Sermons

8 Core Beliefs That Have Shaped My Preaching and Ministry

It’s vital to have a philosophy of preaching and ministry. Yet, I don’t think this is something you create all at once. Instead, I think it comes to you as you grow and gain experience in preaching, serving and life in general.

Today I’m feeling a bit reflective.

I’ve written down eight core beliefs that have shaped my preaching, leadership style and ministry.

In this post I share these deep beliefs that serve as guiding principles to my approach to sermons and all things ministry.

BELIEF #1: SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF.

Little things matter. Details matter.

When people ignore the little things they go to jail, get fired, lose control, squander their health and wealth, end up divorced and so much more.

I believe we SHOULD focus on the little things. Why? Because little things matter. The little things are the BIG things.

Most people shrink from throwing their life all away at once. But they think little of wasting it one hour at a time.

Jesus said, “Go make disciples and I will build My church.”

Instead, we face the temptation to focus on building the church and let someone else worry about making individual disciples.

We want to focus on church growth. These are BIG items. It’s so easy to get consumed with the BIG PICTURE that we forget all the individual faces and names that Jesus calls us to serve along the way.

Jesus told the parable about the shepherd who left the 99 to find the 1 who was lost.

Too often we’re tempted to leave the 1 to focus on the 99. What happens then? Pretty soon we have 98.

Then we rinse and repeat. We focus on the 98. What happens next? Now we have 97.

Do you see a pattern here?

Let’s look at it from another angle.

Jesus said, “If you are faithful with little, you can be trusted with much.”

I believe this is true in every area of life. If we are faithful and responsible with the little finances we have, sooner or later, we will have more finances.

If we are faithful and responsible to lead the few people following us, sooner or later, we have will have more people to lead.

If we are faithful and diligent to preach our best to the people who come to listen to us every Sunday, God will eventually bring more to people to listen.

I made a decision early in ministry always to prepare the same whether I was preaching to 5 people or 5,000 people. I’ve done both. I’ve spoken to a handful of people and I’ve spoken to packed auditoriums.

Sweat the small stuff. Don’t be lazy. There are no little things. They’re all BIG.

Someone told me once, “Randall, always mow the back yard just as good as the front.”

Now, he wasn’t really trying to give me landscaping tips. He was trying to teach me an important leadership principle.

What he was saying is this:

Don’t just focus on the public areas of your life that people can see. Just because people can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not important.

When we are faithful with the little things it strengthens our spiritual muscle. Over time we grow in strength to lift heavier and larger spiritual tasks.

If you want God to entrust you with larger spiritual tasks, be faithful with the seemingly insignificant, menial and little tasks he asked you to steward first.

Sweat the small stuff. Because it’s all big.

BELIEF #2: DON’T GIVE ACCORDING TO NEED. GIVE ACCORDING TO THE POTENTIAL TO DO GOOD.

I’m talking specifically in regards to ministries inside and outside the church.

Don’t be a reactionary giver when it comes to helping ministries both inside and outside your local congregation.

A year or two ago I had a meeting with several pastors. A local para-church ministry was struggling financially. One of the pastors recommended, “I think our churches should help them financially. It’s an important part of our community.”

I responded, “I know that ministry has been sinking financially for several years. If we help them today, what have we done to change the big picture for them? What’s to keep it from happening again a year from now?”

Frankly, that struggling ministry had a reputation for not focusing on the little things. That neglect had now caused them some big headaches.

I recommended to give money to another para-church ministry who didn’t NEED it.

Hear me clearly, when I say they didn’t NEED it, all I mean is this… they weren’t going to collapse financially if we decided NOT to give them any money.

Don’t give according to need, give according to a ministry’s ability to do good.

On average, it’s better to invest precious resources not into ministries that are on the verge of collapsing if we don’t come through for them, but instead on the ministries who have managed themselves well and are poised to do good.

It’s a sound leadership principle: Don’t give according to need. Give according to the ability to do good.

BELIEF #3: PASTOR THE KIND OF CHURCH YOU THINK WOULD BE FUN TO ATTEND.

Stop going to conferences every five minutes to try to figure out how the latest mega-church structures their worship flow, what kind of music they have or whether they use latest multimedia in their services.

Stop trying to be like everybody else.

Ask yourself the question, “What kind of church would I like to attend?”

When you find the answer to that, move slowly to create that atmosphere.

Seriously, design the worship services around what YOU like.

If I like it, the people God designed me to reach will like it too.

Be the person and leader God created you to be. Stop committing idolatry by trying to be exactly like someone else’s church.

Churches shouldn’t be like Applebees. We don’t have to have the same menu, same worship style, same everything in each and every town we visit.

Be an original.

BELIEF #4: DON’T DROWN IN A BATHTUB.

I don’t want to drown in a bathtub.

I don’t want to drown in 6 inches of water.

Get into the deep waters. Take risks.

I pray the bathtub prayer frequently: “Lord, don’t let me drown in the bathtub. Let it be said of me, when they last saw me there was a 100 feet of water over my head.”

Lloyd Ogilvie asked, “What could we attempt for God if we weren’t afraid of failure and money was no problem?”

Why not try to kick a dent in history? Why try to survive? Doesn’t the gospel say we don’t have to survive?

You will never discover new oceans if you’re not willing to lose sight of the shore.

You’ve got to take risks in leading a congregation.

That’s what leadership is.

Leadership is movement. It’s moving people from point A to point B to point C to point infinity and beyond.

I do not advocate foolish risks. The Bible talks often about steering clear of foolish decision-making.

A life of foolishness does not lead to happiness or sustainable churches.

Don’t take foolish risks. But still take risks.

Take well-informed, prepared and worthy risks. Do your research. Take your time. Listen to objections. Build consensus. Pray together. But once you’ve done all that… pull the trigger. Aim for the target.

