Category Archives: Deacon’s Ministry
I have the blessed opportunity to work with deacons, to teach them, to mentor them, to observe them as they serve God by serving pastors – extending the ministry of their pastors.
Among them are some entrusted to preach, at the request of their congregations, under the supervision of their pastors, and with their sermons approved by their supervising pastors, often by me. They study the passage to be preached with me, and experience, I thoroughly enjoy.
Some of the sermons are exemplary, and as I come across them, I post them – now to the special category.
So come, enjoy, see the devotion to God, which is founded in God’s work in their lives.
Look who’s move in!
May the meditation of our hearts and the words of my mouth be acceptable to you O Lord, My Rock and my Redeemer! Amen!
If Pastor came to your door this morning what kind of greeting would you give? Would you be happy to see him, arriving unannounced as he did. What would be your very first response to His visit? Would you feel put out or put upon because you didn’t have any warning. Would you be angry that you didn’t have adequate time to tidy things up for your guest? Would you be afraid that you were giving the wrong impression? Maybe you’d try to delay His visit telling Him to come back much later after you had straightened out your house.
Would you tell Him to come in in 30 minutes while you straightened out just the major messes in your house, put some of your junk into a closet so He wouldn’t see, do a little light cleaning, perhaps run the vacuum. Those of you with small kids will understand how horrifying these unannounced visits can be with little ones. Their stuff is everywhere, some left by them and some left by you.
Think about you house and the various rooms that are in your home. The house and the various rooms are your life as you are living it out; today.
Why do we try and put things in order at the last minute and not keep our lives in order all the time? Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger – we all fall short of the Glory of God.
Now would your reaction be any different if your unannounced guest was Jesus and not Pastor Parker? Would you be mortified, terrified, welcoming, angry, hostile, or humble? How would you be?
Let’s take a look at a couple of the rooms in your house:
First let’s look at the place where you take your meals. Many families will eat around the kitchen table for most of their meals. What kind of food would Jesus find in your pantry or refrigerator? Would He find good, wholesome food like lean meat, lots a vegetables – sorry kids – milk, and fresh fruit? Would He find junk foods that are high in calories but have little nutritional value, and gobs of transfats and cholesterol? You know the type of junk food we know is bad for us but we still love to eat it! What would Jesus find in your pantry?
Let’s move to another room, say your home office. What would Jesus find there. This is a place where you do a job for others, does it have all the things you need to do your job or are their things that are missing – perhaps a scanner to input documents for you, or perhaps the perhaps the PC that is there is slow and needs to be rebooted frequently. If you work with your hands are your tools taken care of, or do they have some rust on them. Do they have the edge to do the job or are they dull and needing of sometime of the sharpening stone?
Finally we come to that closet; you know the one I mean. It’s locked and the contents never see the light of day. You go there occasionally and indulge yourself in some behavior that you feel ashamed of. It may be porn, don’t get too smug ladies – the fastest growing group of people addicted to porn are WOMEN. Maybe it’s the latest gossip or the news about the latest episode of a soap opera. Whatever you do that you don’t want others to know about, is stored in here in this dark place; kept apart from the rest of your life. What would the Pastor think, what would Jesus think?
The food that you eat is really about how you feed your spiritual life. It consists of your prayer life, the time you spend reading the bible, the time you spend in silent prayer and meditation. This is how we learn what Jesus has in store for us; what He wants us to do with our lives. We do this so that the peace that surpasses all understanding is with us. Here we learn about the deep love the Jesus has for us; how he desires to spend eternity with us in heaven as co-heirs of His Father’s Kingdom, we learn that nothing on earth or under the earth can separate us from the love of God. We learn that despite all the sin we are burdened with, He has forgiven that sin. He has cleansed us from ALL unrighteousness. It is here that we learn, we begin to understand what it means to be one of God’s people. His Holy, and treasured possession, the pearl of great price. This is what today passage means when it states: “… what is the breadth and length, and height, and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge”. It is speaking about the incredible level of God’s love for you and for me. The Love that would, before the foundations of the earth were formed, would devise a plan of rescue that would entail the torture and credulity heaped upon Jesus to reconcile us, to God the Father. He was, and is, and will be forever the Lamb of God who took on sin for you and I so we could become co-heirs with Him in heaven.
I’d like to go back to my earlier analogy of Jesus coming to visit your house. As He stops in the pantry and sees all the junk food we take on in our lives, He becomes the celebrity chef. He personally takes out the useless junk food and throws it away, he then takes you to the store and buys for you, out of His own pocket, good, wholesome, and nutritious food; the exact food that your spiritual life needs and requires. They type of food that will make you grow strong in the way of the Lord, reading the bible and learning what God has done for you and continues to do for you. What He wants for you. It tells us of God’s incredible love towards us and that He wasn’t to be with us during the high points as well as the low ones. He wants to walk by our side to ensure we stay on the path that He has set forth and He wants us to grow strong in our faith. Not as a “to do” list, or some sort of spiritual check list, but as a response of what He first did for us!
