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The Prayerbook of Jesus – Sermon Manuscrip

-Happy 2026! One of the things I’ve tried to do at the beginning of each year is to do what I’ve called “Theological Tune Up” where we talk about some things that have come up that are pressing issues in the world today, or things that have come up over the past year in conversations I’ve had with some of you, but I’ve always wanted to try including some emphasis on spiritual practices or disciplines we can grow in over the coming year. One of the things we need to be doing every year is continuing to get God’s Word into our lives, whether that be through reading it more, memorizing it more, meditating on it more, and there’s other practices that will help us take steps closer to Jesus, and this past year I’ve been focusing more time on prayer.

-And maybe like me, you’ve had that experience at about this time every year, where you’re determined to pray more and read more Bible, so you set out your clothes the night before, go to bed early, get your coffee ready (as everyone should be doing in the morning), get all comfy and ready bright and early, then you start to pray, get through your entire list you thought of and feel like you’ve been praying for about an hour, and check your clock and somehow only 3 minutes have passed.

-We’re going to be looking at 4 ways to pray this January (there’s lots more in the Bible, but we only have so many weeks!). We’ll start with the prayerbook of Jesus the guide Jesus used for His prayers, next week we’ll look at the most famous prayer: the Lord’s prayer, the third week we’ll look at the need to pray honestly, and finally we’ll look at the prayers of Paul.

READ/PRAY  – Psalm 110

  1. The Dilemma

-The Bible talks about prayer A LOT! And I don’t know about you, but for most of my life I felt discouraged about my prayer life. Think of what Paul commands us in 1 Thess. Not only are we to pray constantly (some trans. without ceasing), but this is God’s will for us! Talk about pressure! How does that stand up to the reality of everyday life, and how does that make you feel?

-This started changing for me when I was in seminary. One class I had, the professor began the class with the question: “how’s your prayer life?” And I answered “it could be better.” And we spent literally the rest of the class talking about why we feel guilty about our perceived lack of prayer. And friends, this was with a group of both present and future church leaders! If church leaders struggle to pray, what hope is there for everyone else, right!?

-And I’ll put all my cards on the table: I’m not a morning person, I REALLY don’t like getting up early! If it were up to me (and my kids didn’t have school) I would sleep in every day! And when I was growing up, I was always told that you were supposed to get up every morning to do a “quiet time.” I don’t like mornings and I don’t like quiet! (God’s working on me) so what else could I do? I’d also regularly forget to pray about things friends asked me to pray for (it’s a good thing God isn’t constrained by time like we are!), so I remember sometimes praying after someone had a surgery that went well! Thanks, God, for answering my future prayer in the past!

-And just to be completely honest, my heart and desires often weren’t even in it! Growing up I remember the church had a monthly prayer night that made ZERO sense to me, and what was worse was we couldn’t even do our normal playing because it would be distracting to the adults who were trying to pray!

-I remember when an adult that I looked up to was feeling called to seminary, the church commissioned him, prayed for him to go, and on his last Sunday I saved up all my money to buy him a CD (expensive in those days! Plus I was 12). I knew my mom got him something too, so I asked what it was, and he told me she had committed to pray for him and his studies every week. Astonished, I said “That’s IT!?” And he said “That’s much better than the CD you got me!”

-Now, I know some of you are much better at praying than I am, you have it scheduled, you never miss that time, it’s a sweet time of fellowship every day. Similarly, there’s other people that are able to run dozens of miles without stopping! We’re all wired differently, but we’re all commanded to be people who pray. Regardless of where you’re at with praying every single day, or whether your only prayer time is when during this worship service each week, this series is going to be some potentially new ways for you to pray that you may not have considered before, some ways that I’ve been stretched and challenged to grow in my own life, because the reality is we’re all on a journey. None of us will ever arrive, and we all have ways we could continue to grow.

-I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and reading on the idea of spiritual disciplines over the last couple of years. If you haven’t heard of him, a guy named John Mark Comer has just absolutely taken off. Former pastor and author who is a New York Times bestseller. College professors I talk to say everyone is reading him, every pastor I talk to has thoughts on him (including myself! But I’ll save those for another time, if you want to talk about him let me know and I’ll buy you some coffee)

-There seems to be a rise currently taking place in the church towards mysticism or experiential theology (seems to come in cycles, any of you former pastors remember Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline?). The trend (especially for younger Christians) is toward some more historical church practices, with a current obsession with eastern orthodoxy. 

-Just last week, I was talking to Micah about this trend with music leaders. I would argue that the music we do in the church today is mostly influenced by the Jesus People of the 60s, and that we’re on the 5th generation of those music leaders, which Micah believes is now emphasizing the experiential or mystical aspects. (again, if you want to talk about this, let’s get coffee!)

-The guy I’ve found that I think is writing more helpfully on this than anyone else right now is a guy named Kyle Strobel – a professor at Talbot seminary in LA. What he argues that we need is a recovery of Word-centered, Spirit-empowered, whole-life spirituality (come to the Walk This Way class for more!). He’s someone who stirs my heart and mind to love Jesus more completely. I’d encourage you to find his books and read them, listen to his podcast, or checkout his substack! 

-There are 3 theological realities that serve as the foundation for prayer that we need to be aware of.

1 Reality: We don’t come before God in fear. This is where my comment about “could be better” is off base, because I don’t truly understand God’s desire for me. Look at what we learn in 1 John 4. Friends, Jesus loves you! And not only does He love you, but he likes you. Not some future you, not the you with all your issues “fixed” (whatever that might mean), He loves and likes you! And out of that love comes a desire to be with you! Similarly in Heb. 4, we learn about Jesus who allows us to come boldly before the King and Creator of the universe! No fear, boldness. 

2 Reality: The Spirit is always praying for us Rom. 8. Do you ever feel like you don’t even know where to start praying? You don’t need to worry, because the Spirit is already praying for you! And not just the Spirit:

3 Reality: Jesus is always praying for us. Look at what Paul says in Rom. 8. Jesus is constantly interceding for us, which is also brought up in Heb. 7.

-Because of these 3 realities, prayer isn’t something we begin or end, it’s us entering into something that is taking place 24/7 regardless of what we do. We enter into what the Spirit and the Son are constantly doing on our behalf. Yet we still have the responsibility to come before God.

-I shared this quote as I came back from sabbatical, but it’s still been ringing around in my head since then (from Kyle Strobel) that comes because of the previous truths.

-In prayer we come as we are. God already knows it, why do we pretend that we can keep things hidden from Him?

-This gets to our “wandering minds” in prayer, too. What if, in prayer, as we draw near to God, the idols of our hearts begin to come to the surface? Like as metal is dropped in a forge, the impurities are literally burned out, as our hearts approach the completely holy one, our impurities start to bubble to the surface. Friends, instead of being a distraction from praying, those things may be the very things God is calling you to pray for! We’ll get there in a couple weeks.

  • A Proposal for this week, here’s my proposal for us.

-But we need somewhere to start. And I would argue that we have an entire book of the Bible that was used as the prayerbook for Jesus, that He taught His disciples to use and pray, and has benefited countless Christians throughout history.

-I am indebted to Donald Whitney for helping me understand this approach to both praying and reading the Bible. AND I’ve got a number of extra copies of this book, so first come first serve for whoever wants it!

-Martin Luther loved the Psalms so much he described it as a “little Bible.”

-The reason we know Jesus used the Psalms is because Jews have been using it as their prayerbook for centuries, and Jesus quoted from a Psalm while He was hanging on the cross, AND he used the Psalms to point to His divinity, AND His disciples quoted from the Psalms to share how Jesus fulfilled the OT, AND we have an entire book of the NT that one scholar has described as a sermon on Psalm 110.

-First, what is probably the most quoted verse in the NT: Psalm 110:1

-Jesus was interrogated by many of the religious leaders of His day on a regular basis. They had all the rules and all the history, and Jesus didn’t fit in their boxes! So Jesus goes on the offensive, and asks them whose son the Messiah is, so they reply (obviously…) David’s. But if that’s true, why does David call Him “Lord” in this Psalm? What comes out when Jesus is confronted is the Psalms.

-And His first disciples followed in His footsteps. During Pentecost in Acts 2, when the Spirit descends on the disciples and they begin telling the world in Jerusalem about what Jesus has done, Peter stands up and guess what he quotes from? This Psalm!

-And not just the early disciples, some scholars believe that the book of Hebrews is a sermon walking through this Psalm. Every time someone in the NT refers to Jesus sitting at the Father’s right hand (it’s all over!) it’s referencing this Psalm.

-The second reason we can see the Psalms being Jesus’s prayerbook is because of what He says on the cross. One of the last phrases he cries out (Hebrew, to Aramaic, to Greek, to English), is asking a question to God. But He’s quoting from a Psalm in the OT, specifically Psalm 22. We most likely don’t have every word that Jesus said from the cross (this was a multi-hour event), it’s feasible Matthew just references the first verse to signify that Jesus was praying this whole Psalm as His last prayer on the cross.

 -And listen to some of these descriptions from this Psalm: 

-Friends, this was written 1000 years before Jesus came! Crucifixion hadn’t even been invented yet, and here David (under the inspiration of the HS), is talking about the kind of death Jesus experienced. I don’t know about you, but that comforts me! Jesus, in His humanity, experiencing the weight, the burden of all of our sins (and not just ours, the sins of the WHOLE world), was able to use God’s Word as a comfort, it gave Him the words to say as He experienced the heaviness and burden of the sins of the world.

-So if Jesus can use the Psalms as His guide for prayer, maybe we should too, right?

-Now I want to get at something right off the bat – using other people’s words to pray. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, but when the elders pray, they’ve written out their prayers ahead of time and then they read them to us. When we first started having them pray, there were some elders that didn’t like that I asked them to write them out, and there were some people in the congregation that were hesitant about seeing the elders writing out their prayers. If you’ve ever heard someone get up to pray that hasn’t written anything down, isn’t it distracting to hear them say “just” over and over again? “God we just want to thank you, we’re just so blessed, we just want to confess our sins…” Many times, there’s a pointless repetition to those prayers! 

-Once again, we need to have an understanding of a theological truth to know what’s taking place here. Heb. 13:8 tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” So we can say that GOD never changes (that’s worth praising God over, and something we can barely understand because we ALWAYS change!). If God never changes, then why would we think that He’s more present if my preparation takes place in the moment on Sunday morning instead of being present if my preparation takes place days before? 

-I experienced this when I was a music pastor. I would schedule out the services a month ahead of where we were, so people could both know they were on the team that week and know which songs they had to know. And I was accused of squelching the Holy Spirit because I wasn’t spontaneous enough. So I walked people through the reality that God doesn’t change, the Holy Spirit is JUST as active in my preparation before as He is in the moment. BUT we plan everything in pencil, because God can do whatever He wants. And honestly, what I’ve found is those who push for less structure just don’t want to put the work in ahead of time!

-What we’re doing when we use someone else’s words (God’s and humans) is helping to guide our thoughts and prayers, and it turns our prayers into a conversation with the one true and living God because if we use God’s Word, it begins with what He’s said and revealed, and then moves to our response.

-I worked for a pastor who got really into what he called “listening prayer” where you ask God to speak to you and then sit silently while you wait for Him to give you an impression or a word for the moment you’re in. Now, I completely believe that God can and does work in the present moment, but it comes across as denying that God has spoken to us THROUGH HIS WORD! 

-This isn’t sitting silently and waiting, this is letting God set the agenda for your prayer time, and I think the Psalms is a great place to do it because the Psalms really cover the whole human experience. High highs, low lows, and everything in between.

-Let’s think of how this would work:

–Psalm 23 is one of the best-known Psalms, worth memorizing and meditating if you haven’t memorized it (even if you have it memorized in the KJV!).

-The first line: The Lord is my shepherd. Have you ever thanked God that He is a good shepherd who is leading and guiding us as His sheep? Honestly, this line could be the spark to spend hours thanking God! Maybe you think of the under shepherds God has appointed in our church (the elders and pastors) But pray whatever comes to mind when you hear that line, and then go onto the next one.

-I have what I need. Well, this makes me think of the fact that I’m getting kind of hungry, but I’ve never been truly hungry. I have enough food in my house to let me eat for a LONG time without truly starving (despite what my kids think!) And maybe you then think of some of the kids you sponsor across the world who do struggle with food.

-He lets me lie down. And you remember that you need to schedule that vacation you talked to your spouse about! But you have the opportunity to ask God to be in this time of rest and recovery.

-And on and on you can go! I think the Psalms are the easiest, but you can do this with any passage of Scripture! 

-150 Psalms, most days have at least 30 days, so 2 options. Day x5, start there and work back 5. Or take the day, jump ahead 30, another 30, another 30. 

-What happens when the Bible inspires and guides our prayers?

  • The Outcome

-God gets to speak to us on His terms, we don’t come up with an agenda that God has to answer.

-Many times, there’s a verse or 2 that really stand out that you’re able to use to meditate on throughout the day. So you get a 2 for 1 special here, where you’re praying the Bible, AND you’re memorizing the Bible!

-So your assignment this week is to pick a Psalm each day and use it as a template for your prayer for that day.

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by mikethestrand on January 4, 2026  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on January 4, 2026

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2026/01/04/the-prayerbook-of-jesus-sermon-manuscrip/

Mighty God – Sermon Manuscript

-Christmas beef: why are ornaments so flimsy? They know kids are going to be grabbing them, throwing them around, why do they use the most fragile pieces? We’ve already had some ornaments break because we have 2 2-year-olds who think the tree is their new toy! Our other kids are already starting to realize that these ornaments tell a story. My grandma got all her grandkids a new ornament every year, so all my ornaments have a history to them. My parents have started doing the same thing with my kids, each ornament they pull out their reminded of an event that happened that year. 

-All of us have a history, memories that can be triggered by different things, right? The one that always gets me is the corner of MOA that has Cinnabon. I loved MOA when I was in HS (much less fondness as an adult), but that corner that smells like cinnamon gets me every time I walk by! 

-God created us as storied creatures. We use stories to make sense of the world, and to make sense of our lives. We define ourselves by the stories we tell. And God is the same way.

-A few years ago, I came across a minimalist drawing of the various relationships we’ll have over our lives. I’m not saying they’re all the most appropriate (I think this was published in the New York Times), but it’s an interesting way to think about our various relationships throughout our lives, isn’t it? And each one of these tells a story. We’re going to read Isaiah 9 again, and this week we’re focusing on the second name: Mighty God. But as I read it, I want you to think about the story it’s telling.

READ/PRAY (pg. 607)

  1. What is Your Story?

-We tend to focus on ourselves and our own lives and either neglect or ignore the lives that come before us. We do this as a country, and as individuals. There’s a tension here, because historically people were only connected to their family which means the individual was lost in the communal. But our culture has swung to the complete opposite of that, to the point that we have no room for anything communal! No one will commit to anything, no one will look out for anyone else, and no one else can tell anyone else what to do. The fact that we have something called FOMO should tell us everything we need to know about our culture! 

-But the reality is we’re all products of our culture and our upbringing. We all came from somewhere (and someone) which affects all of us. And part of the problem with our world today is that people don’t take the time to know themselves, which means they also can’t truly get to know anyone else because they haven’t taken the time to know how God created them. AND if we don’t know the way God created us, we’re always going to be scared that someone will expose us as a fraud. It’s no wonder people church hop, and job hop, and house hop, it means no one can ever truly get to know the real you.

-But friends, the only way to find healing, the only way to have hope in the world, the only way to be truly loved is by opening yourself up to others. To know your story and be willing to share it with others so they can care for you. And what’s scary about digging into yourself is you’re messed up and broken. All of us have temptations and impulses that we wish weren’t a part of our lives! One of the best examples of someone who tried digging into his life is in a guy named Augustine, who lived in the 4th century. Augustine may be the most influential theologian to live after the Apostle Paul. Augustine was an African who lived a life seeking nothing but pleasure until God saved Him, and one of his seminal works is titled “Confessions” which is Augustine processing his life and God’s work in His life. It’s an interesting look at the intersection of theology and testimony.