Unfortunately, some pastors and churches proceed this way: “Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim…” They never FIRE!!! They are like the ones Paul grew so frustrated with in 2 Timothy. He scolded people who were “always learning but never coming to acknowledge the truth!”

YOU HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION. YOU HAVE TO ACT!!!

Some pastors spend their entire ministry in the information-gathering stage. They are constantly reading another book, attending another conference, taking their leadership board through another needs-assessment, developing congregational core values or rewriting their church’s mission statement.

For some of you I’d say, “Forget that stuff for the moment. No more aiming.”

Instead, I’d say do this, “Ready, FIRE, aim.”

Do something.

Get out of the bathtub and into the ocean.

BELIEF #5: IN YOUR PREACHING, ERROR ON THE SIDE OF GOING TOO DEEP INSTEAD OF TOO SHALLOW.

Don’t treat people like they’re dumb.

Shallow preaching creates shallow Christians.

Someone once said that sermonettes create Christianettes.

I’m not talking about the length of our sermons. A sermon can be 10 minutes in length but still be very deep. Some of Jesus’ teachings were very, very brief… but deeply profound.

On the other hand, a sermon can ramble on for 45 minutes and still only be 2 inches deep.

Don’t confuse “deep sermons” with “hard to understand” either. I’m not saying we should constantly use complex and ornate words in our sermons. Words like soteriological, dispensationalism, transubstantiation and the like.

We need to give deep content but in the language of the masses. That’s what the Bible does.

The New Testament was written in koine Greek. It wasn’t written in classical Greek that only the most educated in Jesus’ day could speak. No. The New Testament writers penned it in koine Greek. It was the language of the masses. It was the language of the common person. It was the language that the ordinary person would use every single day.

Calvin Miller writes:

I wanted the language of my sermons to be street language! The sermons we ought to preach should be informed by seminary education, but they should be pre-seminary in their style. More of our preaching ought to come from that place where we were when we were called to preach!¹

I visit churches from time to time.

I don’t hear a lot of heresy in the church from the pulpit. Never once have I heard the pastor say in a sermon, “I just wanted to say that this Bible stuff is total bologna.” I’ve never heard her or him say, “Our Elder Board met last week. We decided that Jesus really isn’t the Messiah.”

But some of those same churches I walk away from the worship service thinking, “I didn’t hear anything I disagree with. But I didn’t hear anything that compelling either. The sermon was basically a kindergarten-analysis of a verse or two mixed in with some jokes, videos and powerpoint.”

Where is the biblical substance? Where is the content? What are we afraid of?

Many churches are dying. But they aren’t dying from heresy. They’re dying from starvation. Move on to the deep things of God.

In 1 Corinthians Paul gently reprimands his listeners, “You should be beyond the milk of the Word by now. You should be eating spiritual steak by now. But you can’t. You’re still infants in Christ. This isn’t good. You’re not growing up.”

That could be said of many sermons I’ve heard.

Don’t treat people like they’re dumb. Offer them substantive, deep and Biblical preaching. You might be shocked at how much your congregation hungers for that kind of diet.

BELIEF #6: ONCE A YEAR A PREACH A SERMON THAT EVEN YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND.

This sounds ridiculous, I know. But I think it’s good advice.

One time a year preach a message that is so big, so grand that no one understands a bloomin’ word you said… including yourself. People should leave the service thinking, “Do you have a clue what he was talking about for the last 30 minutes?”

Every once in a while we need to remind ourselves just how BIG God really is. His ways are infinitely higher than ours. HE IS GOD, we are not.

John Wesley said that a God that is fully comprehended by all isn’t much of a God at all. His point? Don’t ever, ever think that we have God completely figured out. We can never put God in our little box.

Now, if your congregation leaves every Sunday asking, “What in the world was he preaching about today?” – you’ve got altogether different problems to solve.

Don’t let your listeners ever lose the sense of God’s majesty. God should always amaze us. Don’t ever let your listeners grow bored with God. If they do, something is profoundly wrong.

BELIEF #7: GOD CAN WRITE STRAIGHT WITH CROOKED LINES.

God doesn’t have a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude when it comes to our mistakes and weaknesses. He has a ‘take it and weave it’ mindset. He takes our mistakes and shortcomings and weaves them back into our lives and uses it for his kingdom purposes.

Major on the sovereignty of God.

I firmly believe God isn’t so concerned about getting me somewhere as he is in making something of me in the process.

I don’t pray very often to know God’s will. Just telling you the truth.

No, I don’t often pray to know God’s will. Instead, I pray to know God.

If I know God then his will becomes more and more clear in my life.

So don’t seek perfection. Just seek obedience.

The Christian secret to a happy life and the Christian secret to effective leadership are one in the same: FIND GOD’S WILL AND DO IT.

Once we find God’s will, we find direction for his will. Vision comes from submission to God.

If you don’t sense God leading you, ask yourself, “What was the last thing God told me to do? And then did I do what he told me?”

God puts one thing on our plate at a time.

Remember, vision comes from submission to God.

BELIEF #8: DON’T OVER-SPIRITUALIZE. THE PRACTICAL IS IMPORTANT.

Lots of prayer won’t cover poor leadership habits and laziness. Be a grinder. Develop a strong and consistent work ethic. Grind through details. Develop a weekly schedule so you know what you need to accomplish every Monday morning, and Wednesday afternoon, and Thursdays at 11am. Don’t leave your schedule to the wind.

Some time ago I developed an ideal work week. I created a weekly pattern that serves as a template for me. It maximizes my effectiveness.

Yes, things change. Yes, emergencies occur. Yes, at times the schedule gets out of whack. But it doesn’t happen nearly as often as you might expect.

Make sure YOU HAPPEN TO YOUR SCHEDULE. If you don’t, YOUR SCHEDULE WILL HAPPEN TO YOU.

For me, I know every Monday morning at 10:30am I’ll be outlining a scripture passage for a sermon. I know, for example, I’ll be returning emails and phone calls from 3-4pm that same afternoon.

