without form, void, darkness, deep all refer to nothingness. Similarly the “waters” is the primordial state before anything came about.

-“Spirit of God” this word translated spirit is fascinating throughout the Bible: breath, wind, spirit. Remember this idea when we get to the flood which is going to serve as a new creation, God causes a ruach to blow over the earth and blow away the waters. This finds its ultimate fulfillment at the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:2 the sound of a mighty rushing wind. God’s final act of recreation was finally here! 

  • God Said (3-31)

-“God said” is repeated 10 times in this section, pointing to another 10 times God would lay the rules by which His people are meant to operate in the 10 commandments. 

-The theme of “separating”: light from dark, water from water, water from land

-Repeated phrasing, “God said” begins each day, “And there was evening and there was morning” ends each day.

-Days 1-3 are creation of the different areas, days 4-6 are the filling of those same domains (we’ll see that as we walk through)

Day 1 – Light

-Light is created to contrast to the darkness that pervaded this primordial world

-This begins a theme throughout the whole rest of the Bible: light is good, darkness is bad. John 1:5 “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

-Notice how easy this is. God says something, it automatically happens. Contrast that with some other competing stories of how the world came to be:

-Babylonian account of creation: Marduk kills the goddess Tiamat (the salty sea) and uses her carcass to fashion heaven and earth

-Other ANE accounts talk about the gods being stressed by work, so humans are created to bear the weight of their working.

-In contrast to these oppressive, mean, and chaotic ways of the world coming into being comes this story of a speaking God.

-That tells us another theological truth about God: God speaks and is thus relational. He’s not far off removed from ever interacting with His creation, instead He is a speaking God who cares about His creation.

-Some astute observers may note that light/darkness comes before the sun and the moon. I’ve known some people who refused to become Christians because of that fact! 

-First things first, Hebrew people didn’t necessarily see a contradiction with this, dawn/dusk are light without the sun. 

-Second, did you know astronomers recently found light spread throughout the galaxy that has no known source? “They’re saying that there’s as much light outside of galaxies as there is inside of galaxies” I love seeing science catch up to what God has revealed to be true!

Day 2 – waters 

-The dome above and the waters below. Heaven/the skies were viewed as a big bubble of water (makes sense as water comes from above and below!) Separation once again between the 2 waters

-“And it was so.” 

-This leads to it now having sky, air, etc. 

-Seas were often seen as gods in ANE, but this says it’s something God made

Day 3 – land 

-Begins by separating the water from the land. Almost looks as if the water is drawn away to expose that which is underneath it.

-Notice God naming things. In ANE thought naming was equated with ruling/governing/creating. Points, again, to God being a relational God 

-This separation is good. But he doesn’t stop with just creating land, the land becomes hospitable for the subsequent creatures: vegetation, seeds, fruit

-“According to their kind.” God orders all of these things, creates boundaries for them, allows them to flourish.

-Boundaries bring about creativity, unstructured freedom is chaos!

Day 4 – sun and moon

-First 3 days are creating the environment, these next 3 correlate to the first 3 and fill them out

-Day 1 is light, day 4 is the where the light comes from: sun and moon. 

-First, notice that they’re not named anywhere? Other religions viewed them as gods, here God won’t even refer to them by name! They’re called “the greater light” and “the lesser light.” God doesn’t play by everyone else’s rules, He is the one true God, no other god can compare to Him so He isn’t even willing to mention their names.

-Notice as well, the purpose of these lights: separating again the day from night, signs and seasons and days and years. Their purpose is to keep seasons and reminders of God’s continued faithfulness.

-These lights, these signs and seasons are good.

Day 5  – the waters/spaces are now hospitable and filled with creatures

-The space created by the separating waters are now filled with birds, the waters below are filled with all sorts of sea creatures! 

-They are created by “kinds,” God’s limitless creativity is bounded by His creation.

-This creation is “good.” Unique in that they are the first ones blessed by God, and given a mandate: Be fruitful, multiply, fill the sea and the land.

Day 6 – land creatures and humans

-“Let the earth bring forth.” Where the previous creation was out of nothing, this day the creation is refined.