The workroom or home office gets the same attention; Jesus sharpens our tools of love, compassion, and humility towards others who need to hear the message that will save them from sin, the devil and death. God gives us the tools, the relationships so that we can spread the Good news that He has to offer a broken and sinful mankind. The tools are there for us to use, or not; but for what He did for us on Calvary, we pick them up and use them as best we can. Asking for His intercession to use them better.
Finally, that closet. That closet that contains all the ugly, dark, foul-smelling sin that we hold so, so dear; Jesus wades into that cesspool we call our lives and He begins the clean-up we can’t even imagine. He carts out the foulness, He wipes the closet floor, He introduces a fresh clean aroma into what was a pit of nasty, nasty garbage. He does this out of love, pure unadulterated love. Love for His people, His sheep, and His treasure. That is what we mean to Him so we could be co-heirs with Him of the greatest treasure of all time – forgiveness of all our sins; because of His love, His incredible love for us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Anchored in Christ
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from our Heavenly Father so that through Christ, you are strengthened and empowered knowing that perfect love given to you.
To him be all the glory!
Alleluia, amen.
As I was preparing for the sermon today, I was reading the Epistle from Ephesians and one of the verses reminded me of an incident while on vacation last week in the Sierras.
We rented a pontoon boat to fish from on June Lake thinking this would be the perfect platform to fish from and knowing that also we would have multiple people on and off through out the day.
As the dedicated fishermen got on the boat for the morning fishing run we left the marina with the water smooth as glass.
Needless to say, that didn’t last long. Sure, we caught a couple of fish but then the wind showed up and it changed the dynamic of everything. It blew and blew all day long. There were white caps on the water by eight A.M. and then it even rained on us that day. In fact the wind blew all week long until the day we left to come home but that’s another story
We were not able to pleasantly anchor any longer and stay on target for catching fish and no matter where we tried to anchor up we would get blown around like a bug on a leaf. We had two anchors; one on the bow and one on the stern but they were not heavy enough to stop this pontoon boat from being pushed around like a little toy boat.
No matter how hard we tried and no matter what we did to set those anchors they couldn’t hold that boat in place due to the power of that wind blowing across that lake.
The other problem was that the anchors that were assigned for this large pontoon boat were in adequate for a boat of this size. They were too small and too light to do their jobs properly and to be effective in keeping us in one place. Sure, they worked fine if there was no wind blowing but in any adversity they failed. But really they were the wrong anchors for this boat.
We finally after fighting it all day, just let go and drifted around the rest of the day left to the mercy and strength and power of that wind.
The Epistle made me think about the power of that wind in pushing the boat around and that Epistle kept pointing to verse16.
Paul writes,
“ That according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith-that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
These verses not only make me think of that power of the wind on our boat but they also make me think about the anchors that were so futile and that were unable to hold us in posisition as those winds blew.
Those wimds and their power to push that boat wherever they wanted to and those puny anchors trying to hold against that power reminds us of our lives.
If you live on planet Earth then you have experienced these winds. These winds are our sin and all the stuff and horrible things that are thrown against us on a regular and daily basis. we live in a sinful world where the winds of sin, death and blow upon us everyday. We can’t escape it or get away from it and sometimes we even join it and flow right along with it enjoying the ride….
Remember the old saying, ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?’
We go along for the ride and we go with the flow until our boat is crashed into the rocks or grounded and we faced certain destruction.
Or maybe in the face of such power, we try to throw our anchors out to keep us in place thinking that we can handle it. We have it under control and our anchors are set! Until that huge gust of sin comes and breaks your little baby girlie man anchor free!
These anchors will only fail! They won’t work!
There is only one anchor that holds us in place and we heard that in the verses that I just read to you and that you heard in the Epistle.
You all have the power! You are all strengthened with power. I don’t mean from a radioactive spider or super strength from a yellow sun.
Paul writes that you have the Father’s power through His Spirit in your inner being!
So I guess you are all Power Rangers!
You have been given this power so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
You have been rooted and grounded in love, in His perfect love that has no strings attached or any special rules or things you must do to acquire it. It is the uncompromising love of the Trinity that is poured out upon us and that loves us unconditionally.
You are anchored in Him.
You are anchored in Him who is Jesus the Christ. Jesus, the true Son of Man and Son of God who gathers up all of our sin and takes that sin willingly and obediently to the cross and dies for all.
He doesn’t pick and choose who to die for, His love is given to and for all people all the time. he calms the storms.
