http://www.faithpres.org To Follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, be Filled with His Love, and share His Abundant Grace with our Communities Sat, 25 May 2013 22:07:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Sermons from Faith Presbyterian Church, Minnetonka, Minnesota Faith Church no Sermons from Faith Presbyterian Church, Minnetonka, Minnesota http://www.faithpres.org/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://www.faithpres.org/blog/category/sermons/ Copyright 2012, Faith Presbyterian Church. All rights reserved.Religion & Spirituality/ChristianityFaithChurchSermonshttp://feedburner.google.com http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/AipUg0jlR-o/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/05/12/our-greatest-need/#comments Sun, 12 May 2013 16:15:11 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=24465 Written transcript to follow at a later date.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/AipUg0jlR-o" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/05/12/our-greatest-need/feed/ 0 Written transcript to follow at a later date. Written transcript to follow at a later date. Faith Church no 24:22 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/05/12/our-greatest-need/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/OMw47IyypXA/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/05/05/telling-time/#comments Sun, 05 May 2013 16:15:18 +0000 Guest Speaker http://www.faithpres.org/?p=24396 Written transcript to follow at a later date.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/OMw47IyypXA" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/05/05/telling-time/feed/ 0 Written transcript to follow at a later date. Written transcript to follow at a later date. Faith Church no 28:14 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/05/05/telling-time/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/g2LhymAczSM/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/04/28/new-and-improved/#comments Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:15:41 +0000 Guest Speaker http://www.faithpres.org/?p=24300 New AND Improved April 28, 2013 by Rev. Carl Grosse It is a privilege to come here. It is a joy to bring God’s word to you and to share this time of worship with you. The text this morning comes from the book of Revelation. By the way, it is one revelation; it is [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/g2LhymAczSM" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/04/28/new-and-improved/feed/ 0 New AND Improved April 28, 2013 by Rev. Carl Grosse It is a privilege to come here. It is a joy to bring God’s word to you and to share this time of worship with you. The text this morning comes from the book of Revelation. By the way, New AND Improved April 28, 2013 by Rev. Carl Grosse It is a privilege to come here. It is a joy to bring God’s word to you and to share this time of worship with you. The text this morning comes from the book of Revelation. By the way, it is one revelation; it is not Revelations. That is probably the one thing that a lot of you will remember from this sermon. (laughter) John writes: (Revelation 21:1-6) 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. There ends the reading. Thanks be to God April 23rd is a very important day. Of course you know that it was on April 23rd 1985 that “new Coke” was officially released. You could easily borrow the words of Franklin Roosevelt about December 7th 1941 on that event. April 23rd, 1985 “the day that will live in infamy.” “New Coke” was horrible! Any way you look at it—it tasted terrible; it was not good; the branding, the marketing; it was just a disaster any way you slice it. And ever since then it has been the case study for how not to do something in the business world; how not to do branding; how not to do marketing; how not to do product development; how not to do research and development. You just don’t want to do it that way. Coke blundered and blundered badly. We often run across things that are presented to us as new and improved, new and improved. We get a vision of such a thing in this passage from Revelation—a new heaven and a new earth, a new heaven and a new earth. The old order of things is done away. God makes everything new. And the question, if we are Coke people, is it better? O.K. new is one thing but is it better? That is the real issue here. That is what I want to know. That is my litmus test. Well here are the attributes that we check to answer that question. We have no more death, no more sickness, no more crying; God is right there with us. We get a spring of living water that we can drink from without cost. O.K. that sounds better. I am in. I will go with it—no death, sickness, crying, pain, sorrow, God’s right there, living water to drink from without cost. Yeah! This is new AND improved. It is a better deal. I will take it. What has changed is fundamental to what we understand about heaven and earth. The challenges we face on earth really do focus on these items that are different. Death is a big deal here—death and taxes, you know. Those are the two things that if we could change, yeah, it would be nice not to have those two. Nothing is mentioned in Revelation about taxes but the living water is offered without cost. So I will take that as a good sign. Death is no more, though. I think any of us who have been touched by death would agree that this is an improvement in the new heaven and the new earth. Think in the past six months, for me personally, it has been a difficult time. We all went through the tragedy in Newtown back in December and then recently the Boston Marathon bombings. Death has visited in really painful ways on all of us. For me personally, my father-in-law died end of January and my mother died just a few weeks ago. Faith Church no 19:55 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/04/28/new-and-improved/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/7J0VY-KxiH4/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/04/21/the-scariest-words-in-scripture/#comments Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:15:04 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=24270 The Scariest Words in Scripture April 21, 2013 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Let’s turn to our Scripture. It comes from the book of Matthew, Chapter 7, verses 21 through 23. So will you follow along as I read God’s word this morning. