Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Preaching
THE WESLEYAN PREACHING ANNUAL 2001--2002
WORSHIP HELPS
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: God will listen to those who ask for mercy.
People: Where do we turn for help if not to God?
Leader: God is gracious and compassionate.
People: He comes tour aide in our helplessness.
Leader: Be at peace. God will rescue you and shower you with blessings.
All: Applaud God, all people!
OFFERING THOUGHT
We bring our brokenness and You bring Your healing. Your grace is available to all who will receive. Give us new life. Amen.
BENEDICTION
Sin results in judgment - salvation results in confession. Let us be people of confession this week.
SERMON BRIEFS
Growing Together In Ministry
Exodus 17:1--7; Philippians 2:1--13
Introduction
Student pilots learn the nose--up and nose--down of attitude to maintain altitude. Attitude concerned Paul.
The New English Bible avoids confining "in Christ" to example only, suggesting Christ is both example and source. A right attitude energizes, evangelizes, ecumenizes, educates, and endures, pointing the way like the North Star.
I. Energizing
Before Tonya Harding left for the Norway Olympics, she attended a church led by Gary Henecke. He described the Christian's new beginning, and she went forward, asking forgiveness for sin and inviting Christ into her life. Advised Pastor Gary, "You are not only skating for America, but you are skating for Christ."
Right attitude results from experiencing Christ's presence and power and expressing it through personal behavior in the horizontal relationships. Living for Christ means more than joining a fellowship or adopting a creed (2:1, 5). The church faces no greater peril than proclaiming a message it does not experience. Conversion invites the supra--natural, and initiates a "nose up, nose down" instruction that results in the Holy Spirit energizing us to fly with him.
Although connected to power, the light bulb remains only a potential source of light until turned on (energized). Only a church with the switch turned on provides light for the reading public.
She had no children, but God's Spirit energized her and she went to work, knowing her church needed financial support. When the pastor needed teachers, she took a class and carefully nurtured 25 primaries in a thirteen by thirteen bedroom.
Following her unexpected death, I met a young absentee at the grocery story. "There ain't none of them comes to see me anymore," he said.
Ministering meaningfully requires energizing.
II. Evangelizing
The doctor saw an injured dog along the road. Taking it home, he cleaned the cuts and revived the stunned creature. Carrying it toward the garage, the dog jumped down and disappeared. "That ungrateful little dog!" he muttered.
Next evening, he heard scratching. Opening the door, he saw his little dog accompanied by another injured animal. That is evangelism.
Evangelism varies person to person. Witness may come in a simple service or a confrontation; a relationship or a testimony; an invitation or a thoughtful discussion. Whatever the level of one's relationship in Christ, everyone has an experience to share.
III. Ecumenizing
Ecumenizing suggests unity and oneness, not necessarily union. It is not unichristian, like unisex, not unilateral, with you coming my way. It offers bilateral relationships, often multilateral, as when an ecumenizing church finds multiple outreaches in Christ's common cause.
James Earl Massey describes unity as "spiritual, a divine given," but finds our experience of it "preconditioned by our openness as believers toward each other." It is "our obedient response to Christ's 'relational imperative.' "1
Jesus made it imperative, praying "for those who will believe in me ... that all of them may be one ... as we are one" (John 17:20--22 NIV).
IV. Educating
Some people have enough religion to prevent being miserable when they sin, but not enough to become Christian. Christian Education is that process where persons are confronted and controlled by Christ's gospel.
Peter's Jerusalem converts "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and ... fellowship" as "day after day" the apostles "never stopped teaching" (Acts 2:41--42; 5:41--42 NIV).
Paul pointed the Philippians to their greatest resource: adjusting attitude and increasing altitude, "according to his good purpose" (2:13).
V. Enduring
Victor Frankl survived concentration camp life believing, "... the last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."
Every aircraft made needs trimming or balancing in flight. Believers need constant maintenance of attitude. Maintain "your attitude ... that of Christ Jesus," declared Paul.
