These are some immediate reflections as I listen (back) on sermons from CBCWLA, often resulting in brain hurting, always accompanied by caffeine. It’s a brain-dump and won’t necessarily be cohesive or coherent, most certainly won’t be exhaustive of all important parts, but will be personal to me. Here are the questions I’ll attempt to answer with each sermon I review:
- What sermon did I listen to today? Title/Link.
- Summarise the key points in 1-2 sentences.
- What did I learn this time that I didn’t catch/forgot about when I heard it the first time?
- How has it challenged my thinking?
- What practical applications can I take from it?
1. What sermon did I listen to today?
Christ’s Family First (Part 1 of 2 of a series on Identity in Christ and Singleness) – p. Nick Hsieh
2. Summarise the key points in 1-2 sentences.
Christ died for us to make us a member of the family of God IN ORDER THAT we can grow and build one another up in maturity and sanctification, ultimately for the glory of God. This is done by dramatically re-orienting our priorities to His calling, commands and His family, as part of a having transformative identity in Christ.
3. What did I learn this time that I didn’t catch/forgot about when I heard it the first time?
More what I’d forgotten:
- The significance of all the excuses that people gave to not follow Christ – that given the historical context, there really wouldn’t have been any better reason to not follow Christ immediately than “let me bury my father first”, but Jesus’ response was “let the dead bury their own dead” – there is no good excuse to not follow Christ when He calls, and that calling will probably look different for each person.
- The significance of Him leading by example to completely re-define family relationships and identities. Our identities are no longer grounded in our individualism or our earthly families, but rather rooted in Him as a member of His family.
- Your individual sanctification is a means to an end -> to enable you to be a blessing to the church, that the church might grow in spiritual maturity, so that God may be glorified.
- God’s family is not limited to the people in the church you feel comfortable being around (duh. But this remains very challenging to me.)
- The Bible is less focused on what your spiritual gifts are, and more focused on your being a spiritual gift to the church. Sometimes, that means just being present.