The Sermon God is Preaching
Two weeks ago a new friend mentioned something he was thinking through and talking about with his small group. He was asking himself and the people he loved, "What is the sermon God has been preaching?" When I asked him what he meant by that, he told me a couple of stories.
"When I was a kid," he said, "I would come home from Trick or Treat and eat all of my candy at once. I would just stuff my mouth full to keep my big brother from taking any. The problem was that all the flavors mixed together didn't taste very good and even though he was eating candy it didn't taste very good.
"Some time ago I was frustrated because I felt like I was supposed to be learning all this stuff. I felt like I should read all these books and listen to all these sermons and digest all these Bible classes and it was like I was at a huge buffet trying to eat everything at once. None of it tasted very good. One day I was thinking about this and I felt like the Lord said, 'I am not doing that to you. I am not trying to stuff you. I want you to feed on someting wonderful and good and let it melt in your mouth and digest and become a part of you.'"
Isn't that a great thought? Haven't you had times when you felt like you kept coming back to a theme? Haven't you noticed that it seems like a lesson or teaching keeps popping up over weeks or months or even years. It's like God keeps bringing me back around to a principle or a teaching. Sometimes I feel slow. But God with amazing patience keeps bringing me back. Maybe I should be paying more attention. I have a feeling that what God wants is for me not just to see it, but to get it until it becomes part of me.
I think my friend has a great question. What sermon has God been preaching to you lately?
Grace.
posted by Tod Brown at 11:49 AM
5 Comments:
God's current sermon is entitled "Love One Another". He's pounding it into me, day after day. Love one another. I realize now that He wants us to love one another differently than we love the rest of the world, just like He loves us differently than He loves the rest of the world. I'm still working through all that that means, but it has become like a new pair of glasses through which I filter all of reality. Putting my brother first seems so simple and straightforward. I just never really thought about the implications so much. The biggest part of that right now is with the body of Christ in my city. I have brothers and sisters in my own city who are really poor. I need to figure out what it means to love them. Figuring out how to love them is more important than figuring out how to love the lost people in my city. I'd love to hear your responses.
Randy Brown
May 1, 2005 at 2:32 PM
Randy,
That's a great sermon. Just this morning I read this from Brian Masburn:
I had a good cry tonight.
Tomorrow I bring Jesus' words that really challenge the extent to which we must love if we want our identity to be wrapped up in our sonship with God. We must love our enemies.
I've been listening to the people in this church. I watch how they act around each other. I see clearly the hurt behind the talk. People who love talking about loving the lost have given up on each other.
We don't know how to love each other. We don't know how to be loved by each other.
I guess I could wax philosophical and talk about how the previous generation was so private and that hinders vulnerable conversation with each other and with the younger generations, but all I would be saying is that "we don't know how to love each other."
I guess I could get analytical and explain the realistic nature of humanity that doesn't 'risk' their real selves, warts and all, unless the recipients are deemed "trustworthy", but all I would be saying is that "we don't know how to love each other."
I guess I could be rational and justify some of the deep hurt and fear of hurt that has come between my brothers and sisters because of past trauma, past betrayal, past hurtful words or actions, past lies...but all I would be saying is that "we don't know how to love each other."
I was hurting tonight because I wanted to challenge and inspire my church family to be Christ's church by really doing the hard work of loving their enemies when I realized that it is easier and less emotional for the people I've talked to and watched to imagine having love for a far-off character like Saddam Hussein than it is for them to actually go to a brother who has offended them in the ancient past and say, "I love you still." Our "enemies" are among us...they are this church's ex-spouses, ex-friends, ex-elders, ex-deacons, ex-brothers and sisters, ex-ministers...and they are this church's current spouses, friends, elders, deacons, brothers, sisters, ministers.
Jesus didn't say they would know we were disciples of Jesus because of our love for our enemies, but by our love for each other. Only tonight did I get instruction from God to point it out that for so many of us, it's the same thing.
May God's Spirit bring us to brokenness before each other, pridelessness with each other, the heart of Jesus' understanding that made him say, "Father, forgive them...they didn't know what they were doing."
Brian Mashburn, "On Becoming Truer"
http://brianmashburn.blogspot.com
May 2, 2005 at 7:45 AM
I love this line:
"Jesus didn't say they would know we were disciples of Jesus because of our love for our enemies, but by our love for each other. Only tonight did I get instruction from God to point it out that for so many of us, it's the same thing."
Brilliant. Maybe loving one another and loving my enemy start pretty close to me. I agree that loving my poor brothers and sisters is fundamental. I think my training for that is in my house and in my LifeGroup. And it is more important than figuring out how to love lost people. I can't really love lost people I don't know until I really love the irritating and hurtful saved people I know. And loving poor brothers and sisters is more difficult and complicated than just being generous. Generosity is relatively easy--even pagans are generous when they see need--loving in a way that preserves dignity and values their contribution is a completely different matters.
May 2, 2005 at 7:52 AM
God has been preaching a sermon to me for some time, although I normally choose to not listen. I hear the word and I tune out the message, so He just keeps on preaching. One day I will listen, He will orchestrate a scenario where it will be impossible not to listen.
Loving the poor is complicated Tod. They have so many material needs but those should be overshadowed by the deeper need to be loved. That unconditional love that says to them, WHO you are is special and important.
The lesson of love is learned in our homes when we are young. We love our parents, sisters and brothers. That same lesson should be applied to our family in Christ; that lesson learned, we can begin to love others with a love that draws them to Christ, our Brother.
It is interesting how we can put conditions on love; those conditions are normally superficial, i.e. the way we look, or the language we speak, or our social status. How would it be if we began to love from our heart, pouring out love to another heart, bypassing all that is on the surface. Oh wait, we could call it, by-pass surgery!
May 3, 2005 at 12:22 PM
You guys hear sermons?! All I seem to hear are my own soliloquies. I like the way Sara Groves says it, "I don't hear so well and I was wondering if you could speak up. I know that you tore the veil so I could sit with you in person and hear what you're saying, but right now, I just can't hear you." I guess I need to be more spiritual.
May 4, 2005 at 3:04 PM
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