Promises of God

From Mike Giesbrecht - sermon based on 1 Peter 2:3-4, June 22, 2014.

The promises of God bring hope and sustain us in our life.
Without God's promises we have no future.

How many promises of God can you recall?

Mike confessed that when he began preparing he could only recall five.
A few he reminded us of: God is always with us, prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective, God will provide for our needs.

At the end Mike challenged us to recall the promises of God, as we come across them in scripture to memorize them, and to cling to them.

Choosing Wisdom

Sunday sermon by Pierre Gilbert

Basic things about wisdom (and the wisdom books in bible - Job, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes):

There are four levels of wisdom:

• A trade
• Intelligence, insight and/or shrewdness
• Common sense
• The understanding of the fundamental questions of life

The fourth level is the highest level.  And through out the bible it is linked to trusting/loving/seeking/following God. 

This is something that cannot be given or bought or stolen it can only be chosen.  

Wisdom is not simply for old people it is for everyone.  In fact the wisdom books target the youth.  They invite youth to choose wisdom (to choose God) which is really a choice for life instead of death.  

Divorce

A topic we avoid, while at same time embrace.

We avoid because it is filled with pain.

We embrace because it has affected all of us.

On Sunday I preached on Matthew 19:1-12.  Jesus talks about divorce.

Here are a few things that I had in mind as I preached:

1. Grace.  There is grace and forgiveness.  The story just before this one is a story of forgiveness.  A man who owns too much to pay back is forgiven.  He then is to forgive those around him.  We are forgiven by God based on the cross, this includes those who have been divorced.  All of us need to extend the same grace that we have received.  
2. Hard hearts.  Jesus states that divorce (marriage breakdown) happens because of hard hearts.  Yes, there may be an innocent party in divorce (it takes two to make a marriage thrive).  But we need to realize that divorce is a result of sin.  Most of the time both individuals in a marriage breakdown have hard hearts.
3. All of us have hard hearts.  
4. Two shall become one.  The goal of marriage is greater than not getting divorced.  The purpose of marriage is to not suffer through life with some other person.  The goal is oneness.  To be one means that you stand together and face all of life together.  It is not about being roommates.  Divorce happens because we are not pursuing "oneness".  We do not want a spouse, we want cheerleader. 
5. Change.  To be married means that we need to change.  Marriage changes everything.  Our hearts have to be open to allowing the other person to change us.
6. Singleness.  Sometimes it is better to be single rather than being married.  Jesus holds up that a single life is blessed.  Married life is also blessed (in different ways).  

The Meaning of Marriage

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God, by Timothy and Kathy Keller

A good book.
The Kellers really nail the number one problem in marriage.  We are selfish.  We care more about ourselves then we do about spouses.

In Western culture today, you decide to get married because you feel an attraction to the other person.  You think he or she is wonderful.  But a year or two later - or, just as often, a month or two - three things usually happen.  First, you begin to find out how selfish this wonderful person is.  Second, you discover that the wonderful person has been going through a similar experience and he or she begins to tell you how selfish you are.  And third, though you acknowledge it in part, you conclude that your spouse's selfishness is more problematic than your own.  (page 64)

The solution that they offer is the gospel:

The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared to believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.  (page 48)

Out of this acceptance and love found in Jesus we are able to move to love our spouses through action, even if we don't feel like it, or we feel they don't deserve it.

In any relationship, there will be frightening spells in which your feelings of love seem to dry up. And when that happens you must remember that the essence of marriage is that it is a covenant, a commitment, a promise of future love.  So what do you do?  You do the acts of love, despite your lack of feeling.  You may not feel tender, sympathetic, and eager to please, but in your actions you must be tender, understanding, forgiving, and helpful.  And, if you do that, as time goes on you will not only get through the dry spells, but they will become less frequent and deep, and you will become more constant in your feelings.  This is what can happen if you decide to love.  (page 104)

If we all live like this, gaining our worth and significance from Yahweh and from there deciding to be loving to our spouses, then our marriages will be awesome!

