The subject of this sermon is the Church and what it means to be church. Those thoughts have come up repeatedly in the last couple of weeks. I knew when I first read the lesson for today, the handing of the keys in Matthew, that the church would be a good topic. The Lord led me to some good experiences in preaching on it.
This sermon is about a page longer than normal, and the thoughts and the paragraphs were deeper and more developed. I think I went a full 20 mins. That said, as I gave it Saturday Night/Sunday Morning I can’t say that I saw heads nodding or getting real impatient. The same faces that don’t really want to be there had the same expressions, but the length did not seem to cause narcolepsy.
There are some portions that I really like (for example the closing paragraph.) There are portions that I like, but afterward think are probably extraneous (the text portion on the wrong answers to who Jesus is.) I still think they are defendable and good, but they belong in a different sermon. I didn’t edit ruthlessly enough at that point.
It is a serious sermon, about a serious topic and one that has much confusion today. You could spend a year on the subject. This is 20 mins. The best thing I can say is that it is textual. The entire structure comes directly from the text. Thw Wordle at the top gives you a very good idea as to what is important. I tried to get the church squarely on top of Jesus in the picture, but it wouldn’t give me that.
Peace be with you and your family.
I thought what I heard was good (it was hard to hear the whole thing since I was trying to accommodate my 16 month old son. It is a hard topic to wrap your head around, and one I’ve been struggling/pondering lately.
I really like that you are reflecting about the sermons on the website. Would it also be possible to post the entire sermon after it’s been given?