Help Me Pick My Next Sermon or show what a jerk you are.

reply to post by FlyersFan


I'm guessing you mean Islam? I don't know of any Christian rule or regulation that forbids them from talking to others.

Was that the case in the first century with Christianity? Honest question.

I'd tell you to preach about the Feast Days and their New Testament significance, very few christians today even know what they are or what they relate to. If you want to understand why things are the way they are now, then you need to look into the past.

This teaching, may be of some use to those who do not fully understand who Christ is and what was and is and is to come:

Teaching on Christ

Sorry OP goto a Christian only website If you only want to have Christians respond, thing is I just do not believe you one bit, not after this..

reply to post by boymonkey74


Yo monkey nuts

It's all fun

Cody

Originally posted by cody599
reply to post by AQuestion

Dear 3NL1GHT3N3D1, LOL, you won the jerk contest
Very forgiving, very Christian
Maybe you could preach about patience and understanding, they say that you teach best, that which you most need to learn.

I thought the question was ONLY if FOR NON-BELIEVERS (of what) his pastor or life circumstances? A Question did not couch this ONLY if TO be replied to by non-believers of SATAN, why open such a forum as atheists should have no opinion one way or the other, answer "Dont show up Sunday Morning", thats the agnostics JOB to sway hem and haw and formulate a very confusing 1 hour (probably have the best one ever) much like the answer I am demonstrating.

reply to post by AQuestion


Matthew 5:22

But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

BTW, i am very NOT christian, but even i know enough to see your OP is wrong on so many levels.

DC

Aquestion,
Here is a little article about types of sermons a pastor may use. If you want to help Christians become better in faith, talk about the Armor of God.

You drive past a church and see the title of this week's message "The Fantastic Fishing Trip" and wonder what that could be about and how does it deal with God? The title of the sermon is to hook you and designed to make you think and want to hear the sermon. There are three different types of preaching styles. Each one has a different delivery, but all have the same outcome: telling others about the love of God. The three different styles are the narrative, expository, and the doctrinal. Each pastor needs to find a style that works for them it could be one or all of the three.
NARRATIVE

With the narrative sermon the pastor uses storytelling to bring out the word of God. The pastor takes a story from the Bible such as the story of Job and describes it using literature tools such as imagery and symbols to help the hearers be able to really imagine what is going on in the story. Author James Massey referred to narrative storytelling as "not elementary, but elemental for affirmation, argument, witness, meaning, impact, engagement and emotion." There are three things that storytelling sermons should accomplish. They should give a contemporary appeal to Biblical tradition. It should guide the imaging the hearers do, and lastly it should help identify the meaning with in the stories. The narrative sermons can be what makes people want to know more or become beyond confused.

EXPOSITORY

The expository sermon is as the name describes the pastor uses the sermon to expose what the meaning of the scripture is about. With this sermon you need to study your text or passage until its insight is clear to you. Secondly whenever possible allow the text determines your treatment. There are three different elements to studying the scripture for this sermon style. One is statements. These elements are sentences that report facts. The second are expressions which demonstrate emotion. And lastly prescriptive are sentences that demand something to be done. Depending on which parts you focus on displays what meaning you draw from the scripture.

DOCTRINAL

The doctrinal sermon is also known as the textual sermon. This sermon looks to the text to bring out the meaning. It uses the hook, book, look and took method. You use something to hook your audience such as a interesting story that would bring people into think about the sermon. The book of course is turning to the scripture and look discusses what that scripture is saying. Then the last part, the took is what each person should take away from the sermon. You use the book of God to bring to the people a message that makes them think. It's almost a combination of the narrative and expository sermons.

Each pastor needs to find which works best for them. One could be a lot harder for one pastor while easiest for the next. For all three one needs to know the word and their congregation in order to plan the sermon properly. You need to reach a variety people with one sermon.

Ephesians 6:10-18
New International Version (NIV)

The Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Do a search on the Armor of God and get a really clear understanding of it. From there draw inspiration from it with prayer and go from there.
Here's a good place to start
God Bless.

reply to post by davethebear


Congratulations on taking the truly difficult mental journey to overcome early brainwashing. I know it's not easy and it denotes a superior mind.

That said, to answer your other questions, I'll quote a comedian, I think George Carlin,

"If God does exist, he's a sick f*(k".

