Sermon Outlines from 2006 (PDF Format)
Sermon Outlines from 2007 (PDF Format)
Sermon Outlines from 2008 (PDF Format)
Loyal to Whom
November 23, 2008
Holly Grove Mennonite Church
Psalms 100:1 - 5 (NIV) 1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. 2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Ezekiel 34:11 - 24 (NIV)
11“‘For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will
search for my sheep and look after them. 12As a shepherd looks
after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my
sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a
day of clouds and darkness. 13I will bring them out from the
nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their
own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and
in all the settlements in the land. 14I will tend them in a good
pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land.
There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a
rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15I myself will tend my
sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16I
will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the
injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will
destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. 17“‘As for you,
my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one
sheep and another, and between rams and goats. 18Is it not enough
for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your
pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must
you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19Must my flock feed on
what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?
20“‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I
myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21Because
you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your
horns until you have driven them away, 22I will save my flock,
and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and
another. 23I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David,
and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24I
the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them.
I the LORD have spoken.
Ephesians 1:15 - 23 (NIV) 15For this reason, ever since I
heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my
prayers. 17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the glorious Father, may give you the Spiritof wisdom and revelation, so
that you may know him better. 18I pray also that the eyes of your
heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has
called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and
his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the
working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when
he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly
realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion,
and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in
the one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and
appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which
is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Matthew 25:31 - 46 (NIV)
31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels
with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the
nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one
from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He
will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34“Then
the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my
Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the
creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me
something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you
clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came
to visit me.’ 37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when
did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to
drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or
needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in
prison and go to visit you?’ 40“The King will reply, ‘I tell you
the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine,
you did for me.’ 41“Then he will say to those on his left,
‘Depart from me, youwho are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing
to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a
stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not
clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44“They
also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger
or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45“He
will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the
least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46“Then they will go away
to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Philippians 2:5 - 13 (NIV) 5Your attitude should be the
same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but
made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in
human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name
that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father. 12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always
obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to
work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God
who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Hard Teachings over the past year
Giftings
Parenting
Pharisee
Forgiveness
Unity in Christ through the cross (colin)
Ministry outside the box (Jim)
Tithing
We are culminating this Christian year with the reminder that Jesus is Lord/King
In the N. T. The phrase “Kingdom of... is used 105 times
Of heaven
of God
of our lord and savior Jesus Christ
of light
of the air (Ephesians 2:2)
Jesus Lord– what does this mean?
1. Kings demands undivided loyalty and obedience
a. By right of
i. Creation
ii. Redeemer
b. To the values of the kingdom
i. Love
ii. Justice
iii. Peace
c. By means of
i. Sacrifice
ii. Service
iii. Invitation
2. What does it mean to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God
a. Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven
i. Creation of Community–
(1) Let us create man in our image
(2) It is not good for man to be alone
(3) God comes and walks in the cool of the evening
ii. Stewardship and management of the Creation
(1) rule over
(2) put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it
b. All our decisions, values and loyalties stand under the judgement of God
i. Distance and belonging
In the battle against evil, especially against the evil in one's own culture, evangelical personality needs ecumenical community. In the struggle against the Nazi regime, the Barmen Declaration called the churches to reject all "other lords" -the racist state and its ideology-and give allegiance to Jesus Christ alone "who is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and death." The call is as important today as it was then. Yet it is too abstract. It underestimates our ability to twist the" one Word of God" to serve our own communal ideologies and national strategies. The images of communal survival and flourishing our culture feeds us all too easily blur our vision of God's new creation-America is a Christian nation, we then think for instance, and democracy the only truly Christian political arrangement. Unaware that our culture has subverted our faith, we lose a place from which to judge our own culture. In order to keep our allegiance to Jesus Christ pure, we need to nurture commitment to the multicultural community of Christian churches. We need to see ourselves and our own understanding of God's future with the eyes of Christians from other cultures, listen to voices of Christians from other cultures so as to make sure that the voice of our culture has not drowned out the voice of Jesus Christ, "the one Word of God." Barmen's commitment to the Lordship of Christ must be supplemented with the commitment to the ecumenical community of Christ. The two are not the same, but both are necessary.
c. Respond to the invitation to intimacy with the King of Kings
i. Until Christ is formed in us Gal. 4
(1) By Study of the revelation in Jesus
(2) By participation in the Spiritual disciplines
(3) Volf Free of Charge, ”a conversation with a Skeptic”
"And you think that writing a book about giving and forgiving will cure you!?"
"If only it could! I am afraid that I need more, much more than my own book, to be cured from sin. I need daily disciplines of prayer, meditating on texts from the Holy Book, and silence. I need a community of fellow believers with whom to celebrate a vision oflife that revolves around love of God and neighbor. I need friends to keep me accountable. I need my wife and my kids to hold the mirror to me and resist my selfishness, pride, and sloth. Ultimately, I need a new self and - my desires are not modest - a whole new world freed from transience and sin. Which is to say that I need God. But I also need a book. Or rather, I need a compelling sketch of a life of generosity and forgiveness. So I wrote it down."
"A book to fight the Devil and his armies in your soul, with you holding your book high like the naked St. Anthony of Salvador Dali's imagination held a slender cross against the onslaught of mighty temptations!?"
ii. Prayer
iii. Community
distance which must appropriately be lived out as internal difference--does two important services. First, it creates space in us to receive the other. Consider what happens when a person becomes a Christian. Paul writes, "So if anyone is in Christ, there isa new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). When God comes, God brings a whole new world. The Spirit of God breaks through the self-enclosed worlds we inhabit; the Spirit re-creates us and sets us on the road toward becoming what I like to call a "catholic personality," a personal microcosm of the eschatological new creation (Volf 1992a). A catholic personality is a personality enriched by otherness, a personality which is what it is only because multiple others have been reflected in it in a particular way. The distance from my own culture that results from being born by the Spirit creates a fissure in me through which others can come in. The Spirit unlatches the doors of my heart saying: "You are not only you; others belong to you too."