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/7J0VY-KxiH4" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/04/21/the-scariest-words-in-scripture/feed/ 0 The Scariest Words in Scripture April 21, 2013 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Let’s turn to our Scripture. It comes from the book of Matthew, Chapter 7, verses 21 through 23. So will you follow along as I read God’s word this morning. - The Scariest Words in Scripture April 21, 2013 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Let’s turn to our Scripture. It comes from the book of Matthew, Chapter 7, verses 21 through 23. So will you follow along as I read God’s word this morning. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ 23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’ God’s word for us today. Let’s pray. Lord thank you that you have called us to be your people, you have called us to follow you with all of our heart. Lord I pray that your Spirit would be speaking to us today in the way that each of us needs. I ask that because Christ is over all. Amen. Well a young girl was filling out her college application at a very exclusive college. There was a question on the application that said: Are you a leader? She wanted to be honest so she thought about it for a minute and she said no but I am a good follower. So she sent the application in and about a month later she got back a letter from the college saying that she had been accepted. There was a hand written note from the dean at the bottom and it said “Since our entering class of 500 has 499 leaders (laughter) we thought we ought to allow at least one follower in.” I used that word follower a lot particularly in reference to the notion of following Christ. I use that instead of the word Christian. Have you ever thought about why I do that? When I think about the notion of following Christ, for me it infers something that is beyond just simply a belief in Jesus. It speaks to living in Christ and trying to emulate him as we walk with him. It is more than just acknowledging who he is. If you think about the notion of following Christ, there is this image of motion that is a part of that that I think also helps feed into what I think about what it means to follow Christ. It is as if we are going somewhere with Christ, and I think that is an important aspect for us as followers of Christ. There is that relational component that we are connected with him that you almost have this image of—you are walking along the road and Jesus kind of comes up, puts his arm around you and goes “How is it going, dude?”…that there is this kind of ongoing experience with Jesus. That is what I think about when I think about following Jesus. It is something that will continue until the day when he returns or we go home to meet him before that. So with that as kind of a backdrop, I was thinking about my next group of messages and I am going to focus on this notion of what does it mean to follow Jesus? What does it mean? What does it require of us? How do we respond to that? And just by way of transparency, some of the background material that I have been using for my messages comes from a book called Follow Me by a pastor by the name of David Platt. When I read the words of our Scripture today, I don’t know about you, but for me they send shivers down my spine. Because it seems to me that Jesus is saying that people are able to profess Christ and yet not actually know him. As one who has been placed in this position to guide the people of Faith through this period of time, I have to tell you it scares me. It scares me to think in my mind that there are some of us here that will stand before Christ and hear the words from that last verse—“away from me, for I never knew you.” It seems as though Jesus is kind of speaking about some kind of transformation that must take place internally with those who call Christ Lord. There is something that has to happen in here somewhere. It is more than simply doing deeds of faith or doing good work. It is this internal change where we live and we walk with Christ. What does that look like? Faith Church no 22:04 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/04/21/the-scariest-words-in-scripture/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/o3brB07N7oQ/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/04/14/profit-from-trials/#comments Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:15:41 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=24243 Profit from Trials April 14, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Scripture: James 1:2-4 2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy,3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; 4 and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/o3brB07N7oQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/04/14/profit-from-trials/feed/ 0 Profit from Trials April 14, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Scripture: James 1:2-4 2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy,3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces enduranc... Profit from Trials April 14, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Scripture: James 1:2-4 2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy,3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces enduranc... Faith Church no 11:36 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/04/14/profit-from-trials/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/ioR8naCtxoE/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/04/09/prayer-is-a-way-of-life/#comments Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:09:12 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=24132 Prayer is a Way of Life April 7, 2013 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Let me pray for us. Lord God you are our Lord. You are our King. You are the One who loves us beyond our ability to love ourselves. So Lord we ask that you would pour your love upon this place [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/ioR8naCtxoE" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/04/09/prayer-is-a-way-of-life/feed/ 