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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
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Sermon, Theology, Worship
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Posted by mikethestrand on August 31, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/08/31/generous-with-our-treasures-sermon-manuscript/

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
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Relationships, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on August 24, 2025

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Our Generous God – Sermon Manuscript

-The elders read through various books together to help us grow in our understanding of God, the church, leadership, etc. Over the summer, Micah took them through the book that God used to call me into ministry called ‘Worship Matters.” The bulk of the book is taken up with what the author calls “Healthy Tensions” things that we need to keep in mind to have a healthy music ministry in a church. But as I’ve thought about that concept over my life, I think it applies to our Christian faith much more broadly, and these tensions prevent us from sliding into heresy. And I’ve thought of this through the lens of something they have at playgrounds. Any kids know what this is? A see-saw! Has anyone ever seen a seesaw sitting in its natural state perfectly balanced like this? No! It always leans 1 way or the other. And if you trace the history of Christianity, you can see the theological see-saw going back and forth. A few examples:

-Is Jesus God or a man? Yes! And if you start emphasizing one over the other you end up in heresy!

-Is God 3 or is God 1? Yes! 

-Are Christians for the world, or against the world? Yes! We’re for the world coming to know Jesus as the Savior of the world, but we’re against the world and it’s sinful desires!

-We could keep going, but the point is there are things about God that don’t make sense to our finite human minds. And generosity is one of those areas of living that doesn’t make any sense in our world. Why in the world should we give things that we work hard to acquire to someone else? In a purely materialistic world, being generous is honestly a dumb way to live!

-In April, I took a class at TEDS titled ‘Fundraising Principles and Practices.’ Not a class I was excited, not a class I really wanted to take, but it’s a class that really knocked my socks off! Because it connected some dots for me on how I (we) tend to approach money, but all the things we think are “ours.”

-I say “ours” intentionally, because what do you have that hasn’t been entrusted to you for a season? And what do you have here that you’ll take with you after you die? So I’ve spent the last 4 months sitting in this idea and praying about what it means for us to be a generous people.

-Book recommendation

READ/PRAY (pg. 1027)

  1. Rich Through Poverty

-Background to 2 Corinthians: the upside-down way of living. One of my favorite descriptions of the early church is found in Acts 17. Paul is continuing to preach the gospel, arrives at Thessalonica (wrote a couple letters to them that we have later in our Bibles!), and the Jews become jealous and come before the officials and describe what’s taking place: turning the world upside down.

-A commentator put this summary of the book, just like the see-saw that I talked about earlier. This doesn’t make sense in our world! Paul is intentionally making these contrasts in this book that point to a cross-like way of living

-Paul making these contrasts that point to the cruciform (cross like) way of living, particularly in response to a group who claimed to be “super apostles” who proudly announced their accomplishments and pointed out all of Paul’s weaknesses. So Paul uses this opportunity to point out how these “super apostles” are only pursuing worldly recognition, which isn’t the way of Jesus.

-Think of Jesus in Matt. 10:39. In order to find your life, you must lose it. How does that make any sense? Until you understand the gospel message it doesn’t!

-This inversion leads to us being a people marked by generosity instead of hoarding, giving instead of taking, trusting instead of doubting.

-And I’ll put all my cards on the table here: this has been a stretching concept for me to engage, which probably means it’s exactly what God has needed to teach me! I don’t like talking about money, it honestly stresses me out! I’ve had to grow (a lot) in my engagement with money, in the ways I talk about money, and even in my own stewardship of money.

-I also don’t preach as someone who feels like they’ve arrived with this! I’m a pilgrim just like you, and just like many of you I preach far better than I practice! This is something I’m still working on and trying to grow in so that I can be better marked by generosity than hording. But I also know I’m not alone in this!

-And let me illustrate this by asking you a question: how would you feel if I asked to see your bank account, your budget, and your pat check? I’m not asking, and I won’t ask (unless you’re wanting to talk about it!) but why is it that we tend to feel comfortable talking about anything except money? I’ve had people share things with me that they’ve never told anyone else in the world, but those same people wouldn’t tell me what their annual salary is. And friends, I think that may be a way of revealing an area that we NEED to talk about. And I’ll make this personal, I think this is something I need to talk about, because I find myself cringing about this topic which I think is a way of God revealing an idol in my heart.

-I recently listened to a podcast from someone who said he has 2 guys go through his budget every year, and he calls them before he makes any purchase over $1,000. I’ve heard of other Christian guys who rented a house together out of college and literally pooled all their money together. Any purchase over $50 had to be approved of. 

-I don’t know about you, but I hear that and start to get uncomfortable! Why should anyone else have a say in MY money. And friends, there’s the problem. What is truly mine? Nothing! This is starting to get to the point where I think Jesus wants us to be, and (Matt. 6) why he says where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is. Jesus says you’ll build up treasures somewhere, where are those treasures that you’re building on?

-The theme verse for this that crystalized this topic for me is found in 2 Cor. 8:9. In this section, Paul is urging the church to give generously, and he summarizes the gospel message in a financial way. Jesus became poor to allow us to become rich. This richness isn’t limited either, and Peter picks up this idea in 2 Peter 1.

-I loved the way my professor talked about this in the class I took. What’s left out of “everything”? Well the opposite: NOTHING! So friends, what do we lack?

-The temptation for all of us is to operate out of a scarcity mindset, where there’s a limited amount of resources, so in order for us to ensure our survival it’s taken at someone else’s expense. But what if that’s a worldly way of living? What if we serve and worship the God who has made everything out of nothing? What if we really have been given everything we need, but it requires a shift in thinking and approaching the world from us? 

-We’ll get to this more in the Fall as we walk through 1 Tim., but look at how Paul describes the way Christians operate. What do we enter the world with? Our birthday suit! And you can’t even take that with you! But how many of you would honestly say you’re content with food and clothing? 

-I’m guessing many of the kids in here aren’t even content with the food they’re served each day! I know in my house we often get complaints that it’s food they don’t like, or we’re not getting it to them fast enough and they’re “STARVING.” 

-And noticed Paul doesn’t warn those who are rich, he warns those who WANT to be rich.

-Once again, as I say this, I feel the need to caveat, and it’s something I brought up in class: isn’t this prosperity theology? And once again, I think this brings us back to a tension point: because the opposite is also not true: poverty theology, and the Bible points us between those 2 extremes. See riches CAN be a root of evil, but it isn’t evil by itself. God blesses some people with material blessing so they can be a blessing to others. Think of Abraham or Joseph, men given material blessing so that they can in turn bless others. Or during Jesus’s ministry, when Luke tells us “many” were supporting Jesus and His disciples. Friends, riches isn’t a good barometer of either spiritual blessing or spiritual maturity. There can be mature people in poverty, and immature people who worldly rich, but the call for everyone who is in Christ is to grow in generosity. To grow in trusting God’s provision in your life.

  • Taking Versus Trusting

-Scripture begins with a story of a generous God who creates everything out of nothing and provides everything necessary for his creation to flourish.

-Generosity comes with stipulations: don’t eat from 1 tree. Could also say: don’t live beyond your means. But instead of trusting in God’s plan, Eve takes from the tree. The relationship between God and creation is broken, moves in the next chapter to human relationships being broken where Cain murders his brother. Doesn’t say why Abel’s offering was acceptable, but it describes Abel’s as “some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions.” (Gen. 4:4) Abel gives the best, where Cain gives “some.” I think this is where we see that God expects people to be generous.

-And I also think this helps us understand a weird story in Genesis 6 about the sons of God “taking” the daughters of men. Instead of trusting God’s rules and laws for the structuring of the world, creation continues taking things that God has forbidden. In contrast to this is Noah who is described as righteous and blameless.

-Noah began trusting God’s rules, but then what happens to Noah? Noah takes from fruit of the vine in excess and becomes drunk. What was initially trust in God’s provision became abuse and excess.

-This rebellion against God’s ways of living climaxes in Gen. 11 with the tower of Babel. People had refused to obey God’s commission of filling the earth, so they build a tower in order to build a name for themselves, or TAKE a name for themselves instead of entrusting themselves to the one true name that matters: Yahweh. Their tower is their picture of human continually trying to take what is rightfully God’s, instead of trusting His good design, so God forces them to be obedient by confusing their language and spreading them across the earth. This unfinished tower serves as a picture for us of any human efforts to reach God, it will always fall short.

-Side note: story of a church building a pyramid in the lobby of all their “accomplishments”

-God’s story shifts from everyone in the world to 1 man: Abraham (studied his story in the Spring) Abraham’s life is meant to be blessed by God so that Abraham can turn and be a blessing to the whole earth. We saw this in the way Abraham blessed others, and those who were close to Abraham received blessing, and those that stayed far off didn’t.

-Genesis ends with God’s people in Egypt, where they are taken into slavery. Yet God still cares for them and raises up Moses to deliver them to a land full of abundance, God’s generosity continuing. 

-But even as God miraculously leads them out of Egypt, and his generosity continues in miraculously providing food for the entire nation, they don’t trust God. Each day God would send manna and quail for them, but as in the garden they were given stipulations: only take enough for that day. (Ex. 16:4) They were commanded to trust God’s daily provision in their lives, and how did they respond? They took more than they were supposed to, leading to their food spoiling. They took instead of trusting.

-After 40 years of God’s abundant provision of food, they finally enter the promised land that was supposed to have everything they needed, flowing with milk and honey, but they’re still not happy. They want to take a king to lead them just like the other nations, and what’s fascinating is God warns the people that a kind would take their kids and force them to serve the king! (1 Sam. 8:11, 13)

-Where God is generous, His people even the leaders aren’t so generous, and the rest of the history of Israel is people continuing to take for themselves instead of trusting God and being generous with their blessings.

-And then we get to the NT where God’s people are now subjected to life under a government that views taking as a normal way of life. If you’ve never read about the Roman empire, it was a BRUTAL place to live! And into that world comes Jesus who says it’s better to give than to get, better to turn the other cheek than lash back. And then went and lived that out, He trusted Himself to His Father instead of taking the honor and recognition that should have been His. 

-He modeled a truly generous life where He freely gives His status to anyone who would ask by taking our poverty on Himself. He became weak so that we could become strong. He stewarded His riches in a way that allowed others to be blessed through those riches. He didn’t horde it for Himself or hold anything back, He freely gave to anyone who would ask!

-THAT is the history building to what we see in 2 Cor. Jesus through his riches took on poverty to enable we who are poor to become rich, and then go from there to share our riches with others. Friends, this should completely change the way we view our riches! 

  • Which Way Are You Living?

-Would you say your life is marked by taking or by trusting? Just a few chapters earlier in this book, Paul says that what should compel us, drive us forward it “the love of Christ,” 

-One of the markers of the love of Christ is growing in generosity. Is that modeled in your life? 

-One of the assignments I had to do for this class was to write down my history related to generosity. Who modeled generosity for me and how have I modeled generosity in my life? This was an INCREDIBLY helpful experience for me! And one of the things that stood out to me was how much being a part of the church affected my views (yet another reason it’s important for kids to be in here on a regular basis!) I remember passing the plate, seeing people drop their hard-earned money into it every week. That starts to affect your views of money! 

-Take some time this week to thing and pray through your history of generosity! Is your life marked more by trusting or taking? What would it mean for you to grow in this gift of generosity over the next month, 3 months, 6 months, year?