Because of that, in our Baptism’s we die with Christ only to be born again into life with our Savior.
It’s His power and His fullness. It’s His love that grounds us and roots us and anchors us so that we can stand firm in that wind knowing our anchor is more than secure.
It’s like being in a rowboat and having the Queen Mary’s anchor as your own. You aint going anywhere except to Heaven!
Those storms of this foul and sinful world rage on and they are powerful. They will do whatever they can to blow and push us around and we do give up and we go with the flow because it’s easy.
But my daughter has a saying that I now can put into practice. She is fond of saying, “ Only dead fish go with the flow!”
That statement is true. Only dead fish go with the flow. Dead fish will only go wherever the current and wind sends them.
So let me ask you.
Are you a dead fish plodding along and going with the flow and whatever way the wind blows or are we alive in Christ through the power that we have been given by God?
Dead or alive?
I’ll answer for you. We confess Christ amd His perfect love who is most surely alive and because of that we most surely live now and eternaly also. We don’t go with the flow of this evil world but instead stand anchored and rooted in the power of our Mighty and Righteous God who strengthens us the fullness of His Spirit.
That fullness and power is more than we could ever ask for. It’s so big and so powerful and so loving that our feeble minds can’t fully grasp it but it’s true. Our Father doesn’t do things half way!
That’s the only way we can endure these storms and tempasts of life becuase as Christ lives in our hearts, through the Holy Spirit we can and do have faith and trust in Him, our anchor of faith, hope and love who calms and clears the storms and howling winds.
Through the Holy Spirit revealing Christ and His love to us in God’s most precious and Holy Word we know Him who saved us and we bear His name.
Verse 15,
“From whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”
We share in and call upon the name of Christ! We have all the power and resources of our Heavenly Father working in us to strengthen and sanctify us and because of that we can proclaim His infinite grace, mercy and love for all people.
Christ lives in us surrounding us and grounding us in that ultimate love which flows and pours over us guiding and leading, protecting and soothing us and making us able to stand.
Romans 8:39 says,
” Not height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Nothing can take that grace, mercy and love away from us, EVER!
As you move through this life, attacked by those winds and storms know that we can stand strong against the rage and flow not because our anchor is strong but because our anchor is the power fulfilled and given to you by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and through His love you are rooted and grounded.
Because He lives and loves you, you now live and can love others!
Only dead fish go with the flow!
We stand with Christ forever!
To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generation, forever and ever.
Alleluia, amen!
A Sermon written by Deacon Mark Jennings
June 24th, 2012
2Corinthians 6: 1-13
Deacon Mark Jennings, soon to be Vicar Mark Jennings is a deacon who I’ve enjoyed working with for nearly four years. He actually is to enter the SMP pastoral preparation program this fall – having shown the aptitude to be a pastor, as he cares for a congregation that has responded to that care – and urged him to continue his preparation – that he may serve as their pastor. Together they have committed themselves to together to make it happen… to raise up there own, that God’s word be shared in their presence…here is one of his sermons.. read and be blessed!
May you know His grace, His mercy and His peace as you live in this temporary time knowing that through Him you will be eternal.
To Him be all the glory!
Alleluia, amen.
Have you heard the story about the reporter who is sent to a senior citizen’s home to do a public interest story? Now you might ask what is so special about a facility for seniors?
Well this one was a little different because it was a home for seniors who had been in the entertainment industry and they had been primarily stand up comedians. When this young reporter travels up the steps he notices on the front porch that there is a bunch of rockers filled with people. Suddenly one of the guys stops rocking, stands up and yells out the number ‘21’. At that everybody starts busting out with laughter. After that another yells out ‘17’ and everybody giggled and laughed some more.
This keeps going on and the reporter is becoming more and more perplexed. He finally asks what this was all about. They proceeded to tell him that being comics, they knew all the jokes so to save time they assigned each joke a number.
The reporter thinking this is pretty ingenious decides to try it out and proceeds to stand up and yells out,’21’. Nobody laughs.
The reporter tries calling out other numbers but to no avail. Nobody laughs. It is dead as a doornail. He can’t figure it out.
Just then one of the retired comedians stands up, goes to the reporter, puts his arm around him and says,” Son, it’s all in the timing.”
It’s all in the timing.
Time and timing.
They are such important things in our lives. Let’s face it; they make the world go round! It’s hard to know when to do things sometimes. It’s not always easy to discern that perfect timing for something. When is the perfect time to ask your boss for a raise or maybe to ask that special someone out on a date?
The battery in my watch died this week and it was like losing a hand. I felt lost without it.
So much rides on time and timing. If you say the wrong thing at the wrong time that could turn into a less than pleasant situation (trust me, I know). If you are not on time for work everyday you’re gonna get canned. And just so some of you won’t squirm in the pew I won’t even mention about being late for church, which starts at 10:30 A.M.
