Resources for Sunday

Here are some links to resources I found helpful for Sunday's sermon.


Life in the Light of the Judgement Seat of Christ

Walking with God

We Do Not Preach Ourselves!

God Chooses a King

Trees

God tells Ezekiel that he will take a cutting from the top of a cedar and plant it on the top of a tall mountain – a high tree will grow in the heights. It will become fruitful and a haven for animals. He does this so the trees of the field will know His power. In apocalyptic inversion, he will “ bring low the high tree ” and “make high the low tree.” He will “dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.”
The Psalmist says “It is good to give thanks to the Lord.”

For you O Lord have made me glad by the your works
At the works of your hands I sing for joy.
The righteous flourish like the palm tree,
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Jesus says the kingdom of Heaven is like a tree. It grows of its own divine power until the harvest. Although it may be only a tiny seed that the farmer casts, “it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

Walking by faith

Samuel is grieving the condition of Saul’s soul. He is disappointed and so is God. God directs Samuel to pick a new king in the face of his grief and danger to his life. The king God picks is not the one that seems reasonable or likely. “For the Lord does not see a s mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Through out this narrative, Samuel is invited to trust God and not his own eyes.

The psalmist prays for us in Psalm 20 a benediction that invites us to trust that God protects us.

Paul speaks of the confidence we have in God, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” The power of God is extended to us as the psalmist has prayed. We are “a new creation.”

Do we trust him? This God who we have been celebrating as Father, Son and Spirit?