SERMON GM14-032
SERIES: Christian Living in a World of Chaos &
Contradiction
SETTING: North Kelso Baptist Church
SERVICE: Sunday AM
SUBTITLE: The Test of Stewardship (Part 1)
SCRIPTURE: 1 John 4:7-12
SUBJ: The Stewardship of Love
SUMMARY: The truth I propose then for your consideration is
this: That genuine believers as
recipients of fellowship and Sonship are charged with a stewardship
that when faithfully discharged demonstrates a
true relationship with
God.
SCHEME: that Christians discharge their stewardship
_____________________________________________________________
Our theme is: Genuine Christians love one
another
This
is a good reminder for us all that the great and blessed privileges that we
enjoy as recipients of fellowship and Sonship with God results in a
stewardship.
Proposition: The
truth I propose then for your consideration is this: That genuine believers as
recipients of fellowship and Sonship are charged with a stewardship that when
faithfully discharged demonstrates a true relationship with God.
Interrogatory Sentence: How do genuine Christians
faithfully discharge their stewardship duties?
Transitional Sentence: This
passage supplies us with three (3) principles to be good stewards.
CHRISTIAN LIVING IN A WORLD OF CHAOS
The
Christian Life is Viewed as Stewardship
The Test of
Stewardship
1 John 4:7-12
* (Part 1)
INTRODUCTION
A.
Stewardship over the long haul
Fred
Craddock, once preached in a sermon, "To give my life for Christ appears glorious," he said.
"To pour myself out for others…to pay the ultimate
price of martyrdom -- I'll do it. I'm ready, Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory. "
We
think giving our all to the Lord is like taking $l, 000 bill and laying it on the table-- 'Here's my life, Lord.
I'm giving it all.' But the reality for most
of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $l, 000 for quarters. We go through life
putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there.
Listen
to the neighbor kid's troubles instead of saying, 'Get lost.' Go to a committee meeting. Give a cup of water to
a shaky old man in a nursing home.
Usually giving our life to Christ isn't glorious. It's
done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy
to go out in a flash of glory;
it's harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul."
B. The Necessity
for Stewardship
It is the same for us today. Because our
Christian life is comprised of fellowship
and Sonship we are expected by God to be good stewards with the blessings that those positions give to us. It is
harder to consistently be a good
steward of the love that Christ has bestowed upon and then on top of that expects us to love all of our
fellow brothers and sisters in
Christ over the long haul.
Our theme this morning is: The Test of Stewardship
This
is a good reminder for us all that the great and blessed privileges that we
enjoy as recipients of fellowship and Sonship with God results in a
stewardship.
Proposition: The truth I propose then for your
consideration is this: That genuine believers as recipients of fellowship and
Sonship are charged with a stewardship that when faithfully discharged
demonstrates a true relationship with God.
Interrogatory Sentence: How do genuine Christians faithfully
discharge their stewardship duties?
Transitional Sentence: Our passage supplies us
with three (3) principles to be good stewards.
3A THE CHRISTIAN LIFE VIEWED AS STEWARDSHP (4:7-5:5)
[The first principle supplied
by John is that…]
1B Genuine believers love the people of God
(4:7-5:5)
1C The Foundation of Love (4:7-12)
agaphtoi, ajapwmen agghlous
“Beloved, let us love one another…”
1D The Foundation's Source (7a)
oti h agaph ek tou qeou estiv
“…for love is from God…”
2D The
Foundation's Security (7b)
kai pas o agapwn ek tou
qeous gegennhtai ginkwskei ton qeon
“and every one who loves is
born of God and knows God.”
3D The
Foundation's Stipulation (8)
o mh
agapwn ouk egnw ton qeon
“The one who does not love
does not know God.”
4D The
Foundation's Sample (9-10)
en toutw efanerwqh h agaph tou qeou en hmuin
“By this the love of God was
manifested in us…”
1E Sample seen in the
incarnation (9)
“In this the love of God was made manifest among
us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through
him.”
2E Sample
seen in the Atonement
“In
this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his
son to be the propitiation for our sins.
5D The
Foundation's Summary (11-12)
agaphtoi,
ei outws o qeos hgaphsen hmas
“Beloved, if God so loved
us…”
Our theme is: Genuine Christians love one
another
This
is a good reminder for us all that the great and blessed privileges that we
enjoy as recipients of fellowship and Sonship with God results in a stewardship.
Proposition: Genuine
believers as recipients of fellowship and Sonship are charged with a
stewardship that when faithfully discharged demonstrates a true love for fellow
believers.
[What do you say we wrap this up? So, in…]
CONCLUSION
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or
boastful or proud 5 or
rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no
record of being wronged. 6 It does
not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always
hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (1 Corinthians 13, ESV)
Exhortation: I
exhort you to love one another in the same manner that Christ loved us,
sacrificially, expecting nothing in return, drawing on the love that flows
inside each of by God’s Holy Spirit fulfilling the command to love one another,
thereby proving that you are a genuine believer in Christ.
Jesus said in John 15:17 (ESV)
“These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
Let’s
pray! J
1 comment:
Thanks for a wonderful post, there are a few people I could do with loving me, perhaps I ought to show them this.
Yvonne.
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