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by mikethestrand on August 17, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Sermon, Theology, Worship
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Posted by mikethestrand on August 17, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/08/17/our-generous-god-sermon-manuscript/

Father Abraham – Sermon Manuscript

-One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is getting all the Christmas cards.

-We don’t do it because my wife doesn’t believe in them, she just likes looking at them and seeing all the people we know (is it a Midwest thing?)

-We got what I’m guessing will be our last one this past week from a family friend of my parents, with kids my age (best friend from when we lived in ND), and it was amazing looking at all the grandkids and easily being able to tell which of the kids they belonged to! Many of you have commented to me that you can very easily tell who my kids are and that they’re siblings!

-But the reality is the similarities don’t just stop at the physical because the habits and patterns of my kids are also a reflection of me and Cara, and my kids regularly do things that I hear and think “I remember this one!”

-And as you get older, you start to realize just how many of your reactions are the exact same as your parents! And if you were to talk to your parents you’d hear similar stories! One of the most helpful things you can do is sit down and trace out your family lineage to start to see some patterns develop (just like every time you go to the Dr and they ask your entire family medical history)

-For those of us who are in Christ, we have our biological family, but we also have a spiritual family that we’re a part of, and just as it is helpful to trace your biological family history to learn more about yourself, it’s vital to trace your spiritual family history to learn more about yourself (and God)! One author I’ve read has said “Jesus may be in your heart, but grandpa’s still in your bones!” So let’s read about our spiritual family:

-READ/PRAY

-Why study Abraham right now? (because it’s in the Bible!) Because Abraham is the origination of the story of God’s people. 

-One of the keys I hope you take away from this sermon series is that God is always at work, even while we wait. Nothing is wasted, nothing is careless or pointless in God’s plans. As we read the biblical stories (like Abraham), we learn that God uses incredibly broken people to accomplish His purposes. We see things we should copy and things we should never do!

-Each year I pick a new word that I focus on for ministry that year, and my word for this year is “slowness” which I think is modeled in Abraham’s life. He was 100 before he had his child that was promised to him. Imagine waiting all those years! And a podcast I listened to this week was saying that the promise came when he was 75, meaning he waited 25 years! Our world today pushes and trains us to expect everything IMMEDIATELY! In the technology class, we heard an author say that technology has trained us to want things easier and everywhere-er, but God’s plans don’t always go along with easier and everywhere-er, do they? How often do you find yourself getting frustrated that your growth is taken longer than you wanted? Or that your prayers aren’t being answered as quickly as you expected? Abraham will teach us the way God works in people’s lives isn’t according to our timeline.

-This will be a bit of a different series, compared to what we’ve done over the past year! How should we read and interpret a story about someone (narrative), and how do move from faithful interpretation to faithful application in our lives?

-First, we should read this as history. I believe what the Bible records is true: real events that took place in time and space. We can become so accustomed to these stories that they lose their humanity and become almost like fairy tales for us. Abraham lived and walked on earth! He had hopes, dreams, desires and he was called out by God to start a new line to bring about redemption.

-Second, we should be reading this story as Christians, which means looking for hints of Jesus in them. Walking on the road to Emmaus. All Scripture points us to Jesus: either in preparation of or looking back to. Paul tells us all the promises of God are yes (fulfilled) in Jesus, so we respond “amen.” The other piece of reading it as Christians is what Paul writes in:

–Gal. 3:7-9: what we see here is anyone who puts their faith in Jesus is now a part of Abraham’s family, so when we read the story of Abraham, we’re getting a picture of our spiritual family history, and one of the realities I want you to walk away with is no matter how broken your biological family history is, God’s family history has the potential to redeem and restore whatever has been broken.

-I preached through Genesis 1-11 in the Fall of 2021, so if you want to go back and listen to those you can for more detail, but we’re going to take today to situate ourselves in this book with an overview of the first 11 chapters. 

  1. In The Beginning…

-Many of you may have this memorized: in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Another way of translating the Hebrew here is: WHEN God began to create, which changes the focus of this a little bit. The focus of Genesis 1 isn’t how, it’s a who and a why. 

-Who creates? God does, He speaks and it appears, creation bends to His will. This is contrary to all the other religions of the day when Moses was writing this. The fact that the stars are a throwaway line in the midst of everything else is significant, because in the other religions the stars are gods! But this God is unique because He creates the stars with a passing word. Don’t miss that the focus is God.

-The second piece is why? For things to be very good, for creation to be in relationship with God, out of His love and plan comes this creation to acts as God’s ambassadors on earth, and there’s order to the creation where 3 days build out the areas, and the corresponding 3 days fill those areas. What we get at the end of Genesis 1 is this beautiful declaration from God:

-Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it. Adam and Eve are given a job: to work to extend the borders of the orchard of Eden until it eventually fills the entire earth! In order to do that, they’re going to need more people (multiply). God has given them everything they need! Think of this in terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: God has given them air, food, water, shelter, there’s nothing to harm them so they have safety, He is in relationship with them (Gen. 3 talks about God walking in the garden at night), self-esteem because they are naked and unashamed, where Maslow gets it wrong is that the top is worship, it doesn’t come from within us, it comes from outside us, from God. God provides all these things for Adam and Eve, and where God intends it for good, humans use it for evil.

-God’s intent: People, place, possession (land, seed, blessing)

-What we’re going to see is the initial shrinking of this blessing, to the eventual fulfilling of this blessing in the new heavens and earth (Revelation). Humans are created to be like God, spreading His rule across the world.

-But God’s intent goes askew in Gen. 3. The 1 rule God gave was to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which they do when tempted by Satan. But the fallout from it isn’t what you would expect, instead of being cursed, the serpent is cursed, and the ground is cursed, and God continues caring for His creation. A key to understanding the rest of the OT story is the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the women (children of God vs. the children of man) Remember we’re looking for glimpses of the gospel message being preached here: think of these wounds – how bad is a heel wound? What about a head wound? But think about what we saw in Revelation last year – how is Satan described there? A dragon, a huge serpent, and can trace that theme throughout the rest of the Bible: are you a descendent of the serpent or a descendent of Adam, the son of God?

-This section ends with banishment from the garden, which is a gift, because if they had remained in there and eaten the tree of life they would have stayed in their state of rebellion, but God cared about them enough to send them away “east of Eden” to provide an ultimate way for them to approach Him. 

-And the story just keeps getting worse. After sin breaks their relationship with God, then we see the way sin breaks the relationship between humans, and Cain kills his brother Abel. And it continues spiraling out of control until Gen. 6:5 says “every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time.” Wow! What a fall from the state of perfection that it was before! 

-Then we get the account of Noah, where God determines He needs to wipe out every creature because of their wickedness. Noah and his family are the only ones who survive, on a floating zoo, as the world breaks down around them, and the description God gives to the flood through Moses is as if the world is being de-created. The waters that were separated come together, the lands that were parceled out are covered, and the creatures are destroyed, except for the ones called out and protected by God. And Gen. 8 begins saying “God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside.” Which should make us think of the very beginning where the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Moses is telling us this flood is a major reset, where God is starting fresh with a new people in a new place to have possessions and blessings from God.

-And once again, we have an epic fail. Noah plants a vineyard and gets drunk. Once again, the fruit of the vine leads God’s chosen one into sin, just like Noah’s first father had done.

-God’s good plan each time seems to be spoiled! And then Noah’s descendants decide that they want to try to become like God, just like Adam and Eve did, so they build a tower that you’ve often heard referred to as Babel, but it’s the same word for Babylon later in the Bible, and if you were here last year for our Revelation series, that word should also have special meaning for you! Think back to what we saw of God’s commission to Adam and Eve: fill the earth and subdue it, spread out so God’s kingdom covers the world like the water covers the sea, and what do the people want to do? NOT scatter. Throughout the Bible, Babylon (the city of man) stands in for all those who are opposed to God’s ways and instead pursue idolatry. So right at the beginning we see the ways humans continue running further and further away from God, and in the Babel story there’s no one who’s righteous, up until this point the story had been tracing 2 lines, this is almost as if everyone forgets about God. And in His mercy, He confuses their language so they can’t continue building against Him.

-There’s another theme that emerges in throughout these opening chapters of Genesis:

  • The Family Records of

-While God’s plan is the entire world being blessed by serving and ruling with Him, that plan needs willing and obedient partners, so some of what we see taking plan in Genesis is tracing the seed of the woman down through generations, and each time the reader should be thinking “Is this the one?” 

-Each primary section of Genesis has this phrase “the records of,” translation of the same Hebrew word, signifies the way the storyline is being traced forward, almost like a fast forward button, then it pauses on one person in the story to focus on them.

-But what’s important to note is the way God continues propagating the human race: through children. So the seed of the woman is continuing to spread down through the centuries, you can trace the way the family line goes. One thing to note is these kinds of lists aren’t the same way we do genealogies today, so some generations can be skipped to make a point (Adam to Noah is 10 generations, Noah to Abram is 10 generations, intentionally connecting the 2 lists) I say that because throughout the Bible the generation lists aren’t exactly the same, and there’s a reason for that! Doesn’t mean the Bible is wrong, but it isn’t trying to answer the same questions we’re asking in the 21st century!

  • Abram

-Now we can finally get to today’s text about Abram! But I wanted you to have all that history, because we’ll see some of the same patterns emerge in Abram/Abraham’s life (spoiler alert, there’s a name change coming!)

-What’s unique here is this seed of the woman is specifically called out from all the families of the earth. Even as sin continued corrupting, God was preserving a remnant for Himself, even people who weren’t faithfully following after Him, which is a reminder for us that grace, God’s gift, isn’t something any of us can earn. Look at what we read in Joshua 24

-So God takes an idol worshipper, and begins stirring in his heart to move, there’s some debate about where Ur was, but here’s the general trajectory of their journey.

-One thing to note is that the ANE was a BRUTAL place! Violent, depraved, dangerous, everything including your survival depended on the tribe you were in. Didn’t have police, national guard, laws to follow, it was survival of the fittest (or most connected). To leave your clan meant almost certain death. So Tarah setting out from his family connections meant something significant was going on. That’s the first piece to note – God works even in people that aren’t following after Him!

-The second piece to note is what does the text say about Abram’s wife? Unable to conceive. What had we just read about the seed of the woman? It means that you need kids to continue the line! So what is God doing here focusing on a barren woman? Much less a barren woman, living in an idolatrous place, worshipping idols instead of the one true God?

-Friends: the primary point from today’s passage is nothing and no one is outside the reach of God. God picks a seemingly insignificant man in a seemingly insignificant place and accomplishes His perfect plans with this guy and his barren wife. 

-This is a small picture of someone else who is born to a barren woman (a virgin) who also accomplished God’s plan. The mother is an insignificant woman in an incredibly insignificant place who God uses to accomplish His perfect plans. This also tells us that if you’re still breathing, God’s still not done with you or anyone you know! Continue trusting God, continue walking with Him, and trust that His plan is better than anything you could come up with anyway (which we’ll see throughout Abraham’s life!) This is going to be a wonderful series learning about and from one of the great patriarchs of our spiritual family, with gospel glimpses of a perfect patriarch to come and set the brokenness right.

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by mikethestrand on February 2, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, History, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on February 2, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/02/02/father-abraham-sermon-manuscript/

Church Offices – Sermon Manuscript

-Pre-marital counseling, part of the goal is to break down some bad ideas about what healthy marriage looks like

-Most of the time people either adopt the way their parents relationship worked, or react to that and refuse to do anything like their parents! But no 2 couples are the same! And all the best plans about splitting everything 50/50 get thrown out the window in about the first week of marriage when reality sets in. But it’s still important to talk about and ensure you’re on the same page: who cooks, who does the dishes, who cleans, who does the laundry, who balances the budget? 