I know every Wednesday morning I dedicate an hour to work on stewardship related tasks such as writing thank you notes to new givers, planning giving talks that we’ll share before the Sunday offering time, scheduling finance team meetings and the like.

Don’t over-spiritualize every aspect of ministry. A very, very important part of leadership, developing consistently effective sermons and ministry in general, is consistently, day after day and week after week grinding through the work habits that create greatness.

So there you have it.

These are 8 beliefs that hold a monumental influence over my preaching and leadership style. They influence me in a million small and big ways.

I’d love to hear to hear some of your core principles. Let me know what you’ve learned along the way.

Your Sermon Coach,

Randall Garing

1. Calvin Miller, Marketplace Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995), 40.

May 10th, 2012 | Category: How To Write A Sermon, Sermon Creation, Sermons| No Comments »

Christmas Sermon Done For You – Part 2

Last week I posted a Christmas sermon titled Christmas Sermon Done For You – Part 1 and asked for your feedback. I wanted to hear whether or not a second post that discussed some of the mechanics of the message would be helpful to you.

Well, you have spoken! Thank you for the many positive comments I received on the website, facebook and through calls and emails.

If you haven’t had a chance to view Part 1 be sure to do that now before you start learning the in’s and out’s of the Christmas Sermon from my last post.

View Christmas Sermon Done For You – Part 1

For those of you who have already viewed the Christmas Sermon Part 1 let’s dive into the mechanics of this sermon!

How Did I Come Up With My Introductory Material?

I began the sermon in the world of my listeners. It’s always a good rule of thumb to start as close to them as possible. Once you’ve started with THEIR interests you can start moving them toward the BIBLE’S interests.

I felt it was important to play on the concerns that people have about a sermon on the genealogy of Jesus. Let’s face it – people aren’t immediately thrilled when they hear all those begats.

I tried to turn that weakness into a strength right from the start in the introduction.

One of my philosophies of preaching is that if you have a controversial issue or apparent weakness that you’re dealing with in the sermon then the best thing to do is lead with it.

I think by doing this you actually create MORE interest not LESS.

The following section of the intro was trying to turn my “weakness” into a strength:

It’s special because it’s one of the most neglected, least read passages in the entire Bible. You say, “Pastor Randall, how can you say that?”

(NOTE: At this point in the sermon people are already thinking, “Ok, well what passage is it? What passage in the Bible could be THAT neglected?” I’m creating congregational “buy in.”)

Well, I say this because almost NO ONE reads it. In fact, if you are honest, you admit that YOUR eyes gloss over when you see it.

You know the scripture passage is there. You’re sure God included it for a reason. But you’re not sure WHY.

We’re going to look at the genealogy of Jesus’ earthly family in Matthew.

That’s right.

A was the father of B

B was the father of C

C was the father of D

You look excited already! : )

Matthew titles this section: “A record of the genealogy of Jesus.” It literally reads, “The book of the genesis of Jesus.” It’s a record of the birth history of Jesus’ earthly family.

What Did My Christmas Sermon Outline Look Like?

Because of the nature of this passage, with so many names listed, I had to choose a representative sampling of names from the genealogy.

If not, the sermon would have been much, much too long. I’d also have too much content for my listeners reasonably to process. Much of it would have been lost on the listener because of the sheer volume of names I’d have to unpack.

I counted somewhere in the range of 46 names or so.

No rational preacher would try to unpack in a significant way all 46 names in one sermon. If so, you wouldn’t finish giving the message until the following Christmas.

That’s one loooooong sermon!

Another unique thing about preaching this genealogy passage is that much of the biblical content in the sermon doesn’t come from Matthew 1.

Matthew 1 only lists the names.

It doesn’t give you the back story.

For that you have to chase those individual stories down in the Old Testament.

Matthew’s readers probably already knew the stories behind all those names.

We can’t make that same assumption with our listeners though.

So we have to tell them who Judah was. And Tamar. And Ruth. And Rahab. You get the point.

So here’s the outline that I built my sermon on:

Introduction

1. List examples of things that are part of the Christmas season.

2. We know the details of the Christmas story.

3. We know WHAT, but do we know WHY? What is the purpose of Christmas?

4. Provide Biblical Background on the Genealogy.

5. Preview what questions the sermon will answer:

a. What kind of people are included in Jesus’ family?

b. What is the PURPOSE of Jesus’ birth?

I. (Jesus’ family includes all kinds of people with sinful pasts). [Selected verses in Matthew 1]

A. Judah impregnates Tamar when she impersonate a prostitute.

B. Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho.

C. Ruth’s family line began from an incestuous relationship.

D. David committed adultery and murder.

E. Manasseh re-instituted pagan worship.

II. Jesus came to bring sinful people into his family. [Matthew 1:21]

A. Jesus will save people from their sins.

B. David realized the gravity of his sins and repented.

1. David came to his senses

2. Psalm 51 records David’s prayer

C. Manasseh humbled himself too.

1. Manasseh sees the error of his ways

2. 2 Chronicles 33 shows us a humble Manasseh

D. Contemporary Examples of What it Looks like to have sins forgiven:

1. Husband

2. Alcoholic

3. Student

Conclusion:

1. Jesus’ family is full of people who refused to be defined by their sin.

2. Jesus came to save people like us.

One quick note here… Roman Numeral I – I put in parenthesis. The reason for this is because that tells me I don’t SAY that point until then END of Roman Numeral I. I’m preaching that first Roman Numeral inductively.

In this case, I think it weakens the sermon if you give the meaning of that point too soon in the message.

I told the stories of Judah, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, David and Manasseh first. It wasn’t until AFTER people felt the impact of those stories did I give the point: JESUS’ FAMILY INCLUDES ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE WITH SINFUL PASTS.

What Process Did I Use to Create The Christmas Sermon Outline?

I have a very specific process that I use to create sermons each week. I like having a process because it helps me save time. I can also track how I’m progressing.

