[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for September 4 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Resources for Proper 18 
Matthew 18: 15-20- "When Christians Quarrel: Resolving Conflict in the Church"
Romans 12:9-21 - "You Carry Your Weight?" by Leonard Sweet
 
Matthew 18, the sermon title “When Christians Quarrel: Resolving Conflict in the Church" 
 
One of the things I like best about the New Testament is that it is so practical. It must have been the fact that Jesus had human beings called disciples always with him that forced him to speak in such everyday terms about everyday problems. Sometimes Christians disagree in the congregation of believers. Sometimes they quarrel. Sometimes they hold grudges against each other. The Scripture for today says that we must never tolerate any situation in which there is a breach of personal relationship between us and another member of the Christian community.

In this eighteenth chapter of Matthew Jesus admits that disciples are going to have conflicts; but they are to resolve them.

It is very true today that the behavior of us church members on this very issue makes Christianity to the outside world either repulsive or attractive.

It isn’t a matter that Christians are perfect and will not have conflicts. There will always be quarrels, differences of opinion on how and who, disappointments with preachers and councils, hurt feelings, bent pride, loss of face, and lots of mistakes. It’s the idea that Christians can resolve these conflicts as no other fellowship can, that Jesus puts before us today.

Comus, a Duke of Florence, had a saying that indicated the limitations of his religion: "You shall read that we are commanded to forgive our enemies, but you never read that we are commanded to forgive our friends."

That can happen in the Christian proclamation of the gospel. We spend a lot of time in our pulpits talking about how Christians are admonished by Jesus Christ to love their enemies and to pray for their enemies. When in actuality, right there in the pew side by side are Christians who hold grudges, hang on to petty hurts, refuse to forgive and love each other within the fellowship. And when they do this, church and Christianity and the whole practice of religion for them is not the joyful experience it ought to be. They miss a large dimension of belonging to God’s family.

This particular portion of Matthew (18:15-18) gives us a whole scheme of action for the mending of broken relationships within our "family of God" called the Christian fellowship…
 
1. Put Your Complaint into Words
2. Tell the Person about It in Person
3. Counsel with Other Wise Christians.
4. Make Use of the Christian Fellowship.
5. Never Give up Trying.
 
The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining http://www.sermons.com/signup
  


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The full text of the following sermon is available at www.Sermons.com.
 
Romans 13, the sermon titled "Can You Carry Your Weight?" by Leonard Sweet 
 
If someone were to stand in front of you and offer you a choice - in one hand “objective” truth, in the other hand "subjective" truth — which would you pick? 
 
Bet you’d go with the “objective.” 
 
But anyone here like to be treated like an “object?” Anyone here not want to be treated like a “subject?”
 
In a “Peanuts” cartoon, Charlie Brown says to little Lucy: “My Dad said that someday I might be able to run for President.” 
 
“Really, Charlie Brown?” Lucy answers. “He certainly must think highly of you!”
 
“I don’t know,” Charlie replies. “He also said that he didn’t think he’d vote for me.”
 
More than an objective assessment of who God is and who we are, more than anything else in life, we need to know that God would vote for us. We need to know that God is subjective, that God is on our side, that God is with us, that God loves us. 
 
The objective truth is that God is love.
 
The subjective truth is that God loves me, and God loves you. 
 
Modern science is based on what can be observed, weighed, measured, calculated, dissected, and repeated. A scientist must stand apart from that which is being studied, always keeping it in an “objective” relationship. Allowing subjective feeling into the Scientific Process - emotions, hopes, aspirations, expectations — “taints” the results and the researcher. 
We like to pride ourselves on being “objective.” The era when the scientific method took root and took off is called “The Enlightenment.” Dissecting the world into objective observations and reducing precise measurements was the sign of an "enlightened" mind — full of sight and insight… 
 


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Icon Ambulance: Attention to Detail
 
Vic Gundotra posted this story in response to the news Steve Jobs has stepped down as CEO of Apple. We wanted to share this inspirational story about someone who has changed the world in so many ways. 

“One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said "Caller ID unknown". I choose to ignore.

After services, as I was walking to my car with my family, I checked my cell phone messages. The message left was from Steve Jobs. "Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said. 

Before I even reached my car, I called Steve Jobs back. I was responsible for all mobile applications at Google, and in that role, had regular dealings with Steve. It was one of the perks of the job. 

"Hey Steve - this is Vic", I said. "I'm sorry I didn't answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn't pick up". 

Steve laughed. He said, "Vic, unless the Caller ID said 'GOD', you should never pick up during services". 

I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve. 

"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject "Icon Ambulance". The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon. 

Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products. They have been a part of my life for decades. Even when I worked for 15 years for Bill Gates at Microsoft, I had a huge admiration for Steve and what Apple had produced. 

But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I'll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

To one of the greatest leaders I've ever met, my prayers and hopes are with you Steve.” 

Vic Gundotra 
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Are You Willing to Live in Hell?
 
In his book The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis, the great Christian apologist, draws a stark picture of hell. Hell is like a great, vast city, Lewis says, a city inhabited only at its outer edges, with rows and rows of empty houses in the middle. These houses in the middle are empty because
everyone who once lived there has quarreled with the neighbors and moved. Then, they quarreled with the new neighbors and moved again, leaving the streets and the houses of their old neighborhoods empty and barren.

That, Lewis says, is how hell has gotten so large. It is empty at its center and inhabited only at the outer edges, because everyone chose distance instead of honest confrontation when it came to dealing with their relationships.

“Look, she’s the one who said that about me. Let her come and apologize!”

“We may go to the same church, but that doesn’t mean I’ve got to share a pew with that so-and-so!”

“It’ll be a cold day in July before I accept his apology.”

That’s all well and good, I suppose... if you don’t mind living in hell.

Are we really so willing to give up our relationships with others – relationships that have come about and been forged by our desire to follow Jesus? Nowhere, and I do mean nowhere, in the New Testament gospels will you find Jesus saying that the first order of things is always to be
right. But he does have a great deal to say about forgiveness, about relationship, about reconciliation, about service and humility and vulnerability.

He makes it sounds like family, doesn’t he?

Randy L. Hyde, Two or Three
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