0 Prayer is a Way of Life April 7, 2013 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Let me pray for us. - Lord God you are our Lord. You are our King. You are the One who loves us beyond our ability to love ourselves. So Lord we ask that you would pour your love upon... Prayer is a Way of Life April 7, 2013 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Let me pray for us. Lord God you are our Lord. You are our King. You are the One who loves us beyond our ability to love ourselves. So Lord we ask that you would pour your love upon this place this next coming week and give us wisdom and give us discernment; and Lord that we would have ears to hear what you are saying to us. That is my cry, O Lord, I ask it in the name of our Lord, Jesus. Amen. Well, a pastor was planning to preach about prayer at one of his services and a young man came up to him and said “What are you preaching about in your service this day?” He said, “Well I am preaching on practical advice for personal prayer.” The man responded “And that is opposed to impractical advice on personal prayer?” I know that doesn’t hold a candle to Dick’s jokes but I simply used it as a way to kind of prime the pump to talk about what we want to cover today; and, that is, I think sometimes we often get misguided or we sometimes get sidetracked in life, particularly, life in prayer. So what I want to do today, I want to cover some things that may be very familiar to some of you in our prayer lives and for others it may be something new. And I hope it is. But I want to talk about the different kinds of prayer that we might have and also some tools so that we can get the most out of our prayers, as well. So to start with that, I want to say right out of the gate, that as we think about our prayer life, our prayer life needs to be organized and consistent. I want to turn to some scriptures to point that out. So with that I want to point to our first scripture which is Daniel 6. So follow along as I read from Daniel 6: (Daniel 6:6-11) 6 So the presidents and satraps conspired and came to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! 7 All the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an interdict, that whoever prays to anyone, divine or human, for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be thrown into a den of lions. 8 Now, O king, establish the interdict and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” 9 Therefore King Darius signed the document and interdict. 10 Although Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he continued to go to his house, which had windows in its upper room open toward Jerusalem, and to get down on his knees three times a day to pray to his God and praise him, just as he had done previously. 11 The conspirators came and found Daniel praying and seeking mercy before his God. So put yourself in Daniel’s shoes for a minute. You are a slave under a foreign king in a foreign country and a law is passed that for the next thirty days you can’t pray to anyone except the king. Would that be a problem for you? Not just who you would pray to but how much you would pray? I mean would going thirty days without prayer cause you consternation? See, Daniel had a habit of praying on a regular basis in an organized way. He prayed three times a day as he faced Jerusalem. Notice that in the text that I read, it said “he got down on his knees to pray and praise God.” Daniel took the time to think about where he prayed, when he prayed and even how he prayed. I think those are good words for us today. If our prayer life is to deepen and to grow we need to approach it consistently and methodically on a regular basis. Our prayer life needs some intentionality as a part of it. If it is to be consistent, our prayer life then also, I think, needs to be conversational in nature and that leads us to our next scripture from 1 Thessalonians 5. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Faith Church no 22:46 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/04/09/prayer-is-a-way-of-life/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/Flw0Ic2f6Ss/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/03/31/the-strength-of-easter/#comments Sun, 31 Mar 2013 16:15:48 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=24039 The Strength of Easter March 31, 2013 by Rev. William “Buck” Day This morning we will read the Easter story told from the Book of Matthew, from the 28th Chapter, the story of the women going to the tomb. So let’s read God’s word this morning. 1After the sabbath, as the first day of the [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/Flw0Ic2f6Ss" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/03/31/the-strength-of-easter/feed/ 0 The Strength of Easter March 31, 2013 by Rev. William “Buck” Day This morning we will read the Easter story told from the Book of Matthew, from the 28th Chapter, the story of the women going to the tomb. So let’s read God’s word this morning. - The Strength of Easter March 31, 2013 by Rev. William “Buck” Day This morning we will read the Easter story told from the Book of Matthew, from the 28th Chapter, the story of the women going to the tomb. So let’s read God’s word this morning. 1After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” This is my message for you.’ 8So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. God’s word for us this morning! Let’s pray. Lord in you we find all that we need and we are humbled beyond compare that you would die for us, pay the penalty of our sin and then rise to eternal life to break the grip of death over all humanity. We praise you for that. Lord we ask that as we listen to your words this day, Lord; that your Spirit would be here to speak to us whatever it is that you have for each of us. So Lord, let your Spirit have full reign. I ask it in your name. Amen. Well, on his farewell address before leaving office, President George Washington concluded with the following: “Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.” In a recent non-partisan survey out of New York, it said that fifty-eight percent of Americans say that it is not necessary to believe in God to be moral and have good values. Folks we have entered a post-Christian consciousness in our world where people want a spiritual dimension