Marriage Challenge

Here are some ideas of how to enhance your marriage:

• Go on a date
• Write love notes
• Buy flowers
• Make a special meal
• Help your spouse with something they normally do
• Tell your spouse 10 amazing things about them
• Read a book together
• Snuggle
• Watch a movie you both enjoy
• Kiss and hug - often
• Go for bike rides (or walks)
• Watch the sunset (or sunrise)
• Take a marriage course (our church will doing one in fall)
• Read a book about marriage (and do what it says)
• Forgive
• Have sex
• Look at the stars
• Dream together

Other ideas?

Play at your marriage

"Don't work at your marriages.  Play" - Leonard Sweet

Too often work is something that we try avoid.  We wait for the evenings, weekends and holidays.  Work is viewed as a burden and drudgery.  A boring thing we must suffer through.
We want to play.
Now playing at something does not mean that it is easy.  Consider playing sports.
It can be very difficult at times (watch the Olympics).  But we embrace the difficulty because of the joy of playing.  We push ourselves to get better and better out of our love for the sport.

When we play instead of working we actually become better.

At a cyclocross race (the best kind of bike racing) there are different categories, A race and B race (A being the better bikers).  Watching a race I noticed the B racers worked.  They worked hard, they were pushing themselves (sometimes to the point of throwing up).  There was blood, sweat and tears.
The A racers played.  They were showing off to the crowd, smiling.  Still pushing hard, and there were still blood, sweat and tears.  But they played...and they were a lot faster and better then the B racers.

If we stop working at our marriages (doing the minimum because we have too while just waiting to do something fun) and instead play at our marriages - embrace difficulty, bring blood, sweat and tears - because of the joy of being married, it will become more and more wondrous.

Marriage resources

Here is a list of marriage resources that we have in our library:

Books

• Love & Respect by Emerson Eggrich
• Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas
• The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
• Best Friends Best Lovers by Bob & Audrey Meisner
• The Love Dare by Stephen & Alex Kendrick
• For Men Only by Jeff Feldhahn
• A Husband After God's Own Heart by Jim George
• For Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn
• Sacred Influence by Gary Thomas
• What's It Like Being Married to Me? by Linda Dillow

DVD Series & Movies

• Love Respect
• Sacred Marriage
• Fireproof
• From Anger to Intimacy by Gary Smalley

What resources have you found helpful?

Sunday's sermon

Sermon text: Matthew 10:32-39

This little passage raises some really interesting questions.

1. Jesus says that his acknowledging of us in heaven is based on us acknowledging him here on earth. That sure sounds like salvation by works?
2. Jesus says he did not come to bring peace but a sword. And here I thought Jesus would always bring peace where ever he went, after all he is called the "prince of peace". Conflict may be from God?
3. Jesus says he came to divide families. What not to unite them? Instead of "the family that prays together stays together", Jesus is saying "the family that prays to me will be split"?

Now I want to run and solve these questions. But I have found that if I run and try and make everything fit together too quickly I just end up ignoring what Jesus is saying.

What is he saying?

Sunday's sermon

Text for this Sunday's sermon: Matthew 10:1-15

I saw something in this text that I had not seen before. And it will take some more study before I am fully convinced that it is present. But it was intriguing enough that I thought I would share it here (most likely will not pick this up Sunday since I am fully convinced of it).

Leadership is to be primarily mission orientated.

This is the first time that the 12 are mentioned in the book of Matthew. Within this context they are summoned and called to engage in missions.

Yes, there are a lot of other things going on here - for example the number 12 being very significant due to the fact that there were 12 tribes of Israel. I am also aware that Mark and Luke do not place the calling of the 12 in this context. But here are some reasons I feel that this idea may have merit:

First, at the end of all the gospels Jesus specifically commissions the church to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. This is the specific mission of the church. Since this is the mission of the church shouldn't the leadership be actively engaged in it.

Second, the 12 seemed to believe that missions was a vital part of what they were to do. Which is why after Jesus ascended to heaven the apostles end up personally travelling to most of the known world preaching the gospel.

Third, in the book of Acts when some widows in the church are being neglected the apostles insist that someone else be appointed to help. They refuse to get involved in this good work of caring for the people in the church. Instead they argue that they should pray and continue serving the word - which within that context carries a mission aspect to it.

I know this needs more study but it interesting because if this is true it changes many things. Often people feel that leadership in the church is primarily about caring for the people on the inside. In fact it has often been argued that we can't do missions until we take care of ourselves first. Now I am not advocating that we stop caring for each other - our greatest testimony to the world will be the love that we show one another.

