sermons

I preached four times this week and led one bible study. It was busy. Overall, I think it went really well, all things considered (definitely could have been better.... but still) On Saturday, I preached/led worship for the middle school youth group again. We started by playing "honey, if you love me smile," which they really seemed to enjoy. And then we had a discussion about love and sex. And they actually participated, for the most part. We talked about the different ways "the world" (ie movies, music, the media, culture etc) portrays sex vs. the way the bible portrays sex. I read the first chapter of Song of Songs out loud for them (which they REALLY got a kick out of) and we also read a section from 1 Corinthians where Paul condemns sexual immorality but encourages (and even mandates) sex within marriage. We also talked about the four greek words for love (storge, phileos, eros and agape) and discussed how hormones during adolescence can make us confuse love vs. lust/sexual desire. After the meeting was over, one of the older (college-age) youth, who was at the service because she arrived early for the high school and young adult service, explained to me how I actually didn't explain all of the different Greek words for love correctly, but overall I think I did a good job and it was a success.

But I think I was most proud of the sermon I preached on Sunday (today), the very next morning. I was asked to preach on John 5. I was most excited about this sermon, because I think in the end the congregation got a lot out of it. I simultaneously saw heads nodding and other people scratching their heads (in a good way -- like I gave them something they had never thought about before). And most importantly I didn't "water it down" or consciously add more conservative/fundamentalist language or theological elements like I've done before out of fear that people would get angry or upset if I didn't, because obviously the churches here are much more conservative. The basic message of the sermon was free grace with no strings attached. I'm hoping to write a blog entry later that won't really be a summary of the sermon, but will include some thoughts and ideas that I had while writing it that I'd like to share.

That's all for now; goodnight.