this past weekend may 31-june 2 was the scbc english retreat, and the speaker invited was a man by the name of sunder krishnan, the senior pastor of rexdale alliance church. i want to jot down a few notes about sermons this weekend before i lose them.
sermon 1: integration
the scripture is not simply a combination of books and letters, but actually a script for the drama of redemption. consisting of the following acts:
Act 1: Creation
Act 2: The Fall of man
Act 3: The call of Israel
Act 4: Jesus
Act 5: Scene 1: The writing of the new testament, Scene 2: Our lives today
Act 5 is still going on today, and we are all a part of it. no one in a play only thinks about their own role, but also the role of everyone else, and more importantly, the director and producer. therefore, we ought to stop looking at the world through our own lenses and looking only at our own personal circles of influence. we ought to look through the world through jesus' lenses, the director and producer. we are not spectators waiting till the end of the show, but active participants waiting to take our cues from the director. we need to stop be so consumed with our own lives that we only have time to watch the drama, but we must integrate every part of our lives into the drama of redemption.
sermon 2: investment
we care about something when we have an investment in it. abraham was invested in sodom because his nephew lot was there, leading him to intercede to God. if we were invested in our missionaries, then it would lead us to care for them. our missionaries that work and serve God require refreshment and encouragement. for those of us who aren't in those roles, we ought to provide this refreshment to them. through investing in the missionaries, we would be compelled to serve them.
i thought this message was different from anything i've heard, because the church had always called us just to become missionaries in our own circles of influence. we all come up with excuses not to do our mission, our part in the play, but do we have excuses not to do the ministry of refreshing and encouraging? that is directly related to who we are willing to invest in. this investment includes good contact and communication, and showing hospitality, giving gifts and serving other practical needs. on the concept of investment, i was reminded of a person that sells. people only sell objects that they have an investment in. would they ever advertise something that they do not have any investment in? which means that when they sell this to you, they are thinking not of your benefit, but their own investment. let our investments not be of ourselves but of our brothers and sisters.
sermon 3: intercession
abraham's prayer/dialogue with God about sodom and gomorrah was not only the first intercessory prayer in the bible, but the first documented cross cultural intercessory prayer in history. intercessory prayer should be "less a polite religious monologue than it is haggling in the marketplace". this action was also the first action that abraham did after God changed his name from abram to abraham, meaning "father of many", as a sign of his covenant with him being the father of many nations. when abraham was haggling with God regarding the number of righteous people that live in sodom and gomorrah before God would spare the entire land, abraham's faith had grew and shifted and he was able to be at peace with God's commands. but abraham was also able to have a mixture of boldness and humility to approach God. we too need that mixture of humility and boldness.
i had always thought that the phrases that abraham used in that conversation such as "if i may be so bold to speak to the Lord" and the like were simply phrases to cover his butt from being destroyed, very similar to those that say "no offense" and then proceed to offend you. i don't find that kind of conversation so "bold". i don't think we have it in us to be as "bold" as abraham was, or how moses was, or any other examples of bold encounters in the bible. but we have Jesus as our savior, and he is our intercessor to God. because of Jesus, we can be as bold as we can be to God.