-It also is a much longer section than any of the previous days, where the previous ones were in double speed, day 6 comes to a screeching halt and emphasizes everything that happens.

-Land animals are all created “according to their kind.” And they’re good.

-Then the pinnacle of creation: humans. The only thing in the entire created order that represents God – other things point to him, humans are made to image/represent Him.

-This “image of God” idea is worth studying further, I don’t have time today, but what this refers to is being his representatives/serving at His bidding. At the time, kings would have statues made and then distributed throughout their kingdom to bring their “image” to rule/reign over their entire domain. So when God creates humans in his image, they are meant to be distributed throughout his kingdom to bring his “image” to rule/reign over His entire domain.

-Then these humans are blessed by God, in what is known as the “creation mandate.”

-Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over fish, birds, animals. Part of this creation mandate is the command to work in subduing the earth. The Garden of Eden wasn’t like an all-inclusive resort where you sit back sipping Mai Tais and watch the world go by, Adam and Eve are given jobs to do in ruling with God over the created order. We’ll look at that a little more fully next week.

-This section ends with everything being tov maod – very good. Only reason I remember that is my Hebrew prof would speak Hebrew in class, if you answered right you’d get tov maod, and my motto for the class was: lo tov – no good!

-One last thing to remember, before we get to the last day: Keep everything in its’ proper order/kind! Humans are not animals and should not be treated as animals. Animals are not plants and should not be treated as plants. Seems like an obvious point, but our world is confusing these things! Even down to being gendered beings: male and female TOGETHER image God into the world! Male in and of itself cannot adequately image God, and female in and of itself cannot adequately image God. We’ll look more fully at this next week, again.

-These 6 days serve as the foundation for the rest of creation, and then God finishes His work. 

  • God Rested (2:1-3)

-Look at the wording of this finishing: where else does God say He’s finished? When Jesus dies on the cross, bearing the penalty for all of the sin that came about when creation was thrust back into chaos – just as God finished his work in creation, there His work is finished in redemption.

-Then this day is unlike the previous days because God blesses this 7th day. Up until this point it’s the creation that’s blessed, this time God blesses a day and sanctifies it.

-Just as God rested, so He commands his people to rest. In Ex. 31:13 God tells His people: “‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.” This pattern of 6 days on/one day off actually sets God’s people off as unique from everyone else. It demonstrates to everyone our trust in God. Prevents work from becoming an idol. Ultimately, the sabbath rest reminds us that we are not God! We can’t work 24/7 and thrive, we need rest.

-Now – notice this 7th day has no end. All 6 previous days said “evening/morning the ___ day” This is a way of saying everything was as God intended it to be.

-Just as God rested, so we’re to find our ultimate rest in Him. Augustine: “Our hearts our restless until they find their rest in Thee.” 

-This story gives us a glimpse of God’s heart toward his creation, His desire to live in perfect relationship with Him, and our job of joining with God in bringing order from the chaos of the world around us. Do you see that as your aim, as your story, as your reason for living? Where do you fit within this storyline that God has used to reveal to us? 

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by mikethestrand on September 19, 2021  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Theology, Worship

Posted by mikethestrand on September 19, 2021

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2021/09/19/genesis-1-sermon-manuscript/

Philippians 4:2-9 Sermon Manuscript

PLEASE NOTE: These are the notes I use to preach from, if you would like to hear them in context, please watch our YouTube channel.

Gentle and Lowly

Philippians 4:2-9 (571)

Intro:

-It’s hard to believe 9/11 was 20 years ago. I still remember the clothes I was wearing that day! I saw a couple FB posts yesterday that talked about wishing we could go back to how unifying September 12, 2001 was.

-The reality is, we’re in a VERY different cultural moment than we were in 2001. (not just in the clothes people are wearing!) We, as Christians, need to take some to evaluate where we’re putting our stock, because there’s some things that we need to be ALL IN on, and others that we need to let go of completely.

-Listening to a podcast on Monday that struck me like a load of bricks: we as Christians are called to be gentle.  