I always start by reading the scripture. Then I list all the question I have. There’s always lots of stuff I don’t understand or need more info about. For this message I needed answers to questions like:

What is Judah and Tamar’s story?
What is Rabab’s, Ruth’s etc. stories?
Why isn’t Bathsheba mentioned by name? Instead she’s referred to as “Uriah’s wife”?

That’s not all my questions… but you get the idea.

Then you have to know the RIGHT places to find answers. You can waste a ton of time chasing down answers in the wrong kind of commentaries, dictionaries and devotionals. Some other time we’ll talk about some tricks that will save you lots of time on this step of the sermon process.

Truthfully, in a passage like this, you should be able to accomplish the necessary scripture study in 1-2 hours max.

Once I found answers to all my Bible questions, I do a QUICK outline of the text and look for any timeless truths. Again, this shouldn’t take but a few minutes.

Once I got to this point I was ready to nail down the main point of the sermon. What was the main truth I wanted my listeners to grab? I decided on this: Christmas is a time to overcome our past mistakes.

Everything in the sermon builds to this one point.

Then I asked myself, “What questions will my listeners have when they hear this sermon?”

The most significant one was, “How can I overcome my past mistakes? What would it look like for me to overcome my past mistakes?”

So, in the sermon I made sure I answered THAT question! That’s the point in the outline where I list contemporary examples.

The sermon outline itself is a combination of 3 elements:

Biblical material (All the stories about Judah, Tamar, Rahab, etc.)
Timeless material (My main point: Christmas is a time to overcome our past mistakes)
Contemporary material (List of contemporary examples)

How Did I Decide What to Include (and Not Include) In The Christmas Sermon?

I used to struggle with deciding what to include and what not to include in my sermons. The result was sometimes I ended up having too much content and the sermon went too long and lacked focus because I poured in every last tidbit of my study into the message.

The other result was sometimes I edited out the vital content. And because I didn’t include enough background or enough of my study insights that sermon was disjointed, lacked coherence and my audience struggled with following my logic because I didn’t fill in enough “gaps” for them.

But those days are long behind me now. I virtually never struggle with deciding what information to keep in the message and what I need to edit out.

The reason for this is because I learned an important secret. Do you want to know what it is?

If you have the right kind of outline it automatically tells you what NEEDS to make it to the pulpit and WHAT needs to stay in your office.

See the above info about biblical, timeless & contemporary material. Here’s a rule of thumb: You want to include enough biblical information that people understand your main point. Once that’s accomplished you’ve included enough material.

How Was The Message Received As I Preached It?

Our congregation really received this message well. The listeners were dialed into the flow of the message and what God was doing. It was exciting to see how the Holy Spirit was working.

We had a very extensive congregational response at the end of the sermon.

What Did I Do to Promote The Sermon The Week(s) Beforehand to Help Increase Attendance?

Not a ton of promotion for this particular sermon. We sent out a newsletter that included the Christmas series sermon titles among other things.

The Friday before the sermon was preached we sent this email to the congregation:

_________________________________________________________

Good Morning Everyone!

I thought last week’s service was a GREAT launch to our Christmas emphasis this month!

This Sunday we are going to answer the question, “What is the PURPOSE of Christmas?”

To do this we are going to read, very possibly, the LEAST read passage in the entire Bible. Truthfully, almost no one reads it. Your eyes gloss over when you stumble upon it.

I realize this is probably the worst way imaginable to promote this Sunday’s sermon by telling you we are going to read one of the most “allegedly” boring passages in the Bible.

But there is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more in this passage than meets the eye.

Any idea what passage of the Bible it is? Inquiring wants to know.

Email me back with your response if you think you know!

See You Sunday at 10:30am!

Pastor Randall

_________________________________________________________

It’s a very simple but effective method. Lots of people in the congregation sent us back emails with their guess as to what passage of the Bible I was going to preach on. It was fun. And it involved my congregation a layer deeper into the message even before it was preached.

Why Didn’t I Include Very Many Illustrations?

I’m not big on illustrations. It’s NOT that I never use them. I do. But my sermons aren’t dependent on them to sustain interest like most sermons.

Truthfully, some sermons I hear throw a bunch of disjointed biblical facts around that lull listeners to the brink of sleep. And just when our listeners are at the verge of comatose we throw out an illustration to wake them up.

I decided a long time ago I wasn’t going to preach like that. I wanted the structure and direction of my message to be self-sustaining when it comes to interest.

Instead of illustrations I invest a chunk of time asking the question, “How does this scriptural truth show up in real life?” When you show your listeners where it shows up in real life that makes them want to listen.

It doesn’t have to be long and involved to do this in a sermon. Here’s how I did it in this particular sermon:

Maybe you’re the husband in the later years of his life who says, “Lord, I never took spiritual things seriously. It never seemed that urgent. Now, the years have gone by. In many ways I’ve squandered away my life. What do I have to show for it? Lord, I’m so sorry.”

Maybe you’re the alcoholic who bemoans, “God, I’ve ruined my marriage, alienated my friends and pushed away anybody who actually cared for me at all. I’ve really messed things up. Lord, please save me from my own stupidity.”

You could be the student who says, “Jesus, I’ve been selfish. I’ve disrespected my parents. I’ve manipulated them to get my own selfish ways. Nor have I respected my body or reputation. I’ve hurt our family name by my actions and words. Now it hurts me to see how I’ve hurt them. Lord, I was so wrong.”

Well, that’s some of my thoughts behind the sermon itself.

I’d love to hear from you on the comments section of this post. Let me know what questions you have.

Share this post with your Facebook Friends and With Your Twitter Followers.

Your Sermon Coach,

Randall Garing

December 24th, 2011 | Category: How To Write A Sermon, Sermon Ideas, Sermon Series, Sermons| No Comments »

Christmas Sermon Done For You – Part 1

I recently gave you a Christmas sermon about angels. Because of the overwhelmingly positive feedback I’ve decided to give you the second one in the Christmas sermon series.