-The reality is in marriage there’s no such thing as both person giving 50%, it takes both people in the marriage giving 100% every day, and the same is true in the church (of which the marriage and the family are supposed to serve as an example, a picture, as we’ll see later in this sermon). The church requires that you actually give something, it requires that you give of your time, talents, and treasures, and it requires all of us to do that so that we can be a healthy body. But when we think about the church, the way we structure and organize the church tends to be assumed instead of explicitly talked about (just as a husband and wife can begin to assume things about their spouse!) So today we’re going to explicitly talk about the roles in the church, the offices the Lord has given to us to function well, and the requirements of those offices in the life of our body.

READ/PRAY

  1. What is Church Polity?

-Just a fancy word to say structure of the church. Taken from GRK polis (city) think of Minneapolis: water (Dakota word) + city

-Many different ways the church has been organized throughout history, and all of them appeal to the Bible (in some form) for their position! 3 primary positions (of which there are some subsets of positions)

-Episcopalian (Episcopal and RCC) argue more for a natural outgrowth from the Bible instead of explicit biblical texts. Make a big deal out of the “bishop” title and make it distinct from elder (I, and many other scholars, would argue they’re synonymous) 

-Presbyterian: church elects elders (called a session), those elders are part of a “Presbytery” (state, city) (taken from GRK), some of the elders from the Presbytery are a part of the General Assembly (nation)

-Congregational: congregation itself is the highest governing body of the church, from the doctrine of the priesthood of ALL believers, corresponds to the way the early church functions (things are presented to the whole church), but among congregational there is a WIDE variety of thoughts and opinions, here’s the list of examples from Grudem’s Systematic Theology.

-I would like to propose a slightly different approach than any of these, and if you have sermon notes, you’ll find some blanks to fill it: Christ ruled, Elder led, Deacon served, Congregationally governed. I’m sure I stole all those pieces from somewhere, but I’ve lost track of where I found it! 

-I tried to make it look like Grudem’s chart here:

-First and foremost: Christ ruled. Unlike the way we Americans tend to think, the church is not a democracy, the church is a theocracy with a King who rules over us. That means our job isn’t to vote people in and out of office, our job isn’t to try to find a constituency who represents us, our job is to submit to His will. 

-Story of person who voted no to everything because nothing should be unanimous. 

-If we’re working to submit all our decisions to the will of God, and we’re all keeping in step with the Spirit, there should be unanimous votes on a regular basis! And notice the arrows connecting God to each position below: since we’re a theocracy, God is the one who appoints, the church looks to affirm and follow where God has called.

-Congregationally Governed: this means the highest form of authority in the church is the congregation, but again, this is not a democracy. The congregation is charged with affirming leaders in the church, looking for ways to honor each other, working to keep the unity of the Spirit in our midst, but it’s not their job to make every decision in the church. Instead, the congregation is called to submit to the leaders of the church (I realize that’s a 4 letter word today, that’s a topic for a different time)

-Elder led: God raises up qualified men to serve in this office (listen to last week for why I said men), and I put them at the bottom because in God’s kingdom those who are called to leadership roles are called to be the servant and others oriented. The world views authority through solely through the lens of power, exploitation and selfishness, but that’s not the way God’s kingdom works.

-Finally, Deacon served: God also gifts certain people in His body to help in various service-oriented roles to help the congregation operate well. We’ll get to that one in a minute too.

-I don’t see these offices as optional in the church of Jesus Christ – if God has given us instructions for how best to operate and function as His bride, we should follow them! So what are each of these 2 offices, and how did we come to have only 2 instead of the many others something like the RCC has?

-Other passages: Phil. 1:1, Titus 1:5, 

-Church history: Didache (GRK Teaching) (“The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations”)

-Definition of the officer, PUBLICLY RECOGNIZED. That means a pastor can’t be a pastor in his own mind, it requires the affirmation of a church, which means someday when I retire, I lose the title of “Pastor” and just become “Mike.” 

-1 office that no longer exists today is that of Apostle, because it requires 2 things: being an eyewitness of the resurrected Jesus (Acts 1:22) and being specifically called by Jesus to be His Apostle. The Bible doesn’t have any other leadership offices described in the Bible.

  • What is an Elder?

-First up the name. Throughout the NT these 4 words are used to refer to the same office (pastor is the word for shepherd, think of pasture)

-What you should immediately think of when you think of this office is a shepherd, which is connected to the word “Pastor.” These words have become incredibly convoluted today, with people using all sorts of different words (clergy, minister, teacher). My personal preference is: pastor to refer to those who are paid elders, elders to refer to unpaid (lay) elders. Same office, different time commitment and time expectations. But the primary focus is shepherd:

-Peter, in his First Epistle writes to the elders of the church:

-Notice a few things here, after the shepherd. First is whose flock is it? God’s! We’re only here for a season, Jesus oversees His flock forever. 

-Willingly: called by God and affirmed by the congregation (Hold onto that, we’ll come back to it)

-Eagerly serving, hence the elders being on the bottom of my chart

-Being examples: do you ever tell someone to be like you? Seems prideful at first glance, doesn’t it? But the Bible tells us to! Paul even says to imitate him just like he imitates Christ. And the reality is we’re all copying someone, the question is does the person we’re copying make us more or less like Jesus? This is why voting to affirm elders is such a weighty issue that should not be taken lightly! It’s not a popularity contest, not looking for representation of your pet project, we’re looking to affirm the men God has appointed to serve as the examples of this body. 

-Which gets me to another passage (briefly, then we’ll go to the main one!) Paul commands Timothy to not be quick in appointing elders, and that’s because of what I just said: we’re going to become like them, so be careful as you affirm elders in the church! Since we’re now in 1 Timothy, we’ll go back a couple chapters to the section we read at the beginning:

-There’s a similar list in Titus 1 that adds a few pieces, and putting it all together in a running list you get this (broken down into do and don’ts)

-There are 2 big things I want you to notice about this list, first is what in this list is unique to an elder that’s not the call of every Christian? 

-Carson quote

-Able to teach! Maybe “not be a new convert” because that would leave some believers out, but the rest of the pieces in here are what every Christian should be striving for, there are other passages that explicitly command these other pieces of all Christians. Let’s think of just a couple:

-Hospitable: 1 Pet. 4:9 “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” That’s for everyone! 

-Not be an excessive drinker. Do you think this means that because this is on the list for elders the rest of you can go get rip roaring drunk all the time? No! Eph. 5:18 “Don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit.” 

-One more: self-controlled. Gal. 5:23, if you are Spirit filled (all Christians) then self-control should be evident in your life. Do you get the point? The 1 exception is “able to teach” because eventually everyone will stop being a new convert.

-The second thing I want you to note is how many of these are character traits, and how many of them are gifts/skills? Once again, the 1 gifting or skill required is “able to teach.” That’s it! The rest is character traits that should be the markers of any Christian who is growing in Christlikeness, as Carson said the list is fairly unremarkable, isn’t it?

-Now, one piece connected to last week: because the skill is teaching, that limits this office to qualified men, which is why our elders are only men here. That’s not a way of looking to denigrate or demean women, it’s a way of following God’s good design for His church.

-Where I would argue the church has run into problems is by NOT using this list and instead adopting other expectations for what should mark leaders, and in many cases the other list is worldly.

-I think back to some of my experiences with elders in previous churches. One church I served at was in an area with an Air Force Base nearby, and the military’s idea of leadership is a little different than Jesus’s idea of leadership! One of the elders decided he needed to teach a Sunday school class on leadership because the church just didn’t understand it. He said leadership was about taking charge and telling people what to do (not a bully?), when I asked about Jesus’s example about washing the disciple’s feet I was told that was for a different context. 

-Friends, this list that God has given us isn’t an optional add on. And how often do our expectations for leaders adopt worldly models instead of biblical models? We look for a CEO or someone with business experience instead of someone who’s faithfully following after God, and what we read in Scripture is God chooses what the world thinks is foolish. 

-But as you remember, this isn’t the only office listed in 1 Timothy 3! Paul goes on to 1 other:

  • What is a Deacon?

-Once again, we start with the name. Deacon is used all over the NT, but most of the time it’s translated as “servant,” and once Latin became the common language, it got translated into “minister” (do you see why I think everyone’s confused about terms today!) Here’s a couple verses that you may recognize where the word is used:

-So in one sense, every one of us is called to “deacon” each other, we’re all supposed to look for opportunities to serve each other. But there’s a difference between a general gift and being called to a church office, and this is also true of the elder/shepherd role. I know some women who are MUCH more gifted than I am pastorally (as shepherds), but that doesn’t mean they should be serving in the OFFICE of pastor/elder. Same here, just because all of us are called to serve each other doesn’t mean everyone is called to serve in the OFFICE of deacon, offices are recognized by the church to help serve in some specific way.

-Not mentioned a lot in the NT (unless you count all the times “servant” is used), but notice that Paul specifically says “likewise” in 1 Tim. Connecting it to the office of elder, and I would argue that we see it develop in 1 other place that we’ll get to after we look at the qualifications of a Deacon.

-First, do you see all the similarities between the 2 lists? Again, nothing extraordinary about this list, someone who is living a faithful Christian life.

-Now, one thought that may be slightly contentious, but I would argue that the flow of this section matters greatly, because I would argue that this office is open to women. See, God’s design for the church doesn’t prohibit women from all leadership in the church, women are VITAL to God’s good plans, but the office that is also open to women is Deacons. Why do I think that?

-Vs. 11, I would argue should instead be translated at “Women” referring to women deacons, so then the flow of this passage is:

-If this office is only mentioned once, what should deacons do?

–Acts 6, while it doesn’t list the office of Deacon, most people believe this is the origination of the office, where we see what Deacons are called to do, as well as a glimpse of what Elders are to focus on. Remember, not better/less than, both are essential for a healthy church to flourish, and both are appointed by God and recognized by the congregation.

-Unity was being threatened, so a group was set apart from the congregation to work towards building the harmony that only comes about through the gospel.

-In our Western ears this sounds like it’s creating a class system: Twelve are too good to wait on tables, but that’s not what’s happening, it’s splitting the needs up so everyone can better serve in their giftings and callings. If the elders were busy dealing with the daily food distribution it would take time away from them focusing on prayer and the ministry of the word (their primary task), doesn’t mean they’d never wait on tables, it means that’s not their primary focus.

-I’ll tell a personal anecdote from my ministry. In my first role, I was tasked with leading a children’s VBS. Can I do it? Sure! But I absolutely despised every piece of it! I wasn’t particularly good at planning it out, wasn’t good at coming up with a theme, wasn’t good at engaging the kids, I’ll be honest this was not in my top 5 skill set (probably not top 500 skill set)! But it succeeded when I recruited someone who was both passionate and gifted at it! It wasn’t below me at all, but it wasn’t the best use of my time. Similarly here: elders are primarily called to Word based ministry (of which I’d say prayer is a piece) and deacons are primarily called to service based ministry, and look at the outcome of this:

-“The Word of God spread.” Because the church was following God’s design and plan.

-So my proposal: Christ ruled, Elder led, Deacon served, and congregationally governed so that the Word of God may continue to spread, that the church may be built, that the saints can use their gifts, and that most importantly God would be honored and glorified in us and through us. 

