Sunday, March 22, 2009

Sermon Audio (Lent 4): The Power of a Moral Inventory

From this morning:
  • Sermon Audio for today's sermon can be downloaded>> HERE.
  • Bible texts used can be read>> HERE.
  • Sermon Text can be downloaded as a PDF>> HERE.
Here is the introduction:

My Text today is Luke 15V17. Jesus story of two Prodigal brothers. One of them (the younger) took all his inheritance, and blew it on a fantasy, and landed in a pigsty. And found that he was given a (kind of) gift there: Time to think. V17:
When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!
Isn’t that a great phrase? 'When he came to his senses...' In other translations, it says: 'When he came to himself...' Now, what an interesting possibility? That you can be you, but not yourself for a time. You can be yourself, and yet come to yourself. It’s an idiom that we understand and use in modern English. We would say, 'wake up to yourself', or he’s 'out of his mind'.

But in order for the Son to get out of the Pigsty of his choices. He had to 'come to himself'. That was the only way home.

This sermon: Three things to do with yourself. So you can find God. Especially as we invite you to communion this morning.

Three things to do:
  • Come to yourself.
  • Be tough on yourself.
  • Take yourself to your Father
Sermon can be downloaded HERE.
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Pic on Flickr by foreby.

3 comments:

Mark said...

Speedy delivery Justin! Now I'm only a few hours out of sync with my wife! ; )

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this sermon series, Justin. As a lifetime traveller, I've found your insights helpful.

Anonymous said...

Presumably you'll get to one of the greatest bits of this parable-which captures our relationship (complete with Calvinistic overtones) with God our Father perfectly..."But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son..."

We do have to come to our senses, and return to God, but God comes to us also, with compassion and open arms. How cool is that.