A mule fell into an abandoned well. The farmer attempted its rescue. Unable, he determined to bury his friend and dumped a load of dirt down the well. That mule kicked, stomped, and snorted, until he stood two feet higher. A few more loads of dirt, a lot of kicking, snorting, and stomping down that dirt and the mule walked out on level ground - a survivor.
Like the mule, Paul survived adversity and walked away praising God for endurance and expanded ministry.
Conclusion
Neil Wiseman suggests the miraculous and supernatural do not always "depend on large numbers, proper feelings, loud prayers, or even spiritual maturity." He insists, however, it requires "complete dependence on God."2
Wayne M. Warner
____________
1. James Earl Massey, Concerning Christian Unity (Anderson: Warner Press, Inc., 1979), p. 7.
2. Neil Wiseman, "Unique Supernatural Resources for Renewal," Preacher's Magazine, editor, Neil Wiseman (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, Summer 2000, Volume 75, Number 4), pp. 7--12.
Have You Changed Your Mind Lately?
Matthew 21:23--32
Introduction
People from Missouri often pride themselves on their state's nickname: the "Show Me" state. They will be skeptical about something they hear until they can see the facts for themselves. Why this attitude was ever associated with Missouri is unclear to outsiders.
The priests and leaders of Israel who confronted Jesus after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and his clearing of the Temple courts, had such an attitude. They wanted to know the source of Jesus' authority for doing the things he had just done. Jesus would not give them the evidence that they sought. Instead he gave them a lesson about repentance, about changing their minds, the basic meaning of the word repentance. Do you or I need to change our minds about Him? Have you changed your mind lately?
I. Recognizing Jesus
Jesus answered their question with a question. He asked them about the source of the authority expressed by John the Baptist. But they could answer him neither honestly (they thought John was not truly a prophet) nor dishonestly (claiming that they recognized God had sent him, when in fact they had not believed him). So since they would not answer Jesus, He refused to answer them.
This exchange prompted Jesus to speak a parable - concerning two sons and their different reactions to their father's command. One son initially refused to obey his father's wish, but then repented and went to work in the field. The other son replied immediately that he would obey, but then he never did. Jesus asked His hearers which son had done the father's will. The answer was of course the first son.
Jesus confronted them with their refusal to believe John the Baptist, especially since John had come declaring clearly the righteousness of God. By contrast, according to Jesus, tax collectors and prostitutes had believed John. But for the Temple leaders and elders John did not fit their expectations of one who would be sent from God. They did not repent or change their minds when they saw how many others believed John. The changes among the irreligious folks were evidence of the power of God at work in John. But the leaders could not see it, and so the tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the kingdom of God ahead of them.
If they had genuinely recognized John they would have recognized Jesus also. If they had changed their minds - had repented of their decisions to reject John - they would have been able to recognize and accept Jesus. They would not have asked Him to measure up to their standards of authority, but would have submitted to His authority. Do you or I ever have that attitude toward Jesus? Do we expect Him to fit into our preconceptions? We need to repent, to change our minds, exactly as Jesus emphasized in the parable.
II. Repenting or reneging?
Jesus told the story of the two sons to offer the elders and priests another opportunity to change their minds. Their attitudes toward John and Jesus betrayed their claims of religious leadership in Israel. They were like the son who told his father he would go and work in the field but never obeyed. They claimed to know and understand God's ways with will, but they could not recognize when God visited His people anew. They were saying "Yes" to God, but not following through with obeying God's will.
Jesus challenged them to dare to rethink their identities and attitudes. He offered them the chance to repent, to change their minds. They could become like the son who initially refused the father's command but who repented and obeyed the father's wishes.
And here is the heart of this passage's truth for us. In our response to Jesus are we more like the first son or the second? Do our claims of commitment fail to produce actions consistent with obedience? If so, we need to repent.
Or do we find ourselves reacting negatively to what Jesus is asking us to do? His grace always affords us opportunity to repent, as did the first son, and then live out our change of mind in obedience.
Conclusion
Where do you find yourself in this parable? Do you need to change your mind?
