Pastor’s Blog

On January 24th, we’ll be starting a sermon series from the book of Revelation. Through the spring, with a break for Easter, we’ll be covering chapters 1 through 7. I know that some of you are planning to study Revelation in different groups, so I thought I’d publish a little more publically than usual the preaching plan.

When I prepare a preaching plan I read through the text several times, look at the way it naturally divides, read some commentaries to see what they offer as the structure of the text, compare all that to the calendar, and then project preaching divisions. When all that is done I go through the chunks and in a preliminary way select a title, a key sentence, and a worship theme.

So what can you count on? Certainly the divisions and the dates. To a lesser extent the worship themes. And to an even lesser extent the wording of the key sentences and titles. These often change even as late as the week I’m preaching.

I’ll update this PDF from time to time as I get more information, especially about the Easter series.

(Click on the image or the link below to see the PDF.)

Preaching Plan 1Q2010

A couple of people asked for a list of the key references from the ’submissions’ section of today’s message (Sunday, December 6, 2009). Always glad to share Scripture! Here’s the outline with the Scripture references:

I. Mary’s example of submission (Luke 1:26-38)
“may it be to me as you have said”
II. Joseph’s example of submission (Matthew 1:18-25)
“he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded”
III. Our submissions
A. To God (Hebrews 12:9, James 4:7)
B. To governing authorities (Romans 13:1)
C. Of servants to masters (1st Peter 2:18)
D. Of wives to husbands (Ephesians 5:22)
E. (of children to parents) (Ephesians 6:1, Luke 2:51)
F. To church leaders (Hebrews 13:17)
G. To one another (Ephesians 5:21)

When I was preparing I ran across a crystal clear discussion of the New Testament word ’submission’. Here’s the link:

Submit! Resistance is Futile!

Many people have asked if they can get a copy of the text or re-listen to the audio of the message from David Rasks memorial service.  Here is a link to the sermon page at Trinity Fellowship’s website, where both the text and the audio have been posted.

Recent Sermons Page

I recieved many positive comments on the Children’s Corner from Sunday (April 5, 2009) in which I made confetti out of a one dollar bill, a five dollar bill and a ten dollar bill in order to show what the disciples were feeling about the ‘waste’ of the $30,000 – $50,000 worth of nard when Mary poured it out on Jesus’ head and feet.

Several people did, however, jokingly mention that I had broken the law by destroying currency. I took a minute to ask Google this question and came up with the following link: “Is it illegal to destroy Amercian currency”. The basic answer is that it is only illegal if there is fraudulent intent. The responder also points out that while there is case law (actual cases) for the question with respect to coins, there is absolutely no case law with respect to currency! So I’m not expecting a knock on my door.