Sermon notes ... I am just someone who needs to be writing down notes when I am supposed to be listening to a sermon ... if I don't, I drift too much, and I start counting the light bulbs in the chandeliers and wondering how they are changed and by whom ... and if there are spider webs up there ... interesting stuff like that. So ... notes ... these notes aren't necessarily what he said, they're just what I wrote down. It's what I heard, and maybe what I thought. In other words ... this isn't going to be recognizable as his sermon.
"Biblical Pattern of Leadership"
Deuteronomy 17:14-20
Be sure to appoint a God chosen leader ... they had a prophet who helped out with the culling process. Saul---> David ---> Solomon
I Sam 16:7 God looks at the heart
Pastor said, the land could be synonymous with an abundant (Christian) life
v 15 says ... don't place a foreigner over you ... I thought maybe that's where the Founding Fathers got the idea for a natural born citizen ... also ... maybe a foreigner might be a person with totally different sensibilities then you
v 16 says ... the King, moreover,
- must not acquire great numbers of horses
- must not take many wives
- must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold
- horses = power
- wives = pleasure
- silver and gold = possessions
he drew on this quote:
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." ~Jim Elliot
And alluded to the ministry of U.S.Senate Chaplain Barry Black ... wow. The Pastor made this statement, "There are saints in Caesar's household" as he referenced Rev. Black. Here is an interview with him, I am so glad to learn a bit about the life of this man. Love this:
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, we do not doubt your generous love. ... ~PRAYER FOR THE CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL CEREMONY
Tuskegee Airmen
and this story:
Small Enough...
After an evening of talk, perhaps about the fringes of knowledge, or some new possibility of climbing into the minds and senses of animals, we would go out on the lawn, where we took turns at an amusing little astronomical rite. We searched until we found, with or without glasses, the faint, heavenly spot of light-mist beyond the lower left-hand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus, when one or the other of us would then recite:
“That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda. “It is as large as our Milky Way.
“It is one of a hundred million galaxies. “It is 750,000 light-years away.
“It consists of one hundred billion suns,
each larger than our sun.”
After an interval, Colonel Roosevelt would grin at me and say: “Now I think we are small enough! Let’s go to bed.”
We must have repeated this salutary ceremony forty or fifty times in the course of years, and it never palled.
From The Book of Naturalists (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1944, page 234); quoted in The Interpreter’s Bible (New York: Abingdon Press, 1956) volume V, page 436, in connection with Isaiah 40:12-17. *
After an evening of talk, perhaps about the fringes of knowledge, or some new possibility of climbing into the minds and senses of animals, we would go out on the lawn, where we took turns at an amusing little astronomical rite. We searched until we found, with or without glasses, the faint, heavenly spot of light-mist beyond the lower left-hand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus, when one or the other of us would then recite:
“That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda. “It is as large as our Milky Way.
“It is one of a hundred million galaxies. “It is 750,000 light-years away.
“It consists of one hundred billion suns,
each larger than our sun.”
After an interval, Colonel Roosevelt would grin at me and say: “Now I think we are small enough! Let’s go to bed.”
We must have repeated this salutary ceremony forty or fifty times in the course of years, and it never palled.
From The Book of Naturalists (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1944, page 234); quoted in The Interpreter’s Bible (New York: Abingdon Press, 1956) volume V, page 436, in connection with Isaiah 40:12-17. *
I like that the message was intended to help us think about not only our leaders ... past, present and future, but our own leadership roles as well ... and our role as followers. This is a turbulent time ... yet God, whoever he exactly is, is the same as always. I like it a lot ... significantly insignificant and yet He is mindful of us. Wow.
*Isaiah 40:12-17
New International Version (NIV)
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who can fathom the Spirit[a] of the Lord,
or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
14 Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who can fathom the Spirit[a] of the Lord,
or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
14 Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales;
he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
16 Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
17 Before him all the nations are as nothing;
they are regarded by him as worthless
and less than nothing.
they are regarded as dust on the scales;
he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
16 Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
17 Before him all the nations are as nothing;
they are regarded by him as worthless
and less than nothing.
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