The Wisdom Books: Proverbs Sermon #3
The Book of Proverbs and the Hook-Up Culture: How singles & marrieds can navigate sexual temptations, traps and troubles in relationships.
The book of Proverbs instructs us on how to grow in wisdom by discerning the difference between wisdom and folly in matters of sex, relationships and family. Our ability to understand these truths and orient our lives and relationships accordingly could mean the very survival of our Christian faith, western civilization culture and personal salvation. Everything stands or falls on our fidelity to a biblical understanding of faith and family.
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The Wisdom Books: Proverbs Sermon #2
Becoming a Symbol and Source of Blessing: the gift and gauntlet of work
Proverbs 1:1-7 and Proverbs 30:24-28
One of the larger themes within Proverbs revolves around the development of the worker for work. God equips us with wisdom from the scriptures to help develop us to be a symbol and source of blessing through the gift and gauntlet of work.
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The Wisdom Books: Proverbs Sermon #1
Sermon #1: Wisdom and the Honeybee
This first sermon on Proverbs explores six main themes of life in Proverbs through the life of HoneyBees. Proverbs 24:13-14 says: “My son, eat honey—it’s good for you; the honey that drips from the comb is sweet in your mouth. Know, too, that wisdom is good for your soul: if you find it, your reward will be a bright future and an enduring hope!”
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The Resurrection and the Re-Enchantment of Life
So how does the extraordinary Resurrection of Jesus impact the ordinary lives of people like you and me? In other words, how do we ‘Practice Resurrection?’ How does Jesus rising from the dead move from a historical fact with eternal consequence, turn into a guiding and sustaining influence in all the spheres of our common lives?
I’d like to show how the resurrection of Jesus impacts three spheres of life:
1. The Resurrection assures us of redemption: our inner life.
2. The Resurrection brings re-enchantment to everyday life: our home and work life.
3. The Resurrection brings Restoration to relationships: our relational life.
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The Wisdom Books: Psalms Sermon #3
Sermon #3 Confronting evil with the Psalms….Psalm 74 & Mark 11:12-25
“Let those who love the Lord hate evil…” -Psalm 97:10
“Reading the Psalms is dangerous because the words of the poets and the prophets provoke us to examine what is wrong in the world, with others, with ourselves and with God. I know that you may balk at saying anything is wrong with God. In our head, we probably know that ultimately there is nothing wrong with God, we just don’t know what’s going on? We can’t see what He sees? We don’t know why He is doing what He is doing? But the heart doesn’t always line up with what our heads might be able to intellectually acknowledge. When we pray the psalms they become the smelter’s pot where we throw everything we think, feel and experience into and in time out comes a refined reality that reflects wisdom. But the biblical process or prayer isn’t a demanding, totalitarian like submission or a Pinterest picture of zen meditative ambivalence. Biblical spirituality doesn’t allow us to choose peace with the powers…but to confront them ourselves and in the world around us. The prayer examples of the biblical witness are more wrestlings and wranglings than distance and detachment.”
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The Wisdom Books: Psalms Sermon #2
Created for Creation: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.” -Psalm 24:1
We continue our exploration of the Psalms this week with a look at how we are Created for Creation. The Psalms help us unite the experiences of Earth with the realities and mysteries of Heaven. We learn to pray and sing with all the earthiness of earth. We were never meant to be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.
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The Wisdom Books: Psalms Sermon #1
The Psalms are not a religious fantasy or a young person’s diary of unattainable dreams and gushings. They are a companion for your pilgrimage, a sage for you sufferings, a fountain for your joys, a canyon for your screams, a soft field for your recoverings, a orchard for hunger, a well for thirst. They are the words given to you to sing and pray out your life. They are eternal words meant for the creation and recreation of all things. Holy words, powerful speakings that God has provided for us when we know not what to say, sing or pray. This sermon gives a introduction to the psalms and why your world can be remade through living, reading, praying and singing them.
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Sermon #3 Job’s Friends: The place of Friendship in Suffering
Healthy friendships are foundational to living a life of meaning and fruitfulness. God said at the dawn of human creation that is not good that we are alone and that all need helpers. (Genesis 2:18). Unfortunately we often hurt more than help one another in life. This sermon examines Job’s friends and the types of signs we can see in their words that will help us determine if we are building friendships that truly help or hurt us.
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Sermon #2: God & Darkness: Why a Christian can be spiritually healthy and mentally ill.
In this sermon I discuss Job and mental illness. I share from my own journey, scripture and science on why you can be spiritually healthy and mentally ill. I know that might sound like a premise that is somehow incongruent with how many people present the Christian life but I ask that you listen and judge for yourself if my premise is tenable.
1. God stands with you and will defend you: Job 42:7-10
2. God won’t abuse you: Matthew 12:15-20
3. God won’t abandon you: Romans 8:38
4. God is the anchor of your soul: Hebrews 6:13, 19-20
5. God can bring meaning out of our pain and suffering: Isaiah 58:9-12
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