We are participants with God in a cosmic insurgency. Our life of faith is not a personal and passive matter; it's not about me being saved by God. Our life of faith is about throwing our lot in with Heaven's rebel forces and joining in the stirring struggle to make a beachhead for our soon arriving King. When we love the unlovely and draw out our invisible neighbors, when we make sacrifices to feed hungry people, when we raise our voices to tell the truth, and when we deal aggressively with the sin in our lives we are making the right kind of holy war: we are working for global regime change where the illegitimate ruler of this present darkness is cast out and our Lord is established as King of a new heaven and new earth forever.
November 16, 2009
Call to Repentance
Hebrews 10:29 (page 1874)
Call to Worship
Psalm 84 (page 922)
OT Reading
Psalm 50 (page 888)
NT Reading
2 Peter 3:1-10 (page 1896)
Message
Regime Change
2 Peter 3:11-13 (page 1896)
Monday, November 09, 2009
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Readings for Sunday, November 8, 2009
When Jesus talked about putting new wine into old wineskins he was using a metaphor that his audience would understand immediately, without explanation. It is still a remarkably apt metaphor but it needs a lot of explanation now, especially to those of us whose firsthand knowledge of fermentation is limited to things gone bad in the fridge.
But the thing with new wine was that it still had some fermenting to do and that meant that its container had to be flexible enough to accomodate the fizzing and swelling of something that was almost living and breathing.
What Jesus meant was that when people put their faith in him they would receive God's own Holy Spirit in their lives and that spirit would bubble and percolate and stretch them. And if they were brittle and rigid, like an old skin that had lost all of its elasticity, the results would be messy and disastrous.
Same with the new patch and the old cloth.
So often we find the new thing and try to use it to make the old thing work, which is backwards.
When someone first begins to believe that Jesus might be the Son of God and worthy of faith, the temptation is to get just enough Jesus to make our miserable lives work. Just enough Jesus to make our dysfunctional relationships somewhat functional. Just enough Jesus to make our unsustainable lifestyles barely sustainable. Just enough Jesus to get us through our miserably self-centered days.
Jesus is not a patch of new cloth to make our shabby cloaks work. When we try that we'll get that much more tattered.
Try unfolding your Jesus patch until he's too big to patch the holes, big enough, in fact, to take the place of your shabby rags, big enough to wear. Big enough to get lost in.
November 8, 2009
Call to Repentance
1 Peter 2:11 (page 1888)
Call to Worship
Psalm 4 (page 845)
OT Reading
1 Kings 19:9-18 (page 559)
NT Reading
Romans 13:8-14 (page 1765)
Message
Our Cherished Rags
Matthew 9:14-17 (page 1509)
But the thing with new wine was that it still had some fermenting to do and that meant that its container had to be flexible enough to accomodate the fizzing and swelling of something that was almost living and breathing.
What Jesus meant was that when people put their faith in him they would receive God's own Holy Spirit in their lives and that spirit would bubble and percolate and stretch them. And if they were brittle and rigid, like an old skin that had lost all of its elasticity, the results would be messy and disastrous.
Same with the new patch and the old cloth.
So often we find the new thing and try to use it to make the old thing work, which is backwards.
When someone first begins to believe that Jesus might be the Son of God and worthy of faith, the temptation is to get just enough Jesus to make our miserable lives work. Just enough Jesus to make our dysfunctional relationships somewhat functional. Just enough Jesus to make our unsustainable lifestyles barely sustainable. Just enough Jesus to get us through our miserably self-centered days.
Jesus is not a patch of new cloth to make our shabby cloaks work. When we try that we'll get that much more tattered.
Try unfolding your Jesus patch until he's too big to patch the holes, big enough, in fact, to take the place of your shabby rags, big enough to wear. Big enough to get lost in.
