Sermon Details
- Pastor Name: Jonathan Cornell
- Date & Time: November 2, 2014 | 10:00am
SERMON SERIES:
Rooted and Built Up
The Good News of Jesus Christ is only ever good news when it is received with open hands.
What the Gospel proclaims to you and me is NOT that if we do just the right thing, we’ll get it. Just the opposite, in fact; that Christ did the only possible thing, and so we have it. All that’s left to do is take it with us, try it out, walk around with it.
This morning, we are beginning a new series of sermons that will take us up to Advent. This month, we will be talking everyone’s favorite subject, money. But during the next few weeks, we will approach stewardship not from the point of obligation, but rather gratitude. If we understand ourselves as having been given little, we’re more likely to hold it close. But if we understand ourselves as the recipients of something incomparably wonderful, that we did nothing to earn, well, then we’re more likely to live generously.
So the question before us to consider today is this: is God’s grace a zero sum resource, or is it really as recklessly abundant as the Scriptures say? And when it is offered to us, will we be closed handed gatherers or open handed recipients?
The Apostle Paul in writing his letter to the Colossian Church is announcing the dawn of a new age in history. The old age in which live was governed by the looming threat of death and a scarcity of life is gone. What he is saying to them is, “Listen, the rules that you lived by formerly no longer dictate how you need to live your life. Instead, I want you to look to Jesus and see the dawn of a new world. Jesus put to death all the worry, all the anxiety, all the scarcity of the former life. What he has to offer is the dawn of New Creation. And if you want to see what life is like in God’s economy, look to Jesus.”
And that is what we are going to do for the next four weeks, as we examine our finances together. Because if we believe that Jesus has ushered in a new world, well, then even our pocket books are governed by his grace.
Download the entire transcript here: Colossians 2 6-7 Received Christ Jesus