-Read a 13-point summary of the book this week that was really helpful, and it just reminded me that people who weren’t distracted by technology had time to think and process the things of the Lord in ways that we never will! You can find a LINK to the summary in my sermon manuscript online. Listen to how Augustine describes his life story.

-The staff here read a book over the past year that talked about how we can think and process our stories, how we can look at our family of origin and see some of the ways that continues shaping us today. The author has this fun line that has stuck with me: Jesus may be in your heart, but grandpa’s still in your bones! We can’t escape our histories, what we can do is bring it to the feet of Jesus and ask Him to help us process our history in healthy ways! More to come on this in the future!

  • What is God’s Story?

-It begins with knowing God’s story! There is a surprising amount of ignorance around the Bible today! Most people don’t even know the basic storyline, what it focuses on, the way it talks about history. Could you? I love the way Stephen, the first martyr in the church, is able to walk through the whole OT and talk about how it points to Jesus. He starts with Abraham, goes to Joseph and the patriarchs, then to Moses leading Israel into the promised land, then to the tabernacle and temple and ends with a focus on Jesus, the Righteous One, which leads to his death.

-If we look at Isaiah 9, we see a story! Referring to the past, that this day will be different. Looking to the future where a light will come. The promise of a coming kingdom where justice and righteousness will rule.  

-If you were asked to summarize the entire Bible, how would you do it? There’s multiple proposals for this, and multiple ways that could describe it. One easy way is: creation, fall, redemption, transformation, and consummation. Another way I’ve seen is tracing the serpentine theme through Scripture – garden, Pharoah has a serpent on his headdress, Goliath is described like a snake with his armor, Jesus calls the Pharisees a brood of vipers, in Revelation the enemy is described as a giant snake (dragon). The one I think summarizes the storyline the best, however, is the idea of God’s kingdom. Coincidentally, the one thing that I would argue is missing from our denomination’s SOF is any reference to the kingdom. There’s reasons for it that I don’t have time to get into here, so if you’re interested in talking about that, let me know! 

-How should we define God’s kingdom? Graeme Goldsworthy Gospel and Kingdom 53-4. The place/sphere that this takes place starts globally (tasked to spread the garden out), then narrows in focus, before going all the way out again to encapsulate the entire world. But God’s plan has always been global (dare we say cosmic) in scope. And I think it’s helpful for us to remember the whole storyline of Scripture, because if we just take Jesus out of context we miss everything that He came to fulfill, which means we miss His entire mission and reason He came to earth. God’s Big Picture by Vaughn Roberts

  • The Pattern of the Kingdom

-The goal of the creation is rest. If you didn’t know, the chapter and verse markers aren’t inspired and weren’t part of the original writings. The creation account actually goes into Gen. 2, after God has created everything, it says He rested. We shouldn’t think of this as God being tired and needing a nap (like us), it means He doesn’t need to do any more creating. It’s done, it’s correct, everything is ordered as it should be. This tells us that this is the picture of how God intended to interact with His creation. He would be able to meet in perfect harmony with everything He had created, no Christmas complaining ever! So we see the pattern of the kingdom is like this:

  • The Perished Kingdom

-But we know that’s not the way it ends, that’s just the first 2 chapters, because Gen. 3 tells the story of what’s often referred to as the Fall. And look how it begins. Remember the way God’s rule was demonstrated in the garden? Through His Word. What does the serpent question? His Word! And look at how the relationship the people have with God is affected. Where they used to be together, knowing God and each other without any hindrance, now there’s a barrier. There’s something to hide, so God calls out asking where they are. In the perished kingdom, this is what God’s kingdom looks like:

  • The Promised Kingdom

-The story continues with increasing corruption in the world resulting in a flood (intentionally worded as the opposite of creation, a de-creation of the world). Yet out of this corruption, God is still faithful, still wants a relationship with His creation, so He reaches out to Abram (later called Abraham), calls him to leave everything he knows and go to a new land where God would be with him, and he would be a blessing to the entire world. What’s amazing about this is that even though sin had led to complete corruption in the world, the world receives nothing but grace from God. Even though they had betrayed the king, God continues loving and blessing His creation. Here the Kingdom of God looks like this:

  • The Partial Kingdom

-And once again, these people listen to the serpent and follow after their own ways. The rest of the first 5 books are the formation of this new nation of Abraham’s descendants. Exodus tells how God saved His people from slavery, led them into the wilderness (where he continued providing for them anytime they needed food or water), and the need to obey God’s law, which is revealed through the rest of the books! Remember Micah’s overview of Leviticus, and the distinction between clean and unclean, holy any unholy? There are specific ways that God’s people are allowed to approach Him, otherwise they’ll be killed by his perfect holiness. Here we see the partial kingdom looking like this: 

-A specific people group called out from all the nations of the world who are supposed to be an example to the world of what fidelity to the one true God looks like. But there’s still a separation because of sin, so God’s place is specifically located in the temple, and the only way to approach Him at the temple is through the elaborate sacrificial system. And notice how God’s rule is demonstrated: through the law and the king, who is supposed to serve as the example to the people of what God looks like. And the theme throughout this time period is: the nation is only as faithful as its’ king. As the king goes, so goes the nation. And they had some BAD kings leading to the land being split in 2: northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and eventually even those 2 kingdoms no longer existed because the people were taken off into exile, which is getting somewhat into the next era of God’s kingdom in human history: 

  • The Prophesied Kingdom

-God disciplines His people by sending them into exile. We often think of the prophesy coming through the prophets are future telling, but they do a whole lot more talking about events in their time where they plead with the people to repent, to trust God, and obey His plans for them. All the prophets focus on 2 themes: judgment and hope. Judgment for disobedience, and hope that God will be faithful to His promises to restore His people. The prophets also tell of a day in the future where God’s blessings will be given to all creation, where God’s original intent for perfect relationship with His creation with be realized, where everyone will desire to follow after God completely, obeying all His laws perfectly because they’ll be written on our hearts instead of stone tablets. God says my job will be redundant, I won’t need to tell you about God, because all of us will know Him perfectly! What a wonderful day that will be! Here’s what God’s kingdom looks like as a prophesied kingdom: 

-And then we turn the page into the NT, which covers 400 silent years, years that included the beginning of one of the most impactful civilizations in human history: the Roman empire. And a census during the Roman empire is what led to the Christ-child being born in Bethlehem, the land of His father David. But think of His arrival:

  • The Present Kingdom

-Jesus preaches that the kingdom is here! It has arrived IN HIM! All the promises of the past are answered and fulfilled in Him. All the previous things God used were pictures that pointed us to the fulfillment of them in Jesus. Therefore, the present kingdom looks like this: 

-Do you see how Jesus fulfills every single one of God’s promises? He completely changes everything! Jesus is the true and better Adam, He’s the true a better Israel, He’s the true and better tabernacle, He’s the true and better temple, He brings in the true and better covenant, and He alone offers us the rest we so desperately need. Where the world continually tells us we need to prove ourselves, Jesus tells us to find our rest IN HIM! Friends, this is the reality of the Christmas story, this is the reality of the gospel message, that because God became a man, we have hope to draw near to God once again. We can have a lasting relationship WITH HIM! This Kingdom has already begun, Jesus is already on His throne, the question is do you realize and recognize that?

  • The Proclaimed Kingdom

-After Jesus rises from the dead, a new era of human history began, what the NT calls “the last days.” The purpose of these last days is to share the reality of this kingdom with others. The Spirit is poured out on the disciples of Jesus, who immediately began sharing the story of what Jesus has accomplished with the nations who were in Jerusalem. Look at the way the disciples were thinking about this, though. They were still too narrow in their focus, only worried about themselves. And look what Jesus calls them: witnesses. They’re supposed to bear witness to this new kingdom, to proclaim it to others, and it’s supposed to take place across the world. This part of the kingdom looks like this: 

-Notice that the current kingdom is in the church, which is comprised of individuals who make up a body! God now dwells with us once again, and it’s all centered and focused on Jesus. But even this isn’t the final stage of God’s kingdom:

  • The Perfected Kingdom

-God is in the process of making everything new, of redeeming it to Himself, and it comes through the proclamation of His people, from every tribe and tongue and nation. There’s a day coming when sin won’t have any more power, where everything sad will come untrue, where God will completely heal everything. The idea of shalom, lasting eternal peace is what God calls it, where everything is properly ordered, in its’ rightful place. A day where we don’t need preaching anymore, because we’ll all know exactly what God wants from us, and where our work will no longer be thorns and thistles. This final part of the kingdom looks like this: 

-And if you want a picture of the whole storyline of Scripture, it looks like this: You can see it’s not a straight line! 

-But that’s not where we should end this story, because this leads to another question:

  • What Happens When Your Story Meets God’s Story?

-I think we often view Christianity as a self-actualization project instead of complete self-transformation. I love the way Bonhoeffer says it: when Christ calls someone, he calls them to die. The moment we’re saved we’re brought into union with Jesus Christ. Paul says it this way in Col. 3. If we think back to those relationship lines I shared at the beginning of the sermon, our lives would like this:

-We’re operating by ourselves, until we come to the reality that we’re a sinner in need of grace. Then God brings us into His story, and our lives become hidden in Christ. That doesn’t mean it’s all easy, and you can see there’s times where the lines aren’t as close as they could or should be, but our lives are meant to be completely changed. Our story, which used to be completely dependent on us to figure out, has a new purpose and direction to it because Jesus is now supposed to be the driving force behind everything we do. I think there’s a great picture of this in John 9. A man born blind is healed by Jesus, then interrogated by Pharisees, and he answers, “Whether or not he’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!” Friends, Jesus wants to take all the burdens and concerns of your story and bring healing to them. This is God’s plan for humanity – to know and follow Him serving under His rule and reign wherever we go. What’s crazy (to me) is the Mighty God’s plan now relies on broken people like you and me to be His witnesses, to share the story of what God has done in history and in our story with others. To tell them about the kingdom of God that will last forever, and to invite them to participate in God’s plan, which takes place here every week.

-It’s not super flashy, it’s not super impressive, Jesus describes it like a little yeast in a bread dough. Just a little bit is enough to make the whole thing rise, and just a few Christians meeting together is enough to accomplish His plans for us!

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by mikethestrand on December 7, 2025  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on December 7, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/12/07/mighty-god-sermon-manuscript/

Wonderful Counselor – Sermon Manuscript

-I don’t know where you’re at the Christmas starting time scale, I’ve learned there’s 2 types of people in the world. There are those who would put the Christmas tree up in October, and those who do it the right way and give each holiday it’s proper respect, and wait until after Thanksgiving to start getting set up for Christmas! 

-The difficulty is those 2 people tend to get married to each other, so each Christmas, which is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year is full of this underlying tension about who’s going to win this year. 2 years ago, I decided to cut my losses, wave the white flag, and create a compromise with the other side. Not only was the Christmas tree supposed to go up on Nov. 1, but we also were supposed to go get a REAL tree! If you’ve never done one, it involves wading through the forests at the back lot of Menards, pulling out about 15 different trees, just to go back to the first one you pulled out and buy that one. 

-Then once you’ve finished hiking through Menards, you have to figure out how to get this large shrubbery home, which for us meant trying to tie it to the roof of our van, and hoping it didn’t fall off on the drive home! Then when you get home, you have to figure out how to get it through one of your doors (dropping needles the entire way in), set it up so it’s level and doesn’t tip over, fill the base with water so the tree doesn’t die before Christmas. And it’s only after all that is done that you can start talking about putting lights on it! One person is stuck in the corner of the room, being attacked by the pine needles as you pass the lights back to the person in the front. Oh, and don’t forget the tree sap that is also going to be impossible to wash off your hands for a couple days!

-So my compromise with Cara was: if we can get a pre-lit fake tree, we can put it up the day after Halloween. I know it’s illegal, we try to keep it hidden from public view so we don’t get arrested! 

-Christmas can bring up all sorts of different feelings for people, depending on what’s happened the past year, what’s happened around Christmas previously, or even what your family situation is like. Yet we can’t escape it! It affects all the commercials, you see it on billboards when you drive, every store puts up some sort of holiday decorations (often just as early as Cara wants them put up!)

-And it’s not just at home, I often struggle to figure out what to preach for Christmas! I’m guessing most, if not all of you have heard the story before (I’ve read the story more times than I can count at this point!). There’s only so many different ways you can approach this story! I actually got lunch with another pastor this week and he asked me, “do you ever get tired of preaching for Christmas?” 100%

-But this year feels different to me! I don’t know if my Christmas heart has grown 3x larger, or if it’s because the twins are now at the age where everything Christmas is brand new, so we’re experiencing it through their eyes, but I’ve been legitimately excited for Christmas this year. I even broke the law a second time, and started listening to Christmas music this week, BEFORE Thursday! Don’t let that news get around.

-And I think some of the reason I’m excited for it is because I’ve been meditating on this Messianic prophecy from Isaiah for the past month. This has been a crazy year in our country! Political assassinations on both sides of the aisle, the polarization that we’ve seen for the last 15 years continues getting wider, yet in the midst of that I keep seeing glimmers of hope, like light breaking through the darkest clouds, because the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ continues making advances. Gen Z is showing more interest in church than any other generation, Bible studies are growing at universities, Bible sales are on the rise. Friends, despite being told that Christianity was a dying thing, the hope of Jesus continues persevering, don’t ever count Christianity out!

-I’m not sure if you saw this, but after Charlie Kirk was killed, the governor of Utah in his press release said the best thing you can do is log off social media and go touch grass. Do real physical activities as a real embodied physical human. The internet has rewired our brains, which is affecting how we engage with each other!

-And into this world, where we can have so many conflicting emotions, so many competing proposals on what’s wrong with the world, enters a baby. A baby who had been promised for thousands of years! And not just any baby, a baby from a very specific lineage, chosen from God’s people to be a representative and substitute because God’s people kept failing. But what’s amazing is this baby came in real life. This isn’t some myth, some made up story like Thor or Zeus. The Bible records events that took place in time, in a specific location, and it’s only by living in the light of this promised child that we can live in real life. Let’s read the text, and then I’ll explain what I mean.

READ/PRAY (pg. 607)

  1. What Do We Need?

-What we’re going to be spending our time studying this Advent is the reality that God has provided everything we need to live a fully embodied human existence, which is exactly what Jesus did when he came to earth! And this gets to what we as humans need. This was a topic that came up regularly in 1 Timothy – contentment. Paul said that godliness with contentment is of great gain to us, so we need to learn to grow in being content with everything God provides us. Friends, all of this is according to God’s good plans! Let’s walk through this text. Each week we’ll be focusing on slightly different aspects of it, along with studying the implications of what each name means, so if I don’t talk about something in Isaiah 9 today, just wait, because we’ll probably look at it in a future week.

-This takes place in the middle of God (through Isaiah) telling the people what God’s future plans for them are. God promises that his grace will come from Isaiah (seeing the throne room in Isa. 6), to the southern kingdom of Judah, then to the northern kingdom of Israel, then proclaimed to the rest of the world. And notice that it begins saying “it won’t be like the previous days.” God is going to be doing something BRAND NEW when all these events come about.

-It begins with a great light. This should make us think back to the very beginning, where Gen. 1 says that darkness covered everything, so God’s first act of creation is speaking light into existence. This tells us that in this future day, there will be a new act of creation that God brings light into existence once again. It also says this will lead to joy for the people because salvation will be coming. Their oppressors will be defeated but then look how it’s going to happen: through a child.