Everyone,
Let's give Aquestion a little slack here. He is looking for help and support during a time when his pastor and his church needs him. Why do we think we need to go to church? It's not because to go to get what we deserve, we go because we get what we don't deserve. That is grace. Bottom line...we are all sinners...All of us.

Psalm 23

reply to post by davethebear


Dear davethebear,

When you add LMAO, to a thread, the A in LMAO does not refer to a donkey, does it? We all know fair well that In every day slang terms the word ass means arse. So therefore, why do you keep on referring to the word ass in LMAO. as supposedly meaning donkey? If you are standing at the front of the church preaching, would you actually say to your congregation, "Ooh, I laughed my ass off?" When every member of the congregation would know full well that you were referring to your arse/ass, and nothing to do with a donkey whatsoever. If I was in a church and the preacher at the front came out with the phrase, laughed my ass/arse off, I think most people would be in shock having such language used within a church environment. As for me believing whether you are a christian or not is insignificant, I don't really care. I respect your belief, but all I am saying that if you are a born again christian then you should hold yourself in a manner that is appropriate when conversing with others and use the appropriate language. This appropriate language should be used if you are out shopping, in the church and even on a social website such as ATS.

Actually I have cussed in church. We are told not to swear or curse, that does not refer to using strong language. Swearing is taking an oath and cursing is to call for ill upon another. People are very confused by cussing because they don't understand the difference.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Dear FlyersFan,

Have him open an account. I wouldn't mind having a knock down drag'em out fight in the fight forum on the topic of religion. If he actually believes what he preaches about, he should welcome the chance to attempt to convert me. (I know I'd welcome the chance to convert him ... )

You know I went to bed last night and got up this morning, did some chores and opened up ATS. LOL, it is so funny all the responses I got. I actually thought I would get a couple of believers sending in some good ideas about things they had heard taught. I knew I would get some nastiness, that never surprises me. I also expected people to ridicule, ATS is consistent. LOL. As for the lead pastor and I agree, it is not his job nor my job to convert anyone. I have been here for a few years and have consistently said that I could care less what others believe, that is their decision. I am more interested in what they believe than in trying to convince them of anything.

As for the lead pastor, he spent about 20 years in central and south America and has been beat with bats for merely saying what he believes. I cannot help but respect his faith and the fact that he doesn't like ATS is because he has read the site and lets face it, it is not always pretty.

reply to post by borntowatch


Dear borntowatch,

I would suggest treating people with respect and not calling any one an idiot or jerk comes to mind. letting go of arrogance and self righteousness and loving others compassionately what ever they do have done. Dont think you are for real though, you shouldnt be in ministry. I will say good luck because your attitude is not going to be blessed.

I always find it amusing when non-believers tell believers how they must act. Christian does not mean victim, it doesn't mean we cannot have opinions or that we have to ignore attacks. Do you reccommend that Atheists ignore it when people who call themselves christians tell you that you are going to hell if you disagree with them (which is something I do not believe)?

reply to post by AQuestion


Time's like this may try his faith as he loses someone he loves very dearly but you are also his family in Christ our lord, in your heart you will know what sermon to give or how to interpret an improvised sermon, may the holy spirit grant you the inspiration you need and may he also look after your pastors mother.

Without knowing your particular denomination I would hesitate to go further except to say in Christ we are all only one denomination though many mansions exist in his house.

Maybe also read from psalm 25 the passages that spell the name of the lord.

Yodh, He will cause the meek to pass judicial decision and he will cause the meek to know his way.
He. Make me to walk in truth and teach me for you are the god of my salvation.
Waw. For I have trusted in you all the day long.
He, Make me to walk in truth and teach me for you are the god of my salvation.

You are the god of my salvation is quoted twice by the word letter He and the relevant passage being repeated twice and one can only see the link to the name of Christ as God Saves and judgement and truth are also mentioned, I hope this helps.

Remember also there was a story about an American platoon that saw some of the heaviest action of the second world war and never lost a man after they started saying Psalm 91 as a shared prayer, though they were of many denominations and even some jewish they all said it together can't remember the particulars of that story but read it a long time ago and if you can track it down it may also provide inspiration, His truth shall be my shield and my buckler.

reply to post by davethebear


Dear davethebear,

Instead people go to church and pray to him to alter/change and make better the decisions that he has made to place chaos upon the earth.