You are welcome to preach this sermon or use it to shape a sermon you are already working on right now.

I’m thinking about making this post a 2-part series.

In this blog post (Part 1) I’m giving you the content of the sermon I preached.

In Part 2, I’d like to critique the sermon a bit and spell out the thinking behind this actual sermon. I’d like to tell you WHY I did WHAT I did.

I’m talking about some really in depth stuff…

This would cover some topics like:

How did I come up with the introductory material?
What did my sermon outline look like?
What process did I use to create the sermon outline?
How did I decide what to include and what not to include?
How was the message received by my congregation as I preached it?
What did I do to promote the sermon the week(s) beforehand to help increase attendance?
Why didn’t I include very many illustrations?

That’s what I’d like to do with Part 2 of this blog post.

But here’s where YOU come in. I need some group feedback here.

Would a “Part 2” blog post like the one I just told you about be helpful to you?

Would looking into the “mechanics” of this sermon be something you’d be interested in?

If so, please write, “YES, on Part 2” in the comments section at the end of this blog post.

If I see enough people who think it will be helpful I’ll be glad to invest the time to create the post.

In the comments section, you can also add any specific questions you’d like me to answer about how I created this sermon.

So let me know in the comments section if you think a “Part 2” would help you!

Thanks for your feedback.

Below is the entire Sermon Manuscript.

Enjoy the sermon!

It’s Time for Christmas:

Time to Overcome Our Past

Christmas is a busy season. It’s time for many things.

Some would say Christmas is a time for families to get together. Someone once joked that Christmas is the time when we get to see family that we only see once throughout the year… then discover that once a year is ENTIRELY too often!

Others would say Christmas is the time of year when you get to tell Santa what you want him to bring you.

Still others might say Christmas is about hanging decorations and putting up your Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.

Of course, the stores will tell you Christmas is about doing LOTS of shopping starting on Black Friday!

I stumbled across this year’s list of “most popular” Christmas gifts.

iPod Touch for $184.99
Nintendo 3DS for $169.99
Garmin GPS Navigation System is a cool $215.99
The PS3 is always popular. It retails at nearly $250.00

(Notice that many companies have stopped putting effort into fancy names anymore? Their products sound like a bunch of initials: 3DS, GPS, PS3)

Or you can buy a Sony 40 inch TV this year right at $600.00

Needless to say, some would say Christmas is a time for RETAIL.

Others think of elves, reindeer, snowmen, sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles, the North Pole and wrapping paper at the mention of Christmas.

Now the really spiritual people might say, “Christmas is Jesus’ birthday!”

I think most of us know the Christmas story.

We know about Mary giving birth to Jesus.

We know about the manger, the shepherds and the wise men.

We know there was no room in the INN.

We even know that King Herod was a sociopath.

We know the WHAT of Christmas. But do we know the WHY?

Why did Jesus come here? I’m sure it would have been much nicer for Jesus just to stay in heaven. What caused Jesus to be born here? What IS the purpose of Christmas? What is the purpose behind his birth?

To find the WHY of Christmas we’re going to look at a special passage of the Bible. It’s not just ANY passage.

It’s special because it’s one of the most neglected, least read passages in the entire Bible.

You say, “Pastor Randall, how can you say that?” Well, I say this because almost NO ONE reads it. In fact, if you are honest, you admit that YOUR eyes gloss over when you see it.

You know the scripture passage is there. You’re sure God included it for a reason. But you’re not sure WHY.

We’re going to look at the genealogy of Jesus’ earthly family in Matthew.

That’s right.

A was the father of B

B was the father of C

C was the father of D

You look excited already! : )

Matthew titles this section: “A record of the genealogy of Jesus.” It literally reads, “The book of the genesis of Jesus.” It’s a record of the birth history of Jesus’ earthly family.

Let’s jump into this neglected section of the New Testament. Let’s see if it can’t give us the purpose of Christmas.

First, we want to look at some of the people included in Jesus’ family. Let’s meet some of the people mentioned here.

Second, we want to discover the PURPOSE of Jesus’ birth. We want to see if this genealogy will tell us WHY Jesus came here. We want to see if it will tell us the PURPOSE of Christmas.

Let’s start by looking at some of the people included in Jesus’ family here in Matthew chapter 1.

Early on here we read about Judah and Tamar.

Matthew starts his Gospel by saying: “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: ² Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, ³ Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar…” (NIV).

Judah and Tamar started a family together. Tamar gave birth to twin sons.

But this is NOT your typical, happy nuclear family.

This family MAJORED in dysfunction and got a MINOR in scandalous behavior.

Although Tamar gave birth to Judah’s children, Tamar was not Judah’s wife.

Now, before you think to yourself, “Oh, this is your typical run-of-the-mill affair and having a child out of wedlock” – understand this is MUCH, MUCH more complicated.

You see, Judah was not Tamar’s husband. Judah was Tamar’s father-in-law. That’s right. Let that sink in for a moment.

Tamar had been married to Judah’s son, Er. Er eventually dies before he and Tamar can have children.

Tamar desperately wanted a child. This was much more than just a maternal longing. In that culture, children were everything.

Children provided for you in your old age. Children protected you in your later years. Children were a sign of God’s blessing.

Psalm 127:4-5 show us how the Israelites felt about children: “Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them” (NIV).

One day Tamar’s father-in-law, Judah, travels to Timnah on business. Tamar knows the road he will travel. As Judah approaches, Tamar covers her face with a veil and pretends to be a prostitute.

Judah doesn’t realize that the woman standing in front of him is his daughter-in-law.

You can do the math.

Judah gets his daughter-in-law pregnant.

Several months pass. Eventually, Judah hears from the local gossip mill that Tamar is pregnant. To make matters worse people are saying, “She’s guilty of prostitution!”