READ/PRAY

-Theme of the letter in 1:25-26 “Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith,”

-Today, we would call this a “missionary letter,” Paul helped plant the church, they sent him to continue planting churches, he writes to inform them how he’s doing, how he’s still praying for them, and remind them of the truth of the gospel and the implications of that Good News.

-Quick primer if you haven’t been here, the gospel is what compels everything we do. In 1 Cor. 15 Paul calls the gospel that which is of “first importance,” but the gospel also compels us to live in certain ways. The gospel is the means by which we are saved, and the means by which we are sanctified (DEFINE)

-If you’ve here and you’ve never heard the gospel before, 4 words: God, man, Christ, response.

–2 Cor. 5:14 says it this way “the love of Christ controls/compels us.” The gospel, as demonstrated in Christ’s love, compels us to live in some specific ways that are contrary to our human/sinful nature.

–2 Cor. 5 is also one of Pastor Bruce’s favorite passages to talk about growing like Christ – it goes on to talk about the need for reconciliation. 

-One of the implications of that reconciliation to God is it compels us to reconciliation with each other, which is exactly what Paul talks about in the first 2 verses of this section.

  1. Reconciliation (2-3)

-One quick note before we dig in:

-First, these letters were read in the corporate gathering of the church! And Paul had the audacity to call out 2 people by name! How would you feel if in the middle of the church service, I get up and start talking about a conflict you’re having with someone else?

-First thing to note is how little information Paul gives us. Apparently this conflict was a big enough deal that everyone knew what he was talking about.

-Can’t be doctrinal (look at the end of vs. 3)

-Notice how gently Paul asks: doesn’t shame them (apart from having their names read in the whole church), doesn’t call down his apostolic authority, doesn’t demean them “entreats” them. Think of Proverbs 15:1 “a gentle answer turns away wrath.” We’ll look at that a little more in the next section.

-Paul doesn’t even give much help, just “agree in the Lord.” Isn’t that overly simplistic? But sometimes, just an urge to “agree in the Lord” isn’t enough.

-Look at vs. 3

-When, in the midst of conflict, it can be nearly impossible to push through it on your own. That’s where bringing a 3rd party in can help both sides start to see/hear the other sides’ perspective. 

-It often seems that, in conflict/disagreements, we neglect the Bible’s command: be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry (James 1:19). 

-This is also a time where we need to remember Jesus’ commands in Matt. 18 – if you’re brother/sister in Christ has sinned against you, GO TO THEM! Then, if after going to them, bring someone else along, then if that doesn’t work, bring 1 or 2 other people along, then if that doesn’t work, go to the leadership of the church, but it BEGINS with 1 on 1, not quitting, not giving up, not gossiping or getting other people involved. GO TO THEM.

-This is true in churches too. There are legitimate reasons to leave a church, I’ve heard some doozie! But most of the time it’s because we’re not being obedient to the biblical command to “live at peace with everyone.” (Rom. 12:18)

-A couple other notes about this: 

-Reconciliation is not just “get over it” and pretend as if nothing happened. It’s talking, sharing your hurts and difficulties and doing your best to understand where the other person is coming from. It’s not jumping to conclusions based on what you heard! A pastor friend who works for a peace making ministry said we need to “listen to understand.” 

-Reconciliation is not done at the expense of the truth. There are legitimate times to divide from people who are preaching/living in ways that run contrary to the gospel. But notice the orientation of this agreeing: IN THE LORD. So important to have a theological triage. CS Lewis had a great analogy about this in Mere Christianity: orthodox Christianity brings you into a Great Hall which has various side rooms for the differing denominations/theological traditions, fun places to go sit in for a bit, have a chat, then come back to the feast in the great hall! When we come back to the Lord as the foundation for everything else, all these other issues seem trivial. He who has been forgiven much forgives much. 

-Lastly, the verb Paul uses here “agree” appears back in Philippians 2:5. Paul is pointing Euodia and Syntyche to “agree” about the mind of Christ.