-Now I’m not sure if you know this about kids, but they tend to not be as strong as adults (which I’ve heard is a good thing, because otherwise the adults probably wouldn’t survive some of the tantrums that little kids throw). This is God’s ways of demonstrating (as he has done throughout history) that His way is often the unexpected way. There’s a pattern in Scripture of God choosing the younger child, or choosing the weakest person, or choosing someone too old. It’s the same thing with this future salvation. And notice the language: born FOR us, son GIVEN to us. It’s not something humans can do in their own power or strength, it has to be done FOR us because we keep failing over and over.

-We’ll talk about the government in a little bit, but look at all these incredible descriptions of this child: 4 names, which is what we’re spending our time studying this month: wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal father, prince of peace.

-And I think these 4 things offer exactly what we need to flourish in the world God has created. Think about it: we need someone who’s going to give us wise and good council and advice on how to live. We need someone outside of ourselves to provide us with a sense of purpose and identity (honestly, a large part of the mental health crisis in our world is because no human being is capable of creating an entire identity for themselves, we need someone or something bigger than us to give us the guardrails). We need a family to belong to where we know we’ll be loved and cared for no matter what happens in our lives. And we need peace where we live so that we can actually pursue all these other things. Friends, Jesus is who lets us live in real life!

-Last thing from this verse for today, most other translation say something like of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of any government that I want to continually be increasing! In my mind, that just means things would continue getting worse! With all governments except 1: the government where Jesus is King! And friends, that government has already started. Jesus is already sitting on His throne interceding for us, ministering for us, praying for us. Jesus is the one who allows us to have a place to be truly human, and His rule is primarily seen in the institution that we today call “the church.” But we’ll look at that more closely in a few weeks! But let’s look at the first name: wonderful counselor:

  • A Counselor Who…

-The first part of this counselor is the adjective wonderful. This refers to being able to perform supernatural signs, or something miraculous. Like when God came to Moses and said that He would perform miracles over the Egyptians He used the same word. So that combined with counselor tells us that this future child will be able to do signs /wonders AND give wisdom through His words. 

-So when Jesus comes, what do we see Him doing? Doesn’t He perform incredible signs and teach about wisdom? Not only does He do it Himself, but when He comes, He talks about another Counselor that He’s going to send.

-It centers on Jesus saying it’s better for Him to go away, which always struck me as odd until I continued reading. If He doesn’t leave, He doesn’t send His Holy Spirit. Friends, Jesus in his humanity was limited by space and time, Jesus in His divinity is not. It’s better that He leaves because after He left, He sent His Holy Spirit who isn’t limited in the same way.

-Jesus talks about this reality in John 14 (pg. 957). But what’s interesting is what Jesus says the purpose of this counselor is, and I think it gives us something to consider when we think about the advice we need in our lives today. 

-Jesus begins with an if/then statement. If you love Him, then you’ll keep His commandments. But I had just talked about us NOT being able to do that, and Jesus knows that. That’s why He says He’ll send someone else to help us be able to keep His commandments. And notice how He describes this other person: another Counselor. Someone who will be able to give us the advice we need. And unlike Jesus, who is only with us, this Counselor will also be IN us. This is the incredible part of the way God works: where before this time in salvation history, the Holy Spirit didn’t live in those who were following after God. They were reliant on other sinful humans to help them. Now, because of God’s plan from the beginning of time, we are literally God’s temple, the place where God lives! 

-Jumping ahead a few verses, Jesus goes on to tell us more about this Counselor. While Jesus was on earth He was able to speak the truth of God’s plan directly to His followers, but soon He wouldn’t be around anymore. And notice the 2-fold approach to this Counselor’s role: teach you all things and remind of everything Jesus said.

-I had a friend text me last week asking what I think is reasonable to expect someone to know to be saved because he’s been thinking that we’ve added so many addition steps to it, and I think this gets to that reality. The Holy Spirit is how Christians grow, which is why we need to be working to keep in step with the Holy Spirit. A question for us is do we actually trust the Holy Spirit to do this work? It’s unreasonable for us to expect an immature Christian to act like someone who’s been keeping in step with the Spirit for decades! Not only that, but we tend to forget some of our past sins and temptations! I love what Paul says in 1 Cor. 6 “and such were some of you.” None of us are off the hook. And part of the reason the Holy Spirit helps us grow is so that we can in turn look around and help others who are struggling with the same things we used to struggle with.

-The second piece to this is that growth is centered on what Jesus said. What has Jesus said? Lots of things, but we have them preserved for us in this book. What a wonderful gift! We have the Word made flesh in Jesus, and the written Word of Holy Scripture to provide counsel for us.

-And notice the outcome of this: peace. Friends, there’s a reason He’s called the Prince of Peace, He is the only way peace is possible on this side of eternity. He is the only way we can endure through the difficulties of dealing with sin.

-Church, part of what Jesus’s arrival means for us is we have been provided what we need to be counseled: through the Holy Spirit, grounded in the Holy Scriptures, and centered around the people of God (each other). Micah is actually very gifted in counseling and currently pursuing a certificate in it so that we can better come alongside people who need counsel. There’s a tension here because not every mental issue can be resolved through God’s Word, but I do worry that the professionalization of counseling has left us as Christians looking for answer in the wrong places sometimes. The joke when I was in college was everyone in the psychology program was there to try to figure themselves out.

-And many times what we need is just someone who loves us and accepts us as God created us, which is what the church is supposed to be! A place where you can be honest, share you hopes, dreams, and struggles, and receive prayer and counsel from other people who are steeped in the Word of God and who can speak the truth of God’s Word to you, reminding you of everything Jesus said.

-This is the antithesis of someone who just gives bad advice, or speaks nonsense to you: kind of like the whole 6 7 phenomenon that my kids keep talking about.

  • A Life That Is…

-All of this leads to something that we studied in 1 Timothy. Friends, Jesus hasn’t left us to figure out life on our own. We’re not created as blank slates who have to try to figure out how to operate in this world, God provides counsel for us which allows us to live a life that is truly life.

-And notice how this comes about: by living out good deeds. Friends, one of the best things we can do as Christians AND for our mental health is to look beyond ourselves, to look for ways to do good to others, to outdo one another in showing honor, to consider others interests above ourselves. That’s what the Lord has provided for us to flourish as people, and the best part is we don’t need to worry about ourselves because other people have been commanded to care about us better than they care about themselves! Be committed to a church!

-Jesus is the one who came as the Wonderful Counselor, and then left another Counselor to meet us where we’re at and help us mature and remember the truths of God, who brings us together as His people, unites us together as a body and allows us to love and care for each other, providing the council we need!

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by mikethestrand on November 30, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Relationships, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on November 30, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/11/30/wonderful-counselor-sermon-manuscript/

1 Timothy 6:11-21 – Sermon Manuscript

-For those of you who don’t live super close to your parents, have you ever noticed the way they send you off after a family get together is almost laughable? Maybe this is just a Midwest thing, but I have fond memories of time spent with my grandparents, and then on the way out the door grandma would always say “drive safely!”

-Of all the things that my dad needed to be reminded of, that one was always the one I could assume he’d do! And ever since I went to college, that farewell has been bestowed on me every time I drive away, and surprising to no one, my reply was generally “oh shoot, I was going to drive fast and take chances!”

-In today’s text, Paul is going to do something similar to Timothy! He’s going to remind him of some things that, at this point, should have been very obvious to Timothy, but Paul still thinks it’s important enough to remind him of

READ/PRAY (pg. 1053)

  1. Pursue (11-16)

-Paul has referred to Timothy a number of ways throughout this letter. True son, a good servant, here he calls him “man of God” which is the only time in the NT that title is used, and it’s an exalted title throughout the OT, referring to people like Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and David. After all these reminders to be humble and serve others, this ending is a reminder that God exalts those who are humble! We don’t need to fear the opinions of other people, because we belong to God!

-That’s the reality that allows us to acknowledge our sin, share it with others, and admit that we need God’s help. This reality is what allows us to open up with others, to be vulnerable, and to allow others to come alongside us and support us. This is the reality that reminds us that when others are vulnerable with us, we can treat them with honor and respect because they’re also chosen by God!

-But do you see how Paul tells Timothy to be a man of God? It means he’s supposed to flee something, pursue something else. That is, run away from things that aren’t from God and run to things that are from God.

-What is he fleeing? Paul’s referring to the previous verses that we looked at last week. Timothy is supposed to flee the ungodly teachings and craving of ungodly riches. The pursuit of those things are what lead to a ruined life. This fleeing is similar to Joseph in Gen. who was trying to be seduced by his master’s wife, and instead of giving in he ran away as fast as he could, leaving behind some article of clothing, which the wife used to complain that Joseph had attempted to have his way with her. Yet even in the midst of these accusations, Joseph remained a righteous man, refusing to give in to any of the temptations, which may be what Paul is trying to communicate to Timothy. To be a man of God means running away from things that don’t lead to godliness.

-In contrast to fleeing, which isn’t sufficient to lead to life change, Timothy needs to pursue something else. See, there’s a tendency for us to only focus on the NOs that God gives. It’s a little bit like a kid who’s told to not touch something, as soon as the no is given, what becomes their focus? Whatever they’ve been told not to do! But with God, every no is followed by an even better YES! Think of the very beginning in the garden, where God gives Adam and Eve a no to 1 tree so that there could be a YES to every other tree. God’s law is to allow us to flourish in his creation, we need to realize that. 

-Here it’s a no to ungodliness and ungodly riches to say yes 6 other things: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Righteousness is a way of living out of our union with Christ that comes about through faith, with the outcome being godliness. Love often is the first virtue Paul lists, including what he calls “the more excellent way” in 1 Cor. 12-13. Growing in godliness also requires endurance, holding fast to everything God commands and not giving up, and responding as God wants towards other requires gentleness (which Paul mentioned previously in the list of requirements for an elder).

-The next thing Paul brings up seems the opposite of gentleness, doesn’t it? He goes on to talk about fighting! But there’s a correct way and an incorrect way to fight, and many Christians I know end up fighting the wrong way! Think of what Paul says in Eph 6, our fight, our struggle isn’t against other humans, but we tend to act like it is. We attack other humans, we belittle and demean humans who are created as God’s image, and we forget that our fight isn’t against them, it’s taking place in the spiritual realm. I had an apologetics professor in seminary who regularly reminded us that we must NEVER attack people, attack bad ideas or proposals that they have, but never attack them as people. We also need to remember that Jesus has defeated all our spiritual enemies, so when it feels like we’re being attacked, remember our enemy has already been conquered, so he’s fighting with his last breath.

-As I was reflecting on this idea this week, it seems to me that this language has largely left our Christian vocabulary, and I’ve been wondering if it’s because we come into the church so tired of the constant fighting that takes place in our world today. Every day we read about fights in the government, fights in between employees in their jobs, fights between companies. It really is a survival of the fittest world out there, isn’t it? So all our energy is expended on keeping up with those external fights which means we neglect the 1 fight that matters: in the spiritual realm. We’re supposed to fight in the right direction!

-Take hold of eternal life. What does Paul mean by that? Doesn’t God take hold of us? How is Timothy supposed to take hold of eternal life if he’s already a Christian?

-It’s possible to be a Christian but live in fear of messing up, and that’s not Christianity. I’ve shared this before, I really enjoy cooking, and honestly it’s mostly because I like eating good food! Imagine I’ve got a delicious brisket that I’ve just smoked. I’m staring at it, smelling it, seeing the heatwaves rise off the top of it, how dumb would it be to continue sitting there staring at it? Or maybe briskets not your style, and you prefer a double, double animal style from In-N-Out. That picture makes my mouth water! Or if you didn’t know, it’s now McRib season! But no food is any good unless I take hold of it, grab that mess with my hands and bring it to my mouth.

-What Paul is saying is Timothy has been saved, he has privileged access to the Creator of everything, but so often he doesn’t live or act like it. And I think we’re probably guilty of the same thing, we’re too accustomed to living in this sinful world that we forget we’ve been brought into something that’s SO much bigger and better than anything this world can offer us! He’s basically telling Timothy: you’ve been saved, so act like it! 

-But notice the way that this faith was made visible: he made a good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

-The first reminder is the way we are saved is through a confession. Paul says in Rom. 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Faith comes about through a confession that Jesus is who He said He was!

-But notice what he goes on to say: your faith isn’t just for you! We’re called into a community of faith who can remind us what we believe and help us hold fast to it. This is why the initial marker of a Christian is baptism, a public declaration that your life has been transformed. Baptism is an act of obedience done in public (the church) where people will be able to remind you of that reality.

-I talk about this when I do wedding ceremonies, the couple is committing to each other before God, but they’ve also invited others to bear witness to the confession to love each other for the rest of their lives, so I ask those in attendance if they will do what they can to care for this new family. Similarly for us in the church, we need witnesses to help us: become a member! This is the means by which we can be assured of our salvation: through the recognition and affirmation of the local church.

-And all of this isn’t just for us as individuals, it all connects back to what Jesus did: Jesus didn’t shrink away from the truth of who He is. All 4 Gospels tell the story of this interaction Jesus had with Pilate, who viewed himself as the judge and jury. 

–Matt. 27:11: “Now Jesus stood before the governor. “Are you the king of the Jews?” the governor asked him. Jesus answered, “You say so.”

-Jesus gave a faithful confession that serves as the picture and example we’re supposed to follow. Just as He gave a good confession, we have our good confession that also centers on Jesus! And our job is hold onto it, to not turn away from it until a day:

-Until the appearing, God will bring about this in his own time

-No one knows when, so don’t fixate on trying to figure out when it’s going to happen! Anything that draws our attention off Jesus is the wrong emphasis, including improper emphasis on the events surrounding the return of Jesus.

-I’m not sure if you keep up with some of these things, but there was a so called “prophet” who went viral on TikTok because he claimed Jesus came to him in a vision and told him that He would return on Sept. 23-24. Went viral: #RaptureTok. Then when Jesus didn’t come back he changed it to Oct. 6-7. And then it became a mystical date that he had to try to figure out. Friends, don’t let people try to convince you that they’ve figured out some secret knowledge because whenever Jesus does comes back, it doesn’t change what we’re called to do today! Be faithful in the here and now, don’t worry about what people are telling you, and look forward to that day!

-Paul ends this section emphasizing the complete transcendence of God, He is completely separate from His creation, He exists outside of time and space and lives in “unapproachable light” I love that idea! A light so bright it’s unapproachable.

-There was a picture that went viral this past week that I think communicates this idea. A guy went skydiving, and another friend timed it so he would get a picture of him as he passed in front of the sun. Normally, if we were to look at the sun we wouldn’t see that, would we? The sun is our unapproachable light! And the sun is a pale image compared to the brightness of our God!

-We can’t come near Him! As a former music pastor, I would regularly have people tell me that I ushered them into the throne room. I can’t! I am a broken sinner, saved by grace. We have 1 worship leader who has gone on ahead of us into the throne room: Jesus! Jesus is the way we can approach the unapproachable.

-What’s incredible is even though we can’t see this God, God lowered Himself to our level. That’s the miracle of Christmas, that’s the reality of the incarnation! Jesus is the unseeable God becoming seeable.

-Which leads to Paul worshipping: amen: yes, it’s true, so we praise God! I’ve shared this before, but amen isn’t just a way of hanging up the phone when you’re done talking to God! It’s a way of saying: let this be true! 

  • Hope (17-19)

-Where are you aiming your hope? The fact that you’re still alive today tells me you have some level of hope that things are going to be ok! But this warning Paul gives is just as true for us today as it was for the church at Ephesus. 

-The temptation for those who are wealthy is to begin to feel as if they’ve “arrived” and don’t need anyone else to come alongside them to help them, which can start to impact the way you view God! See the temptation is to become arrogant, assuming you’ve gotten there in your own power, strength, and gifting, which is honestly what many people view as the American story! We hold up those who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and figured things out. We forget that no one exists by themselves, did anyone in here have any say over the day they were born? We all have limited control over our lives.

