Word-up Wednesday

"Word-up Wednesday" is a new feature of this blog. Every Wednesday I will post some notes from my sermon preparation, and you can all add comments to give your feedback and insights. Maybe some of your thoughts will make it into my sermons! So, here we go for the first installment of Word-up Wednesday.

Sermon Date: 10-7-07

Passage: Mark 12:13-17

The working title of my sermon at this point is "The Branding of the Soul."

A theologian named Millard Erickson says this:

“What are the things that are God’s? Presumably, whatever bears the image of God. Jesus then was saying, ‘Give your money to Caesar; it has his image on it, and thus it belongs to him. But give yourselves to God. You bear his image, and you belong to him.’ Commitment, devotion, love, loyalty, service to God—all of these are proper response for those who bear the image of God.” (Erickson, M. Christian Theology. Baker; Grand Rapids. 1993 p 515)

Some thoughts and questions I am asking myself as I work out this sermon:

The “branding” of the soul (Play on words). What brand is your soul? Is it genuine or generic?

What brand am I?

What is our identity? Who am I? Jesus shares his identity with us.

What is your narrative? Who are you in the story? As the plot of your life develops, what is your identity?

Some passages that popped up:

2 Corinthians 3:18

1 Peter 2:9-12

Matthew 6:26
Psalm 139

“Every man becomes the image of the God he adores. He whose worship is directed to a dead thing becomes a dead thing.” –(Merton, T. No Man is an Island. Harcourt Brace: San Diego 1983 pg. 239)

So...these are some of the thoughts and notes I have jotted down, not all of them, but some. Now it's your turn. Read the passage, read my notes, and give me some feedback.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Blessings,

-Tim

Grow: worldview

Romans 12:1-2 is so familiar that its significance often gets overlooked. But when I was studying these verses to prepare for my message last Sunday, I was struck by how much depth there really is here.

The NIV says, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will."

The first thing we should note about this passage is that it begins with the word "therefore." Whenever we see "therefore" in the Bible, we should ask ourselves, "What is the 'therefore' there for?" It really doesn't make sense to start reading a passage that begins with "Therefore" and not back up to see what was said beforehand. It would be like if I came up to you and suddenly said, "Therefore, I need to go down to the store."

But, if we back up and read a few verses before Romans 12:1-2, then we see this amazing doxology that Paul writes describing how wonderful God is. Therefore (that is, because God is so wonderful) we should offer our bodies as living sacrifices.

Now there's another important word in this passage, and that is the word "through." This single word gets translated as "in view of" in the NIV. But if we wanted to be literal, we would say, "I urge you, brothers, through God's mercy." What I mean is, the only way we can come to God at all is through his mercy, that is, through his Son and the merciful sacrifice of the cross. So, first of all, we need to recognize that our ability to come to God and offer ourselves to him depends, not on our effort or ability, but on the mercy of God.

Also, this passage says that offering ourselves to God is our spiritual act of worship. Some translations might say that it is our reasonable or rational act of worship. The Greek word behind the English here is where we get our word "logical" from. So, offering ourselves to God is not only spiritual, it is also reasonable and rational. Why? Because Romans 11:33-36 declares how glorious God is. Therefore it is only reasonable, in light of God's greatness, that we offer ourselves to him.

As we do this, and we transform our lives through the renewal of our minds by reading Scripture and spending time in prayer, getting a Biblical worldview, we will then be able to discern what God's will is.

It was great to worship with you this weekend!

Have a blessed week, and God willing, I'll see you next week at the Gathering.

-Tim

Rain!

It rained on Sunday!

For some of you, that might not be a big deal, but if you were at the Gathering it was a pretty exciting moment! At least...it was for me anyway.

No sooner had I asked for you all to pray for rain (because I was whining about how hot it was) did it actually start raining!!! It was so heavy we could hear it through the roof! Then as quickly as it came, it was gone.