When Judah hears that Tamar is pregnant and has prostituted herself he responds angrily, “Burn her at the stake!”

As the people drag Tamar out into the public circle, through a series of events, Judah realizes HE is the one who impregnated Tamar. He realizes he’s just as guilty as she.

Well, eventually she gives birth to twin boys. That’s not exactly the textbook way to start a happy family together:

Deception
Prostitution
Impregnate your daughter-in-law
Threaten to burn her at the stake

These two, Judah and Tamar, represent some of the first people mentioned in Jesus’ family line. Not exactly typical family heroes.

But It Gets Worse.

Next Matthew mentions Rahab.

Rahab didn’t PRETEND to be a prostitute. Rahab WAS a prostitute.

Verse 5 mentions her in the Jesus’ family line:“Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab…” (NIV).

The book of Joshua chronicles Rahab’s story.

She lived in Jericho. The king of Jericho was searching the area to find two Israelite spies. In order to save their lives, Rahab hides them in her house. She then directs the king to look elsewhere. Needless to say the king never found them.

Just in case you’re keeping score…

So far Matthew has introduced us to:

a prostitute
a person who pretends to be a prostitute
a father-in-law who impregnates his daughter-in-law

You think your family has problems? This family puts the “D” in dysfunctional.

This is Jesus’ family that Matthew decides to introduce us to.

Then Matthew introduces us to Ruth. Ruth is a breath of fresh air compared to the others we’ve met in the genealogy so far. By all accounts Ruth was a loyal and honorable woman.

When her husband died she remained with her mother-in-law, Naomi, so that Ruth could help provide and take care of her. Ruth showed great compassion toward her elderly mother-in-law by taking care of her.

Even with these wonderful character traits, many acted in cruel and hostile ways toward Ruth.

They did this not because of ANYTHING SHE DID. They did this because of WHERE SHE WAS FROM.

Ruth was from Moab. The Moabites originated from an incestuous relationship. In Genesis 19, Lot drinks too much wine. He’s so intoxicated that he decides to sleep with his daughter.

Nine months later she gives birth to a son. She names him Moab which means, “from father.”

The Moabites eventually become one of Israel’s greatest enemies. To complicate the situation even more, God tells Israel to never attack Moab because of the family connection.

But at the same time they banned the Moabites from the assembly of the Lord. Deuteronomy 23:3 says, “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation” (NIV).

So many despised Ruth because of how her family line began.

This genealogy could tell many other stories.

In verse 6 read about David and Bathsheba (referred to as Uriah’s wife). David committed adultery with this woman. Then David murdered her husband to cover up his own sin.

Verse 10 mentions the wicked King Manasseh. 2 Kings describes him as someone “who did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” His father, Hezekiah, tried to lead Israel faithfully. But when Manasseh came to the throne he re-instituted pagan worship in Israel, reversed his father’s reforms and dismantled everything good and holy that Hezekiah had built.

This really is an odd collection of people, isn’t it? These are the people included in Jesus’ family line.

Jesus’ Family Includes All kinds of People With Sinful Pasts.

Adulterers. Murderers. Those who committed incest. Prostitutes. People who engaged in all manner of sexual sin. Greedy people. And those who abused their authority and power.

These are the people mentioned in connection with Jesus.

But what does this tell us about WHY Jesus came?

What does this tell us about WHY Jesus was born as a child?

What is the PURPOSE of Christmas?

Matthew 1:21 gives us the answer. Jesus came for those of us who’ve made all kinds of mistakes. Those of us who’ve committed all manner of sins. He came for those of us who need SOMEONE to save us from ourselves. Those of us who need SOMEONE who can forgive us.

Matthew says that Mary “…will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (NIV).

Christmas is a time to OVERCOME OUR PAST MISTAKES.

JESUS DOESN’T CARE WHO YOU WERE,

ONLY WHO YOU ARE.

Jesus didn’t come for perfect people. Christmas isn’t for perfect people.

Jesus’ family is full of imperfect, sinful, broken people who have humbled themselves. Once a person humbles themselves, God exalts them.

David eventually comes to his senses. He realizes the gravity of his sin. He’s committed adultery. He’s murdered an innocent man.

Psalm 51 records David’s intimate prayer: “¹Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. ² Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin… For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. ⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge… ¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. ¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation…” (NIV).

Even wicked King Manasseh repents in the end. At the end of his life he sees the error of his ways. He thinks, “What have I done? I’ve frittered away my life. All the things I thought would make me happy, haven’t. I’ve betrayed the one true thing in my life. Lord, God, can you ever forgive me?”

2 Chronicles 33 shows us a humble Manasseh: “¹²In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. ¹³ And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea… Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God” (NIV).

You may have committed all kind of sins. You may have lots of regrets. You probably have things you are deeply ashamed about.

JESUS DOESN’T CARE WHO YOU WERE,

JUST WHO YOU ARE.

Christmas is Time to Overcome Your Past Mistakes.

It’s never too late to do the right thing. You cannot go back and start again, but you can start from here and have a brand-new end.

JESUS’ FAMILY IS FULL OF PEOPLE WHO REFUSED TO BE DEFINED BY THEIR SIN.

INSTEAD, THEY CHOSE TO BE DEFINED BY THEIR SAVIOR.

Why did Jesus come?

What is the purpose of his birth?

What is the purpose of Christmas?

Christ came to save people like YOU. Christ came to save people like ME.

That’s what Christmas is all about. Christmas, more than anything else, is the time to overcome your past.

Don’t let your past define your present.

Humble yourself.

Ask for Jesus’ help.

And welcome to the family.

Merry Christmas!

WAIT! There’s One More Thing…

Remember at the beginning of this post I talked about writing a Part 2 where I dissect the sermon you just read and explain the ins and outs of things like:

How did I come up with the introductory material?
What did my sermon outline look like?
What process did I use to create the sermon outline?
How did I decide what to include and what not to include?
How was the message received by my congregation as I preached it?
What did I do to promote the sermon the week(s) beforehand to help increase attendance?
Why didn’t I include very many illustrations?

