My Sermon Notes

"So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth- Gilead." 1Kings 22:29

Pastor Rubi preached from this text tonight. It was a good word and true. The story takes in from verse 1 to verse 40. I want to focus on one issue that he preached on tonight.

1. Changing your appearance does not change your destiny. God had appointed Ahab to die in this battle. and die he did. Pretending to be someone else did not fool God.

2. Jehoshaphat was a good man in bad company. Some people go to clubs even though they don't do drugs or drink liquor. Why? You lay down with the dogs, you get up with the fleas. You will not influence anyone by being just like them. The king of Judah almost lost his life that day. 

3. God knows who you are and His will cannot be avoided. An archer took a random shot and it struck between the sheets of Ahab's armor, mortally wounding him.

If you are saved, then live like a Christian and associate with Christian people. Birds of a feather flock together. Try getting closer to God instead of getting as close as you can to sin and you will make heaven your home.

A Different World

 Back in my day it was customary to sign a pledge not to go to movies or to own a TV. If you had a television it was no big deal to turn it off and maybe get rid of it. End of story. 

Now today tech is so much different than having a TV in the house. I use AI every day for various tasks. I email regularly. This blog is dependent on an internet connection. It's not as easy as pulling the plug and tossing the TV.

Someone once said that the best internet filter is the one living in you. You know what is right or wrong, what is good or evil. And the Holy Spirit is there by you to guide you to righteousness and truth.

As long as these tech gadgets remain tools and not open doors to evil we will be fine.

Do No Harm

 One rule of the medical profession is "Do No Harm". This is a guiding precept that ought to govern the diagnosis and the treatment of every patient a doctor treats. So what about emotional harm? Like, when you leave a doctor's office feeling down and depressed and hopeless? If you are dealing with a life threatening illness or are in end of life protocol you expect to get troubling news and no doubt you want them to be honest with you. But in routine care of "normal" illnesses you ought to be given not just attention, but encouragement.

I wonder if the same, or a similar rule would apply in church. Do no harm. Challenge us, exhort us, confront our sins, but in the end do no harm. Preaching does not have to be hard to be effective. It's amazing how much you can do to help people while making them smile or even laugh. If they think that you love them they will accept your hard words with a smile.

Could it be that the gospel, which is good news, also ought to do no harm? Just because Jesus called the Pharisees snakes does not mean that you get to call sinners snakes or worse. Do no harm while telling people the gospel.

A heart filled with love will bend over backwards to do no harm to anyone. Just saying.

Who Can I Trust?

 In January of 2025 I spent six days in the hospital with congestive heart failure. When I left the hospital I had three cardiologists. Now a year and a half later I have none of the doctors who treated me back then anymore. I have a new PCP and a new cardiologist. I am at an age where I need doctors that I can trust. 

I am at an age where I need pastors who I can trust too. I do not need to talk to my pastor every day. I rarely need his counsel. I hope one of our pastors has me on his prayer list.

One more thought. My friends at church prayed for me last night. God touched my mind and my body. I am grateful that the prayer of faith still saves the sick today!

And finally for today. My relationship with doctors or pastors is based on trust. I don't trust my old cadre of doctors any more so I changed them. Pastor, if someone in your church no longer trusts you, they will change churches. They will not fight you or argue with you. They will slip out of the back door and go somewhere new. A word to the wise is sufficient.

Experience Gains Wisdom

 "Then I said, wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard." Eccl. 9:16

We are told that the aged among us are treasure troves of wisdom. That by virtue of their having survived through life they have much to offer us. This is all true. Until that wise man tells you something that calls into question what you think is the better tactic.

When we are young we tend to be more dogmatic and high on ourselves. We think that we know what is best. We think that we can fix anything or anyone. And we dive right in with no thought to whether we are causing more harm than good.

Christian young people can be the worst. We hear sermons and we think that we rule over everything. It is only when you have failed or fallen short that you begin to think that maybe my way wasn't the best way.

It is only by living and surviving that you gain wisdom. God does not allow you to win every time. It is too bad that, as the text states, the poor or unsuccessful man's wisdom is often despised. And even by being despised the poor man gains more wisdom!

The Better Style

 The problem with expository preaching is that you run out of Bible stories and Bible characters very fast. If you want to preach on marriage, you pool of Bible marriages is very small. If you want to preach on church planting, you have almost no Bible examples to use. The Bible is God's self revelation to mankind. It has a lot of important and useful information on how to serve the Lord. But is you preach in the same church for a long time you will begin to repeat some stories.

Topical preaching is much more useful to ministering the whole counsel of God. The preacher is inspired to preach on something. He finds out by study what the Bible says about that topic. He is not expounding on a particular verse. He is exhorting on a specific subject. You can cover a lot more ground with topical preaching.

I have heard both styles many times. I prefer topical over expository for preaching. Adult Sunday School may be a place to expound on the Scriptures verse by verse. But a sermon will connect better to a modern audience if you do not bog down explaining how people in ancient times lived and served.

Pastor Mitchell was a topical preacher. He could, and did, preach on anything. Even if he read a text and then never mentioned it again. Pastor Mitchell was a reader. He studied the Bible.

Testing

Teaching to the test is the modern method of using the classroom as a test prep time, not a time to learn. Testing used to be a tool a teacher could us to asses student comprehension and development. Now, the focus is on material expected to be on a test, and memorizing facts that benefit test taking.

As a Christian, testing is the way that God uses to see how we are doing as followers of Christ. To see what we have learned. To see how we measure up. To see if we, in spite of the test, will remain faithful.

Teaching to the test is focused teaching. It is teaching on a very narrow view of education. Our Fellowship seems sometimes to be teaching to the test. We have developed a standardized one size fits all approach to the Christian life. It's not about learning and knowing and growing. It is about evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. Our focus has narrowed. Our standards have narrowed. 

Evangelism, discipleship, and church planting is what keeps us on track with God. The only danger is that being focused like a laser beam can make us miss what else needs to be done. For example, while we focus on street preaching, our young people are hesitant to get married and to have children. Our way of doing the Christian life is not producing very many weddings. In the early days pastor Mitchell did a lot of weddings. And he often used a wedding to preach on marriage. Just saying.