By the way, does anybody know what time it is? Whenever I asked my grandpa what time it was he would always reply, “it’s time all fools are dead, don’t you feel sick?” And no, it’s not Howdy Doody time or Miller time.
Paul knew the time and in verse 2 in our Epistle reading, he quotes from Isaiah 49: 8.
“At the time of my favor I have answered you; on the day of salvation I have helped you.”
Our time of deliverance and rescue is here now and it’s found in the grace of our Father who in His perfect timing and who on no merit of our own sent His Son who is Jesus the Christ to rescue us from certain destruction and death.
That time has come when God’s grace, which knows no bounds, pours out and overflows upon His people. Jesus the Christ dies for all so that all would live forever in that perfect gift of love, mercy and grace.
Because of His grace. He has answered us with the free gift of eternal life.
We have this incredible thing but yet we don’t always put it first. We sometimes put God in a glass box to be opened only on Sunday morning or broken open and used only in the event of an emergency. Other things become so much more important and crucial to us that they become our god and that grace is received in vain. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s cheap. So much so that Paul talks about it in verse 1, “Working together with Him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.”
It’s not about us. When we depend on ourselves or this world that we are visiting, we aren’t focused on God and His grace. It’s like gambling. You may think that you win in the short time but in the long run you will lose and you will have used your money in vain. That’s a proven fact. Just ask any Vegas casino!
What looks good isn’t. Looks can be deceiving, empty, lifeless and hollow.
1 Corinthians 15:2. “By this Gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain.”
If your not holding on to the Gospel given to us in grace for dear life then you’re already dead and it was and is all in vain. But if you trust and have faith and depend on God… You know that God’s grace never deceives. God’s grace is never empty and lifeless. God’s grace is always teeming with abundant life, it is the new life that we now have in Christ. That is what we hold on firmly to. It is perfect and His timing is perfect.
“Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
God’s timing to call all to him is right now. It’s not after the game or starting Monday morning, it’s right here, right now. It began before this planet was even created. This day of salvation was accomplished by Jesus the Christ on that nasty, horrible chunk of wood at Calvary and finished at that empty tomb.
We are called and chosen people not because we are good people but because YAHWEH is so great and extends that gift of grace to us simply because He loves us.
“Behold, now is the favorable time.”
Now is the time. Through Christ you have received faith. Don’t worry about whether it is the right time to talk to God and ask for forgiveness. God does not keep regular office hours and your timing could never be better. Don’t worry about the timing. Any time is the right time. God is waiting for you. Hurry, don’t delay! He wants to hear from you and unlike we who sometimes don’t listen to each other, or our children, he hears everything his beloved children say.
So we know that God’s timing is right and favorable and because of that our day of Salvation is here and we are saved as Ephesians 2: 8 says,
“ For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God.” Because of God’s grace we now through Jesus have a new relationship with our Father and we find that in the Word.
Paul also says something I thought was very interesting in the opening verse when he says, “ As His fellow workers.”
Does he mean that we partner with God? We work together? The answer is yes! Now don’t get me wrong, we don’t partner in our salvation, that is God and only God who once again in His perfect timing calls us and bestows on and in us His grace though Christ.
But God has called us and chosen us to work in the vineyard and we do it with Him. It is fitting today that after the sermon we will be installing our new officers for the coming year today!
The Holy Trinity is like a general who leads his troops into actual battle and is not afraid to get his hands dirty.
As we are called and sent, God will provide the timing and the time to witness and tell about His glory and that perfectly timed plan of salvation. While we live in this world temporarily we are given the tools we need from the Holy Spirit or the Paraclete who walks alongside us and strengthens us as we tell those who don’t yet know or understand the glory of the cross and what that means.
We are servants of God, which, by the way in Greek is the word diakonos, which is where we get the word deacon from. We are able to stand through these temporal afflictions and hardships and struggles because of that grace given to us in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works together with us to make our timing right and to know when and what to say so like Paul says in verse 3,
“ We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found in our ministry.”
The only obstacle that we put in the way of anybody is the truth. The truth of God’s grace, which calls and chooses and lifts up and changes people. It is the truth that the time of the day of salvation is here, praise God!
The truth of Christ crucified is an obstacle for sin and for death and for that evil deceiver who would have us focus on the world and ourselves.
But for those who believe, it is sweet comfort and relief to know what God has done through His Son for not just you and I but for all people.
We trust and have faith knowing that God’s time is not our time and we know with confidence and hope that our Father’s timing is perfect as we await that glorious day of resurrection when our King returns to take us home for eternity.
It’s all about the timing.
It’s all about His timing!
To Him be all glory forever!
Alleluia, amen.