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

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/01/26/church-offices-sermon-manuscript/

Gender Roles in the Church – Sermon Manuscript

-Swimming, going off into the deep end today, as there’s some issues that we can’t paint with a broad brush on. Today’s message is one of those. 

-Make sure you have your Bibles out! We’ve got a bunch of texts to look at today!

-We’ll also be dealing with some difficult hermeneutical issues where some verses at first glance seem to be contradicting each other, so it’s important for us to understand the way all the pieces of the Bible fit together, otherwise the Bible is prone to misinterpretation and mis-application. 

Today’s topic is: gender roles in the church. We have talked about gender roles in marriage before, in our series through Ephesians, but today’s topic is a little different, and the question before us is: what does the Bible say are the appropriate roles to which we’re called? Is there anything that’s off limits to anyone? 

-This is not a major, but it is a distinctive of the EFCA and of our church. Even if you don’t agree with us on this issue, you’re welcome to join us, get plugged in and involved, as long as you know this is where we land. 

-Before we dive in, let’s read the first thing the Bible tells us about gender:

READ/PRAY

As we begin to think through gender roles, there are 4 primary “camps” that have different conclusions about this issue. We’ll begin with those 2 on the outside: first – feminism. 

Feminism argues that women are superior to men, thus women should lead everything. 

-I’ve actually gotten into trouble with people on this label before, so let me clarify. If your mind goes to women voting, working outside the home, or being fully equal to men when you heard the word “feminism” that’s not what it means today. If you search “fifth wave feminism” you’ll see a few articles talking about the way feminism has shifted over the past 100 years to focus now on things like intersectionality, or some even argue that 4th wave feminism is reacting to being “postfeminist”

–Within feminism, there’s a tendency to appeal to cases of abuse, of domineering, and of aggression and use that as the reason why all men are evil. They also have a tendency to throw out the Bible for the sake of experience or philosophical ideas. NOW – experience in and of itself is not bad, nor is philosophy, the problem is when those become the measuring stick instead of using the Bible which is dangerous! This leads them to generally be pro-abortion and pro-homosexual marriage because the standard of judgment is simply what feels right or fighting for whomever is marginalized. 

Patriarchy is the other side that we want to avoid. 

This takes the opposite approach in that men are superior to women, thus women are expected to remain passive and unengaged while the men make all the decisions. This has led to some immense oppression and neglect for women, and has led to the detriment of the church because women have not been encouraged to use their gifts, meaning half of the church isn’t involved in the life of the church. Think of what it would be like if you neglected or marginalized half of your body! Unfortunately, many people view this and complementarian as synonyms, but they are distinct positions, and some who claim complementarian are actually patriarchalists, so it gets difficult to define.

-Neither of these are good, so we’re down to these 2:

Egalitarianism argues that gender distinctives were part of the Fall, thus in this New Covenant area that we currently reside in, there is to be no distinctive anywhere. 

Any role that is open to men should be open to women as well. Where this is distinct from feminism is egalitarians will actually argue from the Bible, which is good! They appeal to passage like Gal. 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave not free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Their basic premise is that any gender role distinctive in the Bible are exclusively cultural, thus they are not applicable to today. This was the view of the college and seminary I attended, thus I’ve had to wrestle through this issue pretty intimately!

Where the EFCA, and South Suburban land is:

Complementarianism:

Coined in 1987 in Danvers, Massachusetts leading to the Danvers Statement, Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CAVEAT) 

-QUOTE

-Complementarians believe that men and women have distinct and unique roles to fulfill in the home and in church. This is based on passages that we’ll dig in to later, like 1 Timothy 2:12 “I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man; rather; she is to remain quiet.” 

-‘Where We Stand in the EFCA’

-Part of the difficulty, then is the old question: how far is too far? It’s one thing to ascribe to complementarianism theoretically, it’s a different thing to ascribe to it in practice. That’s where some who claim to be complementarian are practically patriarchs, and others who claim it are practically egalitarians. Within complementarianism there is a different scale. So those are waters we’ll be swimming in during our time together today: what does it mean to be complementarian, and what does that look like?

  1. Both Men and Women Are Created in the Image of God (Gen. 1)

This is where God begin, thus it’s where we’ll begin, and it should be a bit of a “well…duh!” but if it’s important enough for God to say it, it’s important enough for us to be reminded of it. 

-Both men and women are created in the image of God. Neither sex can claim to be “better” than the other because we both are created in the image of God. And both being created that way is “very good.” It is very good that we have men and women. 

-But let’s look at 2:18, A helpmate, a companion, a suitable other. This isn’t demeaning or belittling to Adam or Eve, this is necessary. In fact, this word ezer helper here is used to describe God in places like Psalm 54:4 “God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.” Psalm 118:7, “The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.” Adam needed Eve to fulfill God’s mandate in his life, just as Eve needed Adam to fulfill God’s mandate for her life. This is not a greater than/less than, this is a beautiful outworking of our genders for the fullness that God has intended in our lives. 

-This is why we throw out feminism and patriarchy, BOTH sexes are equal in dignity, value, and worth. There is no better or less than in genders when it comes to salvation, to gifting, or calling. “The ground is level at the foot of the cross.” In God’s eyes, no gender is superior. 

-At the same time, notice that Eve isn’t the one held accountable for her sin in Gen. 3, God comes to Adam and asks him what he’s done. 

-This means that for men, there’s liability or accountability that women won’t have. 

-Men – you will be judged for how well the set the spiritual climate of your home. Yet both men and women are called by God and used by Him, let’s look at some examples of that.

  1. Both Men and Women Are Used By God (Judges 4, John 4, Rom. 12, 1 Cor. 12)

-This point should be another “Well…duh!” point for you! 

-Nowhere in the Bible does it say that ONLY one gender can be used by God to fulfill his mission of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. Think of just a few chapters later in Genesis 18 when the Lord tells Abraham and Sarah that they would have a kid in their old age. Sarah isn’t treated as lesser than or ignored, but God addresses her directly in confirming that they’d have a kid.

-Or think of Miriam, the sister of Moses in Ex. 15 after Pharoah and his army have been rushed by the Red Sea:

-Or one of the most often mentioned people is Deborah in Judges 4. 

-This is one of the most cited examples by Egalitarians for their position that every position should be available to men and women. 

-Question in seminary: “Deborah was a prophet, judge and leader in Israel. Does this affect your view of women in ministry today?” I didn’t score very highly on my answer, and the prof who generally didn’t interact with our posts sent me a lengthy reply about why I was wrong. So as complimentarians, what do we do with this idea that Deborah was a leader? It’s a GREAT reminder that we NEED to be encouraging women to use their gifts for the sake of the body! 

-Imperative to distinguish between that which is DEscriptive and that which is PREscriptive. 

-There’s a lot of things that are descriptive in the Bible that we shouldn’t emulate. Abraham had multiple wives. Moses had a temper and killed an Egpytian. Notice that after those stories it DOESN’T say “go and do likewise.” Or even closer to the story of Deborah – Samson, who was a hot mess! His life reads like a season of The Bachelor. Again, doesn’t say “go and be like Samson”

-One thing the text does NOT say: Deborah was a priest. Those who served as Priests in the OT HAD to be men. There is no instance of a women “priestess” in the Bible. So we already see that there is some distinction between the roles of men & women in the OT. But does that change under the New Covenant, as some have argued? 

-John 4 the woman at the well. Verse 27 Think of this woman’s testimony! And she willingly runs and shares it!

-Jesus thought both men and women were crucial for faithful ministry.

-Think of Mary and Martha and Lazarus in John 11:5, Again, we see that Jesus ministered to both men and women, and both men and women were used by God. 

-We also read that women traveled with Jesus and the 12 and supported Jesus during His ministry (Luke 8)

-BUT there’s again a distinction. 

-How many of the 12 that Jesus called were women? 0 

-Some have argued that Jesus didn’t want to upset the social norms, but do you really think Jesus had any issues upsetting the social norms that weren’t applicable to them? He seemed to push back to any and every issue that needed! Sabbath, tithing, lusting, giving, the law, relationships with Gentiles…to name just a few. So all that to say, that again there seems to be a distinction between the roles of men and women, even in how Jesus ministered to people.  

-Also important, is that spiritual gifts are not gendered.

Romans 12:3-8. Prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, mercy. None of these say only for women OR men.

-At the end of Romans, Paul beings by thanking Phoebe, a woman, and in the list of names are both men AND women who are using their gifts for the sake of the church. 

-1 Corinthians 12:4-13.

Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. 

-Again, doesn’t say only for women OR men. Open to everyone, regardless of the gender.

-We’ve seen God doesn’t care about which gender you are in order to use you, and that God equips everyone regardless of their gender for the sake of the church. But, that doesn’t mean that any role in the church is open to anyone. 

-One of the greatest disservices in the church is encouraging people in areas of weakness for the sake of being “nice.” Front row seat to this with music, but you’ve all seen it on American Idol! I had a friend who only watched the first 2 episodes every season. 

  1. Everyone Isn’t Called to Every Role (Eph. 4, 1 Cor. 11 & 14, 1 Tim. 2)

-Before we dig into this, one note for us to keep in mind. God’s Word is sufficient, and I would argue a lot more clear on how the church is supposed to be ordered than many people want to admit. One of the things we need to realize is the church isn’t like any other earthly institution, it’s actually completely alien to the world! The church is supposed to be an outpost of heaven, therefore we need to order ourselves differently from the world and follow the Bible where it commands us, but no further, that’s where we start to get into trouble and start demanding people follow man-made rules.

–Eph. 4 Notice how the body builds itself up: “proper working of each individual part.”

-Don’t belittle or diminish your role and gift in the church! I think this is part of where confusion about gender roles come from, in God’s alien kingdom, one gift isn’t better than the other. Many of those gifts that aren’t seen are the most important. There are people that come here on a regular basis just to clean and organize this room! Yes, some gifts are more visible than others, but don’t belittle your gift at the expense of wishing you had a different gift. (1 Cor. 12:27-31 addresses this issue)

-There are a couple key passages that we need to deal with to understand this issue, and as I said, we’re going to go wading through some weeds here. 

-1 Corinthians 14:32-35. (1020)

At first glance, this seems to be quite restrictive, doesn’t it? So how do we faithfully exegete these verses, and then apply them to today? 

Remember: spiritual gifts are not gendered, so now turn back a page to 1 Corinthians 11. 

1 Corinthians 11-14 are all a part of the same section dealing with the question: what should we do when we gather as the church? What does it look like? 

-1 Cor. 11:2-16. (1017-1018)

-Notice especially verse 5. So this is in the gathering where women are praying and prophesying. 

-So how do we reconcile these 1 Cor. 11 with 1 Cor. 14? 

-Some have argued that Paul’s prohibition here is exclusively cultural, and not applicable to today. They compare it to a passage like: 1 Corinthians 16:20. “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” One commentator said, “Greet each other with a hearty handshake!” 

-3 words: context, context, context. 

-This whole section is a reminder that what we do when we gather is supposed to build each other up. Even the spiritual gifts that we are given are supposed to be used to build each other up and help us in our walk with the Lord. 

-Let’s read 1 Cor. 14:26-35. Orderly Worship.

-We’ve got this leadership that oversees and judges the prophecies that are being made. This is a position of authority in the church, thus it impacts who can serve in this role. Paul’s prohibition here doesn’t mean that women aren’t supposed to do anything but attend on Sunday morning, instead he’s saying that in the judgment of prophecies, women are not to oversee. We don’t have time to get into the nuances of what constitutes a prophecy today, that’s a discussion for a different time, but we do see that women are encouraged to pray and prophecy in church, but not sit in judgment about the validity of the prophecies. There’s a big distinction between the 2! 

