Embedded Files
This page is a collection of supplemental resources related to my ministry in the Monterey Living Hope Nazarene Church in June and July 2011. Much of this material is already available around my website, but this page conveniently gathers these particular resources into one place.
You can access the sermon notes and PowerPoint files I used in Monterey by clicking on the link connected to each sermon title.
Blessings, Tim
June 5, 2011: After Death... New Life (Paschal Mystery 1)
John 20.1-18. (see filing cabinet at the bottom of the page for complete notes)
Thesis: Central to Christian faith is the Paschal Mystery: a process of transformation where we, after undergoing some kind of death, receive new life and a new spirit.
Paschal Mystery. This link contains a one-page overview of this 2 sermon series. There you will also find a link to download the sermon's notes and also the PowerPoint slides.
The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser. This book is my original source where I learned about the Paschal Mystery approach to packaging the Good News of Jesus Christ. Rolheiser is a bit of a theologian so the reading level is about at the undergraduate college level.
Used during teachable moment prior to prayer: God is in control, despite all appearances to the contrary. That's what we believe. That's what we have seen. That's what we have to share with our world.
Revised Common Lectionary. On my visits to Monterey, I intend to somewhat follow the scriptures suggested in the Revised Common Lectionary. This first Paschal Mystery sermon connects to Year A, Easter Sunday. I'm using it on June 5th because it sets up the second Paschal Mystery sermon that comes on Pentecost Sunday - June 12!
June 12: After New Life... New Spirit (Paschal Mystery 2)
Acts 1.1-13, 2.1-18 (Year A, Pentecost Sunday) (see filing cabinet at the bottom of the page for complete notes)
Thesis: In the Paschal Mystery, Pentecost is the Holy Spirit coming into the life of every believer in order to live out the resurrected life of Christ through that believer.
The Life God Blesses by Gordon MacDonald. In this sermon, I use some anecdotes that I picked up from this book. One was the New York City bus story, the other was his prep school story of how he learned to take on the characteristics of the Father. MacDonald's writing is very easy and helpful devotional reading. For a little more on him, see Reading Suggestions.
In this message, I briefly raised the topic of living Ordinary Practices, the kind God loves to use to accomplish extraordinary things. For more on this concept, see Evangelism for the Rest of Us. This is material that I will probably develop further during my time in Monterey.
June 26: Leaning Against Culture
Gen 22.1-14 (Year A, Proper 8). This is the story of Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac. (see filing cabinet at the bottom of the page for complete notes)
Thesis: The perennial call on the God-follower is to live against many of the winds of the prevailing culture, trusting God with everything (even including the “gifts” he gave you).
At the beginning of the sermon, I expect to highlight the Christian calendar and the Revised Common Lectionary. For more depth, check out these 3 web pages: Lectionary Basics, Lectionary Preaching, and Gloria's Webpage. This last link gathers a wide range of conventional lectionary information in one place. It also includes something I have not seen anywhere else: a daily Bible reading plan that guides readers through the entire biblical text in 3 years. These daily readings connect with the following Sunday lection scriptures! When you go to Gloria's Webpage, be sure to take a look at Gloria's Frequently Asked Questions. There you will find a delightful description of the lectionary and its use at New Life.
In this sermon, I briefly mention that Abram lived in a conversational relationship with God. You can find much more about this in Hearing God, Developing a Conversational Relationship with God by Dallas Willard. It's a great book and contributed greatly to my own conversational relationship with God.
The sermon ended with this appeal: Trust God this week in everything, especially that one last thing.
Prayer time teachable moment. I intend to introduce folks to a different spin on the place of praise in prayer. For more on this, go to the filing cabinet below and download the file "Object of passion in prayer."
July 10: Holiness, Getting It in Context
Romans 7 & 8. (Year A, Propers 9 & 10)
Thesis: It is impossible to live a holy life by administering the Law within ourselves. Holy living is possible only as a by-product of a passionate love affair with Jesus leads us to relinquish our own sovereignty and trust all dimensions of our own lives to the Spirit of Jesus living within us. As we live in this “space” the Spirit graciously administers the Law in our lives.
Notes for the sermon are posted below, as usual.
Prayer time teachable moment. There are some things we can pray for that God does not want to give us, like revenge or a mistress. There are some that he might give us, like healing or a new job. And there are some that we know for sure he wants to give us, like hunger for holiness, forgiveness from sin, patience, character that conforms to the character of Jesus. Let's make sure we're aligning our will with God's will and pray for some of these things we know God wants to give. Things such as
Someone to experience God's presence.
God to convict someone of their sin.
A deeper relationship with Jesus.
A hunger for holiness.
July 17: The Farming Life
Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23 (today is Proper 11, but this sermon is from the gospel of Proper 10)
Thesis: God values extravagance above efficiency so he casts his grace on all kinds of people, and invites his followers to join him in the farming ministry.
In the last part of this sermon, I touched on some of the concepts in Evangelism for the Rest of Us. I am likely to go deeper into this when I peach next: 7/31.
Kevin M. and the Worship Team taught us the prayer acronym: ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication). Then they led us musically in the praying the A and the C. In a teachable moment before the Morning Prayer I brought in 2 other acronyms and related these to the S (supplication). These additional acronyms facilitated all of us BLESSing a FRAN. BLESS is an acronym for 5 dimensions we can ask God to bless someone in Body, Labor, Emotions, Social, Spiritual). FRANs is an acronym for Friends, Relatives, Associates, and Neighbors. I've attached the BLESS a FRAN flyer at the bottom of this webpage. It's the same flyer Lyle handed out in worship.
Notes for this sermon are attached to this web page, along with with the BLESS a FRAN form. See below.
July 31: The Grand Partnership
John 6.1-13, 1 Peter 3.15
Thesis: Lifesaving is a Grand Adventure, and it’s worth giving our life to.
Here's the link to the Before Christ, Then Christ, After Christ examples.
The Evangelism for the Rest of Us provides a lot more teaching on living a contagious life.
Here's the link to the Before, Then Christ, After examples.
For the details of how to read the whole storyline of the Bible by reading only 1/3 of the pages, and also to get the details of the "Graduate Level Bible Study" approach, go to Bible Reading Strategies and scan down to the "Story Line Plan."
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