-Because of that we are to:

-Not look at ourselves as having a high station

-Empty/humble ourselves

-We don’t get exaltation without humiliation

-Carson, “Personal differences should never become an occasion for advancing your party, for stroking bruised egos, for resorting to cheap triumphalism, for trimming the gospel by appealing to pragmatics. Focus on what unites you: the gospel, the gospel, the gospel.” (129)

-When we have reconciliation, it is going to look like us living/operating in some specific ways:

  • The Heart of Christ (4-7)

-This section is a list of characteristics that should be true in the life of every believer.

  1. Rejoice

-Because of the reconciliation that is found in Christ, we can rejoice, when? ALWAYS. So important that he says it twice! Again, doesn’t that feel kind of naïve? 

-Feels like he’s asking us to be Pollyana, running around acting as if everything is always 100%, no issues, no problems, I’m just happy all the time. Like the Pharrell Williams song “Because I’m happy: Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth.” No matter what I’ll be happy and clappy with a smile 24/7. You almost want to say that’s cute Paul, but have you seen my life?
-But Paul doesn’t just say “rejoice” and then leave us to figure it out – our rejoicing has an orientation: IN THE LORD. Church, you and I are blood bought precious saints in the sight of the Lord. God brought us from death to life, God has seated us in the heavenlies with Him! If you can’t hear those truths and rejoice somethings wrong!

-D.A. Carson Basics for Believers: “If we fail to respond with joy and gratitude when we are reminded of these things, it is either because we have not properly grasped the depth of the abyss of our own sinful natures and of the curse from which we have been freed by Jesus or because we have not adequately surveyed the splendor of the heights to which we have been raised.” (130)

-When Paul came to Philippi to plant the church, do you remember what happened? He and Silas are jailed, chained to the wall, and they SING! That’s someone who is filled with joy! 

-That’s where Paul can say “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” When he’s thrown in prison he sings and then leads the jailer to the Lord! How frustrating was Paul to the works of Satan? How frustrating to Satan is your joy?

  • Gentleness

-I have no clue why, but this verse had never stuck out to me before! This is where I love reading the Bible over and over again, it will always meet you where you’re at and then work to conform/change you to become more like Christ.

-This word translated “reasonableness” is somewhat difficult to translate, includes things such as: non-insistence, yielding, kind, courteous, tolerant, clemency. This difficulty can be seen in the way the various translations state this phrase.

-One quick note: we NEVER tolerate/are gently with sin! What we are to tolerate is people who are “working out their salvation with fear and trembling.” (Phil. 2:12) John Owen: “be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”

-What are you known for? Your position at work? The car you drive? Your kids? What are people’s first description when they hear your name? In Acts 4:36, there’s a guy named Joseph, who was so encouraging, he was given the nickname Barnabas, which means “son of encouragement.” What we as Christians, and as a whole church are meant to be known as is: gentle. When you are wronged, respond with gentleness. When you are frustrated, respond with gentleness. When you are angry, respond with gentleness. When you are happy (or joyful), respond with gentleness. 

-Do you think when the world looks at the church their first thought is gentleness? Google search: “what is the most judgmental religion.” 

-I’ll confess, the world seems to be getting crazier and crazier. Saw a post this week that said “do you like post-apocalyptic movies? Well you’re in one now!” Talked to someone this week who said they felt like it the world was coming to an end, and how should we as Christians respond? With gentleness. 

-I’m not saying don’t have convictions, but keep them in their proper order. Politics is dominating so many conversations today, and I’ll be honest, it feels like both the Right and the Left are going crazy! There are people in this room that vote differently than me, every election cycle I pray their candidate loses! But those are issues for outside of here, here inside the church we need to leave the crazy at the door, and come in here to be reminded to be gentle toward each other. The gospel means I need to move toward, not away from, someone who disagrees with me. That’s what Jesus did! Have you ever looked at Jesus’ list of disciples? This astonishes me! In the same group of 12 he had: Simon the zealot, and Matthew the tax collector. The zealots viewed it as their job to kill anyone who was colluding with the enemy, AKA a tax collector! Now I don’t think most people on either side of the political aisle today have gone THAT far! But when the love of Christ compels us, political ideologies fall away compared the beauty of the gospel! Have those conversations and LISTEN TO UNDERSTAND with GENTLENESS.

