Sermon
1-6-12 taste- making sense of God Ps 34:8
Making
Sense of God
Week
1 =Taste and See
New
Year
·
New
beginnings
·
New
dreams (or opportunity to rekindle a dream)
·
New
chances
·
New
choices and opportunity to recommit to the choices we’ve made
Making
Sense of God =
·
getting
to know God
·
experiencing
God more fully
·
living
a life that is connected to God’s mission
Senses
are powerful
Just try walking across a room blind-folded or singing when you can’t hear
yourself
We
understand the power of our sense when we stand at the Grand Canyon; the ocean,
the Redwoods [paint these pictures including the sounds, smells, feel]
In
such places our senses are flooded with God’s power, beauty, presence
But
if I ask what does God taste like? How would you answer?
Can
God be tasted? And is tasting really what we want/need?
A small sample Tasting vs. a fully immersive savoring
Psalm
34:8
Taste
and see that the Lord is good.
Spend time. Savor.
Seeing = understanding/knowing.
Tasting leads to knowing
My
wife’s cooking. To taste or to savor.?
This
year will we simply taste or will we savor the things of God?
Most
Christians are satisfied with enough to make them comfortable.
They
don’t want to be challenged
Mt
16 Disciples and Jesus at Caesarea Philippi
Who
do you say that I am
The
Christ? Great
Then
look what happens………..
21
From that
time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers
of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. 22
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said.
“This shall never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter,
“Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind
the things of God, but the things of men.” 24 Then Jesus said to his
disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up
his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life[h] will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be
for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a
man give in exchange for his soul?
Yes,
I am the Christ, Now lets go suffer and die……….
Peter
fights him
Get
thee behind me Satan……you have in mind the things of man
You
want to take the easy way
They
knew who he was……
They
did not know what he was about
They
knew of the suffering servant. [Isaiah 53] They didn’t want him to be
that kind of savior
3
He
was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with
suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely
he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But
he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed
for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us
peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and
the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
We
identify jesus as the suffering one
But
They Wanted a political leader
They
wanted Jesus to kick out the Romans and restore Israel
Yet
Jesus was determined to fulfill his calling
Luke
9:51 51
As
the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out
for Jerusalem.
he steadfastly set his face to go to
Jerusalem,
Determination
is a spiritual gift
Is
there something about your life that you are determined about
Are
you pursuing your life potential?
Is
there something inside of you that continues to beckon you to a deeper place?
Doing
the right thing pursuing your potential usually involves all sorts of
difficulty
Hurting
those that you love
Get
thee behind me satan-
Putting
self will on the block
·
Going
to Jerusalem
·
Praying
in the garden
·
Giving
your life for a cause
·
Take
up your cross
Was
it easy to be Jesus?
The
people were used to cool guys in expensive robes giving them instructions and
assurance. They had the power of the temple behind them.
Jesus
went against the flow of the day.
Is
it ever easy to do the right thing?
What
if spiritual change is like every other change in life
It
requires hard work.
Not
just attending church, or reading the bible, but opening one’s self to
challenge
Page
30 – “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping
from the old ones.” John Maynerd Keynes
In
what ways might we settle for a Jesus that is less
Are
we interested in a Jesus that challenges us?
First
Sunday of the year…….wesley covenant service. Wesley challenged his
preachers
How
might we challenge you this coming year
How
might you challenge yourself
This
year will you agree to join us on an adventure?
A year of gratitude, joy, hope (all of our branding words?) = more about this
next week
Will
you commit or recommit to growing closer to God; to seeking God; to making
sense of God in your life?
John
6 unless you eat this bread and drink this blood
53
Jesus
said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh(BJ) of the Son of Man(BK) and drink his blood,(BL) you have no life in you……….60 On hearing it,
many of his disciples(BQ) said, “This is a hard teaching.
Who can accept it?”…….63 The Spirit gives
life;(BV) the flesh counts for nothing. The
words I have spoken to you are spirit[e] and they are life. 64 Yet
there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus
had known(BW) from the beginning which of them
did not believe and who would betray him ………..66 From this time many
of his disciples(BZ) turned back and no longer followed
him.
Introduce
communion. A sacred time to go all in
Unless
you eat ……
Hard
they say…and it is.
Will we make the commitment?
Will we accept the challenge?
Will we set off on the adventure?
Prayer
of consecration
End
service after communion with the Wesley covenant prayer
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