Hal A. Cauthron
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: God will listen to those who ask for mercy.
People: Where do we turn for help if not to God?
Leader: God is gracious and compassionate.
People: He comes tour aide in our helplessness.
Leader: Be at peace. God will rescue you and shower you with blessings.
All: Applaud God, all people!
OFFERING THOUGHT
We bring our brokenness and You bring Your healing. Your grace is available to all who will receive. Give us new life. Amen.
BENEDICTION
Sin results in judgment - salvation results in confession. Let us be people of confession this week.
SERMON BRIEFS
Growing Together In Ministry
Exodus 17:1--7; Philippians 2:1--13
Introduction
Student pilots learn the nose--up and nose--down of attitude to maintain altitude. Attitude concerned Paul.
The New English Bible avoids confining "in Christ" to example only, suggesting Christ is both example and source. A right attitude energizes, evangelizes, ecumenizes, educates, and endures, pointing the way like the North Star.
I. Energizing
Before Tonya Harding left for the Norway Olympics, she attended a church led by Gary Henecke. He described the Christian's new beginning, and she went forward, asking forgiveness for sin and inviting Christ into her life. Advised Pastor Gary, "You are not only skating for America, but you are skating for Christ."
Right attitude results from experiencing Christ's presence and power and expressing it through personal behavior in the horizontal relationships. Living for Christ means more than joining a fellowship or adopting a creed (2:1, 5). The church faces no greater peril than proclaiming a message it does not experience. Conversion invites the supra--natural, and initiates a "nose up, nose down" instruction that results in the Holy Spirit energizing us to fly with him.
Although connected to power, the light bulb remains only a potential source of light until turned on (energized). Only a church with the switch turned on provides light for the reading public.
She had no children, but God's Spirit energized her and she went to work, knowing her church needed financial support. When the pastor needed teachers, she took a class and carefully nurtured 25 primaries in a thirteen by thirteen bedroom.
Following her unexpected death, I met a young absentee at the grocery story. "There ain't none of them comes to see me anymore," he said.
Ministering meaningfully requires energizing.
II. Evangelizing
The doctor saw an injured dog along the road. Taking it home, he cleaned the cuts and revived the stunned creature. Carrying it toward the garage, the dog jumped down and disappeared. "That ungrateful little dog!" he muttered.
Next evening, he heard scratching. Opening the door, he saw his little dog accompanied by another injured animal. That is evangelism.
Evangelism varies person to person. Witness may come in a simple service or a confrontation; a relationship or a testimony; an invitation or a thoughtful discussion. Whatever the level of one's relationship in Christ, everyone has an experience to share.
III. Ecumenizing
Ecumenizing suggests unity and oneness, not necessarily union. It is not unichristian, like unisex, not unilateral, with you coming my way. It offers bilateral relationships, often multilateral, as when an ecumenizing church finds multiple outreaches in Christ's common cause.
James Earl Massey describes unity as "spiritual, a divine given," but finds our experience of it "preconditioned by our openness as believers toward each other." It is "our obedient response to Christ's 'relational imperative.' "1
Jesus made it imperative, praying "for those who will believe in me ... that all of them may be one ... as we are one" (John 17:20--22 NIV).
IV. Educating
Some people have enough religion to prevent being miserable when they sin, but not enough to become Christian. Christian Education is that process where persons are confronted and controlled by Christ's gospel.
Peter's Jerusalem converts "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and ... fellowship" as "day after day" the apostles "never stopped teaching" (Acts 2:41--42; 5:41--42 NIV).
Paul pointed the Philippians to their greatest resource: adjusting attitude and increasing altitude, "according to his good purpose" (2:13).
V. Enduring
Victor Frankl survived concentration camp life believing, "... the last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."
Every aircraft made needs trimming or balancing in flight. Believers need constant maintenance of attitude. Maintain "your attitude ... that of Christ Jesus," declared Paul.