-Screwtape Letters, #7: “I had not forgotten my promise to consider whether we should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged. Not always, of course, but at this period. Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them yet faster asleep. Other ages, of which the present is one, are unbalanced and prone to faction, and it is our business to inflame them. Any small coterie, bound together by some interest which other men dislike or ignore, tends to develop inside itself a hothouse mutual admiration, and towards the outer world, a great deal of pride and hatred which is entertained without shame because the “Cause” is its sponsor and it is thought to be impersonal. Even when the little group exists originally for the Enemy’s own purposes, this remains true. We want the Church to be small not only that fewer men may know the Enemy but also that those who do may acquire the uneasy intensity and the defensive self-righteousness of a secret society or a clique. The Church herself is, of course, heavily defended and we have never yet quite succeeded in giving her all  the characteristics of a faction; but subordinate factions within her have often produced admirable results, from the parties of Paul and of Apollos at Corinth down to the High and Low parties in the Church of England.”

-Extremism to anything other than Christ is a lie from the pit of hell that we need to repent of in order to pursue Jesus’ heart towards us: gently and lowly.

-I LOVE theology, a love a good theological debate/discussion, I have at times made my theology my god, and it makes a bad god: let’s go back to God, how He’s revealed Himself in His Word, and live in the community he’s called us to. We do not fight against flesh and blood.

-1 person I was listening to about this idea this week said “The news feed of heaven is very different from the news feed of earth.” What makes the headlines of heaven? When someone moves from death into life, when you grow in gentleness.

-What would it look like for us to take this command seriously and work to grow in gentleness in every one of our responses? Paul actually tells us how we can do that!

-It begins by this throwaway comment: the Lord is at hand. God is near! That’s why we let our gentleness be seen by everyone, it’s not our gentleness, it’s God’s gentleness being demonstrated THROUGH us. “It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20)

  • Do not be anxious

-Do you ever get anxious about what’s going on around us? I was at a conference Indianapolis in April when most Twin City suburbs were put under a curfew. I couldn’t head home to make sure my family was safe, I was anxious! Goodness, just scrolling through FB or a news feed is enough these days to make me anxious! Once again, it feels like Paul is being unreasonable. Have you seen the world? Is this even possible?

  • Pray to God

-This is how we’re not anxious, when we start to worry/fret/become despondent, we bring it all to God.

-I’ve shared this before, but your knee jerk reaction as a Christian is supposed to be to pray! This is especially true when you start to feel anxious. 

-It’s not just suck it up, it’s not pull yourself up by your bootstraps, it’s not squelch your emotions, it’s casting them on the Lord, because He cares for you. Martin Luther: “pray and let God worry.”

-This means of dealing with anxiety leads us to:

  • Eternal peace

-I’ve often heard this verse used without the context to tell people to just chill out. You’ll have the peace of God, so you don’t need to worry! But the only way we get to this peace is by crying out to God, because He cares for us! 

-This peace comes only by living out and believing the truths from the rest of this section. We rejoice all the time, we always respond in gentleness, when we start to feel anxious/worried we cry out to God, then we will be peace filled people.

-I want you to notice 1 thing about this list: compare it to the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. Joy, peace, gentleness, kindness between Euodia and Syntyche 

-These fruit are not meant to be understood in isolation from each other. Fruit is singular: we are supposed to demonstrate each one of these characteristics. None are optional!

-The last thing about this peace is that it’s what guards our hearts and minds. Even the way we think is meant to be gentle.

  • Dwell on This (8-9)

-Look at this laundry list: true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellence, worthy of praise. Are those the things you are thinking about/dwelling on daily?

-Let’s flip it, do you instead dwell on things that are untrue, dishonoring, unjust, impure, unlovely, not commendable, wallowing in mediocrity, worthy of criticism.

-When you have nothing else to do/focus on, where does your mind go?

-God loves you so much, he even cares about your thought life. I think of Col. 3:16 “let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” There is nothing better than dwelling on the Word of Christ! I gave the overseers some new homework this week: Bible memorization, next month we’re going to be reciting Phil. 4:4-7 to each other. Ask us how we’re doing with it! Join us in soaking/meditating/dwelling on these words!

