The Rules: Part Two

The Rules for a Better Country

What makes our country great?

Is it solving the world’s problems?

Is it electing great leaders?

Or is it having the dreams of a great country?

What made Abraham’s country great?

Hebrews 11:8-12 – Abraham & descendants journey in faith.

Hebrews 11:13-16 – Desiring a heavenly country

What made the earthly kingdom less than great?

Psalm 50 – Offerings without sacrifice

Isaiah 1:10-15 – Rituals without ideals

Isaiah 1:16-20 – Injustice and abandonment

What guidance to a better country does scripture give?

Isaiah 1:16-20 – Compassion for the forgotten

Psalm 50:22-23 – Live with thanksgiving

Hebrews 11:1-3 – Believe in a better, different country

The Rules: Part One

The Rules for a Better Life

Without law there is chaos

Genesis 1:1-8 – Creation brings order to the chaos of “the waters”.

Judges 17:6 – Without law humans return to chaos.

Humans are sinful, yet crave order

Genesis 2 – Adam and Eve experience disobedience and shame.

Exodus 32:1-6 – Moses’ brother Aaron creates a golden calf.

God’s rules for our lives

Colossians 2:20-23 – Forget perishable regulations

Colossians 3:5-11 – Put to death your need for regulations

Colossians 3:12-17 – Paul’s list of “heavenly” regulations

Jesus fulfills the Law

Matthew 5:17-19 – No part of the law is abolished; Jesus fulfills law

Exodus 20 – God gives the 10 Commandments for life

Micah 6:8 – Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly…

Grace as the source of righteousness

Matthew 7:12 – The Golden Rule

Matthew 22:36-40 - The Greatest Commandment

Luke 6:36 – Judge not, lest you be judged

Colossians 3:12 – Clothe yourselves with compassion

The Rules

The sermons for this month's series, "The Rules," are such that they're difficult to put on the printed page. The combination of spoken word with audio and video clips doesn't translate well into a blog posting. You can read about the series at the Worship Workshop on our church web site, www.lakehillspres.org.

The audio background clips on Sunday were from a most excellent radio program called "RadioLab," hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich. The link to their site is www.radiolab.org. The episode on Morality served as much of the background information for the sermon on "The Rules: For a Better Life," and was the source of the audio about gorillas and empathy. I would encourage anyone wanting to know more about the human mind, animal behavior, and possible connections to the Spirit to check out RadioLab.

-- James