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IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD? - from Sunday, June 18, 2017

6/20/2017

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Wild promise or weak faith? Ask Sarah about becoming pregnant at an elderly age. Ask disciples told to do like Jesus did, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the unclean, and drive out evil. 'Who me?' you guffaw loudly. Yes, you. 

Life can throw us some remarkable curve balls. We see God throwing these beauties at folks all the time in scripture. Few actually find what God expects from them to be perfectly reasonable and do-able. Quite the opposite. It's more like Moses" 'Who? Me?'

The story of God's promise to Abraham that Sarah would indeed be bearing a son ... at an elderly age ... must have shocked Abraham, but it made Sarah bust out with a big laugh. There are a lot of lessons in that laugh, but you'll need to check out the sermon video.

We understand the crazy nature of what happened to Sarah, but we don't often stop to appreciate that what Jesus expected from his disciples was no less off the charts. 

The passage from Matthew starts with Jesus doing intense ministry among God's needy and hurting people. Jesus exclaims that the harvest of suffering people is great but the workers who would minister to them with love, grace, and compassion are few. (No, "the harvest fields" don't refer to heathen needing conversion, and "the workers" are not charged to convert them.)

He turns to his disciples and gives them the First Commission. (Last week's passage, Matthew 28: 16-20 is called the Great Commission - a comparison shows some remarkable differences and similarities (ah, that's another sermon, isn't it?)) Jesus' instructions may go on quite a bit, but in a nutshell, the disciples are instructed to do just what Jesus has been doing: heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the unclean, and drive out evil.

It's quite an eye-opener for the average believer. Get the whole story from the sermon video below, and note the downloads below the video panel.

06-18-17-ff-answers.pdf
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06-18-17-is_anything_too_hard_for_the_lord.pdf
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DISTRACTIONS FROM DISCIPLESHIP - from Sunday, June 11, 2017

6/13/2017

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Distractions take our eyes away from a focus on what's important. In matters of faith, whole theologies can consume the faithful with distractions. On Trinity Sunday, a doctrine that is in itself a struggle, we can review some great distractions.

When God creates humanity in the First Creation Story in Genesis 1, historically problematic phrases arise about 'having dominion over' and 'subduing' the earth. Used by preachers and politicians and other apologists to justify and make sacred the wanton destruction of our environment for the sake of power and greed. 

A more careful reading makes it abundantly clear that those phrases don't mean what those advocates for exploitation, pollution, and destruction. Distracted by reckless ambition married to convenient scripture, we lose sight of the sacred responsibility for the creation given to humanity upon human creation.

The Great Commission in Matthew 28, Jesus' final words of instruction to his disciples, we find another distraction from what disciples should be doing. The instruction to "make disciples of all nations" has been construed by (too) many as an order to convert everyone they encounter into a Christian. 

Of course, making disciples (literally students) is entirely different from making Christians. If that crusading thought can be set aside long enough to read the last part of the instruction - "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you," then you can see how students/disciples matches nicely with the idea of teaching. In no way does it suggest a convert-the-heathen ideology preferred by (too) many.

Rather than following the humble way of Jesus, the way of arrogant empire gets chosen. Forgotten amid the distraction of crusade is the actual ministry of Jesus to the least, lost, forgotten, excluded, and suffering. Nice distraction.

Get the whole picture and check out the sermon video below, and note the downloads available below the video panel.

06-11-17-ff-answers.pdf
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06-11-17-distraction_from_discipleship.pdf
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NEW IDENTITY IN THE SPIRIT - from Pentecost Sunday, June 4, 2017

6/5/2017

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The coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost marks a new identity for the followers of Jesus. They are to become new people in the Spirit of the Lord. What does that mean? Seeing that God and the Spirit know who we are, do we know how we should be revealed in the Spirit?

Numbers 11 tells how Moses is exhausted and frustrated by his leadership role and the people he is trying to lead. He has a mighty complaint to unload on God who wants to help.

Gathering up the elders, God becomes present and Moses takes the Spirit from himself and shares it among the elders gathered. These elders begin prophesying - and no, we don't know what that means exactly.

However, two elders didn't make the meeting with Moses. Yet those two end up with the Spirit, too. And they begin prophesying. That seems irregular, but Moses is delighted and wishes all could be in the Spirit.

What does that mean,
 to be in the Spirit? In Galatians 5, Paul enumerates the fruits of the Spirit. He offers nine characteristics that reflect "staying in step with the Spirit." They're complimentary and worth considering. Try them out in the sermon video below and in the downloads below the video panel.

06-04-17-ff-answers.pdf
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06-04-17-new_identity_in_the_spirit.pdf
File Size: 164 kb
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