-That’s actually what Paul says in vs. 9. You have people in leadership here to set an example for you. What you have learned from us, received from us, and then heard and seen, practice them. Get busy rejoicing, being gently, praying, and dwelling on the things of Christ.

-This is the kind of church I want to be a part of! Because we are commanded to be gentle, one person described the church as shock absorbers. As new people/unbelievers come in here who are stirred up/agitated about the state of our world, can you be gentle enough to absorb them into our midst and help them grow in gentleness? This is what Christ calls us to as a church! Putting on the mind of Christ, and responding with gentleness and lowliness. Today is September 12, but it’s 2021, not 2001, and the only way for us to see the same sense of comradery that we want to see again is by growing in gentleness. This is what Christ died for us to do: to demonstrate Him to everyone around us. Let’s roll towards that goal in all of our lives!

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by mikethestrand on September 12, 2021  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Relationships, Theology

Posted by mikethestrand on September 12, 2021

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2021/09/12/philippians-42-9-sermon-manuscript/

Psalm 10 – Sermon Manuscript

PLEASE NOTE: These are the notes I use to preach from, if you would like to hear them in context, please watch our YouTube channel.

Where Did You Go?

Psalm 10

Intro:

-Major theme we’ve seen through these first 10 Psalms is there’s 2 ways to live: for/against the Lord.

-Way of the wicked/way of the blessed – Psalm 1

-way of the world/the way of the Lord – Psalm 2

-Today we’re going to be looking at that exact same theme: the way of the wicked or the way of those who are blessed/following God

READ

PRAY

  1. The Distance of God (1)

-Anyone who has been a Christian for a decent amount of time has gone through a season of questioning where God is.

-Pastor Bruce (and now Micah!) and I have been talking a lot recently about this “deconstruction” idea that seems to be running rampant in the church right now.

-Each generation, it seems, has a time period in which people start leaving the faith claiming that God isn’t real, that God doesn’t work in their lives, that they “tried” God out and he didn’t come through

-Augustine/Anselm of Centerbury “believe so that you may understand.” 

-What can the unbeliever know about God? Some things (common grace, the created order) but what I want to keep saying to those I read who are “deconstructing” is: have you actually been trusting in the one true God, or have you been looking at him as a way to get what you want? 

-Think of the parable of the sower that Jesus tells in Matt. 13, seed scattered on: path, rocky ground, thorns, good soil. Rocky ground is described as “this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.” So why are we surprised when we see things taking place around us that Jesus told us would happen?

-This distance idea is a real thing! God at times will feel far away, even David, the man after God’s own heart struggled with feelings of isolation. 

-Brother/sister: when you feel like God has abandoned you, the first thing to remember is that is normal! Every relationship has ups/downs, seasons of closeness/intimacy and seasons of distance/indifference.

-One big difference though is in our relationship with God, one of those 2 people is perfect, which is why one of the things I first learned about God as a kid is God will never leave you or forsake you. (Deut. 31:6) or what we’re trying to teach our kids: when I am afraid I will trust in God. (Psalm 56:3)

-We also need to remember: theologically, one of the first things we learn, God is omnipresent (omnis are some of the basic ways to remember the incommunicable attributes of God, we are all finite, God is infinite)

-Grudem “The doctrine that God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different places.”

-God’s manifest presence vs. omnipresence

-Distance is acutely felt in the “valley of the shadow of death” or “dark night of the soul” but in those seasons we need to think back to what we know to be true about God. 

-Reading a book about discipleship this week, “We shout doctrine in the light so that we can whisper it in the dark.”

-This is getting to what I talked about last week on the need for discipleship: 2 tracks of our “train” in growing as a Christian: life and doctrine. Need both! 

-Think back to what I’ve shared about a see-saw in relation to doctrine. If you emphasize only life you end up with a bunch of Christians who love their neighbor but don’t love God, if you emphasize only doctrine you end up with a bunch of people who love God but neglect to love their neighbor. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and. Need doctrine to preach to ourselves, but we need to live out the doctrine we believe so the world can see that we’re different! 