I am going through all of the responses and have had to go back to the beginning, I did not expect this many for sure. I am afraid I don't feel the need to respond to everything and much of it was off topic so I am ignoring quite a lot. As I read your first response I can see that you had a harder life than you wished and you seek to blame it on God and that is your decision. The fact is, this is not Disneyland and nobody said it would be. Life is a challenge and it is meant to be. I personally do not believe that just because we pray to God we will get rewarded, there are people who believe that, the prosperity movement is for fools in my opinion. People like Benny Hinn make me sick to my stomach as they promise rewards if you believe and do the proper ritual. If we are to pray, we should pray to have the strength to deal with adversity, not to avoid it.

reply to post by winofiend


Dear winofiend,

"That would be an ecumenical matter". That was amusing, I thought it was going to be Monty Python.

reply to post by NOTurTypical


Dear NOTurTypical,

We may not always agree on everything; but, I always enjoy reading your responses to people including myself. I know you are truly committed to your beliefs and appreciate that. The "image" that people have of believers is so wrong, they assume and many churches teach, that we should all be cookie cutter images and the same. At it's best, people on ATS have some great suggestions and at it's worst people ignore the OP and just go off on whatever tangent to attack a presumed belief. You tend to be very on topic and responsive. Thanks.

Originally posted by JAK
reply to post by NOTurTypical

 

Really, that's all you have? So there's no puerile, judgemental demand of 'Help Me ... or show what a jerk you are'?

Thanks for your advice, allow me to return the favour: Maybe you should stop trying to justify anything merely because it's in alignment with something you have a personal investment in and start being objective.

Dear JAK,

There was another choice people could make and that was to stay on topic. As a super moderator I would think you would have wanted to point out where people were attacking the underlying belief in God rather than being responsive to the question which was, what would be a good sermon to give. Is it a violation of the T and Cs to type LMAO? I don't think it is and see it all the time; but, I was called to task for it on this thread. If someone is a bigot, are we allowed to say that? If someone goes on a thread just to attack one for believing in God when that is not what was asked are they a jerk or is there a better word to use? I have never done a thread on "Why heathens should believe in God" nor on "Why you are going to hell if you don't accept Christ" and the moderators will not tell you that I have. I have made mistakes and violated the terms and conditions and have always apologized, we all make mistakes. I did not start this thread to debate the existence of God, if someone wants to debate that they can always start a thread and I may or may not participate. I have a very short time to come up with a sermon, am a regular contributor to ATS and thought some of the other believers might have some suggestions and really didn't need to hear for the millionth time from non-believers who want to tell me there is not God, there comments added nothing to the conversation. Do you also find it judgmental when non-believers say that believers are delusional? Just asking you to be objective and fair.

reply to post by Joecroft


Dear Joecroft,

I’m not really sure what to say to you. If you’re a Christian, then you should already have at least an idea, as to how to become a better Christian. Sure, I can give you ideas, as to what to say in your sermon, but then that just wouldn’t be genuine, as it wouldn’t be coming from your heart… it just wouldn’t feel right… If I was speaking, then I could talk about my own experiences, which led me to God, but then it becomes personal, and I know exactly what to say and need no rehearsals etc…

I watched the whole video and it was very good. I did have some ideas and still do; but, I sometimes find inspiration on ATS of all places. I think the first responders answer may be included in the sermon. There were a couple of good suggestions. There is a very good chance that when the lead pastor comes back, his mother will be dead; but, at least he will get to see her beforehand. I am thinking that I may talk about how to help people who have just experienced a death in the family, even pastors have tragedies happen in their lives. Having said that, I may give an upcoming sermon on how people came to God as you suggest. I have done that before but there are always new members and it has been a while. I just hate giving the same sermon too often. Yet, many messages can be repeated because the underlying issues are always there. Thanks.

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by AQuestion

 

Explain how the pastor is away tending to a sick woman, and talk about sickness in the Bible. Try and work it around that that you end up discussing love and understanding for your fellow man. That's the best thing you can do.

edit on 8-6-2013 by AfterInfinity because: (no reason given)

Dear AfterInfinity,

I think I will work that into the sermon. I had not originally intended to discuss the lead pastors situation in any detail and I think I should now. Thanks for the idea.