From Sampler to Sower

Write Them On My Heart

Weekend Teaching Series: Write them On My Heart (A series on the 10 Commandments)

Message Title: Word Ten: No Coveting What Belongs to Another

Sermon in a Sentence: In a world filled with greedy actions motivated by self-interest, God calls his people to serve others from a heart of love.

Text(s): Genesis 2:9, 3:6; Deuteronomy 5:21, Psalm 19:9-10, 68:19, Song of Songs 2:3, Romans 7:7-8

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 6 of 10, Pretty straightfoward service, only video was a pre-service countdown.  The only hard part was doing Chrsitmas songs for worship because we don’t play those a lot.  (That and the sleet storm that kept more than half our crowd away.)

Message Summary:

We wrapped up our 10 Commandments series with a review of the commandments so far.

We noted:

• They aren’t really commandments — with the exception of #5, none are in the imperative case and the Bible calls them the 10 “Words” or “decalogue”.
• They aren’t commandments because commandments are essentially options.  Rules provide ultimatums – either do this or if not, the consequence will be . . .  – and then leave the choice to obey with the hearer.
• The 10 Words are statements of fact.  They are not optional.  If we are God’s people, this is how we will live.  God does not say “Don’t murder or else. . . “  He simply states “You will not murder.”
• The first “half” (1-4) deal with our relationship with God the second half (5-9) deal with our relationship with others.
• And while the common approach to the Ten Words is to reduce them to a list of rules to hang on the wall and force others to abide by them, God actually desires to write these qualities on our heart, making us into the type of people he describes.

(more…)

Whoo-hoo!  According to the comments, Josh Griffin of morethandodgeball.com and Saddleback Church has been to the site and checked out the weekly reviews.  That matters to me because Josh was the inspiration for this series of posts.  Now, if more of you youth pastors out there would start posting weekly reviews I’d really be happy.  Post one on your blog, and post the link in the comments so we can check it out.

Weekend Teaching Series: Write them On My Heart (A series on the 10 Commandments)

Message Title: Word Nine: No False Testimony

Sermon in a Sentence: The ninth word prohibits using our words to hurt others through dishonesty, fraud, gossip, complaints or bullying.

Text(s): Deuteronomy 5:20; 1 Kings 21; James 3:6; Ephesians 4:29

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 9 out of 10, couple of videos, couple of new songs (at least that we don’t play on a regular basis) and an attempt at using Twitter to help reinforce the message meant this was anything but the same old, same old for our staff.

Message Summary:

We began by looking at the story of Naboth’s vineyard from 1 Kings 21.  Long story short, when Queen Jezebel found her husband whining because Naboth refused to sell his vineyard, she arranged for two false witnesses to testify against Naboth.  Naboth is stoned for a crime he didn’t commit.  Ahab seizes his property.  And Elijah confronts the wicked king, pronouncing God’s judgment on the crime of false testimony, underscoring how seriously He takes the ninth commandment.

(more…)

Weekend Teaching Series: Write them On My Heart (A series on the 10 Commandments)

Message Title: Word Eight: No Stealing!

Sermon in a Sentence: We must not steal anyone’s stuff, livelihood or freedom.

Text(s): Exodus 21:16, 22:1, 7; Deuteronomy 5:19, 24:7; Joshua 7;

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 6 of 10; I’m just now realizing how arbitrary these numbers are, but I went with 6 because there was one video to worry about.

Message Summary:

We began with the story of Achan’s sin.  In a nutshell, during the battle of Jericho, Joshua instructed his soldiers that anything made out of metal was devoted to God and could not be taken from the city.  Achan disobeyed, taking for himself a robe, 5 pounds of silver coins, and a wedge of gold that weighed a little more than a pound.  Burying them in his tent, he assumed no one knew.  But when Joshua sent a force of about 3,000 men to attack the small and relatively weak town of Ai, Isreal’s army was defeated.  God revealed to Joshua that it was the result of Achan’s sin of stealing.  Achan and everything he had, his tent, his belongings, his livestock, even his family were brought before Joshua.  They were all stoned until dead, and the entire lot was burned.  Finally, a monument of stones was piled over the ashes to remind Isreal in coming generations of how seriously God took Achan’s sin.