A catholic personality requires a catholic community. As the Gospel has been preached to many nations, the church ha 'taken root in many cultures, changing them as well as being profoundly shaped by them. Yet the many churches in diverse cultures are one, just as the triune God is one. No church in a given culture may isolate itself from other churches in other cultures declaring itself sufficient to itself and to its own culture. Every church must be open to all other churches. We often think of a local church as a part of the universal church. We would do well also to invert the claim. Every local church is a catholic community because, in a profound sense, all other churches are a part of that church, all of them shape its identity. As all churches together form a world-wide ecumenical community, so each church in a given culture is a catholic community. Each church must therefore say, "I am not only I; all other churches, rooted in diverse cultures, belong to me too." Each needs all to be properly itself.
Both catholic personality and the catholic community in which it is embedded suggest catholic cultural identity. One way to conceive cultural identity is to postulate a stable cultural "we" as opposed to an equally stable "them," both complete in and of themselves; they would interact with one another, but only as self-enclosed wholes,' their mutual relations being external to the identity of each. Such an essentialist understanding of cultural identity, however, is not only oppressive-force must be used to keep everything foreign at bay-but is also untenable. As Edward Said points out, all cultures are "hybrid ... and encumbered, or entangled and overlapping with what used to be regarded as extraneous elements" (Said 1993, 317). The distance from our own culture which is born of the Spirit of the new creation should loosen the grip of our culture on us and enable us to live with its fluidity and affirm its hybridity. Other cultures are not a threat to the pristine purity of our cultural identity, but a potential source of its enrichment. Inhabited by people who are courageous enough not simply to belong, intersecting and overlapping cultures can mutually contribute to the dynamic vitality of each.
iv. Examination— Birthday sheet– 2 Cor 13:5
The Blessing of Tithing
November 16, 2008
Holly Grove Mennonite Church
1 Timothy 4:1 - 4 (NIV) 1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
2 Corinthians 9:1 - 15 (NIV) 1There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the saints. 2For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. 3But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident. 5So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given. 6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9As it is written: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.”10Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Leviticus 27:30 - 34 (NIV) 30“‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD. 31If a man redeems any of his tithe, he must add a fifth of the value to it. 32The entire tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod—will be holy to the LORD. 33He must not pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.’” 34These are the commands the LORD gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.
Numbers 18:21 - 29 (NIV) 21“I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the Tent of Meeting. 22From now on the Israelites must not go near the Tent of Meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die. 23It is the Levites who are to do the work at the Tent of Meeting and bear the responsibility for offenses against it. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites. 24Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the LORD. That is why I said concerning them: ‘They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.’” 25The LORD said to Moses, 26“Speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the LORD’S offering. 27Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or juice from the winepress. 28In this way you also will present an offering to the LORD from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites. From these tithes you must give the LORD’S portion to Aaron the priest. 29You must present as the LORD’S portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you.’
Matthew 23:23 - 25 (NIV) 23“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neneglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. 25“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Luke 18:10 - 12 (NIV) 10“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
Philippians 4:10 - 20 (NIV) 10I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength. 14Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. 15Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; 16for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. 17Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. 18I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. 20To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Deuteronomy 14:28 - 15:1 (NIV) 28At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, 29so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 1At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
What do you think or feel when you hear the word Tithe?
Do you believe that tithing is important? Why or why not?
1. Tithing in Scripture
a. Commanded
i. OT– Leviticus
ii. NT– Matthew 23, 2 Cor 9:7
b. Purposes
i. Support the worship– Lev 27; Numbers 18:21
ii. Support the Worship leaders– 1 Tim 5:17
iii. Provide assistance to the poor– Deuteronomy 14
2. Tithing/giving and Images of God
a. Images of God
i. Negotiator
ii. Santa Claus
b. The reality of God– the giver
i. The trinity
ii. Creator
iii. Redeemer
3. Types of People
a. Takers
b. Getters
c. Giver
4. Responding to God the Giver (What can you give to someone who has it all?)– Our obligation to the giver
a. Faith–
i. is empty hands held open for God to fill. It tells the truth about God and our relation to the divine giver
ii. We are beggers
iii. Receiving from God is the height of human dignity
iv. It is acknowledging that we are not independent from God
v. When I have faith I affirm that I am a recipient of God’s favor.
vi. Tithing of the first fruit without strings attached is an expression of our belief that all we have and are comes from God
b. Gratitude
i. We express our appreciation of the fact that we have received from God
ii. When I express gratitude I recognize and honor and God as the giver
iii. Tithing is a tangible expression of that Gratitude it is not the gratitude itself
c. Availability
i. The purpose of God’s gifts
ii. Macedonian Christians gave themselves first to the Lord
iii. We give to God by opening ourselves to receives the gifts
iv. We give ourselves for God’s use as gifts
v. Make me an instrument. .... Today we want to be agents not instrument
vi. Tithing is the symbol of our availability to God’s gifts for God’s purpose to be God’s instruments
d. Participation
i. God’s love/gifts flows froth and bestows good
ii. When the flow of gifts reaches us it is be channeled to others.
iii. If the flow stops with us we become receivers not givers.
iv. We are created to be and act like God so the flow does not stop with us. We cannot hoard it
v. Tithing is one way to participate in the giving. It is Giving to givers if the work of the church is to be the incarnation of God to this
world.
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