-But notice what Paul says about riches: uncertainty. I got lunch onetime with an older pastor who shared with me that he remembers coming to church in 2008 the week after the market collapsed, and he said he remembered a number of people hardly being able to move because their entire future plans were gone. If our future hope is tied to wealth, we’re going to be disappointed. This gets to the age-old question: how much money is enough? A little more.

-Notice that God gives us things to enjoy. Friends, believe it or not, it’s ok to have nice things, it’s ok to go on nice trips IF it’s within your means, and if you’re living a generous life that also shares with others.

-I feel like Christians often feel the need to apologize anytime they have or do something enjoyable, as if Christians are just supposed to be miserable all the time. God gives us all sorts of good gifts to enjoy! Like a double, double animal style from In-N-Out! Or a hobby that you enjoy that helps you know and understand more of who God is. The question is are you using your riches to make yourself feel good, or are you using your riches to allow you to be rich in good works?

-Paul says if you’re able to be generous, able to bless others that’s a way of banking your treasure in the next age, that treasure leads to a guaranteed outcome! God guarantees that good will come from it! And if you do that:

-Take hold again, what is truly life. I love the way the NIV translates this:

-What is a life that is truly life? Think of what Jesus says in John 10. Friends, Jesus offers the only way to find abundant life, a life of flourishing, a healthy and fulfilling life! Do you trust Him? It only comes about by living a cruciform life:

-John Stott quote. Have you ever considered this to be a description of what it means to follow after Jesus? It’s not creating a following, it’s not traveling overseas, it’s a basic life that is used in service of God and others. That’s what God wants for us. In my daily Bible reading this week was Gal. 5:6. At the end of the day, isn’t this a summary of what we’re called to do? Have faith in God as expressed through love (as God defines it). 

  • Guard (20-21)

-How do we guard what has been entrusted to us?

-Focus on the right things, the truth of God, following Jesus

-It means avoiding things that are a distraction from the truth of the gospel, here he says irreverent and empty speech, anything that distracts from our focus on Jesus! Don’t give into those distractions! Stay focused on Jesus.

-This also tells us that some people who claim to be following Jesus will end up leading people away from the faith. Until Jesus returns there will be people who will try to lead us away from the truths of the gospel. We must guard the truth! Stand firm on the Word of God in the power of the Spirit, fighting the good, right, and true fight!

-Grace be with you all.

-How do you end a letter to a church in a way that encourages them to remain faithful and steadfast? Remind them how they can have a true, flourishing life: only by the grace of God

-Which is given to “y’all” or as we say in the North “you guys”, plural, the church!

-So what’s an appropriate way to end our study through 1 Timothy? By remembering what God has called us to be as a church:

-We are supposed to treat each other as family: as brother and sisters, or mothers and fathers. 

-We’re supposed to provide order to our body as God raises up faithful leaders who can keep us focused on the Word and help us love and care for one another

-We need to keep our focus on the right place instead of being distracted by false teaching or ungodly living

-Let’s be a holy church together, a holy people who are pursuing Jesus Christ with all we have, a church who is daily dying to self to become more like Jesus and become more of what Jesus wants us to be, regardless of what other people or churches are doing or even what we’ve done in the past! God is going to continue working in us today, so let’s encourage each other to keep chasing hard after Jesus today!

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by mikethestrand on November 23, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon, Worship
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Posted by mikethestrand on November 23, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/11/23/1-timothy-611-21-sermon-manuscript/

1 Timothy 5:17-6:10 – Sermon Manuscript

-How do people know you’re a Christian? Is it just because you walk into some building 1 a week? Another way of asking this is does this weekly gathering change anything else about your life, or is this all there is? 

-What we’ve been seeing throughout this book is the reality that there has to be something different about your life, God calls us to live a transformed life that is continually growing more like Jesus. In this text, Paul gives us some markers of what a transformed life is supposed to look like.

READ/PRAY (pg. 1053)

  1. Good Leaders (5:17-25)

-This verse connects back to 1Tim. 3 where we learned about leaders in the church. All churches are supposed to set aside a group of qualified men to lead the church under the rule of Jesus Christ. I say that intentionally because I think we tend to miss that the church is a theonomy with a monarch named Jesus! Unlike our representative democracy, the church serves under the oversight of Jesus, not a human. 

-But of those elders who are chosen by God and affirmed by the congregation, some of those who serve as elders are worthy of a double honor. What does it require to receive a double honor, and what does it mean to receive a double honor? 

-Notice what Paul says: the focus is on those who work hard at preaching and teaching. Some people argue that this means there are 2 different kinds of elders: ruling elders and teaching elders. I don’t think that’s what Paul is saying, I think he’s saying that of the elders, there are some who work hard at preaching and teaching, who should thus receive a double honor. But what is that double honor?

-Double honor: some say it means they should receive a double salary, most believe (and I agree) that it’s referring to respect and finances. See 2 Thess. 3. Here Paul talks about his practice – he could have expected payment from them, after all he had labored among them! But he decided to be bi-vocational to set an example to the rest of the church.

-Some churches continue this practice today, that’s a fine thing if someone is able and willing to do that, the difficulty is as a church grows it can be hard to have the time required to invest in the congregation God has brought together. That’s why it’s common for churches to have at least 1 pastor who labors in preaching and teaching for the church. Micah and I are, in essence, freed up to invest our time in preparing for the various events and activities in our church body. If we had to work somewhere else to provide for our families, we wouldn’t be as freed to spend time with and for you! We’re literally able to meet with you any time of day!

-And Paul bases this thought on a couple previous passages of Scripture (which is a good practice! If you can’t base your argument on the Bible, it may not be a great argument). But they’re very interesting, the first is from Deut. 25:4 and refers to way an ox would be used to separate out the wheat while it was laying in the field. In order to make the most profit, some people would put a muzzle on it to prevent it from stooping its’ head down to eat some of it. Paul’s using this analogy to say that someone who works in preaching and teaching should be expected to be paid from his preaching and teaching, otherwise it would be like muzzling him.

-What’s fascinating is the second quote! It’s not unique to quote the OT as he did, that happens all the time, what’s unique is Paul is quoting Jesus (which also isn’t that unique) but he specifically quotes the Gospel of Luke and explicitly calls it Scripture! Friends, this is a BIG deal! This means Paul had access to Luke’s Gospel, which he considered on par with the rest of the Old Testament. This contradicts basically every other liberal proposal to the writing of God’s Word. If you ever read The da Vinci Code (fascinating thriller that was terrible at history), they argued that the Bible came about because of a power play that was settled at the Council of Nicea. WRONG! The Bible was settled by God, humans just affirmed what God had already done as people were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 

-The place Paul quotes from is when Jesus appoints and sends his 72 disciples out in pairs, they’re supposed to look for people who will be willing to take them in, because the worker is worthy of receiving wages from his work. Paul picks that idea up and continues it for elder/pastors. This is a helpful picture of how we’re supposed to interpret and apply Scripture today. Jesus wasn’t specifically focusing on pastors and elders with His words, but Paul was able to take those principles and apply it to the church. Similarly for us, we carefully study what the Bible says and what it means in its own context before jumping to how we should apply it to our lives today.

-Continuing on what elders should look like, they must be men of good character who have proven it over a long period of time, and because of that the church is supposed to not allow someone’s accusation against an elder to stand unless they are following Jesus’s commands in Matt. 18. 

-Most of the time, we don’t hear about church discipline because it stops at the second step. Notice as well the power Jesus gives to the church, which goes completely contradictory to our individualistic culture: the church is given the keys to the kingdom! Do you realize how significant this is? The church determines who is a part of the church and who is not, this is one of the reasons I emphasize membership so much, Jesus has told us that we (as the church) are supposed to help people understand who is “in” and who is “out”. This reality really hit me over the past year: part of the reason I have assurance in my faith is because of you all! I’ll be honest, if it was just up to me to white knuckle it and push through on my own, I wouldn’t make it, I’m not strong enough and my faith is too weak. But put me together with a group of people (a church) who are working towards the same goal, and we have a much better chance of making it.

-Notice that there’s 2 sides to this reality: binding and loosing, accepting and rejecting, this gets us to the situations where people are sinning:

-(20) The flip side of not accepting an accusation is finding someone who is sinning, and that needs to be dealt with.

-The whole #ChurchToo movement falls under this, where people were trying to cover up and hide what was going on. Friends, I hate to share this, but the church unfortunately isn’t immune from abuse, and that breaks my heart, and much more importantly breaks the heart of God. The church must never try to cover over or hide sin. The church is supposed to be the 1 human institution where we expose sin to the light and deal with it in the ways God commands.

-Last week I shared my issues with the Billy Graham rule, but this is where we also need to live a life of complete purity where an accusation couldn’t even be made! What levels of accountability to do you have in your life to prevent any level of accusation? Are you living properly with all the people you come into contact with? 

-Letter from the 2nd century description of the church. Notice particularly: “they have a common table, but not a common bed.” Meaning they lived with all purity toward each other.

-(21) This next part is brought about with as much power and influence as Paul can muster! God, and Christ, and the “elect angels” (vs. demons): serve faithfully, love faithfully, shepherd faithfully for EVERYONE. Favoritism isn’t the way of the Lord. That being said, there will be people you’re closer to! Jesus had the crowds, the 72, the 12, and the 3, increasing levels of closeness with each of them. Just acknowledge that we are ALL the body of Christ, we ALL need to be committed to each other.

-If you look down at the footnote for 22 it says the literal translation is “do not be too quick to lay hands on” or as the ESV says “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands.” Which, as you know, means we have to mention LOTR!

-Laying hands on is the way the Bible talks about setting someone apart, that’s why we’ll do it as people move away, or if they go on a mission trip.

-One of the things that an elder is involved in is entering into broken and sinful situations, and there’s a pattern where those sins can suddenly become temptations for you. Don’t give in! Pray against them! It’s the same thing in preaching, whenever something about marriage comes up, I can guarantee Cara and I are going to have a conflict that week!

-Some debate about the pure, is it in relation to the sins, or the next part? Apparently Timothy tried to live such a holy life that he abstained from any wine. Yet wine has medicinal purposes, and Paul was encouraging Timothy to take his medicine (remember, Paul has previous prohibitions against drunkenness but not drinking).

-Just a couple verses ago, Paul had talked about the need to publicly rebuke sin (rebuke as far as the knowledge and impact of it go), but for others it doesn’t surface until you dig a little deeper. This is part of the reason Paul says to not be quick in appointing elders, you need to get to know them (even if they were elders at a previous church!)

-But the same thing can be said about good works, which means we should continue doing good works regardless of how many people see them. This connects to Paul’s command that Timothy keep himself pure. The question is will he continue being faithful in the good works, even if no one is aware of his faithfulness? And for us today: will we continue in good works even if no one else sees them?

  • Faithful Slaves (6:1-2)

-One of the major accusations toward the Bible today is on the issue of slavery. Some people will take verses like these as supportive of slavery (and unfortunately it was used as justification for slavery in the past). But this is where we need to look a little broader than just our country/culture, and need to understand some historical context a little better. This is intentionally going to be brief, I’ve talked about this before, and if you have more questions about slavery in the Bible, please reach out to me! I have a number of resources I can send your way.

-First: Jesus didn’t set about to start a revolution; he worked to bring salvation. A revolution was an outworking of the gospel message, but it wasn’t the focus. The primary problem in the world isn’t human slavery (although that is problem!), the primary problem is that people are slaves to sin, which leads to spiritual death!

-Second, slavery is just as alive today as it was in the 1st century (if not more so!) According to one survey, there are almost 50 million people who live in slavery today, and today’s slavery is far more severe than what people faced in the 1st century. Part of our issue is we judge this culture based on our culture’s morality (which has been profoundly influenced by Christianity), without taking the time to understand what was taking place back then. Some slaves were educated, some willingly sold themselves into slavery as a way to provide for their family. Yes, some were mistreated and abused, but as we’ve seen in our culture it doesn’t take slavery to see mistreatment and abuse. 

-So how are Christian slaves to act? Faithfully (have you heard that anywhere else as we’ve gone through this book?)

-Friends, even ungodly authority is supposed to be respected. Even ungodly authority! We know that someday they will stand before God and give an account for their actions on earth, and so will we. The difference is if we’re claiming to follow God, we’re supposed to represent Him to others! 

-Additionally, Paul says that if the master is a believer, that doesn’t get you off the hook. You still need to respect and honor them, and even more than you would an unbelieving master because your work furthers God’s aims to build and establish His church, His kingdom, on earth.

-Another component to this that I think is worth mentioning is the fact the slaves are both mentioned in this letter and given a sacred job to do! Most 1st century letters would have been exclusively focused on those with power and influence; slaves wouldn’t have even been “worthy” of receiving a mention.

-What this is pointing out is even the lowly can join in God’s mission to seek and save the lost! You don’t need influence, you don’t need money, you don’t need power, in fact in God’s kingdom, those things tend to get in the way! Which is what Paul talks about next:

  • Follow The Teaching (6:3-10)

-Paul begins this section reminding Timothy that he is supposed to train the church to implement everything Paul’s been saying! This isn’t an optional add on

-We just talked today in our Strands of Unity class about how we ensure what we’re teaching and thinking aligns with “the sound teaching,” if you missed it, it’s not too late to join us next week!

-Warning against someone teaching false doctrine, which is anything that is opposed to the teaching of Jesus, or godliness. Friends, one of the markers of true Christianity (as opposed to heresy) is what it leads to! If godliness is the outcome, it’s correct!

-In contradiction to this, the false teacher is conceited, knows nothing, and instead only wants to fight and argue with others. There are some things that are worth fighting over, but false teachers want to fight about pointless things. And in contrast to true teaching, what’s the outworking of this teaching? 

-Envy, quarreling, slander, evil suspicions, and constant disagreement. These people use Christianese to benefit themselves instead of looking to serve others. Paul picks up this same idea in 2 Tim. 3, people who want to keep up appearances but refuse to admit that the Holy Spirit is the only way you can have life change. They hold everyone else to a certain standard of living without asking anyone to change their hearts. 

-And friends, this is the biggest difference between a true Christian and a fake Christian. A true Christian is someone who knows and trusts that your growth only happens because of God working in you. You can’t force it or manipulate it or fake it! It takes you daily dying to yourself and completely trusting yourself to the Lord to follow after Jesus. There are practices you can do: read the Bible, pray, but you don’t have to be a Christian to do those things. We can plant and water, but apart from the Holy Spirit there will be no growth.

-Back to godliness in 6, one of the characteristics of a Christian is contentment! Paul talks about that idea in Philippians, where he says I can do all things through a verse taken out of context! Just kidding, it’s through Christ, and it’s because he’s learned the secret to being content, it’s trusting God to provide everything you need, because God has provided for you up to this point. And He’ll continue to provide for you, which means we should be content with what God provides. And the bar Paul places is fairly low, isn’t it? Food and clothing, maybe add shelter in there and what else do you really need?

-Notice who falls into temptations: those who want to be rich, not those who are rich. If your desire is to be rich, you’ll give anything else to pursue that one thing, nothing else matters. Which is the plot of more books and movies than I can keep track of! And even someone who is poor can have an improper desire to be rich!

-Money isn’t the problem, it’s what we do with money. And money does have a unique pull on the human heart, doesn’t it? We all end up playing the comparison game instead of the contented game (which is what Paul is calling out). He’s saying if we love money, it leads to all sorts of destruction in our lives.