November 8, 2009
Call to Repentance
1 Peter 2:11 (page 1888)
Call to Worship
Psalm 4 (page 845)
OT Reading
1 Kings 19:9-18 (page 559)
NT Reading
Romans 13:8-14 (page 1765)
Message
Our Cherished Rags
Matthew 9:14-17 (page 1509)
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Readings for Sunday, November 1
This is going to be a sermon about what happens when God asks us to kill something. Because sometimes he does.
It's always distressing and difficult. Even when he asks us to kill something we already hate (an ugly sin in our lives) we find it difficult to do so. When he asks us to kill something good that we have loved and cherished (a dream about the future, for instance) it is hard on a galactic scale.
And it makes us ask lots of questions. "Why is God asking me to do this?"
"What gives God the right to ask this of me?"
"Is there a way of honoring God's intentions without following his instructions?"
"What will happen if I don't bring down the knife?"
But the question to ask is "how great is our God?"
And the answer to that question is "very, very great." He is great enough to bring back to life the thing we have killed out of obedience. He is also great enough to keep it dead. And He is great enough, if it pleases Him, to show us something far greater than the thing he had us kill, something we could not have imagined and would never have seen had we held on to the lesser good.
Call to Repentance
Hebrews 3:12-13 (page 1865)
Call to Worship
Psalm 138 (page 973)
OT Reading
Genesis 22:1-14 (page 31)
NT Reading
John 12:20-33 (page 1671)
Message
How Great Is Our God?
Hebrews 11:1-2, 11-12, 17-19 (page 1874)
It's always distressing and difficult. Even when he asks us to kill something we already hate (an ugly sin in our lives) we find it difficult to do so. When he asks us to kill something good that we have loved and cherished (a dream about the future, for instance) it is hard on a galactic scale.
And it makes us ask lots of questions. "Why is God asking me to do this?"
"What gives God the right to ask this of me?"
"Is there a way of honoring God's intentions without following his instructions?"
"What will happen if I don't bring down the knife?"
But the question to ask is "how great is our God?"
And the answer to that question is "very, very great." He is great enough to bring back to life the thing we have killed out of obedience. He is also great enough to keep it dead. And He is great enough, if it pleases Him, to show us something far greater than the thing he had us kill, something we could not have imagined and would never have seen had we held on to the lesser good.
Call to Repentance
Hebrews 3:12-13 (page 1865)
Call to Worship
Psalm 138 (page 973)
OT Reading
Genesis 22:1-14 (page 31)
NT Reading
John 12:20-33 (page 1671)
Message
How Great Is Our God?
Hebrews 11:1-2, 11-12, 17-19 (page 1874)
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Readings for Sunday, October 25
This Sunday we're going to be celebrating a dedication of Miles Tate, my nephew. My father, Miles' grandfather, Barry Joe Tate will be performing the dedication and preaching the message. And I am really looking forward to what he has to share.
Call to Repentance
1 Peter 5:6-7 (page 1892)
Call to Worship
Psalm 111 (page 952)
OT Reading
Jeremiah 42:1-7 (page 1245)
NT Reading
Matthew 1:18-25 (page 1497)
Message
Let Our Ordered Lives Confess
Call to Repentance
1 Peter 5:6-7 (page 1892)
Call to Worship
Psalm 111 (page 952)
OT Reading
Jeremiah 42:1-7 (page 1245)
NT Reading
Matthew 1:18-25 (page 1497)
Message
Let Our Ordered Lives Confess
Friday, October 16, 2009
Readings for Sunday, October 18, 2009
This Sunday I'm going to be preaching on the woman at the well from John 4. Specifically, I'm going to pick up on her remark that, as a Samaritan, she worships on the mountain that her fathers all worshiped on, and Jesus' response to that.
It is so much easier to climb a customary mountain to worship God than it is to worship Him in spirit and in truth. That is a little counterintuitive, but it holds true again and again. It is easier to follow rules than it is to bow your heart. It is easier to go through even boring and difficult motions than it is to be vulnerable and available.
I, like the Samaritan woman, have been guilty of thinking that my worship requires certain conditions to be met. For me to have a really good worship experience I need a certain type of music at a certain volume with specific accompaniment in a certain location among a specific group of people on a certain day between the hours of 10:00 and 11:00. I think it would make God laugh if it didn't make Him so angry.
