Sermon Tone Analysis

Communion

Come and get it

I remember doing multiplication tables in grade school.

Over and over again, we would do those sheets.

2 by 2, 6 by 7, 4 by 8 and as one who struggled with busy work I wondered why we had to do it SO MANY TIMES...

But…today I can estimate a tip in my head.

I can figure out about what tax is going to cost me before I get to the register, I hated the repitition…but I love the results.

Jesus called his disciples to a table and instituded a meal that the church has taken for 2 millenia.

Some weekly, some monthly.

There is a variety of forms and styles.

All share one purpose: Remembering Jesus, his life, his atoning death, and his resurrection in power.

But sometimes with repetition…we begin to worry that it will lose it’s meaning.

The key, like the multiplication tables is to fix our hearts on the results.

Eyes fixed on Jesus have hope.

Eyes fixed on Jesus are grateful, eyes fixed on Jesus do not fear, eyes fixed on Jesus walk on water.

So we come to this table again, fixing our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith.

Jesus.

We practice an open table at Hockinson Community Church, meaning you do not need to be a member to participate, we invite all who trust Jesus as savior and lord to join in this meal.

Parents, your child’s participation is up to you.

1 cor 11:23-26 “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

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Fall fest: VISION

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Sermon

Oops: Every person struggles with a worship problem, our lives focused on our own glory

Monica and I have had to accept the difficult truth that despite all our attempts to raise our daughter right…she is a cat person.

Now we know dogs aren’t perfect, but c’mon…

Our dogs jump up and down at the window every time we get home.

Annoying, but it’s because they are so happy to see us.

Cats will glance up, like “finally, you got here to feed me.”

I’ve heard it said that while dogs have masters, cats have staff.

Having had both, Pretty fair.

Pastors Bob “shogren” and Gerald Robinson put it another way in their book, Cat and Dog Theology:

A dog says, “you pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, you love me, You must be God.”

A cat says, “You pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, you love me, I must be God.”

They go on to point out that we struggle with a cat theology.

Oh we would never say it, preach it, or proclaim it.

but at some level we each look at God and Lord you love me, you bless me abundantly, you gave your life for me, I must be god.

cat theology doesn’t say, I must be God, but it’s our natural bend to focus on what God did for us, how life is about us, If God died for us, then he must live for us too!

The truth is, God has done so much to bless us.

He loves us deeper than we can imagine, he did go to the cross that we might have life…but...

Dog theology looks at it and says, no, it’s all about him.

He does all these things for his own glory and he should.

We are all a little of both, they go on to say in the book that we’re all cats having moments of dogness.

I want to show two things this morning.

First that God’s glory is God’s greatest purpose (and that’s a good thing), and second that our purpose not only as individual humans, but maybe especially as this woven together body of believers is the same, and that our greatest joy and life comes when we pursue God’s glory instead of our own.

Ugh: God exists for his own glory, and that’s good

God’s Glory

In Creation

Easy place to start.

Who was the world made for?

Consider for a moment the beauty of a swordfish.

If you have seen them on discovery or national geographic, they have brilliant colors that flash and change with the sun.

But thirty seconds out where the people live and the colors all drain away.

That swordfish mounted on the wall in Sportsmans warehouse had to be painted by a skilled artist to get it to approximate what it looks like in the water.

If this world were really for us primarily, why bother with the intense beauty we never see?

Why create galaxies our eyes will never witness and planets our feet will never stand on?

Colossians 1 contains a beautiful poem describing the glory of Jesus, and this is the second line:

Colossians 1:16 “For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him.”

All things through him and for him.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, he took chaos and shaped it into order and in the same way Van Gogh revealed his mind and heart in the vivid strokes of his brush, God revealed his glory in creation.

Mighty mountains, and delicate hummingbirds.

Crushing oceans, and gentle creeks

The power of an elephant, and the glow of a lightning bug.

God puts himself on display as mighty and tender, unyielding and kind, shaking the ground and bringing light to darkness.

No wonder Paul says this

Romans 1:20 “For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made.

As a result, people are without excuse.”

But as that chapter goes on to say, humanity has a track record of looking at all of that and making it about us.

worshipping the sun, the moon and stars instead of the one who hung them in the skies.

Ultimately the gods created by humanity have always been … about us.

Sacrifices made to God’s of harvest, health, and seasons for our benefit.

The God we meet in scripture, can and will provide for people, but the worship is not about earning it, it’s because he is worthy.

In Salvation

For God so loved the world…I’ve used that verse a few times in messages lately.

It’s important for us to know it, to understand it.

God loves you deeper than you can imagine.

but…is that the reason Jesus died?

Just because he loves you?

Paul says no.

Romans 15:8-9 “For I say that Christ became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the fathers, and so that...

Stopping there for a moment.

Paul is describing the saving sacrifice of Jesus.

He did all that “so that”.

how would we fill in the gap?

So we might go to heaven?

So we might avoid hell?

So we might be saved?

Let’s see:

…so that Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy.

As it is written, Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and I will sing praise to your name.”

The cross points out God’s great love for us.

But EVEN MORE SO it points out God’s glory as one who loves.