I’d like to tell you WHY I did WHAT I did.

If you want all of that coveted information then write “YES, on Part 2” in the comments section below and I’ll get started on Part 2.

If you have any other questions or comments post those as well and be sure to Retweet this post and Like It on Facebook to share it with your friends.

UPDATE: Here Is Part 2

Blessings,

Randall Garing

December 12th, 2011 | Category: How To Write A Sermon, Sermon Ideas, Sermon Series, Sermons| 8 Comments »

Here Is An Entire Christmas Sermon

I know Christmas sermons aren’t always the easiest to write. In fact, holiday sermons in general can be a bit tougher to come up with than most.

So pastor, here’s my Christmas gift to you.

This is a sermon I preached that is part of a larger Christmas sermon series. It’s a great message to start the season.

For those of you who have been following me and implementing all of the sermon strategies I’ve discussed, look closely at my sermon to see how I implement those strategies.

Be sure to leave me a comment below. You can just say”thanks” or “good job” or anything you want. I’d love to hear from you.

Enjoy!

It’s Time for Christmas:

What Does the Bible Teach About Angels?

The majority of Americans believe in the existence of angels.

In 2008, TIME Magazine referenced a study by Baylor University that discovered more than 50% of Americans believe they have actively and directly been helped by a guardian angel in their life.

Now people have many wide-ranging beliefs about angels. These beliefs range from NOT believing in angels at all to believing angels are under every rock and around every corner.

Some people believe that when we die we become an angel. So we say things like,

“Wow. That person really suffered a lot before they died. But now they have their angel wings.“

Angels have become part of our culture.

This time of the year the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life runs on TV a lot. One line in that movie has become famous. Do you know it?

“Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.”

This diversity of beliefs about angels isn’t all that unusual.

Even in Biblical times different religious groups held different beliefs about angels. For instance, the two most influential Jewish groups during Jesus’ day had opposing views:

The Pharisees believed deeply in angels and the supernatural. They had strong beliefs about life after death.
The Sadducees, on the other hand, thought it was all nonsense. They didn’t believe in heaven, hell, or life after death. And they certainly did not believe in the existence of angelic beings.

So We Bring lots of Questions to This Topic of Angels

Do angels really exist? If they do exist, what’s their purpose exactly? Are we each assigned a guardian angel? What does the Bible teach us about angelic beings? What does the Bible say that can give us clarity on this topic of angels?

Well, both the Old and New Testaments mention the presence of angels in our world. We don’t get very far into the Bible before we stumble across an angel.

We meet an angel in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. Genesis 3 mentions a cherubim (another name for an angel) with a flaming sword that guarded the tree of life.

Or how about Numbers 22? There an angel opposes Balaam because as the NIV describes it, Balaam’s “path was a reckless one.”

As we read through the Scripture we hear about the angel who encourages Gideon or the one who speaks to Zechariah about his son, John.

Of course the last book of the Bible, Revelation, mentions angels throughout.

Today we begin a new series called, “It’s Time For Christmas.” According to the Biblical account, angels were very active in the events of Christmas.

Finding out what the Bible says about angels seems like a natural place to start a Christmas series!

What we want to do is jump into several passages today. We want to get an overview of the Bible’s teaching on this subject.

We Want to Find Out:

What are angels exactly? And,

What is their purpose? What do they do?

The Bible tells ANGELS ARE MESSENGERS OF THE HEAVENLY WORLD.

Angels are representatives of the heavenly realm.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for angels is malekim. It means, “sent ones.” The New Testament uses the Greek word angelos which means, “messenger.”

Angels are heavenly ambassadors. They represent God who sends them.

Countries have ambassadors.

Our president has sent ambassadors to other countries. He’s sent ambassadors to Japan, to China and to many other countries. The American ambassador speaks for the president of the United States. They only speak what the president wants them to speak.

When angels speak in the Bible, they only speak what God wants them to say.

Some passages get a bit confusing because we’re not sure if it is describing the angel talking or God talking. But that’s the point! The angel only speaks what God wants them to say. The ANGEL’S words are just repeating GOD’S words.

We see this in Exodus 3 when an angel confronts Moses in a burning bush.

Moses is traveling in the desert. He sees a bush that is on fire but isn’t being consumed. Verse 2 begins to describe the encounter:

There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” ⁴ When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am” (NIV).

Is the angel talking or God talking? It mentions an angel in the flames but Moses hears the voice of God.

The point is IF and WHEN an angel speaks, he only speaks what God tells him to say. The angel’s words are not his own words. They are God’s words.

Angels are God’s ambassadors. They are messengers of the heavenly world.

But what do they do?

What is the purpose of angels?

Who role do they serve?

The Bible Tells Us Angels Have Several Roles

First, angels are heavenly worship leaders. They lead others in the worship of God. Angels always draw attention TO God and AWAY from themselves.

The Bible mentions the existence of thousands of angels. But of all these angels mentioned in the Bible, we know the name of TWO.

Gabriel and Michael.

Out of the thousands of angels, the Bible only gives us the name of two.

That tells me THE CLOSER WE GET TO GOD, THE LESS OUR PERSONAL REFERENCE MATTERS.

Angels stand in the presence of God. In essence they say, “Don’t look at us, look at God.”

In the book of Isaiah, the prophet had a vision of God. He saw God’s throne room. He saw God in his majesty and glory.

Seraphs (another word for angels) gathered above the throne. These angels weren’t leading the worship of themselves. They were leading the worship of God.

Isaiah 6:1 begins, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (NIV).

The angels live in the very presence of God. But notice what they do.

This passage describes them with six wings.

2 Wings to fly
2 Wings to Cover their face
2 Wings to cover their themselves

They said, “Even though we’re angels, we cover our face in God’s presence because we don’t deserve look at the face of God! He’s holier than we are.”

