A disciple of Jesus should not think too highly of themselves. They should also not think to low of themselves either. We are to look outside of ourselves and serve one another. The world tells us we should look out for #1, but following Jesus we look at how we can serve others. We follow Jesus' example as he washed the feet of the disciples, we are to wash each others feet.
You gotta love it! I created a new site to place all my sermon there. Good idea right? Well there is a change of plans -and it is a great thing! We are in the process of re-designing the Grace Church web site. With the new design, I will be able to embed the www.youtube.com/user/baldheadbruce sermon videos right to the web site. Now, this may take a while so I will continue to place the sermons here. Once we have the new Grace Church web site up and running, I will disable the new blog site and start to place my sermons directly to the Grace Church web site. Technology - you gotta love it :)
I have really enjoyed posting my sermons here on the Baldhead Blog, but I have come to realize that it is probably going to be better if these sermons are on their own site. That is why I created http://sermonsfromgrace.blogspot.com/ designed specifically for the sermons preached and video taped at Grace Church. On this site, you will also be able to link to the audio web site for the sermons. Then the Baldhead Blog can get back on track from its original intent - "Thoughts about Leadership, Life, and God." I hope you continue to enjoy my ramblings here and visit the new site with all the sermons. I am looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for us with all this. God is really moving at Grace and He is really working on me. Praise be to HIM who doe snot give up on us, but loves us with only the love He can give.
Blessings!
For a follower of Jesus, reaching out is not an option, we are commanded to do so. We do not need to do this without any tools, we have some items in our tackle box as we go and catch people - Just like Jesus told us to do.
God never called anybody to be a "Christian" - He did however, call us to follow Him with our whole lives. Being a Passionate Follower of Jesus means we do several things; this sermon scratches the surface to these things.
I love reformed theology. It is a theology that keeps me thinking and growing. It was RC Sproul who just quoted Spurgeon on his radio broadcast this past week that reformed theology is biblical theology. I believe this. I do not have it all figured out nor will I ever. You can tell I believe in this theology by just looking at me links to the right – most of them are from a reformed perspective. I also serve in a reformed church and am loving it. Now, I am still learning and there are things with this theology that I have a hard time believing – and that OK. I will continue to search the scriptures and grow. What I will not do is combine different theological perspectives to create my own theology that fits my needs and fancy.
I am starting to see this more and more with church leaders and pastors today. They are copying programs and calling it a philosophy of ministry, they are committing pulpit plagiarism and feeding their flock from somebody else’s table (more about this in a future post), and they are wishy-washy when it comes to theology. I do not think the Lord wants us to have everything figured out – but He does desire us to grow, learn, lead, and become the theologians in our respected ministry contexts.
To illustrate this I want to share a story. I was traveling with some pastors a few years ago when the topic of Dispensationalism and Covenant theology came up. The Senior Pastor of a church said that neither was right and neither was wrong, but proper theology is a combination of the two. Specifically he believed in a covenant theology right up to the point about various spiritual gifts being available in the 21st Century. Then he switched to a dispensationalist theology saying that only a select few are available. I sat there thinking that you cannot cherry pick from different theological camps and create your own theological melting pot. At that moment I really felt sad for the congregation he leads because he really does not know what he believes theologically and all of spiritual leadership is born out of this. The by-product of this or what this leads to is cheap grace and easy believism, something that is plaguing the AmericanChurch.
This happening more and more in the NorthAmericanChurch and you see it with all theological views and standpoints. I am not sitting here telling you that I have it all figured out, because I don’t! In fact I am the least to tell someone that they are wrong because I have such long way to go. I am just writing down some thoughts and observations I have seen in the NorthAmericanChurch, and putting out this challenge – know what you believe, why you believe it, and lead out of the Lord teaching you and shaping you.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28: 18-20
This picture was taken at our last mini-vacation as a family to Frankenmuth, MI. There they have a world fampus resturant called Zenders which has the best chicken you will ever taste. I have lived in Michigan my whole life but have never had Zenders chicken until we went a few weeks ago. This picture tells you what I think of the chicken!
The infant baptism and believer baptism debate has been going on for hundreds of years. What has been lost in recent years is the theology of baptism into the family of God. Baptism does point in three directions that we can reflect on no matter what your theology is. Because baptism is a sign of this, we need to be good stewards of God's Grace.