in their lives but they don’t want to be tied down to a Christian theology. And on this Easter we uphold the reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; for only the resurrection of Christ gives us a foundation for morality, for spirituality and even rationality. And more than that Easter gives us a distinctive Christian outlook on life. That is why I love the words from Pope John Paul II when he reinforced that and said “We are an Easter people and hallelujah is our name.” He has risen. He has risen indeed. On this Easter we want to look at the women who have made the way to Christ’s tomb in Matthew 28. What did it do for them? How did it change them? And how might we experience that same thing? Well one of the things that we can say right out of the gate about the women as they went to the tomb that day is that Easter gave them steady nerves. The angel greets the women with the words “Do not be afraid.” Many of us subconsciously are dominated by fear, by worry or by anxiety. According to recent statistics, anxiety disorders are the number one mental health issue in our country today. One study showed that the odds of developing an anxiety disorder has doubled in the past four decades. That is why I like the words of Dan Zarda who is called an inspirational communication publisher, whatever that is. But, I like what he said. He says “Worry is the misuse of imagination.” Alec Holden created headlines for winning an unusual bet. You see ten years earlier when he was ninety years old, he was feeling strong and healthy and so he decided to go to a bookmaking firm in England and wager that he would live to be one hundred. He put down one hundred English pounds, which I think is about two hundred dollars, against 250 to 1 odds that he would make it. Well, when he hit the century mark, he went to go and collect his 50,000 dollars on the bet. Faith Church no 18:23 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/03/31/the-strength-of-easter/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/WXH44NCqpcg/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/03/24/the-heart-of-christ/#comments Sun, 24 Mar 2013 16:15:45 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=23993 The Heart of Christ March 24, 2013 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Would you join me once again in prayer? Lord thank you for this day. Lord we ask that your Spirit would be fully present here and that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts may be acceptable to you. [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/WXH44NCqpcg" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/03/24/the-heart-of-christ/feed/ 0 The Heart of Christ March 24, 2013 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Would you join me once again in prayer? - Lord thank you for this day. Lord we ask that your Spirit would be fully present here and that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our ... The Heart of Christ March 24, 2013 by Rev. William “Buck” Day Would you join me once again in prayer? Lord thank you for this day. Lord we ask that your Spirit would be fully present here and that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts may be acceptable to you. May your Spirit have full reign over this time. We ask this in your name. Amen. Well, one of the most inspiring sights in World War II was four chaplains standing on the deck of the U.S.S. Dorchester, hand-in-hand, singing the classic hymn “Near My God to Thee.” It was a scene that the men of the Dorchester would never forget. George Fox was the oldest of the chaplains that day. He was a veteran of World War I and he, in fact, received the Silver Star; and later after the war, he became an accountant and then a minister. When World War II broke out, he told his wife that he had to go. He said “I know the experience that those boys are about to face. They are going to need me.” Alexander Goode was the only rabbi among the group. He was the father of four, a doctor and he was patriotic to the core. Then there was Johnny Washington. Johnny grew up in a poor Irish community in the slums of Newark, New Jersey. He became a Catholic priest and he was known for his laughter as well as his love for music. And then finally there was Clark Poling. Clark was the youngest of the chaplains. He was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. He was the seventh minister of an unbroken chain of ministers. He said that he wanted to be a fighting soldier instead of a chaplain because he didn’t want people to think he was hiding behind the Church. But when he found out that the mortality rate among the chaplains was the highest of all, he felt he was doing his part as a chaplain. It was a stirring sight to see these four men hand-in-hand on the ship deck. They weren’t conducting a service, however, they were preparing to die; because early that morning on February 3rd, 1943, the ship that they were on was bound for Greenland with 906 men on board when suddenly a torpedo from a Nazi U-boat ripped the hull open and they began to sink into the icy North Atlantic. Fear began to give way to panic among many of the soldiers. They rushed to the deck and many of them forgot their life jackets. The chaplains helped as many as they could get into the boats and to help them escape. When the lifeboats were full the chaplains gave their life jackets to the men that remained. The ship went down in 27 minutes. As the men who escaped looked back at the ship, they saw those four chaplains standing hand-in-hand, singing and lifting their voices to God. It was a sight that would be etched into the memory of everyone who saw it that morning. Had the sovereign hand of God directed each of those chaplains down that same road? Or was it something they chose for themselves? We will never know that; but what we will know is that they chose to give their lives for others. And Jesus said “those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will have eternal life.” We have just been celebrating Jesus walking that road to the cross where he would lose his life so that we might gain ours. The triumphant entry, in the events surrounding that entry on that day, was actually, I think for Jesus, a road of sorrow. It was a road of sorrow because everywhere he went, he saw