-That’s the only way we will survive when the difficulties/struggles of life come our way, and they are guaranteed to come! I’ve shared this quote a couple times, but I still think it bears repeating: D.A. Carson How Long, O Lord? “The truth of the matter is that all we have to do is live long enough, and we will suffer.” In those times/seasons, push into your family, the church, come and be reminded that Jesus comes to walk with us in the midst of those difficulties, that Jesus came to bear our sorrows, lay them at HIS feet, because He cares for you.

-Think about this truth from Matt. 11:28-30 “Come to me, all who labor and are heave laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yolk upon you, and learn from me, for I am gently and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

-Only place in all 4 Gospels where Jesus reveals his heart, his innermost self, and we could spend, we WILL spend eternity plumbing the depths of that idea!

-Brother/sister WHEN you are struggling, WHEN you are heavy laden, WHEN you world feels like it is falling apart, come to Jesus, he’ll take the burden and give you a light one because he is gentle and lowly in heart.

-But what do we do when it seems like those not following Jesus are flourishing?

  • The Depravity of the Wicked (2-11)

-There are 5 characteristics David gives us on the depravity of the wicked: arrogance, wealth, longevity, sinful speech, and violence. We’ll work through them one by one.

-It’s important to remember that these descriptions are from an earthly/human perspective, but that doesn’t always reflect the greater spiritual reality. Often a tendency for us to focus exclusively on how it affects the physical reality, and neglect to remember there’s a greater reality going on around us.

-Think of a passage like Eph. 6:12 “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” So as we read these items, this is how it appears to us in our natural human state. 

-First, arrogance (2-4)

-Notice who is the object of this arrogant spirit: the poor. The marginalized, those who have no voice to fight for themselves. Throughout history, those who most often bear the brunt of the sin of a culture, people group are the poor. 

-Lady at my first church (Cheyenne) who is now with the Lord, who was on welfare. Worked at a gas station making minimum wage, ministry of sending cards. One Christmas season she found some supplemental income doing seasonal work, showed up on her taxes and she lost her low-income housing, only house she could afford. Someone at church bought her a little house and rented it to her for the same price she was paying for her low income house, but she’d never have to move or worry about how much money she was bringing in. That was really eye opening to me! Yes, always people who are scamming the system, but there’s also those that are dependent on “the system” to survive, and for those of us who are in Christ, we’re called to love and care for those people who are in our midst. Acts 2 reminds us that in the early church there were no needy people. None. I get to see some of the ways this happens in our church! Benevolence fund, rides for people who need it, sharing medical equipment with others who can’t buy it. That’s a marker of someone who is not arrogant! 

-Now, notice the implication of how this arrogant, wicked person lives in vs. 3 by pursuing this sinful way of life, he renounces the Lord, he lives as an atheist proclaiming “there is no God.”

-That’s just the first marker! 

-Second, wealth (5)

-Again, remember this is merely from a humanistic perspective. From all external appearances, everything he does is prospering.

-Compare this with Psalm 1, describing the blessed man who obeys God. So which is it? Is the wicked prospering at all times, or is the blessed one who is obeying God? Spiritually, the blessed one is prospering all the time. 

-The underground church is Kabul was martyred last week. From all earthly/worldly appearances the blessed ones are not prospering and the wicked seem to have the upper hand.

-In the midst of this complaint, David remembered that God is the one true judge. God’s judgments are on a completely different level than the wicked, the wicked can’t even begin to grasp it! That gives us comfort, even in the midst of persecution/suffering! God and the wicked aren’t even playing the same game! God’s playing chess while the wicked think they’re winning by playing checkers

-As if that’s not enough, while he’s stuck playing checkers, he says that he has:

-Third, Longevity (6)

-Let’s be honest here, how many generations does it often take for people to forget your name? 2? Now maybe there are some people that change the course of human history (Jesus, Nero, Napoleon, Hitler come to mind) but for most of us, our life is a vapor and we’re forgotten shortly after we die. And even those names that I mentioned, how many of them built a kingdom that is still lasting? 1. So we know that’s not true! 

