 by Tim Isbell A long time ago I realized that it is too difficult for parishioners to get the top-level view of God's story by listening to weekly sermons from bite-sized scriptures every week. Even adding to this their reading of scripture through the week, they still have a hard time assembling the grand trajectory of God's story. Somewhere in the past, I heard Haddon Robinson say something like, "You know, there really are only about 8 big ideas in Christian faith people really need to grasp." I realized that having this understanding might make it easier for parishioners to understand the larger picture. But he didn't say what these were! I looked for them in a few places, without success. So I invited the Mandarin and Cantonese pastors who work with me at New Life to take on the project of generating our own list. We didn't get it down to eight, but we did get it to ten. Then we set out to preach one sermon on each of our 10 Big Ideas, one at a time, distributed over about 3 years. We preached these on Sundays where our sermon text could match the Revised Common Lectionary. Some of these Big Ideas fall right no Christian holidays, but even these can fit many other places in your preaching calendar. One other pastor, David Hoi, worked through the entire list with me. Along the way, Samuel Ng, Mike Whitten, and John Yiu also contributed their insights to the project. One last item: there is no meaning to the order of the 10 sermons posted below. Number 10 is as "big" an idea as number 1. This just happens to be the order in which we preached them at New Life. Blessings, Tim Introductory sermon: The Result of Right WorshipJer 2.5 (… They worshiped worthless idols, only to become worthless themselves.), 2 Cor 3.18(And we… are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.), Ps 115.8 (And those who make idols are just like them...) Thesis: Understanding the 10 big ideas of Christian faith helps us build a prevailing life, grow a heart like God’s, and witness more fruitfully. (or, if used as a stand-alone sermon: We become like what we worship.) This sermon serves two purposes. It is the introductory sermon for the series: The 10 Big Ideas of Christian Faith. Or you can also easily adapt it as an extraordinarily strong stand-alone sermon to make the point that we become what we worship. It's one of the very best sermons God ever gave me. It includes great stories to make an incredibly important point. While editing it for posting on this site I ended up in tears of joy. 1. Trinity – the Divine TeamRomans 5.1-5 (C Trinity)... Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand... Thesis: The Christian doctrine of the Trinity is a key differentiator from other faith religions, and it affirms that God is beyond us, beside us, and within us. 2. Go, Multiply – Sharing the Good News2 Tim 2.8-10 (RCL C Proper 23) ... because I preach this Good News, I am suffering and have been chained like a criminal. Thesis: Our assignment to Go Multiply is easier than people think because God does the work, mostly through the willing (but often unknowing) ordinary intersections Christians have with unchurched people. 3. Incarnation – God Among UsJohn 1.1-14 (ABC Christmas Day), John's poetic telling of the incarnation. , also can be revised to fit Matt 1.18-25, (A Advent 4). Thesis: From the beginning, God has desired to live among his people. This sermon leverages off of a question an inquirer asked me after reading Exodus: "Why does God only allow Moses to see Him and why does God perform miracles and teachings only through Moses? Could God teach the Israelites more directly so ordinary people will not sin? I think there were possibly people that just didn’t trust Moses from time to time. If these people saw or heard God directly, they would not have turned away from God.” The sermon responds to the question by tracing the desire of God to be with his people in the Moses story and on into the Jesus story in the New Testament. Through our work together on reading the Bible using the Story Line Method, he did indeed become a Christian.
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Preaching > >SERMON COLLECTIONS >
Ten Big Ideas of Christian Faith
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