Sermon Help

I am preaching 4 times in the coming 2 months. I would love your help in one or two ways.

1. Suggest a Text I should preach on (and why you suggest that text)
2. Help me study it (if you live close by - come one in and study a text with me; if you live far away, email your study thoughts on it)

"Don't be a wuss"

2 Kinds Of People

Funny
There are three kinds of people. Those who CAN count and those who CAN'T count (my bro said it - but probably didn't make it up).


SERIOUS
I've heard similar statements - this was wonderfully concise.

There are two reasons people don't want to become a Christian.
1) They've never met a Christian
2) They've met a Christian.

What does Church accomplish? I can't remember one sermon I've ever heard.

A regular church attender wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now, "he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So I think I'm wasting time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all." This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of theditor.
It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals, but for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me those meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"

I don't know who to give credit to for this. I can't verify that the story is true. The point remains. I think it might even apply to youth group.

Favorite Songs - Last Night of Youth Group

Our last night of youth group before the year ends will be a shorter night. We'll sing and pray. If you have a favorite song, tell me what it is so we can work it in. Just in general I'd love to know your favorite songs for youth group.

Monty Python Sketches

I enjoy Monty Python when he is appropriate. There is something about his humor that makes me laugh hard. I happened to steal a few lines from the Holy Grail movie for a junior high Bible Skit from 1 Samuel 14 that I just made. If there are any sketches you want to check out, here is the place.

I personally recommend the Argument Clinic, The Dead Parrot, and The Smugglers. He can be crude in some skits, but these are stinkin funny.

Martin Luther, Justification by Faith, and Imputation

God works in mysterious ways. Martin Luther became a monk because of being afraid during a thunderstorm. As a monk he feared God. God's righteousness was a damning concept to him - reminding Martin of God's wrath and justice. He wanted a merciful God - a God he could love. He finally met this God through the pages of Scritpure - especially Romans. As I struggle to understand God's righteousness (the moral purity that God alone has - He is the eternally perfect standard of what is right) and our sin - and how a just God could save and love me - wow - it's crazy amazing. To think on righteousness I must think of its verb - justification - an act of God's free grace to sinners, in which He pardons all their sins, accepts and counts them righteous in His sight; not for anything in them or done by them, but only because of who Jesus is and what He has done. By faith, Christ's righteousness is placed upon them (Westminster Catechism - modifed by me).

Now I must consider Imputation - the act of attributing or reckoning or counting to someone something that was someone else's (my own definition). There is a two-fold imputation that takes place when we are saved.
1 Our sin is imputed to Christ - placed upon Him - he bears it for us
2 His righteousness is imputed to us - we are declared (not made or infused) to be righteous because of Christ - we are credited with Jesus' righteousness.

John Piper shows a very practical side of imputation. He is speaking of the marriage relationship but could have been speaking of any relationship.

"I will no longer think merely in terms of whether my expectations are met in practice. I will, for Christ's sake, regard you the way God regards me—complete and accepted in Christ— and thus to be helped and blessed and nurtured and cherished, even if, in practice, you fail."

Praise be to God that our just God is merciful - and so unfair. He pardons our sin (by imputing it to Christ's account) and declares us to be righteous (by imputing Christ's righteousness to our account).

I must agree with Paul when he writes in Romans 11:33-36

33Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34"For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?"
35"Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?
36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Theology is so practical - even when we don't have a pretty little application. It is practical because the better we know Jesus, the more we'll become like Him. May you be blown away by imputation - as Luther was.

More Girl Feed Boy Pics

Girl Feed Boy

The girls just put together a wonderful evening for us guys. What a night? They took us back in time to the 40s and had a "welcome home troops" dinner for us - that ended in murder (the very pretty admiral was poisoned - ultimately we found out this was done by none other the Lady of the house). Thanks soooo much ladies!!! Guys - give the girls their props.