As Jesus once again heals the sick while he is teaching he is faced with a paralyzed man lowered through the roof by his friends. Upon seeing their faith (the plural is intentional), Jesus tells him, "Friend, your sins are forgiven". The religious leaders are rightly offended by Jesus' usurpation of God's sole right to forgive sins, and wonder who he really thinks he is. To back up his claim, Jesus does the easier task, he heals the man of his paralysis. Only God can forgive, Jesus, declaring himself to be the Son of Man (acc. to Daniel's prophecy), has just laid claim to being God...This episode beautifully illustrates how we can help those in need find faith and forgiveness, as we ourselves did at the foot of the cross.
To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video
This blog serves as an outreach for Pastor Randy Powell of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, PA. Feel free to ask questions or send me an e-mail at pastorpowell@hotmail.com
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
The sermon I didn't preach
One of the things that fascinates me about my job of preparing a sermon each week for my congregation is the initial thought process I go through when deciding upon which passage of Scripture to use. That decision usually takes place on Tuesday morning (I like to at least get the new week started off 1st thing), and it usually is a continuation of the previous week's text unless I'm switching to a new book of the Bible for a while.
When I first look at a passage I'm thinking about where a proper cut-off place would be if it were going to be a sermon. How many verses do I need to tell the whole story (context) and how many verses do I need to make it long enough (but not too long)? Sometimes the whole message is contained in one verse, but most of the time it's several that make up the point that the text is aiming at.
During this process of narrowing down the text, I'm also contemplating which message from the text will be the focus of the sermon. I say that because there are usually at least two, sometimes three or four, possible sermons that can be preached from one given passage. If my audience is going to follow the point as I make it I need to focus on just one of those ideas and let the others go (they could of course, be used in sermon on the same text at a later date that sounds very different from the first one). The reason why this works is because the Bible, like all great literature, has more than one layer of meaning and more than one possible application of its wisdom.
I've been asked by plenty of people over the years why I would read a book more than once (for example: The Lord of the Rings; 15 times and counting). The answer I always give is that there are new things to discover each time (and new enjoyment in the reading of old familiar things). The Bible takes this phenomenon to a new level. It contains a vast amount of Truth and Wisdom that we can apply in various stages and phases of life; things that we may not see until the moment we need them (thank the Holy Spirit for the assist when you do).
Let me give you an example from a recent sermon: I preached from Luke 5:1-11 and focused upon Peter's response to the miraculous call of fish. "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" Why do some people push God away when confronted with their sin rather than asking for his mercy? A second sermon could have focused upon the miracle itself; why does Jesus choose this demonstration, why does it say about him, and how was it perceived by the fishermen? A third sermon could have spent time examining Jesus' response to Peter, the famous line, "from now on you will catch men." It could have looked at evangelism and talked about how sharing the word of God is like fishing (without the tendency I hope to lie about the size of the catch). A fourth sermon could have talked about the response in the end of Peter, James, and John; how they left everything behind to follow Jesus without looking back. It could have talked about the dedication and commitment that the Gospel demands of us.
Are there other sermons in that passage than the four I just highlighted? Yes, there are; you may have heard an excellent one at some point that spoke about something I haven't mentioned. The Bible is like that, layer upon layer of Truth if only we put in the effort to discover it. The next time you listen to a sermon, think about the message the preacher is sharing with you; but then go one step further and look at the text to find the sermon he didn't preach to you as well.
When I first look at a passage I'm thinking about where a proper cut-off place would be if it were going to be a sermon. How many verses do I need to tell the whole story (context) and how many verses do I need to make it long enough (but not too long)? Sometimes the whole message is contained in one verse, but most of the time it's several that make up the point that the text is aiming at.
During this process of narrowing down the text, I'm also contemplating which message from the text will be the focus of the sermon. I say that because there are usually at least two, sometimes three or four, possible sermons that can be preached from one given passage. If my audience is going to follow the point as I make it I need to focus on just one of those ideas and let the others go (they could of course, be used in sermon on the same text at a later date that sounds very different from the first one). The reason why this works is because the Bible, like all great literature, has more than one layer of meaning and more than one possible application of its wisdom.
I've been asked by plenty of people over the years why I would read a book more than once (for example: The Lord of the Rings; 15 times and counting). The answer I always give is that there are new things to discover each time (and new enjoyment in the reading of old familiar things). The Bible takes this phenomenon to a new level. It contains a vast amount of Truth and Wisdom that we can apply in various stages and phases of life; things that we may not see until the moment we need them (thank the Holy Spirit for the assist when you do).