unbelief and mistrust. So what I want to do today is I want to look at three vignettes that bring to a close Jesus’s public ministry. The first one is a dinner party at the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. The second one is the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. And finally there is this inquiry from some Greek converts who want to see Jesus. Then it is capped off with the words from John in his gospel where he says “Although Jesus performed many signs in their presence, they did not believe him.” So with that I want to jump through some various verses out of John, Chapter 12. Faith Church no 20:54 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/03/24/the-heart-of-christ/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/u4KQM2rniVw/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/03/10/be-what-you-are/#comments Sun, 10 Mar 2013 16:15:41 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=23881 Written transcript to follow at a later date<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/u4KQM2rniVw" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/03/10/be-what-you-are/feed/ 0 Written transcript to follow at a later date Written transcript to follow at a later date Faith Church no 19:01 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/03/10/be-what-you-are/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~3/v3qsUuo2TZw/ http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/03/03/dawning-of-sunrise/#comments Sun, 03 Mar 2013 16:15:07 +0000 Rev. William "Buck" Day http://www.faithpres.org/?p=23776 Dawning of Sunrise March 3, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day The Scripture this morning is from the book of Titus, 2nd Chapter, we will be looking at verses 11 through 14. So I invite you to follow along and if you want to take your bibles out, we will be walking through these verses, [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FaithChurchSermons/~4/v3qsUuo2TZw" height="1" width="1"/> http://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/03/03/dawning-of-sunrise/feed/ 0 Dawning of Sunrise March 3, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day The Scripture this morning is from the book of Titus, 2nd Chapter, we will be looking at verses 11 through 14. So I invite you to follow along and if you want to take your bibles out, Dawning of Sunrise March 3, 2012 by Rev. William “Buck” Day The Scripture this morning is from the book of Titus, 2nd Chapter, we will be looking at verses 11 through 14. So I invite you to follow along and if you want to take your bibles out, we will be walking through these verses, and I invite you to do that, or your own bible. Take some notes and jot down some things as we talk about it. Let’s start first with God’s word for us, starting in verse 11. (Titus 2:11-14) 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,12training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly,13while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 14He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. God’s word for us this day. If you remember we have been using the Scriptures out of our Lenten devotional. With that, let me pray for us. Holy One, our great God and Savior, Jesus, we thank you. We thank you for your life, your death and your resurrection. And Lord, we thank you for your Spirit that you have given to us as a down payment on our inheritance towards eternal life. So Lord we ask that your Spirit would be working mightily right now through my words and in our hearts to move us closer to you. We ask that in your name. Amen. I want to start with a picture. Take a moment; take a look at that. It is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? The idea of the dawning, the appearing, of the sun and with that for me this was part of what came to mind as I was looking at our text today— the sun appearing on the horizon and how it begins to illuminate the day. I was thinking about that in the context of the sun. We call this, what is happening, what—a sunrise, right? It is an event that we have called a sunrise. I think that kind of captures a little bit of what Paul is beginning to have in his mind, as well, because he is thinking about the grace of God. He is thinking about the grace of God appearing just like the sun appears at sunrise. For the appearing of the grace of God is also an event. It is the coming of the Christ child that is the event that ushers in the grace of God. That is what we want to look at today. We want to unpack that a little bit. We are going to do that by kind of walking through a couple of these verses. We want to start by looking at this first verse, verse 11, by looking at the phrase that is there “the grace of God.” As we think about the grace of God, in the pagan world of Paul’s day, that was a term that was used by the pagans, as well; but for them, it was to signify a divine and regal benevolence. In other words, it was kind of something done by a god or a king of some type for those who could not do it for themselves. That was in contrast to the then Hebrew as well as the then Christian understanding of the grace of God which becomes the basis of God’s covenant with humanity. The grace of God here signifies God’s unmerited love. You perhaps have heard that term associated with the grace of God—God’s unmerited love. One of the authors that has kind of taken that and run with that is Philip Yancey and he says this about the grace of God: “You can do nothing to make God love you more.” Isn’t that wonderful? “You can to nothing to make God love you more and you can do nothing to make God love you less.” God’s unmerited love, the grace of God. So God’s unmerited love appears, it says in our text, just as the sun appears each day. This word grace in the Greek is the word charis and the basic idea is that it is unearned favor or an unearned gift. This favor or this blessing is given freely and there is nothing you can do—no work can merit the grace that is given to you; that is the understanding in the Greek term. Faith Church no 22:05 Sermonshttp://www.faithpres.org/blog/2013/03/03/dawning-of-sunrise/ Copyright 2012, Faith Presbyterian Church. All rights reserved.Faith ChurchnonadultSermons from Faith Presbyterian Church, Minnetonka, Minnesota