Parables Series
Various Dates 2017-2018
Meanwhile
February 4, 2018 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
The servant was frightened of the new king. He feared losing the money the king gave him for safe keeping in a bad deal. So he did not play to win. He played not to lose. Any coach will tell you that’s the surest way to lose. We are accountable. The king is coming back to ask what we did with what he gave us. The measure will not be as much about how well we did as whether we got after it in the first place. The minas in this story were given in the same amounts to everyone. What is it that every person who belongs to Jesus gets in the same measure? It’s not gifts: our gifts differ. It’s not circumstances or length of life, physical strength or mental agility: those all differ markedly. What do all those in Christ receive? The blessed Holy Spirit within our spirits. We receive the mystical union with Christ. Meanwhile Luke 19: 11-27
Stopping Along the Way
January 28, 2018 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
Who IS your neighbor? Let your compassion guide you. Which wounds break your heart? Go there. Which beaten souls tug at your soul? Go there. You can't go everywhere. But if we started with tending the wounds which pierce us with compassion, what a difference it would make. We continue our sermon series on the parables focusing on the Good Samaritan. "Stopping Along the Way" Luke 10: 25-37 Gerrit Dawson
When Being Good Isn't Enough
January 21, 2018 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
Your Father wants you to stretch forth your hands and speak to him. He does not play hard to get. Speak to him. See him smiling. Urging you into the party. Try on these incredible declarations. Walk through the days thinking and acting as if it were so: You are always with me. All that is mine is yours.” When Being Good Isn't Enough Luke 15: 25-32 Gerrit Dawson
The Lost Son
January 7, 2018 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
The father strained his eyes down the foreign road for any sign of his son. If we were to step into this story that Jesus told and began to consider that the Father was waiting for us now, would that be enough to get us to our feet? We may be able to slop the pigs in a foreign land for a long time if we do not believe there is any other choice, if shame prevents thoughts of home. But what yearning homeward is awakened when we discover that God our Father waits for us? God, our loving heavenly Father, watches every moment for any sign of our return. He is ready to embrace us even in our filth. He wants to love us through the shame and call us his own dear children! He waits longingly for us to realize he is there. So is it time to get up and start down the road toward home in God? "The Lost Son" Luke 15: 11-14 Gerrit Dawson
Finding Out What You Really Want
July 30, 2017 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
Are you all in? Will you yield your heart? Stop hedging your bets? Trust that Jesus is the joy of man’s desiring? He is the pearl. He is the heart of what we are seeking inside every other desire. And he is worth everything. "Finding What You Really Want" Matthew 13: 44-46 Gerrit Dawson
Counting On God's Character
June 25, 2017 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson
God has made our salvation, not our punishment, to be his glory. He lets us run up charges on his grace, and he does not make us pay it back. He bears the loss himself so that we might go free. When the accounts of our lives are looked at, they are found wanting. Even among the best of us, all our good works amount only to a total wasting of the Father’s gifts to us. We have no personal credits to leverage when he summons us to bring the books. We are due debtors’ prison. "Counting on God's Character" Gerrit Dawson June 25, 2017