1 Timothy 2:8-15 (991)

-Specifically verse 12, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” 

-Once again, people have argued that this was contextual, and thus does not carry weight for us today. Letter was written to Timothy who was at Ephesus, primary god was Artemis who was a woman, thus many women in Ephesus were what we would call feminists. (false argument, Artemis also had male priests) But Paul doesn’t ground his reason for this in the Artemis worship – it’s grounded in pre-fall creation, signifying that as long as man is created first, and then Eve created second, this prohibition remains in effect. Meaning, it’s still in effect today, and will continue to be until Christ returns. 

-There is an element that is counter-cultural here, look at verse 11: “Let a woman learn” Women had no place to be taught and learn apart from the home.

-Now, we have to ask the question here: what kind of teaching? Because once again this cannot be an absolute prohibition because we’ve got other passages like:

Titus 2:3-4

2 Timothy 1:5

Acts 18:26

Colossians 3:16

-We see other places in the Bible, even in Paul’s writings, women are encouraged to teach! 

-Then what kind of teaching is Paul talking about restricting in 1 Tim.? Remember that we saw in the spiritual gifts passage that some people are given the gift of teaching. But not everyone is given that gift! So not everyone is called to teach. So just because you’re a man doesn’t mean you should be teaching in the church if that’s not your gift.

-James 3:1

-Doug Moo, “While the word [teaching] can be used more broadly to describe the generally ministry of edification that takes place in various ways, the activity usually designated by teach is plainly restricted to certain individuals who have the gift of teaching. This makes it clear that not all Christians are engaged in teaching. In the pastoral epistles, teaching always has this restricted sense of authoritative doctrinal instruction.” 

-Thus 2 Timothy gives us 2 restrictions: women are not to teach Christian doctrine to men, and they are not to exercise authority over men in the church. 

-That being said, when does a boy become a man? Where do we draw the line where we should be encouraging women to teach and serve in various areas, and not others? What constitutes Christian doctrine? What does it mean to “exercise authority over”? Great questions! I don’t have time to answer them today! I’m just trying to give an overview of this! 

-Part of the difficulty is this position and idea has been used throughout history to marginalize women, which goes contrary to what the Bible commands! I think part of it is because many people are scared to disobey the Bible (good concern!) but that leads them to forgetting to encourage and foster women to serve in the church. (except for in women’s ministry and the nursery…)

-So what does that mean for us? Here at South Suburban, you’ll see women helping us worship God through singing, encouraging us through praying, reading Scripture to us, sharing their testimonies of God how is working in their lives to encourage us, in fact our staff is primarily comprised of women using their gifts, BUT you won’t see a women preaching. Again I don’t have time for this, but part of it gets to the role of preaching in the church being one of authority and speaking on behalf of God to his people (not something to take lightly!)

But this is also why I don’t want to end with the prohibition passages! Because:

  1. Everyone Is Called to Serve Within Their Gifts (1 Cor. 12)

-Everyone here has been uniquely gifted by God for the sake of building each other up. Within the spiritual realm there is a unique sense of equality between all the gifts where we all need each other to function in a healthy manner. 

1 Cor. 12:21

-Similarly, men cannot say to women “I have no need of you,” or women to men “I have no need of you.” Instead, we all need each other to build each other up and encourage each other to become more like Christ.

-Friends, this means none of you are off the hook from using your gifts to serve Christ’s body here! It requires all of us to give of ourselves, it requires us to be obedient to what God has commanded, even the sticky and difficult parts, but, it’s also completely worth it. God’s ways are best, and it’s only be faithfully following in His ways that we’ll find life to the full.

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by mikethestrand on January 19, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Church, Relationships, Sermon, Theology
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Posted by mikethestrand on January 19, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/01/19/gender-roles-in-the-church-sermon-manuscript/

The Practices of the Church – Sermon Manuscrip

-Family habits/practices

-Christmas was a BIG deal in my family growing up! We’d have a whole services before we were allowed to open presents. This was in addition to whatever church services we were also a part of. In my younger years, I latched on to this and planned out the whole thing (mostly so I’d know exactly how much time was left before I could open presents). 

-Got together with my cousins this year, we pulled out the same lyric sheet we’ve used since before I was born.

-Summer time at the cabin, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, every family has celebrations that mark the changing of seasons, but in the family of God, what are those things? How do we mark time according to God’s plan?

READ/PRAY

-Last week we looked at the reality that God has always had a people he’s called out from the world to be His representatives to the rest of the world (Jesus says we’re supposed to be salt and light: preserving and shining into the darkness)

-3 markers that must be in place to be considered a church: preaching the gospel, regular celebration of the sacraments (or ordinances, we’ll get to that), and church discipline. 

-Preaching of the gospel is commitment to the Word of God, church discipline is something I’ve talked about before (Matt. 18 gives clear instructions), but what are the sacraments of the church? And how many are there? Because if any of you have any Roman Catholic friends, they would tell you there are 7 sacraments (the word matters greatly, but hold on to it): 

-When Protestants came along, and with it a renewed focus on God’s Word alone, the question became how many did Jesus give us? 2 (very small minority say 3, based on John 13:14 “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” Most Protestants have argued that’s a call to service, not an ordinance)

  1. What is an ordinance? 

-What term should we use? Historically, it’s been either a sacrament or an ordinance, and I use them interchangeable, although generally Protestants have preferred ordinance to sacrament to distinguish our beliefs from RCC.

-Sacrament refers to a mystery, the mysterious way grace is given from God to his people. Ordinance refers to “ordained” and attempts to bring the focus on the things Jesus ordained for His followers to do. 

-The other piece to note is what makes these sacraments effective? Is it merely taking a shot of grape juice and tiny cracker getting grace? RCC would say yes, we would say no: it’s connected to the Word & faith

-What does the EFCA say? Here’s statement 7 of our SOF, notice the later half of this statement: 2 ordinances, express the gospel (connection to God’s Word), requirement of faith, and they both “confirm and nourish” that is they do something. 

-There are spiritual realities/implications to literally everything we do, that was one of my biggest takeaways from the series in Revelation last year, we’re either actively living out the realities of heaven, or we’re actively living out the realities of hell.

-And we see this playing out in real time around us right now! Rise in people who say they’re “spiritual but not religious” or I was just reading this past week about people who believe in miracles has gone up for the first time in America in years! That’s where Paul will say “whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God,” we’re supposed to do everything as a way of living as citizens of heaven, not citizens of earth. 

-This should excite you! It excites me! Because it means everything we do has a deeper meaning and significance than any of us realize. We have the opportunity to live holy, set apart lives which has bearing on our eternal existence. That’s why what we do on earth matters! Friends, the way you spend your time, the way you spend your money, the way you spend your words all are loaded with eternal significance. 

-Which is also true of the sacraments or ordinances. Seemingly normal, insignificant things that are loaded with massive spiritual implications and meaning. Things that God has chosen to bind His people to each other and to Himself! Practices that Jesus began and connect us all the way back to Him, practices that tie us to all of the church throughout all of history.

  • Baptism 

-First is baptism, because it’s meant to be one of the first steps of obedience for a Christian. If you read through the NT you see faith connected to baptism repeatedly, and it all starts with Jesus in the great commission at the end of Matthew.

-What’s the sign that someone is a disciple? Baptism! Notice that it gives us 1 instruction too: in the name of the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)

-Initially, baptism was immediate. As soon as someone was saved, they looked for water to dunk them in. As time went on, they started realizing that some people were claiming conversion for cultural influence, so they added a season of catechesis, education and training in Christianity to ensure that those who wanted to be baptized were truly saved and walking with the Lord.

-However, because of this intimate link between salvation and baptism, one of the debates was whether or not someone who wasn’t baptized was actually saved! One debate was imagine that someone confesses that Jesus is Lord, and on the way to the waters of baptism, they fall and break their neck and die, will they be with Jesus? Yes – salvation comes by faith alone in Christ alone apart from anything else, BUT that doesn’t mean that baptism is an optional tag on for a Christian. 

-Gregg Allison quote. To be a Christian means working to obey and follow all of Jesus’ commands, one of which is baptism, and just to be frank, it’s probably the easiest of all of Jesus’ commands! How many of you have perfected “turning the other cheek.” Or perfectly “love your neighbor just as you love yourself”? 

-Just as I shared last week that church membership isn’t essential to be saved, I’ll say the same thing about baptism, it’s not essential to be saved, but it is essential to be obedient to all of Jesus’s commands (which Jesus also says in the great commission)

-What should baptism look like, and who should be baptized? EFCA is an anomaly here, because historically this has been a divisive issue in the church, and it breaks down between credobaptism or pedobaptism (creedal vs. infant), should we baptize babies or is it for believer’s only?

-EFCA statement

-That being said, I am convictionally a credobaptist and wouldn’t be comfortable baptizing an infant for a few reasons. First is the word “baptize” means “to immerse,” which is also what we see with Jesus. He was laid all the way under the water, then brought back up to a heavenly affirmation of His calling.

-Second is because of what we see throughout the rest of the NT in the connection between salvation and baptism. If it’s a picture of salvation, then it should take place after salvation. Think of what Peter says in Acts 2 after his incredible sermon where 3,000 people are saved, “Repent and be baptized.” That connection must remain together.

-The third reason is the picture baptism serves, which we see in Romans 6. Here Paul tells us that as we go down into the water, it’s like we were buried with Him, signifying that we have died to our old ways of living. The early church even went so far as to have the person being baptized take off their clothes in the baptistry, and then put on new clothes after their baptism to signify that they have crucified their old selves and put on a new person following after Jesus. And that’s the significant part, is that you don’t stay under the water (even though my son told me the last time we had a baptism that he didn’t want to be baptized yet because he was scared I’d leave him under the water), we are raised with Jesus, which gets us to a final picture of being washed clean.

-So why does the EFCA allow infant baptism? Because VERY quickly the early church moved to adopt infant baptism as a sign of the children being a part of the household of God. And since true, orthodox Christians have differed on this issue, the EFCA allows both. I have dear friends that are pastors who were baptized as infants and I could allow them to be full members of South Suburban without changing their baptism position, which I think is a gift!

-The last reason I still hold to believer’s baptism is because of the baptism instructions we read in one of the oldest writings on church order called “The Didache” (Greek for “teaching”)

-We see the Trinity command, notice “living water” which means moving, natural water. So important that in excavations under St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva (4th cent), they’ve found this baptistry: notice the water coming in, and a pipe to let it out

-Then cold water, but warm is acceptable. If none of that is good, get a water bottle on the head! AND fasting leading up to it! Not something to take lightly!

-So who should be baptized? Any and everyone who has put their faith in Jesus!

-Summary: baptism is the first marker, signifying that you have been buried with Christ, had your sins washed away, and raised up to the newness of life. But there’s 1 additional piece to it, that we get as we trace the continual development of Christianity. Nicene Creed (happy 1700th birthday!) says: one baptism. 

-Meant to signify the entry into faith, thus it’s only supposed to happen once. How many times is a baby born? Once! Supposed to be the same thing with baptism. Unlike the next one, which is a regular and ongoing act meant to look back to our baptism.

