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Pastor's Sermon Outlines
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SERMONS FOR THE MONTH OF
SEPTEMBER
SEPTEMBER 6,
2009
“WORKING
TOGETHER IN UNITY”
SCRIPTURE READING: I CORINTHIANS 12:18-27
SCRIPTURE TEXT: 1 Corinthians 12:25 (NIV)
So that there should be no division in the body, but
that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
INTRO: This weekend we are celebrating the
day set aside to honor all the workers who through their
efforts have help make our nation great.
Our nation was built by many people, from many
different backgrounds, with different skills, doing many
different things yet pointing towards the same goal,
making
America
great.
It is this same spirit of unity that has
enabled the Church to become great.
There are three points I wish to make concerning
“Working Together in Unity”.
-
Each of us is different and has a different task.
-
God has placed us where we are.
-
Through unity we can succeed.
I. EACH ONE IS DIFFERENT AND HAS A
DIFFERENT TASK.
NOTE: Have you ever gone to a
symphony and listened to the orchestra warm up?
Have
you ever been involved or seen a great project being
built?
There are many workers doing different jobs but
they all have the same purpose.
Most of the workers do not know how their work
fits into the final project.
The man with the blue prints knows.
So it is in the Body of Christ.
Each member is necessary.
Each
member has an essential function.
1 Corinthians 12:12-17 For as the body
is one, and hath many members, and all the members of
that one body, being many, are one body: so also is
Christ. For
by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and
have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the
body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say,
Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it
therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say,
Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it
therefore not of the body?
If the whole body
were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were
hearing, where were the smelling?
There are many parts of our body we do not think
about until they fail to function as they were designed
to do.
The big toe.
We each have an important role to play.
We should never think of ourselves as better than
other or less than others.
Philippians 2:3 (NIV) Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility
consider others better than yourselves.
II. GOD HAS PLACED US WHERE WE ARE.
1 Corinthians 12:18-20 But
now hath God set the members every one of them in the
body, as it hath pleased him.
And if they were all one member, where were the
body? But
now are they many members, yet but one body.
NOTE: God has a plan for every church and
He seeks to place everyone in a particular church for a
particular reason.
We must recognize that it is God Who places
us in the body of believers.
God knows our talents and abilities and He knows
where best we can be used to fulfill His plans.
We might say, “I’m not happy were God has placed
me.”
God place Joseph in
Egypt
for 13 years as a slave and then a prisoner before He
began to revealed His plan.
We may not always like where God places us but we
must trust Him and surrender to His will.
Jonah found out how discomforting it was to try
to place himself where God had not placed him.
Too often we allow outward circumstance to
dictate to us where and how we wish to serve.
When we decide where and how we serve we take
ourselves out of God’s hands.
Jeremiah 18:6 O house of
Israel, cannot I do
with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the
clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O
house of Israel.
Romans 9:21 Hath not the potter power
over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honour, and another unto dishonour?
We must not ask God WHY He has
placed us where He has or WHY He gave us
the talents we have, we must ask HOW can
He be glorified through my life.
It is only when we yield to God’s will that we
will be able to find true contentment and fulfillment in
our life.
III. IT IS ONLY THROUGH UNITY WE CAN SUCCEED.
Psalm 133:1 (NIV) How good and
pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!
NOTE: Disunity will destroy any
effort to succeed at anything.
We see that continually under the leadership
of Moses.
There always seems to be those who refuse to
become involved.
Judges 5:23 Curse ye Meroz, said the
angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants
thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord,
to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
Nehemiah 3:5 And next unto them the
Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks
to the work of their Lord.
The church built without lamps.
When I was asked to teach a Sunday School class
in Chula Vista.
We must seek to work together and not allow
our differences to divide us.
1 Corinthians 12:25-26 That there
should be no schism in the body; but that the members
should have the same care one for another. And whether
one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or
one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
How
is the best way to keep from allowing our differences to
divide us?
LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
(helping Stan & Ruth)
John 13:35 By this shall all men know
that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to
another.
When we truly love someone we are willing to put
up with their differences.
Romans 15:1-3a We then that are strong
ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to
please ourselves.
Let every one of us please his neighbour for his
good to edification.
For even Christ pleased not himself…
We seek to build each other up in the Faith.
We encourage those who are facing time of
difficulties.
We speak words of comfort to those who are in
sorrow.
We help those who are in need.
CONCLUSION: It is only when we put aside
our differences and work together that we can be the
church in Onalaska that God wants us to be.
SEPTEMBER 27, 2009
“WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN YOUR DEAD COWS MOO?”
SCRIPTURE READING: I SAMUEL 15:1-3, 9-14
SCRIPTURE TEXT: Numbers 32:23
But if ye will not do so, behold,
ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin
will find you out.