Call to Repentance
2 Corinthians 7:1 (page 1800)
Call to Worship
Psalm 24 (page 862)
OT Reading
Amos 5:18-27 (page 1426)
NT Reading
Luke 9:51-62 (page 1611)
Message
To Worship
John 4:1-24 (page 1651)
It is so much easier to climb a customary mountain to worship God than it is to worship Him in spirit and in truth. That is a little counterintuitive, but it holds true again and again. It is easier to follow rules than it is to bow your heart. It is easier to go through even boring and difficult motions than it is to be vulnerable and available.
I, like the Samaritan woman, have been guilty of thinking that my worship requires certain conditions to be met. For me to have a really good worship experience I need a certain type of music at a certain volume with specific accompaniment in a certain location among a specific group of people on a certain day between the hours of 10:00 and 11:00. I think it would make God laugh if it didn't make Him so angry.
Call to Repentance
2 Corinthians 7:1 (page 1800)
Call to Worship
Psalm 24 (page 862)
OT Reading
Amos 5:18-27 (page 1426)
NT Reading
Luke 9:51-62 (page 1611)
Message
To Worship
John 4:1-24 (page 1651)
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Readings for Sunday, October 11, 2009
Sorry about not getting the readings posted until Saturday night. I honestly thought I had already posted them.
This Sunday we are going to be considering wisdom (again). I've preached on the topic of wisdom a couple of times in the last year or two and that's a lot of sermons on wisdom. People might get bored with the topic, but I remain convinced that it is a sadly neglected component of the Christian life.
A poor person with wisdom is rich enough to live comfortably.
A weak person with wisdom is strong enough to triumph over his enemies.
A dull person with wisdom is smart enought to succeed in life.
Why do we treat wisdom like the packet of mustard included with our fast food order: a nice but unnecessary gesture on the part of the one filling our order?
It's time we got serious about wisdom: serious about obtaining it; serious about using it; and serious about sharing it.
Call to Repentance
Proverbs 28:26
Call to Worship
Psalm 19
OT Reading
Ecclesiastes 9:11-18
NT Reading
2 Corinthians 2:6-16
Message
Enjoying the Perks
James 1:5, 3:13-18
This Sunday we are going to be considering wisdom (again). I've preached on the topic of wisdom a couple of times in the last year or two and that's a lot of sermons on wisdom. People might get bored with the topic, but I remain convinced that it is a sadly neglected component of the Christian life.
A poor person with wisdom is rich enough to live comfortably.
A weak person with wisdom is strong enough to triumph over his enemies.
A dull person with wisdom is smart enought to succeed in life.
Why do we treat wisdom like the packet of mustard included with our fast food order: a nice but unnecessary gesture on the part of the one filling our order?
It's time we got serious about wisdom: serious about obtaining it; serious about using it; and serious about sharing it.
Call to Repentance
Proverbs 28:26
Call to Worship
Psalm 19
OT Reading
Ecclesiastes 9:11-18
NT Reading
2 Corinthians 2:6-16
Message
Enjoying the Perks
James 1:5, 3:13-18
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Readings for Sunday, October 3
October 3, 2009
I'm no safer in the company of a Christian who knows about the faith without having lived it than I am safe in the hands of a surgeon who knows about the body without ever having cut into one. In the hands of such a surgeon the scalpel might as well be a dagger. The Christian who hears but doesn't do is worse than an unskilled surgeon, though. Such a Christian does not really know himself, does not really know God, does not really know anything and can not really see the world aright. But obedience is a remedy for this sad condition.
Call to Repentance
1 John 3:4-6 (page 1901)
Call to Worship
Psalm 40 (page 878)
OT Reading
Isaiah 1:11-20 (page 1060)
NT Reading
Matthew 7:15-23 (page 1506)
Message
Ears to Hear and Hands to Do
James 1:21-25 (page 1881)
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