-Fourth, Sinful speech (7)

-Look at all these things that come out from him! This language demonstrates what is in his heart (“out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” Matt. 12:34) we also know from James 3 that the tongue is powerful. How many of you have lasting wounds because of a single sentence someone said to you?

-Paul even picks up this language in Rom. 3 to talk about the evidences for no one being righteous. Do your words reveal you to be the blessed one, or the wicked one?

-Last, violence (8-11)

-Look at all the ways he looks to pursue violence. He intentionally targets the poor and helpless. This is the antithesis of God who intentionally seeks to raise the poor/helpless. Think of that video I showed a few weeks back on the biblical concept of “justice.” What we seek to do with our positions of influence is lower ourselves to someone else, so that we can then build them back in Christ. 

-This is where the gospel intersects with these ideas. Jesus condescended to our level. Jesus came from the highest level possible (heaven/perfection) and lowered himself to our level so that we could be raised with him to the highest level possible. 

-Look at how this section ends in vs. 11 “He will never see it.” God sees everything. Every pain you feel, every misspoken word against you, every time you’re mistreated, God sees every single moment of every single day, and his heart toward you is gently and lowly. 

-That’s where this Psalm doesn’t end with the focus on the wicked, no, the wicked are nothing compared to God!

  • The Response of God (12-18)

-Because God sees everything, David (and we too!) can call on God to arise and deal with the injustice and brokenness we see around us. 

-David calls on God to bring about in the physical realm the spiritual realities that are happening around us. (14) God sees it so that he can take matters into his own hands, the helpless are to commit themselves to God (14), God will help the fatherless, and ultimately break the arm of the wicked (that is to take away their power)

-We today can pray that the wicked and evildoers come to an end. Even if we don’t see the implications of their wickedness on earth, we know that they will be punished for their sins.

-David ends on a high note here: where the wicked think they will have an everlasting reign, God really does reign as king forever and ever. Everyone else will perish, but God won’t.

-Because God is a sovereign (and perfect) king, he’ll hear and strengthen the afflicted, he will enact lasting, perfect justice as opposed to the “mere people” of earth

-What are we supposed to do when we’re in exile as the people of God? When it seems like the wicked are thriving and we’re not?

Jeremiah 29:4-9 

-Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce.

-You’re going to be there for a while (how long does it take to build a house?) 

-Gardens take at least 4 months to bear produce, and then to do that annually means it’s something to dig into and look for ways to flourish where you are.

-Seek to grow your families. One of the easiest ways for a community to grow is to have kids. Spend time with your family! I’ve been thinking a lot recently on the fact that my kids will have various teachers, friends, influencers in their lives, but I’m the only dad they’ve got. Parents: we have a job to do! But even if you’re not a parent, the other parents here need your help! We can’t do it alone!

-Seek the welfare of the city where I HAVE SENT YOU.

-Do you view your vocation as a place God has sent you? Do you view your house as a place God has sent you? Do you view your recreation as a place God has sent you? Schooling, shopping, eating, walking, working out. Every place you go you’re there for a reason. Salt and light.

-This is one of the primary ways we can stand strong against injustice and the feeling that God has abandoned us, by crying out to God, pushing into our church family that God has called us to, and working to see the flourishing where God has sent us. We know that the wicked won’t last forever!

-But until the wicked are dealt with, we still live on this earth. Until the wicked have their arms broken, we will still face difficulties, struggles, and maybe even persecution.

-There’s times in all of our lives where we are the wicked ones! So how do we respond when we realize that? Repent, cry out to God for help, push back into the church family God has given you, and get to work! 

-All of this serves as a picture of communion, because all of us are at times the wicked ones. We’re slow to seek God, we’re slow to seek justice, and we often act as if there is no God. But God doesn’t give up on any of us! He relentlessly pursues, continually loves, and continues working in our lives to draw us to Himself. That’s why we take communion – to remember that this world is not our home, that God dwells in all of us who are walking with the Lord.

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by mikethestrand on September 5, 2021  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Relationships, Sermon, Theology

Posted by mikethestrand on September 5, 2021

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2021/09/05/psalm-10-sermon-manuscript/