  • The Lord’s Supper 

-The first thing I want you to note is the connection between baptism and the Lord’s Supper (we’ll get to the names). The earliest instruction to the church says that only those who have been baptized are to participate in the Lord’s Supper. Why is that? 

-Because the Lord’s Supper is meant to be done carefully and sequentially. Remember, as Protestants we believe that there are 2 ordinances, and they are meant to be done in order: baptism as the entry, the Lord’s Supper as the ongoing reminder of the baptism we have celebrated, but it doesn’t make sense to celebrate one if you’re unwilling to celebrate the other, so baptism should happen before you take the Lord’s Supper, as far as the passage quoted, I’m not sure that’s the best verse, but the ordering does make sense!

-So let’s think about this further. First, the name. What should we call it? Communion, the Lord’s Supper, the eucharist, the breaking of bread? Our SOF calls it “Lord’s Supper”, but the what does that mean, and what do all the other names mean?

-Communion refers to “sharing” or “participation,” we are sharing together a cup and bread, we are participating in what Jesus told His followers to celebrate

-Lord’s Supper refers to the language in the Gospels that say after supper Jesus instituted this new rite that His disciples continued practicing together

-Eucharist refers to thanksgiving, which is what we’re supposed to do as part of this celebration together

-Breaking of bread is picked up from Acts 2 where it describes the practices of the early church

-All of these refer to the same event: where Jesus on the night before he was betrayed took bread and wine, elements of the Passover celebration that he shifted in focus from the Exodus to Himself. 

-3 components: past, present, future. Past: tied to the Passover, the most significant even in Israel’s history. Celebrated annually to remember how God provided for His people in the midst of their slavery to Egypt. Each year, Israel was commanded to celebrate the night that God passed over their sins and brought death every firstborn son of Egypt. This was to point forward to the day when God would bring death on His own firstborn at the cross.

-Present: it’s a way of reminding of what God has done in our lives to save us and redeem us, and bring us together as 1 body and people.

-Future: Jesus also told us that He wouldn’t celebrate this again until He returns

-But what does it take for us to actually celebrate the Lord’s Supper? Can we use Oreos and Mountain Dew or do we need bread and wine? Let’s see what Paul says:

-The issue is divisions, which he says means what they’re celebrating “is not the Lord’s Supper.” (20) Which means one of the purpose of this celebration is unity.

-One of the purposes of communion is to demonstrate that we are united together in 1 body, even though all of us come from completely different backgrounds. Just think of what the church is supposed to signify: people from different background, countries, cultures, demographics, sexes, vocations all gathered around 1 thing: the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet how often are we divided over things that don’t matter in eternity? Money, politics, house, cars. Friends, none of that matter when we approach the cross. 

-But what’s the main thing about this celebration? Jesus “in remembrance of me” Do you remember Jesus as we partake of these otherwise ordinary things together?

-Spiritual things are taking place around us regularly, but we don’t have the eyes to see them. And somethings (Lord’s Supper) are meant to be spiritual realities of the gospel and do we realize that? Even in partaking in this celebration or thanksgiving, we’re proclaiming the realities of the gospel!

-But Paul goes on to explain what else we need to consider when we celebrate this:

-Unworthy manner. Growing up I always thought this was general sin, but Paul gives more instructions:

-Examine, recognize the body. Yes, sin is a part of it, but particularly Paul is talking about sin that leads to division in our body. Each time we celebrate communion we’re supposed to think about how this unites us together as a body and continue working to preserve the unity among our body. This isn’t just a “me and God” thing, this is supposed to be a “we and God” thing. 

-This gets to something I said last week: that church discipline is a subset of the ordinances, because the practice of excommunication is meant to be disinviting someone from participating in the means of grace God has given, including the Lord’s Supper. Historically, some pastors would interview the entire membership of the church before the Lord’s Supper and give tokens to those who could come, more could be said but I need to keep moving: 

-Sick and ill: something more than just a spiritual thing, it has physical implications too. Yes, this nourishes us bodily, but in the same way it nourishes us spiritually, it gives grace to us.

-Real celebration: 

-Welcome one another

-Gather together

-I don’t know about you, but if there was something God had given to us that we would allow be to receive God’s grace on a regular basis, I’d want to celebrate that as much as I could, wouldn’t you?

-Been thinking the past year about “Holidays” (Holy-days) and the way we think of time because of my trip to Geneva this summer. In Geneva, the church bells told people what time it was. Who tells us what time it is today? Apple? Google? Target? Amazon?

-What habits or practices help to shape and form us into followers of Jesus? What clocks do we keep to help us in following after Him? What if we started to arrange our schedules and practices around God’s plans instead of our own? Think of the way the early church changed their worship practices: Saturday to Sunday. If you’ve ever been a part of a church that changed service times you know how big of a deal that is! (Cheyenne moving 30 min back) 

-If the Lord’s Supper is supposed to be a marker of God’s people, wouldn’t you want to celebrate that more than 1/month? Moving forward, we’re going to be celebrating 2/month, and we’re going to change some of the ways we practice it, because historically people would come forward and receive the elements (more in Sermon Scraps)

-One last piece to note about the sacraments is who recognizes and affirms baptism and the Lord’s Supper? It’s not meant to be an individual act that is meaningful to 1 person, it’s meant to be done by THE CHURCH. 

-You can’t baptize yourself, it’s done as a sacrament of the church. You can’t take the Lord’s Supper by yourself, it’s meant to be a practice (marker) of the church, which means it can’t be done by yourself

-COVID conversation about celebrating communion alone with your family

-2 sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s supper as markers of His people. Have you participated in them both, and if not what are you waiting for?

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by mikethestrand on January 12, 2025  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on January 12, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/01/12/the-practices-of-the-church-sermon-manuscrip/

The Called Out Ones – Sermon Manuscript

-Starting a new series for January that’s a continuation of what we’ve done the past couple years, “Theological Tune Up” but the tune up is only going to be connected to 1 thing: the church. 

-The 1 thing I’m most passionate about is the church. The church is what Jesus died for, the church is what Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against, and the church is what is going to last into eternity.

-The church isn’t viewed with a lot of trust today! Most people like to complain about the church, point out the problems in the church, run away from the church, but if God has promised that He will build His church, then if we claim to follow God that includes following Him in working to build His church.

-For today’s sermon, the most helpful book, and what I’m borrowing heavily from is The Local Churchby Edward Klink (EFCA Pastor in Roscoe, IL)

-We’re going to be looking at some important things about the church over the next few week: next week we’ll look at the practices of the church (baptism and communion), we’ll also look at how the church functions with men and women working together (complementarianism), and finally we’ll look at the implication of that in the offices God has called for the church to function (elders and deacons)

-It’s been interesting over my life seeing the engagement of people toward the church shift in some pretty dramatic ways.

-Growing up it was fairly trendy to engage in church. Even if you weren’t super involved, people still wanted some associating to the church (90s) but that’s looking back with slightly rose-colored glasses, because I was told that we were facing increasing hostility and persecution from the world (hence my parents homeschooling me to provide a safe environment for me). I even have a distinct memory of my mom telling me in early Middle School that it would break her heart, but even if someone were to take me away from her she wouldn’t be able to deny Jesus. You want trauma, let me tell you about it! 

-Starting in the late 90s into early 2000s came what became known as the “emergent church” movement. One of the leading churches was in Minneapolis called “Solomon’s Porch” (to the surprise of no one, it no longer exists). They started asking questions about the way church was run, so at Solomon’s Porch they sat on couches and had conversations, not sermons. I got to attend another emergent church called Mars Hill in Grand Rapids, where instead of having a platform on one side, they had a platform in the middle of the room. Asked TONS of questions of Christianity, but never seemed to resolve any of them, so pretty soon they tore down even the essentials of the faith (which is why many of them now are self-proclaimed speakers, writers, and activists)

-After that was what was called the “missional church” movement, where it was thought that the problem was the buildings and institutions, so we need to focus our energy outside the walls and become “missional” in everything we do. After all, God is a sending God (sent His Son, sends the Spirit, sends us as his missionaries). But if that’s true, then where and why do we ever meet? And why does Paul talk about the churches meeting in specific locations in His letters?

-And all this was before every church went livestream during COVID (remember those days??) and I think that even further revealed the ways we think about the church are so broken. I talked to some people who enjoyed being able to “attend” different churches each week because everyone was online!

-Also add in the rise of the EX-vangelical, the deconstructing of faith (including famous people like Joshua Harris who write I Kissed Dating Goodbye), the general distrust of institutions, and the church looks to be on either the losing side, or the wrong side of history. I even know of someone who used to be a pastor at an EFCA church nearby that is now working on trying to create “micro-churches” which are basically Life Groups that are all independent.

-So why on earth would someone devote their life to working in the church? What’s the point of fighting against these cultural tides and what should the church actually look like? Is the micro church more accurate than us gathering in a large room each week? 

-The reality is there are benefits to every component that I’ve mentioned, but they take either an implication or a periphery of what the church is called to be and make it the primary identity marker, which means everything is going to be off because of that.

-If you ever mow your lawn and pick the wrong spot in the distance to aim at, doesn’t your entire mowing line get thrown off? My back yard is a weird shape so I make it work, but it still bothers me! 

-We need to understand what God has called to the church to do and be PRIMARILY so that we can distinguish between the essential, the good or helpful, and the things that we really shouldn’t be spending our time on. 

READ/PRAY

-Let’s begin with what is essential: Belgic Confession of Faith (1561): 3 markers according to this. 

-EFCA:                

-Here we see some additional pieces, such as “all who have been justified” that is the members of the church must be believers. We also see the interplay between the invisible church and the invisible church. See every believer is immediately brought into the invisible church, but that also means they must look to live out that spiritual reality in the physical reality of a local church. 

-This is why I’ve talked so much and so regularly here about church membership since I first came! Whether you want to admit it or not, membership is the expectation for a Christian, it’s not salvific (just like baptism isn’t salvific), but it’s essential to your sanctification (growth in holiness). I’ve preached on this before, and we’ve got a membership class coming up on Feb. 9, so if you want to hear the whole reason I think membership is important come to that class! But to summarize, I’ll quote from the book I mentioned earlier: 

-Gospel, ordinances (sacraments), church discipline (which is a subset of the sacraments, and requires church leadership, we’ll get to that next week)

-These are the things that MUST be in place for a church to be called a church, if you don’t have 1 of those 3, by definition you don’t have a church. What’s fascinating to me is how often 1 of 2 of these get thrown out for convenience.

  1. Called Out By God

-When we talk about the church, we’re referring to the Greek word “ekklesia” which is a compound word made up of “from” and “to call” so literally the church is to be “called out from” or the “called out ones.” Generally in English we translate it as an “assembly,” “gathering,” or “church.”  

-But the key I want you to remember from this is that the church is meant to be those who are called out, and not just called out, but called out by God Himself. This is what the EFCA SOF is getting at when it says “The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers.” 

-The difficulty is that there are people who come to church each week who aren’t believers, and each church is going to have strengths and weaknesses, just like individual Christians have strengths and weaknesses. 