-Church, whatever your state in life, this text is calling us to be faithful and content. Instead of comparing ourselves to others, God wants us to be content with whatever He gives us. Additionally, everything God gives us is meant to be a blessing to those around us, especially to those who are fellow believers. Money is a tool that can be used to help or hurt your walk with Jesus, it’s a tool that can be used to help or hurt those around you. How do you use the money God has given to you? 

-When John D. Rockafeller died (richest man in the world at the time) someone asked his aide how much he left behind, he answered “He left it all behind.”

-There are some things we can take with us: friends, love, God’s Word, but money isn’t one of them.

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by mikethestrand on November 9, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Relationships, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on November 9, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/11/09/1-timothy-517-610-sermon-manuscript/

1 Timothy 4:6-16 – Sermon Manuscript

-There was an incredibly influential Scottish Pastor that served as a pastor from 1835-1843 named Robert Murray McCheyne. He died before 30 of typhus, was a beloved pastor for all of 5.5 years, came up with a daily Bible reading plan that’s still used by thousands across the world today! Another one of my favorite quotes from his is “Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely.” But another quote of his was written to pastors, and I want you to be thinking about how you think he’ll finish this as we work our way through this text. What does the church most need from a pastor?

READ/PRAY (pg. 1052)

  1. Labor in the Word (6-10)

-If you read Paul’s letters, there’s a general overview that starts to take shape. He begins with this rich and robust theology truths about God that warrant all sorts of study that lead to all sorts of debate, and then about halfway through he turns to the practical outworkings of that rich doctrine. We’re now at that place in this letter. We’ve seen all these debated things like: the proper use of the law, praying for everyone, including ungodly rulers, the ordering of men and women in the church, the leadership offices of the church, and a reminder to follow the true Spirit instead of the spirit of the devil. 

-This section, I read as Paul pointing a finger at Timothy. We’ve talked about some ways people distort the truth, but as for YOU! You have a job to do! What does it require?

-Point these things out: all the truths Paul’s been talking about previously, and then continues to talk about! Continue bringing these things up to the church. I had the privilege of conducting 2 weddings this month. One of the couples asked me to make sure I talked about Jesus during my message, and I told them you pick the passage and I’m going to connect it to Jesus! The whole thing is about Him. I love the way Spurgeon summarized this: preach the text, then make a beeline for the cross! Friends, every week you’re going to hear about Jesus! 

-The goal of Paul’s instruction: so that Timothy would be a good servant of Christ Jesus. 

-Servant, not the leader, not the king. Same word as deacon, but in this reference talking about the general practice, not the particular office.

-How do you know if you’re a good servant?

-Have followed: there’s a path that you’re supposed to follow, there’s others who have faithfully served throughout the centuries who have ministered and dealt with the same issues we face today! It’s imperative to remain on this well-worn path, not being distracted by the enticing things around you.

-But notice the way Timothy is nourished: words of faith, and good teaching. Those 2 things go together to remind Timothy that he can only endure by keeping the Bible his primary focus.

-He’s talked about these myths before in 1:4, there he said don’t pay attention to them, here he takes it even further: have nothing to do, here it’s translated pointless and silly myths, lit. he says “reject pointless myths and old wives tales”

-Blogs, influencers, mega-churches, “pastors” all these places that perpetuate ungodly nonsense. Have nothing to do with them!

-Unlike all these false teachers, Timothy is supposed to train in godliness. Notice all these actions that Paul uses in this section: train, (10) labor, strive.

-Have you ever gotten frustrated at how difficult Christianity can be? Do you ever feel like you were sold a false bill of goods that ended up being a lie? Turns out Christianity isn’t a cakewalk! 

-Christianity is simply, but it isn’t easy. There will be times and seasons of sweetness, where every time you open the Bible it’s like the Words jump out of the page and meet you right where you’re at. And there will be other times where it’s a grind. Paul knows that, he’s been a believer long enough, and he’s taking time here to remind his child in the faith, Timothy, that even when it’s hard, continue pressing on. 

-The training of the body had limited benefit. But it still has benefit! 

-I can’t tell you how many pastors that I respect seemed to have neglected this verse. Paul doesn’t say there’s no benefit, he says it’s limited, but the limitation is in reference to eternity. John Calvin died at 54 from overwork. Charles Spurgeon died at 57 (started getting gout regularly at 33), had to retired to the French Riviera every winter to recover from his schedule (plus the guy was huge! His chest measured 41”), I read a book that every pastor I respect has told me to read and I got so angry reading it because the guy said pastors must exert every ounce of energy on their ministry, and if they die from it, all the better because they died for Christ. Utter nonsense! Steward your body.

-But keep the physical training in check. Don’t let it consume you. Yes, take care of the body God gave you since it’s the only one He gave you, but don’t treat it as the ultimate thing.

-Instead, train yourself for godliness. But why? And friends, this is something that excites me more than anything else. Did you know that what you do today has eternal implications? 

-That’s what Paul is saying here: pursuing godliness will give you gains here and in eternity. That means every day, every decision you make has eternal consequences. I don’t know about you, but I feel like that just increases the potential of everything I do here!

-This gets to our whole purpose as a church, friends. We’re here to help people prepare for eternity, to help people take 1 step closer to Jesus today, because whether we realize it or not each day is 1 day closer to the day where we’ll see Jesus face to face. 

-That’s actually where Paul turns next in this section, too. And this should comfort you! We don’t have to come up with some creative campaign slogan, we don’t need a marketing department, or the best graphics. What we need is the Bible. Friends, the Bible tells us exactly what we’re supposed to be pursuing as a church!

-Here he says exactly why we work hard in our faith: it’s an overflow out of our relationship with the living God, who expects our everything. Our hope is in the one true and living God.

-Is Paul arguing for universalism here? Is he saying that everyone will go to heaven? Is he contradicting himself from Rom. 1:16-17? No! He’s saying that God’s common grace is extended to everyone, but there’s a different kind of grace given to those who put their faith in Him. 

-And there are literally cosmic implications to the realities of the gospel message Rom. 8 says that all creations groans waiting for Jesus’s return!

  • Live out the Word (11-16)

-Paul has just reminded Timothy to always keep eternity in view. Live as if we’re living for eternity! And then he has 2 verbs: command and teach. 

-Command connects to Timothy’s authoritative role. Remember: a faithful church will have a certain structure and ordering to it, with 2 leadership offices of elder and deacon. These 2 offices are God’s chosen means of helping the church to flourish, and we need to be careful who is chosen for those roles because they will determine the direction of our entire church body. Don’t affirm leaders that you don’t want to be like, but at the same time, when leaders have been elected, Scripture tells us to submit to them, to listen to them, which is why Paul tells Timothy to command things from the Word. 

-Some of where this gets difficult is the application of God’s Word is situational. Now, listen carefully: God’s Word never changes. Period. But the way we live that Word out does change. That’s one of the incredible things about the Bible! I’ve lost track of the times I’ve read through it, and still every week there’s something that I’d never noticed before. This is what Paul’s getting at when he says to teach these things. The application of this Word is going to change based on our people, our culture, our needs, and God’s Word is big enough for us to handle those different applications. Do you trust it?

-This verse has been the verse that has been preached at me for most of my life, and I figure I’m 3 years away from no longer qualifying for this verse. I’ve shared this story before, but before I was called here, I was told from another church that I was too young to be a pastor there. And it was an issue that came up when I was candidating here (believe it or not!) And just so everyone knows, when I was candidating I was 32, but as a professor at seminary says, don’t forget Jesus accomplished his entire ministry before the age of 33.

-And friends, there’s some truth to it! I get it! I haven’t had as many life experiences as some of you. But it’s also true that God’s Word doesn’t change, and I’ve devoted my life to the interpretation and application of this book. And as I said back then, I promise that I’ll do what I can to keep getting older! And I’ve kept my word!

-But the point to this verse is some commands, and they’re things that I’ve been praying for myself for the last few years. See, the way to ensure no one looks down on you in your youth is by setting an example. And the things that Timothy is called to are things that should be true of everyone who claims to follow Christ, but let’s look at them.

-Speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Now, I would argue that these are things that are particular temptations for those that are young. 

-Speech: it can be easy to be flippant or careless with words, not realizing the way that words can make or break a person and relationships. 

-Conduct: it feels like life is going to last forever, so why should there be any delayed gratification? 

-Love: you’ve probably heard that youth is wasted on young, and I think this is a particular area because there’s a level of pride of self-centeredness that comes with youth. I don’t think people know how selfish they are until they get married. 

-Faith: similar to love, there can be a thinking that you can wait until later to start taking Jesus seriously. Don’t wait! It’s worth it to chase after Jesus with all you’ve got now. 

-Purity: this feels like it could have been written today! With the rise of pornography use, the careless approach to sex. Church leaders must be marked by purity in all their relationships.

-And this is especially true of those who are young! And unfortunately, many who are young emphasize the first part without realizing they condemn themselves with the way they live. It’s on the young to not let anyone look down on you, but it requires you living a holy life that is faithfully following after Jesus. If any of you are young in here, don’t waste your youth on things you’ll regret as you get older. Choose today to set an example by pointing people to Jesus.

-Then Paul gives Timothy some more marching orders to focus on until he comes: Devote yourself, focus on, give everything you’ve got toward these things. In the Greek, these words have no conjunction, so one commentator said these 3 things are meant to be intertwined and inseparable, and notice that it’s again centered on the Bible.

-Public reading: we see examples of Scripture reading all throughout the Bible, and it’s supposed to take place every time we gather. One of the most discouraging things to me about our current church culture is how little the Bible is read! Friends, if you’re ever looking for a church count how many minutes it takes them to open the Bible. Same thing with the sermon, how quickly in the sermon is God’s Word read?

-Exhortation: God’s Word is supposed to be a mirror. We read something God says which has implications for us. Scripture is supposed to be used to exhort, to encourage to push us closer to Jesus. Similar to:

-Teaching: explaining what the text means. I’ve heard people say that what we do on Sundays is a modern invention, too influenced by education models. That’s just not true! This was adopted from the 1st century synagogue practice of publicly reading Scripture, then exhorting and teaching from the Bible. And in the 2nd century, Justin Martyr, an early Christian apologist and philosopher, said this:

-Friends, the church has been fixated on God’s Word since the very beginning, and the act of preaching has been the primary focus of the church since then.

-Don’t neglect the gift that was given.

-This will come up again later, but I’m going to approach it from a different perspective there. Church leaders are called to be people of the book, but the book is also supposed to lead to a different way of living. Pastors must be people of the book, both in their study and in how they live. John Calvin begins his institutes saying:

-We have placed a high emphasis on knowledge of God for pastors. Looking for a seminary degree, an ability to know the Word. But how many pastors don’t actually know themselves? You’ve probably heard of IQ, but have you ever heard of EQ? We know about God, but who are you?

-The public affirmation of Timothy’s call – you can’t be a pastor without a church. You can claim whatever you want, but a pastor by definition needs a church, a pastor doesn’t get to self-identify. There are 2 aspects to a call: internal and external. Both of these are critical, if it’s just external you’ll question and doubt all the time, if it’s just internal you’ll probably end up disqualified from ministry.

-Just had my ordination council this past week, every person I know struggles with imposter syndrome in some area. And let me tell you just how affirming it is to have a group of your peers tell you that God has called you to ministry and a church, having both an internal desire to teach the Bible and an external affirmation from other pastors and a church that confirms that internal call.

-Not only are these things supposed to be markers of Timothy, he’s also supposed to grow in them, to get better at them. He’s supposed to practice them, and be committed to them. To continue growing in his understanding of God, and the way he’s living his life. And why? So that everyone can see his growth.

-Friends, you should see your church leaders continually growing. If your church leaders aren’t continually acknowledging their sins, working to fight against them, and finding new things to learn about God, something is off. One of my favorite questions to start asking potential pastors is: tell me about the last time the gospel emotionally moved you.

-There’s a pastor I really like (from afar) named Ray Ortlund. I onetime heard him say that he prays every time he preaches that it’s the best sermon he’s ever preached. Not out a sense of pride, but because he wants to live out this verse.

-This next verse really captured my mind a few years ago, and in particular the way the NIV translates it. 

-Life and doctrine: the 2 things that every Christian needs to be growing in. The way I think about this is like a train. Trains need 2 tracks in order to remain moving forward, just like we’re called to grow in both life and doctrine. That’s why we renamed our small groups to life groups, that’s why we offer equipping classes. These 2 things are meant to be linked together, but you also need to be taking time to pray and ask the Lord what you should be focusing on in at the stage of life you’re in. Maybe you need to be stretched to learn some new things about God, attend one of our 9 AM classes, or read a theology book (if you need suggestions reach out to me!). Maybe you need to work on applying something you’ve learned about God to your life – get involved in a small group, or ask to meet with someone sitting nearby you, or maybe start meeting with a group of friends to talk about what God has been teaching you. Friends, this can be done in a variety of ways, both formally and informally, but it requires intentionality and effort, as well as commitment to a local church where you’re forced to rub shoulders with a bunch of people who may not think or act exactly like you! And you need that to grow closer to Jesus. Friends, Christianity is a team sport. When God saves you, He brings you into a new family comprised of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

-And the reason Timothy is supposed to watch his life and his teaching (doctrine) is for the salvation of himself and his church.

-Once again, we know that salvation is by faith alone through grace alone, in Jesus Christ alone, but Timothy can help in God’s mission of seeking and saving the lost, or he can hurt it. There’s a pastor I really like named Kevin DeYoung who has shared that one of his pieces of accountability is thinking about his congregation, and fearing what would happen if he gave up. When I first heard him say that it bothered me, but as I’ve thought about that more, it’s absolutely true! The number of friends I have who have left the church because of a pastoral failure continues to grow! And the pastors who fail will someday give an account for both their failings and the ways their failings affected the whole body.

-Back to Robert Murray McCheyne. 

-So friends, as we come to the end of this, I want to leave you with this phrase: watch your life and doctrine closely. Where is God calling you to focus on in this season of your life? What things about God do you have questions about? Or what areas in your life are you struggling to live out what you know God has called you to do? Take some time right now to ask God to reveal to you what you need to be focusing on in the days and weeks ahead, and then I’ll close in prayer.

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by mikethestrand on October 26, 2025  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on October 26, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/10/26/1-timothy-46-16-sermon-manuscript/

1 Timothy 3:1-7 – Sermon Manuscript

-Leadership in the kingdom of God. James and John’s mom asks Jesus to sit at His right and left hands in heaven.

Matt. 20:25 “24 When the ten disciples heard this, they became indignant with the two brothers. 25 Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. 26 It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave;28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

-Church leadership has gotten a really bad reputation over the last decade, and I would argue it’s because many churches have gotten away from what we read in today’s text.

READ/PRAY (pg. 1052)

  1. Elders, Pastors, Shepherds, Overseers

-Paul begins by commending those who want to be leaders in the church, but we have to admit that being overeager probably is a disqualification! There should be a level of reverence and trepidation in approaching any leadership because the Bible has some harsh words about those who are in leadership. Look at what James says in James 3:1, or if you want a stinging rebuke, read Ezek. 34!

-There have been moves throughout the church recently to try to flatten any sense of leadership or authority within the church, and we should admit that anytime you have people in positions of authority, there’s going to be the risk of abuse. You’ve probably heard the phrase “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” But friends, believe it or not, that is antithetical to the message of the gospel! The gospel message is that the one who had absolute power wasn’t corrupted, but instead took corruption on Himself and then gives His power to His followers to accomplish the tasks He gives them.

-Part of this flattening is good and right and true, the ground is completely level at the foot of the cross, it doesn’t matter your academics, your genetics, your personality, your gender, or whether or not you were a leader in the church. There there have been times in the past where the pastor was put on too high a pedestal where no human is meant to be! But in response to that, to say that there is no distinction is also incorrect! The Bible assumes that Christians will organize into churches, and that those churches will have leaders who meet the qualifications listed here!