A mule fell into an abandoned well. The farmer attempted its rescue. Unable, he determined to bury his friend and dumped a load of dirt down the well. That mule kicked, stomped, and snorted, until he stood two feet higher. A few more loads of dirt, a lot of kicking, snorting, and stomping down that dirt and the mule walked out on level ground - a survivor.
Like the mule, Paul survived adversity and walked away praising God for endurance and expanded ministry.
Conclusion
Neil Wiseman suggests the miraculous and supernatural do not always "depend on large numbers, proper feelings, loud prayers, or even spiritual maturity." He insists, however, it requires "complete dependence on God."2
Wayne M. Warner
____________
1. James Earl Massey, Concerning Christian Unity (Anderson: Warner Press, Inc., 1979), p. 7.
2. Neil Wiseman, "Unique Supernatural Resources for Renewal," Preacher's Magazine, editor, Neil Wiseman (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, Summer 2000, Volume 75, Number 4), pp. 7--12.
Have You Changed Your Mind Lately?
Matthew 21:23--32
Introduction
People from Missouri often pride themselves on their state's nickname: the "Show Me" state. They will be skeptical about something they hear until they can see the facts for themselves. Why this attitude was ever associated with Missouri is unclear to outsiders.
The priests and leaders of Israel who confronted Jesus after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and his clearing of the Temple courts, had such an attitude. They wanted to know the source of Jesus' authority for doing the things he had just done. Jesus would not give them the evidence that they sought. Instead he gave them a lesson about repentance, about changing their minds, the basic meaning of the word repentance. Do you or I need to change our minds about Him? Have you changed your mind lately?
I. Recognizing Jesus
Jesus answered their question with a question. He asked them about the source of the authority expressed by John the Baptist. But they could answer him neither honestly (they thought John was not truly a prophet) nor dishonestly (claiming that they recognized God had sent him, when in fact they had not believed him). So since they would not answer Jesus, He refused to answer them.
This exchange prompted Jesus to speak a parable - concerning two sons and their different reactions to their father's command. One son initially refused to obey his father's wish, but then repented and went to work in the field. The other son replied immediately that he would obey, but then he never did. Jesus asked His hearers which son had done the father's will. The answer was of course the first son.
Jesus confronted them with their refusal to believe John the Baptist, especially since John had come declaring clearly the righteousness of God. By contrast, according to Jesus, tax collectors and prostitutes had believed John. But for the Temple leaders and elders John did not fit their expectations of one who would be sent from God. They did not repent or change their minds when they saw how many others believed John. The changes among the irreligious folks were evidence of the power of God at work in John. But the leaders could not see it, and so the tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the kingdom of God ahead of them.
If they had genuinely recognized John they would have recognized Jesus also. If they had changed their minds - had repented of their decisions to reject John - they would have been able to recognize and accept Jesus. They would not have asked Him to measure up to their standards of authority, but would have submitted to His authority. Do you or I ever have that attitude toward Jesus? Do we expect Him to fit into our preconceptions? We need to repent, to change our minds, exactly as Jesus emphasized in the parable.
II. Repenting or reneging?
Jesus told the story of the two sons to offer the elders and priests another opportunity to change their minds. Their attitudes toward John and Jesus betrayed their claims of religious leadership in Israel. They were like the son who told his father he would go and work in the field but never obeyed. They claimed to know and understand God's ways with will, but they could not recognize when God visited His people anew. They were saying "Yes" to God, but not following through with obeying God's will.
Jesus challenged them to dare to rethink their identities and attitudes. He offered them the chance to repent, to change their minds. They could become like the son who initially refused the father's command but who repented and obeyed the father's wishes.
And here is the heart of this passage's truth for us. In our response to Jesus are we more like the first son or the second? Do our claims of commitment fail to produce actions consistent with obedience? If so, we need to repent.
Or do we find ourselves reacting negatively to what Jesus is asking us to do? His grace always affords us opportunity to repent, as did the first son, and then live out our change of mind in obedience.
Conclusion
Where do you find yourself in this parable? Do you need to change your mind?
Hal A. Cauthron