Let me give you an example from a recent sermon: I preached from Luke 5:1-11 and focused upon Peter's response to the miraculous call of fish. "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" Why do some people push God away when confronted with their sin rather than asking for his mercy? A second sermon could have focused upon the miracle itself; why does Jesus choose this demonstration, why does it say about him, and how was it perceived by the fishermen? A third sermon could have spent time examining Jesus' response to Peter, the famous line, "from now on you will catch men." It could have looked at evangelism and talked about how sharing the word of God is like fishing (without the tendency I hope to lie about the size of the catch). A fourth sermon could have talked about the response in the end of Peter, James, and John; how they left everything behind to follow Jesus without looking back. It could have talked about the dedication and commitment that the Gospel demands of us.
Are there other sermons in that passage than the four I just highlighted? Yes, there are; you may have heard an excellent one at some point that spoke about something I haven't mentioned. The Bible is like that, layer upon layer of Truth if only we put in the effort to discover it. The next time you listen to a sermon, think about the message the preacher is sharing with you; but then go one step further and look at the text to find the sermon he didn't preach to you as well.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Sermon Video: "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." - Luke 5:12-14
What would it be like to live in complete isolation, to be an oucast whom all consider to be cursed by God? What hope would there be? In the Gospel of Luke, a man with leprosy falls at Jesus' feet and begs for healing. The social stigma of his disease was far worse than the physical symptoms, by asking Jesus to make him "clean" the man is in essence asking for God's forgiveness. Jesus does the remarkable; he reaches out and touches this "untouchable" man to let him know that he is indeed willing to make him clean. By his mercy Jesus demonstrates the path to healing and forgiveness for us all, and encourages us to offer that same healing to whomever the outcasts of our society are, we too must reach out and touch them with God's love.
To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video
To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video
Monday, September 17, 2012
Sermon Video, "Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man!" - Luke 5:1-11
When Jesus chooses Simon's boat as a platform from which to teach the people, he encounters a hard-working fisherman who had no anticipation that God would that very day offer him freedom from his sins. Following the miraculous catch of fish, Simon asks Jesus from his knees to go away from him because he considered himself unworthy of God's forgiveness. What makes someone turn away from God's offer of grace in despair? What do some people think they're beyond hope, and what can we do about it? Jesus' answer to Simon provides our direction, "Don't be afraid. From now on you'll fish for men." Jesus answered with love and confidence because he knew the transforming power of his Father's grace, we too can offer love, acceptance, and hope to those who despair in our world. We can share the Gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation, because all of Jesus' followers have been called to be fishers of men.
To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video
To watch the video, click on the link below:
Sermon Video
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The progression of our faith - II Peter 1:5-7
In our Bible study today we talked about the list that Peter wrote when he was talking about our efforts to "participate in the divine nature" through God's power and our knowledge of his Son, and ultimately to "escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." (vs. 4) That sounds great, but how are we to make any progress from the fallen state which God saved us from through Christ to the elevated state that God has promised we will one day attain through his power? Where do we begin such a journey?
There are several lists of virtues in the New Testament whose order would not seem to be overly significant. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians, for example, are not listed in any ascending or descending order. Here, however, in II Peter, the list is set up from the beginning of our journey, faith, to its eventual conclusion, love. The journey must begin with faith. We cannot approach God any other way because of our sinful rebellion against his holiness.
Once someone becomes a believers in Jesus Christ, a Christian, where do they begin in the process of becoming Christ-like? The first step is goodness; begin by doing that which is kind, generous, merciful, etc. and let your new found faith put down roots. The next step is knowledge. One needs to learn WHEN to do this or that, HOW to do it, and WHY. Our motives become significant as well as our wisdom as we learn the difference between absolute truth and the freedom that we have in Christ to judge in debatable matters. The attainment of knowledge leads to the realization that self-control is necessary as well. Once we learn the depth of what it takes to act in goodness, we need to learn to control ourselves so that our progress is forward (and not 3 steps forward, 2 steps back) and doesn't self-destruct in fits of anger, jealousy, pride, anxiety, or fear. Self-control is one of the hardest things to learn for any Christian, a difficult step to move beyond. How can we possibly continue to have self-control when life throws curve balls at us? Now we need perseverance. We need the ability to do the right thing, in wisdom and self-control even when the circumstances of life are working against us.
