Sermon Series
Week 2
Mountains: 2 John 4:7-26
Preaching Commentary
New Testament Mountains
Like the Old Testament, the New Testament has plenty of references to mountains. There’s the Sermon on the Mount, obviously. Jesus often went onto hills or mountains to pray. We have Golgotha and the Mount of Transfiguration. John…
Sermon Resources
Key Quote
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These people always find God in the sunsets. And in walks on the beach. Sometimes I think these people never leave the beach or the mountains, what with all the communing with God they do on hilltops, hiking trails and ... did I mention the beach at sunset yet?
Like people who go to church don't see God in the sunset! Like we are these monastic little hermits who never leave the church building. How lucky we are to have these geniuses inform us that God is in nature. As if we don't hear that in the psalms, the creation stories and throughout our deep tradition.
Key Illustration
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We all Worship Something
In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship–be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles–is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.
If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.
Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful, it’s that they’re unconscious. They are default settings.
They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing.
David Foster Wallace, 2005 Kenyon College Commencement Speech: "This is Water."
Liturgical Resources
Call to Worship
- Adapted from Psalm 121:1-4View
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.Adapted for liturgical use.
Bible Translation: ESV English Standard Version Crossway PublishingScripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
Prayer of Confession
Assurance of Pardon
- Adapted from Psalm 121:5-8View
The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more.
Friends, rejoice at the good news of the gospel: In Jesus Christ, God-with-us, we are forgiven.
Thanks be to God.Adapted for liturgical use.
Bible Translation: WEB World English Bible eBible.orgScripture quotations marked (WEB) are from the World English Bible. The World English Bible is in the public domain.
Benediction
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May the Lord who watches over you be the light ahead of you and the shade that protects you. May He keep you from all harm and watch over your life. Let Him watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.