Of course it should come as no surprise that God condemns theft.  After all it is covered in the eighth command – you will not steal.

We examined the language of the eighth command, looking at the Hebrew word for “steal.”  It is ganab which literally means to take something that isn’t yours without the owner’s knowledge or consent. (See the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament).  I realize how deeply profound such a definition is.  But we did talk about the difference between gazal (to take by force) and ganab (to take by sneakiness).

But what can be ganab-ed?

(more…)

Write Them on My Heart

After a week’s hiatus for Thanksgiving, I’m back to blogging.  We’ll get things restarted with a recap of last Tuesday’s Water’s Edge services.

Weekend Teaching Series: Write them On My Heart (A series on the 10 Commandments)

Message Title: Word Seven: You Will Not Commit Adultery

Sermon in a Sentence: God’s plan for marriage: One man, one woman, becoming one flesh, for one lifetime.

Text(s): Genesis 1:27, 2:23-24; Matthew 19:1-12; 1 Corinthians 7:4; Ephesians 5:25-33

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 5 of 10 extremely straightforward service, the difficulty was communicating about adultery in a way teens found relevant.  Way too easy to simply skip past that one and say “It doesn’t apply to me because I’m not married yet.”

Message Summary: We started by challenging that viewpoint that this command doesn’t apply to us because we aren’t married yet (or at least my teens aren’t – I am.)  We looked at the fact that the command about murder, far from simply prohibiting premeditated fatal violence actually calls the people of God to a profound respect for life.  In the same way this command calls those who would call themselves God’s children to have and to demonstrate a profound respect for marriage.

(more…)

Weekend Teaching Series: Write them On My Heart (A series on the 10 Commandments)

Message Title: Word Six: You Will Not Murder

Sermon in a Sentence: We must not treat life with such a casual disregard that someone else loses theirs because of it.

Text(s): Deuteronomy 5:17; Psalm 51:4; Genesis 9:6; Romans 12:19

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 5 of 10; At least from a technical standpoint it was seemingly easy (though we had no end of sound glitches), the only difficulty was preaching “You shall not murder” to a bunch of teens who assume that verse doesn’t apply to them, since they’re not murderers and all.

Message Summary: We started by looking at the form and structure of the ten commandments, noting that with the shift from first half to second comes a shift of focus on our relationships with God to our relationships with each other.  We noted how the last five appear, not as five separate commands, but as a single run-on sentence – a grammatical feature lost in most modern translations.  And they seem to be ordered in descending severity: murder, which is the destruction of someone’s body; adultery which is the violation of someone’s body; theft, the violation of someone’s property by force; false testimony, the violation of someone’s property by deceit; and covetousness, the violation of someone’s property by intent.  Yet since they are all connected, it’s not really one is worse than any of the others, instead it’s the realization that if we violate one, we violate the community they all protect.

(more…)

Weekend Teaching Series: Write them On My Heart (A series on the 10 Commandments)

Message Title: Word Five: You will Honor Your Father and Mother

Sermon in a Sentence: God calls us to understand the importance of our parents in our life, and to treat them with the respect they deserve.

Text(s): Deuteronomy 5:16; Ephesians 6:1

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 7 of 10; Two video clips tonight, including one that needed some editing.  Lots of unusual buttons and cues for tech crew.  But what really made it tough was the subject matter.  If you’re honest and faithful both to scripture and the realities in which your teens live, this subject can be messy and brings up tough questions that defy easy answers.

Message Summary: We started by breaking out the Beat Box and kickin’ it old school.  The year was 1988.  It was the summer after my eighth grade year.  (And yes, that really is me on the right.)  I was at Purdue university, enrolled in their Star program, taking classes in Biology and Chemistry.  I was walking from my dorm to the science building for class when a car drove by with windows down.  And for the first time in my life, this boy from Nowhereville, Indiana heard rap.  It was DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince with their 1988 hit “Parents Just Don’t Understand”

(Did you know that iTunes actually sells this old music video?  It was at this point that we played it. Or at least the first “verse.” Before you show it, take time to examine the graffiti in the background and edit out any you find too offensive. It goes by quick and is hard to notice, but you might want to redact some of it.)

(more…)