-The other piece that I want to mention that also applies to last week’s text (women in the church), is I think we have tended to get leadership in the church backwards. Friends, the church isn’t like the world, so adopting worldly ideas and definitions of leadership is at best unhelpful and at worst sinful. If Jesus serves as our model, then church leadership is actually about service instead of power. The call to be a leader in the church is a call to die so that others can be raised up. I worry that we as the church instead tend to look for people who are impressive by worldly standards instead of impressive by God’s standards.

-There is some debate around what these leaders should be called, and even today different denominations (or even sometimes churches) will use different titles to refer to the same office (Baptist churches for a while only had 1 office that they called “Deacons” which is a different and distinct office from Elder, it’s vs. 1-7 or 8-13). And some of the debate is because the NT uses different words in different places. In our text today, it’s translated as “overseer” episkapa 

-But even he seems to alternate between a couple different titles, because if you look at Titus 1, Paul refers to the same office with 2 different words, this time adding in presbuteros (if you’re thinking about various ways the church has ordered leadership, you may have heard the similarities to 2 church governance proposals: episcopal, and presbyterian, taken from these 2 words)

-Just like Paul uses different words to describe the same office, Peter does something similar in 1 Peter 5, but this time he uses the word for shepherd, which he goes on to use a bit of a descriptor for who elders should model themselves after: the chief shepherd (Jesus). He also says something similar to what we saw in 1 Tim. This should be done willingly. 1 other piece here, is the call for elders to be examples. Hold onto that thought, because it will come up again!

-To further confuse you, in Acts 20, Paul uses all 3 words to refer to the exact same office! He summons the elders, then calls them overseers, then tells them to shepherd. Something else we now learn about this office from this text is that they’re supposed to be able to defend against false teaching. That idea will come up again later, too!

-The last passage to look at before we continue in our text in Eph. 4, there again Paul uses the word for shepherd (pastor), but includes it in the list of other provisions to define all the things God provides to the church. But it’s not just to have leaders, the goal is maturity in the body of Christ. The other thing we learn about pastors in this section is they’re connected to a teaching ministry. He has this list going, but then he connects pastors and teachers together as if the role of a pastor is to be a teacher.

-We see these 4 words used interchangeably throughout the NT to refer to this leadership office in the church. This structure isn’t meant to be applied to other organizations or institutions; it’s God’s design and structure for the flourishing of His people between Jesus’s 2 comings. The day is coming when the Chief Shepherd will come and we’ll all live in a theocracy, but until that day, we’ll need faithful elders to lead our churches. 

-We’ve already started to see some of the descriptions of what and elder is supposed to be and do, but Paul gives us more in 1 Timothy:

  • An Elder Is Faithful in His:

-And I hope what stood out to you as we read it this morning how basic it is. Like the bar (at first blush) doesn’t seem to be very high. He says things like: “he must not be a drunk.” Nailing it! All but 1 thing in this list is supposed to be true of every follower of Jesus. Carson quote. 

-Friends, this should comfort us! What that means, at least at the start, is that this is something that’s attainable for real life people like you and me. He doesn’t say he must have gone to Harvard or Yale (or the 1st century equivalent!), he doesn’t say he must manage a fortune 500 company, it doesn’t even say he needs to be incredibly successful, or even manage a business. What Paul describes here is what I talked about a few weeks ago: a normal, dare we say boring Christian. 

-And I would argue that we can summarize this whole this as faithful. I’ve shared with you all before that each year I have a word of the year that helps me focus my heart and mind for the year, but it’s always in addition to the word: faithful. And I get that from a parable Jesus tells in Matt. 25. These are the words I hope to hear when I see Jesus for the first time: well done. 

-What we should be looking for in a leader is faithfulness. Are they faithful in following after Jesus in their lives? When they fail (and they will), how do they respond? Do they repent and run to Jesus or run away from Him?

-And that gets to another piece we need to consider before looking at the list, and that is that as the leader goes, that’s where the church will go. You see that idea all over Scripture! When Israel has a good and faithful king, they prosper. When Israel has a wicked king, they suffer. And churches follow the same pattern, they reflect their leadership. In fact, in every membership class I teach, I tell those who attend to PLEASE take their affirmations of elders seriously, because that’s the only way we as a church are going to remain healthy! Our leaders must faithfully point others to Jesus in what they say and in how they live.

-Once again, D.A. Carson helpfully summarizes why this is important: “Christian character is as much caught as taught—that is, it is picked up by constant association with mature Christians.” Basics for Believers

-Church, you will start to become like your elders! So be careful who you pick!

  1. Character

-I spent way too much time this week trying to figure out how to condense this list down, so take this a proposal, subject to change in the future! We begin with faithfulness, but then move to character, which again could summarize all of them! And combining those 2 things gets us even closer to summarizing the whole message: faithful character. But in order to help us think through this list a little more carefully, I condensed the character piece to 6 of them: above reproach, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, not an excessive drinker, and a good reputation among outsiders (above reproach in the church, good reputation outside the church).

-First, are any of these things just for elders and not for the rest of the church? Nope! We’re all called to be holy just like God is holy, self-control is a fruit of the spirit, sensible is used to describe men and women in Titus, respectable is used to describe all women in last week’s text, Eph. 5:18 says no one is to get drunk, and Jesus in Matt. 5:16 says that we’re supposed to let our light shine before others so that they’ll see our good works and give glory to God. So these things aren’t unique to an elder, they’re just what Christians are all called to be!

-So why isn’t everyone an elder? I would argue that what sets elders apart is that they live the ordinary Christian life extraordinarily well. Elders are called to be normal Christians who are faithfully following after Jesus. People that you would want to be like in your faith! So let’s look at each one of these:

-Above reproach: does this mean that elders are going to be sinless? Ask any of our elders if they’re sinless, and if they don’t laugh at you, they probably shouldn’t be elders anymore! 

-Which gets us to another piece to remember in this: no leader is Jesus. I know that sounds kind of obvious, but let me tell you, as a pastor and leader in multiple churches it can be easy to start to think or feel like the church needs me. I have a friend who said a professor at seminary would regularly have the class repeat after him: “I am not the Christ!”

-This is someone who’s life is actually worth trying to copy. It’s someone that serves as a model Christian. I didn’t say perfect, I say model. Someone who is daily working to take steps closer to Jesus, daily striving to become more holy, daily confessing their sins and asking for the Lord’s help to remain faithful.

-Self-controlled: someone that can control their own appetites is the way one commentary summarized it. Instead of making hasty reactions to something, this is someone who steadfast in their responses. 

-Sensible: Paul uses an interesting word here that can be translated “holding no wine,” which doesn’t make complete sense since Paul talks about that issue later. Some scholars translate this as sober, that is careful in the way he approaches life, could maybe even say steady. Doesn’t easily get worked up about things.

-Respectable: this refers to someone who is held in high regard by others. Not sure if you’ve heard the leadership maxim that I think this gets to is: if you claim to be a leader, and look back and no one’s following you you’re not a leader! Elders are people that others actually look to and call out as leaders.

-Not an excessive drinker: as I said earlier, Paul talks about this for all believers in Eph. 5. Christians are not to be marked by drunkenness, or you could say a lack of self-control. Someone who is a drunk can’t control their urges or their appetites, so they shouldn’t be asked to be in leadership. Now, it’s important to note that Paul doesn’t say it’s wrong to drink at all! Drinking alcohol itself isn’t a sin, it can be a sin, but it isn’t a sin in and of itself. Story of Spurgeon and Moody. 

-Lastly for this section: A good reputation among outsiders. The church is meant to be on the front lines of evangelism. We’re always supposed to be sharing the gospel with those we come into contact with in all areas of our lives. How would it look if the church elects leaders who even those outside the church don’t respect? I’ve talked to pastors who have had men who were known as bullies in the community be brought up as potential elders in the church. Based on what we see in this list, do you think someone like that should be called to be an elder?

-I would summarize all of these as: faithful character! But we’ve got 4 more to go:

  • Marriage & Home

-How does he manage his house? What kind of a husband is he? Do his wife and kids flourish? Now as we’ve seen many times, there’s some debate about these expectations! And it’s led to no small amount of controversy through the centuries!

-Husband of one wife: does this mean that if someone has gotten divorced, they’re automatically disqualified? Some would say yes! But even Jesus said that divorce is permitted in some cases. The Greek is literally “one women man,” so you could translate that as “devoted to his wife.” Other people argue that this means elders are required to be married. But that would automatically disqualify Jesus and Paul from serving as elders (and someone like John Stott – a British pastor who served faithfully until he died), and bringing in vs. 4, I don’t think we’d argue that they’re required to have kids. Others argue that this is a prohibition against polygamy. And while it is that, I don’t think it’s only that! The way I would interpret this is: is this man faithfully devoted to caring for his wife. If he is divorced, there would need to be some more questions asked, but it doesn’t automatically disqualify someone.

-Hospitable. Here’s one we don’t often think about! In the 1st century this would have been literally opening your home to having people come stay with you, since hotels weren’t always reliable, and if you became a Christian it often meant social alienation from your old friends and family. Today, I would take this as someone who regularly has people in their home, do they welcome others in? And I think it connects to vs. 4:

-If an elder is hospitable, people will be able to see how he manages his house. Do his kids thrive under his leadership? Does he love on them, play with them, and train them up to follow after Jesus?

-And notice why Paul says that: because the church is just a larger family! The nuclear family is the proving ground for elders. Does this mean that if someone has unbelieving children they’re automatically disqualified? Again, no! Church, we need to remember that we can’t force anyone to become a Christian! As much as I would give anything for my kids to know Jesus as their Lord, I can’t, that’s the Holy Spirit’s job! What this is getting at is does this person create an environment in their home where their children are regularly hearing about God? Think of the shema (called that because of the Hebrew word for hear), does this father talk about God: in the house, when you walk, when you lie, when you get up, is God the way he orients his entire life, so that the children know who God is and what He’s like?

  • Teaching

-The 1 gift he MUST have. Doesn’t say business savvy, doesn’t say charismatic personality, doesn’t say gifted communicator, it says able to teach. And if you think about how God has chosen to reveal Himself, it makes sense. God has revealed Himself to use through His Word! That means that church leaders should be able to point people to His Word as our highest authority for life and doctrine! This doesn’t mean that they’re required to preach, teaching is done in a wide variety of contexts, but they need to be able to explain the Bible to others. Which leads perfectly into:

  • Correcting

-One of the primary purposes of having leaders is to ensure commitment to the Word. So not only is the positive given previously (able to teach), but they also need to be able to correct those who are teaching wrongly.

-First, not a bully. I love the way the NASB translates this word: not pugnacious! That is not someone who is quick to fight or argue. I actually just read an article this week that shocked me (I’m not even going to link to it because it was that bad), but the “pastor” who wrote it said some pastors today “are not pugnacious enough.” In contrast to that, Paul here commends being gentle. That’s not taking a soft stance, that’s someone who knows how to correct people in a loving way.

-Also, not quarrelsome. Not looking to fight.

-And also not greedy, not looking at benefit from this service, which connects to what I said earlier about leaders being the number one servants! 

-And why are these ideas so important? Well it’s up to the elders to help in matters of discipline! Look at Paul says what we’re supposed to use the Word for 2 Tim.: to correct, rebuke, and encourage. This means that there’s both the positive teaching what is good, true, and beautiful, and correcting, which is pulling people back from following what is false and pointing them to what is true. And all this gets back to the need for elders to know the Word! 

  • Faith

-Finally, how do you ensure that someone is living these things out? It takes time! Paul says this shouldn’t be someone who’s a new convert. Don’t take someone who has just recently been saved and throw them into leadership positions! They’re not ready for it! And I can tell you, as someone who was called into ministry young, this is absolutely true! You start to think you can do things in your own power and strength instead of relying on God!

-And this is why the author of the Hebrews holds church leaders up as such a high example. This connects to what we studied last week: we’re all called to submit to the leaders of the church because the leaders are keeping watch over our souls. 

-Leadership isn’t a bad thing, nor is it such a high bar that no one can reach it. We need to look for those who are living the ordinary Christian life extraordinarily well, and then follow their lead!

“Tom Carson never rose very far in denominational structures, but hundreds of people in the Outaouais and beyond testify how much he loved them. He never wrote a book, but he loved the Book. He was never wealthy or powerful, but he kept growing as a Christian: yesterday’s grace was never enough. He was not a far-sighted visionary, but he looked forward to eternity. He was not a gifted administrator, but there is no text that says, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you are good administrators.” His journals have many, many entries bathed in tears of contrition, but his children and grandchildren remember his laughter. Only rarely did he break through his pattern of reserve and speak deeply and intimately with his children, but he modeled Christian virtues to them. He much preferred to avoid controversy than to stir things up, but his own commitments to historic confessionalism were unyielding, and in ethics he was a man of principle. His own ecclesiastical circles were rather small and narrow, but his reading was correspondingly large and expansive. He was not very good at putting people down, except on his prayer lists.

When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.

But on the other side all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man—he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor—but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.””

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by mikethestrand on October 5, 2025  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on October 5, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/10/05/1-timothy-31-7-sermon-manuscript/

1 Timothy 2:1-7 – Sermon Manuscript

-I hope the focus of seeing the church as a household is starting to take shape for you! Today we’re digging into the main body of the letter, the last 2 weeks were preparing us for today. As we dig into this week’s text, I want you to think about what goes into creating a healthy family unit. What is needed for a good family to exist?

-Husband and wife, some source of income to provide for what you need, the ability to be yourself without fear of judgment or being cast aside. 

-We could also ask the same question of a church, the household of God. What do we need? Bible! Some place where we can gather, seats are helpful. But with the church, what’s the first thing we should focus on? I’m guessing if we’d go around the room we’d probably come up with dozens of different proposals, but Paul’s going to give us something that I think is often assumed in churches, but is rarely given the focused attention that it deserves. Let’s read the text to see what Paul says should be the first thing in our churches:

READ/PRAY (1051)

  1. Prays for Everyone (1-4)

-First of all, this is where Paul says we should focus as a church, and to communicate the importance of praying, he uses 4 different words. One commentator said “The point is that there be an abundance of prayers appropriate to worship occasions and concerns, not a precise delineation of prayer types or techniques.” That being said, I think it is helpful for us to look at all these words, just keep in mind the focus isn’t the types of prayers, it’s that we pray:

-Petitions – often asking God to grant something, there tends to be a sense of urgency to these things. 

-Prayers – the most generic word used, most used word in the NT for prayer

-Intercessions – prayers on behalf of other people

-Thanksgivings – most used by us today, gratitude. One of the things that was pointed out to me a few years ago at an elder training some of our elders attended was how often Paul is grateful and thankful for people in the church. It actually changed the way I pray for you guys! If you didn’t know, the elders pray for our church members every day, I set it up so I get a reminder in my phone a 9 every morning to pray for a portion of our church members. I pray for other people too, but less intentionally and less strategically, so one reason to come to our membership class is I would like to pray for you more regularly! But since that elder training, my prayers have started with, “Lord, thank you for ___” I think we’re going on 2 years of this now, so every member has probably been thanked for at least twice!

-The focus of Paul using these phrases is that prayers should be commonplace in the household of God! All sorts of different prayers! Short prayers, long prayers, prayers for other people, prayers where you give thanks to God, church pray what you’ve got, when you’ve got it wherever you’re at! 

-But who are we supposed to pray for? I’ve got good news and bad news:

-EVERYONE – who’s left out of that? The opposite: NO ONE! That means there’s always more people to be praying for! And church, don’t ever stop praying for them. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never seen any fruit from your prayers, don’t give up! I keep hearing stories from people in our church who have seen family members responding to God in ways they never expected. This is why Paul said last week is so important: if God can save me, God can save anybody, so keep praying! 