-One of the most helpful things the elders have used on a regular basis in the midst of our conversations about the way we structure our church is this graph. On this side of eternity, there will be no perfect church ever! Even when people who are Christians spend time together, there’s going to be conflict and issues because sin impacts all of us. But that doesn’t mean we run away from the church, it generally means we need to double down on our commitment, confess were we’ve sinned against others, forgive as Jesus forgave us, and work through the issues TOGETHER. This is how we move to a more pure church, TOGETHER. You literally can’t have a church by yourself! And at the same time, at some point the lack of purity in a church means they move from being a church to not being a church. However, the bar there is fairly basic, remember 3 things: gospel is being preached, sacraments or ordinances are being practiced, and church discipline is taking place (often we don’t know when it’s happening, Matt. 18)

-Back to the called out idea, God has always had a group of people that He has called out to be His faithful representatives to the world. Starting with Adam and Eve, then calling out Noah, then calling out Abraham from among the nations, then calling out the nation of Israel, then calling out His Son, and then now He calls out people to move from the world into being a part of His Kingdom, which is represented by the church, as we heard when we read through 1 Peter (we’re getting close to getting there!) But first, a brief overview of God’s calling out throughout Scripture.

-First, God calls out to creation in calling it, he separates the skies, the waters, the lands. Then He calls out to a person (Adam) and commissions Him to join with God in caring for the creation and expanding God’s rule over the rest of creation. But then Adam wants to BE God instead of obeying God, and He chooses sin instead of obedience, and then we read this fascinating account of God’s response.

-Even in sin, God’s response is to continue moving toward His people.

-Then God calls out a specific person, and tells Abram His plans.

-And the book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham did this by faith, and in Galatians Paul tells us that this promise is fulfilled in the church.

-History moves forward, and Abraham’s descendants are sold into slavery in Egypt, but then God decides to save them through Moses, and God calls out to him from a burning bush while he’s working as a shepherd for his FIL.

-Last picture I want you to see of this is when God speaks to Isaiah to remind His people who has created them. 

-Friends, this is vital for us to understand. God is the one who calls and creates a people. It’s not something we do in our own power or strength, it’s only done by God’s sovereign hand. This is also true of the church! No person can create a church in their own power, it’s only done by God’s sovereign hand. So when we talk about the church, we ALWAYS need to remember that we are talking about God’s church. We’re just stewards, tasked with caring for a church in this time and place, but God is the only one who can claim ownership of every church. That’s why it’s so important for us to focus on the church!

  • By God We Are…

-With that, we can now come to Peter, where we see that the church has been called out from darkness into marvelous light. Look at all the descriptions: chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people for his possession, proclaim the praises, God’s people.

-4 things, seen in your outline, but before we see what we are, what does this mean the church is NOT:

-Church is not: 

-a social club. Not gathering to socialize around any human activity. Socializing is a component and will happen naturally, but that’s not the definition of a church. 

-a community organizing group. Not meant to create community, community is the byproduct of being brought into the family of God, but it is not a church

-merely a building. As we’ll see in a minute, the church needs a building, some kind of place to meet, and it helps to have 1 spot where we can gather, but the church can gather even without a building

-a voluntary society. This is why we need to remember that God is the one who creates the church. If we’re a Christian, we commit to the church.

-a political action committee. As Chuck Colson used to say “Salvation doesn’t come on Air Force One.” Jesus rules above any political conversations that take place in our world. Earthly kingdoms rise and fall, but Christ sits forever on His throne ruling through His church.

-a metaphor. We tend to talk more about the invisible church and give secondary importance to the visible church of which we’re participating now. Church isn’t just a reference to a theoretical idea, it’s referring to a real thing.

-coffee with friends. That’s an outworking of it (especially when it’s good coffee), but that’s not a replacement for the actual weekly gathering of God’s people.

-A human endeavor. Only done by and for God.

-Look at how the NT describes the church.

  1. Present – a chosen race 

-A component to being a part of a specific lineage or family is location. Think of how much time people spent on their ancestry (I’m 100% Norwegian, thank you very much). This idea that we are a chosen race means that we’re supposed to be God’s ministering presence in the world.

-Think of it like a country and an individual. Anyone who owns a home has a spot to call their own within the boundaries of a country. Similarly, each local church is a part of the universal church (visible vs. invisible), but God places each church in a location for a purpose! To shine as His marvelous light into the darkness.

-This means the south metro should know that we’re here! If we’re commissioned by God to shine as a light, we must bring that light into the world with us. We need to look for ways to be present and engaged in the area God has placed us. This is where we need to acknowledge the reality that the church is an institution AND an organism. NT wording lean toward organism (body, flock), but the rest of the NT writings lean toward institution (a way of conducting ourselves)

-Believing the truth of the Gospels will lead to organizing yourself by the way the Epistles describe.

  • Priests

-Priests work as a go between so humans can meet with God. 3 components to this: corporately, individually, restricted.

-Corporately: we are to be a blessing to the world. We work to bring good into every sphere of human endeavor in which we participate. If we believe God is God then nothing is outside His oversight. Work, play, eating, resting are all to be brought underneath His Lordship. 1 Cor. 5 describes us as ambassadors, God is working to reconcile the world to Himself through the church:

-Individually: each of us is responsible to do that in our lives. All of us are meant to know God’s Word and be changed by knowing and applying God’s Word.

-Restricted: some people are set apart, recognized by God and the church as leaders, we call these pastors/elders. Not better, just called to a higher level of service. I have the freedom to read and study with the hours that many of you spend working to provide for your families or take care of your home. It’s not better, it’s a different calling, we’ll get to that in a few weeks!

  • Pilgrims

-Not Thanksgiving pilgrims, “a holy nation” a people who aren’t at home here. The early church was actually described as living as foreigners, only making use of their earthly citizenship when it served to help them spread the gospel. We need to be careful to regularly remember that this world isn’t our home. We’re not primarily Americans, we’re primarily Christians, our heavenly home will never disappear! 

-Church is supposed to be a picture of that! An embassy in a foreign land where we’re reminded what our home looks like!

  • Proclaimers

-“So that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you.”

-Our response matters in light of who God is. We proclaim the truths of the Bible in order for us to be reminded each and every week who we are, why we’re here, and what our aim in life is. On top of that, the Word of God compels us to proclaim to the world those exact same realities: Jesus is the King, and only by obeying Him and entering into His church can the world make sense.

-The church matters, and should matter to us because it matters to God. And God also has told us how the church should function and operate, and it comes down to us living in the reality of God calling us out of darkness and into His marvelous light, where we’re now a part of a body, a temple, a new people who are under God.

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

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/01/05/the-called-out-ones-sermon-manuscript/

End Time Ethics – Sermon Manuscript

-Spend some time giving thanks together for the ways God has worked among us over the past year, but before we look back, I want to take a minute and help us look forward into the next year. 

-Saw an Apple commercial this past week that was talking about the need to get an Apple Watch to motivate you through “quitting Friday” (the 2nd Friday of January)

-As we look forward to another year, what things has God been impressing on you to focus on in your spiritual life? How are you going to take 1 step closer to Him over 2025? It can be easy to assume your spiritual life because it’s less tangible. With physical health you can tell – you can lift more, you can run further, but how do you measure growth in love toward others? How do you measure being more holy?

READ/PRAY

-Begins “The end of all things is near” we’ve spent the last year studying Revelation together, and this is another reminder that we’re living in the last days, and have been living in the last days since Jesus ascended to heaven. But what do we do with that reality? Peter tells us 4 things we should do because we’re living in the last days:

1. Pray 

-How do we pray? The opposite of “The Gentiles” in the previous verses – self controlled and sober minded.

Juan Sanchez 1 Peter For You “We are not to lose our heads; we’re to think clearly. We’re not to set dates; we’re to be ready. We’re not to withdraw from society; we’re to proclaim God’s excellencies. We’re not to panic.” (148)

That is: to pray more effectively

-How are you planning to grow in your prayer life over the coming year?

-Asked at seminary: how’s your prayer life? I’ve always felt like I’m “supposed” to say “it could be better” here’s the thing: God takes the little and makes it that much better. Think of the 5 loaves and 2 fish. A little lunchable. So don’t give up! Keep praying with all you’ve got! As much or as little as you can, God loves when you engage with Him! There’s always room to improve, but don’t give us just because you’re not where you want to be. Start where you’re at and take 1 more step.

2. Love.

Alluding to Prov. 10:12 “hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.”

In a sense, it’s true that love covers EVERY sin! 1 John 4:8 “God is love” John 3:16 “For God so LOVED the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” It’s because of God’s love that sin our sin is payed for! And it’s only through God’s love that we can be forgiven.

“Above all”…this is the root of everything we as Christians are called to do

-We are commanded to love each other. Period. No ifs ands or buts. 

-These verses are very similar to 1 Cor. 12-14 where we’re reminded that love is the supreme virtue. You can be as gifted/talented/charismatic that you want, but if you don’t love you’re as helpful as a clashing cymbal. 

-We’re actually commanded to love each other in the same way that Jesus loved us. 

-Poster of the “one another’s” Again, no one is perfect at this, but what can you do to take 1 step closer to loving like Jesus loves over the coming year?

3. Be hospitable

-An article I shared before titled ‘Why Hospitality Beats Entertaining’ has been quoted back to me numerous times by people in the church (you should go read it) but the point is that this doesn’t mean our houses need to be perfectly cleaned to be hospitable.

-In the 1st century this would have involved a lot more intrusion into their lives because they didn’t have hotels, so as Christians traveled this was a command for people to open their homes to each other. 

-Friends, hospitality is supposed to be the norm for Christians. Whether your good at cooking or not, whether your house is perfectly clean or not, look for ways to invite people in, because the point is to be involved in each other’s lives. We’re supposed to love each other like family, and engage each other like family. 

-“Without complaining” Individualism leads to complaining. Individualism leads to NOT being hospitable. Individualism is a sin that needs to be repented of. Think of Mary and Martha. What was Martha’s response? 

4. Use Your Gifts

All spiritual gifts are a form of service. Remember, these are done IN LOVE

The point of your gifts isn’t to build yourself up, it’s so “serve one another.” 

My wife has a gift of discernment without being condemning. I don’t know how she does it! 

“as good stewards of the varied grace of God.”

James 1:17 “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”

You, ALL of you, have been given a gift by God to serve others. How are you doing at stewarding that gift? Maybe you have the gift of encouragement. Maybe you have the gift of setting up tables. Maybe you have the gift of hospitality. Maybe you have the gift of teaching.

Peter specifically mentions 2 gifts: speaking and serving.

“If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words” the message, the words of God. Everything we do is supposed to point people back to God. We’re called the aroma of Christ. I LOVE that imagery

C.S. Lewis “You have never encountered a mere mortal. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.”

Every conversation you have either points people to or away from God.

“if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides.”

We’re all commanded to serve in some way! But remember it’s serving from a never ending well that God supplies. 

Proverbs 21:31, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”

Galatians 6:9-10 “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” 

“so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”

Benediction (in many letters)

Everything we do is meant to be an act of worship. Our entire lives. 

“through Jesus Christ” Jesus as our only worship leader

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by mikethestrand on December 29, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on December 29, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/12/29/end-time-ethics-sermon-manuscript/

Jesus Did You Know? John 1 – Sermon Manuscript

-End of our series, looked at Mary, Joseph, Herod, and we’re going to end this week looking at Jesus. 

-Not a lot about Jesus’ life to be able to accurately or fully answer this question, the Bible tells us a bit about his birth, we have 1 account of him as a 12 year old in the temple (Luke 2), but then all the accounts jump straight to Him as a 30 year old adult, so we’re somewhat in the realm of speculation when we try to answer this question.

-But I do think it’s important for us to talk about Jesus! If you haven’t figured it out yet, He’s going to come up every week here! He’s literally at the center of all of creation, He’s literally at the center of history, and He’s literally the center, the focal point of all of Scripture. One of the commentators I was reading this week was saying that the fulfillment of the OT isn’t the NT, it’s Jesus. The OT points forward to Jesus, and the NT looks back to Him.

