The outline of my sermon this morning:
Introduction
Having the right tools or the right person with the right knowledge makes all the difference between a 10 minute thing and something that never gets fixed. Romans 10 tells us that the word of faith that results in salvation is in our mouth and heart. You don't have to bring Christ down from heaven to be right with God. You don't have to bring him up from the grave. Faith is only as far away as your heart.
The Word Near You 1: The Spirit of Christ
John 1:1-14: The Word made flesh is Christ, the word par excellence.
"Tabernacled" among us, as God met Moses in the tent.
Now present through the Spirit, John 16:7-13.
Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Leads believers into truth.
Not always clear what is the Spirit and what isn't. Word is near, but not always recognized.
Some people have an overactive conscience that isn't the Holy Spirit
David Seamands, Healing for Damaged Emotions, Healing of Memories, "damaged love receptors"
Some people have no conscience... we can at least pray for them.
Many in the coming generation have a conscience that is a blank slate: they are willing to do what Jesus would do but don't have a clue what that is!
A place to start:
Love neighbor--don't do to others what you wouldn't want them to do to you...
Love God--are you willing to do anything God would ask you to do?
The Word is Near You 2: The Speaking of God in History
A wander through Hebrews: the word of God is bigger than the Bible
Hebrews 4:12-13: Everything is naked and exposed before God's word.
The word of God, the Bible, is near us, but not always clear what God's word in it is:
The fundamentalist who limits the word of God to the Bible, the letteralist. Surprising interpretations about the Sabbath and about Moses' veiling in Paul.
The "liberal" who doesn't care what the Bible says at all.
The confused person who doesn't know who to believe on what the Bible says.
A place to start:
The love commands in how to live.
2000 years of Christian reflection on the Bible in what to believe (like the creeds). No need to start from scratch when God's been working through things with the church for 2000 years.
The Word of God 3: The word of faith that leads to salvation
Romans 10:5-13
We can walk by faith even when we don't know everything about the words of God near us.
Conclusion
Is your heart troubled about judgment: 1 John, God is greater than your heart
Is your heart troubled about sin: 1 John, if you confess your sins, God will forgive them
Are you worried about truth: Walk by faith until God gives sight.
Are you worried about salvation: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
This is good stuff, Dr. Schenck.
Some stuff I need to hear and obey, instead of despair: Walk by faith until God gives sight. Lord, have mercy.
Where'd you preach this?
It was at College Wesleyan this morning. Where are you at about this time?
I heard the real thing... thanks it was good. In our discuss-and-apply the sermon class we had a good discussion too. A few had a hard time wrapping their head around "God's word is bigger than the Bible" and even were suprised to know that the written text did not exist simultaneously with Creation... that Abraham et. al. had no Ten Commandments either written or verbal etc. Reminded me again of how important the basics of "how we got the Bible" are to Christians...
The class spent lots of time (not sure productive time?) on discussing how much of God's word is written on the hearts of people "who never heard" and how accountable they are... along with our too-frequent generational discussions which is typical of older folk (even though a third of the class is made up of twentysomethings). We probably should have spent more time on your three core princiles and the creeds I suppose. Thanks again for the good sermon!
Post a Comment