-But Paul also gets specific: kings and all those who are in authority. The king at this point was Nero, who was ruthless in his persecution of Christians. If Paul can command the church to pray for him, then we should also be willing and able to pray for our political leaders today, regardless of the D or the R next to their name, they bear the image of God. 

-But notice why do we pray for them? For the flourishing of our communities so that the gospel can be more easily spread! This letter was written during a time known as the peace of Rome, a time where people could easily travel on paved roads throughout the Mediterranean. That ruthless empire that persecuted Christians also became the means for the gospel message to spread.

-But notice what we’re specifically praying FOR: a tranquil and quiet life, marked by godliness and dignity. Like the prayers, let’s look at each of those words:

-Tranquil and quiet. A peaceful existence.

-Godliness: piety (let’s recover that word! Means “the quality of being religious or reverent”) some trans. as: “to live as God has told us we should live”

-Dignity: “behavior which is befitting, implying a measure of dignity leading to respect” trans. “to act in the right way”

-Would you be content to live a life like that? I think that some of what’s going on in Paul’s mind is what God told Israel when they were in exile: 

-Are you pursuing the well-being of this community? Are WE pursuing that? We see a similar reminder to pray for the city where we’re sent. Have you ever considered this to be your political aim? Friends, whether you admit it or not, we are politically homeless in this world, because no political ideology completely aligns with what Jesus commands. This is part of the reason we have so many contentious discussions in our politics today, I see both sides appealing to Jesus in some areas, but then ignoring Him in others. The early church was known to be the best citizens, in fact by the 4thcentury, the Christians were persecuted and marginalized, but they lived the best lives! 

-Julian the Apostate (last non-Christian Roman emperor) quote. Friends, the true church throughout history has sought the good of every nation they live in. How are we doing at seeking the good of our nation?

-Part of the difficulty with this is I think we often jump to the big, bold ideas instead of what Paul commands here. One of the most quoted phrases I remember hearing is: William Carey quote – called the father of modern missions, served in India

-What if what God wants is a tranquil and quiet life instead of “global changers” I would argue that what’s far more effective in the cause of Christ is a bunch of normal people faithfully serving where God has them, being hospitable, investing in their community, working hard at their jobs but not being consumed by them. 

-My generation (Millennials) believe it or not has some exemplary traits (the focus has shifted to Gen Z because we’re all middle aged now), but 1 of the things I was trained in was to think about changing the world. We were supposed to not waste our lives, we were supposed to be radical, we were supposed to care about every social justice cause, we were supposed to kiss dating good-bye (look how that turned out), we were told to acquire the fire, and we did evangelism explosions. But most of us just ended up in normal jobs, with a mortgage and school loans. Or for those called to ministry, we’re not in mega-churches or preaching to stadiums. And Gen Z, you’re not off the hook! How many of you want to become influencers, or are following after the latest greatest influencer? 

-My kids call themselves “Dude Amazing” after Dude Perfect That’s Amazing, 2 YT influencers. 

-What if life is more far more boring than that? I listened to a podcast recently that said YT has made the once-in-a-lifetime mundane. We can watch people traveling any place in the world, we can see insane trick shots, and on repeat! Things that used to be special experiences are now seen as boring, so people need to keep upping the expectations to keep up their followers. And I would argue that’s some of where the church has gotten skewed in what we’re supposed to be doing, because we view the YT channels as competition. 

-Do we now live in an attention economy instead of a faithful economy? How much of someone’s worth is viewed in terms of attention by likes or retweets or views? Is that the best metric of success?

-Is a quiet and tranquil life good enough for us? 

-We’ll get to some of these things as we continue through this book, but one of the remarkable things about expectations for leadership in God’s household is how unremarkable they are. 

-What’s amazing about Christianity is not the Christians, it’s that we serve an amazing and remarkable God who is in the business of redemption and healing

-Are you ok with living a completely “normal” existence? Paul here says that pursuit is good and pleasing to God. 

-Zinz quote. Is it ok to just let God work in you? Is it ok to “just” be a faithful friend, parent, grandparent, worker?

-Paul ends this section with the reason we should lead these lives: because God wants everyone to be saved.

-Friends, we don’t need celebrities to be telling people about Jesus (in fact, they’re often the ones who lead people away when they don’t keep following Him, sticking with YT Rhett and Link “deconverted”)

-One of the miracles of Christianity is the way it becomes can work in any cultural context. Christians can be Christians in democracies, in totalitarian regimes, in monarchies. The message can be understood by people in any class or educational background. And that also means that the church needs everyone who is a part of the church to actually live out what they believe. It’s not enough to be a Sunday morning Christian.

  • Points to Jesus (5-6)

-Since God wants everyone to be saved, what is the means by which people are saved? There’s only 1 way, do you see all the “ones” in this verse? 

-Opposing the false teachers who were emphasizing the law, using it in unlawful ways, the law can’t save! The laws purpose is to condemn! 

-Every person I know is inconsistent in some way with what they believe and how they practice it. If you ever hear someone accusing you of things that you know aren’t true, memorize this verse and quote it to them: Neh. 6:8. 

-Have you ever heard of a NIMBY? “Good for thee, not for me” I hate to say it because it was a tricky time to navigate, but how often did we see this during COVID? For many people, you don’t even need to go to the 10 commandments, just use their own standards of judgment and eventually they’ll condemn themselves. 

-‘The intolerance of tolerance’ think of just how many secular ideologies make an “us” versus “them” mindset. Last week we looked at some of the modern accusations towards Christians of “inventing” homosexuality as a sin, but another accusation lobbied against Christians is that of colonialism (exerting influence over another country for exploitation). People particularly argue that Christian missionaries work to “colonize” other countries, but the evidence points to literally the opposite reality: countries that had missionaries in the 1800s are the ones that most people are thriving in today.

-But here’s the irony goes, at least for me, today. Today those who are actually moving forward with trying to colonize other countries is Americans and particularly American politicians who are going to other countries and telling them how “backwards” they are on identity politics, particularly towards LGBTQ issues. Last year, I read about someone from congress going to Japan telling a newspaper here that they were going to tell the Japanese they needed to change their approach to homosexuality. Isn’t that literally colonization?

-But not just in politics, we see the same thing in entire denominations! I was initially incredibly encouraged by the United Methodist Church, because they actually held to historical Christian teaching on gender and sexuality, largely because the biggest UMC churches are in Africa. In fact, the UMC in Africa came out with a STRONG statement.

-THIS is the quite literally colonization: exploiting another people group to advance your aims. And in opposition to that stands Jesus as the only one who was never inconsistent, who came to redeem humanity and reconcile the broken world to His Father. He perfectly obeyed the law because sinful humans never could, and then He proceeded to take the penalty for breaking the law on Himself.

-What does a mediator do? He goes between 2 parties to help them live in peace with each other. This is where we need to see that sin isn’t just a mistake or a slip up, in God’s eyes sin is cosmic treason against a holy and righteous God.

-I don’t think our world today really thinks of sin in those terms. I was reading an article recently that talked about the standards different cultures have are often determined in opposition to someone. So if Jesus is the standard of a culture, you’ll never measure up to that level of perfection, but for our culture today the standard for many is Hitler. As long as I’m not as evil as Hitler then I’m doing pretty well! Do you think that’s the best standard to compare yourself to? I think what we’re seeing here is we’re supposed to we’re supposed to aim at Jesus, not the lowest bar.

-Paul also doubles down on emphasizing the humanity of Jesus “THE man,” which may tell us that another piece of the false teachers was denying that Jesus was a man (an early church heresy), which I think is an important reminder for us today, too! Friends, Jesus was fully man. He experienced a real human existence, and was still perfect. That’s why He can be a mediator – a go between for God and man, because He’s the perfect God-man. He experienced emotions, temptations, He was sinned against, His friends betrayed Him, and in His darkest hour He was abandoned by his closest friends.

-That man, THE man gave himself as a ransom. That’s an interesting term, isn’t it? Could also translate is as deliverance or redemption, he’s emphasizing what Jesus did as an exchange, He gives His life and receives “all” which is most likely referring “to whoever seeks it, Jew or Gentile.” (Pillar, 156)

-A weird phrase to end on, with some debate about the best way to render the Greek text into English. “A witness of one’s own time”

-Paul’s emphasizing that this wasn’t a random accident that caught God by surprise, he says something similar in Rom. 5. 

-Friends, history has an end goal and an end point. Someday history will just become HIS story where Jesus returns to fix our broken world and we get to experience eternity knowing Him and being known by Him. All because Jesus gave himself as a ransom. 

-I also love the idea of “testimony” in other places that’s translated as “witness,” one of our core values as a church! Jesus was the first witness of the resurrection (obviously!) but now it’s on us to continue being witnesses:

  • Proclaims the Truth (7)

-A herald in the first century was a prestigious position that had both political and religious significance, they would share messages from the king. And that’s the privilege we have now today! We’re not apostles (those were eyewitnesses to the resurrected Jesus), we’re not all called to be teachers, but we are all called to be witnesses.

-When I hear that, my mind jumps to a courtroom today, calling forth witnesses to testify to the truth of what happened. And that’s not a bad idea! If you were called on to share about the truth of Jesus, could you do it?

-And what we’ve seen in this text is being a witness (which is just another way of saying being a Christian) isn’t just about saying the right things, it’s also about living the right way, and living the right way with the right group of people: the church. He says “All y’all” will receive power, it’s not you individually, it’s we together. Friends, this is the way God has chosen to spread His message to the corners of the earth: through you and me together being witnesses. This is why we say at the end of every service: you are sent. We’re all sent into the world to continue witnessing about Jesus in all the areas that we work, live, and play.

-But it all starts with prayer. So we as a holy church, need to pray for everyone, point to Jesus, and proclaim the truth.

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by mikethestrand on September 21, 2025  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on September 21, 2025

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Generous with our Treasures – Sermon Manuscript

-We have some “Table Topics” at our house that our kids love pulling out and asking us at dinner. One of the questions in the box is “if our house was on fire, what 1 thing would you take with you on your way out the door?” We tweaked it slightly, because the parents both wanted to take the kids, so assuming everyone in your family was safe! Now this is slightly abnormal, but I’m going to ask you to 30 sec. right now, and share what you would take with the person sitting next to you, and if you don’t know them yet, introduce yourself!

-What things would you take with you, go ahead and shout out a couple of them! When this question first came up, my answer was a guitar that I really like, and that’s probably what I would stick with, but I’m not sure anymore because most of the things I have are replaceable (minus some of the old pictures I have of my grandparents)

-The issue in front of us today is how do we grow in generosity with our treasures, and my guess is whatever you would take with you if there was a fire is your treasure. So now that you all have your treasure in your mind, what would it look like for you to be generous with that? For me, my guitar has been a way I’ve made money to provide for my family, a way of encouraging others with music, I’ve let other people use it when they didn’t have a guitar – it’s been a tool that has fostered relationships and meaning beyond just something for me!

-I would argue that treasures is more than just money, but not less than that. Treasures are any gift God has entrusted to you to take care of.

-Theologians have long argued that there are 3 conversions every Christian faces: conversion of the head, then conversion of the heart, and finally conversion of the pocketbook. Story of Sam Houston.

READ/PRAY

Gray Matters research

READ/PRAY

  1. Grow in This Grace

-When do you start being generous? Many people I talk to view it as something that is reserved for those who have already “made it” or those who have a lot of expendable income. The difficulty with that is even if your income increases, the expenses tend to rise with the, so each time there’s a raise, it doesn’t give any room to be more generous, it gives more room to expand your portfolio of things.

-In the midst of this comes the churches of Macedonia. Not sure what the affliction is, but compared to the capitol city of Corinth, Macedonia would have been relatively poor. Not only were they poor, but Paul describes them as facing a severe trial. Most likely, this would be due to them becoming Christians and being ostracized from many of the work places and not being able to participate in the local economy. And even in the midst of that persecution and poverty, they continued looking to be overwhelmingly generous. Friends, do you look to do the same?

-The privilege of sharing (4)

-Ordering: give to the Lord, then to others. Connected, can’t separate. Almost as if you can tell where someone’s heart is by the way they live.

-Connect to Rom. 12:9-13

-Giving as an act of grace (7)

-If you love, you will give. Refusing to be generous is the mark of an unrepentant heart. Even people I would have major issues with theologically would argue this point! Think of all the people who trumpet that “God is love,” but don’t go on to be generous. That’s an oxymoron, according to this text (kids, if you don’t know an oxymoron it’s 2 words that together don’t make sense, like “jumbo shrimp”)

-The call for anyone who is following Jesus is to daily strive to become more like him, and how did Jesus act with generosity? He used his generosity to elevate others. He gave everything away.

-But this doesn’t mean taking a vow of poverty. I’ve shared this with a few people this week, but I read an article recently talking about the ways pastors approach ministry has shifted between those retiring or getting close to retiring, and my generation (my dad vs. me) It used to be that being called to be a pastor was being called to poverty! There was a funny article that poked fun at this back in 2016 that included lines like “Congregation members began to question his opulent lifestyle in early April as he was spotted eating at Denny’s with his wife for their fourth wedding anniversary, but the scandal didn’t fully break until he was seen rolling up in the gaudy $1,500.00 vehicle, complete with sunroof, cassette deck, FM radio, air conditioning, and a full three out of four automatic windows functioning properly.” And “As part of the official referendum, Coles must donate the Corolla to charity and get something more appropriate for the ten-mile commute he makes seven days a week, such as a reliable, modest Schwinn or Huffy.” Thankfully, this approach has changed dramatically over the last 20 years (sometimes going too far the OTHER way), but notice in our text, giving is done “according to what a person has,” (12) and friends, as your pastor I’m not of the hook! I also give to the church and other ministries as the we can. This is for all of us!

-Paul goes on to say it’s for equality. (13) God brings people together for the purpose of sharing with each other. Start being generous now, so that when you have a surplus you’re already trained to be generous!

-This was first modeled in Exodus, where the everyone had just enough manna. That was meant to serve as a picture of how God would continue providing for all of God’s people in the future.

-I shared this passage a couple weeks ago, but I think it bears repeating again because at the heart of this is where are you banking your treasures? You’ve got 2 options: earth or heaven.

-And then Jesus says that you can tell where your heart is, what you truly believe in, by the way you handle your treasures. Do you view your treasures as a gift for you to steward, or do you view it as your right to continue accumulating more and more? I onetime read that we have so much storage space in America (ANOTHER place to hold all our “stuff”), that if we converted storage units to apartments we could solve the housing problem in our country. What does that tell us about where our priorities as a nation are?

-And I think this helps us make sense of another parable Jesus tells in Luke 12. A man has been getting more and more wealthy, accumulating more and more things, and he finally reaches the point where he thinks he’s made it, where after years of toil and trouble he has reached the point where he can live and do whatever he wants to do. And Jesus calls him a fool, because what the rich man doesn’t realize is that’s his last day on earth. He’d spent his life working to a point of building treasures on earth and neglected building eternal treasures.

-And church, this runs completely contradictory to most financial planning, even Christian financial planning! We’ve so often equated stewardship with just saving, but what if that’s wrong? Now again, please don’t hear me saying that saving is bad or wrong! We’re back to what is the motivation leading you to save? Is it to be a rich fool who can sit back and pursue a life of ease, or is it to allow you to expand your generosity toward others?

  • How Much is God’s?