When we have come this far, we can begin to glimpse the mind and heart of God, we can begin to understand what godliness is all about. Why would God send his Son to die for our sins, why would God create us in the first place? Understanding God's motives helps us to live in imitation of our savior. It is only now, when we have made so much progress in fixing our own flaws (through the Holy Spirit's power and God's patience with us) that we can understand why we should care about other people. Brotherly love costs us something. It is easy to love those who love you back, but we are called to a higher standard. We must show kindness to strangers, to those who can do nothing to repay us, and we must show kindness to our families, to those with whom we have a history. And now, at the end of the list comes the word that our world places at the beginning: love. We don't know what love really is in our culture. We use love when we mean lust, we use love when we mean "a mutually beneficial arrangement", and we use love when we intend to toss it away when it now longer serves our purpose. The Christian knows love because Christ died for our sins while we were still in rebellion against God. The love at the top of Peter's list is a self-sacrificial love that puts others first at great cost to itself. That this love is far removed when the kind people talk about every day is no surprise to any who observe the shallow and self-centered "love" that fails time and time again to stand in the face of adversity.
How does the Christian advance in his or her faith and reach toward being like Christ? By adding to faith with goodness, then knowledge, and then self-control, and perseverance, and godliness, then brotherly kindness, and finally love.
There are several lists of virtues in the New Testament whose order would not seem to be overly significant. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians, for example, are not listed in any ascending or descending order. Here, however, in II Peter, the list is set up from the beginning of our journey, faith, to its eventual conclusion, love. The journey must begin with faith. We cannot approach God any other way because of our sinful rebellion against his holiness.
Once someone becomes a believers in Jesus Christ, a Christian, where do they begin in the process of becoming Christ-like? The first step is goodness; begin by doing that which is kind, generous, merciful, etc. and let your new found faith put down roots. The next step is knowledge. One needs to learn WHEN to do this or that, HOW to do it, and WHY. Our motives become significant as well as our wisdom as we learn the difference between absolute truth and the freedom that we have in Christ to judge in debatable matters. The attainment of knowledge leads to the realization that self-control is necessary as well. Once we learn the depth of what it takes to act in goodness, we need to learn to control ourselves so that our progress is forward (and not 3 steps forward, 2 steps back) and doesn't self-destruct in fits of anger, jealousy, pride, anxiety, or fear. Self-control is one of the hardest things to learn for any Christian, a difficult step to move beyond. How can we possibly continue to have self-control when life throws curve balls at us? Now we need perseverance. We need the ability to do the right thing, in wisdom and self-control even when the circumstances of life are working against us.
When we have come this far, we can begin to glimpse the mind and heart of God, we can begin to understand what godliness is all about. Why would God send his Son to die for our sins, why would God create us in the first place? Understanding God's motives helps us to live in imitation of our savior. It is only now, when we have made so much progress in fixing our own flaws (through the Holy Spirit's power and God's patience with us) that we can understand why we should care about other people. Brotherly love costs us something. It is easy to love those who love you back, but we are called to a higher standard. We must show kindness to strangers, to those who can do nothing to repay us, and we must show kindness to our families, to those with whom we have a history. And now, at the end of the list comes the word that our world places at the beginning: love. We don't know what love really is in our culture. We use love when we mean lust, we use love when we mean "a mutually beneficial arrangement", and we use love when we intend to toss it away when it now longer serves our purpose. The Christian knows love because Christ died for our sins while we were still in rebellion against God. The love at the top of Peter's list is a self-sacrificial love that puts others first at great cost to itself. That this love is far removed when the kind people talk about every day is no surprise to any who observe the shallow and self-centered "love" that fails time and time again to stand in the face of adversity.
How does the Christian advance in his or her faith and reach toward being like Christ? By adding to faith with goodness, then knowledge, and then self-control, and perseverance, and godliness, then brotherly kindness, and finally love.
Monday, September 10, 2012
When you know the little ol' ladies are praying...
I have a theory: God listens to those little ol' ladies when they pray. How do I know this? I've had a sizable number praying for me, they've told me they are and I know they take it seriously, and something that happened on Sunday night proved God was listening to them.
As I was walking across the church parking lot to go invite some kids from the playground to our Awana kick-off event that was about to start, I noticed a young man (maybe 20, at least my size) walking along the sidewalk toward the parking lot carrying a baseball bat. In the parking lot stood a group of teens (3 or so of them, probably all 15-16) who were yelling a variety of profanities at the approaching man. It was obvious in a moment that a fight was about to begin. With plenty of little kids in the area, not to mention a busy street a few feet away, I reacted on instinct.
Now, I've broken up a variety of fights in my day, one can't avoid physical confrontations when working with troubled teens, but this was something new. Within moments I was standing between two young men, both of whom were yelling through me at each other, and one of whom I was facing as he held that baseball bat in his hands. Were the cops coming, had anyone called them, no idea.
After several minutes of telling both sides that a fight wasn't going to help them any, that the cops would be sure to haul of to jail a guy swinging a bat in public, the two sides drifted apart.
It was only then that the realization hit me that I had been face-to-face with a guy I didn't know who was in a mood to swing a baseball bat at someone. As I said before, the little ol' ladies pray for me.