I bring this up because I really feel like this was a simple gift from God to me for that day. I had one of those days like we all seem to have on Sundays. I felt like I just couldn't keep up with time and there were too many things to do in a day. Plus, it was hot...and I was tired of being hot. I've been watching the clouds lately hoping for rain, but none seems to come where I live.

Then on Sunday God smiled in his heart and took joy in a simple gift given, a brief period of rain at the moment I asked you all to pray for it. It was a moment of fun at the hands of the playful heart of the Father, and it makes me think, how many simple little gifts does God give us each day, but our busy lives or distracted minds completely miss them?

Keep an eye out today. A smile from a stranger, a beautiful sunset, a call from a friend, can all be simple gifts from God given to you at the perfect time, right when you need it.

It was great to worship with you on Sunday!

God bless you and I'll see you next weekend.

In Him,
-Tim

Same Time, Same Place

The Gathering will be meeting at it's normal time and place this weekend...6 pm in the Family Life Center.

We look forward to seeing you all there!!!!

The Miracle of Community

On Sunday we looked at the story of Eutychus falling out of the window in Acts 20. I focused on the verse that says that the family went away comforted when Eutychus was raised from the dead. Why were they comforted? Because the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, was at work to raise Eutychus from the dead when he fell! And what is awesome is that it wasn't like Pentecost, where people's hair was catching fire (or whatever that looked like) and they were all speaking in tongues. When Eutychus fell out of the window, they were all probably bored, tired and hungry. Yet the Holy Spirit was there in power even still.

What does that mean? It means that God is with you! In the extraordinary and the mundane. We don't have to try to manufacture some sort of experience. The Spirit is with us already! We just need to open our eyes in every situation and invite the Holy Spirit to be active in all things.

What is more, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, indwells us so that we can comfort others. That, to me, is the miracle of this story. There is great diversity in community, but the same Spirit unites us and is active in and through us, even in our diversity, to work with power in our world. In Acts 20 the people were comforted because Paul allowed himself to be used by the Spirit.

So my prayer is that we would humble ourselves and open ourselves up to be used by the Spirit. That in our diversity we would have unity and community because the Spirit unites us as one body for the benefit of each other, and in the midst of that we would all bless each other because of the blessings we have uniquely received by the Spirit of God.


We had an awesome service on Sunday! God's presence was with us for sure.
I look forward to worshipping with you all next week!

In Him,
-Tim

Embrace, Unite, Serve.

The early church is often romanticised and looked at as a perfect community that we all need to live up to. We look around at our church, or other local churches, and we see people we don't agree with, or we don't get along with, or who look different or have different ministry ideas or whatever, and then we have a tendency to criticize, to complain, and to leave in search of something better, something more like the early church.

But often what people don't realize is that that dysfunctional, messed-up, church-splitting type of church was the early church. And when we read the story of the early church, we see that they had a lot of things right, but it was made up of people, and people cause problems, and the early church was full of all kinds of messy problems of its own.

On Sunday we saw how in Acts 6 the church began to become more culturally diverse, and this caused problems. But the church resolved to unite and deal with the issue so that ministry wouldn't be hindered. What we see is that where there is criticism and complaint, ministry is hindered.

But within our diversity, when we resolve to be united in Christ, and let that unity govern us and engage in working together for the Kingdom, then ministry can flow and people's lives are changed!

So my prayer for our community is that we would be united in Christ over and above whatever diversity we see, whether it is diversity in ideas, diversity in culture, economics, or whatever. I pray that our diversity would drive us to praise God all the more because of the picture that diversity gives us of the nature of God (not everyone is a hand). God shines his light into our community, and it is refracted in a variety of colors.

So when you are here, look around at the people you see. They are gifts to you, and you are gifts to them. And collectively we are a picture of the nature and character of God. I also want to encourage you to get involved. God made you uniquely you, and when you unite with us, you give us a great gift, and ministry is able to happen all the more.

Much grace and peace to you all!

See you next Sunday at the Gathering!!!

In Him,
-Tim