They said, “Even though we’re angels, we cover ourselves because we don’t deserve to be seen in his presence. Worship is about God, not about us.”

WE DO NOT WORSHIP ANGELS.

WE WORSHIP GOD, AND GOD ONLY.

In Colossians 2 Paul warns us about people who give too much status to angels. He says, “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you” (NIV).

WE DO NOT WORSHIP ANGELS.

WE WORSHIP GOD, AND GOD ONLY.

Angels serve as our heavenly worship leaders.

They point us to God, not to themselves.

Angels have another important purpose. Angels engage in spiritual warfare.

The Bible does not give us much detail here. And the details it does give it’s difficult to know exactly what they mean.

But from what we can glean from the scriptures, angels protect believers from attacks of the evil one.

Daniel 10 gives us some insight here. An angel explains what happened the moment Daniel prayed for God’s help.

Verse 11 describes Daniel’s encounter with this angel.

(The Angel) said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. ¹² Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. ¹³ But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. ¹⁴ Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come” (NIV).

Daniel asked for understanding of God’s plan for His people. The Lord hears this prayer and immediately sends an angel to give Daniel the answer he’s looking for.

Well, apparently the powers of evil have the ability to delay the requests that even God intends to answer.

God sends an angel to deliver the answer. But the prince of Persia (some sort of demonic agent over that realm) confronts this angel for three weeks! So this angel is delayed in reaching Daniel for 21 days because of a spiritual battle taking place in the heavens.

Finally, another angel, Michael, comes to the aid of the angel trying to reach Daniel. Michael’s help opens up the door for the angel to reach Daniel with God’s answer to his prayer.

Of course, God could snap his fingers and remove ANY demonic resistance that stands in his way or in the way of his angels.

But it seems God give demons free-will to resist him. In the same way, God gives humans free-will to resist him.

For a season.

Although we still have many questions, this passage shows us that one important purpose of angels is to engage in spiritual warfare.

Another Role Angels Play is to Help Make God’s HEAVENLY Plans An EARTHLY Reality.

That’s another purpose these divine agents hold. Angels help to put God’s plans into action here on earth.

Angels try to make God’s plans a REALITY.

Ever wonder if every person has a guardian angel assigned to them? I think some of might need 3 or 4!

The Bible doesn’t give a lot of direct info related to this specific question. But Jesus does make one curious statement about this.

In Matthew 10 he talks about how angels protect the “little ones.” Now some people think “little ones” refers to children. No doubt God’s angels protect children. But it is more likely Jesus is here referring to new Christians. He refers to people who are new in their faith as “little ones.”

Jesus says DON’T DO ANYTHING that could discourage a new Christian. Don’t look down on them if they do silly things.

Don’t make fun of them if they ask something about the Bible that you learned 40 years ago. Don’t say, “I can’t believe you don’t know that verse! I learned that when I was 6 years old!”

Don’t berate them by saying, “How could you not know this?”

Jesus says, “Treat new believers with great respect. Encourage them. Pray for them. They’re just now learning how to walk with God. Don’t ever trip them up. Don’t ever discourage them.”

In that context Jesus says in Matthew 10, “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (NIV).

Jesus seems to indicate that God has assigned angels to every new believer. Perhaps these angels help them grow in their new-found obedience to God. Or maybe these angels help them stay close to God in the early stages of their spiritual development. These angels could protect them from spiritual attack.

Another verse related to this is Psalm 34:7.

^“The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them” (NIV).

Whether every Christian has a guardian angel or not, we can’t say. But we know that God watches over and protects every believer.

And we know that, at least during vital times in our spiritual journey – especially as a new Christian – God designates special angelic protection and guidance over us.

God’s angels make His HEAVENLY plans an EARTHLY reality.

The Bible Draws Our Attention to One Last Purpose of Angels.

It’s this: Angels played (or will play) a key role in the four major events of Jesus’ life.

In the New Testament, the primary role of angels is to support and facilitate the work of Jesus.

The four most significant events of Jesus’ life:

(1) His Birth

(2) His Temptation

(3) His Resurrection

(4) His Return

In each of these instances the Bible tells us the angels were involved in the plot.

Jesus’ Birth:

An angel comes to Mary, “This child conceived in you is of the Holy Spirit!”
Then an angel appears to Joseph. “Joseph, Mary didn’t cheat on you. This child is of the Holy Spirit. She’s going to have a son. You are to name him Jesus.”
Angels announced Jesus’ birth to shepherds.
An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and tells him to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt because King Herod wants to kill the child.

Jesus’ Temptation:

After Jesus resisted Satan’s attacks, the Bible tells us angels “came and attended him.”

Jesus’ Resurrection:

On the third day the angel of the Lord descended from heaven. He rolled back the stone and sat upon it.
The guards were so afraid of the angel they couldn’t even move!
When ladies came to the tomb an angel told them that Jesus had risen!

Jesus’ Return:

Jesus say in Mark 4:38 “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels” (NIV).
Luke 12:8 “I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God” (NIV).

These angels are active in the four major events of Jesus’ life. More than anything else, angels support and facilitate the ministry of Jesus in the world.

So that’s who the angelic beings are. They are God’s heavenly messengers. They carry out and support God’s work in our world.

They point us to God, never to themselves. Often, the engage in spiritual battles and do spiritual work that we may never see. But they are instrumental in what Christ is doing in our lives and families and communities and world.

This Christmas season, take a moment to thank God for the work of angels in your life. Just because you’ve never seen one, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

A friend told me once, “Randall, God does more behind our backs than He ever does in front of our faces.”

For that you can be thankful.

“End of the Sermon.”

I hope you enjoyed my sermon and were able to see the things I have been teaching in action.

Please post any questions you might have below and share this with fellow Pastors that you think could benefit from it.

Your Sermon Coach,

Randall Garing

December 7th, 2011 | Category: How To Write A Sermon, Sermon Ideas, Sermons| No Comments »