I love being a pastor. When I preach the Word, I know why God made me. It is a wonderful thing to love doing what you do for a living. But my favorite sermons are the ones based on the stories of the Bible. This Sunday (July 12), I'll begin a series of messages I'm calling "We Can Be Heroes." I must give credit to my daughter Kayleigh for drawing the logo you see above (and I suppose I should credit David Bowie for the series title, since that was one of his songs way back when...though I doubt he'll hear about this).
Here's the premise: All through the Bible, God uses the most marginal people to do His most spectacular work. He calls on a fugitive in his 80s to face Pharaoh, king of the most powerful nation on the Earth, and lead His people to freedom. He chooses a little shepherd boy to defeat a ten-foot-tall giant. He summons a former demoniac woman to be the first witness of His resurrection, and a loudmouth fisherman to be the leader of His first congregation. Yet somehow, we have missed that message. We seem to think today that God does His work through the beautiful and talented (converted beauty queens and athletes), the powerful (self-proclaimed Christian politicians), and the seminary-trained (preachers like yours truly). Yet if His word is any indication of His tendencies (and I think it is), He's much more likely to do BIG things through unlikely people.
In this series, we'll look at six lesser known stories that prove that point:
July 12 The Dysfunctional Family (The story of Jacob, Rachel and Leah). God can use even people from messed-up backgrounds.
July 19 The Not-So-Pretty Woman (The Story of Rahab, Joshua 2). God can use even people with a terrible past, and some rough edges in the present.
July 26 The Geezer (The Story of Caleb) God can use anyone, no matter their age.
August 2 The Chicken (The Story of Gideon). God can even use cowards.
August 9 The Mule (The Story of Jonah). God can even use people who disobey Him. He is relentless in chasing down His wayward children and accomplishing His will in spite of us.
August 16 we'll take a break from the series, as Mike Satterfield preaches on Disciple Now (Yes, THAT Mike Satterfield!).
Sunday August 23 The Bad Boy (The Story of Jephthah). God can use even people who society rejects. (Lord’s Supper service)
4 comments:
"How to Pray for Our Church" was excellent. You said a lot without being offensive to other Houston mega-churches. You should have a group email list that includes the ministers of all the other Baptist churches in Houston. You could send your notes on this sermon to them.
Thanks for the kind words. I think it MIGHT be just a tad presumptuous for me to send my sermon notes to other ministers unsolicited, but I thank you sincerely for the compliment. Incidentally, you have quite the screen name. What do you have against facebook?
Oh, I really have nothing serious against Facebook. I Googled a classmate to see what the world had to say about him. I knew there would be "stuff" since he is an attorney and divorced. Usually reasons for people to be on a Google search. I found that he was on Facebook. I had no idea how liberal he is based on what his page said. He was connected to another classmate and that people was a very conservative judge that was a classmate of ours. The picture on his page is so unlike him and the bio is so conservative. Facebook does not give a person a chance to quickly explain a conservative judge wearing 60's clothing while flashing a peace sign. He can't take it off since everything on Facebook is supposed to be owned by Facebook and others can download pictures and data to do whatever they want with it. Just about anything can be stolen off the internet and abused even if Facebook tells us otherwise. The past information on the internet will come back to haunt people. Just like Bill Clinton's old affairs and other politicians past blunders that they thought were hidden. :-) I believe thoughts like a person liking fish are alright, etc. But ideas or things that need more explaining, like a person liking Lyndon LaRouche are not good to put out in public. What do they said about people discussing politics, sex, and religion at parties? Why do it on Facebook if you wouldn't at a party. My main thing against Facebook would be that I really don't care what a person likes that I don't know or do know but don't talk to much anymore. If i really cared, I would be their friend and find out gradually that way. For example, I could put "Dislikes - Facebook" on Facebook. Doesn't explain why. Does anybody really care what I think in Canada or Sudan? I have enough friends at church that I don't have the time to talk to "virtual" friends or know their bio on the internet. Oops! I forgot the biggest curiosity about Facebook? Why does a person have to invite somebody to see their page sometimes? If they put it out there shouldn't they be proud of it? If you don't want "crazies" looking or replying then maybe Facebook is not the place to air their bio and pictures. Kind of like telling your children to stay away from "bad" places or people. One is on land the other in cyber space. TMI. :-) Just joking about telling other ministers. Good job though
I think it's hard to take the spotlight off ourselves..
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Jenifer
Wireless Home Alarm Security Systems
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