SUNDAY SERMON COMMENTS (10.09.05)
Here are thoughts from Sunday's sermon. I am looking forward to the comments.
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SELF-CONTROL
First we looked at gluttony as the sin that counters the character trait of self-control.
-Gluttony is about food
-But we may think of it as intemperance or lack of moderation
-Lack of self-control is allowing the good things of this life to control me.
-Lack of self-control is allowing my passions to control me.
How Do I Lose Self-Control?
-By Making a God Substitiute
-Philippians 3:17-21 – my belly is my God; my belly is a God substitute
-ILLUS: I illustrated this point by discussing how I made a God substitute of ministry while I was a pastor in Iowa. I worked 6 or 7 days a week and regularly 4 or 5 nights a week. All this with a wife at home with a new born. I loved serving God more than I loved God himself.
Exodus 32 - The Logic of Idolatry or How to Make a God substitute
(caveat: This is not a story about pagans who do not know the true God. It is about God's covenant people turning to idolatry. It is quite germane to we who name Christ as Lord!)
-The Israelites were impatient with God's timing
-So they made a God that suited their sense of timing and what a God ought to be
-When Aaron called Israel to worship the calf he told the Israelites they were going to worship YHWH -- the calf was a God substitute
-They worshipped the calf with revelry -- i.e., gave up self -control
-We find God substitutes when we miscontrue or are impatient with God's timing and ways. We find an alternative that gives instant or faster gratification.
How Can We Cultivate Contentment?
1. Live Under the Promise
-HEBREWS 11: People of faith in God and his promise of salvation - they all died without receiving the promise. We can think God will fulfill all his promises now. When he doesn't we are disappointed. So we turn to a God substitute.
-ILLUS: Prosperity or Health/Wealth Gospel. The error is not in promising wealth and health. The error is in the timing. They promise health and wealth now rather than the coming age of the Kingdom of God. We are called to wait in faith until the coming of the promise.
2. Silence/Solitude and Fasting
-These are spiritual disciplines that can wean us from God substitutes
-They strip us of everything but God
-They surface the places where we are depending on God substitutes
-We can then allow God to work in us to free us from these dependencies
-------------------------
SELF-CONTROL
First we looked at gluttony as the sin that counters the character trait of self-control.
-Gluttony is about food
-But we may think of it as intemperance or lack of moderation
-Lack of self-control is allowing the good things of this life to control me.
-Lack of self-control is allowing my passions to control me.
How Do I Lose Self-Control?
-By Making a God Substitiute
-Philippians 3:17-21 – my belly is my God; my belly is a God substitute
-ILLUS: I illustrated this point by discussing how I made a God substitute of ministry while I was a pastor in Iowa. I worked 6 or 7 days a week and regularly 4 or 5 nights a week. All this with a wife at home with a new born. I loved serving God more than I loved God himself.
Exodus 32 - The Logic of Idolatry or How to Make a God substitute
(caveat: This is not a story about pagans who do not know the true God. It is about God's covenant people turning to idolatry. It is quite germane to we who name Christ as Lord!)
-The Israelites were impatient with God's timing
-So they made a God that suited their sense of timing and what a God ought to be
-When Aaron called Israel to worship the calf he told the Israelites they were going to worship YHWH -- the calf was a God substitute
-They worshipped the calf with revelry -- i.e., gave up self -control
-We find God substitutes when we miscontrue or are impatient with God's timing and ways. We find an alternative that gives instant or faster gratification.
How Can We Cultivate Contentment?
1. Live Under the Promise
-HEBREWS 11: People of faith in God and his promise of salvation - they all died without receiving the promise. We can think God will fulfill all his promises now. When he doesn't we are disappointed. So we turn to a God substitute.
-ILLUS: Prosperity or Health/Wealth Gospel. The error is not in promising wealth and health. The error is in the timing. They promise health and wealth now rather than the coming age of the Kingdom of God. We are called to wait in faith until the coming of the promise.
2. Silence/Solitude and Fasting
-These are spiritual disciplines that can wean us from God substitutes
-They strip us of everything but God
-They surface the places where we are depending on God substitutes
-We can then allow God to work in us to free us from these dependencies
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