But is it possible based on why and how the 12 were called that missions should become a great priority for leadership within the church today?

Sunday's sermon

The text for this coming Sunday is: Matthew 9:2-8

In this text we see Jesus' authority to forgive our sins. One of the striking things is that Jesus offers forgiveness outside of the temple. The normal way for a Jewish person in the 1st century to obtain forgiveness was in the temple. This man however did not need to jump through any "hoops" to get forgiveness, Jesus simply declared him forgiven.

This made me ask a couple of questions:

1. What "hoops" do I feel that I have to jump through in order to get forgiveness from God?
2. What "hoops" do I expect others to jump through in order to forgive them?

Sunday's sermon

The text I will be preaching on this Sunday:

Matthew 8:23-27

Things to consider:

Why does Jesus tell his disciples that they have little faith? After all in their panic they turn and call out to him.

The two questions in this passage I have found very provoking:

"Why are you afraid?"

"What kind of man [Jesus] is this?"

Sunday's sermon

The passage for this Sunday's service is: Matthew 7:7-12

Other passages:

Luke 11:9-13

Mark 11:22-25

John 14:12-14

Some questions:

Why right after talking about prayer does Jesus then talk about doing good to the people around us?

Do we really believe that God gives good gifts to his children?

Preaching on the Lord's Prayer

This Sunday I am going to be preaching on the Lord's Prayer:
Matthew 6:7-15

Other passages to read:
Luke 11:1-13

Things to consider:
This prayer is very well known. I grew up saying it every day in school. How deeply does this prayer shape the way that we pray?

Should we pray these very words? Or is that just vain repetition?

A while ago I posted an adaptation of the Lord's prayer

Giving, fasting and praying

Text for Sunday's sermon: Matthew 6:1-18

Other passages: Hosea 6:4-6; Jeremiah 14:11-12; Matthew 3:1-12

Questions to consider:
In Matthew 5:16 Jesus tells his followers to let the world see their good deeds. But now he is telling them to do them in secret and not let anyone see them. Why? This is in the same sermon.

In the previous part Jesus has been inviting people to learn a new way to relate to others. How does this section on giving, prayer and fasting flow from that?

Resisting an evil doer?

Text for Sunday's sermon: Matthew 5:38-48

Other texts:
Romans 12:14-21
Exodus 15:1-18

Questions to consider:
What does Jesus mean when he says "Do not resist an evil doer?" Does this mean we don't call the police when we are wronged? Does this mean we should not stand up for the defenseless? How does this fit with the rest of the bible?

Lust and divorce

Continuing in our series on Matthew this Sunday we will be exploring Matthew 5:27-32.

Some related texts:
1 Corinthians 7
Malachi 2:13-16

Some questions to think about:
In our sex driven culture is there any good news in what Jesus says here? Or is this a message of condemnation and judgment?
What do you hear God saying to you as you read the words of Jesus?

Righteousness

This Sunday's sermon text: Matthew 5:17-26

Some other passages to read:
Exodus 20:1-17
1 John 3:11-17

Some questions to ponder:
In Matthew 5:13-16 Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. What does this text have to do with being salt and light?
What does Jesus mean that unless our righteousness is greater than the religious leaders that we never enter into God's kingdom (verse 20)? How does that fit with the central belief that we are saved by grace not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9)?

Light of the World

Sunday's sermon text is: Matthew 5:13-16
Related texts: Philippians 2:14-15; John 1:1-18

Questions to consider:
What does it mean for the people of God to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world?
How has the church in the past failed to be salt and light in the world?
What does it practically look like for your church to be salt and light in your neighborhood?

The Beautiudes

This Sunday's sermon text is Matthew 5:1-12.
Related texts: Deuteronomy 28, Psalm 37, Isaiah 61, Luke 6:20-26.

Questions to consider:
As you read the text(s) what is God saying to you?
What does it mean to be blessed?
Create a list of people you believe are blessed by God. Are there differences between your list and the list that Jesus makes?

Preaching exchange

I really enjoyed worshiping with the community in Halbstadt yesterday. The people were very friendly and welcoming. I told my wife when I got home that I was tempted to move there.
I hope Garry felt blessed being a part of our community for a Sunday.
Anyone want to share somethings you learned from Garry?