That young man went to jail that night, the cops hoping to diffuse the situation, and the teen, whom I know a little bit from playing basketball at the park, came over later to apologize for using profanity in front of a pastor; who knows, perhaps this crazy moment will bear positive fruit in the future.
Five minutes later I'm leading 30 kids and a group of parents in prayer so we can start our Awana cookout, what a crazy thing the ministry is sometimes.
As I was walking across the church parking lot to go invite some kids from the playground to our Awana kick-off event that was about to start, I noticed a young man (maybe 20, at least my size) walking along the sidewalk toward the parking lot carrying a baseball bat. In the parking lot stood a group of teens (3 or so of them, probably all 15-16) who were yelling a variety of profanities at the approaching man. It was obvious in a moment that a fight was about to begin. With plenty of little kids in the area, not to mention a busy street a few feet away, I reacted on instinct.
Now, I've broken up a variety of fights in my day, one can't avoid physical confrontations when working with troubled teens, but this was something new. Within moments I was standing between two young men, both of whom were yelling through me at each other, and one of whom I was facing as he held that baseball bat in his hands. Were the cops coming, had anyone called them, no idea.
After several minutes of telling both sides that a fight wasn't going to help them any, that the cops would be sure to haul of to jail a guy swinging a bat in public, the two sides drifted apart.
It was only then that the realization hit me that I had been face-to-face with a guy I didn't know who was in a mood to swing a baseball bat at someone. As I said before, the little ol' ladies pray for me.
That young man went to jail that night, the cops hoping to diffuse the situation, and the teen, whom I know a little bit from playing basketball at the park, came over later to apologize for using profanity in front of a pastor; who knows, perhaps this crazy moment will bear positive fruit in the future.
Five minutes later I'm leading 30 kids and a group of parents in prayer so we can start our Awana cookout, what a crazy thing the ministry is sometimes.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Taking a break from all your worries...
I just completed a week of vacation during which my wife and I returned to Michigan to spend some time with family and friends and camp up at St. Ignace during Labor Day weekend. It was a needed respite for me from the daily requirements of the ministry, a chance to set aside for a while the cares and concerns for God's flock that can seem never-ending to those in pastoral ministry.
Of course, there are plenty of people whose jobs and family responsibilities make my work seem like a cake-walk, but we all need to take some time away from our regular routine now and again in order to gain perspective and remain fresh in our pursuits.
One of the things that pastors miss out on is the ability to attend church as a participant and not a leader. Our Sunday mornings, and other occasions in which we gather to worship, revolve around preparation and delivery of spiritual food and nourishment for others, but this same nourishment can be difficult to partake of when you're busy working to make it happen.
My pastoral mentor, Pastor James Frank, once told me that in sermon preparation one has to "preach the sermon to yourself first". The same holds true in preparing a lesson for Sunday school or getting ready to lead a Bible study; those of us in leadership need to teach ourselves the lesson that is to be learned before we try to teach it to others. There is another point to remember: we also need to be open to the chance to learn a lesson during the delivery of the message itself. It may take the form of an insight that you never saw until this moment, or perhaps be in the form of a question or comment from someone afterwards, but those who minister God's Word should always be ready for that preaching/teaching to rebound.
In the end, our vacation was a good one, we spent time with loved ones and enjoyed God's wondrous creation. Now, as I prepare this week's sermon I can do so with a heart that is refreshed and ready to be taught once more.
Of course, there are plenty of people whose jobs and family responsibilities make my work seem like a cake-walk, but we all need to take some time away from our regular routine now and again in order to gain perspective and remain fresh in our pursuits.
One of the things that pastors miss out on is the ability to attend church as a participant and not a leader. Our Sunday mornings, and other occasions in which we gather to worship, revolve around preparation and delivery of spiritual food and nourishment for others, but this same nourishment can be difficult to partake of when you're busy working to make it happen.
My pastoral mentor, Pastor James Frank, once told me that in sermon preparation one has to "preach the sermon to yourself first". The same holds true in preparing a lesson for Sunday school or getting ready to lead a Bible study; those of us in leadership need to teach ourselves the lesson that is to be learned before we try to teach it to others. There is another point to remember: we also need to be open to the chance to learn a lesson during the delivery of the message itself. It may take the form of an insight that you never saw until this moment, or perhaps be in the form of a question or comment from someone afterwards, but those who minister God's Word should always be ready for that preaching/teaching to rebound.
In the end, our vacation was a good one, we spent time with loved ones and enjoyed God's wondrous creation. Now, as I prepare this week's sermon I can do so with a heart that is refreshed and ready to be taught once more.
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