-This should be an obvious answer, but I think it’s worth considering together because I think we often forget this, and I think a large part of it is because the news focuses on doom and gloom to sell and keep us coming back. In 1970, an environmentalist named Paul Ehrlich stated: 

-Does anyone know how many people died of starvation last year? 9 million. Now each one of those deaths is an image bearer who is worthy of honor and respect, but how close was the environmentalist? God has actually designed the world for the flourishing of His creation. The original task in the garden was to fill the earth, and let me tell you, as someone who used to live in the least populated state in the country, there’s more room to be filled! (If you don’t know, that’s Wyoming, which is significantly less than the population of just Minneapolis & St. Paul)

-The reason this question is important is because I think it gets assumed in any conversation about money instead of carefully and intentionally reflected on. God knows exactly what we need, AND often provides for us in abundance so that we can be a blessing to others.

-Friends being wealthy isn’t a sin! Being wealthy CAN be a sin if you don’t use that wealth to bless others, just as being poor isn’t a sin, but it CAN be if even in your poverty you’re not blessing others. We’re back to that see-saw I talked about a few weeks ago. 

-One of the passages that gets to this concept is in 1 Tim. 6. We looked at these first verses a couple weeks ago, but this text goes on. And the last verse in this section is one that often gets misquoted, I remember hearing that the love of money is the root of evil, but that’s not what the verse says, is it? It says, “A root,” and that changes the way we interpret this passage. It also doesn’t say money is the evil, it says the love of money. Friends, money can disappear in an instant. I’ve heard some stories from 2008 that are a reminder of that reality, and there was some irony to when I took this class on generosity, because it was when the stock market dipped in relation to the announcement about tariffs, so the professor on the first day said to not check your retirement accounts! 

-So when we think about the question: what is God’s, the answer is everything! EVERYthing is His, and He gives it to us as gifts (James 1:17) to steward, to take care of, for a season. 

-Friends, this is where we start to see that everyone is not exactly the same, which should be obvious. Some of us are tall, some are short, some have good rhythm, and some of us can’t carry a tune in a bucket. Which is also true with treasures. Some of us are good at making money, and others aren’t as good, and this is why God calls us together into a church body to come alongside each other in our times of need. Did you know that we have a benevolence fund that is used to help people out in times of crisis in our church family? Since I’ve been here, we’ve used that to pay for medical bills, car repairs, rent, food, and that account continues growing, so if you need help, please let us know!

-BUT there are some caveats to that (1 Thess. 3:10), and there’s an understanding that we can’t help everyone around us. 

-God has provided for everything we need – sometimes if the money doesn’t come in, it’s because God is leading us in a different direction, (which is why I said last week our annual budget is a step of faith), but if we’re keeping in step with the Spirit, following faithfully after Him, and trusting that He’s continuing to guide us we can trust God will provide for us for everything we need.

-I was talking to a friend after we found the lightning struck and wrestling through how much that was going to cost, and at the end of the conversation he prayed for me (and us) and in his prayer he thanked God for the lightning strike as something that didn’t catch God off guard, which was the gut punch I needed! Instead of complaining, do we trust that God is working all things for our good and His glory? That doesn’t mean it’s easy, but that gives us hope even when it’s hard, or expensive like a lightning strike!

  • What About Tithing?

-Under the old covenant, God’s people were required to live in a way that showed the world what life under the one true God could look like, which Micah led us through this year! God gave good rules for how to be able to live with a holy God. What we see as oppressive should be viewed as a good gift of God’s mercy, grace, and love.

-And under the old covenant, a tithe was the way God’s people provided for many of the social, religious, and civil services they needed to operate as a nation. Therefore, tithing was a legal obligation for Israel (just like paying taxes is a legal obligation for us today). AND there were 3 different “tithes” in the OT: Levitical tithe (Lev. 27:30-33, Num. 18 regular to cover the work of the Levites in caring for the temple), festival tithes (Deut. 14:22-27 to provide for the many festivals celebrating God’s provision) and a charity tithe (Deut. 14:28-29 taken every 3rd year to provide for the less fortunate: aliens, fatherless, widows, orphans) this last one would be like us giving a 10th to all the poor and needy in the southern suburbs! Add all these up, and annually the Israelites tithed about 25%! How close is the average Christian to THAT tithe? 

-But I think we can take this a step further and I would argue that tithing has passed away with the Mosaic covenant. We no longer need to follow the same rules and laws because now we have a new rule under a King who has fulfilled all the laws demands because we never could. Tithing was a part of the Mosaic covenant, and tithing was the means God used to support that covenant. And we could look at each of those 3 tithes as things Jesus has fulfilled: instead of Levites we are ALL priests now so we’re supposed to care for each other, instead of festivals celebrating Passover, harvest, or booths, we have a festival each week to celebrate the salvation won by Jesus, AND we have a new community called ‘the church’ that comes around those who poor and can help provide for them in the midst of their needs. 

-So tithing isn’t required for those of us who are in Christ, but Jesus calls us to something even greater: extravagant generosity. Quote.

-Friends generosity is a high calling, and it’s completely contradictory to our natural way of living. Generosity is only possible if Jesus has transformed your heart and baptized your wallet. Generosity is the means God has chosen to provide for his new covenant people today, and it demands all of us being extravagantly generous to each other, and those around us.

-A heart that has been transformed by the gospel will be demonstrated by a baptized wallet! And that also includes us as a church. 

-One of the things I’m coming back from sabbatical hoping for us is a renewed focus on our whole church being generous. This isn’t just for us as individuals, this is for us a community, too! And friends, we have a generous church! Over the last 2 years we’ve had 3 years’ worth of giving come in. We have financially supported 2 churches in the area (1 in Bloomington and 1 in St. Paul). When I came here, I was focused on church health, and we’ve gotten a lot healthier. The reason I want us to be healthy is so we can be a place to be a blessing to other people and churches in the area, and we don’t always know when those opportunities will come up! 

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by mikethestrand on August 31, 2025  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on August 31, 2025

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Generous with Time and Talents – Sermon Manuscript

-Middle of a series looking at the God of generosity.

-This section is all about financial generosity, but I think Paul lays the groundwork for us to go beyond just being generous with our finances, and the way I’ve always heard it talked about is with 3 T’s: time, talents, and treasures (good alliteration, and 3 points so you know it has to be true!) 

-This week, we’re going to be focusing on time and talents, with treasures being the focus of next week, but I want to start looking at what Paul says in 2 Cor. 9, before seeing other places where these ideas are also brought up.

-And this isn’t a brand new idea for us, it’s just approaching a topic we’ve talked about many times from a different lens, another way of thinking about generosity is through the lens of worship. Are you worshipping God with all you have and all your are, or are you holding things back?

READ/PRAY (1027)

  1. Excel in Every Good Work

6-This section begins with the assumption that sowing is going to be done, the only question is where are you sowing, in the world or in heaven?

7-What should mark the giver?

-As you decide – this is up to you, don’t try to keep up with someone else!

-Not reluctant – if God has changed your heart, it should affect your wallet

-Not compulsive – don’t lock the doors until you give a certain amount, don’t give just because someone begs!

-Cheerfully. Did you know that God actually wired us to become cheerful through giving? Some people report a “giving high” when they’re generous. Not only does God love a cheerful giver, but God INTENDS givers to become cheerful! Sociology is just the study of how God created us!

-“A stingy Christian is a contradiction in terms. We ourselves have been gifted into new life in Christ. We have been gifted into becoming givers.” Ortlund

8-At the core, where does this generosity come from? Generosity is grace, generosity comes from the gifts God already gives, and it leads to excelling in every good work.

9 – quotes from Psalm 112 as a model of someone who gives generously leading to being a righteous person. Generosity always bears fruit, even into eternity.

10 – God provides AND multiplies, it all comes from Him

-We’re expected to sow what God provides, but it leads to a harvest in our righteousness, which means one of the ways to determine if you’re walking with the Lord (in right standing before Him) is evidenced by your generosity.

-And the best part is we’re not the point! Generosity begins with God, is stewarded through us, and then goes back in thanksgiving to God! 

12 – our generosity is supposed to be a means of caring for each other, those who are a part of the church

-And I think this is important for us to realize that God’s means of providing for one another in this church body is right here, which I believe means that one of the ways this is evidenced is through our annual voting of our budget. Each year is a step of faith that God is going to provide for the needs of the saints through us, which means we should all take that vote very seriously, and cover it in prayer because at the end of the day this isn’t a business, this is a ministry. And the reason it’s an act of faith is because we can’t manipulate the market to increase our revenue stream – it takes all of us taking these ideas to heart and living out a generous life that leads to thanks to God.

13-Which leads to this last section, where Paul begins saying that your generosity towards other believers is a proof that the gospel has changed you. 

-And we continue to see this interplay between God receiving the glory, and the way generosity unites us closer to each other.

-Obedient confession with your mouth leads to an outpouring of generosity, those 2 things can’t be separated! With them and EVERYONE!

14-which connects to prayer, prayer is to God, but it also unties us together: it’s hard to remain mad at someone when you’re praying for them. Generosity leads to deep affection, deep union, a close relationship with each other.

-Which means we must be grateful people. One of the things about Paul’s letters that amazes me is how much thanks he writes about for and to other people. We, as Christians, should be the most grateful people on the planet, first because of what God has done for us through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, but also because out of Jesus comes this new community called ‘the church’ which is comprised of people from all backgrounds who are brought together in a specific time and place to provide everything needed for us take steps closer to Jesus.

-Now, one of the things I want to note about this section is the temptation for us to have the appearance of generosity, but do it from the wrong motivation.

-Ortlund quote. There’s a story in the book of Acts about the way the early church was ridiculously generous, so everyone wanted to become more generous. So a couple decided to sell a field and give some of the money to the church, but because they were more worried about appearances they told everyone that they gave EVERYTHING they made from selling their field. Instead of actually being generous, they were wanting to look generous to others, they were more worried about what other people thought than what God thought.

-I want to end this section with another passage from Paul that we’ll come back around to again in the Fall in 1 Tim. 6 because it connects to this section.

-Friends, we are rich in the present age. Paul says not to be arrogant (prideful, trusting in your own wealth), and to not hope in wealth (which can disappear in an instant), but on our rich God who alone provides everything for us.

-Instead of being rich in earthly wealth, look to be rich in good works! That’s practically how you store up treasures in heaven! And then Paul says how to be rich in good works: be generous and willing to share. Don’t horde and don’t hold on to your possessions too tightly – that’s how you demonstrate that the gospel message has changed you!

-But I think the most incredible piece of this section is the way Paul ends it, and it’s a phrase that was pointed out to me last October that I’ve been contemplating since then. What is life that is truly life (NIV)? 

-And as I’ve been thinking about it, I think what Paul is getting at is if you want to live a full life, or as Jesus says life in abundance, it requires reorienting your life to the way God intended us to live, being like Jesus. 

-Eternity for us starts now. Things you do now have a direct influence on the rest of your life. That’s why Paul is saying there’s a connection between how we handle our resources here, and what God gives us to handle in eternity. Friends, we’re going to live forever, the question is do we live like that now or not?

-And a primary way we live like that is by being generous with our time and our talents.

  • With Time (1 Thess. 2:8) 

-Who or what determines time for you? This is another concept that has been fascinating for me to consider since last summer’s trip in Europe. We had a professor from TEDS come who is a Genevan church history expert, wrote this book and spent the beginning chapter talking about St. Pierre, the biggest cathedral in the city, and still the highest point of the city. Listen to how he describes the passing of time:

-Manetsch quote

-Do churches have any bearing on time today? I often joke that I keep “Apple Standard Time” in my house. But with so much of our lives moving online that even affects the way we live! (the staff was laughing this week at how much we rely on the internet to do our jobs) And when does the internet shut off? Never! How do you think that affects the way our world engages time?

-Think of the promise of all the technological advancement we’ve had – easier lives, less time devoted to work, but has that actually happened? Why do people say that we spend about the same amount of time on household tasks today as our grandparents, or great-grandparents did 100 years ago? 

-Yet another piece, think of the verbs we use in relation to time, aren’t they all monetary? Spend, invest, waste, steward. But is that the way God thinks of time? Think of what Peter says about time (2 Pet. 3). God’s timing is rarely the same as our timing. And how long does it take for us to grow in holiness? I’ll be honest, it seems to be taking a LOT longer in my life than I thought it would when I was a kid!

-A book I recently read said God’s speed is 3 mph, which caught me off guard. But then the author went on to say: how fast did Jesus move? Walking speed! And then the author pointed out that Jesus spent a majority (something like ¾) of his 3-year ministry walking. If God’s speed is 3 mph, should that affect the way we view time? How much do we miss because we’re in too much of a rush to notice what God is putting in our path?

-I think one of the ways we all could grow in generosity with our time is by prioritizing people over productivity. Friends, you never need to apologize if you want to spend time with me or anyone on staff. I’ve lost count of the times I sit down to meet with someone and they say “I’m sorry for taking your time, I know you’re busy.” I’m not! My role here is to invest my time here on all of you! There are some boundaries that I need to keep, priorities that I have, but it’s a joy for me to be with you!

-For many of us, we live by the maxim time is money, don’t we? One of the things that has driven me nuts over my life is the people who are always looking for someone better to talk to, where you feel like you’re just in their way. When you’re trying to talk to them they won’t make eye contact, they keep looking just over your shoulder. Please don’t be like that! Friends, everyone we encounter is going to live for eternity, so get started loving them now!

-I onetime had someone ask me: how do you I know you care about me? After a bunch of wrong answers I landed on the one he was looking for: time. Time is one of the primary ways we show that we care about each other, which is just another way of saying if you love someone, you will spend time with them. 

-Which gets us to the primary verse for this section. What does Paul say he’s willing to share with the church? The gospel, and our very selves. We’ll give you ourselves. That’s how we’re generous with our time: by sharing our very selves. Do you share yourself with others, or do you try to remain stingy with yourself and your time?

  • With Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)

-5 talents, 2 talents, 1 talent. The first 2 double their talents, the third hides it, which would have been a completely acceptable arrangement at the time! Thieves and robbers were plentiful, burying it would have ensured it didn’t grow legs! 

-But look at how the master rewards the first 2, and then look at the third. The third is called evil, lazy, good-for-nothing. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think those words are very positive! My prayer when I see my master is what the first 2 heard: well done good and faithful servant. But how do we steward our talents? In this parable, Jesus is talking about money, but I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch for us to move this into the ways God has created us with specific talents that we’re supposed to build on and grow in. 

–1 Cor. 12 talks about many different ways that the body of Christ is gifted, none of us are gifted (talented) exactly the same way. And that’s not meant to cause jealousy or comparison between each other, God designs the body so that we always have exactly what we need, and nothing more! BUT it requires all of us using our gifts for the good of each other, look at the end of vs. 7: “for the common good.” 

-Church: your talents are not for you. But that also means you need to be actively using your talents, growing in them so that you can be a blessing to those around you. So that you can be generous with your talents! Every person who has been saved has some way or ways that God has equipped them for the good of the church, your brothers and sisters around you.

-Now, you might be thinking that’s awfully self-serving of me to say! I need your help to make this church function, and that may be true if it wasn’t for Eph. 4, which I have often referred to as my job description. 

-Notice why it says gave all these roles: to equip the saints for the work of ministry (service). Friends, the reason we have a church staff is to help equip you to function to the best of your abilities for the sake of our church. And the end result of us all using our gifts is growth and maturity, taking steps closer to Jesus each and every day.

-If you’ve been attending here for a while, you’ve seen this chart before, but this is what I try to share at least annually in our member’s meetings to give you a perspective on all the areas of ministry we have. And do you see all the question marks? Those are places we have needs! Now, that doesn’t mean no one is involved in these areas, many people are, but we don’t have someone to be the point person and help direct and guide these areas…yet. Are you someone that is looking for more ways to get involved? 

Communication, finances, hospitality, equip, care, mercy/outreach, men’s all are places that I would love to have an intention focus. Kid’s ministry always needs people, youth group always has opportunities, facilities always has little projects going.

-How are you growing in generosity with your time and your talents?

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by mikethestrand on August 24, 2025  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on August 24, 2025

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