-What’s hard today is what do we do with Jesus? You may have heard this quote attributed to Gandhi:

-On the one hand, this is disappointing because the name “Christian” is meant to signify “Little Christ” aka little representatives of Him, but this is also at the crux of Christianity: we can’t completely be like Christ, which is why He had to become like us! 

-But the other component to this quote is that obviously Gandhi wasn’t a Christian, but he liked what Jesus taught. I have yet to meet or talk to anyone that doesn’t like Jesus, or the Jesus they have in their mind, because often people haven’t actually studied much about Him, they go on what other people say, and it’s amazing how much of their interpretations tend to be more of a reflection of themselves than Jesus Himself! So today I want to look at what Jesus’ plan was, what did He know, and why did He enter into His creation? Because the reality is we can’t separate Christmas from eternity!

READ/PRAY

  1. The Word (1-3)

-“In the beginning”

-I hope by now you’re starting to learn that in order to interpret the NT correctly, we need to know the OT. 1 story from beginning to end. Pointing back to Gen. 1, almost as if he knows the other Gospel accounts that start with Jesus, this one tells us the story of Jesus goes back even further than his birth. John is saying: you think the birth is amazing, let me tell you the true beginning!

-Friends, this is what I said earlier: the reality is that the Christmas story begins before the dawn of creation. Our kids often ask where they were at various events in our lives before they came and we tell them it was before they were born, and Cara has trained them to say “When I was just in God’s mind?” That’s exactly right! Before the earth was here, when it was just in God’s mind, Christmas, the arrival of Jesus, the one and only God-man was the plan. This tells us that even when we go back and read Genesis 1 we should read Jesus in that event, which is where John goes next:

-“was the Word.” What word? What is meant by the word “word”? A whole lot, it turns out, because once again that single word contains a host of OT allusions that we need to understand! 

-First, the immediate context: what did John mean when he used this word? 1st cent. context can be essentially distilled down to basically 2 things: inner thoughts of something: some have argued translating this word as “reason” where we get science, bio-logy (study of bios created things), psych-ology (study of the psych) the-ology (study of God). Second option is an external message or speech, like we use WORDS. 

-And then, as always, what is meant by this throughout Scripture? How does God use words? Since we’ve already been there, and John’s readers would already be thinking about creation, how does God create? Through words. God’s act of speaking has consequences and demands a response! Out of nothing comes something, it can’t help itself since God spoke it, is MUST happen. God speaks, it happens, there’s no waiting, no fighting of anyone else. Have you ever considered how violent other creation myths are? Think of the Big Bang, the beginning of EVERYTHING is an explosion! Other stories talk about various gods fighting and the wreckage of that fighting is the creation. Here it almost is like someone sitting in a La-Z-Boy playing armchair QB, but in this case the creation actually responds!

-Throughout the OT there’s also references to God revealing Himself through words (prophets), and delivering His people (think of the whole Egypt story where God tells Moses “Go TELL Pharoah MY WORDS”)

-But then the most significant place where we see God’s Words is when God reveals Himself to Moses. They’d been led out of Egypt, God had called Moses to the mountain to tell His words and commands to him (10 commandments written by God on stone), Moses comes down to the people partying and worshipping a golden calf, so he goes back up the mountain to meet with God and beg Him to not destroy the nation. During his conversation with God, Moses asks “Let me see your glory.” 

-Does that seem a bit weird to you? What does Moses want? He’s looking to see God fully instead of mediated or clouded (pillar of fire or cloud). Think of the way Jesus is described during the Transfiguration: whiter than the whitest bleach can cause, the disciples can hardly look at Him! And that’s small stuff compared to the full glory of God!

-But notice, how does God say his goodness or glory passes by Moses? By proclaiming His name. God is connected to His name, you can’t separate God from His name, so then when we think of John describing Jesus as the Word, you can hardly find a better word (pun intended) to describe the God! I like the way Carson summarizes this idea:

-All this biblical background with just 1 word! And we’re only on the 6th word of this whole section, and John goes on to identify this Word as being with God and being God. So not only is there all this wealth of allusions in this word, but John leaves no room for interpretation or misinterpretation about what he’s talking about, he’s clear that this is the 2nd person of the Godhead, God the Son, who was the agent of creation, which means everything only exists because of Him, apart from Jesus everything would go back to nothing. Yet many people don’t realize all that is contained in this word, which is why John goes on:

  • The Light (4-13)

-We’ve had the Word to describe Jesus, but says that in Him is LIGHT. Well that has different connotations than the Word!

-John here says that light and darkness can’t coexist, which is true! He is the true light that shines, that reveals where there is darkness.

-Darkness did not overcome: master, comprehend. Darkness can’t comprehend the light, it doesn’t have a way to understand it, the light seems like foolishness to it. So how can the darkness be made aware of the light? Need a witness.

-John: witness, used 3x! “He came as a witness to witness about the light. He came to witness about the light.” I love that word! What are you a witness to?

-Think of that quote from Gandhi that I shared earlier. Does your witness make much of Christ or do you get in the way? Look at the sun (don’t actually look at it) but how can you see anything in the world? Isn’t it because of the shining sun? The sun is so bright that it’s literally the way we see everything in the world, apart from its light we would live in darkness.

-But what about when something gets in between the sun and the earth? Something like the moon? We call that an eclipse, and it’s an eerie experience! We were living in CO when the eclipse came through in 2017 and it was odd to experience darkness during the day! But I think that’s a picture of what we can tend to do with the light of the gospel. How often do we get in the way and refuse to let God’s light shine out because we’re too scared, or because our lives aren’t actually marked by the light of the gospel? Or what about when we add things to the gospel message, things that God didn’t say we needed to do? Look down at vs. 12 – it’s very simple: believe in His name. Trust that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world who came to earth as a baby, but grew and completely and perfectly obeyed God, letting the light of God shine perfectly into the world.

-The Word (that gives light) was in the world, the world only exists because of this Word, but the world wanted to be their own god instead.

-A.W. Pink. (pastor in the early 20th century) This is what we see in Gandhi! He’s blind to the fact that the Messiah, the Savior who came to save the world from their sins has come to the world. Friends, are you blind, or do you see and acknowledge that Jesus is God?

-This is where we’re already seeing that it’s not enough to just like Jesus as a cool dude. Like if you’ve ever heard the icebreaker question: what 3 people would you have dinner with, dead or alive? Jesus is almost always on the list, right? The thing is we already have a whole bunch of stuff that Jesus said about Himself, and God thinks what we have is enough! 

-His own people: we saw that last week. Scribes, rulers knew the right answers, but didn’t follow through on the correct response.

-All those who were supposedly watching completely missed it. If you’ve ever seen a street “magician” (really illusionist) performing you’re aware of this. The whole goal of those people is to distract others from what they’re really doing, which is why it’s often called sleight of hand, they’re essentially forcing you to focus on one thing while they do something else.

-What’s ironic in the Christmas story is that’s not what God did. It’s not like it was a massive secret! He sent angels to shepherd, He sent wise-men to Herod, He sent an angel to Mary and Joseph.

-Children of God: comes only by belief, demands a response “To all who did receive Him.” What’s amazing about that is the only thing it takes is receiving Jesus! Think about the Christmas carol ‘O Little Town’ “Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.” Then you become children of God, that’s all it takes

-What is this birth thing John talks about? He’ll expand on it in chpt 3 (which we don’t have time to go to), but he contrasts it here with 3 things, that feels unnecessarily repetitive and redundant, don’t they? We get it John, it’s only “of God” but what do you think all these things John’s talking about mean? 

-Natural descent: this is referring to genealogy. In Jewish circles, genealogy was literally make or break for you! Either you were Jew or you were of the “ethnicities.” So if you were of the wrong blood-line, you weren’t a part of God’s people. But this thought continues today! The assumption that you’re a Christian because you’re American (less so today) or that you’re good because your parents took you to church. Friends, I hate to say it, but your bloodline has no bearing in the kingdom of God.

-Will of the flesh: this has to do with sincerity. Originally, this is a husband and wife coming together to produce a baby, there’s desire there for children, earnest to earn the gift of a baby. But friends, all the sincerity in the world can’t make you a child of God. You see this with people who assume they’re good because they went through the right motions: I went to church all growing up, I went to Awana all the way through, I did confirmation. Once again, John is telling us here that none of those things can save you, which gets to the third one:

-Will of man: effort. No matter how hard you try you won’t become a child of God. I listened to a podcast this week that was comparing Christianity to other world religions, all of which have some element of effort required to achieve salvation, but Christianity doesn’t have that, which is why so many people struggle with it and add works to salvation. 

-There’s only 1 way to become a child of God: But of God. God redeems you and adopts you as His child. That’s it! It’s only by believing in His name! But what did it take for it to be that simple? 

  • The Flesh (14-18)

-Back to the Word, but this is weird, he became flesh and tabernacled (moved into the neighborhood) How can the eternal Word step into time? 

-To understand this one, we need to understand both tabernacle and (tabernacling) God dwelling among His people. Throughout the OT, God’s manifest presence was confined to the tabernacle (then the temple), so that His people wouldn’t die. Just as light can’t coexist with darkness, God’s glory can’t coexist with sin. So when we read that the Word, who was with God and IS God, became flesh that would have made NO sense, much less tabernacling among us, if God is with us we’re done for! But John keeps going:

-And we SAW his glory! Remember what we saw with Moses back in Exodus, no one could see God’s glory and live, and here John says WE SAW HIS GLORY! Suddenly, the God who was completely separate, unobtainable, unapproachable is here, walking and talking with us. Do you see why Jews struggled to believe Him?

-Full of what? Grace and truth. We need BOTH! This is the amazing thing about the gospel – we get the truth that we are far worse than we ever dared imagine, but we also get the grace that we are far more loved than we could ever dare to hope. Christianity is the 1 religion that can deal with the complexity of the world, because Christianity is the 1 religion that is true.

-From Him, we have received grace upon grace, better translated as grace instead of grace, grace on top of grace, but it only comes through the truth, the truth that Jesus is God and came to take away the sins of the world, which includes you if you’ve believed in His name.

-Jesus is better even than Moses, which is another reason we should be thinking back to Ex. 33-34 when we read John 1

-Jesus reveals the unseeable God in seeable form. John’s epistle begins this way: beginning, heard, seen, observed, touched, then passed down, JOY

-One of my favorite Christmas songs begins with “Joy to the world the Lord is come.” Joy is possible, but it only comes about be believing in Jesus, who had planned from all eternity to come to earth as a baby boy. To live the perfect life that we could never live, and die the death that we all deserved to die to give us joy and the opportunity to hear Him, to see Him, and to some day touch Him. Joy that nothing can take away, joy that lasts even when you don’t get the Christmas gift you wanted. Joy that can and will last into eternity all because the Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood, which means we now can become children of God.

-And now, as we look forward to celebrating Christmas this week, we have the reminder that we are now the ones who are supposed to move into the neighborhood and shine as lights in the darkness. The Christmas story, the story of Jesus first coming culminates in a second coming where we’ll be with Him forever! And until that second coming, our job each Christmas is to continue overcoming the darkness, through joy.

-So church, by joyful, always.

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by mikethestrand on December 22, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on December 22, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/12/22/jesus-did-you-know-john-1-sermon-manuscript/

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