The Sermon Project
I haven’t blogged in a while. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a return to the blog. I will be preaching October 4 at the upper west Manhattan Church of Christ. I had the idea to use this space to open up a forum to shape this coming sermon. I hope to give voice to a sector of the members that is so often untapped in planning this sort of thing. I have discussed this with a few individuals and I am hopeful for their support in this project.
I have had a few discussions that touched on some of the possible points that perhaps should be included to make this a useful and helpful sermon. It became clear that one point that needs to be included in this presentation is the importance of the word of God. Now of course, no one will give me an argument on this one but I hope to spur everyone on to greater diligence in the daily reading of the Bible. Certainly there are passages of Scripture that we are all more familiar with than others, but there should be no part of God’s word that we have not read. So first I would like to encourage all to read through the entire Bible especially if they haven’t or haven’t in quite some time.
It is not possible for each of us as individuals to firmly and confidently follow God’s instruction if we are not well versed in what the Bible actually says. We should not rely on the preacher or anyone else to tell us what it says or what it means. We can be helpful to one another in study and application, but each of us needs to go home and do the necessary study and this starts with reading through the entire Bible and becoming familiar with the text.
I had thought about speaking on the topic of some departures from the faith that are common in the Church of Christ so that we can each be on guard and prepared to deal with these issues. But the main tool that we have to accomplish this is God’s word, and so we all need to be encouraged to develop a closer relationship with God’s word. Other topics have been suggested also, like women of the Bible, and this is a first stab at preliminary conversation. So I hope to get some responses here, and we can shape this event together.
This sounds like a great idea. Maybe you can suggest a reading plan.
As I’ve already discussed with James, a serious look at the need for daily, in-depth Bible study is needed by all of us. We all have things that we allow to get in our way of studying, but we will also be held accountable for allowing these things to have priority in our lives. If we can not defend our faith, then whose faith is it?
That’s a good line, the last sentence of your comment Michelle. Can I use it?
Of course! Now I need to put it into better practice!