INTRO: There is no such thing as a hidden
sin, soon or later your dead cows will moo.
Saul had been give orders by Samuel to wipe
out the Amalekites because of what they had done
to Israel when Israel
came out of
Egypt.
Deuteronomy 25:17-19 (NIV) Remember
what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you
came out of Egypt.
When you were weary and worn out, they met you on
your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind;
they had no fear of God.
When the Lord your God gives you rest from all
the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to
possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory
of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
Saul was a man chosen and called by God yet he
sinned.
I. ALL HAVE SINNED.
Romans 3:23 (NLT) For all have
sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard.
NOTE: The question we must face today is
not: If we sin, for we all sin, but rather, what do we
do when we do sin?
What is sin?
Disobedience, we either do what God tells us not
to do, or we fail to do what God tells us to do.
Adam & Eve committed the first kind of sin, while
Saul committed the second.
II. NO SIN IS HIDDEN FROM GOD.
NOTE: It started in the Garden of Eden and
has continued until this day.
People thinking they can cover their sins and
hide them from God.
We may seek to hide our sins in various ways but
no sin is hidden from the eyes of God.
A. ADAM & EVE SOUGHT TO HIDE THEIR SIN.
Adam & Eve sought to hide their sins by making
aprons to cover the results of their sins.
Genesis 3:7 And the eyes of them both
were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and
they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves
aprons.
How often do we seek to cover our sins by seeking
to make them acceptable?
(smoking & Zin-Zin)
This may seem to work with man but it won’t work
with God.
Sin will always drive us away from our fellowship
with God.
Genesis 3:8 And they heard the voice of
the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the
day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the
garden.
Isaiah 59:2 But your
iniquities have separated between you and your God, and
your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not
hear.
NOTE: We cannot practice sin and have
fellowship with God.
B. ACHAN SOUGHT TO HIDE HIS SIN.
Joshua 7:21 When I saw among the spoils
a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of
silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight,
then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they
are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the
silver under it.
NOTE: There is no such thing as private
sin, our sins affects others.
C. DAVID SOUGHT TO HIDE HIS SIN.
II SAMUEL 11
NOTE: David sought to hide his sin by
committed another sin.
When
we seek to hide our sin, one sin leads to another.
D. SAUL SOUGHT TO HIDE HIS SIN.
NOTE: Saul sought to hide his sin in three
ways:
-
He sought to hide his sin by claiming not to have
sinned.
1 Samuel 15:13 And Samuel came to Saul:
and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I
have performed the commandment of the Lord.
-
He sought to hide his sin by blaming others.
1 Samuel 15:15a And Saul said, They have
brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared
the best of the sheep and of the oxen…
1 Samuel 15:21a But the people took of the
spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which
should have been utterly destroyed…
-
He sought to hide his sin by claiming he did it
for a good reason.
1 Samuel 15:22-23 (NLT) But Samuel replied,
"What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings
and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Obedience
is far better than sacrifice. Listening to him is much
better than offering the fat of rams.
Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and
stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols. So because
you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected
you from being king."
III. SOON OR LATER YOUR DEAD COWS WILL MOO.
1 Samuel 15:14 And Samuel said,
What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine
ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
Proverbs 26:26 (NLT) While their hatred may be
concealed by trickery, it will finally come to light for
all to see.
Eccles. 12:14 (NLT) God will judge us for
everything we do, including every secret thing, whether
good or bad.
Isaiah
29:15 (NLT) Destruction is certain for those who
try to hide their plans from the Lord, who try to keep
him in the dark concerning what they do! "The Lord can't
see us," you say to yourselves. "He doesn't know what is
going on!"
Jeremiah 2:22 (NLT) No
amount of soap or lye can make you clean. You are
stained with guilt that cannot be washed away. I, the
Sovereign Lord, have spoken!
Jeremiah 16:17 (NLT) I am watching them
closely, and I see every sin. They cannot hope to hide
from me.
IV. THERE IS HOPE FOR US SINNERS.
NOTE: Instead of hiding our sins we
can confess and repent of them and be free.
God has offered forgiveness and a clean slate to
those who will come to Him in repentance.
Psalm 130:3-4 If thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is
forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
These two verses are two of the scariest verses
in the Bible.
Proverbs 28:13 He that covereth his
sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and
forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Not only must we confess our sins but we must
turn away from our sins.
Ezekiel 18:21 But if the wicked will
turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep
all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right,
he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Ezekiel 33:16 (KJV) None of his sins that he
hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done
that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
CONCLUSION: Do you have sins that need to
be taken care of by the grace of God?
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